sallybrooks-blog

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Final Work -- @self.destraction

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Concept Statement

@self.destraction

Continuing on from my inspiration of On Kawara’s ‘I Met’ I continued to develop my concept of documenting my interactions with people. However, I decided to document only the times of my interactions that we are distracted by technology - when our physical presence is altered emotionally by digital interactions. I chose to only photograph the device and the part of the body that is connected to it. I thought this is a good representation of the way that a person’s identity changes as they direct their attention away from the interactions in front of them. Not being able to see the user’s face in full, alludes to the concept that they lose completeness in their presence when taken by technology.

My final piece consists of a display of 3 photos which have been posted to instagram. By printing them out and displaying the instagram posts we can view them together, even discuss the photos with one another.

Usually, Instagram is an app used on mobile phone - a private, single-person experience. I believe this contributes to the reason that people became concerned when I began documenting their use of mobile phones. The intimate relationship we have developed with our personal devices is even further contributing to distancing ourselves from reality.

The photos are of people using devices for three different uses email/social media, text & phone call. This illustrates that there are many ways at different times and in different circumstances we are continuously pulled away from the present.

Furthering on from the discoveries made in assessment 2 #oneweekofselfies, it is apparent that we are more distracted than ever. As opposed to remaining alert, present particularly in social situations, the readiness to answer the call of the internet, text messages or phone calls leads people to disregard the real life situation they are in.

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The instagram profile and some more original experiments when I was still nutting out my concept and method of docuementation

The profile began as @thisweekinselfies but as my concept developed I changed it to @self.destraction 

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I originally wanted to have the instagram account as my final work, however decided that I would have the three best images as my final work. As an art piece the close up photos are slightly inconspicuous. The images of people using mobile devices in an instagram frame turns the concept of instagram on its head where sharing photos of people on the same devices that you would be using to view the instagram photos

Here I experimented with the layout until I decided to go for the classic instagram layout, as inspired by Richard Prince.

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The instagram account consists of more photos, however I decided that I would select 3 to represent the work. Experimenting with taking photos I decided that the best three portray my concept well and work best as a set.

These are the three images I decided to go with.

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Capturing candid moments was not easy. I didn’t tell people I was photographing them until afterwards becasue as soon as thy found out they would immediately stop what they were doing, making a very unnatural photo.

The aim was to get images as authentic as possible. Blurriness included.

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Inspiration also found from Richard Prince’s New Portraits Instagram work. I was inspired by his work in the way that he displayed the instagram pictures. he took them out of the private, personal view that we experience on our phone and enlarged them for viewing in public and with other people. It brings a private activity and makes it public. As I found when documenting my friends using their devices, they seemed to want to keep the fact that they were using them private, even though they are doing it publicly. 

adad1001

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On Kawara: Self-Observation

4:42 FEBRUARY 6, 2015

Guggenheim curators Jeffrey Weiss and Anne Wheeler and curator Kasper König discuss On Kawara’s series I Got Up, I Went, and I Met, in which the artist recorded some of his daily activities, movements, and encounters for a period of nearly twelve years, from 1968 to 1979. For I Got Up, Kawara stamped postcards with the time he arose from bed and sent them to various recipients each day. For I Went, the artist traced his movements on a given day onto photocopied maps. I Met features lists of the names of people the artist encountered each day. Presented together in On Kawara—Silence at the Guggenheim Museum, February 6–May 3, 2015, these three serial works represent a rigorously precise compilation of information, although the activities they record are informal or routine.

https://www.guggenheim.org/video/on-kawara-self-observation

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On Kawara - I Met

I Met by On Kawara was originally conceived as a work of art that started on the 10th of May 1968 and ended on the 17th of September 1979.

Each day, On Kawara noted in chronologic order the names of people with whom he had a conversation. This very list, as well as a specific mark for each separate day, is displayed on each page.

On Kawara has indicated all journeys he ever made on pages marked with the names of cities he visited during the 12 years. These pages interrupt the existing chronology, in that they sometimes double the day before or after the artist’s departure.

Book edition of twelve volumes (1968 to 1979) with a total of 4790 pages.

Each volume is 210 mm high x 148 mm wide.

Printed on 150g Phoenix Motion Xantur.

Signatures are double-stitched with linen thread.

The twelve volumes come in a black slipcase.

Cover: Bound in Brillianta Calandré Linen. Front and spine: Embossed gilding and foil-blocking in black. Ivory headband.

Edition of 90 numbered and signed copies and 10 A.P.

Produced and published by Editions Micheline Szwajcer & Michèle Didier, 2004.

© 2004 On Kawara and Editions Micheline Szwajcer & Michèle Didier. All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the artist and the publisher.

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experimentations so far

https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en

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Developing on from the #oneweekofselfies project

Instead of taking self portraits, I document the interactions I have with others. At some stage in every interaction I record part of the interaction in a photo and video, and surroundings. basically documenting the moment and remembering each interaction through photos and brief videos. Reversing the concept of self documentation and putting it in to a visual diary of interactions recording other people.

For me, relationships are what is most important in life. Without human connection we live in isolation. I will be experimenting with the method and documentation style of these interactions and also the specifics of what it is I am documenting about them.

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David McCracken’s staircase structure has an element of failure in that it leads to ‘no where’. 

It causes you to observe what is lacking in the structure, which leads to thoughts of what other purpose it can serve other than the expected stair case structure.

It expands expectations and challenges comprehension of a familiar object. 

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F A I L U R E 

Francesco Mugnai’s photographic series of abandoned amusement parks captures the once functioning rides and kiosks in a haunting light. It looks like a set of a horror movie when in fact used to be a place to go specifically to experience happiness..

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B21xPoCc0gg)

Final time-based video

https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en

Group: Sally, Montana, Bec and Alana

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Concept Statement

Our work is a remixed, updated version of Tehching Hsieh’s one year “Timeclock performance”. In 1980 he vowed to punch a timeclock on the hour, every hour for 365 days.

Punching the time clock can be analysed as a political symbol of the labour of the industrial worker. Furthermore, his apartment’s dark setting and his uniformed clothing also alludes to a type of slavery, a repetitious & monotonous obligation to perform and document himself experiencing the passing of time.

In #oneweekofselfies, we brought this setting forward to reflect the post industrial era we are currently living in. The technology age where we all are ‘slaves’ to technology (are constantly switched online and in mobile connection) as opposed to ‘slaves’ to industrial labour. Our performance space was our respective, real life surroundings and our chosen platform to document was Instagram.

Our group Bec, Montana, Alana & Sally shared a roster of taking selfies on the hour every hour for 7 days. We have updated Heieh’s use of a 16mm movie camera to the Iphone 6. Our method of documentation is on our shared Instagram account @oneweekofselfies rather than photos physically displayed in a gallery. We acknowledge the changes of self documentation from 1980 to 2016 in the digital age - where taking a regular selfie is not considered to be a narcissistic act of self portraiture, but a free form of self expression.

Hsieh performs time clock piece in isolation & constant presence in his New York apartment. #oneweekofslefies spans over the east coast of Australia. In this work we display the mobility of our first world culture in the modern age and the consistent accessibility we are expected to have. However, in the time span of 365 days, Hseih missed all but 133 instances of taking his photo, in 7 days we missed 6 out of 168 opportunities, even when shared between 4 people. We can agree to conclude that where we are now forever present, we are also evermore absent.

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Personal conclusions from the project:

The whole concept of documenting the self consistently, means we are pre occupied and distracted by a world that exists in the imagination. Online presence means physical absence. You can see the physiological fatigue in Tehching Hsieh’s photos and his struggle to keep doing what he is doing while committing to the time clock punching. This can be a metaphor for our addiction and constant connection to our online persona - that we are fatigued in our physical reality. His work is a metaphor that he is physically doing what we are already constantly doing without even noticing, updating our online lives with in place of remaining present in reality.

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I have never constantly had to do something so frequently for a whole week like this experiment. Although I spend all my time on Snapchat sending meaningless selfies to friends, having set times and constraints for posting was quite difficult at times. I found it really interesting to see what the other people in my group were up to throughout the day. I felt it was quite socially acceptable to take a selfie in public like when I was walking around Melbourne or at uni because everyone does it anyway!! It was quite surprising the amount of people that liked and commented on our photos before we put the account on private due to safety reasons. Overall, I think my group did complete this task successfully as we only missed a few posts due to being busy or sleeping through alarms.