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I mean, I know nothing more about the piece than what I've just read, but wow, that's a take and a half. I just cannot fathom viewing what she attempted the way

I mean, I know nothing more about the piece than what I've just read, but wow, that's a take and a half. I just cannot fathom viewing what she attempted the way you did. If anything, it offered the opportunity for humanity to reveal something beautiful, but instead, the audience took the opposite opportunity--something I honestly feel you have done here, but in words, which I almost felt as thorns in my bellybutton.

burkaman 3y ago
Agreed, that is one of the worst comments I've ever seen on HN. I am usually able to understand and empathize with opinions I disagree with, but that comment is just incomprehensible. I guess that's the point of the piece? I don't know if I would have been exposed to a worldview so opposite to mine if we didn't have this artwork to discuss.
shwaj 3y ago
There’s another anecdotal comment where someone heard that the audience was too tame, and some time into the performance they were prompted/goaded into interacting in more controversial ways, otherwise the performance would have been a dud. If this is true, then it tends to support the GP post’s take: there was an intention to bring out the worst, not a neutral attempt to see what would happen.
- rcoveson 3y ago
  Even if we disregard the anecdote, we can at least infer that the intention was to make an original, evocative piece of performance art. How does that implied goal cause people to act? Like a bunch of avant-garde nutjobs, maybe?
- burkaman 3y ago
  Were you able to find anything backing that up? I wasn't, and this is a very famous and thoroughly analyzed piece of art. Given the lack of evidence I'm leaning towards not believing that anonymous third-hand account.
rcoveson 3y ago
If she wanted to see people acting beautifully, she would have performed it at a soup kitchen, or a temple. Or even just in a little cul-de-sac in an average neighborhood where people know each other and kids are present. Everyday places full of totally average people who aren't used to twisting their minds into scenarios on the ninth meta-level above reality. All she succeeded in showing is that her audience is full of people obsessed with the ugliness of humanity.

burkaman 3y ago

Agreed, that is one of the worst comments I've ever seen on HN. I am usually able to understand and empathize with opinions I disagree with, but that comment is just incomprehensible. I guess that's the point of the piece? I don't know if I would have been exposed to a worldview so opposite to mine if we didn't have this artwork to discuss.

shwaj 3y ago

There’s another anecdotal comment where someone heard that the audience was too tame, and some time into the performance they were prompted/goaded into interacting in more controversial ways, otherwise the performance would have been a dud. If this is true, then it tends to support the GP post’s take: there was an intention to bring out the worst, not a neutral attempt to see what would happen.

rcoveson 3y ago
Even if we disregard the anecdote, we can at least infer that the intention was to make an original, evocative piece of performance art. How does that implied goal cause people to act? Like a bunch of avant-garde nutjobs, maybe?
burkaman 3y ago
Were you able to find anything backing that up? I wasn't, and this is a very famous and thoroughly analyzed piece of art. Given the lack of evidence I'm leaning towards not believing that anonymous third-hand account.

rcoveson 3y ago

If she wanted to see people acting beautifully, she would have performed it at a soup kitchen, or a temple. Or even just in a little cul-de-sac in an average neighborhood where people know each other and kids are present. Everyday places full of totally average people who aren't used to twisting their minds into scenarios on the ninth meta-level above reality. All she succeeded in showing is that her audience is full of people obsessed with the ugliness of humanity.