Momentarium : : by Markuz Wernli Saitô

7a10m/e: 7 actions 10 minutes/each.

The pervasiveness of mobile phones make them a fertile ground for playful interventions. 30 art conference attendees agreed to perform a loose set of (un)usual acts with dummy cell phones and report on their experiences.

PROJECT ARCHIVE:
Mobile Actions
Comments

Cell phones are inherently good tools for attracting others. They dress our face with advanced technology and fine finished materials. Mobile phones are not just about one-on-one connection. Rather than following the common trend of technical advancement Project 7a10m/e was about investigating the machine-body connection, wireless etiquette and object-based rituals.

MOBILE MOMENTS (May 2008, 2:30min, 10.7MB)
Click below to watch.

Momentarium Movie.

In a time when many feel rather annoyed by cell phones, the question is what happens when people are invited to break out of manner mode and act out these irresistible urges — be they a little playful, aggressive or plain fun.

7a10m/e
Performance artist Randy Gledhill gets adventurous with his dummy cell phone

Process and Enrollment
Each morning right before the official program of the conference began I discreetly approached about ten attendees to make sure that nobody knew if and who else was involved. I invited participants to carry a second, non-functional cell phone for the day to do playful things with it and live out hidden urges that is normally out of question. They received a list with seven simple actions and three basic rules.

Rules
1. Never tell the true origin of this mission. Make up stories.
2. Perform the 7 instructions as if second nature to you. Remain sincere.
3. Note what happens and write a short report by tonight.
4. For questions call Markuz.

7a10m/e
Silvia Salvadori assists in building a tower made of cell phones before dinner time

Scripted Actions
Each participant was invited to perform the scripted activities in random order for durations of about 10 minutes each. All actions could be done independent of location and time except one synchronized assignment where time and place was announced later that day by phone. This action brought the 7a10m/e participants together that utilized the cell phones for a playful group activity. 7a10m/e consisted of almost 40 different actions.

Documentation
Since this form of distributed performance spread out over different activities and location I asked a second group of people to look out and to note any strange phone-related behavior. Of course it was inevitable that the border blurred between 'ordinary' and 'provoked' behavior.

— C R E D I T S —

Inspiration: On The Mobile — the effects of mobile telephones on social and individual life authored by Dr. Sadie Plant (Birmingham, 2001: 88 pages; commissioned by Motorola) and Nikki Pugh.

Participants: Sara Thacher, Lindsay Kelley, E.G. Crichton, Marco Rosichelli, Enrique Lopez, Phoenix Toeux, Alex Henriquez, Alyssa Salomon, Silvia Salvadori, Matthew Bryant, Scott Kildall, Gregory Sale, Naama Grossbard, Julie Perini, Dustin Ohara, Liz Rossof, Vanessa Brunet, Anna Fock, Celeyce Matthews, Venecia Buttoglia, Melissa Chevalier, Gary Wiseman, Danielle Kelly, Brad McCallum, Pawel Kwascniewski, Dan McKereghan, Lee Wen, Randy Gledhill, Adina Bar-On, Max Infeld, Lori Gordon, Aaron Gach, Natalie Loveless.

Observers: Victor Nguyen, Susan O'Malley, Emily Peet Likes, Jonathan Santos, Julie Bacon, Heather Mikolaj, Joseph Delappe, Charles Labelle, Eric Steen, Sean Yao, Arielle Conway, Miki Foster, Cassidy Mehlmann.

Props: Michael Yoo, wirelessLAND, San Francisco; MD Dundon; Danny Buskirk.

Intervene! Interrupt!
Rethinking Art as Social Practice
May 15-17, 2008

Mission 7a10m/e was part of so called Low Footprint performances — works with minimal technical requirements — organized by Jamie McMurry, Natalie Loveless and Lindsay Kelley. This three-day conference and was hosted by University of California Santa Cruz hosted a month long series of interventionist exhibitions in collaboration with UCSC's Art Department; Sesnon Gallery, UCSC; the LAB, San Francisco; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose.

Interventionist practices use interruptions to question norms by using humor, surprise, and unusual associations to overturn assumptions about the world. Such practices work within societal structures to re-examine set ideas, subvert norms, map hidden systems and allow us to see and think in new ways.

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Each moment of the everyday, every action of living, poses the question: how it might be lived differently, more truthfully and respectfully. Through conscious interventions Momentarium provides a forum of inquiry on human coexistence.