Installation/Performance
In a message dated 5/7/02 11:47:28 AM, gulmer@ENGLISH.UFL.EDU writes:
<< The FRE reviewed 60 minutes or so of documentary on Will PomPom
Pappenheimer's performance of the Y divination ritual, recorded April 20
in New Y City.
Keep in mind that the performance traced a choral zone that is supposed to
provide an answer to a burning question.
First, a few highlights of what was observed:
The artist in deep concentration, wearing a transparent backpack (from
Toys R Us?) filled with quarter-inch day-glo emerAgency pompoms...
He lays down a trail of pompoms articulating a pre-determined Y figure
on the city grid. The base of the stem touches the barricades cordoning
off Ground Zero; the site of division (of choice) is at a small greenspace
dedicated to the man who invented (?) the ironframe engineering structure
that is the basis for skyscraper architecture.
The artist begins with allpurpose glue squeeze bottle, ruler, bag of
poms, and meticulously places each pom in the mathematically determined
site. Soon however the procedure evolved into a Hansel and Grettle
adventure into the woods, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. The bright
poms, small as they were, stood out nicely against the urban concrete
stone storefont street asphalt iron. (Suddenly everything honked).
Documenting the operation were several camera persons, one of whom
seemed to be taking closeups of each pompom, tracking its fall or
confirming its fixed establishment. The ritual motion, pursued with a
determined purpose, carried the artist across the path of a family
attempting to enter its residence (they respectfully stood back to let the
crazy person pass); a car (miraculously) stopped midway through a turn so
as not to run over the querent; pedestrians moving towards the furthest
edge of the curb to be first across the intersection were intimidated and
cut off by the passing dispenser egent.
Encountered along the way: The crew of Emergency Medical Team unit
408, telling the tale of the partner (not on duty that day) who was the
first to call in the incident of the plane striking the tower; a city
workcrew, garbed in dayglo safety jackets, using a small wheeled measuring
device to determine exact figures for leveling the street; a business
establishment called the Nautical Instrument Company, entered by the
documenter, who was informed that the items for sale had everything to do
with navigation (charts, sextants, compasses and the like) but nothing to
do with rescue or shipwreck gear; the exterior of a posh restaurant whose
owner was persuaded to allow the pom-Y to trace his window ledge. As the
trail approached the barricades pom distance shrunk to just a few inches,
until the last of 3064 individual emerAgency pompoms (number determined by
the figure of 9-11 casualties published that morning in the newspaper)
fell into place. (the artist's hand bore a bandaid from a supply purchased
along the route after a mishap)
A soft but steady rain came down, marking the standing
puddles with a rhythm of bouncing circles. The glo-stripes on the
saw-horse barriers echoed the color of the tiny trail of stand-in
asterisks, encoding the characters inscribed on the website as wishes,
each wish a vigil candle of desire.
yours
glue >>
In a message dated 3/5/02 1:35:50 PM, gulmer@english.ufl.edu writes:
Re- Wishing Why Proposal
<< Hi Will
What are the possibilities of followup? Perhaps a related website,
including some collaborations with denizens more in the know? to trace a
few sites of wishes made and fulfilled or dashed as the case may be,
brought back into memory through the touch of the pom-pom tracking
through the streets?
(I am thinking of Breton's NADJA, the aura experienced at the sites of
historic events; the situationists were interested in tracking lines of
power of ambience that cut across the managed grids of city planners,
traffic flows and the like…>>
<<In a message dated 3/18/02 3:27:22 PM, gulmer@english.ufl.edu writes:
prose
The pom-pom Y traced on the streets near ground zero is a "peripheral"
(it adds commemorative functionality to the site). Will Pappenheimer
combines the placement of the Y with a testimonial, using the chance
operations generated by information related to the site and disaster as
divination zone to which to pose a burning (personal) question. His
question constitutes a strange attractor. The image (tenor and vehicle)
resulting from this consultation gives the surplus value of a cognitive
map, an attunement (Stimmung) that temporarily manifests the metaphysical
order of the world at the moment of a wish.>>
In a message dated 5/7/02 11:47:28 AM, gulmer@ENGLISH.UFL.EDU writes:
Re: Soft Wishing Y Memorial Space
<< The FRE reviewed 60 minutes or so of documentary on Will PomPom
Pappenheimer's performance of the Y divination ritual, recorded April 20
in New Y City.
Keep in mind that the performance traced a choral zone that is supposed to
provide an answer to a burning question.
First, a few highlights of what was observed:
The artist in deep concentration, wearing a transparent backpack (from
Toys R Us?) filled with quarter-inch day-glo emerAgency pompoms...
He lays down a trail of pompoms articulating a pre-determined Y figure
on the city grid. The base of the stem touches the barricades cordoning
off Ground Zero; the site of division (of choice) is at a small greenspace
dedicated to the man who invented (?) the ironframe engineering structure
that is the basis for skyscraper architecture.
The artist begins with allpurpose glue squeeze bottle, ruler, bag of
poms, and meticulously places each pom in the mathematically determined
site. Soon however the procedure evolved into a Hansel and Grettle
adventure into the woods, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. The bright
poms, small as they were, stood out nicely against the urban concrete
stone storefont street asphalt iron. (Suddenly everything honked).
Documenting the operation were several camera persons, one of whom
seemed to be taking closeups of each pompom, tracking its fall or
confirming its fixed establishment. The ritual motion, pursued with a
determined purpose, carried the artist across the path of a family
attempting to enter its residence (they respectfully stood back to let the
crazy person pass); a car (miraculously) stopped midway through a turn so
as not to run over the querent; pedestrians moving towards the furthest
edge of the curb to be first across the intersection were intimidated and
cut off by the passing dispenser egent.
Encountered along the way: The crew of Emergency Medical Team unit
408, telling the tale of the partner (not on duty that day) who was the
first to call in the incident of the plane striking the tower; a city
workcrew, garbed in dayglo safety jackets, using a small wheeled measuring
device to determine exact figures for leveling the street; a business
establishment called the Nautical Instrument Company, entered by the
documenter, who was informed that the items for sale had everything to do
with navigation (charts, sextants, compasses and the like) but nothing to
do with rescue or shipwreck gear; the exterior of a posh restaurant whose
owner was persuaded to allow the pom-Y to trace his window ledge. As the
trail approached the barricades pom distance shrunk to just a few inches,
until the last of 3064 individual emerAgency pompoms (number determined by
the figure of 9-11 casualties published that morning in the newspaper)
fell into place. (the artist's hand bore a bandaid from a supply purchased
along the route after a mishap)
A soft but steady rain came down, marking the standing
puddles with a rhythm of bouncing circles. The glo-stripes on the
saw-horse barriers echoed the color of the tiny trail of stand-in
asterisks, encoding the characters inscribed on the website as wishes,
each wish a vigil candle of desire.
yours
glue >>
In a message dated 3/26/02 12:25 PM, Willpap writes:
<<S o f t W i s h I n g Y M o n u m e n t
for the FREE BIENNIAL, April, 2002, NYC
et al.
Below is a summary of the unfolding mechanism for divining, to be enacted by myself, as querant, for others to divine. in the interest of summary, this leaves much of the reasoning/unreasoning behind what determines each part for further website explication:
Through processes of inquiry, attunement and chance operations, the time, location and size of the Y formation has been enumerated. The date of the action/installation will be April 27th, 2002. The location is intentionally peripheral; at intersection of West Broadway and Hudson Streets in Tribeca with the total length extending 8 to 9 city blocks. The color of the pom poms will be predominantly orange to suggest a state of E-mergency. Though the month of April, an accompanying Website will collect wishes/questions surrounding both 9/11 event as well as the audience’s own personal wishes/questions. Consistent with the wishbone tradition, where the wish must be kept secret, visitors to the website will be invited to input wish /questions online which will be encrypted by replacing letters with password-type dots. The questions will then be stored and displayed on another web page online. To determine the number of pom poms, the approximate number of casualties from the 9/11 tragedy will be added to compressed wishes/questions input into the website. The number of pom poms will then determine the size of the Y and the ending place of the Wishing Walk.
Will Pappenheimer>>
In a message dated 3/17/02 12:13:29 PM, gulmer@english.ufl.edu writes:
<< Will
good plans and suggestions.
Another item occurs to me, relative to the original cyberpidgin goal:
the wishbone custom is just one of many folk customs showing the
persistence of magical thinking in daily life. The cyberpidgin purpose
is to use such customs and behaviors as a performative vernacular that
might facilitate global mutual understanding.
If we have a form on the site for inputting info we could solicit
examples of such customs from visitors, not limited to wishing customs.
best
Greg >>
In a message dated 4/9/02 3:52:12 AM, derekj_pasquill@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
<< Further to my itchy writing/pun itching, I hadn't planned to pick up a book
on the I Ching when I went into my local library on Satruday, but it was
there waiting for me, etc.
Opening pages at random ... perseverance, adorn your feet (walk on your own
two feet), limping ....
regards Derek
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. >>
In a message dated 4/12/02 11:40:43 AM, gulmer@ENGLISH.UFL.EDU writes:
<< About the glue you decided you might need to make the poms stick to the
street/buildings/noses of inquisitive cops...
I doubt if Elmer's will work, given the amount of dirt and grime on the
surfaces. That you are using glue makes each glued pom a mini-emblem of
our collaboration!
glue >>
In a message dated 4/16/02 5:16 PM, Willpap writes:
<<Hello Melissa,
Countdown is beginning to the installation of the Y on Saturday morning. Here's what would be great if it's possible with you. If I could borrow you're your camera Friday then I can entrust it to my friend Dave Herman for the first early morning segment of the project. He is equipment savvy to be trusted with your precious instrument. He will record along with Mary starting at 7:00 a.m. in the morning and then you wouldn't have to get there till 9 or 10am replace him.
My performance plan is to stay quite focused upon putting down poms and the practice of divining, which is what I am supposed to be doing. One might even say this is a trance state. I will have handout cards for people with questions that I and my documenter's can pass out. We want to interact with any audience that gets interested but not get completely distracted.
Mary and I will be at our studio in NY see at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday at I'll call you from there. Hope you're doing well and I enjoyed dancing to the Bhangra at the Free Biennial opening.
all da best,
Will>>
In a message dated 4/18/02 6:38:59 PM, Willpap writes:
Re- Y Pom Poms
<< Hi Jen,
Yes, it should be there. I'm going to start early in the morning around 7am and be there as long as it takes to create the Y from 3000+ poms. I'll start at the intersection of W Broadway and Hudson, head up Hudson 5 blocks, cross over to W Broadway and come back down past the intersection for a few more blocks to comple the Y. Look for a line pom poms mostly at street level, on window sills, cracks and at the intersection of buildings and sidewalk. I may be in a semi trance state, but I will have hand out cards and a small helpful entourage.
Maybe see you there.
Will
In a message dated 4/18/02 4:05:08 PM, jennifer@artforum.com writes:
<< Dear Will,
I'll be taking a tour around the Free Biennial sites on Saturday and
wonder whether and where and when your Pom-Pom piece(s) might be up.
Thanks, Jen >> >>
In a message dated 4/22/02 12:01 AM, Willpap writes:
Re: wishing Y
<<Sal,
Thanks for your pics and thoughts! Because it started to rain as we were finishing around noon, I figured the tour wouldn't make it. So glad its residuals are still there to be seen and that you saw them. The whole installion went well and I had the wonderful help of 3 fellow artists documenting and egaging with the "situation," allowing me to concentrate on the 4hr task of placing 3064 pom poms.
The performance event was very intense concentrated time for me. The representational significance of every pom, the placement, the attention to following lines and cracks, the outward absurdity of this process, managing group energy and so on. But since this project has been built through the engagement of quite a few people, it felt infinitely important. And its not over. This action, to the Greg Ulmer's group, is a foraging for visual clues, now in documentation and tangential trajectories of reseach that gets sifted through, continues to unfold.
I loved your account of the man who thought the poms might be multiplying. Just as it was so interesting to explain to inquisitors what we were doing. One of the memorable experiences along the Y path were the Emergency "guards" of the Y confluence, FDNY EMTs who are stationed there daily and were in the first truck, #408, to arrive at the damaged towers. Despite all they must have been through they seemed get a smile from this project, as if in New York, you never know what people might be doing, but it must be significant.>>
In a message dated 6/9/02 4:05:36 PM, gulmer@ENGLISH.UFL.EDU writes:
<< ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 08 Jun 2002 16:20:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: William L. Tilson <wtropic@dcp.ufl.edu>
My post to the list of late keep getting rejected. While I diagnois this, can
you post this not to Invent-l for me?
Best
BT
Hi Craig:
Choragraphy by definition requires direct particpation of the witness and it
will leave its residue or traces in the nature of the mapping work. Perhaps you
could relate to another making the mystory through photography not unlike Will
P's documentors on the "wishing y" projecct. Two videographers followed him
along taking pictures of both his work and events around him follwoing Will's
instructions and their own whims. it wwas clear after awhile who were the two
video persons even thougt they weren't expicitly visible. Or better yet, Sans
Soleil by Chris Marker in which the filmmaker voice -and musings-is replaced by
that of a woman narrator who maintains a rather "objective" tone.
Best
BT >>
In a message dated 5/10/02 1:49 PM, Willpap writes:
<<
Testimonial : one of the/my valuable aspects/experiences of the choreographic/mystorical process is the overlay and inextractable relationship/bridge between public place/problem witnesses and personal query, ie Gregs notion of Problems -B-Us. Objective images of place, aerial maps, are impossible, useless, without engagement. Conversely, denizens, direct witnesses of the disaster; colonialism, the Holocaust, 9/11 cannot/do not wish to speak to reasons Y, so aporia developes. The interesting problematic/productivity of the querent is their removal mixed with desire.>>