Great piece. It reminds me eerily of my experience of David Byrne's "Theater of the Mind". I'm here for all of it, but there's this nagging suspicion that these are substitutions rather than expansions of the form, substitutions made to financially "scale" what can't be scaled. Increasingly I want the descaled...the "woo!", the sweat, the tuning of the guitar. Where there is life, there is also bacteria.
1) When I went to Luna Luna, there were live performers, including a wedding chapel with an officiant. The carousel rides were definitely revolving and I think the Basquiat Ferris wheel was too. Was this not the case for you? Maybe the performers were only there on the weekends?
Haven't seen An Ark yet, but hope to. I did go to Luna Luna at a quieter time. I certainly appreciate 'activation' of these kinds of installs by live performers (and operational rides). Thanks for reading...!
To be clear, no one was allowed to ride the rides, which I also thought was very ghostly and depressing! They were just moving around empty. But there were two people in an elephant costume and some other delightful nonsense.
I honestly kind of hated An Ark -- to me Viola's Room, while uneven, was really unique and I couldn't imagine the experience any other way. With An Ark, the absence of physical human performers made a lot less sense and didn't do much for me. But I would really be curious to hear other perspectives on it. (The friend I went with enjoyed it a lot more than I did!)
Great piece. It reminds me eerily of my experience of David Byrne's "Theater of the Mind". I'm here for all of it, but there's this nagging suspicion that these are substitutions rather than expansions of the form, substitutions made to financially "scale" what can't be scaled. Increasingly I want the descaled...the "woo!", the sweat, the tuning of the guitar. Where there is life, there is also bacteria.
1) When I went to Luna Luna, there were live performers, including a wedding chapel with an officiant. The carousel rides were definitely revolving and I think the Basquiat Ferris wheel was too. Was this not the case for you? Maybe the performers were only there on the weekends?
2) Have you seen An Ark?
Haven't seen An Ark yet, but hope to. I did go to Luna Luna at a quieter time. I certainly appreciate 'activation' of these kinds of installs by live performers (and operational rides). Thanks for reading...!
To be clear, no one was allowed to ride the rides, which I also thought was very ghostly and depressing! They were just moving around empty. But there were two people in an elephant costume and some other delightful nonsense.
I honestly kind of hated An Ark -- to me Viola's Room, while uneven, was really unique and I couldn't imagine the experience any other way. With An Ark, the absence of physical human performers made a lot less sense and didn't do much for me. But I would really be curious to hear other perspectives on it. (The friend I went with enjoyed it a lot more than I did!)