CANADIAN ART "STATEMENTS & EXPERIMENTATION"

ARTIST'S STATEMENTS

SOMETIMES I THINK THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH MY MIND. Just kidding. The Artist’s Statements included on this site discuss the motives, inspirations, personal experiences, technical developments, and revelations which make the “HEY APATHY!” experiment particularly unique and successful. In order to simplify the task of explaining the “investigation“ with rational words, a series of hand written forwards to the intimately developed essays have been created. These statements have been transcribed from audio recordings of Mike explaining the artworks on the street. The “calligraphy” texts are presented word for word as though you were witness to one of the live “HEY APATHY!” story telling sessions that took place in middle of downtown Toronto.

THE EXPERIMENT

The stages of a scientific experiment are explained in the writings of Fritjof Capra, who describes the process as involving the following steps:“The first stage consists in gathering experimental evidence about the phenomena to be explained. In the second stage, the experimental facts are correlated with mathematical symbols and a mathematical scheme is worked out which interconnects these symbols in a precise and consistent way. Such a scheme is usually called a mathematical model or, if it is more comprehensive, a theory. This theory is then used to predict the result of further experiments which are undertaken to check all its implications. At this stage, physicists may be satisfied they have found a scheme and know how use it to predict experiments. But eventually they will want to talk about their results to non-physicists and will therefore have to express them in plain language.”Capra then continues to discuss the similarities between these scientific processes and the mystical processes used by the spiritualist in search of enlightenment...

ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY

One of the most unique aspects of the “HEY APATHY!” investigation is it’s amalgamation of social, political and biographical inquiries. The artist’s macrocosmic narratives are simultaneously comprehensive with his biographical adventure. As a performance artist, Mike Parsons has perpetually immersed himself in the project, initiating public interventions and street installations, continually rediscovering and reinventing both himself and the city. In order to understand the “prominence of experience” expressed throughout the artworks, both a visual and written account of the artist’s biography is included on this site. The stories are also interwoven as integral aspects of each of the 13 artist’s statements.