Storytelling
Writing / Text Technology Mapping Chance as Strategy Manipulation Fragmentation Crop Hand Drawn Data Truth and Reality Translation
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I have come to the realisation that I use a lot of devices in my work. Each of these devices has its own limitations of process yet what they can achieve is open for further investigation. In essence I am using these devices as a form of limited abstraction where I input my ideas/intentions (data) and receive an outcome unique to that device. Each one will produce a different outcome/series of outcomes. For every piece of data there are unlimited possibilities of how to interpret and manipulate it.
I have also realised that the devices that I am drawn to and that I use have an analogue nature to them as opposed to a more up-to-date digital quality. Without realising it until now I am somewhat conforming to ‘outdated’ styles of working when you consider the technological developments of this age. But something about the manual nature of creating text and images seems more personal, and more relevant than any digital application. Yet on the flip-side of this I would like to think that I am developing these ‘old’ methods in a contemporary context where I am stretching the limits of outputs and blurring the boundaries between individual disciplines. Here we are at Kestle Barton Beer she far to castle martian Near me far the kettle Martin Knee we father messy Charlton Paul Chaney’s ‘Encampment Supreme’ at Kestle Barton was the location for working with Poet Ella Frears for an afternoon of wordplay and writing. The group of Tate Collective members travelled from Falmouth, St. Ives and Penzance on the Circuit Magic Bus Tour to arrive on location at Kestle Barton, where we were introduced to the concept of formulating sounds in text, automatic writing and writing our own poetry.
Over the past few weeks I have been looking further into the concepts of language and text in art. Drawing from the limitless quantities of information I have been taken through the disciplines of art, writing, history and philosophy on what I know could be an endless journey. What excites me which I never thought would before is the notion of how writing is a visual system that engages with the realm of thought, and a way of allowing an insight into the writer’s reality. It is also possible to turn text into a visual piece of art; not only can it be ‘read’ for its textual assets but for its visual qualities too (just as you could ‘read’ any other piece of visual artwork).
I have been looking closely at the material relating to the exhibition ‘Art=Text=Art’; a travelling exhibition from 2011to the present, and the artists exhibiting there. This has led me to a number of other pieces, including ‘A Humument’ by Tom Phillips which I saw at the RA Summer exhibition this year, and the novels of Jonathan Safran Foer, whose writing bypasses the conventional systems of prose and presents experimental word games across the pages. Leading on from his lecture the night before, Simon Fujiwara led a seminar with a group of second and third year Fine Art students. The discussion began with the physical means of artistic process, and what defines an idea as worthy to fathom artistic endeavour…
Does the world need this work? And do the processes involved in making the work affect the balance of the world? We ourselves as artists are starting points. We are flawed in that we cannot examine every aspect of our lives; it would become a full time occupation in itself which could easily become obsolete as technological advances outdate our work. We are, in effect, a vessel where information passes through us, and it is up to us to filter and process it; ultimately finding a way to operate in the information-rich world which we now inhabit. From this we can conclude that the notion of ‘the self’ becomes an empty idea, as we are in fact agents for work, engaging and encouraging ideas that come from outside sources. However the interplay of ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ effects how our work is received; and it begins with the claim of being an ‘artist’. Without this self-proclamation the outside world would not react to us, and it is only because of that statement that the outside world acknowledges what we make as ‘art’. But does this label of an ‘artist’ need to be visible? Do we identify as artists through our appearance? In some circumstances the ‘look’ of a person can occupy a space as much as a piece of work; but is this the point, or should we as artists remain invisible? This idea of uniforms or costuming revolves around the idea of ‘belonging’. We as humans understand the safety behind a unified group of individuals, yet we are ‘lost’ in our own sense of visual identity. Outer appearances don’t directly link to beliefs or attitudes anymore; therefore anyone can look like an ‘artist’. But when we consider something ‘lost’, we must also consider them when they are ‘found’ – from this deliberation of two passive states the conclusion was drawn that even if we are lost, it isn’t a bad thing. Quite often when we are lost is when the most exciting or unexpected things happen. An artist is a factory. Part of the whole process of making art is coming to conclusions within ourselves, and using means of communication to present these conclusions to an audience. We can play with the world and also take part in it. As Featured on the Falmouth School of Art blog: https://thefalmouthschoolofart.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/artist-simon-fujiwara-leads-seminar-for-fine-art-students/ Once again I have been using the written word both as a problem solving tool and a potential method of making work. Writing on a continuous roll of till paper has helped to get fleeting ideas down, and as a result I don’t feel too precious about what I write; the words simply flow away as I pull on the paper. I want to be able to examine how I can extract and use words from this stream of consciousness to pull together and create a text that is more concise, yet abstracted further from my already muddled thoughts. I want to develop a series of systems for selecting words and phrases from my writings, abstracting them from their original meanings in the process of creating new ones. I also want to revisit the viewfinder approach – whereby ‘flattening’ the till paper into a 2D image using a photocopier allows for some words to be picked out as well as the aesthetic quality of the photocopied image to give a striking composition of contrast. These images give the impression of something being internal or microscopic, as if being looked at through a microscope. This relationship between micro and macro, internal and external is what I want to carry on exploring. Initially I wanted to move away from what I had already done before, but I have found myself stuck in an ‘internal rut’ where I am getting lost in my own thoughts and trying to put too much emphasis on myself as the subject matter. I need to revert back to looking outwards from myself and discover more source material from elsewhere. If I can find something of interest I can then impress mself onto it in order to find the balance between the internal (me) and the external (not me). I say that the external is not me, but it depends on I look at it. If we relate two concepts together, such as my inner body and the skin that covers it, I am both the internal and external. The same goes for the environment, it could be argued that the climate and weather of the environment is internal to the outer-workings of the physical land. So perhaps I am not all internal, just as the environment isn’t all external. What I need to find however is the balance between the two whereby interaction brings them together in a coherent ‘structure’ of sorts. |
AuthorThird Year BA Hons Fine Art student studying at Falmouth University Archives
April 2017
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