Radar Redux.com is expanding the traditional concept of journalism, to cover a wide array of Baltimore Arts and Culture. We are a partnership between the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Johns Hopkins University.
Without regular gallery hours, the work shown at CCAS is viewed primarily during event “openings” or “closings”, though work can still be seen when attending a band’s show. Because of the inherent time limit on viewing work in the space, it was intriguing to see a performance-based arts event occurring at the space.
CCAS’s most recent arts event was “Office Party 2.0″, a multimedia presentation created with Microsoft Office programs. The idea was conceived by recent MICA printmaking graduate Ingrid Burrington, who brought together printed work that had been submitted by others with PowerPoint presentations that she had downloaded for the evening’s round of PowerPoint Karaoke. This portion of the event called on various attendees to narrate PowerPoint presentations they had never seen before, allowing for the medium of PowerPoint to be subjectively analyzed.
To gain a better sense of the event’s history, we asked Burrington a few questions.
Office Party 2.0 from RADARREDUX on Vimeo.
Radar Redux: How did you come up with this concept? Was it prompted by an office job or your observations of others’ office jobs?
Ingrid Burrington: I have worked in and around “office things” for a long time–I find office supply stores to be among the most comforting places. I’ve always been really into organization and information systems, and I like turning those systems on their heads. There’s a long history of artists working with structures of labor and corporate organization (I love artists like Andrea Zittel and Carey Young who use such structures so effectively), and I was specifically interested in the materials of this structure. I wanted to see what artists would do given the restrictions of the materials, and given the loaded quality of those materials.
RR: As the work was being presented to students most of whom we can presume have not had a cubicle experience; do you think the tone, understanding or reception of the media was changed? If so, how?
IB: Definitely a different experience. Things that got the most attention were not entirely related to office culture–the PowerPoint presentations that made for the strongest “karaoke” were not the ones related to what I think of as corporate, office related. The appeal for the audience was more that of playing dress up than experiencing empathy I think.
Contact (questions or office work) we.are.the.office.party@gmail.com
Links:
Ingrid Burrington
Charm City Art Space
Reverse Ark Schoolhouse
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