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Research: Now and “Slowness”

As a group, we were researching and exploring the concept of “Now” through the digital age and focusing on the instantaneous and ‘live streaming’ nature and potential of social media. Snapchat, Instagram and other platforms such as Periscope have options where individuals are able to live stream themselves through their phones with the intention of others being able to view it. This concept, we thought, related to a sense of fastness. In responding to this, we all veered away from this idea of “fastness” and wanted to instead explore now through the lens of “slowness”. We originally thought about exploring film as a medium to examine slowness as there is a delay between the moment captured and being able to revisit that image or moment. However, upon further research we thought an experiment based piece could be more successful and more challenging.

An Exploration of Slowness Richard Long: Walking as an art form

Incorporates performance, sculpture and photography as a way of documenting the work

There is just as much focus on the journey as there is on the final photographic documentation

A repetitive and meditative approach

Documentation in the form of photographs as well as maps and text 

Walking spans between two points creating a line, in a similar way to that of a line between two points on a piece of paper

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/long-a-line-in-the-himalayas-t12035 http://www.theartstory.org/artist-long-richard-artworks.htm

A Line in the Himalayas, Richard Long, 1975, printed 2004.

‘Untitled’, Ben Nevis Hitch-Hike, Richard Long, 1967.

Documentation of this walk was through a map and through photographs taken at 11am each day; one pointing down and one pointing up.

A Hundred Mile Walk, Richard Long, 1971-2.

Documentation through photographs, text and mapping.

Images sourced from Tate collection.

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NOW

LIVE CAMERAS FROM AROUND THE WORLD RIGHT NOW

View from home in Byron http://www.coastalwatch.com/surf-cams-surf-reports/nsw/byron-bay—the-pass

Home in Japan http://www.snowjapan.com/japan-daily-snow-weather-reports/webcam-nozawa-onsen-nagano

Times Square NYC https://www.earthcam.com/cams/newyork/timessquare/?cam=tsrobo1

Queenstown NZ right now https://www.earthcam.com/world/newzealand/queenstown/?cam=queenstown

Iceland https://www.earthcam.com/world/iceland/hella/?cam=iceland_hd

Budapest https://www.earthcam.com/world/hungary/budapest/?cam=hotelvictoria

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Live Media: NOW 

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Experiment One Assessment Three

This experiment starts by examining Live as a characteristic of NOW using Periscope as a medium for investigating the idea of now as an infinite interpretation.

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IN CLASS EXPERIMENT: We were given instructions to follow -- we drew two scenes of where we sat and then wrote down assumptions, observations and made up stories about people that passed by.  

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IN CLASS EXPERIMENT: Exploration of “slow” through walking. We walked and videoed our ‘journey’ from class to the bathroom and back. The final documentation/ double spread is of a hand drawn map of the journey and of a screenshot from the original recording.

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EXPERIMENT: I used scans of mine from a disposable camera. I created a 6 page spread exploring colour and layout.

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Research: examples of publications

source: Mary Woepse, 2017, “My Story”, Issuu.

source: Mad Sounds Magazine, 2017, issue 25, Issuu.

Colour, layout, format, font important to consider. These are examples of publications where the publication is the main product, as opposed to a documentation of an experiment or experience. 

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Heyo,

Attached to this post are images of our PDF from today at the Art Gallery of NSW. I had to upload them as spreads because unfortunately, Tumblr will not accept a PDF file. :(

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Assessment 2 - Final Project p3

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Assessment 2 - Final Project p2

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Assessment 2 - Final Project p1

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Assessment 2: Statement

For my body of work I explored the relationship between humans, the built environment and the natural environment. I was interested in the intersection of these and I found ‘ruined’ landscapes to be particular interesting. Desolate sites, wastelands or ruins are a unique environment where human influence on a landscape has been deserted and in turn new opportunities and ‘colonisers’ arrive. This creates a landscape that allows for imagination, intrigue and is in a sense romanticised. For this project I explored this idea; that ‘ruined’ landscapes and the intersection of human and non-human environments provides us and other forces with a potential to re-imagine.  

I began by researching an exhibition, titled “Ruin Lust” at the Tate in London. This exhibition explored the use of ruins in art from the 17th century to present day. This was fascinating as it became clear that ruins have been of interest and intrigue throughout history and throughout a range of contexts. Ancient Greek ruins have been a source of romanticism and a chance to imagine the past, ruins from conflict offer a source of remembrance and mourning and abandoned homes and buildings suggest mystery and perhaps even an addictive sense discomfort.  I was interested in the modern metropolitan ‘ruin’, where a once nature landscape and environment is used and  taken over by a human population and subsequently deserted and left to decay. With the departure of human usage remains a landscape that is free to be re-colonised by outside forces. This intersection of human landscape and natural environment is something I find really interesting; a community can form independently of the surrounding landscape and happenings.  

One contemporary American artist I was influenced by was Erika Osbourne. She explores the intersection of the human and environment through mapping. This linked closely to my first project where I used mapping as a way of representing the intersection of place and person, and creating a portrait. The aspect about her work in particular that I found interesting her artist practise, which resembled an almost field guide and site study with small drawings, photographs and found objects. I thought this was an interesting way to create and ‘image’ of a particular landscape and linked closely to the original topic question I have been exploring, which encompasses human and environment and I think provides an opportunity to combine practises in both fine arts and science. Additionally, her series that used mapping and blank space spoke of imagination and potential. I wanted to explore this concept in my project.

From this research I began considering this ‘ruined’ landscape as a blank space, an opportunity for re-imagination and for potential. For my project I wanted to create a series that explored this idea and create a dialog that speaks to the audience of a landscape with possibility. I went to two different locations in Surry Hills that I would consider modern metropolitan ruins; one abandoned petrol station and another abandoned building and surrounding site. Both locations expressed a juxtaposing sense of ruin and dilapidation, and intrigue, potential and an almost romanticised sense of rebellion. In particular, three different aspects of reclamation of the sites became evident to me;

First, was the ever present and spreading natural influence. Plants, birds and other animals re-inhabited the areas. This was fascinating as it demonstrated an in-between world where nature reclaims a previously human structure and environment

Secondly, people and new human influence was evident. People used the site as a canvas to create art and graffiti, others used the sites as a place to dump rubbish. In particular, the tag “Lister” who is an artist/ street artist/ self proclaimed vandal. This tag I thought represented and encompassed the human desire to make use of desolate or empty spaces and utilise the idea of a blank canvas as a way to rebel against society structures and as a way to express themselves publicly

Thirdly, the presence of a greater society and governing bodies was evident in development proposal signs at one of the sites. This was both interesting and expected. The image or symbol of a modern ruin suggests a lack of human control over a landscape, which is not viewed positively by governing bodies as it leaves a potential for other forces to take advantage of the idea of a “blank canvas”.

For my series I used photographs to explore the different forces or “colonisers” that inhabit and take advantage of a ruined landscape including nature, human expression and the desire of governing bodies to gain control of landscapes that they deem “out of control”. I captured the tag “Lister”, plant overgrowth and fencing and other barrier structures. I also created a text piece; one was a copy of the DA proposal that was located at one of the sites, the other was an appropriation of the proposal where I considered the views of graffiti artist “Lister”. Finally, I created graphite sketches of the landscapes reminiscent of en plein air sketches and rough drawings of landscape scene historically and contemporarily. I wanted the sketches to suggest a sense of nostalgia and memory of these landscapes, as if they were drawn in a diary, and also be suggestive of a field work study and that way of imagining the landscape.

Bibliography

Research 

Derwent Project, David Stephenson and Martin Walch, https://vimeo.com/derwentproject, accessed 28.8.17

Irresistible Decay: ruins reclaimed, Michael S. Roth Et al., 1997, The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities

Nevada Art Museum, http://www.nevadaart.org/exhibition/erika-osborne-the-back-of-the-map/ , accessed 7.9.17

Posthumanism, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumanism, accessed 10.9.17

Temporary Art Review, Sage Dawson, http://temporaryartreview.com/the-back-of-the-map-at-the-center-for-art-environment-nevada-museum-of-art/, accessed 7.9.17

Tate Modern, London, 2014, http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ruin-lust, accessed 5.9.17

Images

Erika Osbourne, Fire Point Timber Sale II, 2005, Digital print of drawing on skin, 84” x 42”, http://www.erikaosborne.com/work/mbc/5.php  

Erika Osbourne, Fire Point Timber Sale I, 2005, Digital print of drawing on skin, 84” x 42”, http://www.erikaosborne.com/work/mbc/4.php

Jon Savage, Uninhabited London, 1977-2008, photograph, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jon-savage-12580, accessed 5.9.17

Robert Rauschenberg, White Painting [three panel], 1951 https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/98.308.A-C

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Assessment 2: Final Project (see above for higher quality images)

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Assessment 2

Site observations

I have visited two different modern ruin sites at each I observed:

Graffiti, rubbish and influence of other people using the site

Birds and other animals

Grass and other plants

Development proposals

Idea for series:

Use photography, text and drawing as a way to explore the sense of possibility and potential in ruined landscapes, and the reclamation of these sites by outside forces.

An earlier brainstorm/ research/ ideas

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Assessment 2: Research and reading

Ruin Lust - Exhibition at Tate Modern, London, March 2014

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ruin-lust,  accessed 5.9.17

Use of ruins in art is present over history 

18th century: huge interested in ruins and picturesque landscapes

Slow decay and abrupt destruction

Jon Savage’s photographs in the late 1970s of the destruction of London illustrates the view of artists who consider ruins as areas of pure potential and where the world has opportunity to be entirely reimagined

Ruins as a symbol of disappearance and loss, thrill, intrigue and romanticism

“In between worlds reclaimed by nature”

Irresistible Decay

Irresistible Decay: ruins reclaimed, Michael S. Roth Et al., 1997, The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities

simultaneously and absence and a presence

“ Lisbon’s earthquake’s extraordinary destructive force … demonstrated just how dependent culture was on the cooperation of nature”

(http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jon-savage-12580, accessed 5.9.17)

I think this photograph creates a sense of nostalgia and mourning for the past. It encourages the viewer to imagine what the scene would have looked like before it was ruined. It also suggests a sense of potential in the viewer for what the landscape will become.

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Assessment 2: Research and reading

Link to Posthumanism

The concept of ruin and the processes that take place following the destruction of a previously human landscape link quite closely to the concept of posthumanism, which considers the roles of non-human agents or forces and removes the human as the most important factor in environments. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumanism