Description: Information about this public art project by Michael Betancourt...
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If you are looking for Michael Betancourt's work on Agnotology in Digital Capitalism, you should go here.
This project is primarily complete. "Aesthetic Hazard" is based upon the barrier concept created by "Caution" or "Police Line - Do Not Cross" tape. The three-inch bands of plastic yellow tape with black lettering function to physically quarantine and deny access to public spaces where something has happened or something dangerous could happen. This Yellow Tape marks off crime scenes, accidents, potholes and manholes.
We are collectively taught to obey certain codes, messages and signs, and this "Aesthetic Hazard - Do Not Look" tape hijacks the response we have to "police line" or "caution." The installation asks us to reconsider what we value visually—confronting us with our own compulsion that art must function as a kind of visual stimulus-visual beauty, which should "behave itself" in an aesthetically pleasing way.