Work of Art, 2.3

Episode "Make It Pop." Make a work of Pop Art. I didn't really have strong feelings about who won and lost in this episode. I was too distracted by trying to figure out what constituted 'pop' art. My first thought was to fabricate a 4' tall blue "f" like the Facebook logo, and hook it to a VanDeGraff generator so it would give anybody to touched it an electric shock. I decided that would be pretty difficult, and probably not very effective. I then went to a series of funhouse mirrors representing the various social media companies (Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, and whoever else I decided to include). Then they announced a budget of $150. OK, maybe not. I shrank it down to a set of smaller mirrors, maybe one foot square, mounted on a wall, contained in sort of a box. The mirror would be against the wall, and then there'd be a box bottom and sides, but no top or end. In order to see the mirror, you'd have to be standing at the open end of the box, which meant you would have to stand where you'd see your own reflection. The mirrors wouldn't be glass, but rather metallized Plexiglass. I can easily warp Plexi mirrors by just submerging them in boiling water for five minutes or so, then pulling them out and laying them on some kind of lumpy surface. The outside of the box would have the logo for a social media service. Thus, all these companies reflect you back, but your image is distorted in the process.

Assuming I had time, I thought maybe I'd also build a box for me to wear on my head, and then I'd stand at the end of the row of boxes during the showing. I couldn't decide what to label the "me" box, though.

My problem with this idea was, I wasn't sure it was really "pop art." Simone, when he critiqued the artists, often expressed the same concern. At that point, I scrapped the mirror idea, and came up with something new.

If I'd been a contestant, it's quite possible that I would have come up with this new idea before we'd gotten to the art supply store, since I came up with it about ten minutes after the first idea. Or, maybe I would have already blown my budget, and would have had to do this other idea on the cheap. Hard to say.

Assuming I had the budget, my new idea involves finding a sign making shop, and having them run their vinyl cutter to make me a thousand or so blue facebook "f" stickers. I would create a portrait of myself, probably using one of my existing self-portraits, and print it and mount it as a traditional photograph. I'd be sure to shrink it down then blow it back up, in order to get some of that weird blocky artifacting that results from highly compressed JPEG images. Then, I start sticking down Fs all over it, around the wall, onto the floor, and off to other areas. There would be so many Fs on my picture that you wouldn't be able to see all that much of my face, but the Fs would get sparser as they got further from the portrait.

Then, during the show I would ask people "Would you mind being my friend?" If they said "yes," then I would stick one of the Fs onto them. Sleeve, hat, leg, shoe, ear, wherever. Other people, I would sneak an F onto by putting it on their back or such. I would definitely be sure to get Fs on the judges, hopefully by having them "friend" me. Later in the show, I would be sure to come by and peel the F back off one or two of the judges, as well as off some of the other people in the room, "de-friending" them.

This whole idea really does tickle me. The 'computer portrait me' almost smothered by those insidious blue Fs, with them getting loose and spreading through the room, stuck on and circulating with the audience, and then having some people have to deal with the only thing worse than having one of those dumb F's tagging you is having somebody just wander past and casually snatch it away again.

Yum.