The Invention of Up and Down

Mud Brick Library

An Unlucky Musket-ball

Expression of Interest: Documents form Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T) 1966-1975

Shoe Probe #3

Manufacturing means the same thing as learning; acquiring, producing and passing on information.

LAUNCHING: LUNCH

Bagel? Stomach? Coin? Tortilla? Lunch.

We, the administrators of this blog, would like to invite you and your middle organ to return to the cave. On the back of a taco discover LUNCH: a rudimentary kitchen, bathroom, concert hall and tavern open to all social animals wanting to partake in what social animals usually like to partake in.

When? June 25 @ 6:00pm - late.

Where? Hastings Lane, Surry Hills, Planet Earth.

Why? Apart from freely choosing to do so on the wheels of our own volition, like many organisations and people on Planet Earth Bababa International are in debt. One strategy in dealing with this has been to place our debt against the current global debt of $39 561 762 987 50 and counting. Most debts will look very small next to this figure and will help you to get on with your day, but this can only ever be a provisional measure.

In order to address the problem head on we must first admit that this debt is entirely of our own making: assisted by the bank, this debt is entirely of our own making. We must accept all responsibility for it and for the actions that have become necessary to dissolve it. One such action, among many, is LUNCH.

After being washed away in our first attempt at LUNCH, we expressly invite you to enjoy this dry & worry-free zone.

Contained Liquids

Contained Liquids

ANOTHER SHOE FOR ANOTHER LIFE

The crisis in shoe making is worsening. The construction of shoes, old and new, conflicts with established patterns of behavior and even more with the new ways of life that we are seeking. The result is a dismal and sterile ambience in our footwear.

In the older shoe stores, the racks display row after row of cheaply made heeled marshmallows. On streets the pleasures of walking have been commercialized and corrupted by tourism. In these shoes social relations become impossible. The newly designed shoes have only two all-pervasive themes: low-cost production and comfort — an impoverished expression of bourgeois contentment, lacking any sense of play.

To meet the need to rapidly construct enough shoes for entire cities, cemeteries of synthetic leather are being built in which masses of the population are condemned to walk  in boredom. What is the point of all the extraordinary technical inventions the world now has at its disposal if the conditions are lacking to derive any benefit from them, if they contribute nothing to leisure, if imagination is absent?

We demand adventure. Not finding it on earth, some want to seek it on the moon. We, however, are committed to changing life here on earth. We intend to create shoes, new shoes, breaking the laws that prevent the development of meaningful ventures in life and culture. We are at the dawn of a new era, and we are already attempting to sketch out the image of a happier life, of a unitary pair of shoes — a pair of  shoes designed for pleasure.

Our domain is thus the shoe workshop, the natural expression of a collective creativity, capable of incorporating the creative energies liberated by the decline of a culture based on individualism. In our opinion the traditional arts will have no role in the creation of the new environment in which we want to live.

We are in the process of inventing new techniques; we are examining the possibilities offered by existing shoes; and we are making models and plans for future shoes. We know that we need to avail ourselves of all the new technological inventions, and we know that the future shoe constructions we envisage will have to be flexible enough to respond to a dynamic conception of life, which means creating our own surroundings in direct relation to continually changing modes of behavior.
We thus have a social conception of the shoe. We are opposed to the notion of the jogging shoe in which the injection of facile gels and  pseudo-technology into heels inevitably reduces people’s direct relations and collective activities. To create a close connection between surroundings and behavior, collaborative shoe fabrication is indispensable. Those who think that synthetic and recycled shoes are going to break up the shared life of the contemporary shoe have little understanding of humanity’s true needs. In contrast to the jogging shoe idea favored by most modern shoe makers, we envisage expanded shoes in which the layout of soles and heels will be replaced by a continuous spatial construction elevated above the ground, including clusters of movement as well as new functionality (permitting changes in use according to the needs of the moment). Since all shoes in the functional sense of the term, will pass over the ground or up in the sky, the concept of the middle can be eliminated. The multitude of different ways of traversing of which the shoe is composed will form a complex and vast social practice. Far from a return to nature — from the notion of idly strolling in a park, as solitary aristocrats once did — we see in such immense shoe-constructions the possibility of overcoming nature and of regulating the climate, light and sounds with these different shoe-forms in accordance with our desires.

Do we intend this to be a new functionalism, which would promote an even greater idealization of utilitarian life? It should not be forgotten that once functions are established, they are followed by play. For a long time now, shoe construction has become a game of space and ambiences. The contemporary shoe lack ambiences. We, on the contrary, want to make more conscious use of ambiences so that they correspond to all our needs.

If the project we have roughly outlined here risks being taken for a fantastic dream, we insist on the fact that it is feasible from the technical standpoint, desirable from the human standpoint, and indispensable from the social standpoint. The increasing dissatisfaction of the whole of humanity will reach a point where we will all be compelled to execute projects for which we possess the means, projects that will contribute to the realization of a richer and more fulfilled life.

http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/3.constant.htm

Shoe Probe #2

Shoe Probe #2 was launched on Sunday the 15th of April at 12 p.m an on-board crew of around 5 persons. Once the probe had reached the upper atmosphere the on-board photographic equipment began recording the passing shoe-forms.

Here we see one peculiar and intriguing example. These shoe's have a soft, pale yellow hue and seem to have been hued from some kind of soft, yielding mineral.

The probe returned to the workshop and the participants got to to work.

Here we see the process of invention beginning to spark as a participant draws together disparate and previously unacquainted elements.

The participants pulled together their shoes, they also began to form plans and suggest new initiatives.

Without knowing the maker's intentions, we can only suggest the intent of these wheeled leisure boats.

Perhaps they are an attack on the idea of leisure, or even an amplification?

How fast can leisure move? How much leisure can you fit into a single hour?

 

 

In the vast majority of cases one shoe will always appear with another - the pair. This shoe insists on it's individuality; to the great detriment of it's wearer's mobility.

Conflict emerges as the wearer uses a Japanese hand saw to execute a design of his own.

The status quo is restored.

Here the constructor has combined a colourful pair of gum boots with the egg shell of a magnificent bird to create this sturdy pair of shoes.

This pair of shoes is playing a game of subterfuge and concealment.

A pair of shoes from which the sole has been subtracted. Even an incapacitated object can teach us something about the business of construction.

This constructor has somehow managed to use a pair of boots to subvert gravity.

One constructor spotted a rare pair of cha-cha heels and then seized the opportunity to test them out. 

This pair embodies readiness, their dual functionality and eclectic appearance allowing the wearer to seize the day no matter what the day has scheduled.

This constructor approached the shoe with a deconstructionist agenda.

The exploded body of the shoe is brought back together with the assistance of a guiding hand.

The reformed body of the shoe ensnares the wearer.

This prototype suggests some form aquatic application.

This pair of sandles suggests tradition while embracing industry, mass-production and discarded furniture. 

Here's a pair for people interested in boats and the see-saw theory of the the universe.

This pair is pure surface with the foot left exposed to the elements leaving the wearer vulnerable or, depending on your point of view, free.

The shoe-constructor experiments with flatness and inversion by turning their design upside down.

his construct is a modification of an existing pair of shoes.

The shoes seem to have been transformed into a puzzle and game. The constructor has chosen to emit an explicit set of instructions, leaving us to discover the game's objectives for ourselves.

One intrepid constructor decided to tackle the topic of shoe-obstacles. Here we see a volunteer bravely engaging with two tennis-balls. Tennis-balls are notorious for their ability to interrupt and upend the shoe. 

The subject begins to leave the ground, the tennis balls serving as a platform.

The constructor harnesses what had previously been thought of only as a problem. A high-pair of shoes is given new bounce and new balance.

The shoes gathered together.