I did some training on Inspiration software today and I got an interview for a job in a bar :)
I haven’t done any course work, apart from watching half of Herzog’s Fitzcaraldo which it seems the world and his granny have been inspired by.
Tomorrow I’m in the gallery all day. I need to get a move on with this Mino application. Ideally it should be posted already, but I’ve not prioritised it.
Still don’t know what to do about the paper eating. Need to have a good think about it but I’ve spent my energy for the day creating new nerve endings to keep all the information about new software stored and folding invitations.
Yesterday we had our peer critiques and I took the opportunity to share my plan to eat and document paper.
It got mixed reactions. There was a lot of discussion about what the final product would be and if I should make a book. I have planned to do a roll of images but it was suggested I could then fold it into a concertina and display it as a book. The samples I showed of the photographs on paper went down well although some said they would like to see these enlarged further. I think I will do this with another project.
I had everything ready today to go ahead with the process. I did some test shots just using the camera on my phone. Seeing these made me wonder if I should take long exposures where the motion will be blurred or whether I should make shorter exposures and pose so that the outcome will be in focus and more recognisable.
Also after yesterday’s reaction by my fellow students I am now thinking about having a live audience. I mentioned this to a sculptor friend who suggested I host a dinner and whilst everyone else is eating, I will eat the paper. In the same way with Loving Care the tension between the artist and the audience is vital to the work, I’m thinking that by carrying this work out in private I may be missing out on an important element of the work.
It’s nine but my body feels like it’s already ten. Didn’t sleep at all last night. Mainly pottered today, tied up loose ends, gathered materials, read a bit more of the Boltanski interview.
There was a piece were he was talking about repeating past works, but not those of others but his own and the impossibility of creating the same thing again. Which kinda relates to what I’m doing in a way. Also he talks about how many works an artist makes in their lives and suggests that most of it is filler and that an artist will only make a handful of significant works. The rest will be expansions of ideas or reworked and the rest will be forced because of the need to make or do something.
Still on we go. Tomorrow I’m going to make use of my fellow students to critically analysis my work to date. Must rem to bring a Dictaphone so I remember what I say, and their responses.
I’ve spent the day writing a piece for the 2011 Degrees publication. In truth most of the time was spent deleting as I had 600 words to describe the last ten years of my career.
Right now I’m watching Rocky III, the one against the Russian who has all the latest high tech machines and Rocky has well a field in the snow.
It’s all very man against machine, It’s the big struugle. How can you not love Rocky? Doing it all from nothing – just will power. I want to be the art version Rocky. I have no money, no materials but I’m going to make it using what I can find I will fight the machine that is capitalism. With Marx talking to me through the medium of free mp3’s and my own bare hands and body I can make art. It’s so romantic :)
As well as the field Rocky has Adrian and Uncle Paul. I have AUCB and a network of artists and friends throughout the UK and beyond who are behind me. I feel so blessed today. I think it was writing about the development of my career and thinking about all the people who have given me a chance along the way. I want to do more to help out those with less experience than me. Especially now facing the money making machine that is living.
more on the aesthetic of the film still
‘Hitchcock clearly preferred the staging of stills completely independent from the film. Striking publicity photographs accompanying films such as the Wrong Man (1957),Vertigo (1958), or Physco (1960) do not attempt to convert a specific scene, but rather to summarise the atmosphere of the entire movie into a single still.’ History and Aesthetic of the Film Still by Steven Jacobs
This a clearly logical approach as these stills are most likely to be used as publicity and to sell the film. The still is set up to give the viewer and overview of the film and to tell them what to expect with the view to them actually going to see the film. Similarly performance artists have used staged shots to sell or illustrate their performance like Vito Acconci’s Following Piece and Franko B’s work Oh Lover Boy.
My work will not use staging in that way although it may be interesting and useful to take digital shots during the process as a way of documenting the documentation process. For this I will need an assistant. Or maybe I can make use of the webcam. I do find the aesthetic of the webcam interesting. Here the idea of the photo-gramme returns. Because of the motion dectecting element you are capturing something in action in the same way a movie film would but without actually recording a series of consequtive images that create seemless motion.
Going back to the subject which will be an open mouth in motion I was interested to see that Jacobs addresses this image in his writing. ‘when someone shouts, the character is forever frozen with his mouth wide open. As a result, the statue gets something strange, uncannily mechanic and sometimes grotesque – precisely what happens in film still capturing characters in the midst of an action.’ Choosing to capture this moment this act which renders the subject grotesque. Looking into the open mouth of another is also deeply intimate. Is it also grotesque and what do we mean by that?
According to the Oxford dictionary the word grotesque means comically or repulsively ugly or distorted or incongruous or inappropriate to a shocking degree. Interestingly the root of the word comes from the latin ‘grotto’ meaning small cave or hollow, which sits nicely with the image of the mouth which is both hollow and in its presentation slightly repulsive.
Keeping with the open mouth, Jacobs goes on to talk about the use of close ups. By zooming in on a detail ‘they mark a moment at which the viewer transforms from and observer into a contemplator.’ A close up still image gives the viewer room to daydream. Without many visual clues the viewer is focused on a detail and with limited visual information the viewer can step in to the work and create their own narrative.
On one hand I am inviting the audience in with a close up but at the same time the repulsion of the grotesque hollow of an open mouth creates disquiet. It reminds me of Janine Anotni talking about her work. She is not aiming to threaten audiences of her performance work. ‘Certainly it’s not my goal to push the audience away or be aggressive. I am interested in extreme acts that pull you in, as unconventional as they may be. Personally, I want to broaden my audience, and I choose seduction over hostility.’ Will I seduce or push away my audience?
