Defenestration Now

[Albert Rolls]

Back when I was an undergrad, a friend earned a fellowship that obliged him to teach "troubled high-school kids," or whatever they were calling them back then in the education literature, and on his first day at work, a kid ran to the back of the classroom, which was on the fifth floor, and jumped out the window. My friend ran to the back of the room in a panic to find the student on a fire escape. The classroom burst into laughter, though my friend failed to experience the humor of the situation.


-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
>Sent: Dec 11, 2011 5:26 PM
>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Defenestration Now
>
>The premise behind Joe Sola’s 2005 video piece Studio Visit is simple.
>Over a period of two years, he invited collectors, curators, and
>critics to his Los Angeles studio to talk about his art. He would turn
>on the video camera, chat amiably for a few minutes, and then take a
>flying leap out the closed window in an explosion of shattered glass.
>His guests would dash to the window, only to find Sola chortling on
>top of a pile of strategically arranged cardboard boxes eight feet
>below. “People would scream with fear and pleasure at the same time,”
>he recalls. He repeated this act 22 times.
>
>Studio Visit brings together Sola’s interest in performance art and in
>Hollywood filmmaking. (He trained with a stuntman to prepare for the
>piece, and the window glass was the breakaway kind used in action
>movies.)  ...
>
>http://www.artnews.com/2011/12/06/biting-the-hand-that-feeds-them/
>
>Defenestration Now
>
>http://www.everythingisterrible.com/2010/11/defenestration-now.html