March 2014
Visual
My idea for the moving image is quite
complex visually and in process, and even though much will change, alter and
evolve during the making and finishing processes, it is my experience that
there is a considerable amount of thinking, planning, imagining, deciding,
connecting and figuring out which occurs before I really set to work. I have some inbuilt “efficiencies”
which I have developed in order to manage sheer volume and time of video, in
order to keep track. Therefore my video trials tend to be quite short and I
tend not to keep them nowadays – they are searches for the principle of making
I will use in the piece.
I have also been aware that, time
allowing, I must allow my thinking about the moving image piece to evolve and
reflect other changes and developments. Although my timetabling is soon coming
to the stage where I must simply follow through my plans and produce, I feel I
still have some flexibility in production which will affect the overall
project. In particular, I am considering a new way of showing work for me. I
usually layer aspects of moving image so that elements will interact and are
integrated as one – it has occurred to me to show these layers separately as
well as together in exhibition, i.e., one screen/TV/projection shows the merging
found paintings, another shows the treatment of the old school photos, while
another shows the third mechanical element I am planning. The main projection
will be the final merged moving image. So perhaps in total four screens. My
thinking in this is that:
1. It may be visually interesting for
the viewer to see each of the layers I present and relate them to the combined
piece,
2. It exposes my thinking and
processes.
Although it sounds technically
elaborate, it’s really just a question of one main projector, and three
probably smaller solutions such as inbuilt TVs/DVDs, which I already have, and
power sockets. The question then remains whether I coordinate the timing of the
screenings or vary them (probably coordinate).
Once this though occurred, I’ve been
considering the implications – possibly it takes back focus a little from what
I consider to be the combined main piece, but it seems like a challenge in
exposure that once thought of, I find hard to argue my way out of.
White layer found paintings, 6 minutes, no sound:
The found paintings
merging into each other, here, similar white colours.
School Layer 1, 1 minute, no sound:
Again, not a
completed piece, but towards the treatment I will give each group photo, with
different techniques of scrutinising the imagery using combined layers of video
and photography.
Research notes
992 words
I intend to
add notes, reflections and interpretation upon all of the books and artists
listed in my bibliography.
Organising Research
I am familiar with all the books in
my bibliography to various degrees, and I didn't put anything there I hadn't at
least read enough to grasp the gist. As Alexa said in a recent seminar about a
book from her degree she is rereading - it's as if she hadn't read it before. I
am finding that too - that reading is getting quite slow because of all the
thinking.
Elkins, J. (1998) The Object Stares
Back: On the Nature of Seeing. San Diego. Harcourt Brace.
I've probably referred to this book
in every essay, bibliography and formal piece of writing and academic exercise
since my dissertation. Firstly, I love the style of writing and the style of
conversation the author has with the reader, and more, I love meandering along
such abstract ideas, bringing in evidence from science, philosophy, personal
experience and artistic insights - all giving something and contributing
towards universal understanding through a deeply individual and personal
perspective.
One of the main points of TOSB is how
very individually people apprehend shared visual components. I like such ideas
and explanations that can never be fully reduced and grasped as they are
shifting conceptual lenses.
Perhaps like watching a film where
you can say what happened but couldn't really grasp what it was really about,
or reading the words of a poem without layered appreciation of everything it
implies, or again, all the ways once could look at and describe a painting
short of eloquent interpretation - while approaching all these artistic clusters
of codification, the ideas in TOSB do not all occur at once.
Understanding
comes in waves, perhaps overlapping waves. Our point of understanding may vary,
may recede somewhat, or be superseded by other opposing or affirming waves.
Areas of Research:
Where the Music Comes From
I have been thinking about how to
approach all these influences. Sometimes it does not seem enough to say it's
Sibelius, but what all those associations about Sibelius are to me. I guess
that's it - associations, some factual, some personal, and mostly, what in my
mind I link all that to - ways of thinking, places, aspirations, atmospheres.
In that way, there is a universal Sibelius, plus a deeply personal Sibelius,
Purcell, Schubert, Reich - my go-to composers.
Ethics of Archive Material
There are surely ethics involved in
searching through an archive for the study of the Holocaust and Genocide for
other reasons. Of course I'm very aware of the context, but I am not making
work about the Holocaust. The photos I'm working with are not the direct
images, but evidence of the lives which would soon be devastated. I'm looking
at them to get that feel of a world faded in time, and the fabrics, textiles,
streets and attitudes people lived in.
Codification
Working with visual material and a
set of ideas, sometimes ways of working or reasons present themselves or
emerge. Sometimes I start off wanting to make work in a particular way - a set
of restrictions, or particular construct. All of these point to the underlying
logic or equation of a piece. This is often a multi-layered, asymmetric kind of
equation which becomes a way of making the form of the work, solving and
resolving the material.
It's often difficult for me to
deconstruct those ideas and articulate them, as they are deeply embedded within
the making process. Already in making, these ideas and constructs are abstract,
and clarifying them in any other way than through making is a distraction.
However, I did go some way towards halting the process in stages to record and
reflect throughout the MA, especially more recently, and even for me, the
counterintuitive steps of planning certain codifications to fulfil in work - eg
The Future Past Tense one hour drawings to one hour moving image.
The Meaning of Abstract Painting
I don't believe I am alone in
bandying about the word abstract. I hope to explore various definitions of the
concept in order to define and iterate my own thinking, and yet the idea of
abstract inherently defies some definition - it always seeks to subvert, and to
have an oblique view. In my thinking, abstract somewhat defies definition, and
is, in itself, towards the wordless. Although abstract imagery may well
reference versions of reality, it always points away from that, towards a
nebulous space where multiple definitions and meanings form.
There are gradations of abstraction,
and differences in direction, tending towards reality or an imagined reality.
Of all the many hundreds and
thousands of painters I could reference while considering abstract painting,
the ones I think most of while working on my Found Paintings photographs are
Abstract Expressionist painters Philippe Vandenburg and Robert Rauchenburg.
The origin of these Abstract
Expressionist works could hardly be more different to the happenstance which
created my photographs, and yet that is how I read them, and initially how I
recognise them visually. Not all Abstract expressionist works are torturous
violence.
There is a language of colour and a
gesture which flows from the unconscious, through the filter of consciousness
and choice, which give splashes and scribbles of colour any meaning at all.
Found Images
I like this idea or concept about all
photography being found imagery, no matter how accidental, momentary or
deliberate the set up. I'm not seeking to argue the extremes, but to explore
the relationship of the lens with the image, and what the photographer sees and
captures when they intend to take an image. All stages are the editing and
framing, from noticing the subject, to the final processing. Sometimes I take a
photograph specifically for a processing stage, eg, there may be something
about an image which I imagine in negative and take it with that intent.
My questions for informal assessment
tutorial:
Does my
writing, e.g. about The Object Stares
Back book, count as research?
Will the
final submission of writing comprise of just eight summarised A4 sheets as before
(in addition to the written element)?
Feedback
Angela Rogers & Caroline Wright.
7th April 2014
AR and CW noted the articulation in my work, research and process, and how much progression there has been since the start of the MA. Cautioned to retain awareness of not being too educational and didactic. Questioned the value of the multiple screening plan in exposing my thinking - perhaps revealing too much of my thinking and of the construction of the piece.
They thought the moving image, white on white worked well - layering, moving, etc. Found it engaging. Working less well the school photo - the dialogue between the individual and the group. Caution in flitting from frame to frame, size, in an obviously posed photograph. Edges - benefit / detract as welding. creating the narrative.
Contextually, AR and CW mentioned the PhD proposal research and how that served my work well. For MA, mentioned referencing Phillipe Vandenburg, areas of art not in galleries or museums, but in artists creative development and the crit - moved into the PhD. Recommended expanding the bibliography towards contemporary and historical artists directly concerned with my themes, processes, etc - my peers. Bring together the research to a contemporary context. Recognised the skill in quickly revising my PhD proposal.
My question about 'proper' research. In research, the way you write is crucial - it frames the research, currently a set of observations and discussions. Writing on TOSB not really formal research at a deeper level with contextualising and referencing. AR suggested looking at an annotated bibliography, which includes comments about each resource. Such responding to reading can include comments.
For final submission, eight A4 sheets again, as well as written commentary, etc - should be used to such difficult summarising by now. Also 1,500 words and updated PPP.
Also noted my contribution to the MA group crits.
For exhibition, suggested considering various options before deciding, eg the 2 other screens as back up work. Keep options for the installation - analyse in the actual space. Keep the flexibility, but ensure feedback on final piece and screening decisions before actual exhibition. Keep the audience exposure along the way towards the final.
Reflection
I am considering the multiple screening showing layers of the final layered piece not just to expose my thinking, but perhaps as a particular installation of the work - it could be shown many ways, and multiple screenings is something I like to set up whenever possible. I am very aware of the danger of detracting from the main piece, and the best piece of advice from AR and CW which I will definitely enact is to trial the work in different ways before the set up, and also to expose it to audience.
The white layers video is pretty much exactly as I will make that, and I am just about ready to do that, having trialled sections and got all the images ready. As for the School layers, well I haven't really started that so AR and CW were being generous. I can only describe the real plans, but it's much better to show - I am going to print these photos, revideo them and relayer them, something like the techniques I developed making Construction brick. Better just do it then.
Still more of the contextualising and adding peer artists. Best suggestion was annotated bibliography which I will investigate, because I have a strong feeling to continue writing about my reflections of the books, and doing it that way, outside of academic research. Both.
Big lot of work to do, but I have it almost all figured out what to do. Very encouraging informal assessment.
8th April 2014
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