101 Ways to Strip!
A creative development project by Brisbane artists Elise May & Connor Dowling, 101 Ways to Strip! is an experimental project incorporating digital image, video, sound and live performance.
101 Ways to Strip! is assisted by the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts' Fresh Ground artist-in-residence initiative, made possible through Arts Queensland.
BACKGROUND
How it all started: We were sitting around talking about various digitial "guerilla" arts concepts that they had come across on the internet and by word of mouth things like: “Flash mobs”, "Subtle mobs”, "Planking", "Leaping", Parkour and spontaneous site specific performance.
We became interested in the potential of this kind of performance making. Could we push it further? We also became interested in the power of social media, to draw artists together and connect people. We decided we would like to explore art making in a “DIY” digitally driven online environment - How could this inform live performance? What effect does digital culture have on performance making? How are we engaging differently with non-traditional modes of performance and digital media?
The potential for interactivity through internet-based forums such as blogs, online and networked performances, and established social networking sites is increasingly more available to artists, and we wish to capitalise, strengthen and build on these networks, not only for this project, but to create future pathways for this kind of interactivity in artistic contexts. New Millennium Dictionary of English defines flash mob as “a group of people who organise on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse". The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organised via telecommunications, social media or viral emails (Wikipedia). Could we design an arts project along these lines? Could we create a viral interest in our live performance project? how would that change and shape the outcomes of a creative project?
So the concept 101 Ways to Strip was born...
So the concept 101 Ways to Strip was born...
We plan to develop a digital arts/ live performance project which calls upon interested artists to submit ideas that will become key elements of our creative process. Through our blog people can submit individual interpretations of how to uniquely remove an article of clothing or accessory. Once we have gathered a submissions the material will provide stimulus for the concept and direction our Fresh Ground artist-in-residence creative development.
We hope that this project will become an interesting and viable concept (we are not sure yet how it will manifest), but we hope that it will and a life beyond its initial performance/ development, as it taps into the desire to perform and exhibit amongst the community and it is a celebration of unique expression through the use of Digital Culture which is increasingly popular and relevant in our lives.
