EnPassant passé

http://neumann-festival.de/EnPassant/

I / AM / NOTHING / game concept

This work is an ironical attempt to get people to think about their constant need to mirror themselves in other people’s opinion and to find their life purpose in reading horoscopes.

I find it troubling, that no matter how many books we read, how many art installations we take part in and how many philosophers we listen to, we still need to prove our neighbor/ex-husband/wife/teacher/classmate wrong in calling us a loser last Friday. I know speaking at the first person plural is not very politically correct of me, so I will note, that it stands for “me and everyone I know” (that should narrow the count).

Since we (just remember it’s me and the people I know, I am sure it’s not your case) all too often let others decide on who we are, I designed a game to help anyone in search of the meaning of life and the reason of man on earth, who is short on good willed opinions around him/her. (I won’t go into the details of why this might happen, so let’s take it as a fact)

Inspired by the „He loves me, he loves me not“ classic, (I’ve been a sucker for that game since 8th. grade) the name of the game is “I / am / nothing“ and is pretty much self-explanatory.

This is how it goes:

1. Pick a wall at your place, at work, at school, in town.

2. Pick a font, you like, and decide on a random size. You’ll also have to decide if you’ll be writing in capital or lower case.

3. Have the text “I am nothing” printed out several time as vinyl lettering for wall applications. Additionally you will need some lines. (The reason you don’t use handwriting is because you will be  needing accurate letter and space sizes)

4. Go back to your wall and start applying the text at a random height from the floor. After you complete one phrase cut it trough with a line. What matters is the last phrase that fits on the wall. As you might imagine depending on the wall length, the font and the font’s size will have 3 possibilities:

I)    you manage to write the whole phrase: “I am nothing”... yes…. It’s the thing you’ve been afraid of all along (the good thing is there are some other  walls, thousands of fonts and you can always try again)

II)   you manage to write “I am”… it’s common, you still don’t know who you are, (face it no one knows) but you are happy, you are not nothing so you can be something …

III)    the last one is tricky… it is “I” alone and since it’s just one letter away from  case I), you start fearing, that one small difference in your choices would have brought you to the cruel resolution that you were nothing…

note: this third possibility is kind of a draw… (like having a flower with one half petal… it’s for you to decide which direction you take... and now you are beginning to see the picture why you are using printed letters )

5. Game over, you can take the letters down

I tested the game last Saturday. I picked Helvetica Neue Bold (not very original), 100 px. (originality is kinda overrated from my perspective) and I had it all written in capitals. I was really happy with my result “I AM...” since the past weeks I was going for a “I AM NOTHING”. I then made a quick picture for documentation and took it off. I’ think I’ll be repeating the procedure  at work or at the university, maybe I was right all along and “I am nothing”...

I encourage anybody to try. But remember not to get depressed, if the result is not of your liking. You can always play again till you get your desired statement.

Audacity of normal

a fool's gold

all unfinished projects, unfulfilled ideas, dreams I never talk about ….

my personal failure archive…

all this unused potential…

potential for what…

unexploited possibilities for being different than I am…

lost/hope 2011

lenticular print, variable sizes

a New Year's (Resolution) Card appropriating a Christmas Card

statement?

It's always too late, so why do it?

i am evil