cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Edit of images I took of myself from earlier posts. A simple colour edit.

What I ended up doing was taking the lightest parts of the image that made my face and paste it many time to make a pattern that looks symmetrical but is asymmetrical. 

I edited the colour again in the midrange, shadow and highlights to give it a little boost. 

The edits are inspired by vhs vapourwave images and lofi glitch images that are a large part of what is happening on the internet right now. I struggled to find artists as a lot of images led me to dead end 404 pinterest links.

Saying that, its an interesting avenue to explore.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Books that have helped my practice and theoretical understanding throughout this module.

Most books I have started but never got all the way through them as I find it difficult to concentrate and retain what information is communicated or make sense of much of it. I also find that maybe my reading level is not what I thought it would be at this level of academic practice. Simply I think I need to read more to help my level of reading.

Mostly I glanced over a lot of what was in these books and took what I needed without really taking in a lot of everything else. Parts of each shaped and formed how I saw and reacted to each stimuli presented. I wish I could have got more in depth to deconstruct the arguments in them.

Each book was accessed from the start of the course.

The list;

Wanderlust A History Of Walking - Rebecca Solint (Verso 2001)

Chromophobia - David Batchelor (Reaktion Books 2019)

Object-Orientated Ontology A New Theory of Everything - Graham Harman (Penguin 2018)

Into The Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freeedom - David Toop (Bloomsbury 2016)

A Year With Swollen Appendices - Brian Eno’s Diary - Brian Eno (Faber 2020)

Practice - Documents of Contemporary Art (MIT Press 2018)

Ways of Seeing - John Berger (Penguin Classics 2008)

Grapefruit - Yoko Ono (Simon & Schuster 2000)

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

No So for the workshop that we were to find by ourselves to add to our skills, I took this one. Daily Meditative Art Practice.  It felt that throughout this course I had been looking at states of making and present moment doing so why not got all the way to meditative art practice? My hopes going in were to induce a flow like state when I was working and of course it did. It did help relax me somewhat too. I usually draw and grip my implement really tight this helped me loosen up a little and take some time to release some tension before I went into the making.

First pattern - no pressure pebbles.

Second pattern - zen with tree rings.

Third pattern - slow down arcs.

Fourth pattern - compassion with leaves.

Fifth pattern - affirmative petals.

I think in all this class was well constructed and the simple designs were easy to follow and let you make what you want with them if you so choose which really helped. 

The basis of flow state was wonderful and I would love to look more into meditative art practice and flow going forward. 

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

I forgot to post the end result of my Paper Vessel workshop thing.

It came out amazingly. My one was one of the only ones that ended up fully in tact after being fired in the kiln. 

I am very happy with the result and I think its down to how I rolled the paper, the paper I chose itself and the fact that I double dipped my paper into the porcelain slip itself. 

I never used this as part of anything afterwards and as this module comes to an end I kind of regret not doing this as it was a very interesting technique that could have brought out amazing results. In retrospect, maybe looking at improvising and this was my result was all I needed from this workshop.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Typewritten version of the list as a work of art on its own. 

The list incorporates various obstructions within the tasks to give way to improvisational bases. Every person who picks one of these directions will finish with a different end result than someone else who pics the same number. 

This is the wonder of fluxus directions. 

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Current reading. PRACTICE - Documents of Contemporary Art - Whitechapel Gallery, MIT Press. Edited by Marcus Boon and Gabriel Levine.

There is quite a lot to unpack with this book as it a collection of essays and writings from the worlds best contemporary artists and theoreticians where they write on the function and on the practical practice of art. Its quite dense and one can pick out parts that detail how the practical application supplants the theory given and vice versa.  

I have a hard time getting a lot of things in this as its got so many writers, there are so many voices and opinions to consider. Some conflict others and some make the penny drop on some parts.

Things like thinking being a part of practice or a practice in itself has made me realise that the conceptual aspects and markers one puts forward can be bigger than the action taken doing other things. It took a while to try and get, I still struggle with it a little.

Saying that, I know the more I read and cover all these things I will start to implement them into my practice to understand them, thus creating the form of action away from the theory and establishing the practice mode on which I am reading.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Various instructions

I have made a few instructions.

They can be interpreted various ways. The concept of the instructions are more important than the instructions themselves.

I have called the list “Idea Thief”

1. Art directions

Get a 20 sided dice, Roll it 50 times,

Even numbers are vertical Odd numbers are horizontal Prime numbers are circles - 2 is even so is a square Every 10th roll is a random shape and the rule of the number rolled.

When complete cut an x any size in the piece and fold the edges back. If working on a hard surface - break off a piece and throw it away.

2. Find a stick and use a stick for a time.

When action is complete; break stick and shout “What do you think about when there is nothing else to think about?”

3. Roll a cigarette Fold a cigarette Smoke a cigarette

4. Look for something for a while.

If asked what you are looking for - feign arousal or hunger. 

5. Notes for making music.

Play your instrument how you usually play it. At any given time, do not play for a time. When the time is up, do not resume playing. Leave.

6. Instructions for two pieces of wood and a length of rope.

Get two pieces of wood and a length of rope. Find your way.

7. Take a breath. Pick a number. Draw a circle.

8. Hold your own hand and remember a happy memory. Write the memory down on a piece of paper and burn it. Bury the ashes.

9. Buy a set of spoons and purposefully leave them, one by one, in places you would like to find spoons.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

John Cage - Chance and I Ching

Looking into where Fluxus came from, I uncovered a musician whose work I am familiar with in its avant-garde style and openness to chance, change, improvisation and style of play. 

John Cages’ work and the style where Fluxus took their rule of instruction I think can be traced back to what Cage had been doing previously. Moreover, looking at this page one can see that his style of chance was based off of the divination of I Ching. 

( source for images is google books - The Music of John CageBy James Pritchett · 1996 - https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Music_of_John_Cage/riHo22Hi8QAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=isbn:0521565448&printsec=frontcover - searched I Ching and posted relevant page )

To see how he used it and how he constructed things with parameters of divination are bewildering and opens up a lot of areas of mysticism that I do not want to go down as I would rather concentrate on the art part. 

I do get the theoretical approach of having another rule book rule how you operate something thats not supposed to have a say in your work - for example; Rolling a 20 sided dice 50 times-  Even numbers are vertical lines Odd numbers are horizontal Prime numbers are circles  Every 10th is a random shape and number Even though I made that up, the rules of using something out-with what is supposed to be used and setting a basis of rules of how to achieve means that where one draws is improvised, much like the rule of the I Ching. If Cage had only done it as a 16 bar performance, would he have had to consult a lesser number of I Ching hexagrams? 

Opening yourself up to chance means the rules of improvisation and play are static cause to another thing out-with your control and you develop as the thing  time goes on. I am still going to make a list of cards but to what level of chance am I letting mitigate the overall course of the creation? I will try my best to keep the solemnity of practice based discipline but also maintain an air of humour or something that could provoke humour. 

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Looking at this for instruction based things.

I will take time to look at many varieties and make my own variations of instruction on Saturday 12th December 2020.

Some that I have seen are intriguing for the prospect of time limits or solemnity during performance, for example;

“Find a stick and use a stick for a time. 

When finished, break stick and shout “What do you think about when there is nothing else to think about?”

End”

There is a Dada quality to this. Nonsense for the sake of it and I am keen to improvise and play. 

I think I will video and take snapshots of the performance - edit digitally and further the spectacle of improvisation and play on top of improvisation and play making things even more unexpected but developed. (Thanks brief)

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

This is a piece of music I made called La Lune Est Belle. The video on it is a contrast of playing with light against an ongoing and evolving road. I had been working earlier with this and I wanted it to become something completely different to what I was doing so I used one of my own songs as a backing. The song was a complete improvisation on guitar and bass. 

The video made was playing with light and improvising with materials to create something I had not seen before. 

The unexpected link between the two and the improbability of the outcome that comes with adding one video on top of another was really exciting to me. I really didnt know what to expect and I just had to do it. The second half I think I could have made better if the footage I got was better as there is a lot darkness. 

I think I could have done better with the editing and making it smoother but it became what it was and I did it to the best of my ability. I enjoy working with film and video. 

This could be a one time pop up installation piece, I would really like to do that. Subvert expectation with guerrilla art show or time based installation. 

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

(The variety of compositions that the performers go through in this challenges the audience as well as the performers act of following instruction.

With the first thing we see is a piece called “piece for a small puddle” by Mieko Shiomi. I laughed from fascination that this was something to be describes and then enacted. 

Looking at where it comes from, a lot of Fluxus artists created kits to help others do what they do. To get the buyers or the non artists participating in things that they would not necessarily do otherwise. 

( https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ce/7e/c8/ce7ec8e95b90dc08f05bb4d6d1f7952a . jpg)

The amount of improvisation that one has to go through to interpret how something comes out is beset by the how the performer enacts the instructions given. Saying this though, one would have to give leeway to meaning or interpreting feeling. This opens up things to acts of behaviour or words said a certain way.

( https://www.moma.org/wp/inside_out/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_2741_new. jpg)

This is the direction for Piece For A Small Puddle. There is nothing here to say they should not talk or argue over the puddle, meaning or anything. There is nothing to stop them walking through to create a new position to again look at the puddle. 

If the instruction is to look and look only then it shows how we should be admiring nature, questioning how we view gallery spaces or performative acts. This anti-art sentiment is a big middle finger to the elitism that art is known for but still is commodified by as Fluxus in turn became a thing to do.

This is very anti intellectual elitism. Its so down to earth and so right there in your face as to what its about that I had to rewrite the paragraph above.

A large part of what I am seeing with a lot of the things the performers are doing is funny and reading about the actions and chance being an ingredient into how the actions or pieces are performed where humour is an important element as well as cross platform collaboration.

As with covid - I do not think I will be able to collaborate with anyone so I may have to shelf that but I am open to looking into the absurdity of chance and humour as an element or as a reaction to any given thing that is seen or done.

( https://www.moma.org/wp/inside_out/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Image_2.sm_. jpg )

Now for the context of what I do, id like to provide myself with an instructive action or exercise that anytime I do it, I will get a different result. This drives back home the improvisational aspect to what I am looking at as one has to adapt and overcome instructions via improvising certain parts and play, to just have fun with it and let out what comes out.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

With the route I am going in I feel more akin to what has been happening with the Fluxus movement of the 60′s with their experiments in process and letting the process lead the way. 

I am yet to look at any particular artist but from what I have seen with George Maciunas and the communities multi disciplinary creation with sound, be it concrete poetry or noise music, leaving things to chance or subverting use of standardised modes of equipment for the sake of alternate contexts, it has left a lasting impression on me and my works. This is from what little I have seen. I am yet to contextualise fully what I am doing on a basis of play and improvisation but within the confines of what Fluxus represents I emerge hopeful and aim to keep going till my hand in.

A lot of what I am seeing is performance art pieces that are designed to question something. That something is different every time and has a middle finger pointed towards the expectation of elitism. 

It is do.

A quote from the musician arises to me at this point of writing...

“Remember; anything, any time, any place. For no reason at all.”

There is a sense of reliance on this reasoning of “why” we do something as an artist. The inquiry of play and improvisation to the use of objects and how we use them as artists that I have been looking at sometimes do not function well with having reason going in to the act but are clear after the act is done.

Maybe it’s a 32 year old wanting to rebel against having to know why I did something, maybe its fear of not understanding fully the implications of the theories that are hidden from me. 

It is do. No thought, just do and see what comes out with what you have given yourself to make whatever it is.

If that thing that is done does serve one well then in essence we would have to break it down to replicate it for the function of maybe doing it again but I ask, what use is that one act if one can conjure a wealth of things? It is but to understand why something happened the way it did, not for mere replication. It is to be studious as to the nature of what one has done and can do rather than what one will do. By the dissection what has done, we can therefor open ourselves to theories unbeknown to us. 

This mean I answered my damn question about how I am feeling about not understanding the implications of theories hidden from me and the want of the search to something that has an emotional resonance that I am yet to find. (Other than Fluxus or Dada, I see no other) On a contemporary basis I think I should further my look.

cjt

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

With obscuring my face and not obscuring my face there is a toss up of what works and what does not work. 

I think the image that is projected works very well and my being masked removes a recognizable human element to it. This is in turn related to the form of white noise. The patterns of the image projected onto the white, the white itself and the pattern of my trousers all relate to the pixilation we see when we see white noise or tv static.

Maybe next time I will use an actual picture of white noise or tv static to mess with?

I think this constitutes as a 3d element relevant to my submission as it takes up space... here is hoping.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

With the previous images being too dark I decided to use a monoprint that I had done where I scraped off the ink from the acetate used as the printing block and then printed it. The light only opacity filter helped a lot and brought more tones that I wanted to see that corresponded to the noise creation itself.

Lines of tones, scraped away at. Contrasting noise against real image.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Creating something with the image of myself as a response to how the 37 min stick dragging felt to me. I used the picture of me dragging the stick as a the basis of this but I felt it lacked a certain something. I decided to hide my face in some of the pictures to obscure myself in some of the pictures to take away the human element. 

I also felt this was too dark an image and did not come out well in images. I was wanting to do as little editing as I could. 

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

37:25 of stick dragging goodness. 

I enjoyed recording and producing the end result. The theories of the experimental nature of the ground being the improviser and I and the stick are both points that remain really interests me. 

What would a can sound like? 

Could I make a 3d object that shows how this stick feels when I listen to it or as a response to the audio made? I think I might try this.

[cameronthomsonprocessandenquiry]

Connected a mono piezo contact microphone to a stick and recorded myself dragging the stick around Lanfine Estate in Darvel. 

My thinking was how can I do one thing with one object that will yield different results every time? The vibrations of the stick being dragged on the ground will be different depending on where the stick is dragged at any given moment so in essence there is an improvisational aspect from the the surface of the ground the stick is dragged on. All I am doing is dragging a stick upon it. 

The whole piece is 30+ minutes and you can hear subtle changed throughout, scrapes, clicks, drones and bumps. As the piece goes on, more distortion comes in to abstract the raw sound, blurring the line of what once was to a new state of being, that being white noise. 

“In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. In discrete time, white noise is a discrete signal whose samples are regarded as a sequence of serially uncorrelated random variables with zero mean and finite variance. Depending on the context, one may also require that the samples be independent and have identical probability distribution (in other words independent and identically distributed random variables are the simplest representation of white noise).” - White Noise wikipedia entry.

The piece itself will be uploaded in the next post.