PROJECT TITLE
The Golden Ratio on 14th Street
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoJ8WtkgB4-gCT2Q4Aky70qFTmhaDMcdzgg26t89Rl2IqvEqPPdrL0EYUUUqXWHQsCC3hmwd6mP-qq2CA9j8O3WUWYPxGdE9Xz-6mb9EvP_xpxmajH5ivsVMhKeFVhXQbj6UgW/s320/art+odd+palces+performance.jpg)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This project was born from a fascination with the golden mean, a sacred proportion used in the arts for centuries from the designers of The Parthenon to Leonardo DaVinci to Salvador Dali to Mondrian. The golden mean is also the basis for the Fibonacci sequence, the spiral pattern commonly found in many aspects of the natural world. This performance work by two New York-based artists, David Moscovich (USA) and Beatriz Albuquerque (Portugal), examines Caravaggio through a cascade of concrete poetry projections on passersby and buildings, while at the same time, the text is destroyed, deconstructed, reimagined and transformed gently into a microphone. The active audience is invited to follow the artists in their performances along 14th street, a physical trajectory which itself follows the golden mean.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
The golden mean, or the divine proportion, has been used in art for centuries. This project explores the divine number, 1.618, by projecting concrete poetry and through live spoken performance which interacts with the projected piece while at the same time will act as a short essay on the concept of the golden mean throughout time, including reiterations of the mathematics of the ratio itself. The text from the projected piece will be deconstructed, collaged and transformed gently into Moscovich’s mouth and consequently into the microphone, with great care to avoid the cadence typically associated with the genre of “spoken word”.
The video will be projected onto members of the audience along 14th street, the street and its buildings. The microphone will be amplified through a handheld amplifier. The artists will perform on one of the four street corners for each avenue along 14th street between 6th avenue and Avenue C. The duration of each piece will be 14 minutes and 56 seconds, directly proportional to the golden mean itself, in other words, 1.618 minutes multiplied by 9.
The street itself is considered a canvas, and will be divided in this way by the golden mean, using the streetcorners as the four points of the canvas rectangle.
The public will be engaged through the projection of the video interacting with their clothes, so the piece will vary depending on what is visible on their clothes and the way they choose to respond to the video, spoken text, and the space surrounding the public. The artists will be interpreting the text which appears on their clothes.
LOCATION
The artists will perform on one of the four street corners for each avenue along 14th street between 6th avenue and Avenue C.
TIME
Thursday, October 17th, 2013 between 5PM-8PM, with a second and third choice being Friday or Saturday of the same week, respectively.