Here are some examples from last year’s cohort (Assessment 2).
Excerpt from concept statement:
Tele Visual is an installation constructed out of five stacked Analog Televisions that plays a composition of some of the most identifiable features and aesthetics of the ATV before the shut off of analog satellite broadcasting in December, 2013. The footage used throughout the film was chosen specifically to appeal to a broad spectrum of ages including opening of sitcoms likeFriends (1994) and Cheers (1982) to a scene from the iconic I Love Lucy (first airing in 1951). The TVs used are aged and each one has a number of faults, some unexpected glitches occur even throughout the recording, but they still manage to deliver their content in their intended fashion and that quality in itself speaks for the durability of a system with a fire that still burns strong.
Excerpt from concept statement:
My body of work for this research project is intended as a response to the question “Can creative acts be rebellious when rebellion has become canonised in art, design and media histories? What would a contemporary creative rebellion look like?” The work consists of one sample garment from a two piece uniform, comprised of shorts and a raglan sleeve sweatshirt. This uniform is presented as rebellion explored within the textile medium.
The notion of a uniform denoting conformity is only present in a contextual environment where the uniform is mandated across a given population. Removed from the institutional or social context that forms this mandate, the uniform can be seen to be highly rebellious, representative of a rebellion through semiotic conformity. The aspects of uniform explored within my work are derived from a variety of sources, first and foremost the working class-fetishism that has permeated gay subculture through the early character archetypes first exemplified by Tom of Finland and later by co—opted by the Village People. Subsequently this fetishisation of contemporary working class masculinity was adopted in the UK, Australia and Western Europe through the gay skinheads of the 80s and scally lads of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Similarly, Jack Halberstam’s writing on the relationship between the symbolism of the uniform and the inherent homoerotic fetishism of violence and male power amongst fascists informed my work through textile selection. The back panel of the shorts and the primary fabric of the raglan sleeve sweatshirt are reclaimed fabric from a woollen greatcoat, a commonplace garment amongst the fascist militaries of the first half of the 20th century, and of reminiscent of the peacoat-clad skinhead movement through the 1970s and early 1980s. The use of PVC in the shorts was taken from two separate notions. The first was the relationship between synthetic fabrics and workwear, and between the sensory play of childhood and school uniforms, particularly through rainwear. The second notion was that of the ubiquity of synthetic and/or highly durable fabrics amongst fetishists of all varieties, including the sportswear donned by scally lads and the masculine workwear seen amongst fetishists of divers, frogmen, and construction workers. Similarly, the choice of 3M reflective tape was taken from two sources. The first was the taping patterns found on the turnout trousers worn amongst Francophone firefighters, emblematic of work uniforms in many contexts. The second was the use of branding amongst Adidas products, with the iconic “Three Stripes” logo taping the majority of the garment. This was a deliberate choice based on the ubiquity of Adidas tracksuits amongst sportswear fetishists, who are highly reliant on visual cues for sexual arousal. This postmodern phenomenon of a figurative “commodity fetishism”, whereby the participants break the encoded meaning of an object – sportswear – through sexual activity with the object, wherein branding has taken on highly sexualised associations with masculinity. This highlights an irony of the late-capitalist, heteronormative, patriarchal hierarchy that we live under, where sex is omnipresent in advertising, yet sexual relations with a commodity are socially condemned.
Excerpt from concept statement:
My second assignment is a short video piece which presents, to the extent of my capacity to collect it, all the visual and video information available regarding myself and close friends on Facebook in a visual ‘torrent’. The piece is only thirty seconds long, and the torrent is constructed through a combination of extensively layered animated images, videos and audio samples. Some of elements have been corrupted by varying degrees, some to the point of incomprehensibility; however, all of the information is there. The piece begins with some glitched images and audio accompanied by altered samples of Packer talking about data collection, which I included to allude to the process of data collection behind this piece and by Facebook. As the samples continue to play, the images dissolve into a ‘loading screen’ where the profile pictures of myself and friends flicker past as the screen zooms in from satellite level our hometown, Albury. Then the screen explodes with a torrent of animated images as Packers voice crys “nothing will be left out,” before the video crackles and glitches into the audio video compilation component of the piece, which features growing numbers of layers of elements until the video becomes nothing but a stream of data and finally dissolving into pure data: indecipherable coloured static and noise. The piece is designed to be viewed on loop, however this does little to aid in its comprehension.
Excerpt from concept statement:
I appropriated the main concept of the manipulation of desire in order to create a sense of value, evident in Oldenburg’s “The Store”. Through creating my own store/gallery through reflecting simplistic qualities I wanted to create sense of ‘value’ through the environment. Through using ‘readymade’ broken and unwanted objects collected from various members of my household. I displayed and labeling the items in a ‘handmade’ viewing box in order to appropriate a scene from a gallery positioned high on a plinth, creating a sense of worth. Through using a buyers sheet I asked the visitor of the piece what “they though the worth of each piece was” asking them to estimate its value. This process was interesting as it brought back mixed responses. The individuals that had owned the items thought the overall worth was higher
Creating a sense of ‘personal value’. While other items were worth less due to there unoriginality such as mobile phones and iPods.
My process gave me a new view on the concept of value. Value is something very much determined by ones desire, if the individual feels as if they need the item due to its ‘new and innovative traits’ they feel as if they can pay more for the item. For example of new ‘Apple iPhone 6’ is expected to cost $969 adding to its desirable traits as not many people will be able to pay the money to obtain one. In comparison item of lower consumer status such as a Nokia phone will hold a lot less value due to its views in society. Through my final work I have manipulated this idea of depreciation of items value due to undesirable traits (broken) buy also presenting them in a desirable ‘gallery space’. I have also through manipulating the audiences by using their own items as part of the work have factored in the personal value of items to its overall worth.
Excerpt from concept statement:
Rebellious creative acts are rather similar to farting in a quiet cathedral during a service; It shocks, it disrupts, and makes waves but at the same time, it is something that is only very short lived. The main difference here is that we don’t commodify or cannonise these rather unpleasant bodily functions, but we do with rebellious creative acts. The rebellious creative act first shocks and disrupts, it has its moment of pure rebellion and it causes people to react. Then people either become accustomed to it and/or start to appreciate the disruption and the risks the artist has taken, and in some cases, wish to pay money to see/hear/watch it or create something of their own for a similar cause. We call this commodification, the product that which capitalism thrives upon. In Mattin’s book “Noise & Capitalism”, he writes that the the topic of experimental noise music’s “subversive” or “critical” potency is debatable in a cultural domain in which its relationship to the capitalist economy is both and simultaneously “transparent” and “opaque”. Considering the socioeconomic factors are relevant in this debate but with such analyses absent, debates are largely played out in cultural terms, thus and in this regard, the genre of experimental noise music is undoubtedly a cultural commodity, and as Mattin writes, “…albeit of a particularly rarefied sort.”
What this means to me is that despite the fact that the experimental noise music genre does not appeal to a majority and sell out, it still has the capacity to appeal as a cultural commodity and in some cases a socioeconomic commodity, like the rare releases of Japanese noise artist Merzbow’s LPs (featured below) which, through being sold on ebay, is the canonisation taking place.
In my own piece, I built my own sound/noise piece with improvised sessions of music in a tunnel at Hill 60 in Port Kembla, layered it with sounds collected in the city and at construction sites, messed with the levels, pitch and speed with (the MS Paint of music programs) Audacity. The result was a building fade into a sheer wall of obtrusive noise that caused my teeth to feel powdery and gritty. The noise for me was cathartic, but having said that, made me realise that I had created a potential commodity and celebrated the genre of noise in doing so, thus contributing to the canonisation of noise in music. I needed a solution…
When I attempted to upload it to my Soundcloud account, Audacity (appropriately) glitched out and chose to upload only 2 seconds, which I was completely fine with any way because there are no rules as to how long a musical composition has to be. When it came to uploading it to tumblr I decided not to share it with anyone as a creative act of rebellion, a stand against the commodification and canonisation of my “Noise Piece”. In essence, rebelling against the creative act of rebellion. My “Noise Piece” took great inspiration from the research in the first assessment, particularly from “Dropout Piece” by Lee Lozano, borrowing from the concept of whether or not the piece actually exists, if the link to my music piece is broken, did it ever exist to be potentially canonised or commodified?
snowghoul
kaledo-art
stormborns
discoholicmusic
blakekathryn
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
