Degree Project: Digital Sketchbook

After my formative assessment with Jane 06/05/21, it was suggested I approach my documentation of my installations with a better scope of the space. This is something I have mentioned before and began to approach within my Moving around film. So I decided to re-stage my projections of To Bite B&W Repeat and explore a wider range of angles.

16/05/21: Next I will re-film in the installation room, to play with the contrast, darkness and intensity that was original explored in the first ever projections of Sweet Tooth B&W.

I firstly started off with re filming the documentation of me watching To Bite B&W Repeat, this film has had a lot of attention which was surprising. I wanted to focus in on this and capture more of the space and scale of me compared to the projection. See film below I think this shows the comparison well in relation to me representing the viewers looking around the space, following the movements of the mouth. Repetitive looking motions. It resembles the way you observe the cinema screen, especially with the low placement of the audience. It’s hard finding people at uni to sit and watch these projections so instead I have to use my self to represent the scale and visual. I have recently discussed bringing men into the space to observe the work but due to currently times this may not follow through.

Reflection 16/05/21: Upon reflection we discussed how these films feel they are in a studio. This is what I had in mind to show the space, but Jane mentioned I could edit them to feel darker and more vibrant. See film below, I think it appears much stronger and feels more like an enclosed space like the cinema, with the audience watching.

Reflection 26/05/21: I had some this film above to Catinca for some feedback in relation to the way the work is perceived differently by men and women and Catinca mentioned “Hands Tied” by a group of artists “who discuss their relation to fate, work, pleasure, touch and surveillance” (Another Screen, n.d.) and eating! In the film Eating/The Other, it holds similar elements of consumption but a different tone of feminine power instead of the male dominance, almost as though they’re fighting back. They belittle the men of male control when it comes to date/dinner, sex and the female form.

I have suggested mirrors within one of my digital drawings of which I am unsure of progressing with currently. I thought to trial them within this session and use them as another way to capture the audience/viewers gaze. It then adds the elements of watching being watched and a peep show type feel which me and Catinca discussed in our 1-1 of re-involving. Intruding gaze. Some of the circular mirrors appear as holes in the wall to glance into, where as the main infects one is a mirror reflecting me and my gaze. See below, it almost cancels out the body language and focuses on where the eyes move/go regarding the film. This was interesting to watch back because you often don’t realise where you’re looking. This film invited a new element to the work showing a face/the eyes of viewer which you don’t often see. Feels personal and almost like you’re there watching with this person as I staged the camera in the middle of the projection instead of from afar.

Reflection 16/05/21: After my 1-1 with Jane on 14/05/21, we discussed the film below and Jane mentioned the mirrors needs more exploration. I may need a larger scope of who the mirrors were perceived from afar, but I quite liked this film. It’s another aspect to the work I have been focusing on, the audience. You can see some of the work but the main focus was the audiences eyes, watching. Introduces this voyeuristic aspect to the film. Looking in at someone watching something without noticing. Reflects the way the cinema works with only one viewer.

However, following on from this trip to uni I reviewed the initial digital collage/drawing I created of a space I aimed to create a few months ago below. I edited it to in vision a space I cannot physically make with cinema seats and a perception of having a male audience. As I was sat on the floor in the space, I got a feel for this projection becoming an actual space which presented this cinematic lay out visual. See edited drawing below, the idea of using an actual cinema space by having chairs to sit and watch in would bring a whole new dynamic to the film and it’s portrayal. Especially…

• e.g. if all the audience were men, would it refer to the old pornographic cinemas playing adult films? Would there be a change of mood in there? An awkward/uncomfortable feel? How would men of different ages react to the film? Younger men may find it funny/humorous whereas middle/older men may see the aggression that Matt and Gary suggested.

I then chose to create a more realistic plan of the audience and the physicality of the space in the studio, which is what I have followed through with above in my exploration documentation (minus a male).

Within the studio I placed the camera to capture different and longer angles, the shorter end of the studio made the films longate the eating mouth, it becomes distorted and quite peculiar to watch. I focused in on my Gary Hill research of using more of the space within the film see below. And from here, I placed the camera at different points in the room to capture the door way and the height of the walls, part of the ceiling and projection. This situates the projection becoming an actual installation which worked really well when I filmed myself watching the projection due to COVID.

Reflection 14/05/21: Within my 1-1 with Jane, it was mentioned I could edit the films darker. Working with contrast, shading and depth, to make the space look less like a studio space with a projection in. However, this was the original aim, to show the space and where the projections etc are. I have although edited these further to focus more in on the work by darkening the space.

My class mentioned about creating a series of works, this is something I am developing in regards to my portfolio. See below, I really enjoy this still of the projection as it becomes about how I as an artist want the viewers to observe my work. I have explore duties further down.

Gary Hill works with a lot of photography of spaces, whereas from documenting Congruous, I learnt that film helps capture more of the space. Jane mentioned my moving around the space film worked well in my previous blog so I wanted to focus in on and bring this to give more depth to the installation for both my viewers and my portfolio. I edited the contrast and darkness within this film and it feels much more like an enclosed space. So, I decided to show going into the the projection and space, it becomes a journey, using the camera as the audiences’ eyes. This was a comment Catinca used when describing her use of film, showing what/how you want the audience to see your work. I brought in the cellophane and documented a clear and longer perception of the work. Focusing on the cellophane, more sculptural element to the projection while moving close and far capturing all of the installation. See below.

Reflection 20/05/21: My peers have really enjoyed this film within my final group crit 19/05/21 and mentioned the documentation of the film gives a real sense of it being a virtual exhibition. The space made the viewers feel as though they shouldn’t be in that room, are they allowed to be looking in? Watching? Shauna mentioned is the cellophane trying to hide what the film is exploring but purposely still showing. Srin commented and said its exploring the ‘affect and the abject’ together. I liked this as this is something I have discussed previously in my work.

From my formative assessment 06/05/21, I have learnt to approach documentation further in regards to the way I capture the space as a whole. This was a large point made by Jane is that once the work is installed it becomes a lot about the space too, which I have begun to consider but including the space as part of the documentation is something I am working on.

Artists Gary Hill’s documentation was noted in my formative assessment by Jane. He documents his works in a variety of ways. See image below of Choir Box on his website, he firstly focuses in on the space of which it is and then as the images develop he zones into the projection of the art work. I had started to do this with installation for the exhibition proposal, but not quite enough. This will really help with the way I document my work for my portfolio.

Gary Hill, Choir Box, 2015.

Reflection 22/05/21: Researching Hill’s use of documentation has been very beneficial when documenting my own recently, it has not only improved my portfolio by also the perception of my work. I followed the similar path of Hill’s documentation in regards to the editing of the films/lighting etc so they appear darker, to pretend it is a more intense space with less lighting. It’s help acknowledge the use of the space in relation to the work while remaining a strong projection.

Especially in The Slow Torque of Bonsai, the spaces he installs in are rather industrial which play to the slight distortion and impact they have on his films. The studios at uni are quite industrial so it might be important to capture  all aspects of the space, from the height of the walls and ceiling where the projection will be, to entrance of the studio box. For my documentation of Sweet Box I filmed through the box which have successful films outcomes, but then also have an image of documentation of myself filming in the box, you can see me, the box, the projection and the space the box was sat in. It helps gives the viewers/audience more of an idea of scale, space and placement.

Gary Hill, The Slow Torque of Bonsai, 2017.

I think working from the way Hill documents his work, will give a better scope of the film as well as the sense of the disturbance and uncomfortable you feel from viewing my projections. As recently research after my formative assessment, regarding Half Foster and Julia Kristeva, the abjection that is presenting my work may have a bigger impact if you can see the scale of the space in relation tot he viewers and the audience. The larger the installation/documentation I go the more intense/unusual the space will feel in relation to smaller bodies (being the viewers) in a consuming/overwhelming space.

Foster writes “Sometimes the screen seems so torn that the object-gaze not only invades the subject-as-picture but overwhelms it.” (Foster, 1996, p113), the picture becomes so impactful it makes the gaze not strong enough to hold its gaze at the work. I wonder with a work being documentated of it’s scale properly like when I’m present in there, it may encourage more of this overwhelming feeling like Sherman’s work evokes. Sherman’s work is much heavily in the straight forward visual of the grotesque as “Sherman evokes these extreme conditions in some disaster scenes” (Foster, 1996, p 111), my projections of To Bite B&W Repeat are more visually uncomfortable and disturbing in the sense of identifying with the breasts or the male’s mouth.

From my 1-1 with Gary we discussed artist Ana Mendieta. She was a Radical feminist artist who was known for her ‘earth-body’ works. She heavily is known for her performance pieces, one of which she created called Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants). Mendieta worked with exploiting and the “differentiating between the feminine and the masculine.” (Hammer, 2021) by breaking those boundaries down through the use of facial hair. “By gluing her friend’s beard onto her (female) face, she highlighted the fact that sexual classifications are social conventions that frame and overdetermine sexualities” (Hammer, 2021). See below, her documentation of this performance was done very well too. There is close up capturing details of the hair on the face as well as the environment she was in while cutting and sticking the facial hair on. It become snot only the final outcome so the image but also the process of it too.

Reflection 26/05/21: There is this relation to the way Valie Export works, although her artwork is very performance heavy in the sense she physically connects to the audience with her piece Tap and Touch Cinema, Mendieta uses emotional and intense theories like Rape, which are so displayed so life like, it connects to the audience on an emotional level. People are tend to affected by realistic/life like situation like these series below, but it appears from feedback, my work receives a similar response even though it’s not real physical female consumption of an actual body, it plays on female consumption, it is perceived this way which has resulted in concerning/disturbed ways the same.

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Facial Hair Transplants), 1972/1997.

Mendieta focus on controversial issues of the female form, violence, rape and inequality. Many of which feel intense and extremely disturbing. She places herself and her installations in open area works, especially her Rape series, see below, as though they are images of actual cases/events. It feels like it’s something you shouldn’t be seeing, as though it should be part of a case study for a case. “It was created in response to a brutal and highly publicised rape and murder of a nursing student, Sara Ann Otten, by another student in March 1973.” (Tate, n.d.) which makes this image even more vivid, to make it as real as possible, for people to stop and think. They feel personal and the “recurring use of her own body – its physical and photographic traces – and her interest in marginal outdoor sites and elemental materials” (Art Blart, n.d.) impacts the way we receive the work. These images are then seen as photographs, the display of them provides the viewer with an object to observe of the scene. “She had created this work ‘as a reaction against the idea of violence against women’” (Tate, n.d.).

Ana Mendieta, Rape, 1948 – 1985.

The meaning behind her works of female rape are extremely challenging to view and aren’t in my scope of meaning, Gary suggested this artists in the relation to his reaction of the male violence visible with the breast being eaten but I see as it a source of documentation for my portfolio.

!!! I don’t think this shares relation to the actual meaning of my work as this is a different direction, but the intensity of her documentation and ideas of male dominance explored are present in some way in To Bite B&W Repeat. The way she documented them and then created outcomes are very interesting, it adds another level to her work, a more personal and intense level which may be interesting to work with.

I have experimented a lot for the exhibition proposal and it was good to have feedback on all of the pieces I have done. I did a small presentation of all the work I have created for the proposals so far and it was mentioned that there was a clear different in comparison to Sweet Box, the small maquette, to the Sweet Tooth B&W exhibition proposal in the studio with and without cellophane as well as documentation of me in the space. This feedback really helped me get an ida of where to progress, see notes from class below.

My class mentioned straight away there is a series developing of different areas/aspects becoming pieces of their own. This is something I want to push further forward and create multiple works from one film, this film being, To Bite B&W Repeat, this is the one I have learnt from all my experimentation over this last year, works and receives well. I am currently using it this way to address it with a range of environments and how the environment also impacts the viewers and the work. The use of Sweet Box has an intimate feel, much like the cinema does which was the approach, I was so glad it’s been viewed this way. Sweet Tooth projected in the studio feels big and overwhelming to my peers.

Reflection 23/05/21: Continuing the overwhelming feeling, I projected Loop and Zoom To Bite B&W into the installation room today for impact/intensity. See below. I wanted to explore how the work would be viewed if it was in a dark enclosed space as the studio isn’t very dark. I really like it in relation to the way it complimented the film and in the photograph the space can be viewed clearly but I prefer the visual of the films of the studio. I liked the lighter element of being able to see the space. I took on the way Gary Hill documents his work, wide scopes of the space. The installation allowed me to do this more easily.

Reflection 23/05/21: Following my success of being present/watching the film in a space, I wanted to work with the change in scale. The size of the installation room helped the projection show and show the power it has over the audience when it can be projected large. The fact this film I used slowly zooms in and out as it repeats, is as though the solace is shrinking. It’s like as my work has developed from Christmas to now, there has steadily grown this seriousness/attention from e.g. Are You Watching? the pretty colours projected in the kitchen and on the breasts to wanting the audience to really focus/pay attention to the projection and the message now. Being this big below, does it become more about the teeth than the breast? And intrusive?

My peers mentioned the cellophane works well, this has been a positive piece of feedback I have always received about the work but a peer said it may be interesting to project onto a materials that is thicker but still slightly opac – organza. It has a floaty element to the fabric which I still really want to use and work with – may create some more distortion of the image that won’t become as confusing, due to the block like quality. Michaela said the organza would continue the relationship of basic to film with the flow-y, glamorous old fashioned cinema curtain quality, especially once projected on. I am yet to try a few there fabrics yet but this will help create another series of work from To Bite B&W Repeat projected.

Reflection 26/05/21: I tried pink and clear organza and it wasn’t successful, it did very little to the projection and didn’t block it anyway, it confused and washed out the image see below. I think the cellophane has worked the best so far it feels most responsive, my peers said 19/05/21/21 group crit, it’s as though I’m trying to hide something without hiding something.

The feedback from what was suppose to be a documentary piece of work of me watching/taking notes to see a comparison for size next to an audience but it has become a favourite by my peers, Jane and Gary. They all mentioned it puts the audience more in the space, being present, becomes about watch the audience watch the work as well as you watching the work. This is something I am to experiment more with and work towards as with this comes many more elements, e.g. gender of audiences does it effect the way the work is seen?

Reflection 04/05/21: Recently I have learnt yes it does. From my 1-1 with Gary we had discussed the way he had seen the work having a violent element, which is something I wasn’t working with, Matt said the same thing. However, my peers and tutors, who are mostly female have said they see consumption, aggression and male control/dominance which is what I worked towards while creating this work. It’s interesting to note how the work would appear with a male being filmed, viewing it? Would a male watching To Bite physically in the space watching, receive it more intensely than watching on screen?

From this feedback I have learnt to consider the audience much more, this was something I had started to do, but have realised I really need to observe the way men and women would view this work as it is confrontational. As well as, how to film the work with the camera being positioned in the the space with audiences. It makes the work feel more like an exhibition that is up and running. And I have also learnt that the moving around the space, (which was suppose to be a documentary film too!), capturing a new angel to the work which photos don’t do, has been very beneficial and has worked just as well as the stand still films.  The moving around films may especially work for a film for the end of year show as it will be online there won’t be the ability for viewers to come and see it themselves. It’s made me consider that some of my documentation has been/may be just as successful as my more finalised pieces of work. Jane mentioned in this feedback that the moving around film feels sensorous and spacious which is what the work needs.

Reflection 26/05/21: This was something I have learnt to develop more within my work – the audiences’ perception. I have recently created drawings that involve the audiences gaze/presence within the work/installation especially in the studio (a realistic idea) and then in a cinematic space with seats. It gains an visual of how the work would be perceived by the audience as well as respond to the space.

After reflecting on this 1-1 with Gary yesterday 29/04/21, I have thought about how the work changes its reception slightly based on the audience. This is something Jane and my peers have mentioned previously in my exhibition proposal feedback, it depends who is receiving the art work. Gary as a man, began to see the artwork as very violent/aggressive/abusive and seemed to stick to this idea of male violence upon women. I don’t visual the art work as ‘violent’ or ‘abusive’ and violent has been a word I have questioned previously but I wouldn’t use to describe my work. There is the slight aggression with the chewing as this was my aim to make it uncomfortable and to get across my thoughts upon male control of women and their bodies e.g. objectification. This led me to think about how other men and women would view this art work as they’re both two completely different perspectives, men focus on the male mouth began destructive and women focus on the object representing a women being consumed? Is violence constructed by the male gaze? This area of ‘violence’ is an area I only want to acknowledge and not act on but it was interesting/important to hear. See film below which stirred ideas of acknowledging male and female audiences.

Reflection 20/05/21: I now see this comment from Gary differently and after my formative assessment feedback and now my group crit 19/05/21, Srin mentioned the same tone of violence within Moving in and around To Bite B&W Repeat in the studio. Srin as a man said it was challenging to watch, to see the males mouth consuming the breast. It has been discussed that there is a different perception based n who views it but Srin mentioned who’s gaze is it present in the film as the focus of it shifts throughout the film. I liked this outlook as he began to see the female POV of the dominance and consumption while the breast was sat in the mouth but then saw the male gazes’ view when he breasts was being chewed. This is what makes the work compelling to watch. However !!! Kieran said it is still disturbing but as he has seen it a few times it’s almost become normalised, this I repeated in the repetition of the film too.

Reflection 10/05/21: After my formative assessment feedback, Jane highlighted that there’s this change in position of male and female, there’s two sides to viewing To Bite B&W Repeat as I slightly discussed above. It’s possible men put themselves in the position of the male, hence why Gary saw the destruction, violence and aggression towards the breast and women who have viewed my work see the consumption and male control present. Jane mentioned it was importune to mentioned this recognition and from this I thought the representation of women through pornography may be emphasising this impact upon women. 

Reflection 26/05/21: I contracted Catinca and upon feedback it was expressed there is clear female consumption – this was interesting to see the comparison of male/female. The Sweet Number by Valie Export was mentioned where Export unboxes chocolates and eaten them seductively – may be interesting to explore different testing techniques like in Eating/The Other.

Reflection 30/04/21: This film above has been very influential into the way my work could be received it begin to invite people to visual them being in the space. Becomes more about the work, but the space, the audience the looking at someone, looking at the work. Becomes a chain of voyeurism in its own way of performance.

See below my notes from this 1-1 (they’re very messy).

Me and Gary also discussed that there is a lot of control over women’s behaviour today, even though everyone believes there isn’t. This relates to my L5 film Be A Lady, using the poem Be A Lady, They Said (quoted by Camille Rainville) – exploring the ways in which everything is contradicted. People have become complacent to it, pretending female control/observation doesn’t exist. Within my works Gary mentioned it’s as though you’re forced to watch this loop to understand this is what women have to put up with, continually. I liked this idea because the control even involves this way of films reducing women down to an object and portraying them as a helpful women who needs to be saved by love. Pornography shows women being an object the male uses for pleasure, there’s this focus upon women and their bodies in pornography that is used to attract the male gaze, yet continues this never ending cycle women can’t escape due to the male gazes’ control.

Reflection 30/04/21: From this I aim to email out some of my films of my projections of Sweet Tooth B&W projected to both men and women and to see what kind of answers I receive. I’m interested to see if there is a two sided perception based off of gender.

However, from this 1-1 with Gary I liked the focus on the repetition and in reference to Andy Warhol and his print Marilyn Diptych, see below, “the work was a commentary on the relation between Monroe’s life and death” (MasterWorksFineArt, n.d.).”By creating repetitive imagery, Warhol evokes her ubiquitous celebrity status.” (MasterWorksFineArt, n.d.). “The use of two contrasting canvases for Marilyn Diptych illustrates the contrast between the public life of the star, who at the time was one of the most famous women alive, and her private self.” (Tate, 2021). One thing I have learnt is the exaggeration of the repetition usually either normalises or desensitises the work to the viewer, but, in my case with my work with Gary it made it more impactful and some what more violent. As said previously, from my peers and group crits, they have all mentioned it becomes sickly sweet, almost too much to watch which was the initial aim for this work. Gary mentioned it’s compelling, and it shares this simulairity to repetition here with Warhol in a different way, his repetition makes it less impactful where as mine becomes worse – you can’t help but watch and the more you watch the more ‘relentless’ it gets, as Matt mentioned previously.

Reflection 04/05/21: It may be worth printing out film stills and placing them in a similar format to Warhol and seeing how To Bite B&W Repeat looks up on a wall in print, repeated instead of a moving film on a wall.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962.

In response to the installation/filming – Gary said the angles works well and is becoming very thorough the moving around as well as the station films. It was also mentioned that the film of me watching brought a new element to the documentation/installation. Gives another scope, especially visual people in the space. Could I film more angles of me watching? Side profile view?

• Men and women viewing the work – how would it feel watching a man watch a man eat an icing breast?
• Would age change the way the film is seen?

Reflection 26/04/21: As said in my exhibition proposal with my class, they said this use of one art work being explored in a number of ways shows good exploration. This is because I have discovered what works well throughout L6.

Reflection 04/05/21: Whereas Gary said it may be worth playing with some of my other films e.g. coloured, in similar ways?

We discussed artists such as Rosie Gibbens and Ana Mendieta, while using Elephant Magazine to find currently female artists who explore similar issues to me, with regards to how they do so.

On the 28/04/21 I wanted to finalise one of my prints for the printing workshop. As discussed with Srin last week, it was thought to include more of the black to frame the work. We spoke of censorship that comes with these ideas for print, see digital image below. Censored images means “to review something and to choose to remove or hide parts of it that are considered unacceptable” (Vocabulary, n.d.). As I discussed within my dissertation this year, “Censorship increases paranoia and curiosity. Censorship of images occurs when something is too sexual or disturbing; social media will censor it, warning the viewers before they see. The censored sign draws attention and due to the intensity of social media it develops us to have an overactive paranoia. It gives us a fear of missing out for example, if an individual’s account is private, we request to see what is hidden.” (Lockwood, 2021, p 22).

Barbara Kruger was a name mentioned in relation to text and bold block imagery of framing the print. I also thought of Kruger of her art being confrontational and bold in relation to the message and meaning, see below Untitled (Your Body Is A Battleground). As I have research Kruger for my dissertation I have an idea fog the way she work, using text to create a relationship to the image and text, to draw attention to the meaning and what she is trying to say. “Her works examine stereotypes and the behaviors of consumerism with text layered over mass-media images” (art net, n.d.). Kruger also uses red, white and black to captivate the audiences eye with bold text. “Personal pronouns like “you” and “I” are staples of Kruger’s practice, bringing the viewer into each piece. “Direct address has motored my work from the very beginning,” Kruger said” (The Broad, 2021), feels like a personal attack almost to follow the print/text. As said previously Craig Owen writes in The Discourse of Others, where Kruger is “making an equation … Between aesthetic reflection and the alienation of the gaze” (Owens, 1983, p184) and “is always gender specific” (Owens, 1983, p184).

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989.

“Untitled (Your body is a battleground) was produced by Kruger for the Women’s March on Washington in support of reproductive freedom.” (The Broad, 2021) Within the art “the woman’s face, disembodied, split in positive and negative exposures, and obscured by text, marks a stark divide. This image is simultaneously art and protest” (The Broad, 2021), she’s voicing her opinion and emotion through art protest, the spilt image feels uneasy and unusual. It makes you double take at the visual/split image. This is something I am working with with my print – the black box above the prints face feels as though there’s a half you can’t see. Leaves the viewer to questions and wonder why. This again introduces these ideas of censor ship.

Within my prints I am using pink, brown paper and black, they all compliment each other as well as the black allows the striking eye catching element on top, centralising the print for the gaze, see below. The text I have used is very factual yet opinionated, like Kruger, its raw and direct as to the imagery women have to play to due to pornography representation of women. See below. The black box really does take the work even towards looking like Kruger’s which is “concerned with not action, but gesture” (Owens, 1983, p192) and does, every time play to “the evil eye” (Owens, 1983, p195) of the observer.

As I have decided on the paper – the glossy brown print paper – I printed the black layer on top of black onto the print it suggests these ideas of censorship, but instead of the object being blocked/covered/blurred of the sight of the viewer, the eyes of the man appears to be. See below. Showing the mouth in the males breast almost feels confrontational, like you’re forced to look at it. This is the same with my projections, projecting so large in the studio space has this forced approach to look and observe the film and the consumption. The print does this but there is this same seriousness about the print as there is with the film work which is B&W, it plays with no playful colour, very straight to the point.

Reflection 30/04/21: The use of block shapes above the face reminded me of Naomi Uman’s Removed as I reflected, blocking out the women to be left as an object, instead, I am doing the reverse here.

It was really hard to align the layers – I eventually got it but there is a lot of prints that are slightly out of line like this below. The shine on the paper as well was through the colours is great, it adds the glamorised visual of a magazine type quality. I feel like the box/lines surrounding the image should be in line perfectly, not much more for error.