Saturday, November 8, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
all black all white all red all blue
"Those who refuse to reexamine the rules of art pursue successful careers in mass conformism by communicating, by means of the 'correct rules,' the endemic desire for reality with objects and situations capable of gratifying it." (Lyotard, Jean-Francois, "Answering the Question: What Is Postmodernism," in The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1984, p. 75)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Seminar
hey guys,
My belated critical study seminar will be on this Friday.
I know you guys must be busy as hell these days though, you are most welcome to join me...
hope the provisional title gives you some idea...,
Second-hand anxiety: post-war trauma and reproduction of catastrophe
Friday 17 Oct
3:30pm
Elam Lecture Theatre
Asumi Mizuo
My belated critical study seminar will be on this Friday.
I know you guys must be busy as hell these days though, you are most welcome to join me...
hope the provisional title gives you some idea...,
Second-hand anxiety: post-war trauma and reproduction of catastrophe
Friday 17 Oct
3:30pm
Elam Lecture Theatre
Asumi Mizuo
Friday, October 10, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Elam Art Upfront
Senior Elam students are invited to submit proposals in relation to one or more sites for Elam Art Upfront. Proposals are due 17 October 2008 for an exhibition opening March 7 2009. Students who complete their qualification in 2008 are still eligible to exhibit. Sonya Korohina will email the proposal form to students soon.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
PETITION FOR AN APPLIED SUBMISSION
In response to Critical Studies essay requirement:
Daniel Webby, Boris Dornbusch, John Ward Knox in conversation.
http://ia310831.us.archive.org/3/items/APetitionForAnAppliedSubmission/talk-master.mov
Daniel Webby, Boris Dornbusch, John Ward Knox in conversation.
http://ia310831.us.archive.org/3/items/APetitionForAnAppliedSubmission/talk-master.mov
re: karena
talking of "monumentalisaion", Hiroshima people are crazy about it! money-wise, scale-wise, number-wise...
http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/index.php
The 360' panorama image from ground zero of a-bomb, made of 140,000 tiles, the number of people estimated to have died by the end of 1945.
My favourite is the database you can search by names & look at the portraits of dead, which photos were donated by their family.
http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/index.php
http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/facility/b2_hall.html
a.mizuo
talking of "monumentalisaion", Hiroshima people are crazy about it! money-wise, scale-wise, number-wise...
http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/index.php
The 360' panorama image from ground zero of a-bomb, made of 140,000 tiles, the number of people estimated to have died by the end of 1945.
My favourite is the database you can search by names & look at the portraits of dead, which photos were donated by their family.
http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/index.php
http://www.hiro-tsuitokinenkan.go.jp/english/facility/b2_hall.html
a.mizuo
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
re re re...aehhh... member
if kenny rodgers would had ever met these guys
he would have probably taken another acid....
welcome the yeasayer and 2080...
by the way coming up oct 8 @ 4:20 in akl
don't miss the only new zealand gig
...their live shows are legendary...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOdtcUHLpyk&feature=related
Tony Takitani
Hi Boris
You may be interested in the following Japanese movie.
(Specially in the camera work...)
http://www.tonytakitani.com/
akiko
You may be interested in the following Japanese movie.
(Specially in the camera work...)
http://www.tonytakitani.com/
akiko
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
words without pictures
http://www.wordswithoutpictures.org/main.html?id=276
Here is an essay outlining a debate for a manifesto re pro-surfers and links artists use of web images, found photo's etc with photographic montage and film formalism.
Initially I was thinking about Tui's work, collecting and collating found internet images and Asumi's, collecting and re-presenting found print and photographic images, but this essay has I beleive, an even broader contribution to the post-conceptualism post-post-modernism debate.
Here's an exerpt...
"In “The Principles of Montage,” Kuleshov discusses the period, in the nascent stages of Soviet cinema, in which he and his comrades attempted to discern “whether film was an art form or not.” Kuleshov argues that, in principle, “every art form has two technological elements: material itself and the methods of organizing that material.” Kuleshov and his peers felt that many aspects of filmmaking—from set design and acting to the very act of photography—were not specific to the medium. Nevertheless, he argues, “the cinema is much more complicated than other forms of art, because the method of organization of its material and the material itself are especially ‘interdependent’.” In specific opposition to his examples of sculpture and painting, Kuleshov is describing a medium in which the very structure, indeed the very structuring context (its machines and process—in short, its apparatuses), is responsible for not only the production of signifiers but also the signification itself. This insistence on the “complicated” role of apparatuses foreshadows later critical insistence on the interdependence between the content and the hardware and software organizing the content of a work of new media art, and certainly in the art hack, by virtue of the work’s signification through resequencing.
When we apply this logic to the practices and products of pro surfers, we see that they are engaged in an enterprise distinct from the mere appropriation of found photography. They present us with constellations of uncannily decisive moments, images made perfect by their imperfections, images that add up to portraits of the web, diaristic photo essays on the part of the surfer, and images that certainly add up to something greater than the sum of their parts. Taken out of circulation and repurposed, they are ascribed with new value, like the shiny bars locked up in Fort Knox"
karena
Here is an essay outlining a debate for a manifesto re pro-surfers and links artists use of web images, found photo's etc with photographic montage and film formalism.
Initially I was thinking about Tui's work, collecting and collating found internet images and Asumi's, collecting and re-presenting found print and photographic images, but this essay has I beleive, an even broader contribution to the post-conceptualism post-post-modernism debate.
Here's an exerpt...
"In “The Principles of Montage,” Kuleshov discusses the period, in the nascent stages of Soviet cinema, in which he and his comrades attempted to discern “whether film was an art form or not.” Kuleshov argues that, in principle, “every art form has two technological elements: material itself and the methods of organizing that material.” Kuleshov and his peers felt that many aspects of filmmaking—from set design and acting to the very act of photography—were not specific to the medium. Nevertheless, he argues, “the cinema is much more complicated than other forms of art, because the method of organization of its material and the material itself are especially ‘interdependent’.” In specific opposition to his examples of sculpture and painting, Kuleshov is describing a medium in which the very structure, indeed the very structuring context (its machines and process—in short, its apparatuses), is responsible for not only the production of signifiers but also the signification itself. This insistence on the “complicated” role of apparatuses foreshadows later critical insistence on the interdependence between the content and the hardware and software organizing the content of a work of new media art, and certainly in the art hack, by virtue of the work’s signification through resequencing.
When we apply this logic to the practices and products of pro surfers, we see that they are engaged in an enterprise distinct from the mere appropriation of found photography. They present us with constellations of uncannily decisive moments, images made perfect by their imperfections, images that add up to portraits of the web, diaristic photo essays on the part of the surfer, and images that certainly add up to something greater than the sum of their parts. Taken out of circulation and repurposed, they are ascribed with new value, like the shiny bars locked up in Fort Knox"
karena
Friday, September 26, 2008
Specific objects. Donald Judd
http://cepa.newschool.edu/~quigleyt/vcs/judd-so.pdf
If you paste this into search bar you can download entire pdf :) tui
If you paste this into search bar you can download entire pdf :) tui
Thursday, September 25, 2008
dreamtime
Almost every digital camera these days has a built-in scene mode for extreme wide angles. You are able to create a panorama shot by taking several photographs in chronological order and later on composing them into one single image by using imaging software. The panorama mode helps you taking a matching continuous shot by superimposing the image previously taken into the display of the image that you're intend to capture just as.
Though the image emerging from the composition is able to pretend one singular moment in linear time, it actually derives from several different points in linear time. The composed image also does not provide any closer information on time relations between the single shots. If not adjusted afterwards, you can most frequently observe differences in exposure that can reveal process and position of the photographer but however these fluctuations of light don't function as reliable indicators for any estimation of time lag relating to the course of the sun.
Looking at a panoramic photograph I'm always trying to find traces that lead me to gates into a dreamtime - time which is experienced as a co-existing confluence of past, present and future - where I'm able to associate around circles of time, continually crossing an non existent date line and observing future as well as past mental states; alongside an associational network stretched not just this and that way in space but also back- and forwards in time.
So what is the barrier that, in certain incidents rejects us from such a comprehensive view?
Back to / La Machina:
The death of the panorama mode is the panoramic camera. It does what the panorama mode is not able to do in succession of an optical limitation : Capturing the entire panoramic scene in one single moment. Apparently these panoramic cameras are available as film cameras only. I think of old-school analogue photography I grew up with. The magic experience of the digital age seems to be not the immediate gaze at the image. It's more the awareness of a time overleaped and a certain experience casted away: Rewinding your film, taking it to the lab and waiting for it to be processed before you're able to view it....holding each single frame against the rays of the sun.
Boris Dornbusch
Thursday, September 18, 2008
T U I K E R E H O M A
Apologies for the late blog. I hope it makes some sense. On short notice we have Mike.P visiting for Friday crits and I have the black book available in studio. It is on my main desk, Just turn on the lamps if you need extra lighting.
The black book will be a component in my final installation which I think will be quite theatrical in nature, a set-up, staged scenario of some kind. Perhaps resembling a press conference. So as follows is some material that may be of use for our discussion around this item tomorrow.
History. As some of you know I have had a problem with people helping themselves to the books/paperwork in my studio space and attempted to stop them by leaving a threatening note on a post-it. The problem continued regardless. As a social experiment I found this an amusing reflection of the relationship dynamics within the studio.
A thread of my research has concerns with a kind of ‘book hysteria’ that abounds and their status as main pathways of knowledge. Especially here within the university where they are building blocks. Today there was discussion of the inventory made of all the books found in Robert Smithson’s studio after his death. A desperate insight into the genius.
When considering the fact that our evolutionary success is due to our ability to pass on knowledge through language and reflecting on the status of the book: It is from here that I have concerns with the book as a gatekeeper. For exactly who has the opportunity to partake in this form of evolution? Considering the illiterate millions and the large percentage of them being female etc we all know the specs.
Mute. Umberto Ecos antilibrary has been an interesting vein of research concerning the above. His library consists of unread books as they remind him that what you don’t know is far more relevant than what you do know as whatever you come to know may become inconsequential if your enemy knows that you know it.
In a previous blog I used a quote by Jean-Marie Muler for UNESCO in which she discusses the fact that due to our ability to use language, violence therefore becomes redundant. This may be a decision harder for some when reflecting on the above, where it is clear that so many are without the means to engage in such a large and institutionally legitimized form of discourse.
The above material is not really a question but to let you in on some of the principles surrounding the production of the black book. Whether it has a life force beyond this pre-amble is of course for you to decide and for me to negotiate within the final installation.
Thanks.
The black book will be a component in my final installation which I think will be quite theatrical in nature, a set-up, staged scenario of some kind. Perhaps resembling a press conference. So as follows is some material that may be of use for our discussion around this item tomorrow.
History. As some of you know I have had a problem with people helping themselves to the books/paperwork in my studio space and attempted to stop them by leaving a threatening note on a post-it. The problem continued regardless. As a social experiment I found this an amusing reflection of the relationship dynamics within the studio.
A thread of my research has concerns with a kind of ‘book hysteria’ that abounds and their status as main pathways of knowledge. Especially here within the university where they are building blocks. Today there was discussion of the inventory made of all the books found in Robert Smithson’s studio after his death. A desperate insight into the genius.
When considering the fact that our evolutionary success is due to our ability to pass on knowledge through language and reflecting on the status of the book: It is from here that I have concerns with the book as a gatekeeper. For exactly who has the opportunity to partake in this form of evolution? Considering the illiterate millions and the large percentage of them being female etc we all know the specs.
Mute. Umberto Ecos antilibrary has been an interesting vein of research concerning the above. His library consists of unread books as they remind him that what you don’t know is far more relevant than what you do know as whatever you come to know may become inconsequential if your enemy knows that you know it.
In a previous blog I used a quote by Jean-Marie Muler for UNESCO in which she discusses the fact that due to our ability to use language, violence therefore becomes redundant. This may be a decision harder for some when reflecting on the above, where it is clear that so many are without the means to engage in such a large and institutionally legitimized form of discourse.
The above material is not really a question but to let you in on some of the principles surrounding the production of the black book. Whether it has a life force beyond this pre-amble is of course for you to decide and for me to negotiate within the final installation.
Thanks.
Monday, September 15, 2008
re member
1 question remains
Where do you position your reality in relation to the realities outside of you?
Thursday, September 11, 2008
T U I K E R E H O M A
Urgent:
Dear Asumi, I am unable to make it in this avo. However I am in till late tomorrow, shall we postpone till then? Aplogies for the late notice.
Sincerely t.
Dear Asumi, I am unable to make it in this avo. However I am in till late tomorrow, shall we postpone till then? Aplogies for the late notice.
Sincerely t.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Japanese artists dvd
There's a dvd on my desk people may be interested in. I recorded it for you Asumi but anyone can have a look at it, just return it when you are finished
xkarena
xkarena
Monday, September 8, 2008
reading for my next crit
Image: Video Still Paviljon Marinum
Concerning my project Paviljon Marinum I shot in Croatia this year, I'm interested to discuss Robert Smithson's essay Entropy and the new monuments
The essay is available online:
http://www.robertsmithson.com/essays/entropy_and.htm
Boris
slow motions
http://johnwardknox.blogspot.com/2008/08/slow-motions.html
Hi all, sorry I didn't get notice to everybody, but I had a show the other night in achilles house. the link above will take you to images. The installation was performed illicitly and unfortunately i was caught so didn't get any daytime pics.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
On Telepathy re: Melvin Moti - K.O.Mortel
Melvin Moti - K.O. Mortel
Moti's K.O. Mortel (Lethal K.O.), consists of a black-and-white photograph of a boxing match held in 1946, and a jar with an actual soap bubble made of material that makes it unbreakable. The boxing match in question was initially called off by boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson because he had dreamt that he delivered his opponent Jimmy Doyle a lethal blow. But Robinson was pushed into the fight despite his premonitory dream and the photograph depicts the precise moment Doyle falls in the ghostly light of the flash. In that instant, Robinson is made to witness his dream become reality.
Concerning Telepathy, I'm currently reading J.W. Dunne Experiment with Time.The British aeronautical engineer J.W. Dunne possessed the ability to dream of future events. He kept a detailed diary on the subject and in 1927 published the book An Experiment with Time in which he formulated the theory that experiences of the past, present, and future are inseparable from one another.
As the artist Moti I'm interest here in the limits of what can be mentally represented and what eludes historical systematization.
Boris
spellcast on 'portal'
"the day, the place"
Spell, Chemical Print on German Beechwood, 10x15cm
Boris Dornbusch 2008
Portal, Dane Mitchell - 2008, Spell, stainless steel, ink on paper
Friday, September 5, 2008
Asumi - messages
>Tui
Yes, Thursday after 5pm is fine!
I'm currently concentrating on reading/researching trying to find a break through...for ideas of the uses of my collection of found stuff.
Let see what I can bring for Thurs.
>Karena
I saw this book in Boarders (discounted to $29) and thought you might be interested. There are also 4 copies in various UoA libraries. (it's kind of ironic, or perhaps too 'as is' that it was published from TePapa...)
Exhibiting Maori : a history of colonial cultures of display
Conal McCarthy, TePapa press
>Boris
Though I don't understand what the title means, (very puzzling), I really liked the photo. Would you put it up again? or can I have a copy please.
Cheers,
Yes, Thursday after 5pm is fine!
I'm currently concentrating on reading/researching trying to find a break through...for ideas of the uses of my collection of found stuff.
Let see what I can bring for Thurs.
>Karena
I saw this book in Boarders (discounted to $29) and thought you might be interested. There are also 4 copies in various UoA libraries. (it's kind of ironic, or perhaps too 'as is' that it was published from TePapa...)
Exhibiting Maori : a history of colonial cultures of display
Conal McCarthy, TePapa press
>Boris
Though I don't understand what the title means, (very puzzling), I really liked the photo. Would you put it up again? or can I have a copy please.
Cheers,
IDENTITY ISSUES
HEY GUYS, IF YOU POST A COMMENT, CAN YOU PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF.
SOMEONE LEFT A COMMENT ON MY LAST ENTRY WITHOUT IDENTIFYING HIM/HERSELF.
IT'S OUR COMMON BLOG AND NOT SOME ANONYMUS THING.
IF YOU WANT A DISCUSSION WITH ME, SHOW YOUR FACE, I AM VERY HAPPY TO TALK TO YOU THEN!
BORIS
SOMEONE LEFT A COMMENT ON MY LAST ENTRY WITHOUT IDENTIFYING HIM/HERSELF.
IT'S OUR COMMON BLOG AND NOT SOME ANONYMUS THING.
IF YOU WANT A DISCUSSION WITH ME, SHOW YOUR FACE, I AM VERY HAPPY TO TALK TO YOU THEN!
BORIS
Thursday, September 4, 2008
T U I K E R E H O M A
Dear Asumi,
I'm totally in for a focus discussion. How about next thurs after you finish work? I'll be in late. We can both bring some work into the discussion, doesn't have to be finished, we could talk around your blog entries if you like. I'll have a black book and some notes. Maybe bring some tea along. Anyone else interested?
Sincerely t.
I'm totally in for a focus discussion. How about next thurs after you finish work? I'll be in late. We can both bring some work into the discussion, doesn't have to be finished, we could talk around your blog entries if you like. I'll have a black book and some notes. Maybe bring some tea along. Anyone else interested?
Sincerely t.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
a comforting thing
re: telepathy
an analogy that may explain the telepathic phenomena - it maybe another state of matter, what-ever, let's say, x , operating from a specific but not explicitly named or stated part of our mind, the faculty of our consciousness and thought:
if you can imagine a tube reaching to some specific place or point in the universe or within any other organism. let's say as far as our so called sun. now, inside this tube there is a rod. if we move the rod (preferably made out of a material that makes you feel comfortable) in the tube at this end, it will move immediately at the other end too. it will take light, i presume about 7 minutes of your individual time unit to reach that distance.
this telepathic sense, or third eye will become more prevalent in future worlds. it all maybe to do with some further development of our kind towards more unification in terms of human motifs, so to say a mono-sense of living within multible realities.
apart from our usual five senses (see, touch, taste, smell, hear), we have the sixth or telepathic sense, our intuitive sense, which can show us our immortal self. it follows intuitively that life didn't end, that's why we are still here. an example of this mono-sense is with the pueblo native americans: speaking to his people, a spokesman for the pueblo was supposed to have said: “we shall be one person”, which can be a comforting thing.
boris dornbusch 2008, image: boris dornbusch (all rights reserved)
Friday, August 29, 2008
re: focus group -availability
Asumi's here...
I'm keen to join the focus group thing over the break, though i have to work at Elam helpdesk on;
Monday 9-5
Wed 1:30-5
Thurs 9-5
for the 2 weeks.
So much appreciated if we could meet other times.
But the most important person is the one who present work so don't worry if it's difficult...
cheers,
Asumi
I'm keen to join the focus group thing over the break, though i have to work at Elam helpdesk on;
Monday 9-5
Wed 1:30-5
Thurs 9-5
for the 2 weeks.
So much appreciated if we could meet other times.
But the most important person is the one who present work so don't worry if it's difficult...
cheers,
Asumi
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Century's Decline (1976)-Wislawa Szymborska
Our twentieth century was going to improve on the others.
It will never prove it now,
now that its years are numbered,
its gait is shaky,
its breath is short.
Too many things have happened
that weren't supposed to happen,
and what was supposed to come about
has not.
Happiness and spring, among other things,
Were supposed to be getting closer.
Fear was expected to leave the mountains and the valleys.
Truth was supposed to hit home
before a lie.
A couple of problems weren't going
to come up any more:
hunger, for example,
and war, and so forth.
There was going to be respect
For helpless people's helplessness,
trust, that kind of stuff.
Anyone who planned to enjoy the world
is now faced
with a hopeless task.
Stupidity isn't funny
Wisdom isn't gay.
Hope
isn't that young girl any more
et cetera, alas.
God was finally going to believe
in a man both good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different men.
"How should we live?" someone asked me in a letter.
I had meant to ask him
the same question.
Again, as ever,
as may be seen above,
The most pressing questions
are naïve ones.
It will never prove it now,
now that its years are numbered,
its gait is shaky,
its breath is short.
Too many things have happened
that weren't supposed to happen,
and what was supposed to come about
has not.
Happiness and spring, among other things,
Were supposed to be getting closer.
Fear was expected to leave the mountains and the valleys.
Truth was supposed to hit home
before a lie.
A couple of problems weren't going
to come up any more:
hunger, for example,
and war, and so forth.
There was going to be respect
For helpless people's helplessness,
trust, that kind of stuff.
Anyone who planned to enjoy the world
is now faced
with a hopeless task.
Stupidity isn't funny
Wisdom isn't gay.
Hope
isn't that young girl any more
et cetera, alas.
God was finally going to believe
in a man both good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different men.
"How should we live?" someone asked me in a letter.
I had meant to ask him
the same question.
Again, as ever,
as may be seen above,
The most pressing questions
are naïve ones.
Quotes and thoughts for Karena...
Ref: Karena 22/08/08
All quotes from S. Sontag. Regarding the Pain of Others. I finished reading it You are welcome to take it, Karena… (but please don't return to Library) it’s on my desk.
The quotes are of my interest as well as I think has relation to the things Karena mentioned.
…tragic past does not sit well with the founding (of the nation),… P88.
Whom do we wish to blame? Who do we think we have the rights to blame?... P93.
When there are photographs, a war becomes “real”. P104.
Denunciation of a particular conflict and attribution of specific crimes will become a denunciation of human cruelty, human savagery as such. The photographer’s intentions are irrelevant to this larger process… P122.
We don’t understand. We don’t get it. We truly can’t imagine what it was like. We can’t imagine how dreadful, how terrifying war is. And how normal it becomes… Can’t understand and can’t imagine. That is how (those who have been in a war) feels. And they are right. P125.
……………………….
Therefore I want to know. Therefore I enjoy imagining, almost fantasising, about all the horrors and dread. And paradoxically, to keep enjoying this wicked fantasy, I must never succeed to understand or be in the situation in reality….
Also remembering a dialogue of a writer with someone…
When he travelled to Cuba, he asked the locals how they were during ‘Cuba Crisis’, they answered ‘what crisis?’, ‘ what are you talking about?’ To them, the everyday was everyday, when western media was stirring American anxiety. And Cuba was and has been always, from western standard, in a mundane turmoil...
(well, the article I read must be at least 10years old so I don’t know about now though…)
A. Mizuo
All quotes from S. Sontag. Regarding the Pain of Others. I finished reading it You are welcome to take it, Karena… (but please don't return to Library) it’s on my desk.
The quotes are of my interest as well as I think has relation to the things Karena mentioned.
…tragic past does not sit well with the founding (of the nation),… P88.
Whom do we wish to blame? Who do we think we have the rights to blame?... P93.
When there are photographs, a war becomes “real”. P104.
Denunciation of a particular conflict and attribution of specific crimes will become a denunciation of human cruelty, human savagery as such. The photographer’s intentions are irrelevant to this larger process… P122.
We don’t understand. We don’t get it. We truly can’t imagine what it was like. We can’t imagine how dreadful, how terrifying war is. And how normal it becomes… Can’t understand and can’t imagine. That is how (those who have been in a war) feels. And they are right. P125.
……………………….
Therefore I want to know. Therefore I enjoy imagining, almost fantasising, about all the horrors and dread. And paradoxically, to keep enjoying this wicked fantasy, I must never succeed to understand or be in the situation in reality….
Also remembering a dialogue of a writer with someone…
When he travelled to Cuba, he asked the locals how they were during ‘Cuba Crisis’, they answered ‘what crisis?’, ‘ what are you talking about?’ To them, the everyday was everyday, when western media was stirring American anxiety. And Cuba was and has been always, from western standard, in a mundane turmoil...
(well, the article I read must be at least 10years old so I don’t know about now though…)
A. Mizuo
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Um, hmmmmmmm!
Hi All
Here is a brief description of where I’m at with my work
I have had lots of starts this year, none of which seem to have led anywhere, there seems to be a problem of investing in things. There have been moments of interest but the intention behind it has been confused and without direction, which meant there was no clear criteria for making decisions.
Earlier in the year I had narrowed my interests to the relationship between viewer and image, the seduction and disruption of perception (if you can call that narrowing!). This led to placing images on windows and rephotographing them including the scene out the window, resulting in a kind of optical illusion.
While this met some of my interests, to me it really didn’t feel like ‘my’ work.
The qualities of my work that I enjoy are decadence, obsession, decoration and dreaminess, which I always return to without really knowing why. I felt I wasn’t achieving these goals; that the photographs were dry and lacked the qualities I enjoy. As a result I was not happy making them.
I have come to realise that the way in which I view images is one of enchantment and escapism. They all connect to the bigger world behind what I’m looking at. It is this bigger world of portals that I would like to explore. Perhaps this is better interpreted as an interest in imagination.
I have identified what interests me but I don’t have anything that binds these interests. I still don’t know what position I’m taking, what’s that big motivating question I am asking that will give my work direction?
I have tried to simplify in order to understand by doing what comes most naturally, collecting images that appeal to me. This has been something that has been the fundamental part of my practice for a long time.
I have been looking at the images and trying to find some continuity. Why choose some images and not others? A lot of them seem to present me with moments of escape, moments of idealism, beauty, drama, nostalgia, narrative. I see decoration as a way of enhancing or connecting these moments of enchantment, or providing its own. There is also an interest in formal issues such as spatial concerns, surface and the materiality of the image as an object
I don’t think the group can provide me my ‘big question’ but perhaps helping me to identify what is happening with these images, as a whole would be helpful.
Is there a larger connection between these images?
What do you feel is being communicated here?
Is this interesting?
I hope this will be helpful.
Cheers
Bex
Here is a brief description of where I’m at with my work
I have had lots of starts this year, none of which seem to have led anywhere, there seems to be a problem of investing in things. There have been moments of interest but the intention behind it has been confused and without direction, which meant there was no clear criteria for making decisions.
Earlier in the year I had narrowed my interests to the relationship between viewer and image, the seduction and disruption of perception (if you can call that narrowing!). This led to placing images on windows and rephotographing them including the scene out the window, resulting in a kind of optical illusion.
While this met some of my interests, to me it really didn’t feel like ‘my’ work.
The qualities of my work that I enjoy are decadence, obsession, decoration and dreaminess, which I always return to without really knowing why. I felt I wasn’t achieving these goals; that the photographs were dry and lacked the qualities I enjoy. As a result I was not happy making them.
I have come to realise that the way in which I view images is one of enchantment and escapism. They all connect to the bigger world behind what I’m looking at. It is this bigger world of portals that I would like to explore. Perhaps this is better interpreted as an interest in imagination.
I have identified what interests me but I don’t have anything that binds these interests. I still don’t know what position I’m taking, what’s that big motivating question I am asking that will give my work direction?
I have tried to simplify in order to understand by doing what comes most naturally, collecting images that appeal to me. This has been something that has been the fundamental part of my practice for a long time.
I have been looking at the images and trying to find some continuity. Why choose some images and not others? A lot of them seem to present me with moments of escape, moments of idealism, beauty, drama, nostalgia, narrative. I see decoration as a way of enhancing or connecting these moments of enchantment, or providing its own. There is also an interest in formal issues such as spatial concerns, surface and the materiality of the image as an object
I don’t think the group can provide me my ‘big question’ but perhaps helping me to identify what is happening with these images, as a whole would be helpful.
Is there a larger connection between these images?
What do you feel is being communicated here?
Is this interesting?
I hope this will be helpful.
Cheers
Bex
Monday, August 18, 2008
karena's project background
Hi, I have posted a backgrounder to my project on my blog (karena's blog over there >), and will add some images, sound and maybe video this week. Click for link. xk
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Blog link
I've uploaded some new work (in progress) on my blog. and added the link right hand side of this blog...
any feed back will be appreciated.
cheers,
Asumi
any feed back will be appreciated.
cheers,
Asumi
Friday, August 15, 2008
Slump
Slump.
I’m interested in the state of slumping. I’m not in one at the minute, but the potential is there. The drop, the sag, its always just around the corner. On the other hand slumping can be positive. It’s only a down swing after all, and a downswing is prone to an up swing, or so physics tells me. One needs the other, which needs the other, and so it goes.
A slump is by definition short term, which is cause for celebration.
Me? I like to think of it as a problem of traction, a speed equation. When you’re riding smooth speed just happens, the world moves past as you move forward, like steps on the pavement. That is until a shift takes place. Either in the landscape, or in the climate, or in you for that matter. A shift which marks the on set of a slump. And just like that it’s on you, you’re in a sinkhole.
It's slow going stuck in a sinkhole, the drag slows your speed, you begin to note the pace. Tempo, velocity, these things matter now.
Slump.
The word sounds like it feels. Sagging after a stroke, concrete grey, weight on the chest.
But a slump is also a dip. It has form and shape to go with the feeling. At the bottom sits a level flanked by two gradients, both up, both down, dependent on perspective. Thanks to gravity no matter which way you enter a slump your first move is always down, helpful considering the extra momentum. What’s left is up, a plane where traction is not only smart its a necessity. Yes, to go up, you need to find your feet, to watch them hard and make small decisions. Either you start with the left or you start with the right. Your decisions from there follow one another sensibly, for a while at least. Left, followed by right, followed by left.
It’s the only way.
Slump.
Beth
Beth's Crit
Problem-position
Everyone needs a problem position. Outlines, parameters, these things give a measure to value. My problem-position?
I think it’s a question of where I place value not interest. I’ve often thought interest is too tame a word, it implies choice, which implies the option of detachment. Value on the other hand suggests worth, merit. Words which are not choices but treasures. Like heirlooms-except not nearly so forgotten.
So it’s best if I talk to my work in terms of value, not interest.
My position is that I place value in makeshift practices. In materials and gestures, which improvise, make-do, collapse after a time. There’s a value in the shoddy, the gawkish, a charm and a language in lousy assemblage. I see improvising as essentially a political act. There is power mixed with fragility in making-do, a worth in prizing the low tech. I take such practices to be one: full of hope, and two: emblematic of signs of life. These I think are the tools of innovation and the opposite of a drone.
I'd like to discuss these issues with the group. Get feedback on how these ideas sit with the work and with the reading "What's a conversation for" by Deleuze and Parnet.
Deleuze, Gilles,Dialogues 2, Columbia University Press, 1977.
Everyone needs a problem position. Outlines, parameters, these things give a measure to value. My problem-position?
I think it’s a question of where I place value not interest. I’ve often thought interest is too tame a word, it implies choice, which implies the option of detachment. Value on the other hand suggests worth, merit. Words which are not choices but treasures. Like heirlooms-except not nearly so forgotten.
So it’s best if I talk to my work in terms of value, not interest.
My position is that I place value in makeshift practices. In materials and gestures, which improvise, make-do, collapse after a time. There’s a value in the shoddy, the gawkish, a charm and a language in lousy assemblage. I see improvising as essentially a political act. There is power mixed with fragility in making-do, a worth in prizing the low tech. I take such practices to be one: full of hope, and two: emblematic of signs of life. These I think are the tools of innovation and the opposite of a drone.
I'd like to discuss these issues with the group. Get feedback on how these ideas sit with the work and with the reading "What's a conversation for" by Deleuze and Parnet.
Deleuze, Gilles,Dialogues 2, Columbia University Press, 1977.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The rub
“To what extent should one involute?”
I don’t know if you have a choice Trent. I think it’s a matter of helpless focus. Things move around and either they remain important or not. Maybe it’s about making room. A little over here, under there, the need for less or more head space. Things which neither warrant attention nor demand attention are no longer required, so we drop them, or leave them behind.
Perhaps it’s a speed issue, like being able to run faster if you abandon pieces of luggage. I’m not sure really, but I like to think of involution in terms of “er”.
Smarter
Faster
Simpler
Except faster in this case means slower, more compact. The smarter, faster, more attuned you are, the more you shrink. Perhaps shrinking is a good thing? Perhaps smaller is better. In one of my favourite novels the author tells of his affection for small spaces. He describes his happiness as inversely proportionate to his living space. I suppose if you can touch all four walls around you physically or otherwise then there is solace to be found in that. It reminds me of something I read on a blog the other day:
Question
I own a young hermit crab, Finlay, who has never changed shells before. This is the first time. When I woke up he had left his first shell. He won't go into the new shells. I'm not sure why. Or what shell is best. What should I do?
Answer
Dear Hannah,
Thank you for your question.
It's usually a bad sign when a crab goes naked,
Make sure that the humidity is high, at least 80% to prevent him from drying out. You cannot do much more than keeping him moist and offering shells.
Be smart Trenton, Never be a naked crab.
All the best
Beth
I don’t know if you have a choice Trent. I think it’s a matter of helpless focus. Things move around and either they remain important or not. Maybe it’s about making room. A little over here, under there, the need for less or more head space. Things which neither warrant attention nor demand attention are no longer required, so we drop them, or leave them behind.
Perhaps it’s a speed issue, like being able to run faster if you abandon pieces of luggage. I’m not sure really, but I like to think of involution in terms of “er”.
Smarter
Faster
Simpler
Except faster in this case means slower, more compact. The smarter, faster, more attuned you are, the more you shrink. Perhaps shrinking is a good thing? Perhaps smaller is better. In one of my favourite novels the author tells of his affection for small spaces. He describes his happiness as inversely proportionate to his living space. I suppose if you can touch all four walls around you physically or otherwise then there is solace to be found in that. It reminds me of something I read on a blog the other day:
Question
I own a young hermit crab, Finlay, who has never changed shells before. This is the first time. When I woke up he had left his first shell. He won't go into the new shells. I'm not sure why. Or what shell is best. What should I do?
Answer
Dear Hannah,
Thank you for your question.
It's usually a bad sign when a crab goes naked,
Make sure that the humidity is high, at least 80% to prevent him from drying out. You cannot do much more than keeping him moist and offering shells.
Be smart Trenton, Never be a naked crab.
All the best
Beth
akiko's Friday critiques
My areas of research are:
Op shop societal links:
• Acknowledging multiples cycle of consumption
• Life history of material articles (Second-hand goods)
• What and where do articles come from and what has been their history hitherto?
• What is considered an ideal history for a given item and how was an object used and how did its status change within the institutional context?
• What happens when it is at the end of its useful life?
• Changing status of articles over time and the ways in which these goods produce social identity, which in turn is linked to lifestyle.
Repetition:
"Except in the context of some change or progression, any repetition taking place in advancing time is undiscussible. The growth of the work, even from one identical line to another, makes exact repetition impossible [...] Repetition is a nonverbal state; it cannot be committed to any art that occurs in time." (Kawin, Telling It Again and Again)
Keep it Simple, Stupid (Between, even!)
Beth, reading that Deleuze quote feels like there's something of a solution to many things; minor and major, micro and macro, cooking and the Gross Domestic Production of first world nations.
It sits well with me at the moment. I'm currently - and slowly - reducing the things I own and am responsible for. It's like a cleaning exercise I begun when I arrive back from travels. The idea was to free up my life a little - perhaps also a fantasy I've cooked up from the cool protagonists in Haruki Murakami novels (Wind Up Bird Chronicles, Kafka on the Shore).
It's hard though. The only good it's bought so far is that I'm finding things I thought were lost!… and then thoughtfully abandoning them.
"to what extent should one involute?"
There's the rub.
Criteria! Discipline! Vigilance!
Easy approaches aren't immune to difficulty.
Simplified ≠ Easier
or maybe it does sometimes.
I like to talk, draw, paint and write because it's the most straight forward option to working with an idea or feeling. Although I struggle with these things. Especially talking. which should come easiest as it's closest at hand (um… mouth): too much, too little, too stupid, too boring, too distracting.
On that note, Beth is sitting next to me as I write this. I was going to respond to her post through a little chit-chat but thought I'd leave her alone to her work.
Is that being involutionary?
Hi Beth. You look busy.
[Trenton]
It sits well with me at the moment. I'm currently - and slowly - reducing the things I own and am responsible for. It's like a cleaning exercise I begun when I arrive back from travels. The idea was to free up my life a little - perhaps also a fantasy I've cooked up from the cool protagonists in Haruki Murakami novels (Wind Up Bird Chronicles, Kafka on the Shore).
It's hard though. The only good it's bought so far is that I'm finding things I thought were lost!… and then thoughtfully abandoning them.
"to what extent should one involute?"
There's the rub.
Criteria! Discipline! Vigilance!
Easy approaches aren't immune to difficulty.
Simplified ≠ Easier
or maybe it does sometimes.
I like to talk, draw, paint and write because it's the most straight forward option to working with an idea or feeling. Although I struggle with these things. Especially talking. which should come easiest as it's closest at hand (um… mouth): too much, too little, too stupid, too boring, too distracting.
On that note, Beth is sitting next to me as I write this. I was going to respond to her post through a little chit-chat but thought I'd leave her alone to her work.
Is that being involutionary?
Hi Beth. You look busy.
[Trenton]
Thoughts on last week critiques.
The limits of production
During conversation last Friday the group briefly discussed what Jim described as the limits of production. During the weekend I came across a few paragraphs in Dialogues 2 that among other things, spoke of the path of production. Becoming as a matter of involuting; neither regression or progression.
To produce is to become more and more restrained, more and more simple, more and more deserted and for that reason very populated. This is what’s difficult to explain: to what extent one should involute. It is obviously the opposite of evolution, but it is also the opposite of regression. To involute is to take an increasingly simple, economical, restrained step. It is also true for cooking: against involutive cooking, which always adds something more, against regressive cooking which returns to primary elements, there is involutive cooking, which is perhaps that of the anorexic.
It is also true of life, even of the most animal kind: if the animals invented their forms and their functions, this was not always by evolving, by developing themselves, nor by regressing as in the case of prematureation, but by losing and abandoning, by reducing, by simplifying, even if this means creating new elements and new relations of this simplification. Experimentation is involutive, the opposite of the overdose. It is also true of writing; to reach this sobriety, this simplicity which is neither the end nor the beginning of something new. To involute is to be ‘between’, in the middle, adjacent, en route (Deleuze 28-31).
Deleuze, Gilles,Dialogues 2, Columbia University Press, 1977.
Beth
During conversation last Friday the group briefly discussed what Jim described as the limits of production. During the weekend I came across a few paragraphs in Dialogues 2 that among other things, spoke of the path of production. Becoming as a matter of involuting; neither regression or progression.
To produce is to become more and more restrained, more and more simple, more and more deserted and for that reason very populated. This is what’s difficult to explain: to what extent one should involute. It is obviously the opposite of evolution, but it is also the opposite of regression. To involute is to take an increasingly simple, economical, restrained step. It is also true for cooking: against involutive cooking, which always adds something more, against regressive cooking which returns to primary elements, there is involutive cooking, which is perhaps that of the anorexic.
It is also true of life, even of the most animal kind: if the animals invented their forms and their functions, this was not always by evolving, by developing themselves, nor by regressing as in the case of prematureation, but by losing and abandoning, by reducing, by simplifying, even if this means creating new elements and new relations of this simplification. Experimentation is involutive, the opposite of the overdose. It is also true of writing; to reach this sobriety, this simplicity which is neither the end nor the beginning of something new. To involute is to be ‘between’, in the middle, adjacent, en route (Deleuze 28-31).
Deleuze, Gilles,Dialogues 2, Columbia University Press, 1977.
Beth
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
pain and portraits
Hi, I was watching Jp TV streaming... (well I shouldn't be watching it... I should be reading something else...)
anyway, the TV programme was showing this artist... Maybe Trenton might be interested? or Bex? Since you are the only figurative painters. and Karena? in terms of feminism/gender issue? I don't know... Her name is Fuyuko Matsui. Google it and you will find plenty English stuff... Cheers.
Monday, August 11, 2008
T U I K E R E H O M A
Hi all, to those who were aware of my seminar tomorrow: it has been cancelled till further notice. Hope you get this message :)
Friday, August 8, 2008
Asumi -Friday session
My critique session features 4 separate works...
A series of cataloguing unimportant objects with no historical significance and traces of people who had no glorious achievement or tragic death. (on-going)
A pair of photographs in Taipei Airport.
‘Declined’ –mock-up online curation. See older post below.
‘They are my cousins’
Would like to discuss on the ideas/concept of:
-validity of ownership, logic of selection.
-Acquisition/purchase of second hand nostalgia.
-privatisation of discarded memento.
-replaceablility, representability, and disowned memory
-Significance of absence, refusal and rejection.
etc...
in relation to the work.
Is it working?
Is it effective?
What's intereting to you?
or is interesting at all??
Hope I can get up tommorow...
A series of cataloguing unimportant objects with no historical significance and traces of people who had no glorious achievement or tragic death. (on-going)
A pair of photographs in Taipei Airport.
‘Declined’ –mock-up online curation. See older post below.
‘They are my cousins’
Would like to discuss on the ideas/concept of:
-validity of ownership, logic of selection.
-Acquisition/purchase of second hand nostalgia.
-privatisation of discarded memento.
-replaceablility, representability, and disowned memory
-Significance of absence, refusal and rejection.
etc...
in relation to the work.
Is it working?
Is it effective?
What's intereting to you?
or is interesting at all??
Hope I can get up tommorow...
Thursday, August 7, 2008
MEETING FRIDAY 9AM ALL MFA
Hi Guys
My rep hat is currently on...
If you do happen to check this before tomorrow ..there will be a meeting for all MFA students tomorrow morn at 9am in the presentation space to discuss what is going on with the studios and what we would like to say to Nuala about the whole thing. I have a bit of an idea with what we should present as our opinion/requests but as discussed with others we need to formulate a united front. My socialist regime dream has finally arrived..
Cheers
Fiona
My rep hat is currently on...
If you do happen to check this before tomorrow ..there will be a meeting for all MFA students tomorrow morn at 9am in the presentation space to discuss what is going on with the studios and what we would like to say to Nuala about the whole thing. I have a bit of an idea with what we should present as our opinion/requests but as discussed with others we need to formulate a united front. My socialist regime dream has finally arrived..
Cheers
Fiona
JWK Info pt 4
Hi all -
Jim, Fi and I just convened to decide an approach for tomorrows crit session, we decided to set a loose agenda that is not predicated on the specific works in the show, instead being focussed on meta-level concerns of production.
So I have given you images of a body of work from some relevant artists to my sculptural concerns- that post below is fi giving a link to Armleder.
We think the work should perhaps act as a springboard to a larger conversation, and if that conversation ends up not having anything to do with the specific works then so be-it.(note - I'm not asking for a lasses-faire session)
So for my part, i guess I'm asking a pretty broad question - How can the presentation of materials in space be relevant to life. Sculpture, basically... whoah deep.
Jim, Fi and I just convened to decide an approach for tomorrows crit session, we decided to set a loose agenda that is not predicated on the specific works in the show, instead being focussed on meta-level concerns of production.
So I have given you images of a body of work from some relevant artists to my sculptural concerns- that post below is fi giving a link to Armleder.
We think the work should perhaps act as a springboard to a larger conversation, and if that conversation ends up not having anything to do with the specific works then so be-it.(note - I'm not asking for a lasses-faire session)
So for my part, i guess I'm asking a pretty broad question - How can the presentation of materials in space be relevant to life. Sculpture, basically... whoah deep.
John M Armleder for Friday
This may be useful for some contextual thinking. I'll post specific passage references when I have a sec later.
http://heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.4.SCULPT.JohnArmleder.htm
http://heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.4.SCULPT.JohnArmleder.htm
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Declined - 'curated' by A.Mizuo
Selected from a series of Hiroshima by Hiromi Tsuchida. http://www.hiromi-t.com/hiroshima.php
The series documentary/reportage of the grown-ups whose essay was published in 'Children of A-bomb', an anthology of essays of children's experience of the bombing.
The texts under photographs are;
name, age,
Then: age, place (distance from ground zero), family casualty
Now: place, occupation, family structure
Quote from the book. (age of writing)
The selection shows the photos which the people declined to be photographed or included in his work.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
forgotten bar project
in collaboration with l.a. artist fabian schubert i'm also invited to contribute work within the forgotten bar project.
have a look and also check out the 'past' and 'current' links. very interesting artists and works.
http://galerieimregierungsviertel.org/
The FORGOTTEN BAR PROJECT opened on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 with a GRAND OPENING and runs throughout the summer with a program of an exhibition opening every day! The FORGOTTEN BAR PROJECT is initiated by GALERIE IM REGIERUNGSVIERTEL, BERLIN in cooperation with the artists and curatos to provide an interface for contemporary strategies and activities in art and culture as well as a resort for artists in Berlin Kreuzberg.
have a look and also check out the 'past' and 'current' links. very interesting artists and works.
http://galerieimregierungsviertel.org/
The FORGOTTEN BAR PROJECT opened on Tuesday, July 1, 2008 with a GRAND OPENING and runs throughout the summer with a program of an exhibition opening every day! The FORGOTTEN BAR PROJECT is initiated by GALERIE IM REGIERUNGSVIERTEL, BERLIN in cooperation with the artists and curatos to provide an interface for contemporary strategies and activities in art and culture as well as a resort for artists in Berlin Kreuzberg.
posted from boris
hi guys, i'm posting you from europe with some things that are relavent to me at the moment.
i've been in croatia for quite a while where i got interested in transformations and mutations (in a wider sense).
transformation of political circumstances; in the last decade croatian society saw some major changes: from a former socialistic society to postwar status entering the age of globalization, free market, capitalization and joining the european union soon. a big issue is the question of land ownership and its current effect on society and cultural heritage. i have been looking at cases in one to one conversation where poeple were selling their land. it seems economic reasons are the main factor but in many cases skyrocketing landprizes make the people sell and leave their property, settle somewhere cheaper instead and live off the money. houseselling of land where families have lived for centuries (the average age of a house within old settlement area is 200) becomes an alternative way of making business. what happens is that people who were part of a long grown environment are shifting somewhere else. these developments are of new quality - triggered by external interests. these external interests become more a dominating force in the region of former yugoslavia. since my last visit it seems that relations to western europe are still not developed in a healthy way; there is an unreflected fascination and mystification with everything that is 'abroad'. objectively there has never been a time-window for the young generation to fully develop their "own thing" and find some form of identity within the eu and the sorrounding non eu states - apart from the nineties where there was an absence of communication with the rest of europe. at that time they were out of touch with worlds current events and things began to happen from the inside. the young people started to refer to itself and to the world they were immersed in. from this point the impact of western ideas how to consume what, interrupted the provisional autonomous state of "being" the youth just started to build up for themselves. however this impact delivered a philosophy of capitalism that was tailored to fill what must have looked like a big hole in the eyes of a businessman. while i was staying here i just couldn't get enough to physically engage with everything that remained somehow from functioning as a new platform for some star-bucks-spangled economic dreams. everybody here is now doing their best of being, talking, moving, selling, economizing like they have seen it in other countries on tv. the guy from my favourite coffee place was really happy when he told me that he's got music in his toilet now. he saw it in germany and what the germans have he must have too. after all the germans know how to make money and the guest like the chill-out trance while taking a dump. so if everybody is trying really hard to do their thing i thoght i'm gonna give it a try too and build my own value system from the scratch. i started out at places that were not claimed yet, because they are too hard to claim or of no use to a money focused mind. yet. maybe after my work's out there, some people will discover some really great spots where they could do some business. that would be even better : eventually i'm keen to see how these real and imaginary places to be "reclaimed" in capitalistic means. this seems to be an uncontrollable organic process somehow. it's like cell mutation. you don't know how fast it grows and what exactly makes it growing. there are a million little components that encourage cell mutation. the world is full of them and we're creating new substances every second of our being.
so guys, the 'outcome' of my engagement with these places will result in a multi channel video installation and i posted some stills of it that you can catch a glimpse. the format is wrong - it shoud be 16:9 but blogspot somehow doensn't seem to like that
:)
i've been in croatia for quite a while where i got interested in transformations and mutations (in a wider sense).
transformation of political circumstances; in the last decade croatian society saw some major changes: from a former socialistic society to postwar status entering the age of globalization, free market, capitalization and joining the european union soon. a big issue is the question of land ownership and its current effect on society and cultural heritage. i have been looking at cases in one to one conversation where poeple were selling their land. it seems economic reasons are the main factor but in many cases skyrocketing landprizes make the people sell and leave their property, settle somewhere cheaper instead and live off the money. houseselling of land where families have lived for centuries (the average age of a house within old settlement area is 200) becomes an alternative way of making business. what happens is that people who were part of a long grown environment are shifting somewhere else. these developments are of new quality - triggered by external interests. these external interests become more a dominating force in the region of former yugoslavia. since my last visit it seems that relations to western europe are still not developed in a healthy way; there is an unreflected fascination and mystification with everything that is 'abroad'. objectively there has never been a time-window for the young generation to fully develop their "own thing" and find some form of identity within the eu and the sorrounding non eu states - apart from the nineties where there was an absence of communication with the rest of europe. at that time they were out of touch with worlds current events and things began to happen from the inside. the young people started to refer to itself and to the world they were immersed in. from this point the impact of western ideas how to consume what, interrupted the provisional autonomous state of "being" the youth just started to build up for themselves. however this impact delivered a philosophy of capitalism that was tailored to fill what must have looked like a big hole in the eyes of a businessman. while i was staying here i just couldn't get enough to physically engage with everything that remained somehow from functioning as a new platform for some star-bucks-spangled economic dreams. everybody here is now doing their best of being, talking, moving, selling, economizing like they have seen it in other countries on tv. the guy from my favourite coffee place was really happy when he told me that he's got music in his toilet now. he saw it in germany and what the germans have he must have too. after all the germans know how to make money and the guest like the chill-out trance while taking a dump. so if everybody is trying really hard to do their thing i thoght i'm gonna give it a try too and build my own value system from the scratch. i started out at places that were not claimed yet, because they are too hard to claim or of no use to a money focused mind. yet. maybe after my work's out there, some people will discover some really great spots where they could do some business. that would be even better : eventually i'm keen to see how these real and imaginary places to be "reclaimed" in capitalistic means. this seems to be an uncontrollable organic process somehow. it's like cell mutation. you don't know how fast it grows and what exactly makes it growing. there are a million little components that encourage cell mutation. the world is full of them and we're creating new substances every second of our being.
so guys, the 'outcome' of my engagement with these places will result in a multi channel video installation and i posted some stills of it that you can catch a glimpse. the format is wrong - it shoud be 16:9 but blogspot somehow doensn't seem to like that
:)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)