Observations

From the start of the process I observed that my interest was in altering objects set into circulation by Agent S and Agent G, rather than initiating an object’s trajectory. As this was my inclination, I determined that this would be a prime rule governing my process: my objective would be to respond spontaneously to the physical thing. I observed that I generated few objects. This was not a self-imposed parameter; however, I soon recognized this to be the case.

As objects were delivered and analyzed, I set out to alter the character of each by addition. There were instances contrary to this directive, but this additive process was the norm. When I did extract from the received item, I made sure that that extraction was reinserted into the process as a new strain.

As per earlier directives set by Agent G, Agent S and myself, Agent B, I documented the object at its outgoing stage. Initially I photographed the object on a clean ground, set in isolation. I started to observe that the ziplock bags (which emerged as the containers for the objects through no specific directive) became intriguing components of the process. The labels and manner of labelling gave evidence of the objects’ history. I began to photograph the objects in the ziplock container.

The process of object transfer spanned three years. The exchange of objects, however, was not dictated by a strict schedule and often occurred in rushes of exchanges or long gaps between exchanges.

Conclusions

There was great anticipation prior to the unveiling of the Black Box objects. At the same time, I observed that I could likely anticipate what the objects would look like, having been involved with their development. The moment of revelation was unspectacular. Part of my curiosity in this process has been in the parallels to a scientific process of idea development, data collection and interpretation. I was excited to learn that error had occurred! There were instances of labelled bags holding the wrong pieces of information. We were able to cross-reference these instances using our individual processes of information gathering and documentation to discover where these errors had occurred. The simplicity of the Black Box project did not rule out mistakes, but this simplicity generated a collective result.

Final Conclusion: Did we generate an artwork or artworks? The objects on their own, the documentation on its own, the data do not constitute an artwork. The collective process and the final results, mapped and displayed, are a demonstration of the thinking behind an artwork. My conclusion is that, in the end, the decision about whether or not this is art cannot be answered conclusively.

Rebecca Diederichs, September 20, 2005