from the beginning, people have confused the projected image with at all times. But the results of Friedman’s experiment also attest to
objective reality. When the Lumière Brothers screened their film Arrival the primacy of sound in contemporary culture, and especially in
of a Train at La Ciotat in 1895, audiences recoiled, thinking the train was urban environments – a person suddenly busting out a show tune in
headed straight for them. The Lumières also thought their ‘actuality the middle of the day becomes just another noise in the hustle and
films’ would have little appeal beyond the initial novelty, because bustle. But would the same seemingly impassive pedestrian watch
anyone could just as easily walk out on the street and see the same a homemade video on YouTube of someone singing Lush Life? TV
thing. Over a century later, four recent projects by video artists Dara ratings show that people are interested in watching amateur renditions
Friedman, Doug Aitken, Tony Conrad and Karin Schneider suggest a of songs on American Idol; are they now uninterested in watching an
transference of filmic space from the cinema to the streets, both literally unmediated version of the same?
and metaphorically, as well as realignments of the ideas of audience, Last January, the outdoor projection of Doug Aitken’s video
actor and the film screen itself. Sleepwalkers (2007) had considerably more success in getting
Receiving a commission from New York’s Public Art Fund, nocturnal urbanites to stop and stare at the seven screens positioned
Miami-based Friedman conceived a project called Musical (2007), in on the facades of the Museum of Modern Art. Sleepwalkers follows
which people spontaneously burst into song – show tunes, no less – in the daily rituals of five characters – a postal worker, an office worker,
various locations in Midtown Manhattan. She put it into practice every a bike messenger, a businessman and an electrician – as they get out
weekday for three weeks last autumn, secretly videotaping the results of bed and embark on their commutes. They’re shown two at a time,
as respondents to her advertisements for volunteer singers performed on neighbouring screens, and each story has the same duration and
in spots ranging from the Westway Diner first thing in the morning to structure. Superficially the gigantic presentation is comparable (though
Grand Central or Trump Tower in the middle of the afternoon and dwarfed by) the ongoing advertising video spectacles in Times Square,
the Apple Store at 59th Street at night. The times and locations were
not made public, so there was no ‘audience’. The video results show
passersby oblivious to a soldier crooning as he strolls up Fifth Avenue
(he looks somewhat disappointed by the lack of response) or a young
woman singing Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life (1938) in the middle of Grand
Central, although reportedly a woman not connected with the project
began singing during one participant’s song in Central Park.
Certainly New Yorkers are used to seeing others singing
along with their iPods, or simply talking into headset phones, not to
mention street performers (or, for the matter, the great number of
citizens who talk to themselves). The performers’ fellow pedestrians
were not supposed to be their audience but rather the ‘supporting
cast’, an idea explored by sociologist Erving Goffman in his theories
about contemporary Americans acting out roles in public and private
A person suddenly
busting out a
show tune in the
middle of the day
becomes just
another noise in the
hustle and bustle
Video Performance.indd 50 4/12/07 15:53:54
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