PTBM Research Journal: notes

Showing posts with label notes. Show all posts

Visualising Soft Sculptures

In a potential future installation, I'd like to make some doll sculptures to sit alongside my book and other things - to bring the book's world into reality. I want them to look purposefully crude and childish, but also adequately reminiscent of my character drawings. These are some general plans about the look and feel of the dolls I'd like to make.

MCP writing planning/methods

I had my first MCP tutorial this week with a small group of students (there were 7 of us). We described our research and focus to each other and then had to explain each other's projects to the group, the idea being that we could pinpoint what parts of our objectives aren't perhaps very clear to an audience. We also discussed methods of getting the work done, and were given these hand outs. I've definitely brainstormed ideas in this haphazard sort of way, although I tend to lean more towards lists to get ideas out of or into my head (although in many cases very messy lists!).

In order to organise my time at the moment, I've started keeping a box of notes. I use a small notepad to make several different lists each day - a general to-do list and more specific ones, lists of things to do daily, or lists of questions or things to look into regarding certain ideas or categories. I find that organising through multiple lists works really well for me, and I can revisit past lists easily if I store them in a dedicated box (looking back on previous lists often provides new ideas or reinvigorates old ideas that I can revisit or elaborate on). There is also a great website called listography.com which I use when I want a digital list. Sometimes I write down a lot of things quickly on a page and then transpose that into an easy to digest list, It means all my ideas are syphoned off onto paper and I don't have to worry I've forgotten something because I know I've written everything down and can thus concentrate fully on one task.

My MCP draft is reasonably close to being complete now, but I need to make sure I'm still working away at it, because some of the bits that are left to retool are quite tough bits. I find it so hard to keep going sometimes after I've been working on a piece of writing for a long time (I've been writing this essay for several months) but I've found it quite encouraging to go through the essay so far with someone else and discuss with them how I can change and expand sections. Having someone else look at your work can give you a fresh perspective and make you feel motivated again.

It also just feels very rewarding to have successfully improved a part of your essay, so I think it's good for me to remember to work small in order to really concentrate on one section and not get overwhelmed, as well as to ask someone else to give me some feedback - I don't need to completely rely on myself reading my essay again and again, desperately trying to figure out a way to change something.

Notes & exhibition ideas following first stage 3 tutorial

The main conclusion I could gather from my tutorial with Richard is that I need to concentrate on/plan for future assessments and ultimately the degree show and really figure out something that I'd like to show that is big enough and bold enough and sure enough. My 360 book is a great little world, but for exhibition purposes I really want to be aiming at bring that world out into a bigger space (like the picture of my wall below, covered with pink paintings).

I have sketched & brainstormed some ideas for a small installation space reminiscent of my original 'Lilly's Clubhouse' placement exhibition idea. I think it would be really fun to have a little corner with all sorts of things poking out of it - shelves, sculptures, paintings, collage, trinkets, my 360 book, and maybe other homemade books of some kind. There are lots of possibilities and I really have to explore this now and try to show something bigger and more world-like.

Recent notes

These are my most recent notes, which include considerations of the construction of my library exhibition, MCP-related research into cultural views of childhood and artists trying to make "childlike" work, relevant documentaries, the video work of various artists, methods of exhibiting work for my assessment, etc.

The importance of titles

In my most recent tutorial the relevance of titles was discussed. Artists often find themselves in a conundrum of how to communicate what a work is to their audience. We often take it for granted that a title can be an easy way of telling a viewer something about the work (e.g. whether it is a study, an experiment, whether the nature is formalistic or very serious or silly).

To me, titles can be almost works of art in themselves. They offer a unique opportunity to be succinctly creative. I love odd phrases and sounds that go together in a pleasing phonetic sense regardless of how much sense they make or direct relevance they have. Titles can enhance the dreamy world I feel my works inhabit.

In Art and Interpretation: An Anthology of Readings in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, Eric Dayton says "title may be important in giving us a clue to the ideas surrounding a painting". This is true, however, the title can also be a tool to confuse and mislead your viewer, drawing them into your own creative world through deceitful text.

I have named an art book prototype for my assessment "Jennifer Lopez Lollipop". The apparently nonsensical title conjures a rich cultural world for my art to reside in. It references childhood lifestyle and early 2000s pop culture at once and places the book into the cultural context of a warped millennium childhood or winking adolescence on a bouncy castle.

Dayton, E. (1999). Art and Interpretation: An Anthology of Readings in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. Broadview Press.

Library exhibition prep: looking at the archive

Since I want my exhibition to draw links between my own work and something from WCA's archives, I looked through the archives today (the newspaper clippings below were interesting - the first is not really relevant, but the second interests me as it touches on art as made by people not considering and contextualising everything they make - the unadulterated genuineness of "everyman art") and found this brilliant concertina book made my WImbledon students collaborating with schoolkids from Camden.

I feel as if its location in time is important as the 90s were a time in which very simple and childlike art and fashion were embraced. It is also nicely linked to me by virtue of being made at a time when I was also a young schoolchild (I was 7/8 in 1999), so there is automatically a personal nostalgia for me in it. The children's drawings are perfect example of the ideal messy and colourful and carefree style/method to which I aspire, and which inspires me! I think this is the perfect thing to display aside my work, which similarly will incorporate very bright colours and rough shapes.

DOWN WITH THINKING: Stage 3 MCP & exhibition thoughts (PPD)

The prospect of the big bad dissertation baby is terrifying, however I have found that the most recent essay/presentation (art as therapy) really pushed and inspired me into a new place in terms of a focus in which my work sits. I am hoping that the exhibition I make in the library will allow the same in terms of frameworks of presentation as well as links to understood art practices and ideas. Presentation in particular has been a struggle for me, so I hope I can really PLAN something now and make it thinking about every component of it rather than just waffling something up (even though that, ironically, is so much of my focus).

I am firmly slotted into the "art as self-care/comfort or pleasure mechanism above all else" frame now. Everything revolves around that perfectly. Everything about art making and its properties of therapy/calming/nostalgia/representation and love of life and the universe is THE THING I CARE ABOUT and want to talk about. That is exactly why it's been tough for me to want to theorise it and think about it and consider every part of what I'm doing, because I've just wanted to DO IT. But after writing the "art as therapy" essay I feel I have a new understanding of the value of considering every detail of my art practice, intentions, reasoning, etc. Everything is precious, and this can be enhanced through academics. I do feel stupid though, a lot during this course. It's hard to find academic things to engage with, it's hard to find the right sort of sources that are relevant and understandable. I seem to stumble upon by accident. That's pretty scary,

Anyway the point here is that I am much more open to contextualising myself because thinking, in practice, has not detracted from my carefree style of work, as I felt deep within myself it would. I'm still scared though.

ART 2014

I think it will be important to try keeping to a more defined structure at this point concerning what I make. I have been concerned with my process and enjoyment and my outcomes have been difficult to interpret. In terms of presentation frameworks I am leaning towards display being fully located online. Newhive allows me to easily make decorated webpages which assert their place across the screen and allow for easy visual arranging. I want to work concerning levels.

My cartoony paintings and drawings. These are a mass piece sort of ever changing and evolving and a representation of me and my thoughts and feelings. They inform and react to other work in some ways and I want to record them but I want them to take a backseat to separate constructed projects. I'll detail these by linking to dated collections of them and noting changes and reasons for changes.
Sound. I will make series of tracks, I think a mix between atmospheric and fuller songs. These on their own are artworks, and I want to recognise them as stand alone pieces. These will be the first level which properly inform my intended work.
Videos. Once I have my songs, I will make videos for them. I want them to be somewhat ethereal, but, looping back to my paintings as an influence, I want the videos to convey something of my painting process in terms of the softness & sweetness, the unthinkingness & childishness, and the joy and scale of the complexities of my life and personality via my messy acrylic creation transferred onto video.
It's possible that I can then transform something of the video into a physical installation, e.g. taking screenshots and weathering them and sticking them up on a wall in a big mound of crumpled paper and masking tape. I'm not sure if this is a good idea as there is something definitively final about the videos. I could, however, transfer this plan to digital by constructed a messy web page around a video, with lots of digital clutter. This would tie into the work more effectively, I think, and would keep everything online.

document & archive: what the heck?

so collaboration can take many different forms and its most obvious benefit is that you can play to your strengths, do what you're most enthusiastic about. to me i think my favourite thing in a collaborative situation can often be the compiling of inspiration, ideas and research. i like to ask philosophical questions. one of my favourite things in the world to do is to write lists - i organise my enthusiasm and inspiration, i catalogue excitement. because that's you want, or what i want, most of all, when making work - to be excited about it.

so that's what collaboration means - or what it can mean.

what does document and archive mean?

i immediately think of my blog archives, again a catalogue, but this time of my own thoughts, feelings, experiences, and creations. some of my past work has dealt heavily with this idea of an online persona, and online hub of yourself and your identity

the group talked about making a documentary film to document how people feel about the place they live

so in a similar way to my blog archive, the core of the idea is to catalogue feelings, human reactions and thoughts on surroundings

i want to explore the theme of "document & archive" in several ways on my own

here are some ideas:

a zine of selfies (I post a lot of them every so often on my blog lilashton.blogspot.com and it's a great way to see how i looked or felt on various days throughout a longer period of time - it's a very true illustration of who i am, visually, emotionally, etc)
photos from my phone (i take photos a lot just of pretty much anything, and while I have also done lots of very calculated photo-taking, spontaneous phone camera shots of my life have a special place in my heart because they are just genuine memories and illustrations of my life and surroundings)
diary entries & blog posts (documenting of my thoughts over a period of time, general changes, thought patterns, etc)
live blogging (people live blog or live tweet events and it's always really interesting to look back on stuff like live tweets of the brits awards 4 years ago - i saw someone who had live tweeted an acid trip and it was so interesting - i could live tweet just life activities for a day or something)
altering realities (painting on photos, altering sound? tempo changing existing songs infinitely, to show the endless potential for variance present in everything - drawing on webcam pics in paint, or of course physically)

Here are some recent pages from my journal (diary!):

Also v. interested in using stuff from my childhood/cultural artefacts from my glorious youth, e.g. BILLIE PIPER (I just love this single cover, god bless).

So in conclusion, the focus here is on documenting experiences in particular time frameworks. This is very flexible as a focus, and can be used to explore many different kinds of work.

Academic tutorial 7.11 (stuff to work on next)

Recent notes

unit 2??????? (notes)

I wanted to use books as a medium and/or presentation method for this project as a sort of parallel to websites. A collection of links vs a collection of pages.

Artists who use books include ????

Artists who use the internet include David Horvitz, Ian Aleksander Adams,

David Horvitz' work tends to be centered around an intuitive social idea. He asks an audience cultivated through the internet to participate in his works. He relies on this audience. His work in this way is comparable to flash mobbing. I like the idea of being dependant on a group of people, a community. It is an odd type of collaborative art in which the artist plays the part of director.

There are several potential continuations of this work that I find exciting:
1. using archive content as well as screenshots

Experimentation:
1. books - some more textural, playing with type of content (anselm kiefer texture), securing a diary like feel and what that means when trying to create symbiosis between analogue/digital, introduction of digital elements and how they effect personalisation/type of personalisation, e.g. how webcam photos of myself and people I am close to can give a closer/different insight, also the fact that you can't screenshot a face to face conversation - however of course a text conversation lacks some elements of communication e.g. voice, tone, expression, etc, using websites e.g. futureme.org, video art, pixel art

do something very amazing which requires no explanation
boyfriend squeaks
lots of hair lots of colour

could u stop
could u run away
i just wanna write nonsense please

(also: http://listography.com/action/archive?cat=school)

on writing and text in art: Ben Roylance & Crispin Best (art & writing)

"list of people who eat raw things
list of people who dissolve
list of people that I see dancing with glass sycamores
list of people who cannot breathe
list of people who swallow entire friends
list of people interested in moths or birds
list of people with hearts but not legs
list of people who cannot swim in gelatin
list of people that I can meet
list of people who belong to tribes
list of people who consider themselves complete
list of people that I will see between now and then
list of people who eat only vegetable matter
list of people who serve other people
list of people with tragic family histories
list of people who make other people miserable
list of people that I see dancing with molten chimes
list of people who sleep regularly
list of people who speak English
list of people who read old scrolls about smelling salts
list of people who nap
list of people who eat their own pubic hairs
list of people who cannot sleep
list of people that I will meet
list of people older than I will be when I am mauled by a golden swan
list of people who twist their leg hairs into knots
list of people who slip
list of people that I will never meet
list of people who have lived
list of people without electricity
list of people who believe in one god
list of people who believe in two gods
list of people who believe in no gods
list of people who believe in three gods
list of people who believe in more than three gods
list of people who believe in one god, specifically themselves or their lovers
list of people who believe in animal sacrifices
list of people with 500,000 arms but only one leg
list of people who are guilty
list of people who are more innocent than they are guilty, but we are all guilty, right?
list of people who are not guilty, are not guilty and will never be
list of people with eating disorders
list of people with incurable diseases
list of people with frustrated artistic ambitions
list of people with frustrating artistic ambitions
list of people who still ache for redemption
list of people who translate languages into other languages
list of people that I see vomiting into pails
list of people who look outward, hoping to see the other side
list of people that I see through the window, but just their outlines
list of people with radiation poisoning
list of people that I see staring at my fingertips
list of people who will sink
list of people with hair longer than their arms
list of people with hair shorter than their necks
list of people with burning shoulder blades
list of people who will float
list of people that I know to be trustworthy
list of people who are not now known by their original, given name
list of people who read books
list of people that I can hear gulping down their medications
list of people who believe themselves to be in contact with more complicated beings
list of people who + when -
list of people who - when +
list of people who were knights of the round table
list of people who err on the side of sunlight
list of people who are motorized
list of people who eat raw things, but do not let their minds dwell upon the blood on their teeth, they just swallow it and move along."

- list of people, Ben Roylance

"everyone i've never had sex with" by Crispin Best

(read here: http://www.shabbydollhouse.com/everyone-i-ve-never-had-sex-with)

I really really like this sort of frenzied writing about everything and nothing, just life, an outpouring of thoughts and little moments and worries and whatever. There's a sort of honesty and flow and childlike quality to these pieces of writing, emphasized by their disregard for punctuation (although that's less noticeable in a list). It's just like reading someone's diary, desperate and honest and human, and that's the appeal I think, for me. I was talking to someone the other day about the ways in which we write and I said I found it really hard to not write about me. I'll try to create a story or a character and it will just end up being me, or some facet of me, whatever. I don't want to fight that. If writing about myself is easiest then I should find a way to do that and make it compelling.

This sort of thing is really like looking into someone else's brain and I feel like I understand people, everything about people, everything about everything, reading these. And I suppose because they break conventions of writing it allows a certain freedom. There's a level of similarity between these pieces and work by David Shrigley, Jenny Holzer, Tracey Emin, and others who are ostensibly artists (whatever that means, eh?????). But what's the difference between writing and art that uses writing? Cultures of alt lit and zines are flourishing as part of internet culture and community now and it's weird and good. The internet can be such a lucky dip. People can throw their words out into the world. I want to do that too.

project notes & inspiration: Internot

I wanna look at teen diaries and teen blogs and see how they're different and how people my age feel looking back on growing up on Myspace and Habbo Hotel and things like that and how it feels when people say really serious things to you on Facebook chat and how that's different to when they write you a note.
I want to look at the anonymity offered by the internet and the structured profiles and the blog themes and how they intersect with people's physical personal spaces, whether that be their diaries or doodles or their bedrooms. I'm interested in time/era variations here as well as age variations. Childhood diaries and notes and drawings intersected with the same things from the same people, but as adults.

Maybe I'll think about music online, how bands present themselves. Myspace comes up here again. The possible reduction of album artwork when there is no physical album.

I want to see people's handwriting and the way they type and maybe how this changes, like how they write when they're drunk. Idiolect. Phonetics. IPA.