When the List Galleries for the
Wiesner Arts and Media Building at the
Massachusetts Institute for Technology opened in
1985, the initial
exhibit
was an assortment of
modern art. Now,
MIT students in
general and
hackers in particular are well-known for their
respectful attitude towards campus art, and the
night before the
exhibit opened they made their own addition.
Outside of the door of the gallery, they left an inverted garbage can, mimicking the display pedestals inside.
On top of it, they placed a cafeteria tray, complete with
glass, plate, salad bowl, fork, and two spoons-- but no knife. Next to this fine piece of artwork was
a description:
No Knife
A Study in
Mixed Media Earth Tones, Number Three
Realized by James Tetazoo December 1984
The artist's
mode d'emploi relies upon
minimalist kinematic methods:
space and time are frozen in a staid reality of
unrestrained sexuality. Temporary occasionalism, soon overcome by
symbolic nihility, pervades our earliest perception of the work. An overturned
throwaway obelisk functions as symbolic pedestal; the work rests upon a
manifestation of grey toned absence.
Epicurean imagery is employed most effectively by Tetazoo; the glass, the
porcelain, the plastic move in conflicting directions and yet are joined in a mood of stark
pacifism. The sterile
lateralism of the grouped utensils (
sans knife), conveys a sense of eternal
ennui, framed within the subtle ambience of discrete putrefaction. The
casual formalism of the
place setting draws upon our common internal
instinct of
existential persistence to unify us with the
greater consciousness of
human bondage.
The next day, the janitor came by and
was horrified to discover one of the pieces of artwork left outside the door by mistake. "No Knife" was brought inside and displayed in the gallery for a week before the curator finally noticed that this art was not as artistic as the rest of the exhibit, and the hack was removed.
Text copied from the Journal of the Institute for Hacks, TomFoolery and Pranks, with thanks. The book also contains several more hacking stories with photographs and copies of relevant text, for those interested.