Presentation, Degree Show, Part 2

We (the people showing work in the same area) have started discussing how our work will fit together. Since mine is about a process and not a product, I feel that its display should be flexible and not demanding. I have some shelves ready to experiment with, and I plan to get some cardboard boxes. I plan to see how this all fits with the other work, making sure that its presence comes across in the appropriate way.

Presentation, Degree Show

- show time within space
- time as linear: show pieces in rows/columns/stacks?
- placed on surfaces as opposed to being pinned to a wall: showing process rather than a "finished product"
- brown (wood/card) surface for contrast
- shelves - storage, rather than display
- table - placed on and possibly under
- placed on cardboard boxes, varying heights
- non-sewn objects: keep these as supporting material rather than part of the main work
- test all options to see what fits best with others' work

Planning Arrangement Of Pieces

I'm using a new camera, so I realised too late that these were out of focus. I won't worry about retaking them for now, since I just took them to see what I have, what I need more of and how to arrange the pieces. (This means that retaking them would be unnecessary labour for the sake of perfectionism.)

To do: take photos of the sewing process from the point of view of the person sewing?

Unnecessary Labour

- planned obsolescence - products that aim to cease functioning after a certain period
- planned obsolescence - the idea of "fashion": it still functions, but someone else has decided that it should be swapped for something that is a different colour/shape/material/other
- buying useless objects, fuelling the cycle of creating useless objects, enabling and requiring people to  do more jobs that they do not like (retail, factory etc.)
- work that becomes undone by living (washing clothes, then wearing them, then washing them etc.) - these cycles can be broken by ceasing to live - this adds to the feeling of futility in someone who feels unfulfilled, or someone who is only managing to find the time or energy to do the kind of "work" that repeatedly gets undone (personal hygiene, chores etc.)

This idea can be negative if we are doing jobs we don't enjoy, and earning money that we use to fund businesses where too many people are doing jobs they don't enjoy. Someone can be doing a job that they would not be doing, given the choice, and their money can be used to fund suffering (e.g. factory farming, sweatshops) and boredom (e.g. factory jobs, retail jobs). In an ideal world, everyone would be getting paid to do something that felt fulfilling, and their money would be used to pay other people to do jobs that felt fulfilling. This, I guess, would be an argument in favour of funding smaller businesses - someone pouring coffee in a cafe that they are helping to run, and that feels like their own, is quite possibly a lot happier than someone pouring coffee in a Starbucks.

The lower someone's wage is, the more likely it is that they have to get their food, clothes, etc. from businesses where more people have jobs that are unfulfilling. This is a cycle that can sometimes be slowed by reducing the consumption of unnecessary objects (for example, in the case of a broke student who still buys a lot of clothes), but sometimes it is almost impossible (for example, some people only earn enough to buy food that is unfairly traded or unethically sourced - the consumer may not have the power to change this, but large companies, in this case supermarkets, do).

Aesthetics (Again)

Last week I heard a talk in which someone was describing the need to photograph work "properly," and how it reflected on how "seriously" we took our practice. I was reminded of my foundation interview at UCA Epsom (which was my second choice due to the limited number of foundation courses near London), where the interviewer sighed a lot and berated me for the use of staples in my sketchbooks. I liked stapling in snippets and small experiments, and the way each spread was an experience, and there were layers of notes and pictures and drawings that I felt reflected the journey that the course was taking me through. The interviewer was complaining about presentation. To me a sketchbook was the physical object representing my thinking and experimentation; to her it was the method of presenting to teachers (but actually my teachers at the time were happy about the way I presented my thoughts) and interviewers such as herself.

I feel like while I can see where these people are coming from, from what we've been taught about the roles of contemporary art, I think that when an aesthetic decision has to be made that is not relevant to the ideas behind the work, there should be no "shoulds." (Some may argue that it is all relevant, but the idea that it's all relevant is subjective, and I think that pretending that I feel that all aspects are relevant when I don't would be pretentious.)

Naturally I don't necessarily disagree with the idea that in a lot of situations there are benefits to photographing work clearly - I feel that the person suggesting that was making a different point to the UCA Epsom interviewer. But it made me think - we have a right to choose what we do and don't take "seriously."

Aesthetics

I ran out of the turquoise thread I was using for a piece, and was initially thinking that I had to get more to continue. Now I'm thinking that I maybe have to question why I feel that's necessary. It felt like something that I "should" do, but actually I can't come up with a reason why I have to. So I think I won't, and I'll just continue with whatever thread is available.

I think that a reason to get more thread of the same colour would be that if I continued in a different colour, I'd have to justify "changing colour." But this doesn't make sense since going out and getting more thread of the same colour would be the action that requires the most effort. I'd be making a conscious decision to use the same colour throughout the piece. I can't justify that.

So the choices are:
- Continue with whatever thread is available, and have to justify (to other people) why I "changed colour," when actually it was the action that required less effort, and for that reason, the default action.
- Acquire matching thread. This would be making a special effort and a conscious decision that I can't justify to myself, but would not have to justify to anyone else, purely because they would not ask.

Essentially it looks like since the second option is NOT the default option, I'd only be taking it because it would look like I should.

Things To Do

- More of the above, less uniform, also change the tone

- More "I'm just trying to..." pieces, either whole or snippets/repetition

- "Unnecessary Labour" pieces, different media

Trying To

I figured that the slightly enlarged holes following the text were too subtle a way of suggesting that the words were being undone. I'd been considering the order of the pieces before, so I also tried an order that was entirely going backwards (most words to fewest). I may also consider a version where the fabric has space for the whole sentence including the parts that have been missed off.

Looking at the three photos together, I think more repetition could also work; I could make more of these.

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- Are the words being written forwards, being choked out bit by bit? ("I'm just trying. I'm just trying to drown.") Are they being undone bit by bit, each time changing the meaning of the sentence?

- I think it is mostly the latter.

- Which order works best to communicate each of these options?

- I like the first best - it leaves a hint of stammer-y hesitation in the beginning, but the rest is a sentence being taken apart to create new meanings.

- Would more repetition be good?

- It may be interesting to observe what it feels like to read a longer string of these altered sentences, alternating between each separate message.

- Does it matter how much space is left on the fabric? What does it mean?

- It makes a difference to how intentional it feels that the sentence is cut off. I'm going to experiment more with this idea, but using the "I ran out of" text.

I Ran Out Of

fabric.
time.
ideas.
space.
energy.
enthusiasm.