Joey Holder, Lydia Gifford and The Infinite Mix

Another week, another series of things to do. Artist talks, exhibitions, a tutorial and a few ‘finished’ works. Things are beginning to flow, I think.

I’m in a show next week called ‘Group Effort’ at Bones and Pearl Studios, so a lot of this week has been focused on scrambling around, attempting to produce some work for that, or just simply thinking about what I want to show. Instead of printing the Reddit posts about the ‘Freedom of Internet Act’ onto coasters, I eventually decided to print the actual act onto a deck chair. This train of thought began when I realised how much money the coasters were going to cost me I then wanted to print the act onto a scroll, similar to the ones the government utilises to write their acts on. Although this would have been great, I soon found out that the material, Vellum, is incredibly hard to print on to, and is very expensive. The idea to print the act onto the deck chair was spawned from thinking about what the act does for the users of the internet; protecting our privacy, censorship, copyright and the right to free speech. The deck chair comforts and cradles the user, protecting you from the floor and from being uncomfortable. My plan is to then have the viewer watch something whilst sitting in the chair, something that is allowed to happen because of the act being in place. I’m not really sure what this will be, although I’m considering returning to the idea of utilising the marriage break up footage from the two YouTubers that I talked about a few weeks ago. With them deciding to broadcast their entire relationship online, through videos, taking into account how the act allows them to do so. Although when thinking about this, the video could be many things that are simply facilitated by the internet being how it is. In a way it makes me think about utilising the ‘worst of the internet’ as that is what this act is seeming to protect the most. I’m still not really sure, and need to think about it some more in the next week… I’m considering showing the video on an iPhone (considering how a lot of the time we view content on the internet on our phones now, especially YouTube videos) somehow attaching the phone to the chair in some way, or simply having it on the chair? I don’t know...

Oh and I had to produce a few pages for a publication of sorts for the show, which is something I haven’t really done before. I was told that it could be anything, photos relevant to your practice, or simply an artist statement, etc. After going through various iterations on Photoshop, I decided to go with something simple, as opposed to my various Vaporwave inspired images that I use for things like my Facebook profile. I decided to utilise this as a shameless self-promotional tool, without putting my name within it. These are the pages that I created:

If you’re interested in coming, the event page is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/105298063277776/ It’s a two-day event, with the PV on the Friday and a ‘performance night’ on the Saturday. I kind of like the idea of a performance night, as then the performance works won’t clash with the other artwork on show. Definitely come, lots of good work and free drink.

What else has been created this week? I’m still kind of unsure whether I want to have anything else alongside the sculpture of the shell, or whether the sculpture is enough. I’ve been showing people the shell, and lots of them immediately recognise it from Mario Kart, which is positive. I’ve been thinking about printing the moment of impact with the shell onto aluminium, the image I posted here last week. Although it would look really ‘slick’, I’m not sure whether this is overkill or not, and if it even needs to be in an installation type thing. I need to think about it some more I think, or at least get a decent photo of the thing on a plinth like structure.

During my tutorial, we talked a lot about narrative, and the relationship between the narrative within a painting, and the narrative within a video piece with no plot. Although this is incredibly obvious, I kind of enjoyed the comparisons, and made me think about how to transform these ‘hidden’ narratives within painting into my video works. This was in relation to my Sims video. Although I’ve kind of ‘done’ the piece now (although I’m yet to take an ‘in situ’ shot), it was discussed that the piece could have more to it, small hints of unreality, hinting at the absurdness of the thing, thus making the viewer watch for longer, rather than simply seeing very similar things happening throughout the experience. Although I value this idea, I think for this particular work it’s not really want I want, as it focuses a lot on the mundanity of life, as well as being scrutinised by CCTV when you’re in fact doing nothing wrong in the first place. Making it more interesting to look at would be wrong, and take away from the ‘conceptual’ side of the work. The work looks at my family, observing various parts of my family home which the sims are inhabiting. Nothing (apart from the graphics) tells you that this is footage taken from a game. There are no health bars, no speech bubbles, and I kind of like that that is thought provoking within itself. The sound to the work is white noise, adding sound without adding ‘actual’ sound. As the video goes on, the ‘clicking through’ becomes faster, more impatient, as if the viewer wants to see something bad happening, but never does. I called the work Autonomy 2.0 due to the fact that I’m allowing the sims to act of their own accord, but they’re acting this way because of pre-scripted actions that the game developer created, as well as the various attributes that I gave the sims myself when I created them. It also references how, in society, we all supposedly have autonomy, but when we’re being looked at by CCTV all the time we no longer act like our true selves, for fear of being imprisoned/reprimanded. I have all the equipment to attach my screen to a ceiling, I just need to do it now and photograph it. I think if I can be bothered to haul around multiple screens and a chair across London, I could show this film, and the other work for the upcoming show, although I’m not sure if it would be fair of me to want to show two works… For now, you can see the video here: https://vimeo.com/187974470

The repetitive video is still yet to be fully exported, sometimes I hate my computer… I just need to find a way to export it though, as if I don’t it’ll never become a thing, and will have been a waste of my time...

I need to start thinking about new work to create, work that will be a part of the group shows at the end of this term. I’m enjoying the weekly meetings, which are slowly turning into group crits, which is really helpful. I think we’re also planning to do a separate offsite show too. We just need to find a place and book it for some time next month. God, so much to do…

isthisit? AFK is going well, I’m planning to buy a metal shelf to use as a central node, for work to be shown on as well as for televisions to be hung around. I’m getting some really interesting submissions, made up of a lot of video work as well as some paintings and a sculpture or two. I feel like it’s going to be a very packed room, with a lot of things to think about, as well as a vaguely expensive process. I think in the next week or so I’ll start emailing people about successful applications, as well as considering if I want to have some sort of show-reel for the videos, or whether I should just amass as many televisions as I can find. Lots of headphones, and a lot of screens. There’s still time to submit, so go to http://www.curatorspace.com/opportunities/detail/open-call-isthisit-afk/890 if you feel like your work is in some way connected to the internet.

I think next month I’m going to be doing an online residency, with the progress being shown on Instagram, and the month of work resulting in an online exhibition space where the artwork will be being shown in. It’s called The Sketchup Residency, so will involve using Google Sketchup, a program I’m very familiar with, to create a series of works within a building which will be created on Sketchup. I’m really looking forward to it, and think that it will be an interesting process for me to go through, similar to the 30/30 experience that I had in April.

What else is happening? Isthisit, the online edition, is still going well. For the 25th exhibition on isthisit? there were three works presented, all surrounded by the title of the show, which was ‘1995 – 2001’. This is a reference to the ‘dot-com bubble’ that occurred during that time, where investors pumped money into various Internet-based start-ups in the hopes that these small companies would soon turn a profit. Each of the works are unconsciously responding to this time period, either by utilising the internet as a medium or as some form of inspiration. Jack Fisher’s video piece ‘YOU2PIA’ utilises an iPhone 4 to document a recent journey through Spain. Beginning in a supermarket, accompanied by a rendition of ‘Vertigo’ by U2, all the beauty and allure of capitalism is at its highest. We are taken through various locations, filled with music and pleasure, with the ending surmounting to a silent sombre look at a huge, architecturally intricate building, as if Fisher has indulged himself in the wealth of the country, albeit reluctantly. William Noel Clarke’s work ‘Curator Porn’ takes a collection of images produced by participants of a recent residency and exploits them, focusing in on the various images as an overlay of famous curators repeatedly appears on the screen. The title suggests that this work is some sort of (soft) porn for curators, that they won’t be able to help themselves but to imagine what they would do with these images if they got their hands on them. For me, it considers how anyone can be a curator now, as long as they have an internet connection and a domain name, not unlike how this website started out 25 weeks ago. Lois Williams’ print ‘I can paint’ duplicates a Vaporwave, 90’s Photoshop aesthetic, taking you back to the utopian ideals of the past, before the bubble burst and everything came crashing down. See it here: http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/1995-2001

This exhibition was also discussed by Sid and Jim on their new ‘Artists and Friends’ podcast that can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/artistsandfriends

During the week I went to a few artist talks. The first being the weekly one at Chelsea. This was quite literally one of the worst artist talks I’ve been to, for multiple reasons, the artist in question was Lydia Gifford. One thing I always hate is when the artist simply reads from an essay, as it’s not really what an artist talk is (to me). The work was also very dull, full of paint and the creation of the works simply coming from the idea that to paint is a bodily thing. It all felt very pretentious and the pieces didn’t seem to have any more to them than simply being about the movement and sensuality of painting. As well as the fact that she called her various works ‘presences’ and ‘densities’… Oh and I’ve decided to post my notes from these talks now, so please excuse the mass spelling mistakes:

Lydia Gifford – 18/10/16 – artist talk

Start with the quote – notions of interprsiation – physical object ebing left over – quote from steve Paxton – contact imporovsation – clarity of thought and gesture, movement and stillness – expanding vision of world – awareness, thinking, body of mood of thinkning

Seve Paxton – the mind can travel inside the body – truth of improvisation – how it can be summoned etc – improvisation – huge challenge – find it within itself – unknown future, etc – looking into the past, delivered something you already know – pull out of yourself – experience/react – holding the precision of impulse – follow it though with initial impulse

Painting – structure = limitations – accessing improvisation – work growing through inquiry – phyciallity of painting – work = driven by own emerging logic – kind of shitty? Work by improvisistion is just dull? Organised form? Does this come into play?

Activity of practice – focus of work – not resulting objects? Is this okay? Ongoing action/exercise – interesting ideas by leaving objects – painting = movement – documentation of movement – movement = physical effect – movement is given materiality – movement through material, etc  etc

Reminding self of definition of medium – physical forces, etc – reminding yourself of what these things mean/respsond to – effects produced / by / as movement – movement = similar /subtle density – medium or materiality? How presense is it? How physical? What kind of trace, etc?

Body movement = inscribed in paint – rese,bling an imprint – mark making of the body – mark of index is embued with the maker – moment of making is stored/contained within an index – physical connection from it – kind of boring, very rehgearsed talk

Charles sanders pierce – infroganic objects, etc

Bodyies presense and absence, absence of body, lifetime of the trace, thought provoking – erasure of a thing, slow rubbing of a road marking, etc – painting = unlimited potential – marking time, etc – painting – marking, storing is live, is kind of dull? Painting = storing time – laid down in front of you

Translation into form – putting into present sense – existential question – marking the flow of ezistence – of movent

Painting beyond itself – shit book

Time based – happening whilst wet – time based practice – flow of moment, etc – body span – donna Huanca reference – very bodily work – reference david Roberts art foundation show

Painting – own discourse, own narrative, etc – fresh starts, reviisions – paint mixed with chalk – physical residue, clunmping in areas – once again not interesting

I hate artoists talks like this

Delicate things occurring – obviously as it’s a painting

Allowing time to distance herself from mark making – like pleasing your pallete – ‘can’t ork for days before working ‘ type thing – incredibly wanky – removing herself from the action

Studio = living space – environemtn feeding into the process – relationships and emotional exchanges – architectural special context – body implications

Power station for art – lots of challenges – how pissed off would people be when they make the hjourney downstairs? Very – intimacy of reality

Movement from her – this is important – moving within the painting is perceived as movement – carreies some sort of emotional weight/content/presense

Both sculpture and painting are apparently ‘exactly the same’ – really? Do you really think this?? – asking for a different awareness or something – what does that mean

I am vertical – slyvia plath poem – localsing someone in the landscape – referencing but not – allowing something to linger – putting the human being back in the right place – rather than the creation of the dam, etc

Concrete soaked cloth – sunken down by the weght of the cloth – piched at different levels

‘midsecton’ – awareness of body movement – talks about her midsection being the triumpthant mid section – jgesture ruminates out from – point of emergence

She terms her works as ‘presenses’ – desnities – thing - #how fucking wanky!

Another, far better, artist talk that I attended was at Goldsmiths, with the artist Joey Holder. I’m a big fan of her science based videos and installations, which utilise various UI’s of interfaces, kind of like the overlay that you have from various video games. A lot of her work utilises these interfaces in order to enhance the found footage she uses, which is a really clever thing. I highly recommend you looking up her work if you don’t know her. Here are my notes:

Joey Holder – 19/10/16

Work is a continual stream – rather than finished pieces in a gallery – modular practice – make a lot of work online, have a lot of research blogs, etc – allt hese things constitute the qwork – not jut the finished work in the gallery

Out of date – calling yourself an artist – make multimedia works  lots of video – offline/ online platforms – research images on the video/shared online – intermingled within the work – working digitally – opening up something tin the practice – always quite hard too think of a finished thing – working digitally – loss of hierarchy of what constituted as a wrok – could be an image shared online or a finished gallery installation – interesting idea!!!

Essense of work – constilatory network – flowing offline and online platforms

Context – interested in network throry and emergence – natural and synthesised systems and how those diverge – work about mutating reality – dealing with the complexity of reality – avoiding idenitification – interested in organic computation – increasing entanglement with technology – KARREN BARRARD – GREEN O LA TOR – ‘networks have no inside, only raditors and edges, netowkrs but no structure, not resisigin in a network but flowing through the edges

Nature is networked through human and non human nodes – investigating complex human nodes – natural and artificial – synthetic biology of aquatic figures – in a web – thinking about the web and the layers of these realms in an artificial way – humamns – constructing symbols of languge, diagram, in order to understand the world around us – illustrating our idea of how to make sense of the world byt finindg their own natural orde

‘for all our discourse regarding those and these things – irreducible gap ‘ – within work, imagery of creatures/organic life, setting against diafgrams and maps/measuring devices, interfaces on the internet  - interface to filter etc – work can be thought of aas another filter in this, another layer to the thing – emphasis on catorgiratiion is not just a construct of humans, also present biologically, for example – in our eyes we have 100 million detetocrs, only one million of this goes to our brain – lumping together light patterns, where categorisation occurs in our body – things occurring within the brain, choosing what we retain in brain as memories

Very human way to make sense of world – systems always in flux – mixing elemeetns of natural history etc and measuring devices

Video is an online platrform – website going by a project by the same name at the royal stanrad – hydorozone – taxonomic form of animasl and jellies, work cam eout of a residency – ‘internet of growing things’ – six months out of London – brief for project = analogu-ising global food systems as a complex relationship, etc – internet of growing develop new work in response to this – emphasis on food/future production of agriculture – want to partner artists with different dicipkines – scientists

Scientists – vertical farming – ‘hydrozoan’ – growing crops hydroponetically – contained exnvironemnt stacked up, controlling the amount of light etc – system called acroponics  - symbionic way of living alongside plants and people – exhibition had plants growing under led lights, huge hot tubs that acted like tanks – projections onto hot tubs, sea creatures, etc – simulation of that growing process

Tumblr site – collection of images of weird creatures – interested in what we consider to be natural or artificially created by humans – what we produce as humans Is part of nature – subjects in work – alien looking creatures – don’t usually think about or see – not my aim to freak people out – more so to make aware of the breadth of life that rests on us – fascinated by us – lots of visceral imagery – used to be a scuba diving instructor – makes a lot of snese

Biostat – started to think about biological data – being collected from us via the internet – not just internet surveillance but companies where you can upload genetic information – gnome – cloud platforms – have data sets done to see what may be wrong with you – google gynomics – 23 and me

The work – considering how in the future the value of our biological data  is gonna = value – names of different genetic families – stock ticker board representing the value of genes in the future – fascinating – way our information can be quantified – projections and wall prints – lots of wall prints

Nematode – projects thinking about data and biology – research into synthetic biology – disputed term by scientists – interdisciplinary biology – genetic engineering – popular definition – constructing biological things for purposes – lots of advances now to program biology – genetic code is like computer programming language

Proteus – channelnormal.com – footage from an ROV – underwater submersible filming the volcanic vents at the Antarctic – top of = charts comparing different species through their genetic information

Feldspar – mineral – abundant one on earth – 60% of earths crust – deepest part of the sea – delineation of the deepest ocea – 6000 metres – lowest population of marine life

Lament of ur – step away from heavy science and into conspiracy theory – SEE WHO SHE DID IT WITH – alien hands going from the centre – walls = gold prints – nice opportunity to go into other areas that others are interested in – not precious about these things – skewing of standard duo but making an environment – themes of entrapment/conspiracy theories and posthuman life considerations – goldmining alien race that enslaved the human race – sumarian civ – parallel between speculative theory and current technographic state – accepting old gods, etc etc

Ophiuchus – named after large star constellation – greek = serpent barrier – man holdming snake – work was influenced by ‘the cosmic serpent’ – about a guy who went into Peruvian jungle and was told that shamans can see into the body – see DNA – about that idea

Really love the high use of interfaces – making a found footage thing become an actual thing

Tetragammation – look up

Residency their – called the multiverse – rather than thinking about that as something other – worlds natural life – for all technologies – don’t know what’s happening behind the hands of our own things – idea to build a futuristic medical room – build medical equipment, etc – digitally imagining a body – that our bodies are being genetically messed with too

Introduced to biology scientist – given specimens – other scientis – computational genetisits – created the speculative pharmaceutical brand – this kind of company claims that it has mapped all of the biological datin he world, using it for our own means and our own evolution – capitalism?  - some of the films are a little bit too unproductive – a little bit too dull – shorter?

Really interesting use of technology – considerutilsing these as things within themselves- layering

Critisiing someone over the term  that you’ve been using

Separating from nature – replicating through our systems – casuing problems – philosophical – it is philosophical – knowledge/belief production – touching on religion / different belief systmes – science is a belief which some people choose not to believe in

Copyright issues – conversations about this with science friend s- big fight about this – in science things are referenced – discussion about copyright – dj/mixer

Music – working with a sound designer – differen processes – smapling sounds – cut up make it yourself – collab with musicisnas – sound follows image? Different each time

Dichotomy of man – same thing – pollution – natural process? Mass extinision – natural species that are evolving and thriwing – things working in that system – taking over humans conditions

Technological singularity? – considerations – not going to be a single point – slowly getting there – already entangled by this thing called ‘technology’ – like WALL-E

Like an educational console – bridging the gap between art and science – true reflection of

Oh and I signed up for this terms seminars, choosing the ambiguously titled ‘Scale’ alongside ‘Reading & Writing with Context of Contemporary Art’. These should be good, although it’s a bit of a shame that the majority of them are exactly the same as the ones we were given last year, although I’m sure they’ll be great either way.

I also went to a few exhibitions, not as many as I would have wanted, but I guess sometimes you have to take a break. The first was one that I’ve been wanting to go to for a while, The Infinite Mix, was great. Featuring 10 video works by ten artists, it was quite an interesting three hours. The journey began with Martin Creed and his piece Work No. 1701. Simply filming various people walking across a street, accompanied by one of his own songs. Kind of okay, if a little basic and dull, simply observing these different people, traversing and travelling.

Next up, a work that I have loved for a while, Stan Douglas’ Luanda-Kinshasa. It’s basically five hours of a camera, zooming around a recording studio, documenting a seemingly endless jazz jam occurring between various musicians. So very funny and incredibly clever.

Another work that I was a fan of was Cyprien Gaillard’s Nightlife, a 3D film, which consists of these beautiful, majestic trees swaying in the wind, and against various man made barriers and structures. Nature fighting against the unnatural. Also, my first experience of a 3D art film, which is kind of surprising actually, I would have thought I would have encountered one of those already.

Cameron Jamie’s disturbingly hilarious film Massage the History was very dark. Centralised around two young men provocatively dancing against furniture in a middle class home, spliced together with blurry found footage of the same action occurring in anonymous family homes.

Every video was worth your time, which was pretty great. I’d definitely recommend visiting if you haven’t already, and setting aside at least two hours of your time.

I ventured over to Timothy Taylor to check out a new VR experience by Shezad Dawood. Unfortunately, when I arrived the device was broken, which was a little more than annoying, so I was left to enjoy the neon and some paintings. How exciting.

Grimpel Fils (unfortunately my third and final location of the week) was okay, featuring a few video pieces by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. Lots of dogs eating, lots of seascapes, lots of subtleties. It was okay, but ultimately a little dull and didn’t really capture my attention.

I watched a few films, starting with the new Adam Curtis documentary, HyperNormalisation. Although it traces a line of history, beginning in the 60s and ending where we are now, the conclusion is very much forward focused, warning of what’s to happen if Trump becomes president, etc. A very refined and condensed version of books that examine what it means to be human in the 21^st century.

Mascots was really unfunny and dull; why would I waste my time with something like that?

I finally got around to watching The Theory of Everything. What more can I add to what’s already been said? Incredible acting accompanied by a saddening yet uplifting plot.

I think that’s all the films?

            However, I did manage to watch all the episodes from the latest season of Black Mirror, which was quite awesome. A lot of the time it is said that ‘good sci-fi’ occurs when the creator considers all the small details of the world, rather than focusing on huge silly things like flying cars or teleportation, it’s the little things that add realism to the different mediums that science fiction inhabits. This is what happens in Black Mirror, making the world feel a lot more real and a lot more lived in than other series’ attempting to paint a bleak picture of tomorrow. Although I loved every episode, I don’t know whether I loved them as much as the first two seasons. I can’t really put my finger on why, although many people are saying it’s become too ‘Americanised’, I don’t think that’s it. Definitely worth watching nonetheless.

I did watch a few episodes from Adam Curtis’ series, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. Kind of obvious considerations, although it was made in 2011, so what seems obvious to me now probably/definitely wasn’t 5 years ago.

I’ve also been getting back into Suits, although it’s a lot less of a comedy now, and a lot more like a prison drama. Why are you trying to become something else Suits? I liked it when it was basic acting accompanied by faux lawyering, stop trying to be The Good Wife.

Alongside all of this passive media that I experienced, I did indulge in some interactive media too, mainly the video game Until Dawn. Basically a B movie horror game, that focuses on a bunch of young adults who journey up to a lone cabin in the mountains, one year after the mysterious disappearance of two young women from the same location. It’s fun, and very well done. It’s a ‘choose your own adventure’ type game that allows you to kill off various characters throughout, as well as moulding the relationships that the people have with one another. The supposed ‘best ending’ is not having anyone die, but is that really that fun?

I think/hope that’s my week. This week I need to actually make some new work in time for Fridays show, as well as research booking a space for next month’s group exhibition, as well as starting to inform people about isthisit? and whether or not they have been accepted into the exhibition or not. I’m sure there will be seminars and lectures and artist talks and all of that stuff too. How busy and exhilarating...

Blank Banshee, isthisit? AFK and High Maintenance

It's been an interesting week, simply continuing on with a couple of projects, alongside going to some galleries as well as a few talks. I created an open call for an exhibition that I’m curating next month, and the new Blank Banshee album came out. A pretty good 7 days.

Things are moving forward with a few pieces, the ‘spiny shell’ arrived a few days ago, and looks very impressive. It’s the first time that I’ve had something 3D printed, and definitely won’t be the last. It’s currently white, but I feel like it’s still discernibly the shell from the Mario Kart games, and doesn’t have to be painted. It’s a lot more ‘pure’ like this, as it feels incredibly smooth and very trophy like. Right now I kind of see it as a gem from Spyro, a prized object to be traded. A commodity. I’m still considering what I want to show alongside this gem of an object. Last week I mentioned printing a screengrab of the process of elimination within a Mario Kart race occurring. This does the same thing that the object does in a way, immortalising the moment of anxiety that occurs when you’re hit by the shell, preserving it in a photograph or an object. I don’t know if I want that to be the overriding narrative surrounding the piece, of preserving this moment in time, or maybe I do? Maybe I could look at other moments that occur in general life, where things are frozen in time, where everything hinges on the next millisecond of consciousness. I could then compile a video consisting of incredibly short clips which look at these moments. That could be one avenue of thought. Maybe I’ll look into that. Hmm…

I also effectively finished the relational piece of work about the internet as a web; a web of lies, of deceit, of anything that one can imagine. It’s a very simple piece of work that involves a television screen, an aux cable, a headphone splitter and Sky News, live on YouTube. After thinking about the idea of the internet, and attempting to portray such a thing, with various ‘nodes’ connecting to different parts of the internet, I decided that it just sounded too general a thing to be thinking about. I then moved on to the idea of peer to peer networks, and how we (the daily users of the internet) are actually able to function and connect to ‘the web’. Using the television as an idea of a server farm, one is invited to plug in their own headphones into cable slots in order to hear Sky News live on YouTube. The headphones being their networked devices, plugging into the smaller network of the aux splitter, which then connects to the farm of the television. Being shown on the television is the media, along with all the bias and unknown that accompanies it. The fact that it’s on YouTube connects to the idea that everyone has a voice online, you’re apparently free to write what you want and post what you want. The main thought behind the work was the much repeated idea that if you don’t like something, don’t watch/listen to it. In reality, nothing is this easy due to the addictive nature of various things, with the media and the internet being one of them. I still need to take the installation shot of the work, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.

I’ve also been continuing to work on my oppressive film centred around the repetitive nature of video game mechanics. The unfortunate thing is that there are so many physical layers to the film that the exporting is taking forever and my software repeatedly crashes. I’m working around that, but it’s taking a lot more time than simply pressing ‘export’. Rather than slowly filling up the screen in regimented rows, I experimented a little with the short clips popping up randomly, rather than in their regimented order. In an aesthetic way this didn’t really work, as it just didn’t ‘feel’ right. Although it worked on a conceptual level, the popping in representing various people coming to live streams of video games, or the arguments that occur surrounding video game violence, it just didn’t look good. Instead of these clips popping into black space, I decided to use part of a video game called Journey as the backdrop. Journey is a game unlike any other, where you explore a beautiful landscape, with the view of climbing to the top of a mountain. It’s heralded as one of the best games ever, alongside the most unique/beautiful. By utilising footage from this experience I seek to show what video games have the potential to be. The sandscape is slowly walled away by the short killing clips, clouding the tranquillity of Journey. I like the work, it’s simple, kind of painful to watch and does what I set out to do. Now I need to think about how to install it within a given space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi2uEe5seFg&feature=youtu.be

On top of this I’ve been working with my virtual family on Sims. The work that I’m currently producing looks at a lot of aspects of what life simulation games actually do, putting you in the position of a God-like figure, all powerful, with the potential to give autonomy to the figures that you’re controlling. In the video that I’m creating, the camera is repeatedly positioned in the corners of rooms, mimicking CCTV surveillance, looking down and observing the family. In this video game scenario, it’s like I am the government, I am the all seeing eye that observes everything, and then so are you, the viewer. The content consists of the figures going about daily routines; sleeping, eating, painting, etc, whilst the camera lazily flicks from one screen to the next, never really looking too closely at what’s going on, as the viewer doesn’t really care, as long as they’re going about their daily lives, not questioning whether they control their own thoughts or not. All the actions that occur on screen consider the idea of the uncanny valley, mimicking human movements but not being perfect enough to be completely human. The end result will be a looping surveillance video, akin to something you’d see in a convenience store to discourage would-be shoplifters. It will be displayed like the televisions you see in these micro supermarkets, hanging from the ceiling, staring down at you from up high. I’m still yet to finish the video completely, as I still need to gather lots of raw footage of the sims in their natural habitat. For now, you can see the test shots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4PgAQ9tl-k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yAsyV-0JTc

The final piece of work that I’ve been thinking about is the creation of coasters with printed images on them. These images would be screengrabs of a thread on Reddit that began the creation of the ‘Freedom of Internet Act’, an act aimed to legislate the Internet and its users worldwide, keeping net neutrality, etc. This act is one of the barriers that keeps the internet as it should be, a free space where every website is equal. Like a pub, the internet is a space to meet people, talk about anything and interact on the same level. The coaster also stops yourself from damaging the bar, similar to how the FOIA stops your computer from ‘damaging’ the internet. I’m currently considering whether the coasters should have an order to them, so that a viewer could, if they wanted to, read the whole Reddit thread, absorbing all that the internet can offer them. It’s also the first act to have been created via crowdsourcing. A new phenomenon that I’m sure will become routine in the years to come.

In terms of uni, this term is focused around forming various collectives with other students who create work similar to your own. You’ll then go on to put on a show together at the end of the term, curating the space with the knowledge about each other’s work that you’ve gained from weekly meetings, etc. I’m currently in a group of five, with the main ideas being ‘systems, information and gesture’, which I kind of like, as it’s not entirely internet focused, which is good, as you can’t really conform yourself to just talking to people about the internet (even though the open call mentioned below is focusing on the internet!). I’m looking forward to curating this show at the end of term, and what my fellow team members go on to create.

In other news, I created an open call for the real life exhibition that I briefly talked about curating last week. It will be called ‘isthisit? AFK’. After looking at the space, I got excited and just wanted to utilise the spare room, so decided to create the opportunity. The exhibition, which will happen next month, will be centralised around the internet as a general theme. I may focus the theme a little more once the submissions close on the 31^st of October, but I’m not entirely sure. It all depends on the submissions that I get. I’m currently thinking about how to use the space as well as I can do, as it literally is a tiny room. I decided to clear everything out of it, rather than working around the bed and cupboards already in there, creating a makeshift ‘white cube’ space. I’ve gone through various ideas, from covering the floor in duvets, to wallpapering the entire room in emojis. I’m unsure about whether I want to make some plinths for it either, or simply buy multiple plastic box towers, that would act as very basic storage space for physical artworks. They would be replicating the aesthetic of hyper-organised spaces like offices and computer stores. I may create one big central node, which stretches from the ceiling to the ground, that people could interact with in order to see the artworks. I don’t know, as previously stated, it all kind of revolves around the submissions that I get. I’m also very wary about hammering into walls, although I assume I’ll just have to do it and re-paint everything after the exhibition closes. The show will probably go on for about a week, by ‘appointment only’. I am very excited about it, even though there are so many aspects which are yet to be considered. For now, here’s the opportunity on CuratorSpace if anyone who’s reading this is interested in applying to an internet focused exhibition: http://www.curatorspace.com/opportunities/detail/open-call-isthisit-afk/890

The online version of isthisit? is going well. The 24th exhibition on isthisit? was called ‘Online Experiences’, which considered the various notions of what it means to be exploring the internet in the current climate. Pippa Eason’s video 'Its Only Romantic on The Internet’ visualises a technology enthused post-apocalyptic wasteland, which is confined within the white walls of a gallery space. Here, Eason seems to be harnessing the idea of the ‘White Cube’ as a visual metaphor for the various screen based devices in our own lives, and the apocalyptic visual feast mimicking the seemingly chaotic scenarios that occur within our own phones and computers. Next to this is Var Sahakyan’s disturbing film 'Circle with a diameter 8', that sees the artist staring down the barrel of the camera, through the computer screen and into your personal lives, silently judging your every move as we see the emotions on the artists' face slowly change. Is Sahakyan embodying the stereotypical white male NSA employee watching us through our webcams, or is he simply showing us the various sides of these government run organisations, which can be both brutal and forgiving? Ruiz Stephinson's film 'I'M LONELY BUT NO ONE CAN TELL' was also featured, exploring how people in first world societies are slowly assimilating to living vicariously through other individuals' lived experiences online, through social media applications like Instagram and Facebook. All these works are grouped together into a huddle, mimicking how one effectively ‘buys’ into all these experiences when ‘surfing the web’ in 2016.

What else happened this week? The first artist talks of the year at Chelsea happened, which was actually quite good. Samson Kambalu was the artist, someone who’s work is a mixture of displaying information alongside these incredibly weird stop motion films that are all about 50 seconds long. Kind of crap. Here are my incredibly scattered notes from the talk:

Samson Kambalu – artist talk – 11/10/2016 – the gift and the general economy in my praxis

Finishing phd – 5 years at Chelsea – research as student – africen time inspires work

Malawi – growing up – former britcsh colony – growing up in different perceptions of time – still farmers – time  there isdifferent, circular, blending with the seasons – different to the west – 9 to 5 job, etc – in Africa, less structured

Praxis and a practice – art form I a way of life – art in Africa – you would see art everywhere – in everyday life – situalitionalists – take art beyond represeation to every day life – take the gallery out of the gallery – artist rebellious thoughts change into decorating houses – art into everyday life – a way of helping society – Italian situalionalist

Ideas of situalionislm – culture of time – videos in venice – filmed when out walking – Thomas hirshcon room, repsonfing and working with him in the next room

‘the last judgment’ – footaballs pasted with the bible – play is centralised in his work – why play? To play is mysterious – when child is playing – what are they doing? What does laughter mean? Universal about play – connected him with his oroigins and Europe – everyone plays – play is central in Malawi – way we conceive time – time is an ubandance – opoosite of time is money in the wets – in Africa = time how do I waste it? Tribes people – usually farm for 6 months – then the rest nothing to do --- Africa starts making masks – elaborate everything – is this the reason? Very possiitve idea of Africa

Keeps coming back to play – consistent metaphor – very targeted – social envieonemtn – idea of the last judgement – Michael angelo – drawing the thing and moving forward with that

The logic of the gift – concerns of excesss time – time outside of work and necessity – when needs are met you have extra time on your hands – this is where the gits comes from – getting a necklace, you are getting time – gift giving is like giving time – giving gifts = time wasting – so it’s giving your time to others

When you enter into conversations you waste time – a form of politieness – I help you waste your time, you let me ride your bicylcle – gift comes by productive time wasting – philiosphers like derrida – if people can see the gift you’re giving, you haven’t given it well – all gifts are time, all objects are manifestations of time

If someone gives you a present – rude to return the gesture of time – Nietzsche – saying something about the gift – it has to be hidden – example – like button – good to hide your form of gift giving as it leads to petieness – progressing in life, not depeneding on life, but rising above them – avoiding pettieness and giving

Use play to gift give – still haven’t actually heard anything about his practice – gift has to be a secret, if, like art, the meaning is revealed, then it has lost its focus –

Example of a train by lumiere brothers – Africans repsoinging to modern times – time wasting = masks – when people are more playful, they give wirthout taking, eliminate obligation – when you give pettieness occurs

The great play – doubly masks – photographing people = masking – masking themselves

Film star = mediated absence – masking herself from a thing – lots of masking in film – buster Keaton – masking oneself through the lens of the screen

Nyau cinema – African idea of time – keeps coming back to this idea

Moses (burning bush) – walking and letting the environment inspiring you – imagine walking in a film – characters from a film – people replicating film – the idea of film turning the whole world into a photograph

‘internet bureau’ – the idea of surfing in an internet bureau – less structured – you go there for a specific purpose – I really like this idea – you go there to literally surf the web

The photograph as a diagram – structured time of work – bringing us coloser in the universe

Faking photogaphs is like wearing its own mask, etc – politicains wearing a mask

His work is a conversation piece – a conversation maker – footballs are anopening in order to talk about other ideas

Stop motion – using not useful things – when you are useless, you are free – west = utilitarian space – young = child, young = house buying – freedom in trash – so the photographs re trash? Are they meaningless things?

Queen is useless – president = powerless – not anonymous

Traditionally poverty is delicious? How so? Poverty as industry – difference between excess and waste – waste is toxic – excess is natural – in maerica we are industrial waste – poor people have no soul – Africa = poor person, they have a glint because ther eis excess – Africa is becoming it’s own industrial thing – African tragedy is occurring – capitalism brings poverty! – notions of poverty is it’s own thing

African people loosing their autonomy – money is guns, not food – poverty in Africa is industrial because the vlues have changed and it is different! Solutions come from capital think you’re readin an open book but you’re not! Dismissed as charlatans

Contempoary artist and performing – effect of opening up many diverse practices – can you draw, can you do this and that – abdanoing comtempoary art nd abandoning that

The more multi aceted you are, the more time you are wasting for the viewer – practicing on your craft = a form of time wasting – artists either draw a drawing or read some philosophy – contemporary art is different – people are looking for the time wasting aspect in your art. Hone your craft of ideas – passionate / master

Curators find meaning, wrestle meaning from things – create things

I also went to a panel discussion at CSM being run by Shades of Noir, a collective that puts on various talks and creates ‘safe spaces’ for marginalised groups. The talk was titled ‘Women and Non-Binary Identities’, which centred on various cultures associated with the ‘black community’ alongside various ideas surrounding women and people who identify as trans. It was okay, but it continually annoys me that the moderators at their events are always incredibly young, simply reading off pre-written questions. Of course, the moderator normally plans what questions they’re going to pose to any given panel, but the whole point of the moderator is to keep the conversation moving, not to get stuck in a rut, and to respond to what’s being said, interpreting the more complex aspects to the audience. This didn’t happen, and it just dumbs down the whole experience, which is a shame, as they usually have quite interesting people talking on these panels.

On top of this, I went to the launch of the ‘Paying Artists’ scheme being set up by a-n, which was hosted at Jerwood Space. The scheme, that’s taken two years to set up, is simply a document that outlines how much artists should be paid for their time, alongside various other pieces of information that’s incredibly valuable to artists and galleries all over the U.K. This also allowed me to see the Jerwood Drawing Prize, which was kind of okay. The high point was the winning video piece, which was actually quite interesting, featuring a swirling ball of white being manipulated by an outside source. It’s kind of unfortunate that it costs money to enter into the prize, as it would be a great opportunity to have my own work shown in this yearly exhibition.

So, I did go to a few exhibitions this week too. I journeyed over to the private view of Limoncello’s temporary space in Cork Street, which had some work by Holly Hendry and Kate Owens on display. Kind of nice, pastel coloured sculptures alongside a huge piece of fabric flowing from the wall. The most interesting part of the experience was the alcohol, which was an assortment of bottles of gin and vodka, accompanied by lemonade, many limes and big bags of ice. It was a ‘make your own’ affair, which is kind of cool actually.

I ventured over to the new Molly Soda show at Annka Kultys Gallery, which was surprisingly good. A lot of her work is very aesthetic based, sometimes focusing too much on the pinks and the blues of a certain object. In this case, the walls of the gallery were filled with print outs of Soda, cropped and photo-shopped into various adverts that you’d see when browsing crass websites. Alongside these were an assortment of films, each showing the artist in her room, singing to the webcam or performing for the camera in other ways. A mixture of reality and lies. Worth going, even though you’re always talked to by the gallery staff, which I find really off-putting, especially when they explain the work to you, which kind of ruins the whole experience for me.

Tenderpixel has a great show on by Richard Healy concerning the very weird idea of ‘queer magic’, or more specifically queer shamans or rituals that people take part in. This quote kind of sums it up for me 'Books recommend that you mark your entry into magic by taking up one of the arts of divination: tarot, crystals, runes or stars. He tried each of these practices, but they didn’t stick. His entry into magic was marked by a butt massage in Alberta.' Quite an extraordinary show that I would heavily recommend.

The Ryder has a really clever exhibition on surrounding contract law and the idea of the copyright. By simply entering the gallery space you are entering into a contract that is written on the wall for you to observe. My favourite piece was by Carey Young titled Uncertain Contract, which shows an actor enunciating a commercial contract in a rehearsal like, white cube space. Really good work and a must see.

The final gallery experience was Raven Row, showing a bunch of ‘artefacts’ recovered from the Ulm School of Design, which was open in Germany from 1953 to 1968. Incredibly precise and design based works, all utilising a leaflet that you are given in order to understand what each object functions as. I really liked it, as well as all the little details. Yet again, a must see if you want to observe the bridge between art and design manifest itself in one exhibition.

Although that doesn’t feel like everything I saw, it may well be everything I saw…

In terms of films, I did slightly better than last week, with 10 films watched. Starting with the Amanda Knox documentary, which was very good, but incredibly bias. Although I’m not saying that I think she did ‘it’, I do think that it would have been a more successful documentary if there had been a more thought out opposing force to the story. Other than that, I learned a few things, as well as enjoying the style of interview which was being carried out by the documentary team.

In preparation for Louis Theroux’s Scientology documentary (which I’ve heard isn’t actually very good) I watched Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, which was quite an enlightening process. Of course I already knew a lot of the details of Scientology, as it’s the brunt of a lot of jokes within films and tv, but this was a much more in depth look at the whole experience. It was good, and very informative. Tom Cruise is fucking mental.

Slowly moving away from documentaries, I watched Blade, which was a pretty big mistake. Why did no one tell me that this film was crap? Pretty bad acting mixed with a fairly poor plot. Some okay fight scenes, but not that amazing. A shame.

I also watched Nerve, a film about an online game of truth and dare. Incredibly ‘cringey’ acting alongside a plot that seems to be just jumping on the band wagon of films about the virtual world. Kind of shitty.

The Fault in Our Stars was okay, but not even that sad, as it felt like a very teen orientated drama. Or maybe that’s only because I watched the film with friends? I don’t really know, and don’t really care.

A simply beautiful film was Short Term 12, which focuses on Brie Larson being awesome at caring for underage kids in a residential treatment facility. Some great performances with an incredibly lovely and heartfelt story. I’m kind of annoyed I hadn’t watched it until now, as it’s definitely worth watching, simply for the relationships that are created and the very ‘real’ acting.

The Art of Playing was a very short documentary about video games and the rise of indie developers. Very short, and not that informative.

Paris Is Burning was a very sweet, very lovely film about New York’s drag scene in the 1980’s. It was mostly showcasing the sheer beauty of the experience; ‘the ball’. Although it only lightly touched on the negative aspects of being a queer, black man in the 1980s, I didn’t really mind, as it was more about celebrating that time and the culture that had manifested itself, as opposed to a documentary going through the pros and cons of being gay. A sad, lovingly crafted experience.

Captain Fantastic was a classic ‘man out of place’ story, but instead of one person it’s an entire family. Very funny and very sweet, with many philosophy jokes and classic ‘first kiss’ moments. Just a really nice film.

The last film of the week was One Hour Photo. Robin Williams plays a photo lab technician who gets obsessed with a family that frequents his small shop. Although it was a slightly bland experience, I did enjoy the fact that Williams was obsessed with the whole family, rather than just focusing on the wife. Rather than replacing someone in the family, he wanted to be a part of it. Kind of sad, and a definitive change from the norm.

I also watched some tv, which started with consuming the sad comedy experience, Extras. Ricky Gervais is always an interesting/irritating figure within his productions, with this show not really deviating from this aforementioned path. It did contain some sad moments, although it was always off set by Gervais being kind of dumb. If it had contained different actors I may have cried during the finale. Alas, I did not.

I did discover that new episodes of High Maintenance were airing on a weekly basis, so I spent a few hours catching up with that, which was just really nice. Since moving from Vimeo to HBO, the episodes have become longer, and a lot more considered. I loved it, and wish I could watch them all again after forgetting that I’d watched them already. Real acting in real scenarios, very much my type of television show.

I’m currently viewing Fleabag, a comedy that’s been dubbed ‘the English version of Girls’. It kind of is, but not really, as that’s like just saying any show with a female lead is like Girls. It’s good and contains some interesting fourth wall breaking decisions that continue to be hilarious. Is it worth your time? Maybe.

Oh and I finished reading How to Talk about Videogames and started reading Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism. The book considers a lot of the notions that we have today about our sped up society, as well as the various faux pars surrounding the idea that we have more time now thanks to technological advances, when in reality those same technological advances creates problems of their own, like spending countless hours scrolling through ones Instagram feed. I’m learning a lot, although I keep getting sleepy on the bus journey whilst reading, which is not a good example of time management.

I think that might be it? In the next week I want to go to more exhibitions, as well as finishing some of the work that I’m currently creating. I need to produce more content for the sims, and just power through my weak video editing software. I also need to continue to think about the show next month, as well as isthisit? in general. How long do I continue to do weekly exhibitions? I don’t know…