Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #64

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 64th review I've received.

"At first glance Paul Shortt’s art reminded me of the artists in New York in the 60, 70’s and 80’s with their performance art that only the deepest, hippest thinkers could understand. There were a lot of pretenders with a drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other squinting and nodding their heads.  Looking harder at Paul’s work I see he’s a Midwesterner. What does that imply? Midwesterners have a history of humility for one thing and are hardly pretentious for the most part. I liked the idea of “Please No Photos”. The message I got from it was the hypocrisy of the most famous for the sake of fame, pretending to hate the paparazzi. If he would have taken this further and gotten someone famous to stand behind the no photo symbol it might have had more impact.  It was a fun idea that didn’t go far enough.

Many of his pieces seemed more psychology than art such as “Three Hour Tour” where he takes 3 volunteers unknowingly to a hospital to walk around and discuss their feelings about it afterward. “How to be Narcissistic”, a sort of workshop on the art of Narcissism, “Contemporary Farewells”, “Modern Greetings” and an early work called “Interactive Signs” are a few of his works that require participation and possibly leave the participants thinking after having a bit of fun. People don’t usually crawl up stairs or hop right and left in front of an exit without a sign telling them to do so. Maybe in this way Paul is giving people permission to let loose a little. I got a chuckle out of “Missed Connections”. This was a project taking personal ads and placing them in odd ways such as on a decorated cake, written with icing in the bakery section of a grocery store (my personal favorite).

“The Car My Father Gave Me” is a piece that felt too personal and too long. It left me feeling that only Paul and his family could really appreciate it to its fullest. The biggest surprise in Paul Shortt’s collection was “Paul Shortt Shocks Chicago”. It was a short description of Paul with a classic hand buzzer shaking hands on a Chicago street, then giving the buzzed a buzzer to continue the gag and so one. He has a few photos on the page of buzzers and a hand holding a buzzer. That’s it! It’s left to your imagination. Maybe that’s the art of it, just story telling where you think the rest of it out yourself. In this day of YouTube I felt he could have gone so much further and made a great video but that would be too predictable I suppose. The series titled “Literally and Physically” is just the New York art I was referring to earlier that I would have expected to see some decades ago. The answer to this might just be that Paul Shortt is this generation’s New York elite, but not in New York."

For more info on this project and to read all the reviews please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #63

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 63rd review I've received.

After visiting Paul Shortt’s art website, I was very pleased with what I saw. There are many different things to look at and read. The first topic I want to discuss is Paul Shortt himself. If you go to the about Paul section, he gives detailed information about himself and a picture. What I like is that Paul looks like a very laid back guy. He runs a website that isn’t fancy at all, but calm and relaxing, which a lot of people will enjoy. He has done a lot with painting and is very dedicated about paintings on travels a lot. I noticed that he has shows in Seattle, where I live, so I will have to check that out. Now back to his work. He has done work that is relatable to everyday life. My favorite section is “The Car My Father Gave Me”. He gives me something to enjoy and videos to watch. I never had a great relationship with my father and seeing someone happy with their relationship with their father. There are plenty of videos about the car and pictures about cars. I think cars is a great thing fathers and sons can relate about and a great way to build on a relationship. Paul did a very good job at capturing that essence.

I also like the section “Nimby’s”. I enjoyed reading the signs in front of really nice backgrounds. Some of the backgrounds are simple, but the signs add something to it. The signs make it look like something special. I am sure that the signs have a special meaning. Another part of this website that I enjoyed viewing was the section the artwork people made that was of Paul. It seems like a lot of people enjoy him and are moved by his work. There was a small artwork that said “God Save Shortt!”. It doesn’t seem that Paul had any problem with his work, he seems really popular. There is A LOT of pieces done by other people. He really inspires a lot of people which I really did like. When someone comes along and inspires that many people, you know he did a great job. The artwork has many different styles, so that means a lot of different artists with different styles enjoy his artwork. Some of his early work is really funny also. Check out the early work section and laugh away. Overall, I enjoyed visiting Paul Shortt’s website for the first time. I checked out all of the 16 sections and enjoyed each one. His artwork ranges from humor to meanings. The reason why I think this website and Paul is successful is because a lot of people can visit the website and find something they like. Look at one section, don’t enjoy it? That’s okay go to another section and I am sure you will. Paul has a lot of artwork and videos everybody can view. There is plenty to go around and to enjoy! Great website and great artwork!

For more info on this project and to read all the reviews please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #61

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 61st review I've received.

The modern art of Paul Short takes a radically different approach to most contemporary forms of art. Having a diverse background in many styles of mixed media, Paul uses a mixture of performance, abstract, sculpture, drawn, painted, and created forms with a constant background layer of photography which binds all forms of his work into a story. With each new inspiration stemming from people, social interaction and image breaking, Paul uses his art to break free from the social expectations, and introduce new and interesting expressions. Using his photographic examples of signs placed in various scenes, he takes an image that might not be memorable to the average person, and turns it into a story which raises more questions than answers. For example, his piece “I’m Fine Thanks, 2010” takes a look at a landscape scene with a white wooden fence that has a break in it. Ordinarily, this would be accepted as some sort of standard farmland entropy, not adding any concern to the observer about the broken fence. However, in this case, three words are able to raise a myriad of questions such as “who is fine?” “What happened that would leave them not so fine?” “Was it something to do with the fence?” “If they are fine, but the fence is not fine, did someone else end up not so fine as a result of the incident which un-fined the fence?” 

It’s very thought provoking with only a minor adjustment to the landscape. There are also some extremely funny works that take a humorous approach to everyday occurrences. My favorite example is “Contemporary Farewells” which shows how people might greet or say goodbye to one another in lieu of a formal handshake. The best example which blends modern society to these ridiculous greetings is called “The cell phone bow” in which both parties, engaged in their individual cell phones glance up at one another to make temporary eye contact before returning to their phones again. This shows the contrast between the standard bow in which two people will be facing up, maintaining eye contact at first, then bow slightly for a moment and return to their upward position. It’s extremely funny to think that this has actually become a common practice despite the clearly inverted pattern from centuries past. Paul also uses a number of videos to add perspective to what seems like a routine occurrence in our day to day lives. The first in one series entitled “It’s Simple, But Complicated” takes a look at someone raising an American flag up a pole. He encounters a number of issues which he rather interestingly overcomes in the most complicated way possible. The video is done in a rather vaudevillian style with fast motion, and a light and humorous music in the background, but in contrast, shows the importance to the individual in making sure the task gets finished, because it must have a strong significance to him. The second is also very funny because the actor has a roadside breakdown, which seems straightforward until you realize that it is not an automotive breakdown as you would expect. In fact, he has a mental breakdown in this short, which is a wonderful use of irony. All in all, the work done by Paul Short is creative, funny, interesting and thought provoking. He is truly a free thinker, and artist and a philosopher who uses various forms of expression rather than verbal communication to convey new ideas, social commentary and humor.

For more info on this project please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #60

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 60th review I've received.

This is my review of the art on the website of Paul Shortt, a guy I have never heard of before, perhaps because i am somewhat art-illiterate, or because the guy might be too unique on his own to be widely know. Anyways, the young artist finished his BFA studies on Kansas City art Institute just about four years ago, and still he was able to participate on numerous group shows. While still studying, he has his signature written under many pieces worth mentioning and reviewing. Paul Shortt, in quite a few years of doing what you apparently love the most, you achieved interesting things. While I do not possess an expert eye for art, I am fond of interesting things and I do have sense fondness for uniqueness. So i tried to maintain my focus in a whole on his artistic portfolio and began to evaluate my feelings and thoughts, feeling more or less impressed with what I saw. So I went through numerous of his pictures and videos. Many of the pieces seen there look pretty much decent, while few others really stand out. There is not lack of humor there - right in the beginning, Please No Photo collection shows that. Shots of various indivudals or groups of people in the streets contain big no-photo icon covering quite a big part of photos. Interesting idea, pointing at the chance some people just did not want to approve the photo later and even the great shot is made for nothing. 

Another example for laughs can be found at The Business of Selling Yourself.. really nice business card, haha! From this and other works of Paul, I can see he focuses his artistic works on various connection between people, after his exploration of daily life. To me, perhaps because of my lack of artistic feel, they seem quite weird :) But i admit, they make a person think and feel. There is a specific message in each one of them. At first one may feel these pieces of work are arranged just like that, without a purpose, but no, nothing is random, you just need to take a closer look. There is a sophisticated message presented there, sometimes polished and sometimes not, delivered to a "consumer" through metaphorical artistic expressions. The author, trying to made a perfectly surprising delivery, does not hesitate to even use his very personal details, as in aforementioned Business Of Selling Yourself. These pieces of art are filled with delicate and bitter sarcasm. I will tell you what I like the most about the work of Paul Shortt. It is the fact he really does not use high amount of funds to do his work. It is because he uses quite simple yet very cool and effective ideas to make something out of nothing. with low budget, he is always able to create something of high value. This guy really uses his mind and can see there is so much around him he can use for his work. I find this really amazing.

For more info on this project please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #58

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 58th review I've received.

Paul Shortt seems to be an eclectic artist. His style appears to be very modern – he uses what he sees around him and transforms it into something that can be appreciated by more than just the standard passerby. Even if the art does not capture you at first, you find yourself enticed and clicking to view the next photo, the next set of whatever it is that he has managed to create. His art is not just the typical pencil or brush to paper; it is more interactive, bringing in people and objects to put his artwork on display. He may not be an artist to be recognized through the ages (“not a modern day Picasso”), but he certainly has the potential to make himself known in the modern day art scene. Although you are not sure what message he is always trying to bring on, it entices the viewer and leaves them with an odd sense of thought. You wonder who these people are, what part they are meant to play in the artwork and if they are meant to be a part or if they were just in the right place at the right time. My personal favorite section was the “Missed Connections.” It brought a weird twist to people trying to connect with others – instead of the typical match.com or craigslist personal ads. Within that collection, my favorite had to have been the cake with the message on it. The chances of that person ever actually seeing that message on display are scarce, but there is still something that captures you into it. Maybe they will see it, maybe those two will connect, maybe there will be a happily ever after in what holds the potential to be an oddly romantic tale. The other one that had me smiling was the “Literally and Physically” collection. It was amusing to see how someone could take something, such as the bleacher stand, and give it two different “meanings” based on how the viewer sees them, either to step on the sculpture, or avoid it all together. I know I would be one who saw the “Please Climb Sculpture” part of it first and test the theory out, just to find that I was sorely mistaken. All of Shortt's pieces have a weird vibe to them, but they still have the capability to make you stop, look and consider what it is that he is trying to say with his art. Sometimes it seems as if you have to hunt down the meaning, other times it is laid out for you “Roll on the floor laughing.” I find Paul Shortt to be an interesting artist, and the fact that he is using Amazon's Mechanical Turk program to gain a little insight, even though he is paying for such criticism, shows a weird sense of boldness amidst all the creative aspects he shows. He has an exceptionally creative mind and has discovered his outlet to portray that creativeness to the world – through art, in its own way; with ladders, sculptures, big “no photo” signs. It's a nice break from just walking around a boring museum.

For more info on this project please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #57

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 57th review I've received.

Paul Shortt’s art website is full of surprises. I really loved his concepts and art categories. Specifically when it comes to enjoying life this website is just another example. I was wondering why an art person is willing to pay 5 dollars to someone who will write 500 good words about his website. But after I saw so many reviews and passed some time on the website I just got amazed that it could mean so much. Paul’s ideas are quite real and made in actual time frame that if you try to imagine each and every concept you will get involved in them for hours. I myself passed much time looking his “Early Work” section where each and every activity has been designed to create some special fun out of daily routing objects and still they look so unique. We can just think how much fun we can have doing these activities. He has tried to bring people’s attention towards his simple concept and I think those are really working. His art work just looks impossible to imagine in easy way. I honestly think I could never be able to do this much work and still be able to get so much success and attention. When I saw Paul’s CV I got amazed by seeing that what artist can achieve in his life? His exhibitions, photos, ideas, performances, public projects are just awesome. He has also got excellent teaching experience and so I think a means for earning money. Paul’s professional experience is just great. His audio/video assistance for many projects is his real efforts to actual industry, and I hope he can bring yet more fruitful results in industry. His press and publication contribution is also among which I loved much. I honestly think that this is Paul’s just beginning. If his work and career path just continues in this way, then I am sure in coming time we will see another Picasso or Shakespeare coming out of us. His blog “shorttage.blogspot.com” seems rolling very high with his concepts, work, photos and reviews. Paul’s views towards art seems very vast and beyond many of our understanding. In reality I am just trying to review a tip of an iceberg. One more time I just got kept watching his work called “Strap on BallSacks”. I just can’t imagine how he could make this possible in public place. Just shocking and real bravo. Paul’s website is a “modern art”. One more project I liked which is “The Business of Selling Yourself”. It is just amazing and gives clear impression of his mind and out of box thinking. Still I think I must get more and more into Paul’s website to enjoy more of his projects and how he is making all these things work. It a great deal. Hat’s off to Paul’s Art skills. I think Paul is not just an artist or a photographer or comedian or performer he is mixture of all those and coming out as a different and unique human brain. I think Paul has put true efforts and real interest into his work and his website is proof of it. Great work and keep it up!

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #55

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 55th review I've received.

The exhibition title “How To Be Narcissistic: A Workshop and Performance ” seems to be an appropriate title for the art show laid out on artist Paul Shortt’s website. From the very start, I loved the work. The works were unique in composition and a very interesting look at the “self” and outside perception of that self. The more I saw and read supplemented my enjoyment of the exhibit when I was able to put it in the context of exhibitionism and voyeurism. Contemporary media has inundated us with the minutia of everyday life of our peers. We are encouraged through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and many others to share our faces, feelings, and actions. Then there are the interactive reality shows, which push individuals to live together in a proscribed setting in order to film whatever action results. The individuals on these shows are showcasing their lives as theater for a captive television audience. But then, because there is an audience, the reality stars change their behaviors and raise the level of exhibitionism. Additionally, this exhibit prompts a discussion of surveillance and voyeurism, prompting a critique of the “Big Brother” style security found in today’s airports, buses, city streets and stores. The title “How To Be Narcissistic: A Workshop and Performance ” juxtaposes the relative safety of a workshop and forces us to consider if such exhibition on a public stage is necessarily innocent and is perhaps a very dangerous force. The more I saw and read supplemented my enjoyment of the exhibit when I was able to put it in the context of exhibitionism and voyeurism. This show made me question the idea of a static “artist” and “viewer” and consider that art can be a dynamic collaboration between the two. The expectations and preconceived notions that the participant or “narcissist” brings when they enter the room impact the art to the point that it changes its meaning. Conceptual art is art in which the idea of the work takes precedence over traditional aesthetics. A renaissance art scholar would look at some of Shortt’s work and definitely not call it art, however it is still art because an artist is a person who makes the viewer think about a concept or idea or wrestle with something they had never considered before. His art falls into this category of conceptual art and I think he does a magnificent job in making the viewer think. Beyond that I found the photographs on the website not incredibly aesthetically pleasurable, but rather more of a record of an event, which was much more journalistic, in a sense. The type of activity plus these journalistic type photos drew out the comparison to Facebook even more for me. I imagine it was incredibly worthwhile to be present at this exhibition/activity and would give the viewer a very different conception of the art. The difference between reading a friend’s description of a vacation and “Liking” it on Facebook is similarly very different from actually physically sitting down, having a drink with that friend, looking through physical photos and chatting about the trip. Overall, I enjoyed looking through Shortt’s art and will keep tabs on his art and work in the future.

For more info on this project please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #54

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 54th review I've received.

First and foremost, I am writing a review of Paul Shortt's work for Amazon's Mechanical Turk. I am being paid $5 to review this work, but the only reason I am even mentioning this fact is because this artist has made a work of art out of a collection of reviews of his work that he received from Amazon Mturk. So I am going to review this piece of work. It is titled "Pay For An Audience: 5 Star Ratings" What an interesting concept. The title itself isn't necessarily indicative of what an artist paying for reviews will receive - for example, there are a few submissions where paid crowd-sourced reviewers did not actually give a 5-star review and called his work amateurish and some people who were not impressed with his website, but overall, I believe that the idea of the work is to show that any artist can pay for maximum favorable reviews and propel themselves as groundbreaking top-tier artists regardless of talent, ability, or skill. The other art featured on Paul's website are typical art pieces: some are more impressive than others, sets of pictures focusing on topics that may or may not invoke any sort of emotion in the audience. I personally believe it is almost artistically-criminal to pay for favorable reviews in this manner - but in all actuality, its a small scale version of the exactly same mass media induced version of artists that have been picked and chosen by the media elite and chance and happenstance of breaking out in a sea of nearly infinite artists. So Paul has done what is nearly impossible to do with a much larger budget: create an exhibit, create a buzz, and create a brand new concept in one single swoop. Make a splash, make an impact, make a new piece of art that has never been done before. Brilliant! It has been months since I've seen an original piece of art such as this. Art itself is problematic in this day and age. Photoshop isn't even a luxutry anymore, free versions of it are all over the place online and for a cell phone and Adobe themselves recently gave away the entire CS2. Part of the problem in the day and age we live in is that way too many people have access to high-end DSLR cameras and go out snapping shots and believe that they're professionals. Part of the problem is that we live in the era of Instagram filters making everybody who owns a smartphone or iPod a wannabe artist. And part of the problem is that crowd-sourced paid reviewers are commonplace in this day and age. By drawing attention to these matters, Paul has created a work of art in itself. A powerful statement to the modern artist of the year 2013, and an original idea that brings forth the existence of this very writing. Bravo to Paul, I believe that the future will bring forth many successful concepts and purity that art demands in order to exist as anything more than commercial intellectual property... and how ironic that I base this statement off of his concept-art piece that is the exact opposite of this.

For more info on this project please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #53

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 53rd review I've received.

My initial and overall impression of Paul Shortt's work is that it falls into what most people would consider 'modern art'. Whether or not Paul accepts that term is unclear but there is a certain post modern feel to much of the installations and projects detailed on his website. That was my initial impression, however, it was not my sole impression. I didn't feel like the work was uninteresting or unengaging. I would say my deeper impression was that Paul is somebody fascinated with the human condition and how we need to relate to the world around us. He does have areas where he focuses on introspective ideas, notably the portraits (although this is not strictly art by Paul, it is presented on his site) and The Car My Father Gave Me. 'Please No Photos' brings into question the public reaction to something that symbolizes privacy. In a culture where everything is constantly uploaded to social networking sites, the 'no pictures' symbol is no longer seen as just an establishment rule, it could, theoretically be seen, as a direct attack on the way many perceive their own personal freedom. 'Modern Greetings' is perhaps the most typical work by Paul as it seems to incorporate many of his ideas into one project. The project deals with modern communication, social structures, and a certain degree of humor and participation. The photographs depict what appears to be quite an enjoyable event whereby participants perform inventive ways to greet as substitute for the norm. I think this focuses on two things: the relevance our communications have to our every day lives and how people react to stepping outside of their comfort zone. 'Missed Connections' is particularly interesting as I feel that it touches upon quite a distinct issue that almost everybody can relate to. The process of finding love, or even just general companionship, in the modern age can feel somewhat restricted and inaccessible, due to intense social structures and the pace at which many live. This project takes the online ad and puts it actually in the location (via a physical format) that the ad is referencing. This confronts passersby with the loneliness that can exist outside of a normally sterile location (such as starbucks) and the type of thoughts and needs that can be found in a truthful place (such as craigslist). It's confrontational, but makes quite a profound point. In conclusion, I think Paul's greatest attribute is that he never does the same thing twice - he has a theme to his work that incorporates thoughts of sadness, isolation and humor, but the projects individually manage to convey a new message each time. The other good thing about his work is that he enjoys outsider participation, this is typically a good sign that the artist has a need to connect artistically with those around them. I think that he's quite adept at zoning in on the essence of his work in the way that it is presented on the website - there isn't too much in the way of written text, he instead prefers to focus on the right images to convey the art. The old cliche that goes a picture is worth a thousand words is certainly true and it is testament to Paul's ability to relate on an artistic level that he opts to use images over text.

For more info on this project please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #52

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 52nd review I've received.

Paul Shortt First of all I must confess I know next to nothing about art, especially modern experiential or installation art. Having said this I will be approaching this review and critique of Paul Shortt’s work as any layman or member of the public would. I will be using common sense, my opinions and relating my interpretation which should be relevant to most people. Having looked at Paul’s portfolio of work at http:http://paulshortt.com/, I must say I wasn’t that impressed at first. All of his current work appears to be abstract and incoherent ideas expressed in physical manifestations, such as actions, signs, etc. There’s a sense that he’s being too clever and trying very hard, but the overall effect is negligible. Whether this is a fair comment or not I’m also not qualified to determine. Without being overly critical, it didn’t help that the people and objects featured in his recent work didn’t seem that interesting, the shots taken seem to be rushed and not very well done in terms of angles, lighting, etc. I’m not expecting professional photography as such, but with cluttered and rushed photos of his recent work Paul’s not really doing himself much justice. At this point I was about to give up, there was no way I’d be able to write 500 words on something that just wasn’t that appealing and interesting to me. Just out of curiosity, however, I looked through Paul’s CV and also clicked on his “early work” link. I’m very glad I gave Paul and his website a couple more minutes of my time and attention, because the quality of his earlier work, in terms of ideas, concepts and humour was just far more superior and a real revelation. Paul only featured two earlier pieces of work. The first one is interactive signs, which can be described as experiential art as people follow directions of strategically placed signs with matching font, look and feel and context to its immediate surroundings. The second piece is strap-on ballsacks, which is funny and also has the potential to shock. The idea is to make people think about sexuality and gender, in very public places rather than in an environment in private where most people are more comfortable with. Consistent with both pieces of work, and also extending to his more recent work but far less focused, are the ideas that people should try to experience their everyday environment in a different way (interactive signs) and notions of power and masculinity (strap-on ballsacks). Perhaps I’m being unfair when I say his recent work has lost focus, but in comparison to his earlier work somewhere along the line the simplicity of idea and message has been lost. If I may be so bold, I’d suggest Paul re-examine his earlier work and focus on the clarity of idea, simplified messaging and tidy execution in his future work. Perhaps I just don’t get his newer stuff, and to be fair after examining his earlier work in detail and then coming back to his recent work, everything sort of started to make a little bit more sense, but not much. Maybe we just need to spend more time with it before we start to appreciate the subtleties and meaning of his recent work. I just don’t know.

For more info on this project please check out my website: http://paulshortt.com/Pay-For-An-Audience-5-Star-Ratings

Mechanical Turk Review of My Art #45

This is a project where I pay workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk to review my art and website and pay them $5 for 500 words. This is the 45th review I've received.

Paul Shortt’s art is immediately human. It speaks to commonalities in all of us (narcissism, a desire for privacy, and memory) and therefore very accessible. However, this immediacy and accessibility occasionally render his works slightly pedestrian. When successful Shortt’s work stands out as decidedly stark and moving. Shortt’s website has an “About Me” section that briefly details his professional history, but his collection entitled “The Business of Selling Yourself” is much more effective in detailing the person behind the art. On a displayed business card, Shortt reveals aspects of his personality most people would hide and ignore. He’s selfish, bad with money, condescending, and a sex addict who is potentially bad in bed. These confessions were intended to be cathartic and productive, but regardless of his intention, they give context to the art that Shortt creates. This is ego-less art that aims for honesty over style. Aesthetically, Shortt’s business card is ugly and this can be said of many of his other pieces. The photography and videography is flat and documentarian, but this only serves to emphasize the emotional quality of the work.

Shortt isn’t attempting to forge a style, but rather expound upon personal issues that matter to him. The most effective of Shortt’s pieces is a series entitled “Please No Photos.” He took to the streets of New York City to visually express dissatisfaction with the pervasive surveillance that exists in the modern city. Using an enormous no photography sculpture, Shortt photographed pedestrians holding the sign in different public areas of the city. In addition, he places the sculpture next to buildings, in parks, and other common areas. The results are superb, with the sculpture appearing as part UFO part 2D object in our very 3D world. This juxtaposition pulls this real location and person into the world of google maps and government satellites, further emphasizing ubiquitous surveillance. Perhaps the most elegant series is “Contemporary Farewells,” which present monochromatic explanations of alternative and humorous ways of saying goodbye. The pieces have a simple, paper-cut look, with silhouettes of people performing the above-mentioned gestures. They involve absurd and laughable exchanges of muscle hugs, twists and turns, cell phones, and pointing. This series is much less serious than Shortt’s other works, but the presentation is right on. Where Shortt loses me is in the realm of performance art.

A quick disclaimer: I do not like performance art. Regardless of this fact, I think the visual and live presentations of the work are lacking in many ways. For example, in performing “Contemporary Farewells,” pairs of Shortt’s friends awkwardly act out the different humorous farewells. The actions are seemingly unrehearsed and strange to watch. Most problematic is the fact that the aesthetic cohesion of the printed work is completely absent in the performance. Instead of recreating the high contrast, monochromatic look of the original series, the normally dressed actors are set against a busy gallery backdrop. This lack of attention to detail could simply be irrelevant in Shortt’s eyes, but for me it creates a distracting disconnect in the live performance of his pieces