Outside Event: Marc Horowitz

I went to a talk at UC Berkeley for their Art and Technology series. The featured artist was Mark Horowitz, a new media artist working mostly in video. Below is an example of his antics.


Marc works alot with the internet and how the internet and new media is changing our relations. Most of his project interact with the idea of how to connect with people over these networks. One project, called Talk Show 24/7 used streaming media and chat rooms to have a 24/7 talk show for 3 months. Marc was basicly on call for the duration of this time, constantly being asked to perform.
Another project dealing with a similar concept a website called "The Advice Of Strangers" dealt with for a whole month, Marc would ask an online community a question of what he should do. Below is the result of one day's adventure.


Lastly another project that was intriguing was the "Signature Series" where Marc wrote his name on a map of the united states:

and traveled along his name, doing nice things for cities along the way.

I liked this talk not only for the silliness, but the way Marc takes on the idea of making situations. It seems he is going in an almost dadaist method of interacting with others, the ultimate goal being to excite a reaction out of the process, either through allowing others to control his life, or breaking regular people out of their comfort zones.