TShirts, Stickers, Prints, Art Objects
WhatIsWhat 1.0 2003
Topic “disability related”
culture politics aesthetics and sociology of disability
The First Crutch
ABOVE: "How Its Going: Crutches" Text and Line Art by Bill Shannon
What was the first crutch? It was not the first recorded crutch. It was not the first staff. The first crutch was before it all. It was a branch. A branch grabbed on impulse to survive a moment, to get through a threatening situation. The first crutch was a life and death situation. The first crutch was born of a moment when a human, under threat from a predator, impulsively invented a tool to assist their own mobility. Crutches at their essence are rooted in survival. Crutches are a sign that the person using the crutches is likely the weakest in the pack. Crutches, in short, equal death. That survival response to seeing crutches is still with us today, at the very core of our innate survival instinct. Mortality symbolized in an object that one uses to move their body. The first crutch, before it was a crutch, was a random branch from a tree that had fallen to the ground. It was laying in a specific place, sufficiently thick but not too thick, the correct length, not too long or too short. Just the right length to work for the human that happened to pick it up.(cont.)
MANCC Dance Residency Documentary Video
MANCC (pronounced man-see) is the only national center for choreography in the world located in a major research institution, and operates from one of the premiere dance facilities in the United States. The Center is embedded within The Florida State University School of Dance, and offers unparalleled opportunities for contemporary choreographers to hone their artistic practice and develop new work inside a creative community.
Public Performance, Character Design 2014
Performance Strategy, "Manifestation Of The Minds' Eye Imagined" #billshannon 2014 Photo by Garret Jones 2014
Street Performance, Skateboarding Crutch Goofball Provocateur Character #billshannon 2014 Photo by Garret Jones 2014
Wrapped an 8 week Solo Exhibition Dec 2013 - FEB 2014
Here is a REVIEW of the full show.
BELOW: playing in the studio in the run up to the opening
"Little Friends" - Bill Shannon 2013 12guage brass plate w/patina cut and formed 3"x2"
Embrace Ones Disability, Running from it is for the Movies
ABOVE: An excerpt from the film Forest Gump. The main character, Forest, is chased by bullies and runs away while shedding his braces. The scene is a touchstone for the entire film in which Forest, a mildly developmentally disabled adult, lives a life full of romance, adventure and prosperity while blissfully unaware of his dumb luck. I am thankful not to have seen the film Forest Gump as a young child with braces on my legs who also ran from bullies.
New Work on Exhibit @ Dance New Amsterdam NYC
Above: Used Dance Shirt. Part of showing of work at Dance New Amsterdam. Just occured to me I need a "performance artifiact" tag
Spring 2013
My plate is full this year with multiple ongoing projects. The Rex "project" mentioned below several months ago has stabilized after 6 months of staggeringly little sleep ( or awake-ness ) and I am happy to share with you that the Rexy continues to payoff in a myriad of very small beautiful ways and I am BACK!
Skateboard Graphic Strategy To Validate Medical Usage
ABOVE: Painted Skateboard Griptape Graphics To Communicate medical usage of Crutches with a Skateboard To Complete Strangers. The graphics emulate existing color and symbols in public space for safety boundaries and disabled people. I also added the Red Cross with MED written inside it to further reinforce the message. Normally graphics are painted on the bottom of the board and the tops are black griptape. Communicating through symbols from the top of the board is a very useful way to answer questions without them being asked.
GO SKATE DAY Interview On VeganSkateBlog.com
CLICK ON IMAGE ABOVE TO READ MY INTERVIEW ON VEGANSKATEBLOG.COM
KEEP KEEP KEEP DANCING DANCING DANCING
Greetings dear Readers. It has been far too long since I have last posted here. If you have been with me since the beginning then you are well aware that I do have these long breaks between posts. This site is not really a bloggers site, in the blogger sense of blogging daily, but rather an artist's site that starts and stops and starts again with a regular irregularity.
ABOVE: "Keep Dancing" Intaglio Ink Print on Archival Paper 8x10 2012
THISISWHATISWHATIS EVERYDAY EVERYDAY EVERYDAY
ABOVE: Stepping Roll Toe Up Footwork on a cruiser board
I often times i send you here because i have just met you and you have asked me a question. Often times I dont know your name and you dont know mine. If you came here I first off want to Sincerely Thank You for not reacting negatively to my answer of " if you really want to know the answer to your question go to my website whatiswhat.com I cannot expain now". Thank you for not letting your ego misinterpret negatively me just trying to get on with my life without expaining something to you as I have been asked so many times before. Its not personal at all. I dont always say -go to my website- to every person that does ask me questions. There are many factors. If I sent you here and you came for an explanation of the specifics of why I came to skate with crutches that story is here. " What happened to you?" What do you call that" What kind of crutches are those" What happened to your leg? " etc.etc.etc. These are the questions that I am asked and whatiswhat.com remains a tool for me to deflect some of the inquisitive if disbelieving attempts to figure me out.
Crutches vs. Powdered Floor
ABOVE: The crowded floor of Sullivan Room opens up just enough for me to squeeze in a few choice steps but the powder on the floor makes the crutch tips slide around so much that I would lose control. For those of you following my blog you may remember a previous post about Juste Debout France plastic floor with seams.
There will always be those select house dancers that love to throw down their powder and get their groove on, slipping and sliding around with an extra touch of smoothness coming from the baby powder dusted floor surface. While recently out on the town in NYC I went to hear the amazingly talented Ian Friday spin at Sullivan Room as part of the long running Thursday Night Global Soul Dance Party, Libations. While hanging out warming up and just enjoying the music I felt the amount of powder on the floor was making it a bit dangerous for me to do anything beyond the most conservative two step. In the pictoral sequence after the jump you will see my solution to this powder floor problem as taken from ramp skaters who mopped their entire ramps with a coke/water mix to get the masonite dust out of their kinetic equation. While I too have applied the same idea to entire stages when too dusty for a show a club is a bit different in that you might get kicked out if you are caught dousing the floor in Jack and Cokes. Thus for clubs I switch out mopping the entire dance floor with a coke/water mix to making a small area of the floor my tip and shoe sticky zone by pouring the liquid onto a napkin in an out of the way location that doesnt get cleaned up too quickly.
The Dance is in Your Body Not in your Crutches
ABOVE: "In-Saddle Float" performed Traveling ( as oppposed to single position circular ) from The Shannon Technique
I am posting up this image of me performing an In-Saddle-Float on single point crutches to make the point that my dancing came from within my heart and spiritual connection to music and the "urbanity" of my form prior to attaining and evolving the rocker bottom crutch design.So many kind people have written to me about how they want to dance on crutches but need to find a rockerbottom set to get started. My response is just start moving.
Unique Security Requirements
ABOVE: BLOWFISH STRATEGY. In my world of phenomenology and identification of sociological dynamics in public space the development of performed "strategies" as tools to unlock disable or otherwise transform the implications on my life of a given phenomena are important. The BLOWFISH STRATEGY is part of my engagement with the almost constant phenomena of AMBIGUITY OF DISABILITY. In other words...
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ABOVE: Abnormal Smoke from Reactor # 2 Oct 22nd smoke @ 1:05. Fukushima
particle and jetstream maps after the jump
dance like people are watching you from the side of their eyeballs without turning their neck
THISISWHATISWHAT
ABOVE: HOW TO HANG YOUR HAT ON A CRUTCH WHEN A CORNER IS AVAILABLE AND THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE ELSE TO HANG IT.
Illustrated Note on "The Condition Arriving" Phenomena
THISISWHATISWHAT
ABOVE: original notebook scan. Illustrated Notes on Cultural Phenomenology; The Condition Arriving and notions of invisibility within its context. I have posted this same image in the 2D section of this site but it is cleaned up of all the writing.
