F*cking Art Students

[SkinBasket]

Man, think of everything she did. The press releases..and then the quotes she gave..it was all well thought out and planned. She struck the write note everytime...the fake "woman's body" is her own..intended to rile up Fox news, etc.

Thinking of all the "work" she put into this brings me to another problem I guess I have with all this. When I consider art, I guess I believe that at some level, in some way, art - good art anyway - needs to connect to truth in some kind of way.

If I considered this dramatic nonsense as possible art, which I still won't, but if I did, the problem I would still have is that is was a social experiment designed to elicit a certain response. It didn't reveal a truth. It attempted to create truth through a carefully planned lie. An artist who needs to trick their audience into seeing their vision isn't an artist to me.

I guess my acceptance of performance art will only ever run as deep as watching that guy who pretends to be a silver robot on the street in Chicago. I won't pay him though. If he believes in his art, that should be reward enough.

[Kiwon]

She exposed inherent biases and got people riled up. Look at Kiwon's post..that is just classic. Her words..not actions, did just that.

The IDEA of what she proposed was so shocking that most people turned their brains off..or fell into hysterical positions.

Those of us with a brain recognized immediately what this was...and, i'm sorry to have witnessed so few PR's figure it out.

No, those of you with no morals were non-pulsed by either the IDEA or the ACTION. Your lack of revulsion exposes your depravity. This is Ms. Psycho's real contribution. Those performance artists.....little geniuses.

Although disputed by school authorities, she adamantly claims her project is real.

Shvarts explains her 'repeated self-induced miscarriages'

Aliza Shvarts

Guest Columnist, Yale Daily News

Published Friday, April 18, 2008

For the past year, I performed repeated self-induced miscarriages. I created a group of fabricators from volunteers who submitted to periodic STD screenings and agreed to their complete and permanent anonymity. From the 9th to the 15th day of my menstrual cycle, the fabricators would provide me with sperm samples, which I used to privately self-inseminate. Using a needleless syringe, I would inject the sperm near my cervix within 30 minutes of its collection, so as to insure the possibility of fertilization. On the 28th day of my cycle, I would ingest an abortifacient, after which I would experience cramps and heavy bleeding.

To protect myself and others, only I know the number of fabricators who participated, the frequency and accuracy with which I inseminated and the specific abortifacient I used. Because of these measures of privacy, the piece exists only in its telling. This telling can take textual, visual, spatial, temporal and performative forms . copies of copies of which there is no original.

This piece . in its textual and sculptural forms . is meant to call into question the relationship between form and function as they converge on the body. The artwork exists as the verbal narrative you see above, as an installation that will take place in Green Hall, as a time-based performance, as a independent concept, as a myth and as a public discourse.

It creates an ambiguity that isolates the locus of ontology to an act of readership. An intentional ambiguity pervades both the act and the objects I produced in relation to it. The performance exists only as I chose to represent it. For me, the most poignant aspect of this representation . the part most meaningful in terms of its political agenda (and, incidentally, the aspect that has not been discussed thus far) . is the impossibility of accurately identifying the resulting blood. Because the miscarriages coincide with the expected date of menstruation (the 28th day of my cycle), it remains ambiguous whether the there was ever a fertilized ovum or not. The reality of the pregnancy, both for myself and for the audience, is a matter of reading.

This ambivalence makes obvious how the act of identification or naming . the act of ascribing a word to something physical . is at its heart an ideological act, an act that literally has the power to construct bodies. In a sense, the act of conception occurs when the viewer assigns the term .miscarriage. or .period. to that blood.

In some sense, neither term is exactly accurate or inaccurate; the ambiguity is not merely a matter of context, but is embodied in the physicality of the object. This central ambiguity defies a clear definition of the act. The reality of miscarriage is very much a linguistic and political reality, an act of reading constructed by an act of naming . an authorial act.

It is the intention of this piece to destabilize the locus of that authorial act, and in doing so, reclaim it from the heteronormative structures that seek to naturalize it.

As an intervention into our normative understanding of .the real. and its accompanying politics of convention, this performance piece has numerous conceptual goals. The first is to assert that often, normative understandings of biological function are a mythology imposed on form. It is this mythology that creates the sexist, racist, ableist, nationalist and homophobic perspective, distinguishing what body parts are .meant. to do from their physical capability. The myth that a certain set of functions are .natural. (while all the other potential functions are .unnatural.) undermines that sense of capability, confining lifestyle choices to the bounds of normatively defined narratives.

Just as it is a myth that women are .meant. to be feminine and men masculine, that penises and vaginas are .meant. for penetrative heterosexual sex (or that mouths, anuses, breasts, feet or leather, silicone, vinyl, rubber, or metal implements are not .meant. for sex at all), it is a myth that ovaries and a uterus are .meant. to birth a child.

When considering my own bodily form, I recognize its potential as extending beyond its ability to participate in a normative function. While my organs are capable of engaging with the narrative of reproduction . the time-based linkage of discrete events from conception to birth . the realm of capability extends beyond the bounds of that specific narrative chain. These organs can do other things, can have other purposes, and it is the prerogative of every individual to acknowledge and explore this wide realm of capability."

Aliza Shvarts is a senior in Davenport College.

[packinpatland]

Somewhere out there has to be the inevitable 'bottom line'...........

How, exactly does this girl use this to obtain gainful employment?

[Harlan Huckleby]

Somewhere out there has to be the inevitable 'bottom line'...........

How, exactly does this girl use this to obtain gainful employment?

ahh, an art student w/ degree from Yale will find work. one example: she can work in clothing design w/ some additional tech schooling or apprenticeship. Or become web designer.

If she succeeds or fails in work world it won't be because of her degree. And there is nothing wrong with education being the bottom line in of itself.

Or she can always follow skinbasket's path and be a computer engineer.

[SkinBasket]

Or she can always follow skinbasket's path and be a computer engineer.

Network engineer. Dumby.

[Harlan Huckleby]

This piece . in its textual and sculptural forms . is meant to call into question the relationship between form and function as they converge on the body.

"sculptural" I just created a sculpture in 4 dimensions: length, width, height, and odor.

I read her explanation, consulted dictionary as required, scratched chin. I think her concepts are very simple, and poorly illustrated by her piece, sometimes unrelated.

This ambivalence makes obvious how the act of identification or naming . the act of ascribing a word to something physical . is at its heart an ideological act, an act that literally has the power to construct bodies. In a sense, the act of conception occurs when the viewer assigns the term .miscarriage. or .period. to that blood.

This is her big idea. But of course one could test each "sculpture" and determine whether it is a miscarriage, so it's not just language or social conformity.

Umm, I see some value in what she is driving at, it's just kinda lame.

[packinpatland]

Somewhere out there has to be the inevitable 'bottom line'...........

How, exactly does this girl use this to obtain gainful employment?

ahh, an art student w/ degree from Yale will find work. one example: she can work in clothing design w/ some additional tech schooling or apprenticeship. Or become web designer.

If she succeeds or fails in work world it won't be because of her degree. And there is nothing wrong with education being the bottom line in of itself.

Or she can always follow skinbasket's path and be a computer engineer.

Having that degree and having it be from Yale still isn't a an automatic guarntee of employment.

[Harlan Huckleby]

right, she is going to struggle.

[Deputy Nutz]

I suggest not reading this thread while eating soft, juicy rasberries on waffles.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Never thought I'd be saying I wasn't proud of the fact that my daughter will be graduating from Yale next month.........but.....
knowing what my daughter has had to got thru to submit her thesis, the constant contact with advisors and professors....what were they thinking????at what point could not one of her advisors had said...'maybe this might not be the best of ideas'................but hey, made the news didn't they?

YOu have it backwards, which is no surprise.

The fact that EDUCATED people, more educated in art than you i'm guessing...listened to her, approved her thesis, guided her...that tells me that it has validity.

Because you don't get it..and apply your standards doesn't mean it isn't valid.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

She exposed inherent biases and got people riled up. Look at Kiwon's post..that is just classic. Her words..not actions, did just that.

The IDEA of what she proposed was so shocking that most people turned their brains off..or fell into hysterical positions.

Those of us with a brain recognized immediately what this was...and, i'm sorry to have witnessed so few PR's figure it out.

No, those of you with no morals were non-pulsed by either the IDEA or the ACTION. Your lack of revulsion exposes your depravity. This is Ms. Psycho's real contribution. Those performance artists.....little geniuses.

Although disputed by school authorities, she adamantly claims her project is real.

Shvarts explains her 'repeated self-induced miscarriages'

Aliza Shvarts

Guest Columnist, Yale Daily News

Published Friday, April 18, 2008

For the past year, I performed repeated self-induced miscarriages. I created a group of fabricators from volunteers who submitted to periodic STD screenings and agreed to their complete and permanent anonymity. From the 9th to the 15th day of my menstrual cycle, the fabricators would provide me with sperm samples, which I used to privately self-inseminate. Using a needleless syringe, I would inject the sperm near my cervix within 30 minutes of its collection, so as to insure the possibility of fertilization. On the 28th day of my cycle, I would ingest an abortifacient, after which I would experience cramps and heavy bleeding.

To protect myself and others, only I know the number of fabricators who participated, the frequency and accuracy with which I inseminated and the specific abortifacient I used. Because of these measures of privacy, the piece exists only in its telling. This telling can take textual, visual, spatial, temporal and performative forms . copies of copies of which there is no original.

This piece . in its textual and sculptural forms . is meant to call into question the relationship between form and function as they converge on the body. The artwork exists as the verbal narrative you see above, as an installation that will take place in Green Hall, as a time-based performance, as a independent concept, as a myth and as a public discourse.

It creates an ambiguity that isolates the locus of ontology to an act of readership. An intentional ambiguity pervades both the act and the objects I produced in relation to it. The performance exists only as I chose to represent it. For me, the most poignant aspect of this representation . the part most meaningful in terms of its political agenda (and, incidentally, the aspect that has not been discussed thus far) . is the impossibility of accurately identifying the resulting blood. Because the miscarriages coincide with the expected date of menstruation (the 28th day of my cycle), it remains ambiguous whether the there was ever a fertilized ovum or not. The reality of the pregnancy, both for myself and for the audience, is a matter of reading.

This ambivalence makes obvious how the act of identification or naming . the act of ascribing a word to something physical . is at its heart an ideological act, an act that literally has the power to construct bodies. In a sense, the act of conception occurs when the viewer assigns the term .miscarriage. or .period. to that blood.

In some sense, neither term is exactly accurate or inaccurate; the ambiguity is not merely a matter of context, but is embodied in the physicality of the object. This central ambiguity defies a clear definition of the act. The reality of miscarriage is very much a linguistic and political reality, an act of reading constructed by an act of naming . an authorial act.

It is the intention of this piece to destabilize the locus of that authorial act, and in doing so, reclaim it from the heteronormative structures that seek to naturalize it.

As an intervention into our normative understanding of .the real. and its accompanying politics of convention, this performance piece has numerous conceptual goals. The first is to assert that often, normative understandings of biological function are a mythology imposed on form. It is this mythology that creates the sexist, racist, ableist, nationalist and homophobic perspective, distinguishing what body parts are .meant. to do from their physical capability. The myth that a certain set of functions are .natural. (while all the other potential functions are .unnatural.) undermines that sense of capability, confining lifestyle choices to the bounds of normatively defined narratives.

Just as it is a myth that women are .meant. to be feminine and men masculine, that penises and vaginas are .meant. for penetrative heterosexual sex (or that mouths, anuses, breasts, feet or leather, silicone, vinyl, rubber, or metal implements are not .meant. for sex at all), it is a myth that ovaries and a uterus are .meant. to birth a child.

When considering my own bodily form, I recognize its potential as extending beyond its ability to participate in a normative function. While my organs are capable of engaging with the narrative of reproduction . the time-based linkage of discrete events from conception to birth . the realm of capability extends beyond the bounds of that specific narrative chain. These organs can do other things, can have other purposes, and it is the prerogative of every individual to acknowledge and explore this wide realm of capability."

Aliza Shvarts is a senior in Davenport College.

No, dope. Those of us who knew right away it was a pr stunt, performance art piece laughed at idiots like yourself.

And, if it is true...talk about making a mountain outta a molehill. No different than taking the morning after pill. There was no baby, not even a foetus.

[the_idle_threat]

Good Lord ... can she possibly jam another 10-dollar word into that wordy, psuedo-intellectual write-up? Seems to me she's trying way too hard to make this sound like an important intellectual exercise, when in fact it's nothing but a cheap stunt.

But then again, the very difference between "performance art" and "cheap stunt" is the dressing. If you declare your provocative idea important enough, and if you overanalyze it and dress it up in fancy words, you still won't fool the people who have sense. But people with sense aren't your core audience.

You want to fool people who lack sense but have money---wealthy benefactors. And in reality, there are plenty of wealthy folks who will enjoy an opportunity to engage in pseudo-intellectual "artistic" discussions in order to feel smarter than they actually are, and to feel smarter than the masses. So they become benefactors to pretentious artists who feed this desire.

With this stunt, this gal has put her name out there, attracting the attention of the clueless but moneyed art-loving crowd. It's a brilliant career move. She'll never need to obtain "gainful employment" in the traditional sense.

[Scott Campbell]

But then again, the very difference between "performance art" and "cheap stunt" is the dressing. If you declare your provocative idea important enough, and if you overanalyze it and dress it up in fancy words, you still won't fool the people who have sense. But people with sense aren't your core audience.

Performance art? I'm not sure that I see much difference between this and the stunts from the Jackass crew. Maybe Steve-O and Johnny Knoxville are Professors at Yale?

[packinpatland]

Never thought I'd be saying I wasn't proud of the fact that my daughter will be graduating from Yale next month.........but.....
knowing what my daughter has had to got thru to submit her thesis, the constant contact with advisors and professors....what were they thinking????at what point could not one of her advisors had said...'maybe this might not be the best of ideas'................but hey, made the news didn't they?

YOu have it backwards, which is no surprise.

The fact that EDUCATED people, more educated in art than you i'm guessing...listened to her, approved her thesis, guided her...that tells me that it has validity.

Because you don't get it..and apply your standards doesn't mean it isn't valid.

I certainly am not going to list my credentials for being 'art educated'.....suffice to say I probably know more than you do but less than the professors who aprroved her idea for her thesis. As far as my 'standards' ................yes, I do have moral standards.......and they were offended by the fact that a great university, such as Yale, would allow a student to 'pull off' a stunt like this. And that is exactly how I see it....a stunt........nothing more, nothing less.
And Tyrone, I'm not going to argue with you.........because it won't matter what I say.........you are always right, right?

[GrnBay007]

I certainly am not going to list my credentials for being 'art educated'.....suffice to say I probably know more than you do but less than the professors who aprroved her idea for her thesis. As far as my 'standards' ................yes, I do have moral standards.......and they were offended by the fact that a great university, such as Yale, would allow a student to 'pull off' a stunt like this. And that is exactly how I see it....a stunt........nothing more, nothing less.
And Tyrone, I'm not going to argue with you.........because it won't matter what I say.........you are always right, right?

You Go Girl!!

...and I agree.