Sota just wrote an impeccable text on the Chumbacca Surprise Drawing thing:
The relationship between children and art is often defined by those who are least suited to the task: adults. Despite the best intentions of curators and docents, art spaces are often designed within a conceptual framework that constrains the possibilities and potentialities of the experience.Even before entering an art space, adults maintain the rules. Children are told how to navigate (quietly and orderly), how to interact with the art (don't touch it), and how to think about it (through condescending placards and leading questions). The intent is to preemptively define the experience, so that children are unable to define it for themselves.
As a result of this indoctrination, the experience of children with art shares much in common with the art itself: it is trapped within invisible and arbitrary barriers, doomed to a slow death and inevitable irrelevance. It is no surprise that most children look forward to leaving a museum more than entering it.
The Chumbacca Surprise Drawing (CSD) seeks to reimagine the experience of children with art. The child is necessary and integral to the creation of the work; without her, the work does not exist. And Chumbacca hopes that in the creation of the work, the child will break many, if not all, of the social norms constructed by adults within the art space.
Upon entering the art space, a child is given a GPS unit. She is not informed of its true purpose, but is told that she may exchange it for a present from Chumbacca upon exiting the art space.
As the child makes her way through the art space, the GPS unit broadcasts its location to a central computer. The computer records the movement of each GPS unit in real-time, tracking its path through the space.
When the child leaves the art space, she is greeted by Chumbacca himself, who presents her with a line drawing of her path through the museum.
The line drawing itself may be executed in any number of styles, depending upon Chumbacca's aesthetic predilections at the time. However, Chumbacca's publicist has stated that he is currently working in children's media such as crayons and watercolors, and that his oeuvre resembles that of many young children. His work is also informed by velocity, as some sections of the line drawing vary in color and thickness owing to the fastness or slowness of the child.
Of course, Chumbacca would be more than happy to draw a second (or even a third) drawing for any child who wanted to proceed through the art space again (and again). He encourages all children to experiment with violent and unpredictable changes in speed and direction in order to achieve the best results.
The Chumbacca Surprise Drawing is ultimately a conceptual work. At its heart is the revelation that the viewer is not to merely observe the work, but to participate in its creation. And in the creation of the work, the CSD encourages the viewer to deconstruct the the art space experience. To run. To make noise. To proceed in a disorderly manner. As a work of art, the CSD returns the task of defining the experience of art to the child. And the child redefines that experience with every visit. Adults are unnecessary.
Now if only Rosman would take this and work on the technical aspects, we'd be almost ready for the Media Lab deadline.
Posted by huili at September 27, 2004 12:58 AM