Considering the Norm Part 3 by Simon Kennedy
If Beth and Jason’s work portrays ideas surrounding the outward appearance of so-called normality, informed either by mental health or social/cultural conditioning, artist Simon Kennedy looks at how technological advancement or more specifically digital culture, continues to re-shape what is deemed to be normal in terms of how we interact and communicate with one another. The recent addition of the word ‘Selfy’ to the Oxford English Dictionary, is an exemplification of how something as fundamental as language is not immune to change under the increased pressure of new cultural norms. Simon looks at how new ways of communicating have radically altered our textual and linguistic landscape. Emoticons, abbreviations and acronyms have all become commonplace in our everyday communications in a bid to shave valuable seconds off the time it takes to transfer information.
Simon presents the viewer with a selection of engraved signs and symbols alluding to various facets of artistic discipline. Instead of a poem we get the image of an inkwell and paper, instead of a film we get the image of a clapperboard. Whilst this kind of shorthand is accepted in our digital lives, would we be accepting of such time saving devices in other areas of life?. The artist has saved his own time in producing a paired down version of a landscape painting for instance, but at what cost? Is this simplified version adequate to conjure the real experience of viewing a landscape, is a smiley face an adequate symbol for all the subtle variations in ones experience or portrayal of happiness? These signs or pictograms are made from found bits of wood and engraved by hand, this purposefully contradicts the instantly gratifying and sophisticated nature of current digital technologies. Far from being passive by-standers, society at large is responsible for creating and perpetuating much of what we consider to be normal. In this instance, the artist ivites us to question and interrogate the validity of the various norms we sanction through continued social practice and participation.
Just as new words such as ‘selfy’ find thier way into the dictionary based not upon meaning but prevalance of usage, what we consider to be normal, relies less upon a universally accepted definition but more-so on the continued practice and usage of a particular paradigm. NORM presents the viewer with three different meditations on the same theme and in each case the viewer is invited to question his or her own preconceptions on what it actually means to be ‘normal’.
