Big Red Ball
February 27, 2012 3:56 PM Subscribe
The Red Ball in Abu Dhabi. The Red Ball in Chicago. The Giant Red Ball at a concert hall in Portland. The Red Ball blocked a tunnel in Barcelona. It's a big Red Ball.
Home page for Kurt Perschke's Redball project
Home page for Kurt Perschke's Redball project
I was confused. I thought it was Pepsi Blue for Red Bull.
As it happens, it was much stranger than what I got with my breakfast cereal this morning.
posted by Mooski at 4:14 PM on February 27, 2012
As it happens, it was much stranger than what I got with my breakfast cereal this morning.
posted by Mooski at 4:14 PM on February 27, 2012
If he chose the color blue, I guess that would be a different artistic statement.
posted by perhapses at 4:25 PM on February 27, 2012
posted by perhapses at 4:25 PM on February 27, 2012
Have you ever noticed that in English no one says "red big ball" instead? Think about it.
posted by Nomyte at 4:30 PM on February 27, 2012
posted by Nomyte at 4:30 PM on February 27, 2012
Dangit, this would come up when my Art Detector is at the shop.
Like, how was I supposed to know pointing it at Damien Hirst would trigger a "terminal recursion fault?"
posted by localroger at 4:31 PM on February 27, 2012
Like, how was I supposed to know pointing it at Damien Hirst would trigger a "terminal recursion fault?"
posted by localroger at 4:31 PM on February 27, 2012
Well, this would explain the delay in delivering Clifford's neuticles.
posted by Xoebe at 4:37 PM on February 27, 2012 [4 favorites]
posted by Xoebe at 4:37 PM on February 27, 2012 [4 favorites]
Merely pilates for the race of giants.
posted by Meatafoecure at 4:44 PM on February 27, 2012
posted by Meatafoecure at 4:44 PM on February 27, 2012
I can't believe I missed this one in Chicago... having a kid really messed with my ability to sniff this kind of stuff out. (She was 2 at the time it was here)
posted by MikeWarot at 4:48 PM on February 27, 2012
posted by MikeWarot at 4:48 PM on February 27, 2012
It's a little interesting, but not as ballsy as Christo. Rather than having one giant ball in different cities, he's probably cover one city with thousands of giant balls. That would be awesome, until someone got hurt, of course.
posted by perhapses at 4:54 PM on February 27, 2012
posted by perhapses at 4:54 PM on February 27, 2012
To be honest, I only made this post to advance a radical political agenda. In the days after 9/11, we conceived a dramatic alternative to terrorism that we called "joyism". The premise of terrorism is to create an extreme mental state of terror with the purpose of effecting political change. The same is essentially true of joyism, but the target mental state, equally extreme, is one of joy.
A big part of our strategy was to detonate explosive happenings in crowds. Again, our purpose was novel. Our explosions had to create joy rather than terror.
One scenario we trained for was the possibility of infiltrating the U.S. Congress during a debate about some war initiative. We would inflate a Macy's Day Parade style giant Bullwinkle on the Senate Floor. The Senators would scramble for their safety during the initial detonation, but would quickly realize that they were fleeing a giant inflating Bullwinkle and would abandon their fear in favor of joy.
Several volunteered for an essentially suicidal mission, legally speaking. We learned to pack balloons under our clothing, along with portable helium canisters. The volunteer enters a politically charged environment (I voted for the Republican presidential candidate debates) and activates the canisters, and a thousand balloons fill the air. We tried this during a DNC convention, but it misfired.
It's been a slow process. We are mindful that our communications are being monitored by the authorities, that each and every joke we tell is parsed for possible joyism significance, but we are committed to our cause. We find new recruits daily through online bulletin boards, and meet them clandestinely late at night in dark alleys, disguised with red clown noses.
Anyway, the Big Red Ball could be the most potent weapon in our arsenal. This particular artist is unaffiliated with our movement, but we feel justified in stealing his idea. The plan is to throw ourselves into the most difficult situations, the most dangerous political moments, the most angry standoffs, and the most rigid postures of antagonism. Then we will inflate the Big Red Ball of joy and demand that no further action be taken until our joyism is acknowledged.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:26 PM on February 27, 2012 [4 favorites]
A big part of our strategy was to detonate explosive happenings in crowds. Again, our purpose was novel. Our explosions had to create joy rather than terror.
One scenario we trained for was the possibility of infiltrating the U.S. Congress during a debate about some war initiative. We would inflate a Macy's Day Parade style giant Bullwinkle on the Senate Floor. The Senators would scramble for their safety during the initial detonation, but would quickly realize that they were fleeing a giant inflating Bullwinkle and would abandon their fear in favor of joy.
Several volunteered for an essentially suicidal mission, legally speaking. We learned to pack balloons under our clothing, along with portable helium canisters. The volunteer enters a politically charged environment (I voted for the Republican presidential candidate debates) and activates the canisters, and a thousand balloons fill the air. We tried this during a DNC convention, but it misfired.
It's been a slow process. We are mindful that our communications are being monitored by the authorities, that each and every joke we tell is parsed for possible joyism significance, but we are committed to our cause. We find new recruits daily through online bulletin boards, and meet them clandestinely late at night in dark alleys, disguised with red clown noses.
Anyway, the Big Red Ball could be the most potent weapon in our arsenal. This particular artist is unaffiliated with our movement, but we feel justified in stealing his idea. The plan is to throw ourselves into the most difficult situations, the most dangerous political moments, the most angry standoffs, and the most rigid postures of antagonism. Then we will inflate the Big Red Ball of joy and demand that no further action be taken until our joyism is acknowledged.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:26 PM on February 27, 2012 [4 favorites]
About.com redirects my link - for "misfired", go here.
About.com, we shall have the last laugh.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:30 PM on February 27, 2012
About.com, we shall have the last laugh.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:30 PM on February 27, 2012
But the burning question remains: is it a red rubber ball?
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:18 PM on February 27, 2012
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:18 PM on February 27, 2012
Hey! Kurt's project is on MetaFilter!
I'm very good friends with his brother Ian, as we both attended Cornell College in the early 90s. I got to know Kurt through his brother, though to be fair, Kurt's project took him all over the world so I had fleeting chances to meet him in the early years of the project. The Big Red Ball is in Perth until March 3, and given how remote Perth is, I'd be just as interested in hearing Kurt's stories about the journey there as I would about the exhibit itself.
posted by stannate at 6:59 PM on February 27, 2012
I'm very good friends with his brother Ian, as we both attended Cornell College in the early 90s. I got to know Kurt through his brother, though to be fair, Kurt's project took him all over the world so I had fleeting chances to meet him in the early years of the project. The Big Red Ball is in Perth until March 3, and given how remote Perth is, I'd be just as interested in hearing Kurt's stories about the journey there as I would about the exhibit itself.
posted by stannate at 6:59 PM on February 27, 2012
Is the Red Ball anything like the White Party? Because I didn't think they allowed that kind of thing in Abu Dhabi.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:47 PM on February 27, 2012
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:47 PM on February 27, 2012
Anybody who was a fan of the first few seasons of "Alias" might be a little freaked out to encounter this in the wild.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:02 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:02 AM on February 28, 2012 [1 favorite]
You better watch out, twoleftfeet. Joy is contagious as hell, and you could start an epidemic. Someone would find some reason to declare it a crime or something. They would be determined to make sure it ended badly. Their ability to turn things inside out and upside down, and get a pass, has been unholy in recent years.
posted by Goofyy at 10:00 AM on February 28, 2012
posted by Goofyy at 10:00 AM on February 28, 2012
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posted by oliverburkeman at 4:11 PM on February 27, 2012