Tuesday 29 April 2014

On second thought...

RE: the sunscreen/chip test--It reminded me of anxious moments as a child. Why would want that replicated? Well, I don't. 
"Nostalgia is like gentrification: It ruins what you once loved and reduces it to a caricature"

Monday 28 April 2014

Scent experiements



Some quick experiments in using scent as a trigger in an artwork. Apparently scent is the most power of our sense (i.e. if you were to see a photo of your grandma's house, you could remember 5 things about it; yet if you were introduced to the scent of the house, you could remember 8. That's a vague memory of something I read a few years ago). The hard part about using scent though is finding something that is universal, that a group of people could empathize with (for me it seems as though scent-recognition would be rather specific from one person to another). Upon thinking about it, as an Australian, I though the combination of sunscreen, fried food, and chlorine would hopefully summon up some thoughts that would be somewhat universal amongst a group of people. Even with these simple tests, a strange world of thought arose in me when I combined them: it took me back to Primary School, and right back to my old swimming carnivals. The test was a success, although I need now to figure out how I would facilitate scent in an artwork (what the mechanism would be).

This is not a new idea, using scent in artwork. It was achieved by Greatest Hits, as art collective, who captured the scent of a new Macbook Pro and, and exhibited the work at WestSpace Gallery (I think two years ago?). Another artist in the UK captured the scent of her grandma's jumper using a distilling technique. Whilst these are both super interesting interpretations of using scent in an artwork, they both seem to be overly superficial, or obvious choices to use as scents. It's a hard angle to approach, but hopefully I can find something that is slightly more.. abstract, in it's content. More tests to follow





Wednesday 23 April 2014

(failed) attempt at making ferrofluid


As the title suggests, I tried to make some homemade ferrofluid by adding acetone (which I got from Bunnings for $10 a litre) to VHS tape. The acetone is supposedly meant to dissolve the plastic of the tape, and leave the magnetic grime behind, which I was then going to mix with baby oil and hey presto: ferrofluid. Unfortunately however, for some reason the acetone didn't melt the plastic of the tape, and it just simply didn't happen. It did melt other plastic though, so it must just be the kind of plastic in the VHS tapes I have–they just don' melt. I was meant to let it sit for 25mins, but even after 3 days, mine was going nowhere.

 

Prism scans experiment


A quick and simple experiment in scanning a bunch of prisms that I ordered on the cheap from China. It was just a quick test to simply see what would happen, under the guise of perception, phenomena, and light as object.

The desired effect was there, but it needs to be achieved on a grander scale for it to be pulled off successfully. What's holding this back (besides it being a test and thus it's shonky) is that it's not ambiguous enough; my attention isn't being held due to the fact that I instantly recognize everything in this video: the prisms, scanner, and it's temporal nature. Ideally, for a second test, I would like to get a whole heap more of prisms, light and film it properly, and frame it so that the image is entirely indecipherable. After a while, yes, I suspect that the viewer would piece it together and figure it out eventually, but it's that very journey that I find exciting (it's a shame as the maker though, I could never experience it myself).

It reminds me of Joshua Petherick's work shown at ACCA and Melbourne NOW 

Tuesday 22 April 2014

A collection of old thoughts


What are those lights?
Where's the ladder to the sky?
Cut me open, show my red meat
Just as long as I can stay on track. Stay on track
And all is all
Find it inside of you
It’s getting harder to find.
Here we come!
Here I come!
You fit right on top
Until you get on your feet
Play your life as planned
Move me home
The tide is out
Your head is in your hands
Due time
Lend myself a hand
Voices from across the river, carried by the wind
In no great hurry
work in concert
let the dying dress up the dead
and from here on end...

Above is a selection of thoughts/sentences that I jotted down sporadically in my teens/early 20s, found from within a vast (vast) collection of journals. These are a selection that resonate with me now for reasons currently unknown.
Each line was written down at a different time, so it's important to note that the lines do not correlate to one another. Well... most all the lines are totally separate–-there are obvious ones that do connect to one another.

Overall it could be considered as quite morose, but I think this is only thought of when the lines of words are combined to form a complete narrative (which, to be fair, can't really be helped when reading them in conjunction).

I'm not sure of the context (i.e. emotional or geographical context) of each line at the time of them being written, but I do know that they are connected through me; I'm the ignorant personified-context who, now, shuffles them together without remembering what they meant at the time, only knowing that it was me who wrote them. I knew I wrote them, but am rediscovering them, and thus: I am reading my own writing for the first time.

At the time of writing most of these words, I was influenced by my love of music and lyric writing (a world now apart from me though). I would spontaneously and periodically jot down my thoughts whenever they sprouted, and write these one-liners that I assumed would later act as keys to open the emotion I felt at the time. Reading them now, I do remember elements that surrounding some of these lines; but not all. I wonder how much of what I remember or empathise with is simply nostalgia, as opposed to the actual experience. Furthermore, I wonder if this is simply a strange case of me trying to empathise with myself, which is something that makes me think that it's bedtime.

" An idea is nothing more or less than a new combination of old elements. The capacity to bring old elements into new combinations depends largely on the ability to see relationships".

Monday 21 April 2014

Bitvision Video Synthesiser - rescanning experiments


I've recently discovered video synthesisers, mainly through friends who mess around with musical version of mod synths. I've never really liked the ultra-polished and directed way of using programs like After Effects/Nuke/etc (every step in achieving a certain effect is focused and purposeful, otherwise you simply get no outcome), yet video synths seem to fulfill the contrast of the sporadic effect, without it looking too much like an awful VJ visualisation.

Because the process in affecting the signal is so raw, and void of the incredible complexity beneath the scenes of video-editing software; it has a real warmth and honesty to it, much like Nam June Paik's early work. The fact that from the get-go, using a signal oscillator, you are in control of the entire process. You can't simply a filter or setting like you would in Final Cut Pro for example.

This kind of technology comes down to money though, and it's something I'll have to put on the monetary back-burner for the minute. The brilliant thing however is, like the musical modular synths, you can buy the pieces periodically overtime, and slowly build up your rig.

Anyway, watch the above video; the use of the old footage really does this effect justice (I reckon it to being the 'Joy Division Unknown Pleasures Effect'. 

Monday 7 April 2014

The Alter Bahnhof Video Walk + special bonus thoughts.

THE ALTER BAHNHOF VIDEO WALK
Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, 2012



(more info on the work here)

Simply the best example of combining video with physicality that I have ever seen. 

The big problem with video as a medium is that people treat it as a linear, "from A to B" medium, as opposed to a single property or object (this is why people get bored watching video art: they always expect something to 'happen'). The idea of video having these limitations –its temporal nature– is something that I have previously experimented with as a concept when making work. My research and work then evolved into me making large, immersive installations–one of which concluded my 2011 honours year. 

I still found that I had limitations though, in that I still had to work with and inside the gallery space itself. It's not the size that was a problem though: an artwork who's fundamental proposition is immersivity is going to lose part of that very function within the context of the gallery, as the gallery is a safe, predictable, and a (literally) measured space. Due to this (and other political reasons pertaining to the commodification of galleries) I toyed with the idea of making artworks in public spaces. I instantly had imagined that they would be ephemeral in nature, for two reasons: firstly, I was never planning on de-installing the works, so they would be made in a way that would be easy for the council/scavangers/whomever to take away. It is an idea of pragmatism, and one that highlights the second reason: the idea that I wouldn't control the artworks life-span (as it is controlled by the aforementioned folk who would eventually take it away) is a romantic notion that I very much like for reasons I haven't quite figured out how to put into words yet. There's something about having less control that I like–it's an idea that supports my dislike for using gallery spaces, as there's too much pre-defined control in the physicality of the space, and in the set duration of an exhibition. 

An old teacher of mine, Amande In, also shared these thoughts in dismissing these frameworks of restriction, and presented an excellent piece in her flat in Paris (she turned her flat into a gallery): it was a sound-piece (of a beating heart) that was played from behind one of the walls in her house. One day, there was a power outage in Paris, and it killed the work. As she told me: that was the end of the work; the lifespan of it was not chosen by her, but rather it ended 'naturally' so to speak. Wonderful! It's an example of pushing the boundaries of art, and with what people expect. There is a level of uncertainty in the work without these parameters, which adds a level of excitement and intrigue to it. This brings me back the Alter Bahnhof Walk: it doesn't rely on the safety of the gallery space in its execution, AND it relies on the temporality of the video in its function! Bravo in overcoming these hurdles in using video. I suppose though, the concept of time will always be an additional element to any video work, and it's only when it's ignored does it become a problem. Anyway, Alter Bahnhof Walk is the logical next-step of what I was trying to achieve: adding physical properties to video to, in turn, give it objecthood. It's just that I was limited in these physical boundaries, as mentioned above, and this work make me think "Of course!". Public space is the ultimate physical tool, and is wildly unpredictable. 











Thursday 3 April 2014




Scanned lenticular images. Just a technical experiment.
Interesting results, although I feel I'll have to try it with something more figurative though.

Thoughts on the surreal and narrative.

In a time when awful surreal-photography seems to be everywhere, I find Alex Prager's photography to do the style justice. It has another other-wordily quality to it that is accessible yes, but still gentle enough in it's application to be successful (it's worlds apart from the surreal photography that climbs the democratic ladder of sites like Reddit; and that are filled with cliches like clocks, fog, mirrors, and dramatic poses in woodlands. No thanks). It's the 'Compulsion series' that I'm most taken aback by, and in particular this image.
I've found myself becoming increasingly interested in artworks that utilise narrative as a tool. I would say that that Guido van der Werve's "Nummer veertien, home", shown at ACCA recently, also played a big part in expanding my interest in the abilities of narrative. As someone who predominately uses video, I've always had an internal battle between narrative and ambiguity when conceiving my projects (I'm not sure if ambiguity is the right word, but it'll do); I even dedicated half of my exegesis to this topic for honours, and rallied against cinema's invasion into video art. Times have since changed. 
I have an idea for a narrative work that I might try and flesh out this year, which is, come to think of it, surreal in it's nature too. We'll see.
(NB: This is my first post on Blogger after moving over from Tumblr).