1987 29.39 minutes
Written and Directed by Peter Fischli and David Weiss
Link to the video here >
The way Things Go (German: Der Lauf der Dinge) is a 1987 film by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It documents a long causal chain assembled of everyday object. It resembles a Rube Goldberg machine.
In this assignment, I want you to simply dwell.
Dwell in the thoughts of our current state.
Dwell in where you are right now.
Dwell in your head.
Dwell in your head.
Simply Be.
Breathe
Flow
Breathe
Flow
By reading this, you are doing exactly what Fischli and Weiss were getting across in their work.
A chain reaction.
A call and a response.
A chain reaction.
A call and a response.
Things never remain static, we're always moving in space.
A centillion of chain reactions from previous gestures.
The Way Things Go...
What does a centillion look like?
It is a cardinal number represented in the U.S.
by 1 followed by 303 zeros,
and in the UK by 1 followed by 600 zeros.
Assignment process
Create, write, draw, video, sculpt, sing, dance
Be mindful!
Be inventive!
Be inventive!
Be creative!
DO some sort of event that illustrates a chain reaction
Your response will be a chain reaction a movement that sparks thoughts, ideas, contemplation and more in your colleagues!
Document your chain reaction
Upload this work to FBsite
Comment on each others' gestures
DUE MON MAR 30 by 6 PM
More BACKGROUND info from WIKI:
The art installation was in a warehouse, about 100 feet long, and incorporated materials such as tires, trash bags, ladders, soap, oil drums, old shoes, water, and gasoline. Fire and pyrotechnics were used as chemical triggers. The film is nearly 29 minutes, 45 seconds long, but some of that is waiting for something to burn, dissolve, or slowly slide down a ramp. The film is presented as a single sequence of events, but careful observation reveals over two dozen film edits.[1]
The film evolved out of work the artists did on their earlier photography series, "Quiet Afternoon", (German: Stiller Nachmittag) of 1984-1985. As the delicately unstable assemblages they constructed for the photos were apt to almost immediately collapse, they decided that they wanted to make use of this energy.[2] The film may also have been inspired by the video work of fellow Swiss artist Roman Signer. The artists undoubtedly saw his video work which was exhibited at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1981.[3] Signer's videos often document objects performing simple actions that are the result of physical phenomena.
The movie was a public highlight of the documenta 8 in Kassel, Germany (June - September 1987), and is on permanent exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and in the Museum Wiesbaden in Wiesbaden.
It is also part of Centre Georges Pompidou's collection in Paris.
It is also part of Centre Georges Pompidou's collection in Paris.
As of December 2011, the film was on display in the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, Scotland; the "Sir Isaac's Loft" section of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, Denmark; and it was shown on rotation with other short art films at British Columbia's Robson Square Celebration Site outside the Vancouver Art Gallery during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Until January 2009 it was also shown at the Western Australian Museum in Perth as part of the temporary exhibition "Experimenta Playground". It was also displayed in the summer of 2010 in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
As of June 2014, the film is also being shown at the MALBA in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the MACM in Montréal, QC, Canada, at the Mead Gallery of the Warwick Arts Centre in Coventry, UK and at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM) in Valencia, Spain.
As of February 2016, the film is being shown at The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse in Miami, FL, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, NY, United States. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/fischliweiss-how-to-work-better
Between June 2016 and August 2017, the film is being shown as part of Masterworks from the Hirshhorn Collection, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. The Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona organised a temporary exhibit under the name The way things do during summer 2017, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the film.
Between December 2017 and April 2018, the film is being shown at the exhibition "Gravity. Imaging the universe after Einstein" at the MAXXI museum in Rome, Italy.
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Abigail Wilhelm’s response
I wanted to capture a chain reaction that starts EVERYDAY OF MY LIFE. Good day or bad day, a cup of coffee is the start of a chain reaction that makes up my daily life. This video it went well, but trust me, I've had days where I spill all the coffee grounds which can cause a chain reaction to me being grumpy for a little bit, but makes me clean and repeat the process. I'm a coffee addict, but like I said, it has started off some of my best days ever. A consistency I enjoy having n my life when everything else goes crazy (like COVID19).
Jess Kane == For the prompt, The Way things go, my thoughts quickly went to a Rube Goldberg machine and the interesting ways people have made them. For those who don't know a Rube Goldberg Machine is a machine intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way, or at least that is Google's description of one.
You watch as a D20 die falls onto the floor and hits a domino that causes a chain reaction. There the dominoes fall one by one and grow slightly taller each time one collapses. until finally, the last one falls, the largest of all of them, and lands on this slingshot like device and now a steel ball is flying through the air, over the heads of those playing DND and landing squarely into a pot. In that pot, it spirals downwards before finally being released onto a metal track. While it was in the pot a piece of tape and string was attached to the steel ball and as it flows down the track it only stops once the string is pulled taught and then something else is set into motion. What is set into motion is the emptying of a water pitcher as the liquid flows into individual tubes that a funnel leads them to and completely empties into each of the player's empty cups.
And thus, with one sip the machine is completed.
Here are some videos of other Rube Goldberg Machines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auIlGqEyTm8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nORRgU8sGdE