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I find the work by Miranda July really interesting, in particular the ambitious online work: Learning to love you more in collaboration with Harrell Fletcher (2002-9) (Figure 1) where over ‘8000 people submitted material in response to online assignments like “make a protest sign and protest”’ (Onstad, 2011). This piece was successful due the vast number of participants which articulates shared intersubjectivity. Another work of interest by July is New Society (2015) which was described as breaking the fourth wall (Helfand, 2015) which refines democratic audience participation because it blurs the hierarchy from artist to audience. Additionally, July’s piece Somebody (2014-15) (Figure 2) audience participation to address pressing issues in society, almost as a social experiment, which made me think of the similarities to dating and social media apps. This piece is very significant today in the digital age because it challenges the participants to create outcomes which are ‘touching and personal’ to each individual participant which challenges modern society and technology for ‘lack(ing) in social interaction’ (Brown, 2017). This again connects to Sehgals “Constructed Situations” by creating an experience which is which is unique and meaningful to each participant and is something I strive to emulate in my practice.

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References

1. Onstad, K. 2011. Miranda July Is Totally Not Kidding. New York Times. [Online]. July 14.  Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/magazine/the-make-believer.html [Accessed 21 January 2020].

2. July, M. 2014-15. Somebody [Technological platform]. At Portland: Portland Institute of Contemporary Art.

3. July, M. 2015. New Society [Performance, duration 2 hours]. At San Francisco: San Francisco International Film Festival.

4. July, M. and Fletcher, H. 2002-9. Learning to love you more. [Online Participatory art]. At San Francisco:  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Available from: http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/index.php [Accessed 21 January 2020].

5. Helfand, G. 2015. Miranda July's quietly amazing show breaks the fourth wall of the web. The Guardian. [Online]. 30 April. Avail le from: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/30/miranda-july-new-society-quietly-amazing [Accessed 21 January 2020].

6. Brown, A. E. 2017. Artist of the Month: October with Miranda July. Curating The Contemporary. [Online]. 03 October. Available from: https://curatingthecontemporary.org/2017/10/03/artist-of-the-month-october-with-miranda-july/ [Accessed 21 January 2020].

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