This
weeks been incredibly productive in terms of ideas generated and art work created.
The really unfortunate aspect of my week's that I haven’t actually been to any
galleries, I did go to a few performances however, which were all superb.
Monday
began with the first of four seminars which are all centred on Science Fiction.
I chose this area of study over a range of other choices because of my general
love for science fiction, and more specifically Philip K. Dick and his vast
array of novels and short stories. Before Monday’s session everyone from the
group had been instructed to read the short story ‘The Machine Stops’ by E. M.
Forster. It was an intriguing read, which seemingly predicted the life that we’re
all (in the western world) slowly migrating towards, where we can’t do anything
without being hooked up to the internet and are slaves to the very thing that
we believe enables us to live complicated lives full of wonder and excitement.
During
the seminar lots of ideas surrounding the origins of science fiction were
discussed, as well as gaining a perspective of how it must have felt living in
a time where these things were being imagined by people who didn’t even have a horse
and cart. There was talk of the industrial revolution inspiring sci-fi, by
creating a mixture of fear and hope for civilians in a new age of wonder. Many
sci-fi figureheads from around that time were all discussed, like Edgar Allen
Poe, Mary Shelley and Jules Verne. After being given some basic context of the
time we discussed the short story. I found the whole thing incredibly enjoyable
and thought-provoking, and can’t wait for tomorrow’s session where we will be
discussing ‘There Will Come Soft Rains’ by Ray Bradbury.
For
the rest of the day I was setting up my work to be shown at the group crit that
was happening on Tuesday. This involved preparing my sculptures, and
considering how to display them, as well as thinking about my videos and whether
or not I wanted to display the physical original controller anymore. The end
result looked like this:
I
chose to have the plaster controllers blending into the wall, which confronts
the idea of reality vs virtual and a lot of thoughts looking at the loss of
memory, among other things. As I was putting up the plaster work it was also
suggested that it looked like a climbing wall, which tied into the idea of duplicating
reality and referencing play, free time, childhood activity and bettering
oneself.
To
replicate the sense of being in a box or a small, cramped space I decided to
display the video work rested against the wall on my kindle, which was partly
inspired by Eva and Franco Mattes’ ‘Breaking Banality’ exhibition, where the
televisions are displayed at awkward angles, forcing the viewer to crane their neck
or lie down on the floor. I spent many hours creating the series of 7 short
clips, and putting them together to represent 19 years of my life. After
displaying the – almost – 3 hour video however I’ve been slowly thinking that
that may not be enough hours, so currently I’m thinking of making one showing
an average lifespan of a human being, which was my initial thought anyway. Unfortunately I can't put the video here, as it's way too big, but here's a short clip:
In
the end, as you can see, I decided to display the controller, but with only the
insides of the thing. This brings into question a lot of the ideas that Rachel
Whiteread is discussing within her work, thinking about what you’re actually
casting when you create a mould? This is a wild contrast to my early concept of
taking the object and changing something very subtly, with ideas of reflection
and re-thinking. I feel that these thoughts are still present within the work,
but aren’t as key, which is both good and bad; ‘we fear change.’
Later
in the day I had a lecture on Conceptual Art, which was really exciting. So
many interesting aspects of conceptual work were discussed, and many awe
inspiring artists were brought up, including Lawrence Weiner, On Kawara, Carl
Andre and Joseph Kosuth. Just that initial idea of dematerialisation is
interesting to me, as well as all the aspects of the work that come after that.
The writing of a manifesto is also fascinating, and seems to be key in terms of
creating something from a pure idea. Whatever that means? Questioning the
relationship between the idea and the actual manifestation of the object also
intrigues me, Sol Lewitt’s ‘Wall Drawing’ series was brought up in connection
to this idea. It was an inspiring lecture that makes me think about my own
practice and which forms I want it to transform into.
On
Tuesday the group crit occurred, which I do always find to be interesting,
whether it be good or bad work being displayed. It’s an experience that helps
you to understand other people’s thinking, as well as visualising your own and gaining
important feedback from your work. The crit was also being run by a visiting artist,
who was – in our case – Georgina Starr, whose work I do find very interesting
and layered. The feedback for my work was helpful, with thoughts about losing
control (there’s a joke in there, too) and how to display that within the video
work, the idea of broken sculptures and the rejuvenation of them (referencing
old statues that are remade), the wire of the controller being a loop,
referencing death, and the umbilical cord nature of it going into the wall, showing
life, which is ultimately portrayed in the video which loops for seemingly
forever. There were many more paths that were pointed out to me, which were all
really helpful, but I’ll keep those to myself until I’ve incorporated them into
my work.
During
the day there was also the artist talk, who was Jem Finer. I’m definitely a fan
of his work, especially ‘Longplayer’, which is a piece of music that spans 1000
years, as well as a more recent piece titled ‘Supercomputer’, which was
extensively talked about. Some interesting thoughts that I wrote down include
the idea of overwriting the writing, in connection to his piece titled ‘Everywhere
All The Time’ and that art discovery is encouraged, and that the ambiguous
nature of something is positive. A lot of the work, for me, was being allowed
to develop throughout its life cycle, left to its own devices, to see what
would occur if you took the human element out of the equation. This suggestion
intrigued me. He finished the talk by showing one of his Piano Pieces, which
are always hilarious to see, the subversion of what is and isn’t is always
fascinating to observe.
On
Wednesday I was back in the studio, considering all of the feedback that I had
been given. I started to think about how to make my models on Sketchup into an environment
that you could explore, so after looking around I started to use a program
called Unity, where I was able to transform my model into a world of its own.
After many hours and helpful YouTube tutorials I was able to manoeuvre a figure
through this micro world that I had created, using an Xbox controller hooked up
to my computer.
This
is a completely new avenue of work for me, with many things to consider. The possibilities
within this program are endless, but to cope with that I think I’m going to
create something that’s very simple and small. This conforms to the central
concept of everything being enclosed within a tiny space that feels endless, be
it in reality or in a fictitious game state. I have a number of different ideas
for this real but not real space that I’m working in, tying into the frustration
that occurs within video games, as well as the fact that I’m building a space
that you can only observe, that there is no ‘next level’.
On
Wednesday I also began to compile a list of the jokes that don’t work when they’re
written down, as a sort of break from the mind-bending computer based work.
This is the short list that I could come up with, via the internet and from
talking to a few of my peers.
I
also started to look into creating my own music for the long video. My thoughts
are to craft a very long and monotonous sound that slowly changes throughout
the films length. I began to use a range of software that was designed to be
used by children, appropriating it for my own art work that looks at the youth
of today.
I
also experimented a little by creating a sort of distorted controller, made
from chopped up plaster pieces. The end result was interesting, but was a step
away from the questions that I’m exploring surrounding space and the blending
of reality. I also played around with paint.
On
Thursday I continued to think about my videos, and started to add colour back
into them. My initial thought was that throughout the long period of time the
colours could ever so slowly change from being bright and shiny to a very dull
grey. After a while I soon realised that to do this it would literally take
weeks, maybe months of my time, turning me into ‘The Boy With
The Square Eyes’. So I conceded to simply
create a few videos with colour and move on from there, and to see where it
goes.
As
well as this I carried on with making the worlds to walk around in. I’ve been
slowly familiarising myself with the software, but it’s incredibly difficult to
get my head around.
In
the afternoon I had a recorded tutorial with John Douglas Millar. It was an
incredibly thought-provoking experience that opened my eyes to many artists and
books that I wasn’t yet aware of but must read immediately! I’ve started to read
Gamer Theory, the first of many books in response to this encounter, that looks
at how ‘gamified’ our lives have become in everyday society. I’ve come across
some of the ideas before via podcasts and other mediums, but it’s still a great
read which relates to my practice.
In
the evening I went to a Spill Festival ‘Think Tank Salon’ event titled ‘Demise
of the Urban Free’. The conversation was good, but not as art-based as I would
have liked. A few simple thoughts and ideas that I enjoyed were comments like “it’s
all dirty money”, “we’re all workers”, and the idea of artist gentrification and
the commodification of performance work. I was definitely happy that I attended
the event.
Friday began with a short meeting/lecture
where we as a year group discussed lots of thoughts surrounding the studio
space and how it could be used in a better, more productive way. A few people
talked about why they’re not in the space on a regular basis, the reason (or
excuse) being that no one else is working in the space. I think everyone can
see the irony in that statement…
For
the rest of the day I continued with my ongoing projects, thinking more about
what I could do with the video, reversing it back at the half way point in a
humans life, or layering multiple videos on top of one another, having one
going forwards in time and another going backwards, thinking about the ‘if I’m
not moving forwards then I’m moving backwards’ philosophy. I quite like how, in this clip, the software has decided to put it's watermark on my work, I'm still considering whether I like it or not.
Whilst opening up the images to edit on Photoshop, I had a thought, which is definitely something that I want to explore, which is shown below.
On
top of this I had a new idea of how to display the video work, as opposed to
using a screen inside a box. Here’s a mock up that I created using Sketchup:
In
this installation model the television at the top of the plinth can only be
seen by putting your head into the hole at the bottom, forcing the viewer to
interact with the object in ways that they wouldn’t usually do. It can also be
seen by not doing this, but only parts of the screen, snippets if you will.
This made me think about Trisha Donnelly’s work at the Serpentine last year,
which I’ve talked about before, where she slightly manipulated the space by
painting part of the wall in an off white colour and took away parts of the ply
board, exposing the inner workings of the wall. In a way this piece of work
could function if you had to poke your head into the wall, to see a screen
embedded within it, but I’m aware that taking away a part of the wall could be complicated
and messy.
In
the evening I went to ‘Late at Tate’ at the (you guessed it) Tate Britain. This
was a fun event, but was incredibly crowded (as you’d expect). So I was unable
to go to the talk, or see any of the performances. However it’s always cool to
be in a gallery, drinking a beer and enjoying art in the evening.
On
Saturday I took a day to simply be, which I haven’t done in a while. Rather
than doing work I spent the majority watching the new Netflix series titled ‘Master
of None’. It was an incredibly heart-warming and very real portrayal of a short
moment in a young-ish man’s life. It reminded me of High Maintenance and the
lives of the people that ‘The Guy’ interacts with on a daily basis. I would
highly recommend it.
In
the evening I went to Battersea Arts Centre to see a performance titled ‘The
Notebook’. This involved two actors, each reading from individual notebooks,
every so often changing their position around the room, either standing or
sitting on chairs, facing forwards or facing towards each other. The content
was quite scarring, and I’m not going to say anymore, as that would ruin it.
All I will say is that it was an intense experience that was easily visualised,
even though there were no real props to speak of.
Today
I went to two different performances as part of Spill Festival. One was titled ‘The
Privileged’ which was a stressful 60 minutes that ended when literally
everybody walked out of the performance. It primarily involved the audience being
put into a zoo keepers’ shoes, and following instructions via pieces of paper
enclosed within numbered envelopes that had been left on the chairs that we all
sat on, arranged in a square so that we were all looking at each other. The ‘performer’
of sorts was a man dressed in a polar bear costume, who appeared to be sleeping
when you walked into the room. What followed was quite incredible, with a lot
of discussion about whether we as a group should follow these rules or not, and
it all coming to a head when we were told to undress the ‘animal’. If you want
to re-consider everything I would recommend going to this, if you don’t mind
finding out that you’re, in fact, a closet psychopath.
The
next show was a very short event that was called ‘Inextinguishable Fire’. This
began with a women - nearly naked – standing on the stage, who was slowly dressed
in many layers of clothing that had been thoroughly dipped in a fire retardant substance.
She was then lit on fire for a very brief 14 seconds, it was then promptly extinguished
and she was pulled out of the room. There the performance ended. The second
part was a slowed down clip of the fire lighting process occurring, which was
projected onto one of the walls of the Southbank Centre. I found it to be
really awesome, but incredibly controlled. Obviously this was the point, but
still. The previous performance was ultimately more interesting.
The
week ahead contains another seminar on Science Fiction, an artist talk, a
lecture and a recorded tutorial. I also hope to visit many shows this week, but
who knows what will happen. I’ll also be continuing on with my projects,
progressing forwards with some and not so much with others. I look forward to
how it will unravel and reveal itself to me in the next few days.
Snapchat:
bob.bk
No comments:
Post a Comment