Jana Cruder Nude Texting Exhibit
Jana Cruder’s “Way of the Modern Man” is an uncomfortable art installation aimed at sex, privacy, comfort with strangers and technology. The exhibit consists of putting isolated participants in a womb-like box, with only the presence of their smartphones. In a generation of tech savvy millennials and phone addiction, it’s no wonder that Cruder’s expression of modern life through technology attracted over 65,000 people at the LAArt show last February. The event was the first public installation of the works, sponsored by a Los Angeles based nonprofit aimed at bringing art to the public, The DO ArT Foundation. The event attracted audience involvement, showcasing how easily we become intimate and personal with people we barely know in a creative nude text messages installation.
Show me your spine
As cuffing season comes upon Canada, we would like to think that this art exhibit could provide some helpful emotional therapy before you settle for the next date on Tinder. Instead of feeling lonely, lets get inspired with some art.
Judging by the crowds’ reactions and comments, it truly hit a chord with people. That was the encouraging thing about it, the public wanted to be involved.
Science of Nude Texting
The science behind Cruder’s isolation/observation booth portraiture process requires that each participant spends about 30 minutes in a private session with the artist. Communication between the subject and the artist takes place exclusively via text message, with Cruder outside the enclosure, not visible or audible to the subject. Conversations are captured in multiple layers – text message, still image, and video.
The subjects are alone in a confined, featureless space, furnished only with a single chair, and permitted to enter only with his or her mobile device.
The participants are asked to remove their clothes to study inflections of posture and spinal stance. People soon forgot they were nude – evidence perhaps of how absorbed they are in the session, texting with the artist.
Jana Cruder collaborated with a sociologist to produce questions that she could control for as well as help scientific methodology to measure emotions and physicality against each other.
The exchange was an intimate dance, I’d ask a very deep question about fear or pain and then ask a lighter question or inject humour. I was working to get them to go deep into their emotional beings and share that with me. Some people went there more easily than others, and I observed through their body language that some people had no physical response when I asked them deep questions.
Nude Texting Exhibition Vimeo
The website features a video that brings the experience to life. The password is: WOMM.
If you’re feeling especially kinky after reading this, you can find more information on this art exhibit by visiting the official website for the Way of Modern Man.