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Jessica Foley

September 24, 2010 — October 7, 2010

Experiments in Measurement – A REGULATIVE FICTION
Written, Directed & Documented by Jessica Foley

Culture Night – Friday September 24th, 2010. 8-10pm
at The Market Studios as part of LIVESTOCK
http://themarketstudios.wordpress.com/

And also
September 30th to October 7th, 2010
at Occupy Space, Limerick as part of SHOW ME
http://www.showmeexhib.com/

Thisisnotashop is pleased to announce that Jessica Foley is presenting Documentary Video Footage & Book based upon the Thisisnotashop Flux Clinic Event that was held in May, 2009 as part of Fluxus with Larry Miller. This work was previously exhibited as part of Thisisnotashop@No Soul For Sale held at X-Initiative in Chelsea, New York City in June 2009.

In Science, convictions have no citizens’ rights, so people say with good reason: only when they decide to descend to the modest level of hypothesis, of provisional experimental standpoint, of a regulative fiction, can they be allowed the right of entry and indeed certain value within the realm of knowledge, - albeit with the proviso that they remain under police supervision, the police of mistrust. -The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche.

This ‘Clinic’ began with notes sent from artist Larry Miller – these were the blueprints – a story of a story retold. The possibility of copying was eliminated – this was interpretation – this was finding an artifact, a document (notes by Larry based upon the Hi Red Group’s Flux Clinic from 1966) and using it to tell another tale, or to tell a tale in another way…as Larry says:

“Part of FLUXUS ‘ideology’ is that events are interpreted differently, added to, updated, amplified upon, etc. when done in various venues. That is part of the power of resilience of the body of all FLUXUS work – that it is a kind of ‘Darwinian Evolution’ in a way that keeps it alive. It survives because of it’s adaptability to new circumstances and because it remains ‘useful’…”

The starting point was measurement…thinking about how value systems based upon measurement, measuring up, fitting the bill so-to-speak, are orchestrated, arranged and brought into the status quo of things. What does it take to build a system? Who do you need to do it? What do you need to put in place? The process of setting up the Clinic became a grand experiment in system building – scripting & installing & operating a system for 4 hours on one day in May 2009 – and the experiment was done in an effort to perhaps understand more how systems function and how we operate within them. Building the system of the Clinic required a large team of contributors – essentially a generous & voluntary staff who came forward to try on the roles and fill-out the Clinic’s system. The system became diversified by virtue of its multiple participants – the Patient/Visitors as important as the Staff/Performers – no system can work without some form of participation, some form of compliance, whether conscious or otherwise. This experimental system, this regulative fiction was built upon many parts – parts which involved role-play – each role separate & distinct. Each player was dedicated to their own role, and this dedication became the scaffold for the system…