Lunar Snails and Galactic Cocktails: Throwing A House Party on the Moon
By Jad Dahshan, third-year student studying Art History and Chemistry
The Moon has long been a muse for artists, poets, and lovers. Yet, might we also find the Moon a site for temporary retreat and respite away from the cruelties of Earth? Away from COVID-19? Away from capitalism? Perhaps the Moon’s frozen terrain offers fertile ground for revolutionary ideas to sprout and new ways of being to blossom. Presented as part of the Gray Center’s, Another Idea, Kyle Bellucci Johanson’s chance encounters for a third try: attempting a house party on the moon consists of three ‘house parties’ hosted on the Moon.Using virtual reality technologies, Zoom, and other web-based software, Johanson simulated his apartment on the Moon’s surface and invited guests to dance, converse, drink, smoke, read, game, and more.
chance encounters for a third try offers viewers an immersive, exploratory space. The experience is mediated via a virtually constructed replica of the artist’s apartment, which one can explore as if a character in a video game, finding links to videos, texts, and tutorials hidden in the walls and floors. The Zoom meetings which are embedded within the virtual space offer exploratory opportunities for guests to meditate on ideas ranging from the frivolous to the serious. A third aspect of the exploration is its characterization as an attempt: the fact that each of the house parties hosted in June and July built off of the one before, and that each one allowed the artist and his collaborators to experiment with the programs they were using as material. This classification of the work as an attempt is fundamental to the project.
For example, starting on the second attempt people were given avatars: reincarnated as flamboyant, floating blobs with eyes. We could see each other but not ourselves. The second attempt also put the Earth within sight just outside the Moon (which is flat, by the way). To be clear, I don’t think each subsequent attempt necessarily tried to approach a more realistic simulation of a ‘real’ house party. Rather, I think that with each one the artist worked to expand the conceptual and experiential possibilities for thought, criticality, play, and imagination. While conversations were not curated, there were guiding themes for each attempt: Value and People, timespacematters, and systems of cultural production.
The links embedded in the experience also changed and grew with each visit, at times providing the apartment with theoretical furnishings and at others, well, with snails. Here, you may find collaborating artist Tim Tsang playing the piano, and there you might find him reciting poetry with Johanson, re-enacting a dialogue between J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm, reading Fred Moten’s “The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study” or reading “Finite and Infinite Games” by James P. Carse.
In a bathroom tiled with QR codes, you may find a video about Roman Baths, just as you may come across a laughing game elsewhere. Like the bathroom, many of the rooms took on hybrid functions. An exceptionally purple chamber was both a dance floor and an exhibition hall: framed on its walls were links to presentations by Gregory Bae, Andre Keichian, Lily Kind, Joestine Con-ui, Paul Rosero Contreras, and Carmen Amengual. In the kitchen, meanwhile, were some video recipes of some galactically inspired cocktails.
As with a physical party, I could not catch all of the conversations, and shifted between the virtual rooms like a ghost, overhearing discussions of power, control, and what we owe each other for being human. In other instances, I found myself listening in on conversations about avocados, pets, and crushes. Johanson’s lunar house parties supplied a space for social satiation as well as speculations about a better Earth.
Hello! I'm Jad and I am a rising fourth-year studying Art History and Chemistry at the College. I write for artmejo.com about global and Arab contemporary art and occasionally do some arts reporting for the Chicago Maroon. At school, you'd usually find me dangling off a rope in Le Vorris & Vox Circus's practice room at the Logan Center or filming an Instagram story at the Smart Museum. Since being quarantined though, I haven't really strayed beyond the edges of my laptop or sketchbook. Each week of “Another Idea,” I will explore and reflect one piece in the exhibition. Experience and explore the exhibition yourself at The Gray Center.