Blog – Art in Odd Places

While most people were enjoying the beach, Jorge Rojas spent four summers fishing the frigid waters of the Bering Sea. Most people would never take such a risk, but from 1992-1996, Rojas dove into America’s deadliest job. Why?

“It seemed like an adventure,” he says.

Rojas is a daring man.

He also founded Low Lives, an international performance art festival broadcast over the Internet.

“There have been times when I thought it might not work out,” Rojas says of the early days of Low Lives. But this year’s festival was the biggest yet, featuring 60 live performances from over a dozen countries.

“Low Lives has become more relevant each year,” he says.

Low Lives 3 - Claude van Lingen - 1000 Years From Now

Rojas was born in Mexico and moved to Utah when he was six years old. For the past two decades, he’s been in between the United States and Mexico.

His first solo art show was at the El Nigromante Cultural Center in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, when he was 25. He moved to New York City shortly after that.

“New York City is the place where I’ve lived the longest and the place where I feel most at home,” he says. He lived in the city for 11 cumulative years, but continued to travel frequently.

“My mom taught me early on the importance of travelling as a way of learning about other cultures and experiencing different ways of living,” he says.

Low Lives 3 - Caroline Boileau- Space Travel Takes Time

Rojas brings the same attitude to Low Lives.

“I saw and still see a real need for people to connect across cultural and geographical borders,” he says. “I figured that curating an exhibition about artists using (or willing to use) live streaming video would be a good way to find out what other artists were doing with it.”

But that’s not the only reason Low Lives uses streaming.

“In this age when everything is high definition and super polished, I think it’s beautiful to experience something raw, unpolished, and imperfect,” Rojas says. “I think of live streaming as its own aesthetic, like film or video.”

Low Lives 1 - Denise Prince - Gossip

Running Low Lives isn’t easy, and Rojas faces challenges every day.

“Financing the project through presenter’s fees has worked until now,” he says. But that won’t work anymore at the rate Low Lives is growing.

He says the biggest challenge is dealing with the day-to-day operations, instead of focusing on “things that directors are supposed to do, like grant writing and networking.”

Still, Rojas still finds the time to launch big projects. He recently presented Low Lives: Occupy!, which connected artists and Occupy movement protestors from around the world.

Low Lives: Occupy! - The Civilians - Occupy Your Mind 1

“It was really an honor to be able to use our platform for such a practical and timely purpose,” he says. “Social media art projects have the ability to amplify ideas. If done right, they can resonate much faster and wider than ever before.”

Those ideas resonate from Rojas’ home in Salt Lake City, Utah. He moved there a year and a half ago with his wife, Jenna, and his son, Felix. And despite the challenges, he loves his life.

“I give thanks every day to be alive,” he says. “I’m very fortunate. I just want to keep doing what I’m doing.”

Read below for an abridged interview with Rojas:

AiOP: What drives your work as an artist?

Jorge Rojas: A desire to think, to learn, to experiment, and experience. The notion that I can contribute something of substance and beauty. My work as an artist is driven by my commitment to my own personal growth and development.

AiOP: How do you think Mexican culture influences your art, if at all?

Jorge Rojas: I’ve been very influenced by Mexican culture, history, art, indigenous cultures, cosmology, colors, and music. But I’ve been just as influenced by the experience of being a Mexican living in the United States. It has made me observant and critical at the same time. I’m able to observe both cultures from both outsider and insider perspectives. Mexican culture is in my blood and soul, I’m very proud of it. I strive to make work that is universal in scope. I hope that my Mexican roots show up in my work in ways that are subtle, not obvious.

AiOP: Where did the name “Low Lives” come from?

Jorge Rojas: “Low” as in lo-fi and low-tech. “Low” as in lowest common denominator. Glitch. “Lives” as in living art. Live performance. Live broadcast. As live streaming technology advances (you can stream in HD now), we’ve extended our focus beyond the low aesthetic. We work with artists working across all media that are interested in experimenting with live streaming networks. More than half of the artists we work with are not performance artists, but are interested in the medium.

AiOP: Could you walk us through a typical day for you?

Jorge Rojas: Wake up, coffee, work, greet my son Felix, feed him, hang out and play with him, put him down for a nap, work, hang out with Felix, have dinner with Jenna and Felix, have a drink, work, sleep. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds!

AiOP: What do you have planned next for Low Lives?

Jorge Rojas: I just received an invitation to curate/present a selection of Low Lives performance videos from the last 4 years at the ISEA2012 conference this summer in Albuquerque. I’d like to see Low Lives: Occupy! become an annual event, or even a rolling platform. And, of course, there’s our annual festival. My only real plan is to raise the money necessary for our organization to sustain itself.

AiOP: Do you have any other personal plans or projects coming up that you’d like us to know about?

Jorge Rojas: I’m curating an exhibition called superHuman that will take place this summer at the Central Utah Art Center (CUAC) and will then travel to Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, New Jersey.

I’m curating the show with my friend and collaborator, David Hawkins. I’m super excited about this show because I get to bring together the work of some of the artists I admire and am inspired by, including Kerry James Marshall, William Pope.L, Edgar Arcenaux, Chitra Ganesh, Xaviera Simmons, Shaun El C. Leonardo, and Robert Pruitt.

AiOP: In your wildest dreams, what would you like to see Low Lives become?

Jorge Rojas: I’m pretty happy with what Low Lives has become- a platform that connects performance-based artists with audiences around the world through live streaming video.

My wildest dream for Low Lives is to be able to pay artists for their time and contributions. I envision Low Lives becoming a 24-7 online Live Performance Network, a streaming network dedicated to international live performance-based art.

AiOP: Is there anything else you’d like us to know? Either about yourself or about Low Lives?

Jorge Rojas: I want to thank the hundreds of artists and thirty-some presenting partners that have contributed to Low Lives in the last 4 years.

I also want to thank Christina deRoos, Juan Obando, Thomas Bell, Jenna Pike, Chez Bushwick, and Spread Art, for all of their hard work, support and dedication to building the Low Lives platform. We built this thing together.

Oh, and check out our new site- www.lowlives.net

Charlie Todd says most New Yorkers walk around in a bubble.
His job is to pop it.

Not to be mean, of course. In fact, it’s just the opposite. When we spoke recently, he explained that he wants to create happiness among strangers by making people laugh, smile, and talk to each other.

That’s why he started Improv Everywhere – a self-described prank collective that “causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places.” What kind of chaos? Try spontaneous public musicals, “no pants” subway rides, and a 3,500 person light show.

These pranks, which Todd calls “missions,” are an internet phenomenon, with viral videos reaching millions of people. The light show – one of his annual “MP3 Experiments,” has over a million views on YouTube. Todd is now a full-time prankster thanks to Improv Everywhere’s unexpected success.

The Beginning

Todd grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, then studied theatre at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He moved to New York in 2001 with dreams of acting and directing plays.

That all changed when he joined the Upright Citizens Brigade, a comedy group run by Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh. Todd said he liked their brand of improv comedy so much that he “lost interest” in plays.

That’s when he started Improv Everywhere. The project was tiny, and Todd said he had to rely on college friends he could “talk into doing something” to help perform his pranks. But he accomplished his goal – self expression. “I wasn’t doing it to make money,” he said. “I never imagined that what I was doing would someday be my job.”

In fact, Improv Everywhere took years to become popular. In the meantime, Todd was a temp worker who took odd jobs in offices. But he never gave up on comedy, and taught improv classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade.

Going Viral

Then YouTube changed everything. The site, which launched in 2005, allowed Todd to reach a worldwide audience. “We were really able to show off our projects,” he said.

Improv Everywhere became so popular that Todd made it his full time job in 2009. Now he makes most of his money from the YouTube Partner Program and public appearances. He gives lecture tours, mostly at colleges, and performs all over Europe.

Back in New York, he spends a lot of time meeting with journalists, who are usually disappointed. Todd said they hope to see exciting Improv Everywhere team meetings, but usually just find him sitting at his computer. That’s because a lot of his job involves managing his inbox and monitoring social media. He tracks the response to each new Improv Everywhere video for about two days.

Planning Pranks

Todd also spends a lot of time planning upcoming missions. But no matter how much he prepares, the pranks themselves can be nerve-wracking. “The process is fun,” he said, “but the moment of it actually happening, I have a lot on my mind.”

He gave an example of a recent mission, where he brought beds onto a regular subway car and turned it into a “sleeper car.” During the mission he worried that his group of pranksters would be separated, that he wouldn’t be able to get the beds off, and that the camera people would not capture it the way he hoped.

Worse yet, he had to worry about people calling the cops. That’s exactly what happened in 2006, when Todd arranged for about 80 people to enter a Best Buy wearing the store’s traditional “uniform” – a blue polo shirt and khaki pants. The store managers weren’t happy, and some employees thought they were about to be robbed.

However, most people enjoy the pranks, and that’s what makes it worthwhile. Todd said his favorite part happens when the missions are over and he can see the photos. To him, just spotting someone in the crowd with a “nice, simple smile” is satisfying. He doesn’t want to break the law – only social norms.

Public Space as a Stage

But Todd makes it clear that Improv Everywhere isn’t about social change. He said it has “always been a comedy project,” and he won’t do an idea that doesn’t make him laugh. Still, the underlying message is that citizens should have the right to use public space for creativity. “Public squares are not just for advertising, or a statue of George Washington,” he said.

“The best Improv Everywhere projects are the ones that are site specific,” he said. He added that he looks at the city with a “creative eye,” seeing parks, buildings, and structures as a stage.

An Improv Wedding

And Todd is always performing – even at his own wedding. He got married last October, but the ceremony was interrupted by a man claiming to be his fiance’s ex-boyfriend, a professional wrestler. The man “punched” Todd in the face, then fought with the groomsmen until Todd beat him into submission with a folding chair.

But this prank wasn’t one of Todd’s. The idea came from his new wife, Cody Lindquist. He met Lindquist, an actress and comedienne, through the Upright Citizens Brigade. It seems he found a true partner – literally. The couple works together on many Improv Everywhere missions.

The Future

Even with his recent success, Todd keeps looking toward the future. He works hard to release a new video each month, and is already planning this July’s MP3 Experiment. He also continues to perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, where you can catch him at 7:30 on Saturday nights.

That is, if you want your bubble popped.

Jorge Rojas: Low Life

Charlie Todd: Full-time Prankster

Charlie Todd says most New Yorkers walk around in a bubble.
His job is to pop it.

Jorge Rojas: Low Life

Charlie Todd: Full-time Prankster

Charlie Todd says most New Yorkers walk around in a bubble. His job is to pop it.

Charlie Todd says most New Yorkers walk around in a bubble.
His job is to pop it.