The view from the street
Continually reinventing themselves, 4484 is an amoebic art collective that does, well, whatever they please. Katrina Andry, Lindsey Maestri, David West, Jeff Johnson, David Carpenter and Kenneth Lantz are 4484, and together they are taking art out of galleries and bringing it to the streets.
No, really. To the streets.
The group created its very own bailout on Main Street downtown at the same time General Motors was getting one. People who approached their table filled out applications and were immediately handed “money” that was printed on-site.
Other experiments included projecting people’s opinions on the side of a building downtown as a conversation between Main Street and Wall Street. The group called that project “Streetview Database.” And regardless of whom you voted for, their second line jazz funeral for former President Bush around Mid City on Inauguration Day was a hoot.
All MFA candidates at LSU, the members started the collective as a project for professor Susan Ryan’s New Media Theory course—number 4484 to be exact. Their M.O. was being in the public eye; not for getting attention of their own, but for bringing attention to whatever current events are popular fodder at a given time. Using social media like Twitter, Second Life, Facebook, MySpace and a blog, 4484 cultivates a constant dialogue with followers, creating running list of a variety of opinions.
“We just like holding conversations with people, hearing their thoughts,” West explains.
As of right now the group doesn’t have their next gig planned, but they meet every week to discuss what’s going on in the world. All 4484 events so far have been a response to something political, but only because there is so much to draw from right now, they explain.
The next event could be anything, and how they arrive at it is always a snowballing of ideas. “That’s what’s so great about having a collective; things can develop so rapidly,” Johnson says. “We build off of each other.”
These students/artists/activists used to be worried about getting in trouble with the police, or being harassed by people, but they are learning that a lot of people are receptive to their unique efforts.
“People are sometimes confused at first about what we’re doing,” Carpenter says. “But if they stop for just a bit and take in what’s going on, they’ll usually get it.”
