For better or worse and wed say worse the art world is often driven by things safe and familiar. Think about it: The paintings that sell for $10,000 at high-end galleries are usually landscapes, fruit bowls, or works heavily influenced by Warhol or Dalí. Let us instead suggest something challenging: Between Lived Experiences at Southern Exposure. Performance artist Brody Condon teams up with Nordic live-action role-playing game developers Bjarke Pedersen and Tobias Wrigstad to explain and recruit volunteers for an upcoming project called LevelFive. The three-day event will see 75 people loosely following the structure of 1970s self-actualization seminars such as EST. Condon is clear, however, that LevelFive wont be a re-enactment. And the materials on his website neither praise nor berate the much-maligned tough love trainings. So, what will LevelFive be? Only the people who participate will know and even they wont really know until it takes place. Tonights event includes screenings of examples of Condons work as well as discussion of several influential Scandinavian live-action games from the past decade. Are you up to the challenge?
Fri., Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m., 2010
