COFA1002

Portfolio

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Provocative video, criticising the commericialisation of conventional forms of ‘art’. The absence of color comments on ViViD’s overused lights and how it is nothing but a laser show to win over the audience. The sounds were completely replaced by a soundtrack from 1935 cartoon to show that ViViD, at its core, is nothing but a simple form of animation.

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Major Work

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Major Work - Process

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Prototype 2

So after testing out symmetry from my first prototype, in my second prototype I decided to create another installation with unique sets of rules to generate patterns while maintaining its symmetry. The end result was a rather grotesquely organic, yet very intriguing object which couldn’t be described exactly what it was. But from experimenting with prototypes, I decided to expand this idea of ‘transmuting chopsticks’ into a major work after further development.

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Prototype 1

Revisiting the use of disposable wooden chopsticks, I attempted to make a symmetrical installation to simulate the method of contexualisation from my researches. There were discrepancies among chopsticks’ endurance which altered the installation’s final form, but overall I was satisfied with it.

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Kate Mccgwire

Kate’s practice revolves around using pigeon feathers, and pigeon feathers only. Her installations are a complex body of works ‘by presenting them in an organic yet unconventional way the binary perceptions of beauty and disgust, attraction and fear, and even elegance and power are employed’. She also comments how ‘patterning plays a strong role in my work as well as the desire to present something organic’. 

She quotes how her ‘work is a physical manifestation of a state of mind’ and their representations of ‘prehistoric and of the contemporary world, linking us, inextricably, to nature and to our former selves’.

This philosophy of hers is rather interesting to compare with Edmond van der Bijl, where they both explore the concept of contextualisation within a notion of Glitched Reality. They both consider that rules and repetition are the fundamentals of their work and argues how it brings surrealism of imagined realities close to our perceived reality.

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Past works relatable to my current project

The photos are from one of my experiments I did out of whim back in 2011, where basically I used disposable wooden chopsticks to mimic fluidity of liquids despite of its solid form. The video is from last year’s stop motion project where the five-cent coins were used symbolically to represent the cycle of life.

Both are great examples that explores contextualisation within the aesthetics of Glitched Reality through varying methods and mediums (color, form, sound, environment etc).

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Context through Form, Color and Lines

While I explored the concept of Glitched Reality in my Poster, I’m planning to use it as a body of aesthetic for the major work.

A materialistic approach to a topic of Glitched Reality; contextualising simple found objects and giving them meaning through a simple method. The laundry clips that I used within this experiment gained new meaning and overarching contexts other than their designated purposes (eg. the first image is structured in a way that is mathematically pleasing and symbolically references a notion of infinity). Through this experiment I’ve confirmed the methods of manipulation of found objects and how their arrangement with attention to Form, Color and Lines impacts the result.

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Edmond van der Bijl (aka Akamundo)

Exploring the concept of Glitch via materialism [commodities]

This artist explores with ready-made (found) objects and discusses ‘how their function and appearance can change dramatically when they are added to, or multiplied by, themselves’. Edmond says of his work “In a world obsessed with ‘mass production’, the focus of this series is to use what is readily available rather than to use additional resources to create a new object”. He manipulates objects in distinctive manner within specific rules and patterns, resulting in either geometric or organic representations. This generates overarching themes or contexts which were non-existent before the process of manipulation.

http://edmondvanderbijl.com/category/installation-sculpture/ http://www.junk-culture.com/2013/08/intricate-sculptural-installations-made.html#more

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A mind map of explored concepts and possible additional research topics that I can explore.

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[Divergent random thinking]

Crossover Concepts - Glitched Reality & Productive Desire

Deleuze and Guattari described Desire as a productive & mechanical function that produces its object; constructing what it wants that makes its own experience. If this is true for all humanity, then the physicality of Reality we perceive is the product of everything that we desired by a process of never-ending construction of Desire; it is the fundamental motivation in order to recognise Reality.

An act of Desiring is also a form of self-sacrifice; one loses something to obtain the Desired. This is true in both fields of tangibles and intangibles. Every processes required to obtain the Desired needs system of Reality to operate; intangible time to initiate thinking, or a tangible body of energy to carry out a Desired action.

My poster explored how Glitches shapes Reality with its infinite and impossible nature. However, it’s also possible that the constructed and productive Desire is what’s shaping the Reality we perceive; or could it be that this is our Glitched Reality? That would mean that the nature of Glitched Reality corresponds to the nature of Productive Desire. 

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Studio Exercise 25/08/15 Choose an artist from the list and create an object that produces desire. Marcel Duchamp - his practice includes critical observations of man-made objects and manipulates them to create meaning productively with symbolisms and representations So I wrapped my hand with a paper to mimik a glove that had a magnet imbued at the centre. So when I try to grab something like a metallic chair, the glove would rip apart due to a magnet's magnetic force of attraction. Gloves often models hands, and hands are symbolic niche of Desire. So the act of ripping apart the gloves during an act of acquiring defines desire as a form of self-sacrifice; the process of destruction produced Desire. The intagibles explored throughout this simple experiment (desire, magnetic force) relates back to my project 1 and how they interact differently from previously explored intagibles.

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[Poster Making] Part 3: Final Poster & Statement

The word glitch refers to an unpredictable irregularity in a system—digital and analogue alike. Glitches cannot be avoided or prevented; glitch aesthetics explores the productive failure of systems. Explore the creative possibilities of glitch. 

I made an interactive poster for the audience to experience its metamorphosis in the context of Glitched Reality. Within that parameter it explores through concepts of impossibility, infinity and creation.

For a system, Glitches are defined as something that: cannot be avoided or prevented; generates transient short-lived faults that corrects itself; causes faults yet remains operative; alters the system with productive failure; exists as unpredictable irregularity in a system. If we were to consider our perceived Reality as a form of system, we can no longer identify it as the ‘ideal perfect form’. This in turn questions the habitual and how we’re accustomed to it – ‘To question what seems so much a matter of course that we’ve forgotten its origins’1.

Glitches are also infinite in nature due to its own properties; the interaction between self-correction and unavoidability loops indefinitely. Just like our perception of Reality, we cannot perceive infinity’s existence let alone accurately describe its true properties. When a substance reaches towards infinity, there is a process of metamorphosis that changes its quality of tangibility intangible (e.g. we describe water as a tangible substance because we can determine its qualities through the process of compare & contrast with other existing tangibles. But what if its quantity expands further than everything we can perceive and beyond? When water has filled our entire Space would we be able to distinguish and acknowledge its existence?). Therefore we cannot measure the Reality’s defined perfection since there are none to compare with; then how can I represent this concept of imperfect Reality within the limitation of an A2 poster?

The method was rather simple; preparing two pieces of white A2 papers that were stuck together by a paste of blu-tacks which were split apart forcefully in front of the audience. Each components used are represented symbolically: blank white A2 papers as the plane of Reality (not in terms of physicality but in their assumed qualities; indifferent and the obvious), performers who splits the papers as embodiment Glitch, and the generated web of blu-tacks as the infinite faults caused by Glitch. The performance of the splitting would showcase the audience the metamorphosis of an indifferent two-dimensional plane to something much more distinct and recognisable three-dimensional object. The audience can now confirm the existence of resulting faults with their sensorial feedbacks that did not exist before. If we translate this symbolically, when Glitch was inserted to a system of Reality, there was a metamorphosis of an ‘intangible Reality’ that transformed its properties; from intangible to tangible. Therefore the imposed Glitch has successfully generated faults within a system - that altered the system of Reality with productive failure - where it was altered yet operative - which was unavoidable since that was the purpose of this performance.

My poster has demonstrated how Glitches can shape the impossibilities of systems and how it can also break through it. Glitches are a force to split apart a system, the obvious and intangibles that generates creative possibilities.

1Perec, Georges. 1975 ‘The Species of Spaces’ Approaches to What? (pp. 206). Cause Commune

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Glitch (me) rips apart the plane of reality (A2) to generate infinite faults (blu-tack webs)

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[Poster Making] Part 2: Prototyping & Practice

An idea struck through my head suddenly during all the research; somehow precisely on the point to my concept.

To put it simply, sticking two A2 posters together with blu-tack and spilitting them apart. What’s important here is who, when, where and why:

- The A2 poster is represented as the plane of Reality; the exterior looking like absolutely normal white sheets of paper, indifferent as always

- The person who splits the A2 sheets is the body of Glitch (cannot be avoided or prevented)

- The webs of blu-tacks generated during the split represents the infinite faults (productive failure of system; from 2D reality to 3D) generated by the Glitch while the plane of Reality is still yet operative (A2 remains undamaged; faulted yet operative system)

- The generated webs of blu-tacks will always have an unpredictable pattern on each attempt of splitting (unpredictable irregularity in a system)

During the prototyping process I’ve managed to discover few problems to troubleshoot before starting on the main Poster:

- Surfaces of the paper ripping off

Because blu-tacks are wonderfully powerful, the standard thin sheets of paper were not able to withstand the adhesiveness so I quickly replaced them with cardboard-reinforced versions.

- Blu-tacks not generating the expected webs during the splitting process

I noticed how this frequently happened when I didn’t soften the blu-tacks enough before spreading them out on the paper. I made sure each batches of blu-tacks were softened to a required level but had lost a lot time.

- Multiple miscellaneous testings were also attempted in order for the Poster to operate as expected

After troubleshooting I immediately proceeded to start on the main Poster:

(there was no way I could cover the whole poster with blu-tacks; too costly & really, really painful fingers)

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[Poster Making] Part 1: Concept Thinking

I started with divergent thinking from the chosen Research Question [Glitch]; how it is defined as unpredictable irregularity in a system & its failure. I initially had two concepts that I have chosen to explore: glitch in the system of “A2″ paper format, and a glitch in a system of Reality. The second topic instantly appealed to me so It didn’t take long for me to decide.

For a System, glitches are something that ‘cannot be avoided or prevented’. That means the Reality we face everyday is an imperfect system no matter how perfect it seems. This questions the habitual and how we’re accustomed to it - ‘To question what seems so much a matter of course that we’ve forgotten its origins’1. We cannot measure or perceive Reality’s level of perfection since there are none to compare with. Then how can I represent this whole concept of imperfect Reality? How can I implement it within the limitation of an A2 poster?

First, I divided the mentioned concept into smaller pieces of puzzles to provide a better vision on my research:‘Transient short-lived fault that corrects itself’, ‘faulted yet operative system’, ‘productive failure of system’, ‘cannot be avoided or prevented’, ‘unpredictable irregularity in a system’. Using these pieces I started to incorporate them into designing early prototypes.

I first started with two simple sketches; the first was rather self-explantory and wasn’t interesting as it derailed too far away from my chosen concept, but the second suggested an unsuspecting meaning of infinity due to a clash of two properties of Glitch [Transient fault that corrects itself & Cannot be avoided or prevented]. This is when I proposed an idea to myself; maybe Reality seems perfect because of its infinite nature? Maybe this is what’s affecting our perception of Reality?

From there on, I looked for methods to create a poster that most accurately describes my self-proposed questions. This is when I started researching other artists:

- Barbara Kasten

She created works that broke through the boundaries of 2D and 3D realities and I was very interested in how she achieved this through the use of lighting & geometrics.

- M.C. Escher

His visual techniques to describe the notions of impossibilities of reality helped me understand the aesthetics of infinity better.

- Aaron Seymour

The interactive posters this artist created inspired me how providing the audience the sensorial feedbacks (traditionally: Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Touch) directly from the poster can shape a very different experience compared to direct visual responses or materialistic representations.

1Perec, Georges. 1975 ‘The Species Of Spaces’ Approaches to What? (pp. 206). Cause Commune

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WE ARE DEFINETELY IN TROUBLE!!!

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OI! Yes you putting up all the posters! I know you’ve been putting them up everywhere! Ironically this reprimanding made the perfect work for today’s exercise on affect and body politics. It clearly made visible the control, regulation and structuring of our behaviour, actions, bodies in our environment. I can’t help but feel like a kid in trouble for wagging school when I watch this, tail between my legs. The power dynamic is palpable! Sorry you got in trouble!