Site specificity

More and more this work seems to take on characteristics of site specific art. Layering animation onto footage of an interview is like installing an artwork into a real locus: it's a space already heavily invested in meaning that the animation plays upon. Particularly I like the concepts of the 'host' and 'ghost' in site specific art, where the context/place hosts the artwork creating a dynamic/ephemeral relationship. 


This point of view realised through reading:


Palimpsest or Potential Space? Finding a Vocabulary for Site-Specific Performance

By Cathy Turner
Cambridge Journals, November 2004

The Politics of the Gaze: Foucault, Lacan and Žižek

The Politics of the Gaze: Foucault, Lacan and Žižek
By Henry Krips

Culture Unbound, Volume
2, 2010: 91–102.


Cannot upload the article here but have extracted relevant quotes and my thoughts on them below.



“That which is gaze is always a play of light and opacity. It is always that gleam of light…which prevents me, at each point, from being a screen”. The gaze, Lacan then adds, “is presented to us only in the form of a strange contingency, symbolic of...the lack that constitutes castration anxiety…It surprises [the viewer]…disturbs him and reduces him to a feeling of shame” (Lacan 1981: 96, 72–73, 84).
The camera is a form of the gaze, 


"...the subject is brought to recognize that there is a hole, a lack, in his visual field – a something that, because it is present but cannot be seen, functions as a point of failure of the visual field... a point of indeterminacy in the visual field, where the subject fails to see."
The camera is like a vortex into which sound, light and time get sucked, and we don't know how it frames us, only that it frames us... putting us in a place of forced submission.



"In short, resistance becomes a sham – even where it exists, it is taken into account in advance; indeed, merely serves to incite new and more subtle processes of oppression."
I feel that the editing process is again a source of oppression, twisting the truth into sub-truths, half-truths, lies.

“...the images presented on the screen are accepted by the subject as its own …the image seems…to perfectly represent the subject” (Copjec 1994: 21, 23).
This point is what post-documentary theory hinges on, from my understanding.

“The [voyeuristic] pleasure that comes of exercising a power that questions, monitors, watches, spies, searches out, palpates, brings to light; and on the other hand, the [exhibitionistic pleasure] that kindles at having to evade this power, flee from it, fool it, or travesty it…These attractions, these evasions, these circular incitements have traced around bodies and sexes, not boundaries not to be crossed, but perpetual spirals of power and pleasure” (Foucault 1990: 45)
It became clear in the interviewing process that both interviewer and interviewee were in the presence of a gaze (the camera) for which both of us constructed a version of ourselves. Like any game it was both exciting to be playing but the idea of 'losing' (I suppose in this context losing would be to acknowledge that there was any kind of game). 

Shelly Silver

Had seen this work a few weeks ago, forgotten the name of the artist and just found it again.
She does a similar thing but with photography and strangers (not video and friends). Post-documentary theory comes into her work as well through her openly subjective editing techniques and especially her commentary about her experiences. Her's is a more open ended project...


This is only a segment of the whole work, titled "What I'm Looking For":


http://vimeo.com/38698139

Ryan Trecartin

I'm a big fan of Ryan Trecartin. In this interview he likens the editing process to more traditional media and describes it as painting with footage. I'm nearly finished with editing my footage, it has been unexpected how much traditional processes used in painting such as framing and glazing are present in this work. 


I feel an affinity with Trecartin's description of editing, it's like painting back over a primed surface and layering imagery to develop a meaningful image.


Other works of his I have looked at which play with pictorial traditions:

Maze

Sources images for a short animation.

Post-documentary theory

Difficult to find articles about post-documentary theory. Even on UNSW library catalogue could not find any print sources. These are a few I found on the internet. My comments beneath relevant quotes.



Representation through Documentary: A Post-Modern Assessment
Krystin Arneson
Mar 30th, 2012
Critical Theory, Culture, Issue 6
http://cwp.missouri.edu/artifacts/?p=270



'Despite their presentation, documentaries are not an objective but a subjective device, a medium that “marshal[s] systems of representation to encourage point of view about something”[3] This inherent subjectivity, drawn not only from the construction of the film but also from the interpretation of the filmmaker, makes it impossible for a documentary to ever accurately represent the everyday.'


Interviews are infected with the subjectivity of the interviewer because the process of questioning that guides the conversation in the direction of the person giving the interview. Images are framed i.e. images are reductive of environments. Editing is then a further abstraction away from an objective representation... quotes are selected, other parts of discussion are excluded and a voice is constructed instead of simply just presented to be heard.





Traces Of The Real: Photographs of songs and other things
Martha Rosler

http://tracesofthereal.com/2009/11/29/post-documentary-post-photography-martha-rosler-2001/



This article is about photography, but important and relevant because it discusses aesthetic. Developing a meaningful aesthetic that acknowledges the short-comings of documentary artworks 

'The role of the documentarian as the privileged outsider shedding light on those underprivileged communities fortunate to benefit from the attention of his/her lens is no longer tenable. At the same time, the idea that marginalised communities should document their own struggles without the interference of “outside” agents is also fraught with difficulty, not least of which is the impossibility of defining what “outside” actually means in many contexts.' I suppose in my work initially the idea of 'outsider' referred to people who are not creative practitioners, and the work was created to redress the modern notion of artist as tortured genius. This has evolved as I now consider the outsider to be everyone who is not a person I have interviewed and myself... therefore communication of an objective truth isn't the aim of the artwork and I feel freer to move towards more abstract representations of the documentation.


'...photography remains a cornerstone of the documentation of events. She argues that this is largely attributable to the context in which the photographs are presented. For example, if they are presented as part of a report from a reputable media organisation, with associated codes of journalistic practice in place, they are likely to be accepted... These codes of practice are critically important to news photographers as they embody the notions of responsibility towards their viewers, their subjects, and indeed their own profession, that are crucial to the continued viability of their work. A genre of photography that is devoid of such responsbility is street photography, which Rosler criticises for this reason.'


This last quote is relevant because my artwork will be somewhere between documentary and a contemporary video artwork... therefore it falls into a realm with perhaps conflicting codes of practice.

Henry Hills, Emma Bernstein

http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Hills-Emmas-Dilemma.html

Amazing amazing amazing amazing documentary pieces. Filmmaker turned "media artist" Henry Hills (creator of ubuweb) edited the interviews young Emma Bee Bernstein (daughter of Charles Bernstein) made with artists and poets of New York.

Communication is completely undermined by editing process. Interesting and engaging, not sure to what extent communication will be withheld in my own editing processes as I'm yet to experiment with my raw footage but there will be a lot of playing around.

Waking Life

Watched Waking Life today. A few interesting points: animation is shared by a group of animators resulting in various styles. It keeps the film interesting to watch because the novelty of rotoscope animation doesn't grow old.

The film is sort of set out as a series of interviews in a way, the protagonist essentially finds himself in conversations with various people who speak their mind and various philosophical ideas are raised, mostly existential.

Looking at the way this film is edited will help me edit my own footage. Might do a tiny teeny weeny little bit of rotoscoping.

Source imagery: composition space

The space in which one of my interviewees writes his music compositions.
Will be used as reference for drawing a background for a scene of animation.

Rilke: "Letters to a young poet"

Found this book online:

http://www.carrothers.com/rilke_main.htm

Someone in my course suggested it to me, letters written by Rilke to a young man trying to choose between a writing career or joining the army. Relevant themes.

Source imagery

Below are images I am using as sources for my animation. I find it better to link these here than print them out (waste of trees/they are contained neatly in one place).

Two variations on the ouroboros: the cyclic/destructive nature of believing you are not good enough.

Snow Storm: Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps” 1812 - Turner

Landscape with the Falls of Clyde, c.1845 - Turner

Almost featureless landscapes, sense of movement but also dissolving/unclear/uncertain. I also admire how disastrous events e.g. burning of the houses of Parliament are treated in much the same way as tranquil landscapes.



CONTAINS FOOTAGE OF HUMAN CADAVERS. This is a good starting point for animating abstract images of muscles building (representing physical exertion in dance).

I will animate some sound poetry in a very literal way. Diagrams of how we speak every consonant and vowel in English.

And something a bit more disney...

William Kentridge

This is more interesting than various articles about the man that I read. I prefer to hear his own words as well.

There are various cross-overs in his work and my intended work. He speaks of using other peoples pain as subject matter and how this may be a way to be compassionate. I will be looking not necessarily at pain, although some elements might be painful, but will focus more on abstract negative and usually unacknowledged parts of the creative process and and use their visualisation as a catharsis of sorts.

"there's something about studying those heads for hours that becomes a compassionate act for me, even though on the one hand you can say it's very cold-bloodedly and ghoulishly looking at disaster or using other peoples pain as raw material for the work... I mean that's what every artist does they use other peoples pain as well as their own raw material..."

Kentridge then goes on to say that the compassion of spending hours with a subject hopefully redeems the abusive nature of exploiting painful experience. Aside from these conceptual factors the materiality of his animation work I find particularly compelling, the paper is like a surface for a performance. This is how I would like to approach my animation also.





Couldn't find many whole animation artworks on the internet (only snippets interspersed with into interviews) but found this work. An interesting look at a different form of delivery of stop motion animation:



What Will Come 2007

Contemporary portraiture as "portraits that aren't"

In the creation of artworks there always seem to be ideas that are in gestation that don't get mentioned explicitly. I've been thinking about sourcing my artwork from others. I have scanned some scribbly notes I made last night about potential further directions of my artmaking... I know this is something that would normally be included in a process diary, but it's important here because it has redirected my line of research:

I've been reading today about contemporary portraiture, some artist practices and the way they approach notions of identity. I'd like to look at the way the public identifies the genius.

"If artists such as Yasumasa Morimura delight in facilitating recognition, UK artist Gillian Wearing partially or completely disguises subjects in order to emphasise alternative aspects of their identity. Masks, in particular, are a favourite form of concealment.
Here is a catalogue containing some of Wearing's work which I have looked at. Whilst my artwork is going to take a very different form the theme of abstracting identity is common:


http://www.maureenpaley.com/artists/gillian-wearing



In a 1994 video, members of the public responding to a small-ad invitation to "Confess all" donned party-style rubber masks in order to anonymously reveal misdemeanours, vices and personal traumas." and also, on a series of paintings of pin up models:
"Yet each portrait (commissioned from illustrator Jim Burns) is of a real subject - two men and five women - who Wearing located through an ad placed online, then sent for a make-over and photo-shoot before passing the images to the painter."
(http://www.modernedition.com/art-articles/contemporary-art-portraits/the-contemporary-portrait.html)

Wearing orchestrates the creation of an artwork, but does not "make" the work. I am interested in this distance.

I enjoyed The Michael Landy work "acts of kindness" that was a John Kaldor public arts project in 2011. More info: http://kaldorartprojects.org.au/_webapp_1441197/MICHAEL_LANDY_2011
Again this is the sourcing and presentation of other peoples experience/opinions.

This is vastly removed from the idea of the genius. Perhaps this concept will weave back into my work somehow.

History of the concept of creativity

This isn't a reputable source. But it's a nice starting point for looking at the history of how creativity was viewed. If I read this and want to research more I will find reputable sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_concept_of_creativity

Collaboration and education

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/education/7-12/professional-development/learning-symposium/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Tertiary+Update+March+2012&utm_content=Tertiary+Update+March+2012+CID_1a4370d49af879c8ca62466d8c6a0f31&utm_source=Email+marketing+software&utm_term=learning+symposium

Just thought to put this here. Last post was thinking about collaboration. This symposium looks at contemporary art practices involved in collaboration and also collaboration within the art education context. I'm always interested in education links (I'm an education student). May attend depending on funds.

Idea: impersonal instruction

Giving a structure/rubric/scaffold for allowing other people the opportunity to question/visualise the origin of their own creativity e.g. a set of instructions.

Some other artists who do similar things:

Sol Lewitt and his instructions for wall drawings, although these are more about leaving behind the means for creativity whereas I would like to explore the metaphysical origin of creativity.

Vito Acconci's Following Piece (1969) exampled in our first lecture. He devised instructions for his work which evolved according to that structure.

Some community arts project I read about a while ago spoke of a woman who left lumps of clay at the doorstep of every home in the suburb she lived in. People were instructed to create something and then return it to her and the resulting works were displayed as a group exhibition.


An article I read The Gaze in the Expanded Field by Norman Bryson (1988) in Vision and Visuality (ed. Hal Foster) the Japanese practice of flung ink painting, Ch'an painting, is exemplar of renouncing control over creativity. Ink is let loose to the universe and falls according to its laws.

Example of Ch'an painting.

In this same article I was introduced to Nishitani, Japanese philosopher who says "an objects presence can be defined only in negative terms... what appears as the object x is only the difference between x and the total surrounding field. Similarly what appears as the 'surrounding field' is only its difference from the object x." (pg. 98). Perhaps creativity may be explained in such a way, an exploration of its absence might help define what it is.

Similarly Shri Shantananda Saraswati (Advaita Vedanta philosopher) said "to begin to be who you are you must come out of what you are not" (school of philosophy coursework). These points of view offer a different way of working: from subtraction or deletion instead of searching. I like this idea, and I want to find/research more artists who work with this.

Origin of ideas

My idea for this project came from conversation with an architect who introduced me to the idea of genius/daemon. He suggested I watch the talk (below) that Elizabeth Gilbert made on her interpretation of this idea.

Proposal first draft

Below is the first draft for my project proposal. 

Project Proposal, Semester 1 2012

Information MUST be typed and in this format. DO NOT EXCEED WORD LIMIT.

First drafts should be presented in class in Week 1.

Revised and refined version to be presented with the body of work for assessment.

Student Name: Emma Barry

Student No.: z3335085

SART3340 Drawing/Painting 4A and SART3360 Drawing/Painting 4B

Draft no.: 1                                                          Date: 26/2/2012

1. Title of Project (optional):

2. Brief description of project (50 words):

An exploration of the ancient concept of the ‘genius’ or ‘daemon’: a divine intellectual spirit that enters an artist and is responsible for creative works. I hope to create artworks that represent this idea as a redeeming grace for artists who become overwhelmed with responsibility, depression, doubt or fear of the creative act.

3. About the project (300 words).

Concept

Author Elizabeth Gilbert stresses that more than practitioners in any other field; artists are seen as prone to being mentally unstable. Ancient Greek/Roman artists would practice their craft to a high degree of mastery and only then would be considered capable of executing the ideas given to them by a visiting daemon/genius. My artwork will be offerings/invitations to the daemon to bring inspiration, and signify an undercutting of the ego: through sacrifice of technical skill an artist renounces the fear, depression, anxiety and egoism that can come from the creative process/laying claim to creativity. My artwork will take the form of technical drawings imitating the practice undertaken by ancient Grecian art students coupled with a performance of the sacrificial destruction of these works (documentation of this performance will be considered based on further research into sacrifice).

Research methodology

The main research process will be the practice of attempting to reach verisimilitude in drawing from life and busts, informed by literature on the drawing processes taught to Ancient Greek/Roman art students. For the project to expand and be flexible I intend that research into the spiritual/religious origins of the daemon/genius and research of current cultural practices that invoke the genius will allow me to experiment with different options as far as the visual form and process of my artmaking (and its destruction) is concerned.

Contextualisation

Creativity is a philosophical question not yet answered and its exploration is often the subject of artmaking, as such this work is a continued exploration of ancient ideas in an attempt to understand its relevance in the contemporary artworld. I envisage that actions of “offering” ones “talent” to a higher force is liberating from the dysfunctional outlooks of narcissism or depression that can result from an outlook of ownership over artmaking (a very pervasive cultural notion of artists). If the genius/daemon concept could be represented as a positive and viable psychological construct to assist in being resilient against these negative polar states of being then this work is timely because our future depends on capable and constructive creative practitioners.

Had our second tutorial today and my tutor gave me good feedback. One interesting ideas that came up which I will need to consider and develop:
- using the self as conduit for other peoples creativity, example suggested was the procurement of other peoples artworks and being a medium for their exposure i.e. becoming a dealer in art. This would eliminate the personal self. However this does not relate to the genius/daemon.