Dear Institute for Contemporary Art:
Carl Loeffler of Carnegie Mellon University started appartently a project that involved an “unsuspecting individual” myself Greg McKenna in a project involving the news media including national television and local news as well as local newspapers and guides like the Wave and Metro in a project based on the life of a real human being.
I worked with Carl Loeffler at ArtCom Contemporary Arts Press when I lived in San Francisco where I wrote articles and sold advertising and participated in live conceptual art projects as well as participated in the day to day administration of the gallery space. Carl has gone on to a professorship at Carnegie Mellon University. Carl’s other job while at ArtCom was as a professor at the San Francisco Art Institute.
The project has been going on for a number of years here in San Jose without an official sponsor and, as a result, there is a lot of confusion about who to talk to about the project and the Loeffler group has enjoyed an odd kind of Christo-esque involvement of all kinds of government agencies and food banks homeless shelters and helpful agencies. They have all been involved in a special project that has resulted in an odd kind of publicity for the participants. Christo and the bureaucratic process people just delight themselves and others with the odd response of the bureaucracy to conceptual art and strive to involve the bureaucracy in the art project itself.
Unfortunately the theme of the project is “what happens when people try to have somebody eliminated” and of course I have had to contact the police department to tell them that I have no interest in participating in such a project because I am not being compensated and it is a very illegal kind of project. Again this is not a new theme for Carl Loeffler and his group from ArtCom.
People to contact about this project include – -
[ list available on a need to know basis ]
I am also contacting the San Jose Museum of Art and art groups in the San Jose region.
People knowledgeable about this odd project can be found at almost any newspaper or television station in the silicon valley area. I have worked doing general labor as well as just lately starting a new internet service called “valleylist” high tech products companies consumers. While the new internet business is ramping up I am trying to develop a way to handle this odd project “based on the life of a real human being” and it was suggested that I meet with Steve Deitz at 01SJ because we know a few people in common who were in attendance such as Lynn Hershman, Chip Lord, Craig Walsh and Luis Valdez. However I have not yet had the opportunity to meet with Steve Dietz or the 01sj and I am interested in arranging a sponsor organization who resides in the silicon valley area.
Please contact me by e-mail at my private e-mail g_mcpaul@… to arrange an in person meeting and talk about involving the Institute for Contemporary Art as a sponsor for this odd conceptual art project that has been in progress for a number of years. I will try to arrange an in person visit or a telephone call later this week to find out what the next steps are in this very high visibility conceptual art work.
Regards,
Greg McKenna
649.1614
