Text In Contemporary Art, Notes On Artists

Ed Ruscha - ambiguity, subtlety, atmosphere, culture, vernacular

Martin Creed - subtle humour, British humour, irony, sarcasm

Tracey Emin - blunt, childlike, uncensored, shock value, distressing

Jenny Holzer - poetry, empathy

Text In Contemporary Art

Should art's aim be to express things through visual language (some people think so)? If so, is using text a cheap shortcut?

(Ed Ruscha)

To read:
Writing on the Wall: Word and Image in Modern Art - Simon Morley
Art, Word and Image: 2,000 Years of Visual/Textual Interaction - John Dixon Hunt, David Lomas, Michael Corris
Art and Text - Dave Beech, Charles Harrison, Will Hill, Aimee Selby
http://www.tate.org.uk/artist-rooms/collection/theme-text-and-language
http://www.artequalstext.com/

Works In Progress

I have made something that responds to catalogue visuals and the contrast between the perfect catalogue world and what is real and flawed, but not dramatically bad. I'm interested in the idea that less than perfect is still fine. I am going to make another piece about catalogues, in which I use a kitchen catalogue with a lot of visible branded products in the background (that are not intended to be the focus of the image), and use that catalogue as a set of instructions for what to consume.

I have created a set of images of useless/worthless objects from my drawer. I also plan to create a set of drawings of this type of object. I will be thinking about the subjects of hoarding, sentimentality, contrast between monetary worth and personal meaning, as well as motivation (i.e. motivation to throw away whichever objects are worth nothing and mean nothing to the owner). I plan to communicate a contrast between the valueless or ugly nature of the object, and the value placed on them (perhaps inadvertently) by allowing them to take up the space in one's life or drawer.

I have collected a set of orders from another person, and plan to use those to dictate my actions. This will link to my research on giving up autonomy, and random decisions.

I am planning to create a structure resembling a time machine; it will be a light-hearted and slightly humourous symbol of regret.

I was thinking of photographing my bed every day to document the weekly cycle of care and attention to detail descending into complete apathy and poor hygiene, but decided that this was derivative.

I am creating another piece that deals with routine and lack of motivation, and I like the simplicity of it. It is a collection of plastic forks from instant noodles, and it deals with repetitive habits and laziness. To me it also touches on the irony of the fact that emotions can actually make us act more robotic.

Someone Else Being Me

I decided to experiment with the idea of someone else being me instead of me, which is sort of a reversal of some of the ideas I had when I was thinking about the idea of giving up control and autonomy, and having all your actions and decisions made by someone else. It's a reversal in some ways, but also a similar thing in other ways. I have made a collage based on this (which includes a picture of someone trading roles with me, and drawings he made as a result of this), the text on it reading:

"I have arranged for someone else to be me instead of me
and do art student things
and make art."

I like how it sounds like it may lead to some sort of result, ending or conclusion, but does not. It gently expresses pointlessness and futility.

I'm wondering what it would mean to have a pseudonym, and also delegate the making of your art work to someone else, still presenting it as your work. Is it still in any way yours? This sounds similar to re-stuffing a sofa and changing all the wood/metal parts, then later re-upholstering it. Would it be the same sofa? Probably not, as a sofa does not have a soul. Does an identity as an artist have a soul?

How The Territories Of Practice Unit Has Enriched My Practice

- I already knew that the subject my work was dealing with was people/routines/habits, and artefacts/specimens relating to this. This unit has made my ideas clearer and more solid. Technology is interesting evidence of our routines and priorities, and reveals a lot about our wants and aims.
- I was able to think more about some of my interests that were originally not as connected to my practice. I was able to evaluate what may have been more relevant than I realised, and what I may have simply been tempted to find a tenuous link to for the sake of making my work deal with more things I am passionate about.
- It helped me to find more articles and artworks that were relevant to ideas I was interested in, making the research behind my work stronger.
- It provided an opportunity for some interesting debates that challenged and strengthened ideas.

Research Symposium At The Tate Britain

Other groups' discussion topics seemed to feed into their work in a direct, clear and simple way. I feel that ours was different because while we had the option of discussing how technology directly affected art, technology also affects art in an indirect way. Technology shapes and is shaped by our lives, and our lives are reflected in our art. Our lives respond to technology and art responds to our lives. We sometimes discussed how technology directly affected art, but we also sometimes discussed how technology affects our lives (and therefore affects art indirectly). We discussed at length how technology affects each area of our lives, and I found this relevant to my practice as I am dealing with the idea of lives and habits as art.

That is an incredibly repetitive paragraph, but I am tired.

Notes

Gilles Deleuze: Postscripts On The Society Of Control
- a point that this makes, that I thought was relevant to my practice, is that the technology a society uses illustrates their behaviour, priorities and habits - our machines and tools can work as metaphors for how we live or tell stories about our wants, needs and aims
- "we are taught that corporations have a soul," - personification, also the idea that there is a more fluid force controlling us than the closed environments of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
- Félix Guattari's idea of a society where each part is separated by barriers, so where we go and when can be controlled

Benedict Drew: The Persuaders
- digital (usually seen as emotionless) triggering emotion
- personification of machines
- personification of abstract, indistinct forms
- contrast, irony

Ed Atkins: Some Notes On High Definition
- HD - too much detail? "replaces" subject
- audience is forced to remember actors' humanity (visible wrinkles, pores, etc.) - I see this as a reversal of expectations as technology seems to be bringing us closer to other humans... or maybe just giving off that illusion and therefore taking us further away from them by eliminating some of the need for a real human
- ability to create and remove without a trace - this is an interesting quality of the digital "world"
- bizarrely pessimistic view of being able to see a human and their flaws and signs of aging; these things are described as reminders that the person is in the process of dying, instead of reminders that the person is alive

Ed Atkins At Bortolozzi
- selective about which details of the human form to include
- eeriness in perfection

NOWHERE 13, MA/MFA Computational Studio Arts, Goldsmiths
- emphasis on coldness and sterility

Brad Troemel: What Relational Aesthetics Can Learn From 4Chan
- anonymity, in-jokes, virtual communities
- "those without connections to the art world or the need for validation from it" - unpretentious, genuine, honest
- lack of leaders

Artie Vierkant: The Image Object Post-Internet
- "when the internet is less a novelty and more a banality" - context, time changing how something is viewed, perspective, repetition
- nature of art - fluidity, responding to context, does not reflect the whole of the world
- impulse to be progressive
- media as a communal space

The Stanley Parable
- autonomy in video games
- contrasts with other video games which only give us the illusion that we have a choice
- ability for disobedience

Hito Steyerl: In Defense Of The Poor Image

This is interesting in the way it personifies digital images. Steyerl describes poor quality images in a way reminiscent of Robin Hood, making sacrifices (eg. quality) and taking risks (eg. ignoring copyright) to deliver to the masses. We often have no trouble finding ourselves personifying and empathising with physical objects, for example if they are old or sentimental, or if they have faces on them or are slightly smaller than we are used to (baby cheeses are "cuter" than regular-sized cheeses), but it's even more interesting to hear something that we cannot touch and that is part of the "cold" digital world described in this way.

Digital Images

I am currently using digital images in my work to document something a bit like performance art. To be more specific, I have one idea in which I get someone else to live as me instead of me, and another where I follow a set of orders from someone else, freeing me from responsibility from my actions. There is no real audience, as the "performance" is just changing a routine, and so the work exists only in these images. This makes me unsure of what these images should look like.

If they are documentation of everyday things, it seems appropriate to take them in a similar way to "casual" photos (family photos, photos taken by people without too much interest in photography, etc.). I feel that this would involve paying some attention to composition, but not too much to altering what is within the frame (clearing irrelevant objects etc.), lighting (turning the light on if it is too dark seems fine, but reenacting the moment in natural light for a better photo does not), camera settings or editing.

I don't feel that the fact that the work will only exist as a set of photos is a reason in itself to ensure that the photos are "aesthetically pleasing" or that they look like "good photography." However, I am wondering if there is a need for them to be a bit more polished so that they do not give off the feeling that they were not carefully considered.

Adam Chodzko: Room For Laarni, Image Moderator, Marlborough Contemporary, Part 2

I like this because I sometimes use conversations in my work. Electronic conversations are ideal; none of the moment is lost in the process of replication. The moment was already incomplete: free of sound or visuals. These have to be filled in by the imaginations of both the participants in the original conversation, and the audience reading the replication of the conversation.

Adam Chodzko: Room For Laarni, Image Moderator, Marlborough Contemporary

Digital images cost next to nothing to take - only a bit of battery life and some memory. People, for better or worse, are now much less selective about what is worth taking a photograph of. An argument against this is that young people these days take too many photos at events like gigs and birthdays in order to preserve the memory as an image, rather than focusing on the moment. Perhaps we don't trust our memories enough. Perhaps the idea that we'll forget a moment is a self-fulfilling prophecy; we'll forget the moment because we were too busy viewing it through a lens, attempting to ensure that the memory was preserved forever.

Analogue photography, like the found images in this exhibition, is more likely to be viewed in a different light on the assumption that the photos were taken with more care. We assume that each moment was something that someone really cared about capturing, and we look for why that is. We project more meaning and feeling onto these photos. There is also more mystery and curiosity involved as a photo can get permanently separated from its context.

The images of people sleeping are voyeuristic in a different way from if they were digital. In a culture where youths sometimes tease each other by making candid and slightly awkward or embarrassing photos public, and in which the media screams stories of "cyber-bullying," a collection of digital images of people in a vulnerable state, unaware that they are being photographed, would seem... probably very far off being malicious, but maybe a bit cheeky. The fact that these images are analogue lends them a nostalgic feel. They are less throwaway; they were created with purpose and intention but as analogue images, are fading. It's easier to assume that although in some circumstances it may have been a bit intrusive, people preserved these moments because they cared. The images are lovingly creepy.

Mark Leckey: Cinema In The Round

Mark Leckey speaks about capturing moments that are gone using a medium that is flat, but attempting to maintain "life" in the work. He speaks about the internet as if it is another dimension: a new space for ideas and possibilities, and talks about how we produce and consume at the same time.

Digital art and internet culture seem to work well for us because they are not acting as a pale imitation or a pixellated reflection of what is not digital; they are an extension. Film has its ways of building on the moment, so that while some of the moment being captured is lost, other things (that add to atmosphere etc.) are added. The internet provides a space for people that is not just a virtual version of what is physical. It is not linear, and information is conveniently archived and accessible from all over the world to create advantages and a richness of discussion, information and detail you may not get elsewhere, or at least not as conveniently.

Sloppy Back-up In Case PowerPoint Fails

Continuing In The Vein Of Translating States Of Mind Into Objects

Consistency

I probably care too much about consistency. It's probably fine if some of my bad ideas that I did end up using are worse than some bad ideas I didn't end up using. It's probably not the best use of time to either attempt to "fix" all the bad work, or attempt to use all the bad ideas I didn't end up using, for the sake of being consistent with how discriminating I am or am not when it comes to deciding which things to actually do.

Incomplete Ideas

I have this piece of really melted polymer clay that was a result of baking it at too high a temperature. I would bake a lot of polymer clay, and was used to the routine of putting it in for half an hour at 100 degrees. I was also used to the routine of putting a breakfast pastry in the oven every morning for twenty minutes at 200 degrees. I apparently got the two routines mixed up, and ended up with a weird, drippy little object. I'm thinking of somehow using that object as art, as I think it could fit interestingly with my idea of artefacts to do with habits and moments, it being the nonsensical blend of two different routines.

I'm still thinking about my idea of following a catalogue's recommendations on how to live, but the execution is a problem. I'm interested in this kitchen catalogue that has a large amount of branded products, and I want to use it as instructions for what to buy and consume, but I'm not sure how to document this.

I wanted to make some work that involved the process of doing all the things I had no motivation to do; I wanted to present those moments as art. So far I have no idea how to, apart from documenting the activities in a dull and literal way. I might do this anyway, fully knowing it will not turn out well, but hoping it will lead me somewhere more interesting.

The "Art World" - Parallels With "The Emperor's New Clothes"

Notes:

- "intelligence" in art coming more from the viewer's interpretation than the actual art? - projection of meaning, trickery or thoughtlessness in art
- some art could easily have been created without thought (like The Beatles writing "I Am The Walrus" - intentionally nonsensical and meaningless lyrics with the intention of tricking people into attempting to work out a meaning - this was in response to people's over-analysis of their songs)
- there are studies in which "experts" cannot distinguish "real" art from children's or animals' art
- "Woman Pays $10,000 For 'Non-Visible' Work Of Art" - James Franco's Museum of Non-Visible Art

Maybe this course is just training us to make everything that is useless, pretentious and self-indulgent, but maybe if I think that, I can embrace that?