laurapearson1-blog

[laurapearson1-blog]

I always think it is productive to take influence from artists that I am currently interested in. When I was reading about Basquiat and studying his work I found myself creating paintings. My style is always my own yet the form in which my ideas accumulate vary in regards to my influences. Recently I have been studying the works of Banksy in relation to sociopolitical ideas to do with the class problem. I regard graffiti and street art as one of the most authentic forms of practice. The sheer notion of it being illegal, demonised and often used as a tool for anti-establishment messages I find extremely interesting. Like Bansky, many graffiti artists do not publicly associate themselves with their work due to these factors, therefore being the perfect illusive platform for many who have an ‘anti-something’ to get off their chest.

I felt compelled to produce something in the form of street art. I started with a bit of basic research into stencil making and the art of spray painting and created four stencils, two of which I ended up cutting out and using.

These two phrases are very prevalent to me. ‘DOUBLE EDGED SWORD’ is my answer to an unanswerable world; hypocrisy, contradiction and consequence are the inevitables I stumbled into when studying and writing about class [and applies to almost anything]. ‘try to see the shape of the earth from the moon’ is something a tutor said to me when discussing the subjectivity of a problem; one can never comment on a circumstance from a non-biased point of view when in the circumstance itself. It is almost as impossible as trying to see the shape of the earth from the moon.

Having never spray painted before I did a little practice:

I experimented with different colours but settled on black as it is definitely most striking. Due to the illegality of recreating these stencils in a public place, I decided to do my initial experiments in Yorkshire. London is heavily awash with CCTV and other, more experienced graffiti artists- two things I didn’t want to contest with straight away so my quiet, residential village of Slaithwaite proved a good starting point.

Stencils are really difficult to perfect when on an uneven surface incognito in the dark, I realised they needed to be much bigger to have the kind of impact I wanted so I abandoned the stencils and went free hand.

First free hand practice: under a bridge, completely out of sight unless a passerby climbs down the banking (unlikely). I like simple word play, to write this a hundred times in a continuous line would be better.

Second practice: I wanted to bring London to the north. Apparently it is possible to 3D map any pedestrian’s face from the amount of CCTV footage recorded in Kings Cross.

Third and final attempt: I didn’t want to completely give up on my stencils, so I scrawled this along a wall down the road from my house. I think that writing in black paint will always appear semi-obnoxious, so I was a bit scared after writing this one as it is very clearly seen from the road. 

The experience was pretty exhilarating. It is insane to me how worried, paranoid and demonised I felt when drawing. As Banksy writes, our cities would be like a constant party if we could write and draw wherever we pleased. The buildings and roads do not belong to us; they belong to the advertising giants and glass building company offices. 

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current bibliography and research ideas

Artists:

Allen Ginsberg - length of a line is as long as the breath/when the thought breaks

Michael Aldrich - pausing when there is a white space

Susan Hiller - Dedicated to the Unknown Artists, 305 Postcards of the Sea

Song Dong - Waste not want not

Bruce Nauman - Good Boy Bad Boy

Lucy Libbard - 6 Years, the Dematerialisation of the Art Object from 1966-1972

Barbara Kruger & Martha Rozler - text as performance/sculpture, text in space

Sue Tompkins - poems, awkwardness

Robert Ashley - opera for television, perfect lives

Meredith Monks - language, on the edge of language

Kenneth Goldsmith - Uncreative Writing

Cara Tolmie

Sharon Hayes - http://shaze.info/index.php

John Smith - The Girl Chewing Gum

Sophie Calle - Suite Vénitienne and The Hotel http://blog.point101.com/blog/2012/10/29/sophie-calle-suite-vnitienne-and-the-hotel

Robert Ashley - Pillars https://ubusound.memoryoftheworld.org/ashley_robert/Ashley-Robert_Pillars-For-David_Moodey_2007.mp3

http://autoitaliasoutheast.org/project/words-fail-me/

Sasha Waltz

Baruch Spinoza

Books:

Yes, but is it edible? - Will Holder

Composed on the Tongue (improvised politics) - Allen Ginsberg

Language, Counter-Memory, Practice (what is an author?) - Michael Foucault

The Voice as a Language - Mason Leaver-Yap https://voiceisalanguage.wordpress.com/ https://vimeo.com/43260876

Practice of Everyday Life - Michel de Certeau

Gendered Media: The Influence of Media on Views of Gender - Julia Wood

Starlust: The Secret Fantasies of Fans - The Vermorels

Art of the Motor - Paul Verilio

Aftershock: The Ethics of Contemporary Transgressive Art - Kieran Cashall

Extreme Cinema: The Transgressive Rhetoric of Today’s Art Film Culture - Mattias Frey  

The Effect of Television Day Part on Gender Portrayals in Television Commercials: A Content Analysis. In Sex Roles - Craig Stephen

Films:

White Ribbon, Victoria, Russian Ark & Itonya films - moments of motion in the camera, the camera is rigged to the image.

La Nuit Américaine - process of a movie

Land of Silence and Darkness - Werner Herzog

Galleries I am intending to visit a few more times whilst still in London:

Horniman museum

Jerwood Space

ICA

Other notable research ideas:

Musicophilia

Rhythmic changes in society - industrial revolution, mass production, digital revolution

Confessional art/feminist art

Technology in relation to externities (time, geography etc.)

Transmission of data produces a telepresence

Institution in relation to boundaries

Construction of something natural e.g. sleeping/eating/toilet

Nature of convergence between content of communication and form of communication

Speech, (impediments, stutters etc.)

Elitist language and the language of social class

Different units of language and music

Black Mountain

Rajneesh movement

Scientology - Louis Theroux documentary/Ron L. Hubbard books

Religious texts

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15 hours of repetitive bliss

(text describing sound on page for the unit 7 ‘no such thing as silence’ project. im going to birmingham this weekend for a rave im very excited)

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plane spotting

i am on the outside

a head with a view

looking at the green eyes

looking at you

there are wires in your ears

and clouds in your brain

the cables fray

and your thoughts start to rain

it’s red on the outside

and blue on the in

there isn’t two of us

there’s just one twin

get me some thread

and i’ll stitch me to you

an even bigger head

with an even bigger view

[laurapearson1-blog]

with a view

we want to achieve an equal community that works together as a unit- i think this is genuinely  impossible as hierarchies will always be a presence within society, humans are inherently (or through conditioning) competitive, structures always continue to form as our relationships with each other continue to build.

it is difficult to embrace very inwards, strict and problematic structures when looking at community as a whole. rules, responsibilities and ‘norms’ completely frame the way we act, defining how we look after ourselves and what we choose to do with our time. if given complete freedom, the only necessities are the basic needs- food, water, sleep, warmth; and medicine (when our personal wellbeing is taken completely out of context of modern society). preliminary response comes from instinct- the beginnings of everything that we do comes from a ‘natural’ feeling- one that isn’t flooded by institutional suggestions. an interesting way to understand this is to be aware of the instinctive movements that a body makes; when threatened or cold, hairs on the body stand up on end. when i look at this unintentional fidgeting i see one of the only actions not influenced by structure. the fidgeting is hard to see as a person being watched is not acting natural, however the unexpected blink and eye twitch is a response to something primal, something that is a feeling- not a thought.

another interesting lens to look down is in terms of institution- not only the actual structures (universities etc.) but also the simple idea of an institution as a body, complying to rules and a singular answer. a good example of this is the notion of the ‘institution of eating’- the way in which we eat and drink, three times a day, a healthy varied diet and made from fresh ingredients is of course not a negative approach, but is a singular thought backed up by a body- therefore an institution. we are given the rules of how and what to eat, we are then told when and how long to sleep for and what to do with our free time. having a collective of bodies working together to achieve the same thing is again, not a negative idea- but the idea that every aspect of every life has become structured and disciplined.

rules = hierarchy. when rules are created, discipline and punishment come along with them in order to ensure people comply. think of ‘rules’ in a very general sense. if we look at the structure of prosperity in terms of the basic needs; money is needed to provide food and warmth. without money you will be hungry, cold and homeless- which isn’t even the punishment for not complying to the ‘rules’, the punishment in a lot of cases is that you can’t ask for and are refused any help. the competitive nature of humans means we regard ourselves as either inferior or superior to each other. here we create class; prosperity and poverty, even in terms other than money, this is always the case.

structures, rules, or whatever you want to call them create divisions. life is actually always just a double edged sword; some believe that certain things need controlling, such as crime, but others think that whenever a rule is created, a split between the community emerges as those who cannot comply become ’other entities’ in the eyes of the public. both are right, as we have to understand that there is almost always never an answer to most debates. to live as a community is dividing in nature yet to live for ourselves is selfish and alienating. to actually reach a place of peace we would have to look outside of ourselves and eachother unto the space around us. it is important to constantly be rising above trivial questions and problems, to think of ourselves as a simple life form that is solely autonomous. however this thought will forever be inherently void, we cannot simplify a society that is already so complex.

it is difficult to escape a dissatisfaction with the way things are generally run. i have a constant feeling of otherness and being an outsider, not affected or annoyed by the same things as everybody else. the constant need to escape is always there. the answer is definitely enjoyment, freedom and environment as I feel most a part of something when i am completely lost in everything- this is when i feel i am allowed to be the most of myself.

my mind set is always relaxed, it is extremely difficult to become angry when every detail of life has become a trivial and unnecessary ritual, it is so unnecessary that i see no importance to many every day practices & traditions. perhaps there will never be an escape and perhaps i will experience this dissatisfaction for the rest of my life. i can never become comfortable, ritualistic or structured. perhaps i will feel restless every day

[laurapearson1-blog]

I am interested in how people work, how we respond to structures put in place. every little action we do is a response to some kind of structural institution e.g. the institution of eating- how, what, where, when we eat. all food is supplied from companies/institutions having control over our food, media, art, politics, religion, ethics etc.

stop seeing structures implemented as ‘outside’ forces/othering, everything is created by us. the technological revolution is another form of vice, something else we respond to as humans & a way in which to blend the modes of communication with the content of what we are communicating. this convergence seeps through us all, as the digital has now created another language alongside the language of free speech, the language of feminism, of industry and of mass production.

nothing is unknown- we cannot imagine anything we do not know, as soon as we cross the boundary of knowing we use our own coping mechanisms to place it into our understanding of the world.

how can we break out of the constant communication, structural norms, and social pressures to become a completely autonomous, free being? is this even possible in the technological age? there is perhaps no escaping the absolute mass of digital but becoming comfortable with my own place within the mass. i can take it one step at a time, questioning the little things rather than the big picture as trying to comment on everything from societal norms, political influence, social media and communication is almost as impossible as trying to see the shape of the earth when sat on the moon.

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central saint laura website planning

I wanted a website detailing the central saint laura concept. this will work alongside my dissertation research and general academic studies as I will study institutions and express my critiquing of them through a satirical and sarcastic website. 

I have copied the design from the central saint martins website, and my plan is to create a page for each of the sub headings. I want the website to be filled with hidden things to click on, as if to appear professional yet actually a simple and funny website. I want my explanations and writing to delve into more of a critique which will help me to further research my interests in regards to my dissertation plan.

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in order to progress the central saint laura project I wanted to create something completely improvised and in turn quite funny. video is a good medium for providing an extensive, busy and varied collection of humorous footage- something I learnt when watching existing ‘welcome to our university’ videos. 

surprisingly, many of the videos were pretty amateur but I sort of like this. 

the key aspects to make the perfect welcome to our university/tour video seems to be very over exaggerated, happy students, a scary premise of ‘none of this is probably actually true’, old tutors who talk far too much, cheesy music and questionable editing. 

american university tour videos are even worse/funnier. the students are completely over the top and the campuses are far too sterile. 

I want to recreate something similar to this, the key points to include from my very in depth research would be;

-over excited students/staff/everyone

-sterile backdrop

-student satisfaction statistics

-cheesy slogans and mottos

-people rambling on for far longer than necessary

-blurry, sped up tour video

-obnoxious music playing in the background

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the central saint laura project

after a conversation with a tutor I realised my recent work is a critique of the institutional art world, and societal structures in general. after sleeping in and accidentally missing a day at uni I decided to create a comfortable space in my own bedroom (where apparently most of my work is made now) that is a parallel of central saint martins. comically mocking some of the basic the rules and structures put in place by the institution, such as; societies, enrolment and lanyards; i am commenting on the need to create order and repetition within society. 

central saint laura was made in two and a half hours out of materials found only in my house. 

my work is always humorously presented as I feel too much seriousness can be overbearing when trying to articulate a fairly important message. the message will still be understood by the viewer but perhaps they will have more of a willingness to consider and accept it when articulated lightheartedly.

I included references to my personal habits and interests, this creates a sort of childish ‘dream uni’ scenario. 

I am willing to develop this work into an elaborate charade and to follow it wherever it will go. the space has already seen plenty of interaction from four housemates and friends however I would need to consider how to display all of my intentions and activities to a wider audience if the work expands further. perhaps creating an interactive digital space, for example a website or social media account would be beneficial to this work.

I have to be careful with how I develop central saint laura in order to balance the humorous qualities with a serious undertone. I need to allow a constant discussion based around institutional critique to form so perhaps this initial creation of the idea can progress slowly into a longer, more in depth critique that explores many different notions of structure.

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sometimes I feel like the institutional qualities of university really don’t appeal to me. i enjoy working in my own space which is usually in my bedroom or sat outside in the garden. the ‘studio’ and any conceptual ideas of what that might be really scare me. from a conventional white space to a room filled with equipment, both are really not appealing to my frame of mind and style of work. 

i enjoy making work spontaneously, I think that any idea that comes from actual experiential every day actions are much more interesting than those deliberated on for months. I see art less as a practice that takes up time, but more of a shadow that is cast over my way of thinking and living. for example, instead of forcing myself in the studio and sitting thinking of what work I could make, I find it more useful to take myself out of that environment completely and do something like go to work, or go on a walk. the best ideas have always come when I dont intend them to, which is of course the case with many. however I feel the use of the studio & a particular building in which to carry out these ideas is extremely unappealing to me. 

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when in an art hole I think the best thing to do is to create ongoing pieces to keep developing daily. if I set myself rules to carry out within multiple different mediums I could create a simple yet developed body of work, allowing each experiment to form into something new.

Ideas:

video- gather film footage of the same place every day to see transition. I think a lot about the cyclical nature of life and the everyday and would like to express this through the natural changes we all experience throughout the day. wether this is emotionally, physically or naturally and what it means in relation to the external changes going on around us too.

line drawings- these could be a simple way to express an action or feeling. for example I could draw a line everyday in which the length corresponds to how long I have done something for, or a particular occurrence that has happened.

sound- there are many ways I could manipulate sound however I quite like the idea of recording daily raw footage and piecing it together in a choppy sound collage. for example, I could choose something particular to record every morning and when the sound is edited together it would illustrate -say a week of my life. 

text- i consistently enjoy writing text pieces and poetry so I think in order to progress my style it would be beneficial to produce one piece of writing a day. each day could illustrate how I felt/what I have done in particular and would also be a really nice form of personal expression. 

these ongoing experiments, if routinely followed will end up creating a large body of work and create a new direction of practical work for me. I really appreciate personal collections of work, where the viewer can see lots of different ideas forming and working alongside each other yet explored in completely different ways. 

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another shadow another vice

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there are three big houses i can see when i go out for cigarettes at work

three windows provide a backdrop for three workers;

the pharmacologist disposes of her sharps in the yellow bin,

the business man sits at his desk typing on his computer,

the woman in the pantsuit talks to her phone for hours on end.

i stand and smoke

stand and watch as his computer gives him the only affection he’ll get all day and her phone is the only voice she’ll hear

my lighter isn’t working, wish there was an app for that

i like making eye contact with the passersby

they are small children laughing and dancing

and rushing commuters plugged into secretive music that bounces up and down their brain from ear to ear,

oh lovely tobacco, it’s nice to get a breath of fresh air when working in a hot kitchen

old couples are linked at the arm but they are still so lonely they are talking to their phones

ha! the naivety of youth-

it is immature to think they don’t need the digital to progress their actual.

i don’t think anyone else likes the eye contact

and the red tulip inside me grows thorny, 

prickling holes in my insides- i might as well write about it on the internet then where the millions of spheres try to fit through the same triangle shaped lens

im about half way down the cigarette now, the business man is about half way through his shift.

the pharmacologist speaks to no one for ten hours yet every time she thinks of this, the plastic and circuit board in her pocket conveniently beeps 

and she drives off in her car without another thought

my eyes are like onions that float in waves

they trickle down my cheek as dry as salt in the sea

do you want a tweet? i can upload a video if you want 

if you want to see the tears in full HD or if you just want something to relate to how you feel

ive thrown my fag on the ground. extinguishing the light with my toe.

the satisfaction from cigarettes is mirrored.

the smoke decays my lungs as the screens square theirs, 

digital loneliness is just a brand new form of vice.

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you will always be there  you surround everything ultimately  you are the part of my brain that turns  you are the shadow  but im putting you to the back of my mind

opinions on art

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i cant have a routine. i cant even do uni in its tiny capacity. i need everything to be constantly moving and changing. things return but are never the same and make me feel uneasy. i can take control now. i can make decisions and run my life how i want it to be run, in the parameters of my bank account

art has become disinteresting because i feel a uselessness surrounding everything i make. yes it can be funny, witty, pretty and interesting but what does it actually do? i can raise issues and awareness within my practice but isnt it better to actually go out into the world and actively do something about those issues? the art world seems heavily disconnected from most of society, art in many forms is prevalent throughout history yet the modern, contemporary art world is little understood, even by someone studying BA fine art. whenever anyone asks me about my degree or my work, they dont understand my concepts and pieces.

art of course is helpful to some. many artists shape global discussions and provoke debates of transgressive thinking. a practice offers the artist the opportunity for expression and emotion, which again is helpful to some. i just dont think this is me anymore

everything has become translucent and frail, i am constantly looking at the bigger picture; trying to figure out connections between the work i am making in my bedroom and my actual passions, interests and concerns. there is no connection. i have a fake interest in art- researching is a chore and without the push of uni i dont think i’d make any work at all. my interest in art comes solely from expression, not from exhibiting, selling or making for the contemporary art world.

a list of things that i am interested in to make myself feel better;

being a chef

painting

drawing

travelling

music

charity

sexism

politics

there are other options for me, art isnt fulfilling enough

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I feel disinterested in art again 

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Reflection of recent work

I like the stillness of the video in i miss a better time, the viewer is drawn into something other than the visual, another element has to be poignant. I have always used footage that is ready made and archived in a device or account, this way the material is authentic, I always feel that heavy editing ruins the filming. 

This visual archiving is also present in Everything that I can see in my room from my bed, it would be interesting to display all the lists I have written, about various things. I like organising and sorting; this could play into the presentation of the lists. It would be nice to make paper copies and display them manically- mirroring my own room and the pressure I put on myself to carry out these ideas.

Skate is a visual representation of procrastination. I wanted to also allude to how I have been exploring escapism within my work; the interior of the studio provides a backdrop for an unproductive attempt to have a bit more fun at uni. I have ideas for videos similar to this one that mostly reflect on the anxiety of leaving the house. The ‘candid’ but obviously not approach is almost like a diary. This is the way in which I film most videos of myself, acknowledging the camera without playing to it.

Although Home was made for a publication and therefore with more purpose (I like my work to sort of appear- to materialise when and where I think of the idea). It would be interesting to incorporate the home-sick, sickening nostalgia within my video work. The video Sky is a collection of footage, this method could work well when applied to content in Home and I would really like to make work about where I grew up.

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Discuss the role of affect and emotion in art, fan works and practices.

Laura Pearson          BA Fine Art Central Saint Martins        Unit 6 Essay

‘Celebrity is the religion of our consumer society. And fans are the mythical adepts of this religion who dramatize moods, fantasies and expectations we all share. You may find their intensity unusual or alarming but that is because no one has ever allowed them to express their feelings so comprehensively’ (Vermorel, 1985, p.247). This essay will discuss how affect and emotion is so obviously present throughout art and fan practices, the different forms in which this is translated into and the problems/questions raised when this emotion is fixated upon. To look comparatively between the every day fan and the extremities of certain fan practices will give an insight into how affect and emotion manifests itself within fan culture.

The affect theory is a concept introduced within the works of philosopher Baruch Spinoza. In his comprehensive analytical study of religion and spirituality, Spinoza describes affects as ‘states of mind and body related to (but not exactly synonymous with) feelings and emotion” (Spinoza, 1667). This transmitting alter conscious state passed between bodies is referenced to a physical affect, ‘affects circulate publicly or are transmitted contagiously’. (Kluchin, 2013) An example of this is saliva being produced by the mouth when shown a photograph of a chocolate cake, or a fan fainting at a concert. The transformation of the emotive to the tangible becomes a noticeable affect, influencing physical behaviour. When the affect is studied through the lens of art, the theory becomes a subconscious notion that is established within most practices. The artist is always attached to the work they make. Drawing on personal experience, the input of emotion is unavoidable for work to be truly authentic. Feeling is engrained in both the process of making and viewing art and it is understood that many works have astounding affects on the human psyche.

Conceptual art, whilst being incredibly emotive is often removed from itself. There is an invisible intellectual boundary between the work and the audience. A new modernity, the altermodern (Bourriaud, 2009) emerges within the field of contemporary art. In terms of exploration and critical thinking it is extremely progressive; the constant introduction of new ideas transgresses with the socio-normative expectations of society, creating a platform for those who naturally break away from the norm. Shia Lebouf’s stunt at the film premiere of Nymphomaniac (2013) where he wore a brown paper bag over his head reading ‘I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE’, transgressed against the high-brow culture of film festivals and red carpet events. (Frey, 2016, p.24)

Fig.1: Lebouf, 2014.                       

Fig. 2: Emin, 1995

Tracey Emin’s drawings of herself as a young girl uses a particular medium to come to terms with traumatic events in her life. Her work is an ‘uncompromising self-examination: the effort to confront all aspects of her existence,’ (Kieran, 2009). Labelled controversial due to the explicit nature of the drawings, she is directly transgressing the societal perception of young girls and sexuality in relation to abuse. Louis Althusser’s theory of interpellation details the way in which ideas are never simply our own, they are put upon us from birth and significantly shape our lives. However, we believe cultural ideals as if they were our own to the extent in which they have a never ending hold on us, (Mowitt, 2002). Transgression is directly correlative of interpellation, to not transgress would be to accept these ‘ready made’ specific roles that are already coined for us by society. In the modern day politically hostile environment these ideas become key to the artist and a necessity for the wider viewer. Contemporary artists have to correspond with and respond to current climates, yet this necessary but often burdening contextual ‘excess’ on top of the artists core passion and emotion can create a barrier between the work and the viewer. When studied comparatively in relation to fan made practices this barrier becomes very evident. The complex nature of fan culture can be significantly more black and white than that of conceptual art; there is no ‘excess’ in fan made works as the process of making is very different. An artist considers audience, context, space, time etc yet a fan is driven solely by idolisation and passion, (Halter, 2009). The unfiltered and often strongly emotional response produced from this fan driven pride is simply a manifestation of passion. Here we can begin to understand how the affect theory plays heavily into fan culture. A shared consciousness and intelligence is created and the mindset of the fandom is spoken about as a ‘collective’ rather than multiple individual voices, (Fiske, 1992).

In order to recognise this collective, creative output, we can refer to individual fan practices. In their simplest form they appear as alternate narratives to already existing works, an example of this being fan fictions and works created to prolong the story of a favourite tv show. The popular programme Sherlock Holmes has a huge cult following. Fans create memes in order to identify their ‘OTP’ (one true pairing), re-thinking and re-writing already published storylines.  

Fig. 3: MarFitzherbetFletch, (2015)

There are many examples of this kind of response within popular culture. Artists Ian Forsyth and Jayne Pollard base their entire practice around the reenactment of prevalent icons. They perform staged live recreations of David Bowie’s legendary farewell concert as Ziggy Stardust in A Rock and Roll Suicide, (Forysth, Pollard, 1998) and have the world’s longest running Kiss tribute band (see Kiss my Nauman, 2007). When the TV series comes to an end, the band retires and the film finishes, there is an empty void to be filled by the fan’s desire to materialise alternate plot lines and endings. The fan never capitalises from this work unlike the artist who comments on the very nature of fan practice; the fan is involving themselves within a ‘gift economy’, (Hellekson, 2009), where work isn’t necessarily ever purchased and consistently made for free. An amateur, or ‘lover of’, defines those attached to a particular vocation in an gratuitous manner. In terms of fan practice, one could say all fans are amateurs. In the book Passionate Amateurs, (Ridout, 2013) the word is characterised as ‘someone whose work is undertaken within capitalism, but is motivated by a love that desires something different - and can thus make us think afresh about notions of work, time, and freedom.’ No monetary value is placed upon fan work, unlike professional art practices. This presents the singular, most principal motive for production; passion. We can understand emotion and obsession as also being driving forces behind this. A fan is not a societal defined ‘expert’. He or she is an amateur in their field, gaining nothing but self satisfaction and acceptance from a particular community for their tireless dedication to an idol.

Since the early to the mid twentieth century, musicians have countlessly been bombarded by overly excited teenage girls. The Beatles ceased to play live concerts as their music could not be heard over the screams of their fans in the audience (Fandom At The Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships, Zubernis and Larsen, 2012). The challenging nature of the fan is something that appears timelessly again and again throughout fan culture. The audience steps over the invisible containment of the viewer and into the realm of the idol, not necessarily always respecting the boundary between the two as the real and fictional are compromised. The role of emotion within this aspect of fan culture is not only integral but it is self-destructive and counterintuitive to the self. At the very height of the spectrum the overwhelming excitement becomes exaggerated thus leading to potentially threatening circumstances. In Heroes, Mass Murder and Suicide, Berardi (2015) suggests similar ideas in relation to capitalisms affect on mental health. He studies cases such as the Aurora ‘Joker’ killer; a mass shooting in the US in 2012 when James Holmes murdered 12 people in a cinema during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. The mass shooting gained global media attention as the event was ‘inspired’ by the Batman franchise. (Holmes’ house was filled with superhero memorabilia.) Berardi (2015) suggests that the impact of social media and the entertainment industry has paved the way for formidable transformations unto our collective pathological environment. This notion is widely represented throughout popular culture, other examples include Leave Britney Alone (2007). Chris Crocker’s YouTube video in which an over emotional teen hysterically cries to his camera, expressing his upset with the media’s handling of Britney Spears’ public meltdown - a passionate video diary turned viral internet meme. Another more dated example; Lisztomania; an intense fan frenzy toward the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, (Lisztomania, 1975) characterised by acute hysteria from audiences at live concerts in an age where excitement surrounding musicians was not yet the norm. This visceral fixation of a celebrity figure is evident when studying fan communities and sub-cultures.

Fan frenzy in todays media-centric culture is prevalent in a younger demographic. The documentary film Crazy About One Direction (Asquith, 2013) follows multiple groups of young girls in their attempt to track down members of the pop band. It is interesting when observing the behaviour of the girls, their young age demonstrates emotional adolescence. The intense behaviour is perhaps psychologically impacting; ‘many girls practice their first kisses on posters [with their favourite band]’ (Anderson 2012), ; a situation devoid of the very real traumas of teenage sexuality. Girls fantasise of relationships with the band members, allowing the exploration of ‘interpersonal relations’ without the ‘reciprocal commitments’ (Lewis, 1992), yet often inhibits social maturity as the relationships with an idol are fabricated. (Jensen, 1992) The image of the idol is manufactured through the lens of a commercial society, the carefully constructed role of the figure; devoid of true authenticity in the media poses something different to the actual person themselves. This commercial insincerity produces a god-like, celestial figure. An unbeknown occurrence in the everyday life, fans latch onto this fake image ‘in demand for a psychotherapeutic placebo’ (Vermorel, 1985 p.7).

An interesting observation is to question the idolisation of celebrities from a gender based perspective, as fandoms are most often talked about in terms of women, (Craig, 1992). This unequal weight in the production of fan works influences their connotations. Girls aspire to be or to look like their idols. Implications towards female pathologies concerning self worth and objectification arise and we can experientially understand the mainstream media’s portrayal of women; the cultural norm is for women to be portrayed as younger, thinner and more beautiful than the majority of the demographic. Julia Wood describes femininity as passive; a stereotypical assumption that the modern entertainment industry inflicts. Women ‘may be strong and successful if and only if she also exemplifies traditional stereotypes of femininity, subservience, passivity, beauty, and an identity linked to one or more men.’ (Wood, 2009). In terms of fan practice this is heavily influential. These stereotypes effect fan output as many works convey a more female-driven passion and many idols often refuse to see the sincerity of the ‘teenage-girl fan’. (Pollard, 2016). A report by the American Psychological Association affirms how ‘insidious’ consequences of the media's exploitation of women can be damaging toward mental health and how it ‘fragments consciousness.

‘Chronic attention to physical appearance leaves fewer cognitive resources available for other mental and physical activities’. (APA, 2007) These gender idealisms are almost exclusive to women, the characterisations of males are usually unproblematic and even ‘laudatory’ comparatively to the standard of female portrayal (Craig, 1992). Fandom culture bares impact on sexual identities (Anderson, 2012; Sesek and Pusnik, 2014, cited in Mendelsohn, 2014). Members of a boy band for example, can become fixations of sexual desire, thus creating differing social understandings of sexuality. Interpreted in different ways, ‘one of the most common ways sexual expression manifests is in fan-fiction’ (Mendelsohn, 2014), these kind of practices are considered ‘juvenile’ by the wider society. This is perhaps because male sexuality is more regularly expressed therefore widely accepted in comparison to that of woman. To explain her allure to erotic fan-fiction, a member of the One Direction fandom said, “men like to watch pornography with two women, girls like to read about two handsome men” (Sesek and Pusnik, 2014, p.119 cited in Mendelsohn, 2014). A reclamation of the female sexuality in terms of fan-fiction is necessary, just as the book Starlust: The Secret Life of Fans (Vermorel, 1985) achieves, its collection of fan written accounts of intimate experiences offers a comprehensive expression of the often ‘rejected’ aspects of fan culture.

Close-knit communities of fandoms are often efforts to escape a difficult age, these implications are only amplified through advancing social media technologies. Twitter allows for fans to be updated on their idols whereabouts, actions, struggles, relationships etc. ‘#cutforzayn’ trended on Twitter in March 2015, causing significant amounts of harm and putting young people online in a dangerous position. It is concerning when the boundaries of privacy between the fan and idol are compromised, note cases such as Steven Spielberg’s stalker; 'Mr Spielberg told the court he feared stalker Jonathan Norman intended to ‘rape or maim him’ (BBC, 1998). Björk’s stalker Ricardo Lopez shot films of himself obsessing over her; ‘being in love, having an infatuation, is a euphoric feeling, and I was very happy. I had something to look forward to every day’ (ABC news, no date). Note that the blend of fandom with ‘celebrity and presumed media influence in relation to pathological behaviour’ (Lewis, 1992) is ever more common in fan culture. These occurrences, from the first recorded fan suicide of Peggy Scott in 1926, surrounded by photographs of Rudolf Valentino shortly after his death, to Mark Chapmans’ execution of John Lennon in 1980 ‘illustrates how disastrously this can sometimes end for both subject and object’ (Vermorel, 1985, p.247) and bares the compelling reality of resemblance between the growth of consumerism and the evolutions of hysteria.

‘The way the public functions in the public sphere is only possible because it is really a public of discourse. It is self-creating and self-organised, and herein lies in its power’ (Warner, 2002). The fandom is self-creating, its innovative output of speaking, writing, thinking etc engage us in a public. Warner emphasises the importance of conversation at the heart of a community as ‘text themselves do not create publics’. The constant cross-communication within and between fandoms creates an affective community where feeling is mutually understood and passed around from fan to fan. Fans establish rules, distinctions between differing levels of enthusiasm are taken seriously. ‘You’re not a real fan’ is heard often, indicating shame. Fans are heavily rejected across global societies. However shame acts performatively; generating a spreading affect throughout a community, but we have to make some distinctions between the cultural normativity of the fan and the obsessed recluse. How is the idea of fandom manifested in every day life? ‘Each fan type mobilises related assumptions about modern individuals: the obsessed loner invokes the image of the alienated, atomised ‘mass man’; the frenzied crowd member invokes the image of the vulnerable, irrational victim of mass persuasion. Alienation, atomisation, vulnerability and irrationality- are central aspects of twentieth-century beliefs about modernity.’ (Lewis, 1992) Yet in reality the fan is most similar to every other person, they simply fantasise and pursue perfection like the rest of us (Vermorel, 1985, p.7). The only difference is the way in which we express this.

Shame is a prevalent feeling within fan cultures, differing from guilt it ‘attaches to and sharpens what one is’ (Sedgwick, 2003, p. 37). It is intrinsically in fan nature to break traditional norms and the mediums in which they are conveyed; 'material re-appropriation into fan-zines, costumes, adult interaction games, slang, computer programming’ (Lorrah, cited in Jenkins, 1988 p.473, cited in Malchevski, no date). However stereotypical depictions around fandom can cause shame-related affects, the ‘individuals are simultaneously (a) put down and made to feel guilty for their interests, and (b) perceived as disrespecting their fandom community by not defending their interests (Stanfill, 2013 cited in Mendelsohn, 2014). However the inflicted feeling of shame and the need for reclamation inspires fan activities; fantasising, role-playing, archiving- the embodiment of intolerance toward the culture turns shame into a performative reclamation (Bennett, 2010). In Starlust the fan stories are expressed in likeness to shame, thus self acceptance prevails over the cultural societal perception of ‘indecency’. Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis (1897) is a letter detailing his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and his spiritual awakening in prison. Wilde turns his shame into something potentially productive; a response to criticism. He transforms ‘appalling denunciation’ into erotic confession’. (Bennett, 2010, p.23) ‘Pleasure seems inextricably intertwined with the sense of shame’ (Zubernis, Larsen 2012, p.11), an evident observation throughout fan practice. Velvet Goldmine (1998) presents both the transformation of and adherence to shame. Shame makes a ‘double movement,

‘Toward painful individuation, toward uncontrollable relationality,” (Zubernis, Larsen, 2012, p.25). The isolation that shame creates pushes people towards a seemingly impossible but much rewarding reality; to be more of yourself, because you can’t become anything else. This is illustrated by Slade and Wild in Velvet Goldmine (1998) by their determination to enforce their queer, glam rock and non-conventional roles within the 1970s music industry. The reclamation of shame in relation to fan practice is heavily present throughout conceptual art. The exhibition Love To Love You in Los Angeles (2013) united artists to explore ‘fandom as a unique opportunity for  shared social experience’.

Fig. 4  Shaw (2007) [from Love To Love You]

Fig. 5 WhyNot (2016)

Displaying various methods of artistic practice the exhibition aimed to transcend ‘material consumption’ in order to create a conceptual, transient ‘world of devotion’ (MoCa, 2013). Other examples include artist Lois Weaver’s alter-ego as Tammy Whynot?, an experimentation of different, performative personas intertwining her past and background with her lesbian, feminist performance artist career (Tammy WhyNot, 2016).

After studying the examples given throughout this essay, we can recognise that criticising of fan culture is a form of discrimination, however reclaimed by the oppressed, leading toward evermore transgressive reclamation and positive re-representation. Even though fan work is culturally criticised and often deemed controversial, it is a byproduct of our celebrity-centric culture. The output of art, writing, film etc. is influential toward not only conceptual art practices, but also toward the media, entertainment, music, film, television industries and the individual person. Perhaps the growing advancements in technology and a society developing a dependence on social media is problematic toward safe practice of fan culture. Virtual communication is prevalent so much so it is definitively intertwined with ideas of interpellation (Althusser, cited in McGee, no date), yet arguably this only creates the need for more potent transgression; a necessity within the social climate. Aside from rampant emotions and unconventional sexual desire, the true heart of the fandom is passion, driven by instinctive resistance towards the forever forced power of authority.

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