I
sadly once again missed last week as Latitude slightly took over my weekend. It’s
also to do with the weather being so lovely recently, making it harder and
harder to write and actually produce meaningful work. A lot of the last two
weeks has consisted of sitting outside, listening to podcasts and music whilst indulging
in tv shows and films when the sun starts to go behind the clouds. It’s been a
very relaxed time, so don’t expect much to have happened.
The
one piece of work that I did manage to actually ‘finish’ was creating an online
shop for myself. ‘Online shop’ being a loose term to describe the creation of a
Redbubble account and uploading all my designs to the site. This is something
that I’ve wanted to do for a while, with the designs being a combination of my
work from Internet Relations
alongside random Vaporwave designs that I create for my own personal t-shirt
use. The beauty of Redbubble is that you can have these designs printed on all
sorts of things, from t-shirts to iPhone cases, which fully embodies the ideas
embedded within the original artwork. It also, in a purely capitalist sense,
makes me some money if/when people do buy the products. The various designs can
be accessed through my website here: http://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/#/double-dipping/
Each design can be put onto any piece of clothing, the images on my website are
simply examples.
I’ve
also been thinking a lot about new ideas alongside the concepts that I wanted
to fabricate at the beginning of this summer period. Last weeks ‘tree’ idea;
showing various real life trees being chopped down contrasted with video game
trees living on for all eternity, hasn’t been created yet as I’ve slightly
moved on from the initial concept. I’m currently considering creating a looping
film with footage taken from a downhill mountain biking game from the
PlayStation 1 era of videogames. These games, in contrast to newer video games
on the market, were never updated, never ‘patched’, as the console couldn’t
actually connect to the internet. This keeps the game ‘pure’, unable to be
changed or distorted, with the original discs living forever with the same
mountain biking man seemingly cycling down the same mountain for all eternity.
I like the idea of using something from a bygone era, an era where it was
impossible for a large company to access something of yours remotely, as it wasn’t
connected to the internet. In the video that I’m envisioning the biker would go
down a hill, with trees either side, with the path (seemingly) never ending,
the loop continuing on until the television is ultimately unplugged. This makes
me think of various works by Jon Rafman, one of which, titled Leviathan, shows the fastest Skyrim ‘speed
run’ displayed on a silicone covered Alienware laptop. No one is going to stay
and watch the whole thing, who knows if the game is actually completed or not?
I
also like the idea of contrasting this with something, something that shows how
changeable real life can be, how much ‘everything’ is ‘moving forward’. At
first I thought that the tree being chopped down could embody this idea, or
maybe various car crashes? Contrasting the endless mountain biking with
horrific real life crashes? I later thought about displaying the film Samsara, a feature length movie that looks
at the various aspects of the world, alongside the endless biking. For me, this
film fully embodies ‘everything’ that’s occurring in this world, so there may
be too much content embedded within the film to show as a piece of re-appropriated
artwork. I still need to think about it, and actually start to make something.
I think the sun is just way too inviting right now to do anything indoors, and
that’s probably okay as it’s the holidays.
I
still really want to write up a contract for no screen time. It’s slowly
changed from writing it for me to writing it for the first world society that
we’re living in. It’ll function as a downloadable document for anyone to use.
This will have the look of a serious document, which can actually be used for
said purpose, but in actuality it’ll be satirising people who make the comment
that we should be living in a ‘screen-less’ society, whilst getting their ‘message’
across using YouTube or online forums. So this will have an outwardly serious
tone, but an underlying note of cynicism and sarcasm. I just need to spend a
few days researching these documents, or get one to repurpose as my own. I want
to get this done.
In
other news, I’ve been invited to take part in a group exhibition called TRAVELOGUE in Mantua, Italy. It’ll be
the first time my work is exhibited outside of the UK, which is exciting within
itself. The work that was ‘requested’ to be featured was Simulated Ignorance, a seemingly simple work that I created earlier
in the year that features a 17-minute car journey occurring in first person
mode in GTA5. In contrast to how you usually see the GTA games portrayed in ‘the
media’, within this video the ‘player’ drives around ‘normally’, not crashing
into anyone whilst conforming to traffic lights and speed limits. The video
will be displayed alongside the controller pictured in the original ‘in situ’
photograph too, simulating some sort of control that the viewer of the work ultimately
never has. I’m really excited for the show, and although I won’t actually be
able to go, I look forward to seeing the documentation of the event. Oh and I’m
also going to take part in a text interview for it too, which will be equally
exciting.
I
also heard back from an opportunity I had applied for ‘The Ten Human Years of
Preta Eshana’. It sounded interesting and weird. I applied with my sound piece
for the video Utopian Realism. I’m
not entirely sure if I will have to create a new piece of work for this, or
whether the piece of music I submitted will simply be part of the final project…
I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough though, for now I got in and that’s just
generally good to know.
In
the past week my opportunity isthisit?
finally got accepted to CuratorSpace after waiting for literally 3 months. I basically
bought into the site rather than simply having the free version and heard back
with two days. I doubt that’s any coincidence, but whatever. Now that it is viewable
on the site I’ve been getting so many submissions, which is really exciting,
allowing me to properly curate the different works, leading to more interesting
micro exhibitions as well as better works created by established artists. I’m
actually really excited about the continued expansion of the site and want to
keep going for as long as possible, basically until I stop getting submissions.
I’ve
been continuing to submit to lots of things recently too, it’s a very good way
of procrastinating, as it’s still ‘working’, just admin work that can be done
without really thinking. At some point I’ll either be incredibly disappointed
with the amount of rejections I get or incredibly swamped by emails to reply
to.
Last
week’s isthisit? #12 only featured
one artist, Jamie Rose, with various videos from a series titled Caine Comparisons; vaguely detailed
breakdowns of Michael Caine’s acting performances. You can view last week’s
exhibition here: http://isthis.wix.com/isthisit#!12/j9rzk
This
week’s exhibition #13, had work from 3 artists, Ben Galyas, Marissa Wedenig and
Aidan Johnson (Clerk 37). The works all revolved around Galyas’ video work,
which was made up of various images flashing up on the screen. Mostly images from
popular culture, pixelated slightly, making it seem like they’re clippings
taken from newspapers. This creates a stream of consciousness which becomes
even more chaotic with the addition of Clerk 37’s incredibly frenzied footwork/drum
and bass soundscape. This is ‘topped off’ with Wedenig’s stylised painting that
focuses on late night texts with newly formed relationships. I feel that each
piece works well with one another, forming this fast paced environment to experience.
Even though my curatorial instincts might not be that good, I’m still enjoying
this process a lot, especially being submitted work that I would never really
encounter by people that live in far off places. You can see this week’s here: http://isthis.wix.com/isthisit And if
you are an artist and reading this, do submit by clicking on the ‘open call’
part of the website.
It
was an ‘interesting’ experience to go to Latitude. It’s a festival that I used
to go to about four or five years ago that I used to love, but now it’s kind of
like I’ve ‘changed’ with age, but it’s stayed the same. It has the same crappy
bands accompanied by a bunch of young teenagers jumping around and creating
mosh pits to indie music. It doesn’t really work. Although it was nice to go
and sit in the sun for a couple of days, overall it was a depressing nostalgia
trip.
I
did manage to see one or two interesting things however. One of my favourites,
simply for the performance aspect, was Pantha
Du Prince. A German producer of various genres of music. Although the music
was interesting within itself accompanied by complex aesthetic visuals, throughout
the performance the three artists would put on different hats and masks. They
first appeared wearing these inverted dome shaped hats, somehow enabling the musicians
to reflect the light and the smoke simultaneously. They then proceeded to wear
different featureless masks. I really enjoyed this performative aspect and made
me appreciate the music more. Definitely one of those times when it’s better to
see it live.
Seeing
Loyle Carner was good, although I
couldn’t really relate to anything that he was singing/rapping about, so I kind
of just relaxed into the sounds behind his voice. Probably a mistake, but does
it matter?
I
also saw Lapsely that day, alongside Beirut, music to lounge around to (in my
opinion) rather than standing around, being crushed into a ball. So good, but
bad because of the setting.
Seeing
Sophie on Saturday was a huge let
down. I’m a big fan of his work, alongside various artists coming under the PC
Music label, but seeing it live just wasn’t that interesting; especially when
incredibly young people are jumping around in front of you, making you feel
incredibly inappropriate.
I
had the same problem with various other acts throughout the weekend; Mura Masa,
Roots Manuva and Jamie Woon. All interesting people to listen to when you’re
sitting down having a beer, but not so great when teenagers are leaping around.
I’m sure they’re having a good time, it’s just, I’m not. Maybe I’m being too
pessimistic about the whole thing…
Other
than Latitude, I’ve been going on a lot of walks by the beach recently, either
alone or with others. It’s really nice to go from living in London to living so
close to the beach and being able to simply go and experience it whenever you
want. Maybe I want to make some work about the beach at some point, the serenity
of it, the power… We will see.
Other
than that I’ve watched a few things, I finished Seinfeld, which ended up being very funny. Although as I learned
more about the characters, rather than liking them, I began to hate them. They’re
actually terrible, selfish, self-obsessed people who you would not want to be
associated with. I’m sure that’s the point of course.
I
started to watch Lady Dynamite, an incredibly
knowing and meta show centred around an actress getting over a mental
breakdown. It’s surprisingly funny and sharp.
Alongside
this I watched all of season 3 of Bojack
Horseman; something that I’ve been waiting for since season 2 came out
around this time last year. The whole thing is quite beautiful, depressing and
incredibly heartfelt. If you haven’t watched the show because it’s an
animation, you’re really restricting yourself. I can’t wait for season 4.
I’ve
also started to watch Jessica Jones,
which has its interesting moments. I like the idea of someone having very
minimal super powers, something that can give you an edge over your opponent
but not entirely. For some reason I want it to be darker, grittier, although it
has a small element of that, I want more. By the time I finish it maybe that
will have kicked in? Only time can tell.
On
top of this I watched The Jinx, a
short documentary series looking at the accused murderer Robert Durst. It was
okay, although I wasn’t really that drawn in by the premise, I think I liked Making a Murderer more, although it is
really hard to concentrate on anything in this heat, so maybe I should re-watch
at some point?
Obviously
I’ve also watched a bunch of films, not as many as I’d have liked as I was
slightly Seinfeld obsessed for a
while. One of the most enjoyable films of the past few weeks was The Nice Guys, just a really good action
comedy. It made me think a lot of the Starsky
and Hutch remake with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, with the aesthetic of Boogie Nights and the drug addled-nuss
of Inherent Vice. I was just smiling
throughout the whole thing, definitely an enjoyable light film that can be
loved for what it is.
A
very weird and kind of shit film was The
Voices. Centred around Ryan Reynolds slowly going mental. You can enjoy it
for what it is, a crap comedy crime film. You just have to relax into how not
very good it is and you’ll have an ‘okay’ time. Definitely not worth your time.
A
simply beautiful film that I’m incredibly surprised that I hadn’t seen before
was Brokeback Mountain. It’s been on
my list for so long, and is referenced in some many things, I’m just happy to
have finally seen it. It’s incredibly saddening, lovingly filmed with quiet
observations telling a heart-breaking story.
Black Dynamite
was an interesting film, a B movie Blaxploitation action film about standing up
to ‘The Man’ with kung fu and a thirst for revenge. I’ve been a fan of the
animated series for a while, but had never really got around to watching the
film that spawned said show. It’s a very weird film, one that I’m unsure if I’d
recommend... It’s such a mix of various film genres that you just have to relax
into and appreciate it for what it is. It’s fun and loose.
Exam
is one of those ‘sci-fi but not overtly sci-fi’ films. Set entirely within one
room, eight candidates have to answer one question which is on a piece of paper
in front of them. It’s unfortunately not as clever as it thinks it is, which is
kind of a shame, as I enjoy the premise.
I
also watched Central Intelligence,
which was kind of fun actually. I laughed at least six times, it had some fun characters…
It was what it was, I didn’t expect anything more from it.
Another
film that comes under the heading ‘enjoyable but forgetful’ was Keanu, an action comedy centred around a
stolen cat that keeps changing hands. It was fun for a while and kept me
entertained. I did enjoy how Keanu Reeves makes a brief voice acting appearance
as the cat in question called Keanu, but apart from that nothing particularly
special was occurring.
Unfortunately,
I watched the terrible Man of Steel,
which was just dull with a tedious plot.
I
then went onto watch Batman v Superman: Dawn
of Justice which was even worse. The plot was dull and longwinded and the
central premise didn’t really make sense to me; surely Batman is clever enough
to realise that Superman wasn’t the route of all evil? That’s 3 hours of my
life (it seems that I may have accidentally watched the extended cut) gone. The
reason why I watched both of these terrible films was so that when I watch Suicide Squad at some point in the
future I can understand the lore, but in reality, I probably shouldn’t have
bothered.
The
last film of the week, Platoon, was very good. I feel a little like once you’ve
seen one of these war/army/Vietnam films you’ve seen them all; moments of
monotony and idle chat interspersed with flashes of extreme violence and moral crises.
However, all the films that come under that particular banner (Apocalypse Now, The
Thin Red Line, Full Metal Jacket, etc) are all really good and worth watching.
I
think that may be all the films I watched, pitiful considering I missed last week’s
post, but never mind.
I’ve
been slowly chipping away at The Witcher
3: Wild Hunt, hardly making a dent in the epic masterpiece. The quests are
already incredibly interesting, with every choice tinged with a murky grey that
makes you feel uncomfortable, even though it’s ‘just a videogame’. That’s what
I love about Role Playing videogames (and videogames in general); you’re
actually making these terrible decisions. In film you’d be watching the
characters making these awful decisions, but in a videogame you are the person
making the decisions and you get to see those decisions change the world around
you in various ways; creating your own unique experience.
I
think that might be the end to the last two weeks, unless I think of anything
else I’ve done. Lots of sitting around, lots of sun. That’s about it. I want to
make some progress in the next week in my various projects, but I feel that
does depend on how the weather is slightly, as the heat makes it quite
impossible to actually think properly. So I guess I’ll see how it goes, keep
applying for things and keep attempting to create.
Enjoi.
Instagram:
bob.bk1
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