This is an idea which has been acting as a backdrop for the virtual work and is fostered by a lack of interest in the trading of art for money. Specifically my art for your money.
I watched 
The Mona Lisa Curse
It’s Robert Hughes talking about the transition of art in to a commodity. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction predicted that as art lost its unique position in time and space it would transform the notion of art altogether. Walter Benjamin’s conclusions were toward a political function. Hughes explores the commercial aspect and its effect on the art world.
These influences combined with a formative study:
Social influences on creativity: The effects of contracted-for reward.
Amabile, Teresa M.; Hennessey, Beth A.; Grossman, Barbara S.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 50(1), Jan 1986, 14-23. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.50.1.14 which concludes after three studies that reward is no help to creativity but in fact has a negative effect, have led to my explorations which I hope to clarify here.
Creating virtual art which is not for sale and can’t even be clearly traded removes the goal from the process. It leaves me able to enjoy creating without having to ward off thoughts of sale-ability. it improves and frees the art. I recently advised a colleague to create a lifelong piece of work which is never to be seen by the public eye. A private field of exploration. Like dancing naked in a hidden pasture without the censors and restrictions of marketplace.
This idea of an idealistically free art while not immediately conceivable is an important compass point for me and serves as a guiding factor in the art of Aequitas.
Tha Aequitas statement goes as such:
Aequitas is Latin for equality, symmetry and fairness between individuals. By working under the singular identity as Aequitas, the intention is to direct focus on the art rather than the individual; to remain outside the cult of personality, to explore alternatives to the more culturally accepted individual creative force. The artists of Aequitas believe collaboration does not require leadership and can bring better results through decentralization and egalitarianism. It is a working practice that art collaboration should be playful and not taken too seriously.
This egalitarian bent carries over in to the work and illuminates art as commodity putting Aequitas at odds with the commercial art system. We are more aligned with the DIY philosophy embraced by the early punk subculture. With the proliferation of new media creative tools this DIY attitude has spread from recycled material to virtual hosted exclamations of increasing complexity. Enter Augmented Reality and the ability to cheaply insert simple 3d sculptural art, text, and video in to established cultural and political centers using the medium of the cellular phone itself a symbol of rampant consumerist one upmanship. As these devices proliferate it is socially aberrant for a young person to be without one. We might as well use the medium to reach those poor souls so helplessly caught up in the vicious cycle of planned obsolescence.
This augmented layer exists waiting for commercial enterprise to fill it with advertising facilitating the purchase of more manufactured goods. We at Aequitas in reaction to this intended use are setting up as virtual real estate agents in an attempt to bring participants face to face with their blind compulsion to own, capture, command every symbol of power and strength they are confronted with. On the site of the supposed sale of Manhattan by Indians we will “sell” virtual land. To claim the land the purchaser only need make a free call to 866 780 0582 and record verbally why they want it. These recordings are being collected and the messages are being place in to the virtual objects. Visitors to the site can experience the voices by accessing the Augmented layer using a free application on their smart phones.
People will buy anything but rarely can we come up with a good reason so we don’t expect too many participants. Combined with a lack of clear reasoning is an increasing lack of confidence in ones own ideas when brought out from behind the anonymity of the text box and voiced in analogue alacrity. We intend to campaign and fill the objects with voices of reason and proven truth. Can you help?
Call now 866 780 0582 and make sure to visit us and say hello.
Experience the Field of Voices at
Inwood Hill Park this Spring during the
Ninth Annual Drums Along the Hudson®: A Native American Festival
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 – 11:00 am until 6:00 pm
Rain or Shine – FREE
Inwood Hill Park 218th Street and Indian Road (4 blocks west of Broadway)
Governors Island in NEW YORK CITY
during
FIGMENT 2011
June 10-12, 2011
http://figmentproject.org/
Posted on April 18, 2011