NYC artist decries technology in diorama city populated by pipe cleaner stick figures

Record ID: 903751

  • Title: NYC artist decries technology in diorama city populated by pipe cleaner stick figures
  • Date: 21st July 2017
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS PROFANITY*** TILT DOWN FROM BUILDINGS TO 'DAFUTURE' ART INSTALLATION NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 21, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ARTIST, GREG BISHOP, FIXING INSTALLATION (2 SHOTS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) NOTE READING (English): 'MORAL OF THIS STORY: TECHNOLOGY IS TURNING HUMANITY INTO SELF ABSORBED MACHINES.' NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 21, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, GREG BISHOP, SAYING: "This one happened to be like a social commentary, it's about social media and technology and really the effect that cell phones and technology have had on our civilization. Each little room kind of tells its own little story." NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INSTALLATION (3 SHOTS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 21, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, GREG BISHOP, SAYING: "I think in general, it's changed society a lot and it just makes you think of like, what is it doing to us as family, as friends, as you know, business. It's kind of taking over our lives. Yeah in general, not a big fan." NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INSTALLATION (5 SHOTS) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 21, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, GREG BISHOP, SAYING: "When I started it it was just a way of like trying to get people to look, stop, you know, put your phone down for a minute as you're walking down the street you know, look at what's around you. So I would leave them around in odd places and to see if anyone noticed them. If I can make a person smile once during the day, then it kind of accomplished its goal." NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) TILT DOWN FROM BARBED WIRE TO INSTALLATION (PROFANITY IN INSTALLATION) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 21, 2017) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARTIST, GREG BISHOP, SAYING: (PROFANITY IN INSTALLATION) "This is probably my favorite one. It's a typical New York scene of going into a grocery store and a clerk is there with her cell phone texting her friends. Never says a word to you. The only place in the world where you can do a whole transaction and never never talk once to a person. So you've got a guy who buys all his groceries and then he gets plowed into by the guy on his cell phone and all his groceries are on the ground." BISHOP FIXING INSTALLATION WIDE OF BISHOP FIXING INSTALLATION (PROFANITY IN INSTALLATION) PASSERSBY ALLY MILLER AND CHERYL FARBSTEIN LOOKING AT INSTALLATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) PASSERBY, ALLY MILLER, SAYING: "I like that it's fun. I like that it's a scene from...and it could be any city. It's cool, like the figures and pipe cleaner are cool." (SOUNDBITE) (English) PASSERBY, CHERYL FARBSTEIN, SAYING: "I love how it's all basically a lot of dioramas. I love how he created it. I love the colors. I love the story. And you need to take time to really go through it, and it's fabulous." NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (JULY 19, 2017) (REUTERS) WIDE OF INSTALLATION (PROFANITY IN INSTALLATION) VARIOUS OF INSTALLATION (12 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 4th August 2017 19:19
  • Keywords: Dafuture art installation railing pop-up piece Greg Bishop stick figures pipe cleaners stick figure city
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Human Interest / Brights / Odd News,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016QNVSD5
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: ***CONTAINS PROFANITY IN ART INSTALLATION***
    A mini city filled with pipe cleaners fashioned into stick figures sits near the corner of 28th Street and 12th Avenue in New York.
    Artist Greg Bishop started leaving his pipe cleaner stick figures around the city about five years ago.
    "It was just a way of like trying to get people to look, stop, you know, put your phone down for a minute as you're walking down the street you know, look at what's around you," Bishop told Reuters. "So I would leave them around in odd places and to see if anyone noticed them. If I can make a person smile once during the day, then it accomplished its goal."
    After Bishop lost his job in the fashion industry more than a year ago, he started creating bigger projects to de-stress from job searching.
    His new installation, "Dafuture," depicts different scenes with his stick figures showing the dangers of being addicted to social media. In one scene, a pipe cleaner stick figure has hung himself because he has no messages on his laptop, in another, a girl celebrates her birthday alone while her parents are on their phones.
    A sticky note next to the installation reads: "Moral of this story: Technology is turning humanity into self absorbed machines."
    Bishop's art installations typically stay up for a week before they're taken down by sanitation workers or destroyed by the weather.
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