This
week has been calm and relaxing, filled with watching films and idly sitting
around, enjoying the simplicity of everything. In terms of art, not a lot has
been happening, small ideas are being thought of here and there that may
eventually become fabricated thoughts, but nothing so substantial is yet to
occur.
I
have however watched a variety of films and played some really thought
provoking video games that have made me ‘feel’ something, whatever that means.
I decided to delve into a few Hitchcock films, alongside Lynch’s back catalogue
of movies. I’d seen a few of their creations before, but some of the supposed ‘classics’
had for one reason or another never appeared before my eyes. I watched Vertigo
and Psycho, which were both quite brilliant. The twist ending of Psycho was
amazing, if a little obvious, having watched a lot of the films that came after
Hitchcock’s time.
After
watching Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway I’m no closer to understanding Lynch
and his work, but I’m sure that would be the case if I had watched every one of
his films. I also watched Enter the Void, which was a filmic masterpiece, and
my first viewing of a Gaspar Noé film.
As well as this I had the pleasure of
watching the new Star Wars film, which turned out to be everything that I
wanted it to be. This may or may not be a good thing, I’m not totally sure yet.
It did make me want to revisit more of the originals however, so the other day
I watched The Empire Strikes Back again, which was as superb as ever.
On top of this I watched Sicario
(brilliant and distressing), Spectre (dull and diluted for family viewing),
Steve Jobs (a film that held me at the edge of my seat for the 122 minute
running time), Snowpiercer (a movie with a nice concept that was executed
badly), Brooklyn (a beautiful tale detailing the growth of a young woman moving
to the ‘big city’), Joy (Jennifer Lawrence doing what she does best) and
Serenity, which added a lot to the hilariously awesome Firefly TV show. My
final two films of the week were A Life Less Ordinary, which was fun and
enjoyable; as I am a fan of Ewan McGregor and the majority of Danny Boyle’s
films and The Hateful Eight, which had some incredible acting from Jennifer Jason
Leigh and quite an intriguing story which did keep me interested throughout. I
do like pretty much all of Tarantino’s films, with my favourite being Jackie
Brown, because of the excellent female lead.
Alongside these films, I watched a TV
series titled Nathan for You, which I would highly recommend to anyone. It
features a man called Nathan, who approaches small businesses in California to ‘help’
them improve their company. It is hilarious.
I’ve also been playing a few videogames,
one was called The Beginner’s Guide. It’s a sort of interactive storytelling
experience, where you wander through a variety of ‘levels’ being guided by the
developer of the game. The whole experience is quite distressing and looks to
dismantle the idea of a video game as well as your general ‘living’ experience.
A particularly fascinating moment for me was when, whilst cleaning a house, a
character within the game starts to have a dialogue with you about the act of cleaning,
and the repetitive nature of it all. Instead of being unhappy about this, they
were embracing it, enjoying the act of knowing what’s going to happen and how
everything works. This made me think about the work that I’ve been creating,
and allowed me to consider whether or not the idea of a monotonous life is in
fact a positive thing. More than anything the game just made me think, which is
in itself an accomplishment.
I also played Her Story, where the
entire game involves you (the player) using a database of police video clips to
solve a mystery. The quite dark and distressing story slowly unravels as you
learn more about what happened, leading you on a confusing trail. I thoroughly
enjoyed the journey that I was able to take myself on.
Another was a very short game called The
Cat and the Coup, where you play as the cat of the first democratically elected
Prime Minister of Iran. The aesthetics are quite beautiful, with intricate patterns
and Monty Python esque figures inhabiting the environment.
Throughout the weeks and the days I’ve
been attempting to create work, making a few short video pieces that don’t
quite make sense yet, continuing on with my Zooks and the ideas that are
associated with those. It’s a shame that the work has slowed down, but I feel
that that was always going to happen. Over the weeks I’ve been collecting
quotes from TV shows and films, noting down whenever I hear someone talk about
how life is repetitive, dull or simple. These will, at some point, become part
of a video.
I have however been reading a number of
books and essays. One being ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ by Donna Haraway, where she
uses the idea of the cyborg to talk about gender and boundaries. Traditional
feminism is heavily critiqued throughout the text and is supported by the idea
that everyone has flaws, whether you’re a man, a woman or a ‘Z’.
I’ve also been reading a book about the
artist collaborators Joanna Hadjithomas and Khali Joreige called The Rumors of
the World centred on the work that they create using ‘spam’ emails. It’s been
an interesting book to dip in and out of, and learning about some new artists
that I haven’t come into contact before is always exciting. It also made me
start to think about the small collection of text messages that I always
receive on my phone, advertising ‘the best slot games’ and ‘cash now’ and how
to create work from that. Or the feeling that one gets when they receive a
text, but to their dismay it’s from a bot advertising worthless ‘junk’.
On top of this I’m looking at ‘Hacker,
Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous’ which is all about the
Anonymous movement and what it’s about. It’s an interesting read and ties in
well with one of my favourite TV shows from this year which was Mr Robot.
A few other books that I’m slowly wading
through are ‘The Value of Art’ by Michael Findlay, ‘Fictions’ by Jorge Luis
Borges and ‘Think Like an Artist’ by Will Gompertz. These are all interesting
pieces of text that I really want to pursue and read into further.
During the next week I need to write my
essay and will be continuing to read a variety of books and essays, as well as
hopefully making some new work if I can motivate myself to do so. It would also
be great to play a few more thought provoking video games, as I see it as an incredibly
involving art form that (if used properly) allows the player to actually ‘involve’
themselves within the work.
Daily Snapchat:
bob.bk
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