The Hindu: 7 June, 2005

Confined but creative: prisoners of art
Julie Salamon

The period of experimental captivity produces a total of 137,000 words

NEW YORK: Three prisoners of art, including one of Indian origin, emerged triumphant on Saturday from voluntary confinement for four weeks. They had produced two novels and parts of two more — a total of 137,000 words — while maintaining acceptable levels of personal hygiene and emotional equilibrium.

Laurie Stone, Ranbir Sidhu and Grant Bailie were participants in “Novel: A Living Installation” at the Flux Factory, an artists’ collective. The goal was for each to complete a novel by June 4, giving weekly public readings of their works in progress. Visitors were invited to watch them at work during specific hours during the day.

Only a handful dropped by during daytime, but the readings drew audiences of a few dozen. There was much media coverage, including an editorial in The New York Times that said: “The installation trivialises the nature of writing.”

The writers said they were undeterred by the criticism. “The time pressure and unexpected attention were incentives,” said Mr. Sidhu.“People were expecting you to finish a book, something you weren’t utterly embarrassed by.” Mr. Sidhu and the others have posted excerpts on blogs at fluxfactory.org/otr/fluxnovelproject.htm.

Writing was only part of the project at Flux Factory, where 17 Fluxers, as they call themselves, lived commune-style in a 7,500-square-foot space that includes a 2,000-sq-ft exhibition gallery.

The novelists lived in the gallery, in individual habitats built for them by architects and designers who, like the writers, entered a competition. Evenings, they ate together, their meals served by local chefs. In addition, they could leave their pads for 90 minutes a day to shower, do laundry or walk on the building’s roof, which has an expansive view of the Manhattan skyline.

The idea was to observe not just what the novelists wrote, but how they lived. After a month, the conceptualis