guerrilla artist-in-residence event #1.

I had been wondering: what makes someone an "artist-in-residence"? Artist-in-residence programs traditionally invite an artist to do their thing at a museum or conservatory. But Laurie Anderson was artist-in-residence at NASA, McDonald's and in an Amish community. I ran into Tom, my Integrated Media professor, and was given a hackneyed metaphor about a New Year's Eve party. And Sara was there with him--she's my mentor and one of my favorite professors--she told me you can be artist-in-residence anywhere, and artists usually get invited but can sometimes get the job by asking. And in that same moment, Tom said, "why don't you do this for your IM project?" Why didn't I think of that? Then and there, I decided to give up stake in my old idea and take his advice.

I chose Home Depot, because I recently spent a lot of time there buying and cutting wood to build and stain my desk and bookshelves. I've indulged in its essence, seen how it functions and I'm not very fond of the place; this has become the basis for my interest there; working against my intuition is sometimes fruitful, too. With my new-found expertise, I figured I had the resume to apply. But I can't actually tell them that I'm an artist-in-residence for them either. At first this was because I would have to write a letter and wait several weeks, and I don't have that much time. But I grew to prefer this new limitation. Guerrilla artist-in-residence? If it’s a collaboration between an artist and the opportunities of a particular institution, then what happens if we're ill-matched? What happens if I don’t work with them on agreeable terms? (Read Wikipedia's definition of "artist-in-residence.") What if I'm using their facilities for art without their knowledge? Aside from the more obvious hindrances, what new opportunities are created in this guerrilla version?

The Exploratorium in San Francisco lists as one of its goals for its artist-in-residence program: to develop new insights and understandings by incorporating the artistic process with other investigative processes. If a scientific institution wants to incorporate the artistic process with the scientific goal of investigating and understanding, would the Home Depot equivalent be to incorporate the artistic process with the business goal of marketing research or sales? Should I demonstrate how a product could be used to make something really nice? I could show customers photos of my desk, but I'm not sure how interesting that would be for them.

Oh yeah, so, today was my first day on the job. Last week I got my work-shirt made. It's a normal white t-shirt with an 8" x 8" Home Depot logo with the words "ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE" beneath. I wore it today and waltzed around the store, swept their floors and moved carts to the right place in the parking lot.. It was pretty late, so I figured I could be a part of the night crew. Laurie Anderson said in an interview that she learnt from the McDonald's experience "an interesting kind of teamwork." I didn't have that experience. It also put her in a new enviroment and awkward situation where she was led to have new reactions. One employee harangued me and Tod for attempting to film. Actually, it was more of a plea than a haranguing. After telling asking us not to, he paused, then whimpered, "Please?" How could he know if we were allowed to be there or not, and whom it was who may have given us permission? When I got anywhere near any other employees, they would look at me really confusedly, seeing an unfamiliar person in an unfamilar version of their uniform. Perhaps this is about exclusion rather than inclusion.

Afterwards, Tod and I rewarded ourselves with probably transfatty trip to In-N-Out in Hollywood. At the register I asked Employee Ana how she felt about working there. She said she loves it because she meets people of all kinds: rich and poor, educated and illiterate, young and old, local and tourist. And then she said everyone has some good and some bad in them. I was so surprised to be having such a philosophical conversation in this setting. Now I'm thinking I will try to spark more interaction with people and worry less about my officiality at Home Depot.


(Video added March 29, 2007.)