Utopias, Culture Hacking and Electronic Superhighway

Many things have happened this week; starting a collaboration, watching a few movies, finishing the bulk of my film, starting to watch Making a Murderer, reading Utopia, going to many talks, exhibitions and a panel. It was a good week.

My works been progressing slowly, I managed to finish the editing of the music and video during the week, the majority of it anyway. I still have to film zooming out of a screen and then zooming out of that screen, which will hopefully be accomplished next week.

I did, however, start to write my script for the film, whilst researching many artists who create video works with narration or voice overs, like Camille Henrot or Jon Rafman. For the moment I’ve just been writing random spools of thought, which don’t really make sense. I’m unsure whether I want very little text, interjecting here and there, or a lot of text, overlaying the whole thing. I need to think about it further. These are a few examples of the preliminary texts:

Delving into the depths of the mind, exploring the potency of life, the hunger for an event that never occurs on the precipice of the future. Controlling a pointless world where everyone is a prototype and life is a coffin that is slowly levered into the ground.

Distractions being produced through pedagogical relationships over an eternity long escapade to the moon, tumultuous rains pouring down, obeying the laws of physics, wasting misery on the miserable.

Sinking into a slow ball of depression, becoming defeated and weightless, looking forwards in the ‘would you like to play again’ utopian culture that we have all love and cherish. Fuelling ourselves with attractive chains and living in carbon copies of each other’s lives.

Overwhelmed by the characters in an invisible war against the data banks of our minds, one conforms to the illegitimate rulers of the commonplace court of irresponsibility and depression to seek a life of luxury and inexplicable pleasure.

I also started to look into creating a sculpture of the Zook immersed in a block. The more I thought about it, the more interested I became of the possibility of making the Zook using a 3-D printer. I’m currently attempting to do this, it involves creating the model so that it’s completely water tight on a new program and sending the file to a printer somewhere in London. I’m going to pursue this further, as I think the aesthetics would be really interesting, a sculpture created on a computer melting into a material that’s been used for many many many many years.

In other news, this week me and a fellow student (Laila Majid) started to collaborate on a new project, centred on the internet (or ‘the network’ to quote James Bridle) and the overwhelming nature of the thing itself. It stemmed from discussions surrounding the idea of creating a virtual exhibition, which slowly turned into thinking about interactive space and wanting to make new work, rather than simply displaying the work that we’re doing right now online. In the end we decided to create a range of spaces, environments, within Google Sketchup and to fill them with objects from the depths of the Sketchup Warehouse. Alongside this, video and sounds from YouTube will be used, as well as screengrabs from our own computers, which will find themselves within this video piece/interactive landscape. For the moment I haven’t got anything ‘proper’ to show, but hopefully by next week we will have made some progress.

On top of this I’ve submitted my application to go on Erasmus next year, which should be exciting if I actually get through the many hoops. I only applied to one school, the San Francisco Art Institute, to go on their Art and Technology course. It looks like a really exciting course, with some really amazing tutors, Jenny Odell being one of them, who works a lot with Google Street View (similar to Rafman’s 9-eyes project) and makes work surrounding the internet as well as social media, etc. It was quite exciting to find a tutor on the course who had work that was truly inspiring to me.

During the week I went to a number of talks, the first one being the weekly Chelsea one, which was kind of interesting. Cecilie Gravesen was the artist, who makes documentary type films that stems from a research based practice, mainly looking at the ideas surrounding Colonialism. Similar – in a conceptual way – to David Blandy’s most recent video work titled ‘Finding Fanon Part Two’. Another talk I went to was centred on James Bridle and ‘Systems Literacy’. This was hosted at the Whitechapel Gallery in conjunction with Electronic Superhighway, which I went to today (it was amazing). The talk was incredible, with so many ideas flying around (not dissimilar to the velocity of the drones which feature a lot in Bridle’s work) that it was hard to keep up. There was so much said that I’m still processing it all, and will continue to read through my notes in the coming days.

The highlight of the week was going to a panel on Culture Hacking, centred on Simon Denny’s exhibition at the Serpentine, but with many more awesome people present (like Heba Amin and Brett Scott) discussing the work that they do in their chosen fields and their positions on surveillance, hacking and power. It was an incredible experience and was hard to keep up with everything that was going on. Many interesting things were discussed and said, I particularly enjoyed Scott’s comparing of artists to hackers as well as the idea of aesthetic research. Yet again, my notes will be ingested and considered as the days continue.

I read the book Utopia by Thomas More and have been reading extracts from The Faber Book of Utopias (edited by John Carey) in response to my seminar on Utopias which will begin tomorrow. In More’s Utopia, a lot of the aspects of the mythical space make it seem more like a Communist society as opposed to a ‘no place’ or ‘ideal place’. The idea that everyone’s house is exactly the same, and that the clothes never change is incredibly creepy to me. The idea that gold is used to imprison their slaves is an interesting one, and the ideas surrounding pain and pleasure were really thought inducing. I’ve also started to read Brave New World, which I’ve previously read before, but I thought that I would ‘refresh’ for the seminar. I’m also taking another seminar on Immunity and Autoimmunity, and in the lead up to that I’m reading On Immunity by Eula Bliss, which has been interesting.

Over the week I went to a number of exhibitions, the first of which was Line at the Lisson Gallery which featured many favourites, from one of Sol Lewitt’s ‘Wall Drawing’s to Florian Pumhösl’s beautiful ‘Tract’ animation. The other Lisson Gallery exhibition was featuring John Akomfrah and a range of his video works which were all incredibly well filmed and produced. Seventeen Gallery was another space that I visited, with an incredible light installation by Marianna Simnett which visualised the act of breathing in a subtle yet all-encompassing way that really dragged you into the work. Hales Gallery was okay, with a collection of things by Jeff Keen, which felt more like a museum exhibit than an art exhibition. The Ryder gallery on the other hand had some amazing work by Mark Davey, the precision involved within the sculptural works was an awe to observe, especially in ‘Us’, where two fluorescent tubes are in constant movement, being thrown around by motorised steel robot arms.

The Space Gallery was interesting, having not been there before I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised by Jeremy Hutchison’s 3-D body-scan and the neon lettering that accompanied it. The Limoncello had abstract and dull paintings by Cornelia Baltes being shown, which I was uninterested by and the Chisenhale gallery (another first) had a range of assemblages featuring medical equipment as well as three huge blocks of polyurethane foam. The space was huge and amazing but not well used, in my opinion.

The final exhibition of the week was Electronic Superhighway at the Whitechapel, which I’ve been looking forward to for a number of weeks. I’d seen a lot of the work before, obviously, but nevertheless it was still a truly enjoyable experience. Seeing Eva and Franco Mattes’ ‘My Generation’ in situ was quite amazing, as well as Corey Arcangel’s ‘Snowbunny / Lakes’. Some people who were new to me included Jonas Lund with his ‘VIP’ (Viewer Improved Painting) which had an interesting concept and Jayson Musson with a compilation of YouTube clips (called Art Thoughtz) taken from his persona’s (Hennessy Youngman) channel. They are hilarious and I highly recommend watching them. I hope to return at some point, spending more hours immersed in the technology. I was disappointed that Hito Steyerl’s ‘How Not to be Seen. A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File’ wasn’t on display, or any of Jon Rafman’s video works, but nevertheless it was quite an inspiring exhibition.

Throughout the week I’ve also been watching a number of films, one of my favourites being ‘The End of the Tour’ which dramatizes the interview of David Foster Wallace (or ‘Dave Wallace’) by David Lipsky. Having read Infinite Jest over the summer it was incredibly interesting to listen to these two actors discussing the pitfalls of modern society over a five day period. It made me want to read more of Wallace’s collection of books. Another great film from this week was Richard Linklater’s ‘Waking Life’ which was basically an hour and a half of animated actors philosophising on the nature of reality, the meaning of life and existentialism. A really amazing piece of film making. ‘Prisoners’ was also incredible, with Jack Gyllenhaall and Paul Dano performing with clarity.

Grandma was a fun way to spend 80 minutes of my evening, and Creed got me to be vaguely interested in boxing. Kingsman: The Secret Service on the other hand was quite dull, with a terrible ending which poisoned the rest of the film for me in my opinion. Freeheld is the last film on the list, an outstanding performance by Julianne Moore (as always) accompanying a slightly dull film. The plot was an exciting one that was directed badly, making my concern for the characters wellbeing close to non-existent. Still Alice was a far better story, if we’re looking at films where we see Moore slowly decaying as the film progresses forwards.

I also started to watch Making a Murderer, which feels a little like Serial but it’s visual counterpart. I’m only four episodes in though, so who knows what will happen. On top of this I find myself repeatedly dipping into episodes of The Twilight Zone, which is always a delight.

Oh and this week’s lecture was focused on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. We were looking at Laura Mulvey’s essay of the same name, in conjunction with the films of Alfred Hitchcock and artists like Hannah Wilke and Cindy Sherman. It was fairly okay and I learned a few things.

Along with this I’ve been playing Braid, a video game that’s central mechanic is that you can time travel. You do this to solve complex puzzles within the game world and is interwoven with an enticing storyline. Definitely worth playing. To end the week I returned to Vice City, enjoying the pleasures of 80s music mixed with the pinks and hues of Miami. Sometimes it’s good to indulge in one thing or another.

During the week I intend to continue with my work concerning the collaboration and finalising my personal film, as well as considering ways to display the piece. I also want to get my files sent to a 3-D Printer, so that I’ll get the physical thing back as soon as possible. I look forward to the seminars, even though they’re going to be incredibly tough and hard to keep up with.

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Life 2.0, the Zabludowicz and That Dragon, Cancer

My works been slowly progressing forwards in the past week, the majority of the video visuals are nearly finished whilst the soundscape is still being crafted, and I haven’t even started writing the script, which is arguably the most important part and will tie everything together. I also visited a few galleries like the Edel Assanti and watched a fair amount of films including The Assassin and Second Skin.

Throughout the week I thought a lot about the video, making decisions about the sounds and how everything interlinks. Last week I talked a little about the overall concept, but not about the individual parts, which I intend to write about now. When the video begins, you are presented with a square, white (uncorrupted) room, where two individuals are engrossed in their screens. The Zooks that they’re watching are created using a software that’s meant to be used by children to create ‘warriors’ to fight in an arena battle, for the children’s enjoyment. I use the software to create forms that are weighed down by a huge blue cube, attempting to fight back but never being victorious, as the block is a part of the creature, similar to how Capitalism is a part of all of us. As the video goes on, the block slowly begins to overwhelm the different creatures, becoming bigger and bigger until eventually it’s just a blue block on the screen. The fact that I’m using this software reiterates the point that the majority of the western world is influenced by or involved with Capitalism, and the fact that the program is created by the BBC furthers that. The camera then pans out of a different screen (thinking about how this technology helps to bring people together whilst also critiquing the ease of it all) circling around to show you that the people in the box are slowly being infested by the blue after watching these creatures; the screens are beginning to swallow up the people. The music for the work is made up of computer and video game sound effects, linking the work to consumer Capitalism and the rise of technology in this post internet age. As a side note here, I’m also a big fan of Vaporwave music, which is a big influence for the soundscape.

When the camera delves back into the screen, which is an IPad, we zoom down onto a blue box. The blues within the piece are all slightly different, which is making a point that Capitalism comes in many forms. The music at this point appears to be in awe of the box, amazed at the creation of such a simple idea with many intricacies hidden within. When we eventually go into the box, we see the figures inside, surrounded by the blue. At this point the figures are viewing these figures through their screen. They may or may not be the same individuals, and that’s the point, everyone being trapped within small boxes, seeing the world through a screen, looking exactly alike and looking into other people’s little boxes via their own. After the video glitches to multiple different rooms, with different blues and wireframe bodies, we go back to the original room, which is completely covered with blue. The TV begins to glitch, changing from many heavy materials like concrete and steel to a calming image of artificial water. Blinds are also shown, blocking out creatures looking in whilst also stopping the individuals from looking out. The water is an escape, but also a deadly force, threatening to swallow the room, getting in through the blinds and the concrete which hold the people within the walls of the cubicle like space. As we come to the end of the films – so far – the water is seen in many different forms, waiting to flood into the room. As it pans out of the corridor we see the two people fully blue, completely taken by the system.

At this point in the movie the camera moves around the space and then proceeds to zoom into the man’s head, signalling that the ideas imbedded within the video are things I think about every day, as well as adding doubt to whether or not the whole ordeal is within this individuals mind or not. I am yet to add in a scene that will be overlapping this one, where the people sitting on the sofa become zooks, slowly melting into their own blue blocks as the camera pans around the room. This is something I’m yet to do. Alongside this I want the video to continue by zooming out of the screen, to show two people watching the film in real life on a computer screen. This will go on for around half of the original film, where the people may or may not be commenting on the movie. At around the half way point the camera will zoom out again to reveal that the artificial people are watching the real people watching the video. The whole film will end once the video within the video within the video ends for the second time, ending by zooming in really fast to begin the whole process again. This is what I intend to film in the coming week, as well as starting to write my script for the original video, taking quotes from children’s TV shows and popular films whilst considering life and its meanings, or lack of.

I also plan to create a sculpture or a series of sculptures of the Zooks being enveloped by the blue block. The general idea is to have the Zook made of an incredibly artificial material, and the block being made up of something incredibly weighty and traditional, like cement or plaster. I’m only in the beginning stages of planning, as most of my time is taken up by working on the film, but once that’s all finalised I can start thinking about the sculpture a little more.

Whilst not working this week, I went to a few exhibitions which were mostly positive experiences, unlike last week. The first space that I visited was Evelyn Yard, which had some beautiful wall based ‘sculptures’ which seemed to melt into the wall and were incredibly subtle. Rook & Raven was showing a bunch of colour paintings and metal structures, which were ‘aesthetically pleasing’ to look at, and some Malevich/Kandinsky inspired works which weren’t that special. Edel Assanti was next, with some incredibly impressive video works. I especially enjoyed Gregory Kalliche’s ‘Last Chance’ video piece, which discussed the dying planet accompanied by animated lizards. Josh Lilley came next, with some surprisingly nice prints that were really well done. For once the downstairs actually had some good work being shown. The Bartha Contemporary had some vaguely okay work, considering the use of light and colour. It was interesting to see the subtle change over time in some of the pieces, but compared to work that’s been in there before – like Henrik Eiben’s beautiful geometric compositions – it was a little disappointing.

I also visited the Fashion Space Gallery at LCF, which was kind of fun, but very fashion orientated, which isn’t really for me. Pippy Houldsworth Gallery had some paper cutting work by Yuken Teruya up, which was vaguely impressive, but compared to what Peter Callesen creates it wasn’t that great. I remember seeing Teruya’s work at the Saatchi a few years ago, and was only really interested because he was turning something terrible (a McDonalds bag) into something beautiful (a tree); which was, even then, kind of obvious. I then went to Sadie Coles HQ, which was odd, as I had to sign a release form to get into the space. This made me think something exciting was happening upstairs, but unfortunately this was not the case, as the ‘dangerous activity’ was in fact a game of bowls. The general work was quite interesting, with an impenetrable sound piece occurring in one corner and a variety of sculptures dotted around the space. The lack of a press release was more than slightly frustrating though.

Marian Goodman was next, with some solid work being shown from a bunch of big names like Bruce Nauman and Luciano Fabro. All the pieces were really good, with Fabro’s marble pieces being a definite highlight, but nothing I hadn’t seen before. A mixture of a positive and a negative. Frith Street was over the road, so I went there to see a variety of pieces all centred on the idea of the cinema space by Bridget Smith. I really liked a piece simply titled ‘Projection’ which was a three screen video installation displaying the beam of light from a projection screen. It was really quite beautiful and simple.

I then ventured over to the Saatchi Gallery. Overall it was quite an unpleasant experience, full of people photographing themselves touching the clay cows (why are there clay cows in an art gallery?) and fondling the taxidermy horse. To cope with the amount of people wandering around the place, taking pictures of anything that could be labelled as ‘art’, I had to explore whilst listening to calm music. For me, the majority of the work was very basic, with the standouts being Moje Sabz by Sohelia Sokhanvari (simply for aesthetic reasons) and 181 Kilometres by Alice Anderson because of the impressive-nuss of the thing itself and how it was created.

I also went to the Zabludowicz Collection to see the new show; Use/User/Used. It was a bit weird, as the space had been drastically changed following the end of Rafman’s exhibition, and having been there so many times before I had gotten used to the dark interior and booming sounds. The new work was mostly interesting, with a piece by Artie Vierkant called Antoine Office, Antoine Casual being a favourite. Within the two channel video, an animation of a man in business clothes on one screen is shown and in casual attire on another. The animated man is seen to be controlled in both the video pieces, not just ‘at the office’, a self-enforced and externally imposed dependence on all things. Another video work I really enjoyed was called Lolcats by Rachel Maclean. It was hilariously disturbing, and well worth the 15 minute running time. To talk of the content would spoil the enjoyment.

I then went to the final gallery of the week, which was the Parasol Unit displaying work by Julian Charrière. Some parts were interesting, like several plants dipped in liquid nitrogen and huge photographs of the artist melting an iceberg. As I’m typing this, I do realise that the exhibition was rather good, but in comparison to the previous exhibition that was centred on abstract art from Belgium, it didn’t really compare.

This week I also watched a variety of films, the first being The Fifth Estate. The visualisation of the network of people that occurred during the film reminded me of the many scenes in Hackers where the actual hacking is shown in a 3D world of its own. Continuing on the ‘internet’ path I then watched Terms and Conditions May Apply. The revelations surrounding privacy settings was intriguing, even though I knew about the majority of what was being said. It reminded me of many scenes in TV shows like Homeland, The Newsroom, Person of Interest and especially Weeds whenever the NSA is mentioned, watching everything everyone does. I then moved onto documentaries about video games, starting with Second Skin, which looked at people who were obsessed with the popular MMO, World of Warcraft. To watch these people live their life absorbed by their computer was highly distressing, but at the same time fascinating to watch. Next up was Video Games: The Movie, which was kind of dull, rehashing a lot of aspects of the video game industry that I already know about, whilst completely ignoring many others. In the small world that the film makers live in, apparently Steam doesn’t exist, or most forms of computer gaming, which was odd. Compared to Charlie Brooker’s How Videogames Changed the World, VG: TM was dull and slightly patronising. I then watched Life 2.0, which was all about Second Life and the people who interact with this virtual world every day. It was an intriguing watch, which made me think a lot about the differences between a real and virtual relationship; screen vs reality, etc. I also watched a few documentaries about Capitalism, one simply called The Corporation and another titled The Success and Price of Capitalism. They both made for interesting viewings, but brought up a lot of ideas/general things that I was already aware of. However it was still good to have certain things reinforced, etc.

The final film of the week was called The Assassin, an incredibly subtle film which was shot very well and contained only a handful of words which were used only when body language wasn’t able to communicate what was being felt on screen. The fight scenes were swift and, in comparison to most action films, the director didn’t seem to actually want them, allowing the camera to drift off to focus on an attractive tree or building. It was a really interesting film.

Alongside the films, I played a few games that are definitely noteworthy. One of which was titled That Dragon, Cancer. In it, you are a voyeur of sorts, observing a small child’s 4 year battle with cancer. It was an incredibly beautiful and heart wrenching game, which had me very close to tears. I highly recommend giving it a try, or at least watching a no-commentary play through on YouTube. Mondo Medicals was another game, which was incredibly weird and surreal, I think I’ll leave it at that. I also played ‘Every day the same dream’ which, although basic, was an interesting 10 minute insight into a monotony filled existence.

On top of all the screen based content I started reading a book called Me++ that looks at the consequences of information technology in everyday life. A stand out quote for me was ‘connecting creatures who must always separate but can’t connect without separating’ (Georg Simmel) and the idea that time started as a communal activity but ended with the individual. I’m enjoying it a lot.

Oh and I also had an artist talk on Tuesday by Ben Cove, a painter. The work was nice to look at but didn’t really do anything for me, as the talk was being given by a painter, yet again. On Monday I also had a lecture on site specificity, which was informative, although a lot of the artist that were brought up I was already aware of, like Richard Long and Daniel Buren, a big fan of both.

In the coming week I want to continue working on my film, hopefully having the bare bones of a script by next week, as well as the soundscape completed and the visuals all finalised. I look forward to progressing onwards with this project, as I’m really excited about the outcome.

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Room, Farocki and Blue Squares

This week has been incredibly refreshing and exciting, getting back to work and exploring galleries, as well as just being around lots of people again, which is weirdly comforting in a way, being immersed in a small space with lots of people as opposed to being in an expansive space with very few people.

My works been slowly progressing, working with Sketchup and the Zooks to create a video which is slowly progressing into something interesting, thinking about the overconsumption of technology and the powers that control that. Sort of an extension of my last project, but in a different form. The ideas surrounding monotony and life are also affiliated with this, but in a looser way, still within the work but at the same time not at the forefront of the meaning. Influenced by many things, but most of all the variety of films that I watched over the holidays, considering life and the meaning of, Kaufman being the main man. At the moment I’m still adding video clips to the movie, alongside the soundscape, made up of an assortment of computer and video game sound clips. I also want to add in a dialogue between at least two people, or maybe just one, debating certain things about life whilst using quotes from popular television cartoons and films; bearing in mind artists like Jon Rafman and Harun Farocki, whose work I recently saw at the Whitechapel Gallery. The films, Parallel I-IV, chart the evolution of computer game graphics over the past 30 years, with a range of interesting commentary occurring overhead. Although I’d seen a lot of the films before, it was great to see it in its installation form, with all the screens arranged in a large circle. This is my film, which I’m going to continue on with for the next few weeks, slowly chipping away at it day by day.

During the rest of the week I went to a few galleries, the Whitechapel being the first, which was where I saw Farocki’s work. However on the 29^th a new exhibit opens there titled ‘Electronic Superhighway’ which I’m very excited for, and will (hopefully) be the stand out show for me this term, as it features so many favourites, like Hito Steyerl, Eva and Franko Mattes, Jon Rafman, Constant Dullart and many more. Did I mention that I was very excited?

I then ventured on to many other galleries, like Tenderpixel, which had some videos being shown that were slightly impenetrable, and the White Cube (Mason’s Yard), which had some incredibly – for me – dull paintings. Just lines upon lines drawn into the canvas, all of which were incredibly similar.

I also went to Hauser and Wirth, which had some vaguely enticing stuff in the first gallery, all thinking about the fragility of life and everything that plays into that. Next door however had some very bizarre work, by Fabio Mauri. Well, not bizarre, but surprising. Looking through the window to the gallery it looks as if a group of men (29 in total) in suits are all gathered around a table, conducting some sort of meeting. In actuality this is simply a life sized sculpture, but at first I was slightly afraid to enter the space. I could tell the work was deep and meaningful, but that sort of went over my head at the time, and I intend to revisit what it’s all about at a later date.

Alongside this I’ve been to the Massimo De Carlo gallery, which had a show on called ‘Therapy Paintings’ by Rob Pruitt. In general I like Pruitt’s work, but in this case the whole idea was so clichéd and overused that I was just bored as I was looking around at these very gestural paintings inspired by therapy sessions. Slightly too middle class for me, which is a critique of myself as much as it is of the concept.

The Maddox Arts gallery had some geometry inspired rugs and paintings, which were all acceptable, but not entirely my thing. This was the same for the Simon Lee gallery, which had some ‘glitchy’ mixed media pieces on show. On a different note, I always hate going to the Simon Lee gallery, as the staff are always kind of rude. I know I’m a young person who isn’t going to buy anything, but still, ‘it doesn’t hurt to be nice’.

The Tiwani Contemporary had some very basic collages, which was, yet again, not my thing. Art First was also not that exciting, with lots of paintings of faces. Grimpel Fils was similar with an exhibition titled ‘Works on Paper’ which is never a good sign. Sadie Coles also had tiny paintings of faces, which was just boring. I also visited the Ronchini Gallery, whose exhibition was titled ‘Whispers’ based on the childhood game, ‘Chinese Whispers’. Do grown people not understand that the title of this childhood game is incredibly racist? If the exhibition was about the fact that children were taught a game and told that it was called ‘Chinese Whispers’ as opposed to ‘Telephone’ (the name given to it in the United States) then that would be interesting. Unfortunately it wasn’t about that at all! This fact kind of disturbed me enough not to really concentrate on what the work was about.

The last space I went to this week was the Philips gallery, which is usually a very weird space. As it’s actually an auction house, the work within is always by incredibly famous artists like Marcel Duchamp or Andy Warhol, being accompanied by classic songs from the seventies like Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed. This should be off putting, having to get the guard to open the door, and having however much the work is on every label, but in actuality it has a slightly calm atmosphere because of this well picked playlist which seems to be always on.

During the week I also went to the Tuesday lecture, which was by a painter called Gabriel Hartley. Obviously because he was a painter, I was put off immediately. The ideas within the work, concerning the internet and screens, were interesting, but the fact that the end result was a painting did not excite me. To make matters worse, he left 30 minutes for questions. Whenever I’ve been at an artist talk within a uni and they’ve left this amount of time for questions, one of two things always happen. Either everyone asks a questions and they’re all terrible, or only one or two people ask a question, and the event gets cut short, ending in an awkward silence. In this case the former occurred, which was excruciatingly painful and dull.

I’ve also been watching a few films this week, which includes Beasts of No Nation, Black Mass, Room, A Perfect Day, Band of Robbers and Mad Max 2. Room was quite distressing, with Jacob Tremblay’s acting being a high point of the film. A Perfect Day was an interesting look at how small problems can turn into huge ones whilst in a conflict zone. I’m always a fan of Benicio Del Toro, especially his role in The Usual Suspects and Sicario.

There was a quote from one of Harun Farocki’s films that I’ve been thinking about and will continue to think about, not because it’s especially hard to figure out, just because of its beauty and simplicity. ‘The objects have no existence beyond themselves’ was said in one of the Parallel videos concerning objects in video games. It’s definitely something to consider.

During the next week I intend to keep working on my film, adding more sound and substance to the work. I thoroughly look forward to this process and can’t wait for the outcome.

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Anomalisa, The Revenant and Gone Home

Today I’m returning to London, taking the short journey from one place to another place. I’m looking forward to being in that space again, a space where I feel motivated to do things and make things. Although I have gained what I wanted from the holidays; watching films, reading books and seeing people that I haven’t seen for many months, it felt different. It felt like I had changed but the places hadn’t. This is, of course, a very obvious observation. But it’s still worth contemplating, or at the very least noting for further reflection.

In the last few weeks I’ve been writing my essay, which I completed many days ago now. I decided to write about the Jon Rafman exhibition, easily the most influential exhibition for me during the course of my first term, so it was an obvious choice. I talked about how the spectator’s relationship with the exhibition changes as they move through it, as Rafman teaches them to forget about the ‘traditional’ ways to navigate through an art gallery. This is a small excerpt:

The exhibition as a whole requires a pedagogical relationship with the viewer, teaching them to interact with the installations and throw away the preconceptions that they may have about installation art, relational work or just art work in general. As you enter the exhibition space, you’re immediately confronted by a ‘facilitator’ who enquires whether or not you have visited the space before whilst informing you of the interactive nature of the works. This notifies the spectator that they will have to become a participant to immerse themselves within the work and get the most out of the exhibition. This also forces social pressures onto the viewer, making sure that they understand that they will have to be ‘part of’ the work to actually look at the work.

For the rest of the time I’ve been reading a variety of books (from The Emancipated Spectator to Artificial Hells) in order to learn more about relational art. This has been tough, as the writing is incredibly hard to understand, but as I read more I slowly began to understand and gain an inkling of what was being said.

I’ve also been watching a huge amount of films. Over this holiday period I think I’ve watched 55 films, which is both distressing and incredibly indulging. The ones I watched this week include; Anomalisa, My Neighbor Totoro, They live, The Revenant, Love & Mercy, The Big Short, Back to the Future 2, Carol, Bridge of Spies, Song of the Sea, Princess Mononoke, Akira, Trumbo, The Good Dinosaur, Legend, The Danish Girl, In the Heart of the Sea, Nausica of the Valley of the Wind, American Sniper, Sisters, 45 Years, Spotlight, Lucy, Youth, Knights of Cups and The Diary of a Teenage Girl.

The stand outs this week are Anomalisa, which is Charlie Kaufman’s newest reality twisting journey into his soul. The animation was quite impressive alongside the general ‘weirdness’ of the whole thing. All of the Hayao Miyazaki films were incredibly beautiful. Previously I’ve seen Spirited Away and a few others, but I’ve never properly worked my way through his whole catalogue, which I intend to do over the next few weeks when I have time. Song of the Sea was also captivating and reminded me a lot of Miyazaki’s films, and was the ‘push’ that made me look back at his filmography. The sheer beauty of the story and voice acting had me on the verge of tears. The Revenant was quite astounding, visually and DiCaprio’s acting was very impressive. Within They Live the famous fight scene was hilarious, alongside the worryingly all too real point in the film when Roddy Piper puts on the glasses for the first time. The Danish Girl was well acted, the chemistry between Vikander and Redmayne was captivating, and the story heart-breaking. Youth was also amazing, reflecting on life and how best to use it, etc. Like a lot of the films I’ve been watching recently.

I’ve been thinking a little bit about my artwork, and without the essay being a weight on my shoulders I began to think of what I want to create this term. I still like the idea of the Zooks, and want to continue down that path, making the Zooks trapped individuals, being viewed by other Zooks in other trapped spaces. I’m thinking about making a film, with a variety of different Zooks being weighed down by the big blue block, slowly pulsating and overwhelming different ones as the video continues. These individuals would be being watched on different electronic based devices, phones, laptops, tablets, etc. All by Zooks, trapped in boxes, slowly being suffocated themselves by this ever growing cube, gnawing at their individuality and effectiveness to fight other Zooks. The fighting of the Zooks would also be shown somewhere in the video, being viewed by their. Throughout this there would be quotes being spoken, all taken from different TV shows and films, and centred on the idea of life and the monotony of the whole thing. I intend to start creating this as soon as possible.

As well as this I played the video game Gone Home. Which was definitely an experience. It begins with you, the player, on the doorstep of your family home. The basic gameplay is made up of you exploring this large empty house, learning about its residence and what their lives entail by picking up everything that’s not nailed down. As you unravel this complex narrative the pieces slowly fall into place, and multiple revelations occur. I found it to be truly moving and really captured the mid-90s feel.

The term officially starts tomorrow with the submission of the essay along with a lecture, informing us of what’s to come during the next few month. I look forward to getting back to work, visiting galleries and experiencing what it’s like to live in a city again.

Weekly Snapchat:

bob.bk