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…
Tag: Constraint
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…
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.…
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…
Constraint of the Week: The Three-Hour Bench
The Three-Hour Bench, Constraint #68 Choose a public bench. Sit down. Stay for exactly three hours. Observe. Don’t read, don’t look at your phone. Just be there. Reference artist(s): Tehching Hsieh. The protocol Choose a bench in a busy place……
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…
Constraint of the Week: The Backwards Dinner
The Backwards Dinner, Constraint #67 Serve dessert first. Then the starter. The main course last. Nothing else changes. Observe how the order modifies pleasure and conversation. Reference artist(s): Erwin Wurm. The protocol Invite at least one other person. Prepare a…
Constraint of the Week: The Day in Verse
The Day in Verse, Constraint #66 For an entire day, answer every question in iambic pentameter… ten syllables. No exception. At the supermarket checkout too. Reference artist(s): Georges Perec. The protocol Brush up on iambic pentameter the night before: ten…
Constraint of the Week: Eyes Everywhere
Eyes Everywhere, Constraint #65 Draw eyes on every round object in your home… stickers, sticky notes, dry-erase markers. Live for a week with this house that watches you. Reference artist(s): Agnès Varda. The protocol Walk around your home. Identify all…
Constraint of the Week: The Noise Kitchen
The Noise Kitchen, Constraint #64 Cook using only the sounds produced by utensils and ingredients as a musical score. Nothing else. Record the result. Reference artist(s): Luc Ferrari. The protocol Choose a recipe that involves varied gestures… cutting, beating, boiling,…
Constraint of the Week: The Album in the Dark
The Album in the Dark, Constraint #63 Choose an album you love. Turn everything off. Lie down. Listen to it in full, without interruption, to the last track. Reference artist(s): Nan Goldin. The protocol Choose an album… not a playlist,…
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…
Constraint of the Week: The Word of the Day
The Word of the Day, Constraint #62 Pick a random word from a dictionary. Slip it naturally into every conversation throughout the day. Count how many times you succeed. Reference artist(s): Ben Vautier. The protocol In the morning, open a…
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…