On September 11, 1978, Tehching Hsieh locked himself in a cell. A room measuring 3.5 by 2.7 metres, built with his own hands in his New York studio. No books, no music, no television, no conversation. A bed, a sink,…
Author: renopointcom
Constraint of the Week: The Abandoned Book
The Abandoned Book, Constraint #75 Take a book you love. Write a note inside. Leave it somewhere in a public space with a post-it: “I’m yours.” Reference artist(s): Ernest Pignon-Ernest. The protocol Choose a book you love and can part…
Constraint of the Week: The Commute Playlist
The Commute Playlist, Constraint #74 Create a playlist that is exactly the length of your daily commute. Not one song more, not one less. Listen to it every day for a week without changing it. Reference artist(s): Brian Eno. The…
Nan Goldin, Photographing to Remember
In 1979, Nan Goldin began showing a series of slides in public. Photos of her friends, her lovers, herself. Bodies in unmade beds, made-up faces in smoky bars, embraces in tiny kitchens, gazes lost in bathroom mirrors. The series is…
Constraint of the Week: The Absurd Object
The Absurd Object, Constraint #73 Place a completely incongruous object in every room of your home or office. Wait for someone to notice. Say nothing. Reference artist(s): Marcel Duchamp. The protocol Select one object per room… the incongruity must be…
Constraint of the Week: Tuesday Lunch
Tuesday Lunch, Constraint #72 Every Tuesday for a month, have lunch with someone you barely know or don’t know at all. A colleague you’ve crossed paths with, a neighbour, someone you met last week. Reference artist(s): Allan Kaprow. The protocol…
Bob Flanagan, Living His Pain as a Work of Art
Bob Flanagan was born in 1952 with cystic fibrosis. At the time, children with this disease generally did not survive past adolescence. Flanagan lived to be 43. It was not a medical miracle… it was, according to him, a decision.…
Constraint of the Week: The Inherited Recipe
The Inherited Recipe, Constraint #71 Call a parent, a grandparent, an elderly friend. Ask them for a recipe from their childhood. Cook it together or separately, each in your own kitchen, on the phone. Compare. Reference artist(s): Annette Messager. The…
Constraint of the Week: The Historical Contacts
The Historical Contacts, Constraint #70 Change the names of ten contacts in your phone to names of historical figures you admire. Keep them for a week. See if it changes the way you talk to them. Reference artist(s): Sophie Calle.…
Joseph Beuys, Every Human Being Is an Artist
In 1974, Joseph Beuys locks himself in a New York gallery for three days with a wild coyote. No audience, no performance in the spectacular sense… just a man, a felt blanket, a cane, copies of the Wall Street Journal…
Constraint of the Week: The Impossible Ringtone
The Impossible Ringtone, Constraint #69 Replace your phone ringtone with a sound you recorded yourself. Your child’s voice, the rain on your window, your morning coffee. Keep it for a month. Reference artist(s): Merzbow. The protocol Record a sound from…
On Kawara, the Date as a Work of Art
On January 4, 1966, On Kawara paints a canvas. Grey-green background, white letters, rigorous typography: JAN. 4, 1966. Nothing else. No composition, no expressive gesture, no visible signature. Just the day’s date, hand-painted with almost mechanical precision. He stores the…
Sophie Calle, the Art of Following Others
In 1979, Sophie Calle follows a stranger in the street. She doesn’t know him. She won’t speak to him. She photographs him from a distance, notes his movements, reconstructs his day. When he disappears into the metro, she loses him……
Roman Opalka, Counting Until Death
In 1965, Roman Opalka begins painting numbers. 1, then 2, then 3… on a black canvas, in white, by hand, with a fine brush. He calls it a “detail”. Each painting is a detail of a single, infinite project that…
Some Artists Who Inspired OuViePo’s Constraints
OuViePo’s constraints are not invented ex nihilo. Each one is linked to an actual artistic practice, a documented gesture, a work that showed it was possible. Here are some of the artists who made all of this imaginable. It all…
Under the Hood: The Database and the Constraint Generator
The OuViePo generator works like a real digital exquisite corpse: parameters are drawn at random first, then the system finds the matching constraint. A look at the technical architecture.
Constraint of the Week: The Unknown Dish
The Unknown Dish, Constraint #61 Cook a dish you’ve never made. Without help, without consulting a recipe. Just the ingredients, your memory, and your instinct. Eat the result, whatever it turns out to be. Reference artist(s): George Brecht. The protocol…
Constraint as a Tool for Freedom
Why give yourself rules to create? The OuViePo constraint belongs to a long tradition: from Fluxus to George Brecht’s Event Scores, from the exquisite corpse to Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculptures.
Constraint of the Week: The Posted Letter
The Posted Letter, Constraint #60 Handwrite a letter to someone who lives less than thirty minutes away. Not a text, not an email. A real letter, in a real envelope, with a real stamp. Mail it. Reference artist(s): On Kawara.…
OuViePo, Birth of a Workshop for Potential Life
OuViePo was born from three sentences. The first, by Robert Filliou: “Art is what makes life more interesting than art.” The second, by Joseph Beuys: “Jeder Mensch ist ein Kunstler“, every human being is an artist. The third, from the…
Constraint of the Week: The Silent Meal
The Silent Meal, Constraint #59 Invite someone to dinner. No phone, no music, no screen. Just the two of you, the food, and silence. See what happens. Reference artist(s): John Cage. The protocol Invite someone… a friend, a partner, a…
Webmaster’s Manifesto
Protocol #000 – The Builder’s Constraint Everyone has a constraint here. Yours, perhaps, is to follow a stranger for an hour. Or to photograph only red things for a week. Or to count the days separating you from your death…