Althouse: "Man Walking Down the Side of a Building."

October 2, 2010

"Man Walking Down the Side of a Building."

Where's the line between art/dance and stuntwork? Don't let the fact that the building is an art museum muddle your thinking.

(Video.)

27 comments:

Anonymous said...: Here's the line: A "stunt" is being paid by the NY Times to link it, but not informing your readers of that fact.

Art is this comment.; 10/2/10, 2:02 PM
chickelit said...: A bit OT but this old "Batclimb" collage is a hoot: linkage; 10/2/10, 2:05 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: I'd have to call it a failure.

Not innovative, not thought-provoking, not even particularly fun to watch.

In another vein, art will always need the sevices of engineers, and I offer mine.

wv:menial-- I know, but somebody has to comment on Althouse.; 10/2/10, 2:07 PM
Anonymous said...: "Not innovative ..."

Didn't Steve Ditko do this in 1962?; 10/2/10, 2:19 PM
lemondog said...: There is artistry to dance as well as to stunt work and gymnastics and
overlap of dance, stunt work and gymnastics. Categorizing as one or another would depend on degree of physicality, nuance and execution.

I find Building Jumping fascinating. It is probably more stunt and gymnastics with demanding choreography and control but obvious is the artisty and beauty of form.; 10/2/10, 2:19 PM
chickelit said...: Man On Wire was kinda artsy fartsy stuntsy.; 10/2/10, 2:27 PM
Anonymous said...: Boston Globe: Thousands gather in DC to support Democrats' agenda

"Tapping into the same anger that fuels the tea party movement, a coalition of progressive and civil rights groups marched Saturday on the Lincoln Memorial and pledged to support Democrats struggling to keep power on Capitol Hill."

There were so many thousands of people in attendance that the Boston Globe decided to run a file photo of Benjamin Todd with this story - you know, to demonstrate how powerful a visual symbol these thousands of demonstrators signify.

Also note the deliberate use of small caps to describe the "tea party".

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/10/02/thousands_gather_in_dc_in_support_of_dems_agenda/?p1=News_links

The Boston Globe, by the way, is owned by the New York Times.

They did not pay me to link to this article because it shows just how much of a fucking joke the NY Times is.; 10/2/10, 2:39 PM
Unknown said...: Donald O'Connor did the same thing without a wire.

New "Hussein" Ham said...

Boston Globe: Thousands gather in DC to support Democrats' agenda

This is going to be just another nail in the coffin for 11/2.; 10/2/10, 2:58 PM
Anonymous said...: "This is going to be just another nail in the coffin for 11/2."

This is - really - the story of the day.

Thousands - 'count 'em - thousands of people have joined forces in our nation's capital to support the Democrat Party agenda.

This from the NY Times.

And I quote: "thousands."

Barack Obama - demigod- can't even draw a crowd of "tens of thousands."

What a fucking joke of a president we have.; 10/2/10, 3:23 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Fake! I totally saw the wires.

The wind was gusting and the sunlight glared. I was walking through the alley on my way back home about to click open the garage door when my path intersected the path of two ladiez, attractive and svelte which is irrelevant to the incident but not to my memory of it, when at that same moment I noticed two guys at the tippy top of the Hamilton building 1/2 block distant, the area that the women had just been and which presented a natural wedge.

"Hey, look at those two guys up there."

I pointed to the men on the point of the roof and the ladiez agreed that was a fierce sight indeed even without the wind. We chatted it up and I sensed a break approaching to our contact, so I go, "JUMP!" To win them over with my ebullient warmth and irrepressible charm.; 10/2/10, 3:31 PM
traditionalguy said...: The art of defying gravity has a long tradition. Then Wilbur and Orville sort of made it into an everyday so what.; 10/2/10, 3:44 PM
prairie wind said...: edutcher's comment about Donald O'Connor made me think of Fred Astaire in, I think, Royal Wedding when he danced on the walls and the ceiling. The mechanics were hidden from the audience; the illusion was complete. That is art.

A guy secure in his safety harness pretending to walk on the side of the building--pure stunt. And really, was it even a very good one? The only thing that makes it art is that his stunt was labeled that way....which makes it "art" not art.; 10/2/10, 4:48 PM
Trooper York said...: I once saw a mime walking inside of a box on the sidewalk in Miami.

But then Rick Sanchez ran him over.; 10/2/10, 5:45 PM
Anonymous said...: "But then Rick Sanchez ran him over."

You don't marvel that Barack Obama is our "cotton picking President" without getting fired from your CNN job on whatever pretext they can gin up.

The cotton-picking president of the United States can order the murder of American citizens and get away with it.

So, taking out a CNN anchor is child's play.

Frankly, I think it's fun watching all these Socialists "cleansing" each other.

It's hilarious.; 10/2/10, 7:41 PM
The Dude said...: Trooper - if that is true, then Rick Sanchez needs to get his job back.

WV: foinn - the Irishman thinks it's foinn to run over a meem.; 10/2/10, 7:44 PM
AST said...: How much did they get from the NEA for this?

Oh, and check out
http://plixi.com/p/48409449; 10/2/10, 8:34 PM
The Drill SGT said...: The Aussie's do their rappelling that way for decades:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOkBE2qt-V4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERcadSA9UUU; 10/2/10, 8:54 PM
AST said...: Is Bob Dylan a racist?; 10/2/10, 9:06 PM
HKatz said...: Maybe as soon as you add an element of extreme danger, any dance becomes a stunt too?

What's also interesting is how this factors into the question of what makes good art. These days so much of art seems to be about pushing boundaries or doing things that haven't been done before - just because they haven't been done before, and not necessarily because of any additional merits or beauty or ideas (a friend in a fine arts program told me about a guy who essentially stuck his face in some sort of powdered chemical and made his eyes bleed - and then called it art. Whereas others, my friend and I included, would call it a stupid stunt...) Walking down a side of a building at least has more of an element of inspiration to it; this is the human body, look at how controlled and magnificent and gravity-defying it can be...; 10/2/10, 9:08 PM
Anonymous said...: "Is Bob Dylan a racist?"

Why yes, yes he is.

And anyone who goes to his concerts must be a racist too.

That means you, Ms. Althouse.; 10/2/10, 10:19 PM
Palladian said...: "These days so much of art seems to be about pushing boundaries or doing things that haven't been done before - just because they haven't been done before, and not necessarily because of any additional merits or beauty or ideas"

The horrible toll of the institutionalization of the avant-garde.; 10/2/10, 10:24 PM
Jason said...: Shoot, every college ROTC program in the country does that, and way better.

My first thought was "big deal. Australian-style rappelling. Someone beat me to it.; 10/2/10, 10:33 PM
dbp said...: When art fails, it is often difficult for even experts to agree that it is so. When a stunt fails we can all tell and it often entails loss of life.; 10/3/10, 12:53 AM
dbp said...: I call this artisitc failure, but at least nobody got hurt, except aesthetically.; 10/3/10, 12:58 AM
dbp said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/3/10, 12:59 AM
lemondog said...: Just viewed video. Stunt, definitely stunt.

Marine Rappelling plus he kicked in a door.; 10/3/10, 11:54 AM
AST said...: If the "artist" were to lose his balance and end up hanging upside down face to the wall, would that be modern art?; 10/3/10, 4:36 PM