If
each individual week of my life had a title, this week would probably be called
‘Technical Difficulties’. The majority of my time was spent working out how to get
a huge, old television to work, which was ultimately unsuccessful and the story
ended with me purchasing a new one and wasting a lot of money. The closer it
gets to Christmas, the sleepier I get. I just keep thinking that I’ll be home
in less than two weeks, in a big bed with nothing to do.
Monday
started like every Monday has started for the past four weeks, with a Science
Fiction seminar. Systems within systems within systems. Even when you’re in a
space where there’s so many possibilities, there’s still a very rigid schedule,
in this case the schedule is just slightly more interesting than having a schedule
of doing nothing. The final seminar was really good, and ran over for at least
an hour, which was definitely a positive thing. We were looking at the era that
began with the release of Star Wars and is yet to end, still continuing onwards
in 2015. The rise of ‘Cyberpunk’ was talked about at length, Blade Runner being
cited as the first film to come under that genre. So many interesting books and
authors were discussed, that I’m not going to name any of them, but I’m definitely
going to read a selection of them in the future, possibly a few of them over
Christmas.
For
the rest of the day I was working on my own stuff, which mainly consisted of
taking photographs of work that I’d previously made, so I could put the images
on my website, alongside coming up with the idea of putting a pillow next to
the television where my work will be playing. This would serve as an invitation
for the viewer to lie down, showing them that they’re supposed to get onto the
ground and look up into the screen, rather than bending down and not fully
immersing themselves within the work. I’m yet to actually try this out in real
life, but I plan to tomorrow, when I’m setting up for the exhibition, and will
decide whether it’s appropriate or not then. It may just over-complicate
things.
Later
in the day I had a lecture on the essays that we (the students) have to write
over the holidays. It was slightly dull and only a little informative, which is
a shame. I think you have three different essay titles to choose from, and it
has to be only 1500 words long.
In
the evening I watched a film called ‘The Signal’. An indie sci-fi that looked
at three friends who get seemingly abducted and taken to an underground bunker
in a mysterious place. It was slightly disjointed, and the ending was incredibly
annoying but it was enjoyable overall. Although when comparing it to similar
indie films like Primer, it wasn’t too great.
Tuesday
was an incredibly slow day, where the majority was spent attempting to make the
huge TV work, just throwing money at the problem in a desperate hope that it would
help in one way or another. There was also the artist talk, which was something
to look forward to. Andrew Dodds was the speaker, who talked a lot about his
work within communities, and how ordinary people influence his practice and
inspire him to create the work that he creates. Although I enjoyed some of his
pieces, to me it was very similar to hearing about the work that my father creates
with his artwork, working with communities, etc. So I was ultimately tired of
the conversation, even though the work was thought provoking and stimulating in
its own way.
Wednesday arrived with a group crit of sorts, where
we all talked about and showed each other the work that we were planning to display
on the following Tuesday. The feedback that I received for my work consisted of
a discussion surrounding the music within the long video. The main problem
being that it might be too ‘nice’ and how it felt ‘godly’ which made the work
feel like a cliché. I hadn’t been aware of this, but once it was mentioned it
became incredibly apparent. I had some ideas about how I could work with the
music, using it to make a mockery of the idea of a God, allowing us to go about
our dreary daily lives without any sense of an all-powerful figure being
present. I quickly walked away from this idea, and decided to experiment with
the music further, refining what I actually wanted from the music, and not
over-complicating the work with new ideas.
For
the rest of the day I attempted to think about what this new music would be,
playing with the stretching program, always working from the same, monotonous
beat that continually makes you think that something is going to happen, that
the music will effectively ‘drop’. I eventually created a piece of music that
was similar to a very high pitched whistle being blown, where only young people
are able to hear it. This division between the young and the old is
interesting, as well as the idea that the longer you view the work, lying down
on your back looking up at the screen, the more used to the sound you will be.
This slight distortion of reality is what I really want to achieve. The music
will be played aloud, without headphones, so the sound will permeate the entire
space around it, infecting everyone’s ears, making them painfully aware of what’s
going on. The video, alongside its music, can be viewed on my main website. The
alternative to this is having no music at all, whilst I’m setting it up
tomorrow I’m going to decide on which one I think is more appropriate.
In
the evening I went to (maybe) the worst artist talk/in conversation that I’ve
been to in my entire life. The artist was Jim Dine in conversation with Paul
Coldwell. Whenever Dine was asked a question about his work, he would either
simply answer with a ‘yes’ or deny the fact (or in this case allegation) that
the work had any meaning at all. I started to wonder who the people in the room
were, listening to these two people, talking about work that had no meaning.
Where was I? And what was I doing there? These are questions that I’m still
trying to answer myself.
Thursday
was yet another day that was centred on attempting to make a TV work. By this
point I was beginning to get incredibly distressed about the whole thing.
I
was also thinking a lot about how I wanted to show the work, the positioning of
the Kindle in relation to the television as well as the locations of the sculptures.
On top of this I was considering whether to make a ‘thing’ out of the amount of
wires or not, to make it messy or clean. At that point in time I opted for
clean, but with the new TV I have less wiring, so clean is the only real option
anyway. I think clean works best, as I haven’t spent a lot of time considering
why the wires would be all over the place, and I don’t want to decide to do
something simply because it looks aesthetically pleasing.
During
the day I also thought about the nails that I’m going to use to display the
Kindle on, and whether or not I should paint them a certain colour. This was
brought on from thinking about ‘The Woman On The Wire’ exhibition that I recently
went to at Pi Artworks, where everything was gold, including the nails. The
obvious choice for me would be blue, but I feel that that would be incredibly tacky
and take away from the film that people are supposed to be watching, so I’m either
going to keep them as they come (probably silver) or paint them white, allowing
them to sink into the wall, out of sight.
Throughout
the week I’ve also been having problems being able to loop my short video on my
Kindle. It seems to be impossible, so instead I just created 500 duplicates of
the film, and put them into a playlist on my kindle, allowing the film to be
looped for over 500 minutes, which I’m sure will be well over the amount of
time needed. So that problem was solved after spending a lot of time googling
and downloading new video apps, etc.
After
uni ended, I travelled to ‘Cell Project Space’ for the private view of Anne de
Vries’ ‘Submission’. It involved many huge white heads made from fibre glass
resin, with live video being shown on projectors and laptops, embedded within
the sculptures. The videos were showing a mixture of densely populated areas
and incredibly empty ones, which to me was thinking about the internet in
general, and how we’re all beginning to interact with everything through the
screen, but in this case the images were being displayed within the heads of
people, so maybe it was making a comment on how we’re all becoming a screen, or
already are one?
I
then went to a group exhibition (Fasciae Flux) featuring a friend of mine, Laila Majid,
alongside a few others at the Doomed Gallery. There was some interesting work
being shown, but without any text being given, I had no knowledge of what any
of it was about. It was cool to see work that I’d seen being produced in an
actual space though, and makes me want to display some of my own work in a
gallery setting. Maybe over Christmas I can pursue this in some way.
Friday
was, yet again, all about the television, and getting it to work. It still wasn’t
happening.
In
the afternoon we had a – sort of – lecture where we all got into exhibition groups
centred on one of five themes, I chose Science Fiction and Information. Within
the groups we all discussed our work, and what kind of space we all wanted. The
group was small, so it was easy and went relatively smoothly. As a whole year
group we also talked about whether or not we wanted to bring drinks ourselves
or buy them as a unit for the private view on Thursday. Unfortunately it was decided
that we should all bring our own. To me, this is an incredibly silly decision,
who doesn’t have alcohol being served at a private view? We also decided on the
name of the exhibition, ‘Synonyms for Exploration’ which seemed like an
incredibly pretentious name. You can look at the event on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1019865964739289/
When
that was over I went to the CSM 3D/XD Open Studio event, which was serving alcohol.
There was a variety of interesting work being shown, from a video talking about
what an ‘Open Studio’ actually is and telling you to fuck off multiple times,
to a performance piece where a man gave a lecture, whilst standing outside, so
the audience was unable to hear him. This went on for over 15 minutes. Another performance
included a guy blending up a load of expired food from Waitrose (that was just
across the street, in view of the work) and eating the whole thing. This was
more than off putting.
On
Saturday I went into the studio to attempt to make the TV work, one more time,
but was unsuccessful. So gave up and bought one for myself. The fact that the
television was purchased during the ‘Black Friday’ period fits perfectly within
the work, the - seeming - epitome of consumer culture. I also started to
compile all of my computer work into legitimate folders, so that they can be
viewed and marked easily. I also put all of the research that I’ve written
about on my blog into its own word document, highlighting the artist names and
gallery titles.
In
the evening I watched three films. I began with Under the Skin, which was
incredible. The real life scenes interspersed with the acted ones was truly
creepy, alongside the slow humanization of the creature as the film continued
along its chosen path. I then saw Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which was deeply
depressing, pushing me to the verge of tears multiple times. I was looking for
a comedy and found a drama instead. After that I was looking for a ‘trashy’
comedy, so went with Spy. The scenes that featured Jason Statham were
excellent, making fun of the way he acts in films like The Transporter and
Crank was hilarious to see.
Today
I’ve been attempting to write this, whilst listening to a three hour
compilation of Philip Glass’ music playing in the background. I also started a
new series, Star Trek (the original series) after finishing The Man in the High
Castle (not as good as the book) and catching up with season 2 of Fargo, which has
been great so far.
The
week ahead looks to be incredibly busy, with the setting up of the exhibition,
group crits, the private view and going to see The Book of Mormon. I do look
forward to how it’s all going to turn out. Positively I hope.
Oh
and this is the final design of how I’m planning to display the work, hopefully
at this time tomorrow, it will be up and looking similar to how this is:
Daily
Snapchat:
bob.bk
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