Question for anyone who took part in Spencer Tunick shoot in 2004 (Cleveland: legal, design)

[ottomobeale]

What was the general experience?

Not looking for the gritty details, more along of the logistics of:
How did you find out about it? I was in Cleveland at the time and did not hear about it until it happened.

How long did it take?
You arrived X time, stripped off Y time and got re-dressed Z time.

Normally running around naked downtown you end up in jail or the psych ward. What were the arrangements about that?

Edit oh and did you spot yourself in any of the pictures?

Locations?

[ehfp]

Here's an interview Tunick gave to Cool Cleveland just prior to the shoot that discusses the registration process: http://www.coolcleveland.com/wiki/Ne...wSpencerTunick

Here's a blog post written by one of the participants: On Being Naked | Jarrett Interaction Design

And here's a link to an audio diary kept by two participants that aired on 90.3: http://www.davidhansen.org/spencer.html

[Gaylenwoof]

Sorry I didn't notice this thread until now. I've actually been in two of Tunick's mass photo shoots - the first one in Cleveland, the second one in Buffalo, NY. Most people probably heard about the shoot through MOCA (the art museum that invited Tunick to do the shoot) (www.mocacleveland.org), but I think I learned about it through my own social media connections. We had to arrive at the pier by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by 5:30am, were naked by around 6:30am and I think we were probably done by 9am (I don't really remember, but I think those times are in the rough ball park).

The police blocked off the street and I suppose they prevented people from wandering into the area, since to be in the shoot you needed to sign waivers, etc., so they didn't want random people walking in. I do recall seeing that a crowd had gathered to observe the event from behind the police lines. Since it was a legally arranged event, it was not considered "indecent exposure" from a legal point of view, so there were no arrests for that.

He had us arrange ourselves in a variety of different ways - one pose involved lying on the pavement, which was rather chilly at 7am! About half of the shoot we were all together. For the second half, he split us into an all-male group in a grassy part near the Rock & Roll museum, and an all-female group out at the end of the pier.

I was up front in a lot of the photos. Unfortunately I somehow never managed to go see the MOCA exhibit while it was here, but people who know me said they recognized me in several of the photos when they went to the showing. I've got a documentary called Tunick: Museum of Contemporary Art in my Netflix queue, but it's been in my queue for over 2 years and the availability is still "unknown" so, supposedly, there is or will be a documentary about the shoot, but I don't know if I'll ever get to see it.

Overall it was a great experience, and I would definitely do another one if Tunick ever comes back to anywhere near Ohio. I know this might seem hard to believe, but from what I could tell, being naked didn't seem to be much of a problem for anyone - aside from the chilly temps at the beginning (I think it was in the upper 50s around sunrise). I overhead a lot of people talking about how surprised they were by how easy and natural it felt to be in this setting. Women seemed to be especially surprised. The event did not feel sexual at all and I didn't see any men with any...um, shall we say...visible signs of arousal, and I didn't see any "hanky panky" of any sort. (At the Buffalo event I did see one man with an erection near the end when we were all getting dressed, but that was all.) The major theme seemed to be an incredible sense of "naturalness" and "liberation" - a lot of women, especially, seemed to be surprised by the feeling of being temporarily released from the stress of concerns over "body image." This seemed almost paradoxical; you'd think being naked in public would create incredible stress over body image, but people found that just the opposite was true. I wish Tunick or others would do more work or this sort. I think a lot of people would benefit from a personal experience of this sort.