|
Introduction
Mireille Perron is the founder of The Laboratory of Feminist
Pataphysics (LFP).
LFP made its first appearance in 2000 during a solo exhibition titled
The Beautiful Pranksters/Les Belles Ratoureuses,
curated by Christine Sowiak for the
Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Alberta. In 2007, a survey of LFP's
activities to date was presented by
The New Gallery under the title
The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics.
In 2010, in collaboration with 13 emerging artists LFP presented: Ateliers of the Near Future at
Stride Gallery, Calgary, Alberta.
Description
The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics (LFP) proudly presents its
latest Emergency Mobiles Units as well as its three new auxiliary Institutes at
The New Gallery from February 24 to March 31, 2007.
The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics is already world renowned
for its Emergency Mobile Units — a series of social experiments that masquerade as
works of art. So far, there are five mobile units in operation: Anatomy, Identity,
Transgenetics, Incorporation, and Toxicology. Each mobile unit can easily be set
up wherever there is an urgent need for feminist interventions.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Alfred Jarry* invented and described
the indiscipline of 'pataphysics as the science of imaginary solutions. Like
its companion —real physics— 'pataphysics remains a predominantly male domain.
*Jarry's most known character is Père Ubu, who became the subject of many
theatre plays.
The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics is pleased to announce the launch
of its three new auxiliary Institutes: The Institute for Corporate Pudding, The Institute
for Cosmic Procrastination, and The Institute for Confounding Pretension.
The Institute for Corporate Pudding's Strategic Research Plan was recently endorsed
by its Ouija Board of Governors. The ICP's Ouija BOG's mandate is to enforce the
Institute's vision. The Plan calls for the replacement of senior researchers with sheep.
While cost neutral, the goal of this restructuring is the completion of a corporate
takeover that will insure the homogeneity of the corporate pudding. It was also noted,
as a definite advantage, that sheep not being unionized can be forced to work around
the clock and all year round.
The Institute for Corporate Pudding will be offering a newly discovered
vaccine for Contagious Platitude. The Institute for Corporate Pudding is an auxiliary
organization devoted to symptomatic absurdities.
The I.C.P.'s je ne sais quoi accentuates the tyranny of fiscal edits and
corporate conformity.
The Institute for Cosmic Procrastination will be offering a newly discovered
cure for Capricious Proliferation. Also of great interest is The Institute's Escape Unit,
composed of an individual knitted escape pod attached to a hot air balloon. The renewed
public interest in procrastination, was demonstrated recently, by the attention paid to
University of Calgary professor Piers Steel's discovery. Dr. Steel made headline news
with his Temporal Motivation Theory. |
|
Dr. Steel calculates procrastination with a formula like Albert
Einstein's equation for energy, E=MC(2). It factors the person's expectancy for
succeeding at a given task (E) or self-confidence; the value of completing the task
(V); its immediacy or availability (Gamma); and the person's sensitivity to delay
(D) to come up with the desirability of the task (Utility).
The equation reads: Utility = E x V / (Gamma) x D
The Institute for Cosmic Procrastination's laissez faire engenders
arbitrary exceptions.
In honour of Pauline Butling and Fred Wah's 70th anniversaries, The Laboratory of
Feminist Pataphysics' Institute for Confounding Pretension is pleased to announce
its newly discovered remedy to promote joie de vivre in older adults.
The Laboratory 's ICP studies the effects of anarchic curiosity and its
link to various degrees of joie de vivre in various aging populations.
ICP is dedicated to prohibited impulses.
The Institute for Confounding Pretension's joie de vivre conjures
anarchic curiosity.
List of the side effects expected from joie de vivre:
1. cheerful pandemonium
2. casual profusion
3. calamitous prognostic
4. capricious precarity
5. corrupted probability
6. cunning perversity
7. candid pedantism
8. cacophonous parodies
9. crippled prohibition
10. credible pageantry
11. controversial prediction
12. crappy peculiarity
Membership
Everyone is welcome to become a member of The Laboratory of
Feminist Pataphysics. The Laboratory doubles as a Recruiting Centre.
New recruits only need to follow three simple rules to become statutory members.
Firstly, through a playful sense of the uncanny, recruits meet to seduce one
another (quoi d'autre?) Secondly, recruits pledge to individually or collectively
perform at least one feminist pataphysics intervention annually. Finally, recruits
acquire membership status by recounting their intervention to a statutory member. The
statutory member evaluates if the recruit's narration 'feels good', if confirmed,
member status is automatically granted to the recruit.
> Read Dick Averns review of The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics for Canadian Art
|
|
