Archiving The Unmade

Notes marking out the structure of the first of two essays within the contextual report/archive (creative version of dissertation). They don’t reference my own work directly – written under a pseudonym – but describe and places the book within a definite context (which by definition should be the purpose!)

The Unmade and The Unfinished Collection

pt.1 The Unmade

Examines the role of the ‘unmade’ works of art/film/literature which have passed into critical and academic mythology. The half life they inhabit, their worth, and how perception of them changes when elements are published or exhibited.

A focus on Kubrick’s unmade film ‘The Aryan Papers’ as an example of a completely unmade work with an existence through the archives of the filmmaker and the mythologising and research of interested parties. The film had been in development for over 20 years before being finally shelved by Kubrick, ostensibly due to the release of Schindler’s List (too similar a storyline), but it is suspected by many close to the director he found the subject matter too overwhelming and was unable to work objectively as an artist or disassociate himself from the darkness of the themes.

Last year Jane and Louise Wilson were invited to make work based around the extensive archives left by Kubrick and chose The Aryan Papers as their subject. Their film centres on the actress cast to play the lead role, and the effect of the film (its lack) on herself. In doing this the Wilson twins have shifted the subject matter from the Holocaust which Kubrick himself found so difficult to enunciate, but to the unmade film itself. The film represents its ghostlike qualities, alongside the unknown potential and fallout.

pt.2 The Unfinished Collection

Walter Benjamin and The Arcades Project the key example of an unfinished work that is placed well within the conventions of a collection. Passed again into a mythological state, but in this case has been published. Arguments as to why this type of work remains unfinished: is it the all encompassing boundaries of the subject which render the work innately impossible to complete, or the attitude of the author where the collecting impulse has overwhelmed that of the creative?

Could it be argued that if the work is impossible to ‘finish’ in the eyes of the creator/collector then the point at which it is published or exhibited (even if due to the death of the author) then that is the work completed – as a personal project of collecting.

Other examples: Aby Warburg’s ‘Mnemosyne Atlas’ (unfinished), Hanne Darboven’s ‘Cultural History’ (finished?)

Conclusions

How the works discussed can form the basis of a set of conventions for distinct genre into which these works can be placed.

Sunday’s photo shoot not as productive as I’d hoped, the Super 8 stock was more suited to gloomy conditions rather than the sunny day we had (decided not to risk it, too expensive) and the prom had far too many visitors to get many (empty) landscape shots.

Managed to get some photos of the strange, modernist cadet look out building will hopefully translate well into the archive book: a sense of incongruity in the setting, foreboding of an uncertain future (now passed), a bleak otherness inherent within the dated architectural lines.

The making process using 35mm film seemed far less comfortable then when using medium format. I have become used to the scrutiny and singularity of vision that comes with the limit shots and options of these cameras. 35mm (and digital) SLRs overwhelm with choice – to capture everything and anything just seems too much and the possibilities drown each other out. The quieter format seems to suit me (and the subject) much better right now… slows things down enough to think.

First outing for new/old Super 8 cam on Fleetwood seafront tomorrow. Taking 35mm camera also – add to collection of archive photographs, possibly for display in a gallery context.

Both sets of work will be empty, sparse in their content, featureless seascapes, spaces where structures once stood, a sense of loss and lost understanding.

In the archive these photographs could be used as an ending point (as opposed to the urban or domestic environment shots). A finality in their emptiness, functioning in the archive book as a suggestive, yet ultimately unsatisfactory conclusion. The journey ends here and we, as readers, can at best piece together and guess at what has taken place – myth and uncertainty reflected in the seascape.

The film will function as an extension of my photographic practice – fixed shots lingering on nothingness. The viewer questions why this space is important to the artist/filmmaker, its reason for becoming the subject of work – what has, or will, happen in this place? Narrative possibilities in elevated status.

(in the context of archive… lighting/cinematography test shots that flicker and jump. How would stills look enlarged as prints?)

Contextual Report

A more creative type of document than the standard dissertation model, mine takes the form of an archived collection of documents relating to the final (unmade) film of director John Francis Shade.

Photos scouting locations, fragments of scripts, letters, finances, maps, etc. The creation of a believable, functioning narrative around the work.

The artefacts need to be ordered in a logical way (same sites and media together?) whilst keeping up a pace and tempo of narrative (suggested, implied). Hopefully the aesthetic style, along with the content and framing of images in a deliberately sparse manner will help to maintain a consistency and allow the reader to become immersed in the narrative/premise/book.

Content

Forward (archivist – self)

Introduction (archivist self)

Essay one – ‘on the unfinished artwork, the impossible collection’ (art historian)

Essay two – memory, image, Sebald (writer?)

ARCHIVE

photos – locations

photos – props

scripts

Found/research

letters

maps

other (notes, other images)

stills

116 days.

I looked up this figure today and found it at once exciting, vaguely terrifying, and a comfortingly large number. However I’m very much aware time tends to fly where deadlines are involved

The Project.

Developed as a result of research, interests and the aesthetics of my work (rather than being the starting point). Creating a false archive of photographic images, creative writing/concrete poetry, found/faked artefacts.

John Francis Shade: British filmmaker in the 60s whose final work remained unfinished but created around it a healthy amount of hazy mythology. The project curates and re-presents this archive.

The unmade opus.

Archive of an unmade film.

When does the archive become the art? The myth makes the work.

Clues to a demise, an uncertain narrative.

Absenting the artist self.

The work.

Photography (film, b&w), found object (specifically image and text), text (in gallery and other settings), installation and textile.

Influences

W G Sebald, Tacita Dean, Mike Nelson, Vladamir Nabokov, Tris Vonna Mitchell, Roland Barthes, Susan Stewart, Sue Tompkins, Hanne Darboven.