Excerpt from (Schm)Art Magazine, year 12, issue 4

Interview between an interviewer and the cofounder of UAM

Interviewer: Hello.

UAM: Hello.

Interviewer: Perhaps you would like to introduce yourself to the audience?

UAM: I would, thank you very much. I’m chief strategy of UAM, which is the abbreviation of the Unintentional Art Movement. Apart from being chief strategy, I am also cofounder of the movement and chief international expansion. I also like hiking and sheep.

Interviewer: Sounds like something. Can you tell us more about the unintentional art movement?

UAM: The UAM is basically a loose conglomerate of likeminded artists, who instead of seeing art as something where an artist must create something materialistic, like to think of it as a manifestation of ideas in everyday life. The objects of art, the artwork, have always been there, yet they get meaning because of a specific context. The unintentional artist is like a wizard, bringing meaning to seemingly vague or uninteresting objects.

Interviewer: So it’s conceptual art?

UAM: Yes and no. It’s highly conceptual, but the artist didn’t create anything. If something was to be produced or altered, it would stop being unintentional.

Interviewer: So it’s performance art?

UAM: Yes and no. It is about ideas and performance, but there’s a clear materialistic side to it. It’s all about the object, which was never created by the artist, or not with the intent of it being or becoming art. And the performance is not a public one. Perhaps the description of each artwork fulfills the role of the performance. Perhaps it should be made into a performance. But it’s not performance art as such.

Interviewer: Do you understand people who call it bogus? Postmodern bogus, even.

UAM: Of course. In a way it is bogus. Imagine someone has an actual talent. He or she can paint, sculpt, create wonderful things through digital techniques. And somebody comes along and says “This is a google maps image of a green car. Here’s the hidden meaning.” I think it’s only natural that people would think it’s bogus. On the other hand, it’s a wonderful democratic art movement. Everyone has the potential of coming up with valuable ideas. That’s not to say everyone can create unintentional art, but odds are better than let’s say when dabbling with ceramics or sculpting marble.

Interview: I’m still not convinced it’s more than postmodern bogus, though.

UAM: Unintentional Art is a very optimistic art form. Anything can be art. A door handle can be art. A mountain can be art. A torn piece of clothing stuck in a mailbox can be art. Personally I think the 21^st century homo sapiens sapiens has become too passive when it comes to art. People look, but they very rarely see. Art is everywhere, meaning is everywhere. And we’re all looking for meaning. And contemporary art has often made the visible invisible and the easy complex. It poses questions when people are pining for answers and insights.

Interview: But isn’t that relativism instead of optimism?

UAM: No. It isn’t.

Interview: I’ll take your word for it. So about the unintentional part of unintentional art. There seems to be quite a bit of confusion about it.

UAM: Yes, it would seem so. The unintentional is not about not knowing what one will create. It’s not the same as action painting, where there seems to be an intuitive aspect to the creation of the painting. It’s not about dropping twelve pencils and hope a pattern will appear. If you’d find those twelve pencils lying somewhere, in a context that is meaningful, it might become an unintentional artwork. If you seem drips of paint on an cardboard box near a dumpster, it may get an extra layer.

Interview: I think I get it.

UAM: That’s a start.

Interview: So who can join UMA?

UAM: UAM.

Interview: Yes, I’m sorry. UAM.

UAM: Anyone. We do have a website, and we do like to have that website as a central place for all things UAM. So people can share contributions there. There might be a little editing, but we will never temper with the original intent of unintentional artists. But as long as people adhere to the key principles of unintentional art, they are more than welcome.

Interview: I think this works wonderfully well as an introduction to unintentional art and it’s promising movement. I’d like to thank you.

UAM: And I’d like to thank you.