n00dlism

In spirit of Scholar Week, BFA students Daniel Morris and Camila Frey-Booth presented, for the first time, an interactive performance as a way to discuss their research for a new form of art: n00dlism. The artists, Morris and Frey-Booth, spell n00dlism with lower case letters and zeros, instead of o’s. They saw curvy shapes in many images and decided to call the connection, n00dlism. They made the definition of n00dlism broad so it can be found applied to anything. It’s a way to break out of classic and contemporary ideas. Their presentation was of pictures and short videos of themselves researching ideas in various places. There were also examples of other art and documentation of their previous installations that led to their discovery of n00dlism. “Discovering n00dlism happened organically,” senior Daniel Morris said. “I was exploring a lot of different ideas in my work and n00dlism just became that ah ha moment. The word and symbol sums up all the humorous and weird ideas I was coming up with.” Last year, they created n00dlism as they compiled their research and compared the idea to different kinds of art. Senior Camila Frey-Booth moved from skill based art to video installation.“When I discovered n00dlism, I was confused and surprised,” Frey-Booth said. “I previously thought art was one thing, which was image based and purely personal but what I learned from n00dlism is that it’s universal. Its absurdity can be applied to anything you make regardless of medium or skill level.” Collaborating together marked the start the creation of the art movement, Frey-Booth said. The research presented was a way to define the idea of n00dlism. (Morris, 3:50) It was a fictional narrative that’s truthful to our ideas and the research that scholars do, Morris said. It’s a satire of what a serious scholar does. N00dlism is a way of thinking about things people do every day and make it less rigid. “We don’t want art to be exclusive,” Frey-Booth said. “We can talk about big ideas in a way that everyone can relate to.” Fourth year Fairhaven student, Kyan Furlong watched the presentation and recognized the form of interactive performance. “I was interested in how n00dlism can be found in a lot of different artistic and intellectual movements,” Furlong said. “No matter what someone is studying, they can apply it to n00dlism.” As they pursue n00dlism, they will continue presenting the idea. By spreading the idea, they hope people acknowledge this approach to art. “Dan and I will continue to work on putting n00dlism in the digital word, in gifs and absurd videos,” Frey-Booth said. “We will also pursue our work separately and see how that joins back together in the future.” They are working on a campaign to get others involved in n00dlism.