I’ve
been very relaxed this week, slowly assimilating back into simply being; moving
from my bed to the garden and back again. I think I need to carve out some sort
of structure for the summer, if not I’ll begin to go crazy with the amount of
free time I have. For now, though, it’s kind of nice…
Not
a lot of actual work has occurred, with the odd idea being considered here and
there but nothing substantial enough to be noteworthy in any way. I began to
create an abstract piece of music inspired by the various Vaporwave sub-genres,
but at the end of the first day the 41 second clip that I had created sounded
very weird, with no real relevance or structure. I’m beginning to realise that
the freedom that’s afforded by just making music by itself makes the whole
process a lot more difficult, rather than simply putting together a soundscape for
a video clip. I may continue on with this work, but will more than likely
re-think the whole thing. The link to the sound piece is here: https://soundcloud.com/bob-bicknell-knight/test
It
would be interesting to take well known music videos, take away the sound, and
create my own soundscape for each piece; using vaporwave as the dominant genre
due to its consumer capitalist roots. This could be a thing… A combination of my
abandoned YouTube copyright piece with the creation of a Vaporwave EP. Maybe in
the next week I’ll look into this and see if it can be done; creating vaporwave
music to the most popular YouTube music videos.
That’s
about it for actual art work occurring, as I say I’ve been mostly relaxing and
taking things ‘easy’. I’ve been going through my blog and my notes a little
bit, collecting all the ideas that I’ve had over the past few months and
deciding which ones I want to pursue and which ones will be forgotten. The idea
of creating a video game consisting of an interactive song that you can
manipulate ‘in game’ is still incredibly intriguing to me, as well as the ‘no
screen time’ contract. Both of these things require time and a little bit of
thought. I know how to program the sounds within the game, I just need to
choose a song still, and then all I have to do is to actually do it. All I need
for the latter idea is to draw up a contract, making it look professional and legitimate
as possible, and then allocate a certain number of days in which to actually do
it (the ‘no screen’ time). Hopefully I’ll think more about this in the coming
week.
Displaying
a kindle with Infinite Jest loaded up
on it is still interesting to me, one of those pieces that screams ‘look at me,
look at how much I know etc’, which I’m never really a fan of, but maybe I can
do this in a knowing way? Another idea, creating a website with no external
links, making it unable to be found via search engines, is an interesting one but
maybe impossible to achieve.
I
think these 5 pieces will be worked on over the coming weeks when I can be
bothered to actually do anything with them. I also need to start thinking about
the show that I’m going to be in/help with putting on over the summer whilst
being here in Suffolk. All the spaces are so small, so it may simply be a two-person
show. I’m also thinking about what other things I can go about doing because of
the low cost nature of all the venues that I’ve been finding, as well as asking
myself why I want to put these things on; to gain awareness for my work? As a
motivator to make work over the summer? A way of documenting new work in a
white walled clean space? To put another exhibition on my CV? Who knows? I
still need to set various dates for these things too, working around holidays
and other peoples’ schedules.
I
went to one vaguely art based thing this week at Snape Maltings called The Discovery Of Bomarzo. It was a
collaborative performative work by an ‘early music’ collective (basically singing)
and Mira Calix (an interesting sound artist). About two minutes of the hour
long performance was actually ‘collaborative’ whilst the other 58 minutes was
vaguely interesting abstract sounds interspersed with painful singing. They
seemed to have missed the point about it being a ‘collaborative’ work, which
was a real shame actually, as those two minutes were kind of interesting and
worthwhile.
Other
than this I’ve been watching a range of films whilst continuing onwards with Lost as well as a new tv show (for me) called
Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s actually
very funny and very enjoyable, focusing in on the day to day life of Larry
David, the co-creator of the hit show Seinfeld.
I’d definitely recommend it if you’re into a very ‘real’ type of comedy,
whatever that means.
In
terms of films, it’s been a very slow week, with the majority of my time being
given over to Larry David (I’m already on season 6). I’ve wanted to see Richard
Linklater’s most recent film about college life and a ‘spiritual successor’ to Dazed and Confused for a while, so I was
very excited to finally watch Everybody
Wants Some!! To my dismay however, rather than being a masterpiece it was
like walking into a pit of misogyny. I’m very aware that the point was to
simulate his own life experiences as well as how the early 80’s was… But,
really? ‘In this day and age’ is it okay to make this kind of movie; where
women are turned into inanimate objects to be pursued by the white male protagonists
and are given the briefest of lines in order to pretend that they’re being somewhat
respected? I really wanted to like it, and did enjoy some of the cleverer
jokes, but that involved putting up with all the other shit that was occurring on
the screen. In reality it was simply dull and sexist, just another film about
being a white American in college, something nobody really wants anymore. I
really expected more from Linklater.
Demolition
was kind of interesting, a lot better than I thought it was going to be, with
the ‘wanky’ trailer giving me a range of negative impressions. The main characters’
wife dies in the beginning, and whilst at the hospital Jake Gyllenhaal attempts
to get some food from a vending machine. The sweet packet gets stuck, so he
proceeds to pour the grief that he’s feeling into various letters that he sends
to the vending machine company under the guise of complaining about losing a few
cents to buy M&Ms. It’s heart-warming and quite lovely, if a little ‘wanky’
at times, but who doesn’t like a little bit of ‘wankieness’ sometimes?
I
also watched Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, a
new film featuring Tina Fey, whom I loved in 30 Rock but since then haven’t really liked anything else that she’s
been in. This was no real exception, with the film being too serious for a
comedy, but too light for a drama. Obviously ‘comedy-drama’ is a thing, but I
don’t think it suits Tina Fey very well. Maybe I just can’t get over her 30 Rock performance…
I
mistakenly watched Postman Pat: The Movie,
more for my younger self than anything else. It wasn’t that interesting, and as
an adult I was picking apart the film as it was going on in front of me.
Compared to the various cartoons that I watch on a daily basis, this was not at
all interesting and only for the children in the audience, with nothing being
given to the parents to enjoy.
A Bigger Splash
however, was quite incredible. Some very interesting filming was occurring
alongside a story that slowly unravels, with the tension slowly building as the
movie continues on. I would highly recommend it, Ralph Fiennes’ acting alone
makes the film worth watching; managing to create a completely new and
convincing personality for himself. Highly recommended.
The
last film of the week was Equals, a
sci-fi film with a plot we all know; ‘in a future where emotions are suppressed
by drugs two people rise up to fight against the system’, etc. Although the
film basically took the concept of Equilibrium
and mixed in the clean aesthetics of THX
1138, I kind of liked it. It was incredibly subtle, as you’d hope from a
mainly emotionless cast of characters, with an ambiguous ending. One of the many
glaring faults however was the casting of Kristen Stewart. Although I enjoy her
acting in other films, she just didn’t suite the ‘emotionless’ role that this
film was asking for. It is plainly obvious that she has emotions and would have
been reported to the ‘higher ups’ ten minutes into the film. I’m aware she’s
supposed to be hiding these emotions whilst slightly showing them on the
occasion, but the majority of the time it was just too obvious. For the concept
of this to work it needs to be perfect. Equilibrium
combatted this by moving away from the citizens of the world, away from the
people who were emotionless, a cowardly decision but a decision nonetheless, which
is a lot better than attempting to act your way through the impossible decision
that was made by Drake Doremus.
Other
than the films, I’ve been playing a lot of Fallout
4 this week, slowly being engulfed by the virtual universe that it offers
up on a plate. A lot of the missions aren’t that great, but the shooting
mechanics are incredibly satisfying which facilitates the exploration of an
incredibly intricate world that’s been created for the player to explore. I’m
thoroughly enjoying my time with the game and will probably continue to do so for
a little while at least.
Oh
and this week’s artists on isthisit?
are Abbie Cairns and Elliot Hewgill. Two different video works, one about
social media being a game and the other dissecting an incredibly pixelated
image of two figures splashing in the sea. Both looking at two very different
aspects of life which work kind of well. You can browse it here: http://isthis.wix.com/isthisit
I
think that’s my incredibly calm and relaxed week. Hopefully next week some
actual work will occur, or not, who knows? I think that’s the point of being on
holiday…
Enjoi.
Instagram:
bob.bk1
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