SaveKaryn Part 2?

April 4, 2005 5:16 PM

My Million-Dollar Year. "One million dollars. 365 days. Yes, she's serious." Performance art goes commercial.
posted by growli (55 comments total)

Save Karen. Oh, wait, it's art.
posted by fixedgear at 5:26 PM on April 4, 2005

I think I'm missing the point.

I've tied myself into knots lately trying to pin down this project's context, how it relates to money, how this is performance, why it's art, how it's art, and WOW is it ever hard.

*sigh*
posted by blendor at 5:31 PM on April 4, 2005

fixedgear...check out the post title! ;-)
posted by growli at 5:33 PM on April 4, 2005

She says: I live in Toronto... so its only a million dollars Canadian right, or $817,690.06 USD ? Yawn.
posted by R. Mutt at 5:33 PM on April 4, 2005

If she had called it "My 817,690.06 Dollar Year", I think she would have something.
posted by R. Mutt at 5:35 PM on April 4, 2005

It's not art, it's a weblog!!!!!!
posted by angry modem at 5:45 PM on April 4, 2005

Screw Karen, save jperkins!
posted by jperkins at 5:45 PM on April 4, 2005

how sad....

and now YOU can set up your own donation page at donatemoney2me.com

where the motto is "It's Honorable to ask for help when it's needed." (or, when you're just greedy!)
posted by HuronBob at 5:49 PM on April 4, 2005

This would work so much better if she provided compelling content and collected a suggested $30 from various micropatrons.
posted by VulcanMike at 5:54 PM on April 4, 2005

This would work so much better if she provided compelling content and collected a suggested $30 from various micropatrons.

LOL. OK, save me and save Kottke. Save the Jasons!
posted by jperkins at 6:01 PM on April 4, 2005

Somebody call the "FREE MONEY CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!!" guy.
posted by Stan Chin at 6:14 PM on April 4, 2005

Paging u.n.owen. u.n.owen to the white courtesy phone...
posted by FYKshun at 6:14 PM on April 4, 2005

am i the only one that thinks it funny that this experiment in greed has generated less than CDN$2k in a quarter? somehow i don't think that she's going to make it.

and stan, please, lets not drag mr. lesko into this.
posted by stefan at 6:24 PM on April 4, 2005

Of course she's not going to make it. "The February blahs sucked away my productivity for a week?" Making a million dollars in a year takes more than saying, "I'm going to make a million dollars this year." Plus - if she wasn't making herself into some kind of shabby pseudo-celebrity, she would have even less of a chance. Nice work hugging Richard Branson, though, the residue on her shirt is probably worth 5 million dollar years.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:17 PM on April 4, 2005

I suppose every person, at some point, reads a FPP and thinks, 'lamest fucking piece of shit FPP ever'. Especially when the poster has no cred, no profile, and the link is to a dumpy goth chick peddling desperation like a train wreck in slow motion. But maybe that's just me.
posted by docpops at 7:27 PM on April 4, 2005

Self-absorbed woman with a low-paying job and a loose grip on reality markets whiny chutzpah and calls it art.

"I declare art open for business." Feh. I was worried that, before this pithy utterance, others hadn't already tread this ground.

"I'm finding the worst part is that there's no precident.[sic] I've been searching high and low and can't find anything that relates to what I'm doing. Which is exciting, but it's not easy." It's simple. It's called begging. It's already been done, so even this effort isn't exactly edgy. I'm curious that she's so against consumer culture, yet managed to borrow over CDN$30K from that very same culture to further her own ends and now resorts to ersatz "art" to try and have others pay it back for her.

stefan: I'm very amused that art apparently averages about seventeen (U.S.) bucks a day while doing business.
posted by FormlessOne at 7:31 PM on April 4, 2005

"Please note that I only accept payment for items through PayPal, though you can buy Swag through Cafe Press by using your credit card, and you can send cheques, money orders or anything else to my snail mail address (which you can find on the contact page."

I'm in awe of the greatness of spirit and fully evolved humanity shown here and will be making a contribution of $CDN 000 forthwith.
posted by 1016 at 7:37 PM on April 4, 2005

Growli



Not Growli
posted by docpops at 7:53 PM on April 4, 2005

What makes people successful is unwaivering belief in their ideas, astronomical faith in what they're doing, absolute focus, and continual movement towards what they hope to accomplish.

Someone should toss her some Camus.
posted by iamck at 8:08 PM on April 4, 2005

I thought her project might elicit disdain, pity -- and maybe grudging admiration of the wishful thinking of which she is capable -- from the denizens of MeFi. As they say on the Simpsons, it "makes you laugh, and makes you think".

docpops, are you googling me to see if you can post another tedious ad-hominem "critique" of the FPP? ;-)
posted by growli at 8:13 PM on April 4, 2005

It was interesting to look at her alternative [open directory] banners.
Minimum wage is for sukas.
I'll show them what one screwball can do!
posted by tellurian at 8:20 PM on April 4, 2005

Ho ho ho! Just give docpops the million dollars.

Gotta love her insight towards Pulp's Different Class though:

I would really like to interview Jarvis Cocker about this album. It's very money- and class-related.
posted by furtive at 8:23 PM on April 4, 2005

I don't get it, where's the art? This looks like a pretty blatant attempt to make money for basically being and doing nothing. Which is what pretty much every other college drop out wants and expects.

Bleh, if she wants my money, I want some damned singing and lap dancing. Her "art" is a little soft, in my highly biased opinion.

Three months in and she's up to $2000 canadian? I hope she's one hell of a finisher. Actually, no wait, I don't.
posted by fenriq at 8:38 PM on April 4, 2005

This project (or whatever it is called) would be much more interesting if she was attempting to figure out how to earn a million dollars in a year. Not counting selling a broken pair of glasses or her old dental x-rays. Unless of course she marketed that into a trend and made her million on that.

Its sad too. I've often thought about how people who come up with the dumbest ideas get stinking rich. (Think beanie babies or those magnetic "support the troops" ribbons for your car.) This could have been a cool project if she was going that route. And I do believe that anyone could become a millionaire if they really wanted to, but for me and most people, the personal price is too high. So her turning an almost cool idea into begging is just that much more disappointing.

[sigh]
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:38 PM on April 4, 2005

I wonder if I could turn my (internet & RL) poker hobby into an art project.
At least I am making more than CDN 2k/quarter.
Lottery tickets are for suckers.
posted by bashos_frog at 8:52 PM on April 4, 2005

"This was one of the most physically demanding performances I have ever done and during it I was witness to my own psychological conditioning: after getting my hands caught a few times it was incredibly hard to move my hands towards the traps again" - so observes the artist after baiting a hundred moustraps with candy hearts and then removing them by hand "as part of [her] thesis series."

And in so doing, she proves - with admirable clarity - that it is indeed possible for an artist's own work to critique itself.
posted by gompa at 9:17 PM on April 4, 2005

Idiot: I've decided to make a million dollars by deciding to make a million dollars.
Dude: That's stupid.
Idiot: No, it's art.
Dude: That's stupid art.

Chorus: And she didn't make a million dollars, la la la.

Curtain.
posted by underer at 9:19 PM on April 4, 2005

That's fucking funny, gompa.
posted by underer at 9:20 PM on April 4, 2005

What makes people successful is unwaivering belief in their ideas, astronomical faith in what they're doing, absolute focus, and continual movement towards what they hope to accomplish.

Goddamnit. I've been working all this time.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 9:33 PM on April 4, 2005

Definately agree w/ the Save Karyn references. I like the reality distortion field she has going on around her though. One million dollars in one year - with 1.9k Cdn so far (April).

I doubt she will make it to 5k despite the publicity. Or at least one can only hope. Who though Save Karyen would make it???
posted by gnash at 9:55 PM on April 4, 2005

No, it just seemed odd to me that your first ever FPP referenced someone who appears to be living less than seventy miles from you. Searching for a link between you and this idiot is helping rid the taste of ass I have in my mouth after having spent ten seconds looking at this mess.
posted by docpops at 10:03 PM on April 4, 2005

Sorry, I may have been wrong about the drop out part.

April 2003 I graduated with honours from the Sculpture and Installation program specializing in performance art

Yep, not a drop out. But oh, see, she's got a degree in performance art, therefore, whatever she chooses is art, IS art. Well then, good for her.

Isn't there some performance artist who has surgery done on herself? Is paying people to hurt themselves art?
posted by fenriq at 10:31 PM on April 4, 2005

Her other "art" projects are total crap, especially considering the descriptions. I have friends who do things that at first glance I wouldn't call them "art" but hearing the non-bullshit process has opened my eyes to the fact that things like circuit boards have their own beauty.

docpops, need any help?
posted by frecklefaerie at 10:34 PM on April 4, 2005

Its too bad we can't take money away based on the stupidity of her actions. Now that would be motivation to make something of this.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:21 PM on April 4, 2005

Yep, not a drop out. But oh, see, she's got a degree in performance art . . .

Good, otherwise it was giving the rest of us college drop outs a bad name. Though if I knew they were giving degrees for performance art, I'm sure I could have got one. "Here is my thesis on being a college drop out. But wait, I'm not actually a drop out. Doesn't the irony just overwhelm you?"

Well, actually, I'm still enrolled, and have been for a number of years even though I haven't taken a class in a long time. Kind of like those companies that threaten to stop sending their catalogs if you don't buy anything, excep they keep sending them. Maybe I could change my major and do a performance art piece on getting suckers on the internet to pay for my classes.

Man, this stunt really got under my skin. Perhaps its less the actual project than it is the fact that she sounds like a freaking highschooler:
"I keep looking at the sky for an injection of magic, a sign in the clouds that tells me that I’m doing all right."

or the self importance:
"I’m doing something that’s never been done before. And holy shit is it easy to doubt yourself when there’s no prescident for what you’re doing."

I better stop reading before I really start a performance art piece "finding the girl who claimed her begging for money was a work of art and punching her in the face." I'm a small girl, but I think I could take her artsy fartsy ass.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:38 PM on April 4, 2005

I apologize, on behalf of Canada. We never knew this would get out.
posted by blacklite at 11:50 PM on April 4, 2005

docpops:

i wish more metafilter users would make posts that are locally relevant and therefore unknown to the rest of us rather than racing to be the one to 'break' international news stories on the front page. personally, i'm enjoying watching this girl get ripped apart in the comments section here. i'm glad this post was made.

from her faq section: "I'm a huge, huge fan of reality TV."

of course you are.
posted by radiosig at 2:08 AM on April 5, 2005

gotta agree with radiosig, this thread is art man.
posted by dabitch at 3:44 AM on April 5, 2005

radiosig and docpops: yep, she's somewhat local to me, which is why I was able to hear about it and make an FPP before any of you other plugged-in Illuminati technorati ;-)
posted by growli at 6:17 AM on April 5, 2005

I particularly liked her "MINIMUM WAGE IS FOR SUCKAS" shirts for sale; if she was actually earning minmum wage for her efforts, she would be several hundred dollars ahead of where she is now
posted by TedW at 7:02 AM on April 5, 2005

Ya know... I'm in full agreement that this female is a bit odd, is probably going to fail in this project, and is about as original as dog poop in a kennel... but... could we all contribute enough so she can replace that god-awful blue fuzzy jacket???
posted by HuronBob at 7:14 AM on April 5, 2005

The Apologist. March 2001. In this performance I shaved off my hair and spelled out "I'm So Sorry" with the clippings. It was about penance, about the final apology that is definitive and can never be taken back, about deeds that cannot be undone, coming to terms with the demons of guilt.

Okay, I kinda enjoyed this one, or at least I would have until I read the next line:

I had a shaved head for about a year later not as some symbol but because it let me feel the rain on my head.

Uh, but you just said you shaved your head as performance art. Does this mean you were never sorry to begin with?

Bitch.

/and thus concludes furtive's Dialogues with Performance Art Commentary. Donations will be accepted at the exit.
posted by furtive at 7:36 AM on April 5, 2005

But don't you see...? Now we're part of her art project!
posted by VulcanMike at 7:53 AM on April 5, 2005

gompa writes " And in so doing, she proves - with admirable clarity - that it is indeed possible for an artist's own work to critique itself."

heh heh
posted by OmieWise at 7:59 AM on April 5, 2005

Isn't there some performance artist who has surgery done on herself? Is paying people to hurt themselves art?
posted by fenriq

Yup. Orlan. Or were you thinking about Fakir? (NSFW, most likely). Can't answer the second question. But I wouldn't dobt that someone, somewhere, thinks so.
posted by beelzbubba at 8:43 AM on April 5, 2005

But don't you see...? Now we're part of her art project!

I feel used.
posted by The Ultimate Olympian at 8:44 AM on April 5, 2005

This quote from Ubu Roi keeps echoing in my head for some reason:

"When I have all the money in the world then I will kill everyone and go away."

Now that's art. This? Merdre!
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 9:59 AM on April 5, 2005

God, Canadians are boring.
The mousetraps were the closest thing to interesting, and it all screams "Angsty Undergrad."

I'd pay her five dollars to punch her in the stomach. Five dollars American. Yeah. She'd only have to be punched in the stomach 200,000 times over the course of a year to make her million. That's just 548 per day, and assuming she's only awake about 16 hours per day, it's only 34 times per waking hour. She might want to try to bump it up to 50 times per hour, to give herself some time in which she's not being punched in the stomach (at 10 hours of stomach punching, that's only 54 per hour- or about once a minute).
posted by klangklangston at 10:07 AM on April 5, 2005

God, Canadians are boring.

God, Americans are overbearing.
posted by gompa at 10:16 AM on April 5, 2005

Heh. I live in the only state that you can drive south to Canada from.
But hey, prove me wrong with more of your Diana Krall and Howie Mandell.
posted by klangklangston at 3:39 PM on April 5, 2005

art is not devalued by the amount of money it makes or is sold for

Yes it is. Call me a formalist, but anything created solely for the purpose of sale is not art. See: Judge Dredd. What's she selling anyway?

prove me wrong with more of your Diana Krall and Howie Mandell

Zing! (Don't forget about Alanis and Celine.) Three cheers for the Ambassador Bridge and Windsor Tunnel!

But can't you drive south into Canada from Alaska as well? I guess it wouldn't be due south ...

What's so amazing to me from her story (unfortunately, I read the whole thing) is that she never explains *how* she's going to make the money. Aside from the Cafe Press thing (which is certainly nothing new), there are *no* ideas at all. I guess [insert clever name here] said the same thing. It *could* have been an interesting idea ... if there were an idea.

This is art. Whether or not it’s any good is up for debate after this piece is finished.

What piece?!? The blog? Can I just call my daily life performance art?

Oh no, I just saw the lottery ticket. Now I must run away from the computer screaming.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:56 PM on April 5, 2005

Decide to make $1 million.
...
Profit!
posted by klangklangston at 9:40 PM on April 5, 2005

Heh. I live in the only state that you can drive south to Canada from.

Which only state would that be, Michigan or Alaska?
posted by kindall at 10:14 PM on April 5, 2005

Michigan. Due South then (though then I suppose I should append that to "travel" not "drive").
posted by klangklangston at 11:03 AM on April 6, 2005

"I feel like I should be further ahead than this at twenty-five, and being unable to afford anything makes me wonder where I went so off course."

Really? She's got no idea? How about when she started thinking that the world owed her a living?
posted by dejavuvu at 8:35 AM on April 7, 2005