Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019
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Date of Graduation
Spring 2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
Department
School of Art, Design and Art History
Advisor(s)
Evelyn Tickle
Ronn Daniel
Abstract
Adhocracy Sara Denney The Situationists of the 1960’s were cultural revolutionaries critical of passive consumerism and encouraged the reawakening of everyday life. In the spirit of the Situationists, and operating as an “ad-hocing” machine, this project proposes a machine to repurpose objects of everyday life -- reimagining what things might become and transcending limits of their inherent definitions. Why can’t a stroller be a shower head? Categories by default create opposing forces within a situation. Arthur Rimbaud, a French poet who influenced situationist thought, coined the quote “Il faut changer la vie”, “we must change life”. By freeing things from what they had been in a previous life, this ad-hoc-er allows them to transcend their previous identity. Modern society has a habit of putting things into rigid categories to understand people, concepts, and politics. Everything is what it “is” or who they “are”. However, we live in a dynamic, plural universe. This project seeks to destabilize classifications, searching for what is needed rather than what is expected. Rules and organization are necessary to produce productive additions to society, but this needs to be contrasted with an acceptance of non-permanence and spontaneity to grasp opportunities as they arise. The ad-hoc-er is made of a series of parts, retrieved from where their former owners dumped them as “unusable” and re-purposes them as critical pieces of a new whole. This working process relies on disrupting the order of things. It operates through the disassembly of each constituent into smaller parts. New forms and combinations are encouraged. Unanticipated alliance of these constituents allows this ad-hoc-er to become a space for music, cooking, making, climbing and bathing. Acting as a collector, this machine moves throughout a city to assemble what has been deemed as useless or broken. It moves to where there are needs. During its journey, the ad-hocer evolves, acquiring new “useless” objects and embracing innovative solutions. Never waiting for the perfect opportunity to act, the ad-hoc-er is always ready to perform. It makes do.
Recommended Citation
Denney, Sara, "Adhocracy" (2018). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019. 518.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/518
