How do we know what's real and what isn't? and does it matter?
I made this video "The real one trick pony" outside Petra. ( view it on Youtube. ..quickest way is through my web-site:www.annshaw.net "Ann's films on Youtube" – link at top of blog.)
As the boundaries between our real lives and our virtual lives online become ever more blurred I find the question just as difficult as : what is art?
I leave it to you whether this video clip is genuine or a bit of computer fakery….or a combination of both.
I used to have a tutor at Glasgow School of Art, ( Brian Kelly, since you ask) who used to say when we complained we had a problem.
"Regard every problem as a challenge".
And so it is that the rejection of my proposal for a sound installation over in the Trossachs may in fact turn out to be a blessing for it has made me rethink the whole thing.
The result is that the second proposal is now much stronger:
And now I have submitted it to Historic Scotland for Stirling Castle this summer….
Meanwhile have just had a Russian comment added to my Youtube video on seahorses. Earlier this week had one from Finland.
"I am sorry to inform you but your application has been unsuccessful etc.etc." Yes , you've guessed – another proposal for an art work has been turned down. Now I do feel miffed at this because I had spent the best part of a week filling in forms – only to get an email telling me I had been rejected. Oh yes the organiser tried to cushion the blow " we have had so many applications …such a high standard" .
OK so my art friends keep telling me that this is par for the course and you have got to learn to accept it and for every ten applications you put in you will be lucky if one gets accepted.
This strikes me as a bit of a rum business…especially when I can put work up on the net without going through all these layers of protocol.
Only today I got a video posted in response to one I did on sheep-shearing – from a designer in Finland!
Who watches my stuff on Youtube? Well, Google have added a nifty tool which not only reveals the age of viewers but where they are located . So, when I got invited to show two films at Blairlogie Village Hall prior to the main film" How to Marry a Millionaire" on Saturday I decided to google them first. Bearing in mind the audience (local) I selected two local films which have already proved popular on Youtube with combined "hits" around 40,000. I expected the statistics to reveal they had a high Scottish, or at least British ranking. Not at all. The clip of an eight week old European owl is watched almost in equal numbers by young men and women in the 18-35 age group in the Ukraine ! As for the five minute film of wrestling at the Bridge of Allan Games most viewers are middle-aged Austrian women!….
