options bibliography

books:

• Baker, M (2006). Documentary in the Digital Age. Amsterdam;London: Focal.
• Basquiat, J (1997). King for a Decade. Japan: Korinsha Press. 
• Chapman, J (2007). Documentary in Practice : Filmmakers and Production Choices. UK: Polity.
• Logan, P (2011). Humphrey Jennings and British documentary Film a re-assessment. UK: Ashgate.

film and television:

• Bitches and Beauty Queens, 2012. Film. UK: Channel 4.
• Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, 2010 - 2014. TV Series. UK: Channel 4.

websites:

• arvidabystrom.tumblr.com. Available: http://arvidabystrom.tumblr.com/. Last accessed 29th Jan 2014.
• http://www.vice.com/en_uk/tag/Arvida+Bystr%C3%B6m. Available: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/tag/Arvida+Bystr%C3%B6m. Last accessed 29th Jan 2014.
• J☹E SKILT☹N. Available: http://joewebs.tumblr.com/. Last accessed 29th Jan 2014.

initial references: 

• The 2008 Group Exhibition, 'Archive Fever: The Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art', at the International Centre for Photography in New York, curated by Okwui Enwezor
• Individual Artists exhibiting, including e.g.: Felix Gonzales-Torres, 'Untitled (Death by Gun)' (1990), Fazal Sheikh's Series, 'The Victor Weeps: Afghanistan' (1997) and Christian Boltanski's, 'Reserve-Detective lll', (1987) 
• 'Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression' - a text by Jaques Derrida
• Tacita Dean's recent exhibition at Frith Street Gallery, JG and c/o Jolyon
• Marcel Duchamp's museum in a suitcase 'Boite-en-valise'
• Consideration of suggested 'headings', the Object as Archive, Architecture as Archive, the Fictional Archive, the Archive as Memorial, the Archive as Witness, the Word as Archive, the Archive as Repository for Waste.
• Ways of re-presenting an existing archive.
• Jane and Louise Wilson's recent exhibition at Paradise Row Gallery, 'False Negatives and False Positives'
• The 'Fae Richards Photo Archive' a collaborative work between artist, Zoe Leonard and Filmmaker Cheryl Dunye. (1993-96)
• Jamie Shovelin's work, 'Naomi V Jelish', (2004)
• The Jewish Museum, Berlin, designed by Daniel Libeskind (2000) 
• 'At Memory's Edge: After Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture', Yale University Press (2000) and 'The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning', Yale University Press (1993), both books by Professor James Young.
• 'Walter Benjamin's Archive: Images Texts and Signs' by Walter Benjamin, Published by Verso (2007) 
• Daniel Silver's Current Exhibition (until November 3rd) 'Dig', at the Odeon Site, Grafton Way WC1, commissioned by Artangel

options summary

Initially/instinctively I felt the urge to explore on my own what the theme of document/archive meant, and could mean, to me. My role subsequently became a role of primarily research - providing context and reflection against which the result of our collaboration could sit.

I reflected on and explored my own reactions and ideas concerning the theme, thinking about its relevance to my own work and blogs. The concept of documenting has been of great interest to me for a while and there’s so many ways it can manifest itself. In my work in the past I have focused on such intriguing forms of modern documenting and archiving as social media platforms and blogs. I’ve looked at artists using Facebook as a medium (e.g. Ian Aleksander Adams, Beach Sloth, and Moon Temple), and artists like Arvida Bystrom, Maisie Cousins, and Joe Skilton, who all use photography and digital compositions which incorporate and often make fun of digital worlds full of awkward interaction, idealised teendom, and tacky graphics.

I have found a plethora of artistic and cultural examples of works that explore the theme in various ways, such as Michael Landy’s “Break Down”, Tracey Emin’s “Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995” and “My Bed”, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s frantic, diary-like paintings, and various Channel 4 documentaries which act as odd windows into the lives of people the documentaries encourage us to simultaneously feel sorry for and laugh at.

At the beginning of brainstorming, the larger group came up with lots of ideas ranging from interactive crowd archiving projects to photo-documenting projects (I really liked the idea of photographing people’s bedrooms). Our smaller group discussed the possibilities of making a documentary about a small English town, which would feature residents talking about what they appreciated about the area. It was clear this idea was about the people, and that reminded me again of diaries - such a great mode of documented expression. I took to my own exploration of the theme by making photographic zines - mini diaries made in a short space of time - time capsules on paper. This was my own physical and photo-based manifestation of what our documentary might be - not necessarily traditional, perhaps a small trinket, a time capsule of someone’s thoughts at one time and one place.

I would have liked to have a more active role in the making of the work as well as the decision making and progression therein. I think the circumstances felt somewhat constricting for all of us and had I the chance to redo this unit I would definitely aim to take on more of involved, propelling, leadership role.

I think I learned plenty about the incredible potential in diving into the topic as my research progressed and focusing on the theme helped me to understand more about my existing creative practice, which I hope will gain greater clarity as a result.

x

After this assessment I know I have to really focus on framework and presentation. I'm excited about the DAS presentation and essay because already I feel like I am learning a lot about my motivations, so hopefully all of this will allow me a greater clarity of purpose.

It's also a really good point that I should try using the internet directly as an exhibition space. I'm definitely used to framing my work online and there's no need to fight that to feel present in the college exhibition space.

So more video, more fun, more experiments, more connections w/artists and ideas, and solidifying of overall intention to lead the work.

water damage

Another aspect of devolving into pure shapes and texture is presented here - I decided to revisit an old idea which I briefly experimented with during stage 1: water damaged print outs. So here I'm taking well established, complex pictures and physically breaking them down. The first time I did this it was a symbol of the fragility of life itself, a sort of sentimental fear manifested in the water, but this time I felt more celebratory. I cut the pages into separate images after a series of progressing alterations, and instead of just being images, they became trinkets - like some old picture you find in a dead woman's bedroom, crumpled and ruined after years lost behind a piece of furniture. Something that could've been in a locket or photo frame once, or just something carried around in a pocket, not treated well but deeply loved regardless. 

To me these pictures have that "beauty of use". 

shapes & textures

After spending so much of my time painting the formulaic children's cartoon characters in pink, I realised one of the most important things about them was their texture, shape, colour. I picked pink because it was a colour I hated as a child because I was supposed to like it, and I felt that now I could appreciate it whilst retaining all my anger and frustration against the idea that anyone "should" like a colour based on their sex. I guess it was in part an exercise in forgiving the colour, and an exercise in recognising the ways in which my personality and interests have been shaped against my will in trying to combat forceful ideas concerning "how one should be", etc.

But my main focus, I believe, was to relive childhood in a way, now that I have shed so much of the discomfort of childhood, adolescence, and new adulthood - a way of re-doing childhood with all the knowledge and comfort and understanding that I have now (and some of the skill, I suppose, because the "little babies" never looked authentically like young children's drawings, more like a stylised ideal of a child character).

Following from the themes embedded in that, I now find myself desperate to just make shapes (which is often the advice I give to people asking "how to art" but I'm not sure it's easy to grasp). I want new colours and shapes and to be lead mostly by pure spontaneous emotional/kinetic decision. In the "little babies" I found a catalyst for unthinking art, which I found incredibly satisfying. I had a formula - they babies were one simple shape that I copied again and again, each one a variation on the same character. One anonymous person on my tumblr even came and told me how bored they were with my "immature" paintings.

The pictures below are the beginnings of a progression in both the "unthinking" element and the "child" element. They allow me to make paintings for the feeling more than the look, and the look is more visceral as a result.

oddish zine (in progress)

options notes

artist statement 1

My work is fundamentally driven by an insular desire to either enjoy myself or reassert myself. According to this I like to make fast work which lavishes in the glory of texture, shape, and colour. The simplicity of the method is important to my joyful experience of art making - I like to drip and glue and mash things together like a toddler chewing a toy. The emotional process of making continues into the directly personal when I use printed text and pictures to exhibit myself in a more literal way, a result perhaps of formative years spent being more of a blog than a person. The tactile nature of re-printed text and photographs is something I find enchanting, and physically altering the resultant paper objects is something I treat as a way of being responsible for my own destruction, excitement, and adventure.

placement proposal form 1

monday 6 january zine

So I made this zine with the idea that it explores one day in thoughts and visuals, all of which I made it that day - showing the potential and significance of every single day, and as a kind of reaction to people feeling like they have to be productive or otherwise meet certain standards every day in order to feel satisfied with themselves.

This is something a lot of people definitely struggle with and I've seen particularly a lot of young people, some just leaving school or uni, who don't know how to cope without that achievement-based reward system. I think it's especially important in difficult economic times to reassure people that their worth and happiness should NOT be defined in relation to those things, to achievement or productivity or jobs.

This zine was also something of a stream of consciousness. I took the pictures without thinking about them, I wrote the words without thinking about them, and I placed everything together without much thought other than basic ideas (like having stuff facing all different directions to represent spontaneity as well as messiness (of life) and physically moving things (because you would have to turn the physical zine to easily read things).

I also really like the suddenness of making it, and the aspect of documentation with the date. I'd like to do a series of these with different dates. It would make a great time capsule for myself. Really happy with this.

Options Navigation

section 1: visual documentation of final collaborative presentation

section 2: risk assessment form & group project proposal

section 3: summary of contribution

section 4: notes / options ideas & experimentation

section 5: bibliography

S Club 7 Time Warp

So, I took a bunch of S Club 7 songs from their greatest hits, and changed the tempo, making multiple altered versions of each song.
They can be found on this dedicated soundcloud.

The idea was basically to show the near endless possibility for alternative realities. There is more possible variation in everything we make, see, and experience, than we could ever possibly comprehend, and I chose to illustrate that in an incredibly cheesy way. It's a very simple audible illustration of a philosophical idea, and I wanted it to be a throwback, to reflect that nostalgia that many types of archive often project.

It also perhaps signifies decay, more so with the slowed down song versions, which can happen either physically or in the case of lost interest in archives.

a return to journalling

I'm coming back to that free way of expressing myself and it's great. No thinking.