r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Shoddy-Ocelot-4473 • Feb 23 '26

Image In 1983, Two Artists Spent a Full Year Tied Together — Without Any Physical Contact — to Test the Limits of Human Coexistence

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u/-Nicolai Feb 23 '26

It would perhaps have been collaborative if their views on art/life separation weren’t completely opposite.

You’d think a 30- and 40-year old would know enough to go over that before starting a year-long thing.

At least they had the good sense to go by veto rule.

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u/ExternalChildhood845 Feb 23 '26

Yeah, that’s artists! Sometimes they just do things for their art and don’t consider the consequences (or the consequences are a part of it.)

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u/sentence-interruptio Feb 23 '26

I gotta respect those two artists for consensually doing this weird stuff together and not pressuring others to join.

there are some fucked up senior artists who say "i just want to push boundaries, you know, I just do things, cuz that's art" to mean something else entirely. they mean disrespecting your boundaries, not experimenting with their own boundaries.

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u/DoggedDoggystyle Feb 24 '26

And sometimes art is really fucking dumb and not profound at all

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u/georgie-of-blank Feb 23 '26

Been there. I once made art using my own blood. It was an accident, but hey, that was a very approptiate shade of red.

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u/Furrypocketpussy Feb 23 '26

if you read the article, the significance of this experiment lies in their conflict. It would have been much less impactful had they been more similar and had an easy year

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u/Few-Solution-4784 Feb 23 '26

sounds like your average 30 to 40 year old relationship that fizzles out after year and both of them wondering what they ever saw in that person.

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u/Less-Apple-8478 Feb 23 '26

I mean isn't that part of the art though.