Dear Tutors: 1-12-2012
For
those of you who don’t know, I am third year Time Based Art and Digital Film,
on exchange from the U.S.A. and just received acceptance to study here in
Dundee for a second semester. What
follows is my statement and explanations of work. A lot of it explains supporting work and
should be a good way to explore my research without trying to navigate my
sketchbook. However, if you’re feeling
ambitious and think you can read my handwriting, please go for it! I have
written a key for my sketchbook to try to help navigation of someone else other
than myself! The recorded tutorial from week 7 is displayed, and has a tab, in
my sketchbook on my table.
Introduction and
Background to my coursework:
My
interests vary largely, but one main theme that keeps recurring is the
relationships people share- with each other, with technology, with art, with
time, and with space. Furthermore, I am
intrigued by the relationship that people have with others through these
things- technology, time, and space. The overriding theme of my personal
work is technology and human interaction.
I
have been an observer most of my life, but I really started investigating these
relationships when the Twilight
Phenomenon began. I wrote a research paper on Twilight last year trying to figure out why teenagers had grown
obsessed with a fictional world. I soon
found out more and more interesting things about the series, teenagers, and the
way humans think. This study also
revealed a lot about people to people relationships. One stunning example is a leakage of one of
Meyer’s (the author of Twilight) books online- Midnight Sun. She stopped
writing this book after the incident, and said she didn’t feel involved
anymore. However, there are online petitions to make her release a full,
finished novel. This is an attempt at a
legal petition to Meyer’s intellectual property to be released! This paper is
more about the process I had this semester, not a research paper, so I will
stay on topic- but if you’re interested in what I discovered you can view this
paper online in my previous post.
This
reaction of fans of Twilight to
Meyer’s decision to not write really interested me. And Meyer’s action of
not-writing a novel also interested me. How often do people throw away ideas? Or
not acknowledge good ideas? How often do people disregard each other’s thoughts
and bodies? How can we be so much more interested in technology, or in
fictional worlds, than in our own reality, our own people around us? Do we do
these things to ourselves? Can you have a real relationship in a world mediated
through a screen?
Now
just as a disclaimer, I don’t hate technology. In fact, I love technology! I
love the internet, social networking, and being able to create something beautiful
–whether it is physical or digital. I
love being able to study in a completely different area of the world, yet still
be in contact with distant, loved ones.
But for me, I would much rather be able to indulge in life around me and
with people without a screen between us.
The dynamics of relationships change with how you interact- directly or
indirectly.
This
semester I focused on technology’s relation to time; and how that affects us as
people. How short is the life span of a
cell phone? A computer? A television? A fanatical, fantasy world? Skype?
Facebook? And when these things ‘die’, how quickly we replace them! We don’t
have the stages of mourning as if these objects were living, but these things
are often more a part of our lives than some people are. And youth today are very invested in the
relationship they have with their phones and their computers. Yet, these things
are replaceable, interchangeable. A perfect
replica of the old thing, or sometimes, even better with upgrades or
improvements. What if we did this-
ditched old friends because the next guy has something even better? With this type of relationship becoming so
mainstream, how is today’s youth going to have relationships with each other?
Well
for starters, today many relationships are started online. Many people decide to have a relationship
before they have even officially met in person.
And many people, myself included, easily put physical space between
their partner and expect internet to be able to maintain a ‘normal’
relationship. How long can relationships
last over distance? What if you never meet? Technologies like Skype really help
human begin to overcome time and space.
This is one of my favorite technologies!! I am literally amazed by what
we are capable of doing. I am able to speak
with my family but I am five hours ahead of their day, and they are oceans
away. The oddity of being able to see me-and for my parents to see themselves
through an unflattering webcam-is still a feat my parents have yet to master. Skype
obviously has its problems- it dropped calls and has a really slow response
sometimes, but it is still great software.
Technology is great and beneficial, but it can also cause many problems.
Computers
break, information is lost, vehicles collide, and planes crash. Lives are lost,
and transformed - in an instant. Today’s time allows for instant gratification
to our good -and bad - decisions. For
example, posting that terrible pissed picture, or sending that text message to
the wrong person. Facebook can cause
fights, spread viral, infectious, and false information. It can make something that is so natural and
intimate, like sex or sharing secrets, so public; and in reality, completely
oppose naturalness. But alas, this
unnatural world is precisely the world we live in- where unnatural is
normal. Where watching a movie that
doesn’t show how a person arrived at where he is, or how he is standing and
then we can’t see his feet. Watching
edits should not feel natural. Talking
to a computer should not feel natural. Leaving the ground to fly and land on
other ground is not natural. It’s
normal, necessary, and convenient. The
luxuries offered by technology are immense and our ability as humans to create
something so complex truly stuns me.
Current
Projects:
My coursework relating to the above concepts
for this semester are as follows. The
first project- Test of Time- was an
installation. It was a structure, made of old hardware, old software manuals,
and an iPad Skype-ing to a computer on the opposite side of the room. This was
largely based on how people would interact with such a structure. The overall
idea was based on how easily people trashed this old technology forming the
structure, some even in working condition (before I got my hands on it). The
installation was documented, and I made an excerpt video lasting 3:22. This was successful because during a group
critique, people were forced to interact.
Skype easily dominated the conversation when there was someone on the
other side of the screen. A whole conversation
had been derailed because someone waved at the camera. This was so interesting because it really did
show a sense of disposability we have developed with face-to-face conversations
and relationships. Someone would be
talking and we would all- speaker included- direct our attention to the
screen. I had a thought that maybe this
isn’t how we deal with technology, but maybe just how we deal with art. On one hand, it is shown to be true by the
amount of people who text while having a conversation, watch movies while
talking, and message people when in a group setting, even at some points in the
same room. In this setting of the studio space, it is not too farfetched to
have the idea be that we are focusing on a ‘living’ artwork, but with past
experience I would dare to say this is just becoming a human nature- the
ability to avoid a serious conversation, or to have to look into a person’s
eyes when speaking, and show emotions -not through punctuations, but with physical
facial expressions.
While
Skype dominates communication for long distance relationships, I still love the
form of written, physical mail. It is hard to have a relationship with no
physical closeness, and I’m not sure if the post, or the internet, can really
provide that. Skype creates a fake
closeness. I attempted to bring a sense of closeness by having half of an
object here in Dundee, and half of an object at home- the object being
pillowcases. It’s simple, but pillows
are comforting; people need comfort, and home typically brings that. So these
pillows attempt to bridge the distance gap in a more physical sense than Skype. I embroidered a quote about long distance
relationships on the pillows so that only when the two are placed together they
can be read, as well as two people chatting through solo cup & string
‘phones’, where the string is continuous to connect the pillows as the words
would.
In
order to try to make technology and art more accessible, physical, and
interactive, I created another piece of work, Destruction, Creation, by the Public. I planned on having a ‘create your own
sculpture’ day. In a space there would be loads of technology, old and new,
along with sculpture building tools, a pedestal, and an instant-print Polaroid
camera. The idea was that art students, and those not native to art, would come
in and create something, document their creation, and then deconstruct it so
another person could do this too. The
photographs would be pasted to a board displayed next to the pedestal. This would involve people in the work, but
also they would have to dump the work almost immediately after investing time
into it; I want to see how easily people would be able to destroy what they
made, would it be as easy as changing a phone? I really drew from Hamlet in a Japanese Manner by Eduardo
Paolozzi in 1966. His sculpture could be arranged in any manner. I particularly
love this mobility of art. I was disappointed that only curators were able to
arrange, wouldn’t it be marvelous to see what a child would create? Yes,
non-conformed art was a step in the right direction. But, I wanted to see the
general public be able to arrange and participate! Drawing from these
inspirations lead me to create Destruction,
Creation, by the Public. This installation was supposed to occur November
16th, however some materials were stolen. I have found some replacements, however by
this time there was not enough interest in this installation with assessments
nearing. This is therefore a work in
progress, to take place next semester.
My next project was an installation
that occurred during assessment prep week.
Since stress levels are so high at this time, I wanted to create a space
for artists and students to be able to take a break and relax for a
moment. This installation took place in the Perth road
parking lot, in a four door white Fiat.
Large amounts of sunlight were blacked out from the car, and a
projection was displayed on the windshield of the car, only viewable from the
inside of the vehicle. This installation still stems from the study of how people
interact with technology, and how this technology creates its own little bubble
separate from the world, like its own mini escape.
When
left to idle, the mind can create wonderful things. A lot of my best thinking has been done in a car,
and after a lot of research and discussion, a car was the perfect place to hold
the installation. This piece is titled: The idling Mind. The idea was to create
a dreamlike state using video and sound and then to create a place to engage
the dreamlike experience. What a better way to take a break from your work than
to physically leave the building, and to close yourself off from the day? I
discovered in Liverpool (from the Bienneale trip TBA went on) just how
important the location of the viewer was. There were on-site installations, and
even in gallery spaces some videos were viewed in different types of rooms,
structures, and settings, which drastically altered the meaning of a screen. I
wanted to try to create something that isn’t originally viewed on a television
screen. The video documentation included lasts
one minute.
This
piece worked differently than I expected originally. Where I am from, most
people have a car, or access to a car, a license, and usually have to drive a
solid 30 minutes to get where they need to be.
Naturally, we spend more time in the vehicle and grow very close to
it. The relationship with vehicles here
are virtually non-existent; at least with many Scottish folk I have met. I did think there was still something to be
investigated. Daniel Miller wrote Car Culture, where he explored various cultures
interacting with cars. This was very
interesting! The views portrayed in this book by the Aborigines towards their cars
were very unexpected to me, and I was hoping to see, or experience, something
different with Scottish culture and cars than with my own. I left a notebook
and pen in the car, because I assumed there might have been some thoughts
generated in the process of unwinding. There were no notes upon cleanup
time. Perhaps they were written in their
own books; or perhaps they were able to fully relax their mind and not generate
thought. The playlist that I made for
this project was listened to; “Air”- Bach’s meditative song was played twice,
and two other soundtracks (made by me) were played once. Two were untouched. I’m
not sure what this means, but it is definitely interesting. There were a few students who came out saying
they felt refreshed, and that they had used the time as a meditation, or almost
fell asleep. Perfect! (Except that I heard during this project that sleeping in
your car in the UK is illegal, but only enforced in England, apparently).
Supplemental
Work:
As a supplement to my two main
modules, I was attending an introduction to Maya (3D animation) classes in the
animation department on Mondays. I have a short, simple bouncing ball animation
I created there as a way to learn the program. It’s duration is only six
seconds, and it is still pretty rough.
Collaborations:
In addition to these above personal
works, I collaborated with other artists during a few workshops at the
beginning of the semester. Through these
workshops we created a few short, professional films, each of these focusing on
their own aspects of creation and concept.
Room 1581 was a product of the
lighting workshop, which was focused on team members working collectively, perfecting
a space chosen by the professor, and trying out the camera while learning how
to light a scene. Cup O’ Tea, The Bear’s
Head, and The Running Woman were results of the directional
workshop, which was more role-development and execution focused. All of these had time constraints as an added
challenge. The credits are as follows:
My final piece is in some
ways collaboration, but definitely not in the same sense as the ones listed
above.
Celebrating Age and Volunteering
is much more commercial, and lower tech. I worked for Volunteer Centre Dundee
as the “Media Assistant,” offering my filming and editing skills to create a
short film encouraging older people (past retirement age) to volunteer. I
earned enough volunteer hours for a Saltire Award! Essentially, the Volunteer
Centre came up with questions they wanted answered in hopes that the answers
given would motivate an audience to sign up for volunteering.
They chose and found the people we
interviewed for the film as well.
Interestingly
enough, the parts we chose to keep in the video often didn’t match up to a
certain question. We still used it anyway.
This was a very interesting and difficult film to work on, but I think
in the long run as a film, it is successful.
Whether or not this video worked as a success in gaining volunteers, we
don’t yet know.
The premier of the short
film is taking place at Dalhousie LT1 on Thursday, December 6
th, at
11:00 A.M. as part of an event that Volunteer Centre Dundee is hosting that
day. This film is 8:24 in duration, so I made a quick excerpt version (3:29
minute duration) to view for assessments to cope with time-per-student
constraints.
