Failed Art: Critical Mass Smooth Jazz Band

Today it is true that anything and everything can be an artwork. However just because this absolute license in naming and creating art is a distinct possibility, it does not mean that it is necessarily a good or desirable thing. Indeed, the vision of a world populated entirely by artworks and only artworks is a terrible thing to contemplate.

Here is an idea for an artwork conceived by the members of Bababa International that was, thankfully, never realised.

Critical Mass Smooth Jazz Band

Most public spaces embody two dimensions of human activity. The first is symbolic and relates to the way public space divides, unites and defines communities. An enduring example of this dimension of the public sphere can be seen in Beijing's Tiananmen square which has, over the course of its long history, been an electric site for various forms of symbolic contestation.

The second dimension is physical. That is the obvious, empirical fact that a public space is in fact just that, a space.

For Critical Mass Smooth Jazz Band we propose to fill a public space with as many smooth jazz bands as that space can physically tolerate. The bands will be employed to do what it is that they do best - play smooth jazz. However they will be asked to do so simultaneously, thus creating a groove laden torrent of keys, high-hat, and saxaphone that will mercilessly wash over the ears and into the minds of all who happen to stumble into the presence of this musical flood.