Adventures in COFA

Krysta's progress blog for COFA

[erynjanecofa1002-deactivated201]

STATIC, NOISE, INTERFERENCE AND GLITCH For this weeks studio exercise we chose to glitch facebook only displaying what we really need on our homepage which is the newsfeed, search bar and notification/message bar. As for the keyboard we cut out holes for the letters WTF and LOL - basically what ee use everyday online.

[chachidesign]

estonian students amplify forest ambiance with megaphone-like library spaces http://ift.tt/1V7On3T

[krysta-cofa]

Final Statement Assessment 2

It’s the post- antibiotic era

Infections plague the streets,

People dying from paper cuts.

The superbugs have taken over

This is the micro-rebellion…

Micro-rebellion started with the very opposite to its rebellious nature - conforming. In psychology, it has been established that we are given two choices in a circumstance of immense pressure; conform or rebel. Through research and experimentation throughout this assessment, I have found that we are intrinsically designed not to conform, our biological essence is wired to rebel. Robert Linder’s quote “Man is a rebel. He is committed by his biology not to conform” is particularly interesting, since tim and time again we have rebelled against sources of oppression, inequality, injustice and corruption in order to survive, it has become a basic human instinct.

How does this human instinct react, however, when posed with the mass conformity of a contemporary life of buy, consume, die? Down to a cellular level.

The rising nomenclature of a commodified and homogenised way of living in the Western world, governed by celebrities, advertising and money, poses a new threat to this human instinct of rebellion - how do we distinguish comfort from conformity? In this over-processed and highly saturated 21st century desire plays a huge role in determining whether to conform or rebel, for example, if I desired the new iphone enough I would definitely be able to purchase it, however, if i wanted the Nokia 3310 it would be harder to obtain because it is not desirable to others - so i would conform and buy the popular iphone and submit to commodity.

And this ‘want more, buy more, be more’ psyche doesn’t only stop at material goods - sales of modern day medicine have been on the rise, particularly the consumption of antibiotics to a point of  excess. A Princeton article explains that “between 2000 and 2010, consumption of antibiotic drugs increased by 36%”, a huge increase which poses a risk of microbial resistance.

Hence the new wave of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, superbugs that have spawned from the over-consumption of antibiotics and essentially our very core instinct to rebel. Bacteria such as Staphylococcus Aureas and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and are able to cause devastating health issues such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, literally finding ways such as neutralising, ‘pumping’, or mutate to build resistance against treatment, the ultimate biological rebellion.

My final artworks embody the post-antibiotic era, yet to happen but a likely outcome of our over consumption of antibiotics, and serves as a form of documentation of the micro-rebellion that won. Using damaged ‘packaging’ of popular antibiotics, I wished to convey a sense of uselessness and forgotten worth. Emblazoned on the damaged packaging in spray paint, another reference to a rebellious act, are the corresponding bacteria that destroyed the antibiotics;

The green Klebsiella Pneumoniae destroyed Cephalexin

Yellow Staphylococcus Aureas which depleted Amoxicillin

The blue Escherichia Coli that ruined TMP/SMX antibiotics

and the Acinetobacter Baumanii which collapsed the Imipenem antibiotics

The work also holds a certain sense of irony, inspired by the cartoons How To Be A Non Conformist as well as the works of Ben Frost which are heavily ladened with pop culture imagery, often satirically, on medical packaging. The irony within my work is that the very sense of over consumption as well as excess production is represented, however, it is also the very thing that created the resistant bacteria in the first place, commenting on how rebellion can only come from a source of pressure, it cannot exist without it. This tension is highlighted by the juxtaposition of the product labelling and the imagery of the bacteria; the labelling being very sterile and concise akin to being confined by conformity whereas the bacteria, not to the exact replication of size or colour, represents the freedom and creativity associated with rebellion.

My choice to format my works as old relics is also a purposeful reference to historic art; coming from the post-antibiotic era, these works would be hung up in a gallery or museum to recall the events of how the micro-rebellion begun…

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Liesz Carr, E, 25 Internet Artists You Need To Known (April 26 2013) http://www.complex.com/style/2013/04/25-internet-artists-you-need-to-know/

Swann, T, Social Media and Movements; Is The Love Affair Really Over? (31 July 2015) http://roarmag.org/2015/07/social-media-organization-movements/

Masters, R, The Psychology of Rebellion and Conformity (20 June 2012) http://www.newswithviews.com/Masters/roy121.htm

Corthell, M To Conform and Submit (20 June 2012) http://mikecorthell.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/to-conform-and-submit.html

Authot Unknown, A Coffee Table Designed by Your DNA (14 April 2014) http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672368/a-coffee-table-designed-by-your-dna#6

Popova, M, How To Be a Nonconformist: 22 Irreverent Illustrated Steps to Counterculture Cred from 1968  http://www.brainpickings.org/2013/09/30/how-to-be-a-nonconformist-elissa-jane-karg/

Popova, M, Conformity and the Instinct of Rebellion: Norman Mailer Channels His Departed Friend, the Pioneering Psychologist Robert Lindner http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/27/robert-linder-must-you-conform-norman-mailer/

Edgar, J, Antibiotic Resistance: Expert Q&A With the CDC http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/features/antibiotic-resistance-expert-q-a-cdc

Author Unknown ,Antibiotic Resistance (February 2015) http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Antibiotic_resistant_bacteria

Author Unknown, A molecular mechanism of artemisinin resistance inPlasmodium falciparum malaria (30 April 2015) http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v520/n7549/full/nature14412.html

Arthur, C, Damien Hirst’s Medicine Cabinets: Art, Death, Sex, Society and Drugs (2010) http://www.damienhirst.com/texts/2010/jan--arthur-c-dan

Author Unknown, Antibiotic Resistance; 10 of the Worst, http://www.nesta.org.uk/news/antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-10-most-dangerous

McKenna, M, Imagining the Post- Antiobiotics Future, (30 November 2013) https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77

Van Boeckel, T, Global antibiotic consumption 2000 to 2010: an analysis of national pharmaceutical sales data, (10 July 2014) http://www.princeton.edu/~slevin/PDF/Levinpubs/PDFWEB2014/515_VanBoeckelGlobal_2014.pdf

Anderson, L, Antibiotic Resistance, (16 June 2014) http://www.drugs.com/article/antibiotic-resistance.html

http://benfrostisdead.tumblr.com/page/3

[krysta-cofa]

Assessment 2; Final Works

Micro-rebellion; This series of paintings is a documentation of the rebellion of antibiotic- resistant superbugs and their ability to render modern day antibiotics useless, sending medical science back decades and making even minor infections practically untreatable. Medicine holds a large part in our everyday lives not only for dire medical emergencies, but also for over indulgence; how many times have you relied on a splendour of drugs to cure the common cold? It is within this irony that antibiotic-resistant bacteria were even born, and they thrive on our weakness for commodity and wanting more. 

The paintings depict pairings specific to the concept, each image contains a strain of bacteria and its defeated counterpart;

- The purple bacteria is Acinetobacter Baumanii, which are swarming over the useless Imipenem drug

-The green bacteria is Klebsiella Pneumoniae, which have built a resistance to Cephalexin

- The yellow Staphylococcus Aureas has rendered Amoxicillin unusable 

- and lastly, the blue Escherichia Coli has defeated the Sulfamethoxasole and Trimethorprim

[krysta-cofa]

Final work progress;

After deciding to paint old/damaged pieces of cardboard to mimic packaging of medications and antibiotics, I spray painted the specific ‘superbug’ on top of the corresponding piece with a stencil. Still in the process of how I wish to present - as a whole or each piece individually?

[krysta-cofa]

Final Idea

The idea for my final project is to use certain packaging of antibiotics and layer on top it ultimate enemy - the particular strain of bacteria that is resistant. I will still need to research the specifics, but with Ben Frost’s style as well as a stereotypical rebellion’s graffiti on top is how i wish to present this ‘outdated’ product. 

- By outdated, I wish to present the works as coming from the future post-antibiotic era, after the antibiotics have been rendered useless to the prevailing superbugs.

- The work will look very run down and abandoned, which I hope to achieve through a combination of cardboard, paint and maybe spray paint

[krysta-cofa]

Experiment; with some packets of antibiotics I found around the house, I have drawn on top of the packaging, like Ben Frost’s style, with some images of bacteria. Although I’m not entirely sure if the antibiotics I have also having a matching resistant counterpart, nor do I know what all of the bacteria images actually were, this is the direction I would like to go for my final work.

[krysta-cofa]

Ben Frost

An artist whose artworks have a certain conflicting quality about them which i desire to emulate; Frost’s combination of contemporary packaging with pop culture references, often a controversial pairing, comment on the nature of commodity and consumerism. His use of antibiotic drug packaging in particular would be an interesting approach to my concept of antibiotic drugs vs. antibiotic resistant bacteria

[krysta-cofa]

Artist Inspiration

Correlating to my idea of rebellion vs. conformity, I want to create an artwork that creates a tension between two opposing ideas between antibiotic drugs vs. antibiotic resistant bacteria. Thus, I researched some artists that work with pharmaceuticals and antibiotic drugs or packaging

Damien Hirst’s series Medicine Cabinets comments on the stages of birth, life and inevitable mortality. However, the neatly organised medications have a sterile and soothing sense that only the power of medicine can bring about, a healing aesthetic.

[krysta-cofa]

Trying to emulate the How To Be A Non Conformist cartoon I decided to sketch some of the more well known resistant bacteria in a humourous and ironic way. I’ve drawn the ‘contenders’ here with their stats (like a boxing/tennis match), with the bacteria vs. the antibiotic or complication. These are some of the most problematic and harmful antibiotic resistant bacteria, some of which render antibiotics that treat infections useless and can lead to the emergence of greater illnesses such as pneumonia.

A useful website http://www.nesta.org.uk/burkholderia-cepacia detailed the most harmful strains of bacteria and what they can lead to;

Some were;

- Burkholderia cepacia which can cause pneumonia and is able to survive in extreme conditions, the bacteria is becoming increasingly resistant to more antibiotics

- Staphylococcus aureas (MRSA) is becoming more and more dangerous as it resists antibiotics, the bacteria can cause a number of illnesses from skin diseases to meningitis to even a flesh eating disease

- Clostridium difficile is one of the more well known of the bacteria due to its prevalence in hospitals worldwide. The bacteria is actually increased when exposed to antibiotics, particularly for its treatment for diarrhoea, and is a large contributor to the amount of deaths per year caused by anti biotic resistant bacteria

[krysta-cofa]

Is antibiotic resistance unique to our era?

Is the newfound superbug caused by our mass production and over consumption?

Arjun Srinivasan would think so: 

“What makes this a particularly unique time in antibiotic resistance is that the pace of development of resistance is really outstripping the development of new drugs. In the past, we knew there were new drugs coming on the market -- every year we had something new. Now, we've reached a situation where that's not the case year to year. For some [germs] that we see a resistance to in hospitals, there's nothing coming anytime soon. We're facing a situation now where people are talking about the unavailability of antibiotics to treat common infections.” 

In fact, health organisations are calling it a crisis claiming that microbial resistance is as large a threat as terrorism, we are soon to be in the post-antibiotic era

https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77

[krysta-cofa]

An interesting video about Superbugs and their resistance to antibiotics

The micro rebellion has begun

[krysta-cofa]

BIOLOGICAL REBELLION

My first idea for my final project is to be based on the idea that our even our biological makeup knows how to rebel, a contemporary idea considering that it’s only due to new age technology that we understand ways in which our cells morph and grow.

This led me to research the outbreak of antibiotic resistance; 

“Antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to withstand the antimicrobial power of antibiotics. Simply put, antibiotics that used to cure an infection do not always work anymore. Antibiotic resistance is a global issue, and The US Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers antibiotic resistance one of their top concerns. Infections with drug-resistant bacteria may lead to longer and more costly hospital care, and may increase the risk of dying from the infection” 

http://www.drugs.com/article/antibiotic-resistance.html

[krysta-cofa]

“Man is a rebel. He is committed by his biology not to conform” Robert Linder

Through researching different psychological aspects of rebellion and its occurrence in contemporary society, I came across an article which explains theories in Robert Linder’s book Must You Conform that demonstrate Man’s instinctive reaction to situations of pressure and oppression, and that is has been vital to our current state of being to rebel. Linder also explains that society has developed so much that it poses more and more oppression and inevitably more opportunities to rebel.

Within this article, an even more interesting theory was that rebellion is intrinsically tied to humankind, down to a biological level;

“The simple truth, stark and severe in its simplicity, is that we cannot conform; for it seems there is an ingredient in the composition of our cells, a chemistry in our blood, and a substance in our bones that will not suffer man to submit forever”

So what does it mean that even our very biological matter and composition will not conform? That even microscopic particles within us are forced to rebel?

Link to article http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/27/robert-linder-must-you-conform-norman-mailer/

[krysta-cofa]

Mass Media = Rebellion?

As well as the psychological viewpoint of rebellion, I’m looking into the use of social media and advertising in starting/maintaining/ending rebellion. The very idea of a media platform such as facebook as widely used and accepted as the social norm and the homogenised and commodified lifestyles we live in Western society certainly produces a pressure and construct which requires rebellion, perhaps being created or shared on the interconnected multi-media platform.

From an article by Thomas Swann on ‘Social Media and Movements; Is The Love Affair Really Over?’

“...They allow us to share information and resources, and to make decisions that can then be enacted.

In this way, communication practices can also be understood as information management systems. This is a concept borrowed from the world of business and management and refers to any system, normally electronic and increasingly digital, that facilitates organization. Work email and intranets are of this sort. They don’t just let people talk to one another but also contribute to getting tasks completed.

What social media might offer when viewed as information management systems, as platforms that facilitate certain forms of action, is a way to make radical and anarchist forms of organization more like the participatory and democratic structures that characterized the 2011 uprisings and radical left politics since at least the Zapatista rebellion, the alter-globalization movement in the 1990s and, even earlier, the radical feminism of the 1960s and 1970s.

Social media can provide the infrastructure for both democratic decision-making and autonomous action, with activists given access to resources and information that may enable them to act in ways that more hierarchical communication structures reduce to command and control processes...”

An interesting viewpoint in which i would like to explore the contemporary use of wider documentation and its role in rebellion

Link to article; http://roarmag.org/2015/07/social-media-organization-movements/

[krysta-cofa]

Conformity as the opposite to rebellion

After reading an interesting article about the very psychological and instinctive reaction to both conform and rebel, I found this as a very interesting starting point in my investigation of creative rebellion. 

This set of images comments on the very irony that rebellion and non-conformity have become exactly what it desired not to be - conforming

[krysta-cofa]

From Assessment 1 to Assessment 2; Rebellion

After the starting point of assessment 1, I was very interested in the intrigue and correlation between humans and rebellion itself and how throughout out time we have, without a doubt, managed to rebel against oppression/inequality/wrongdoing or even just to please our own wants and desires.

Since this isn’t a new age way of thinking, how can I observe rebellion in a creative manner in the 21st century? From a psychological point of view, rebellion is very ingrained in us from the very start, but is also largely circumstantial

This article first appeared in the February 1989 issue of New Dimensions magazine.

We tend to think of "conformity" and "rebellion" as opposite forms of behavior. Yet rebellion and conformity, in their usual form, are actually two sides of the same syndrome. Both are responses to pressure which keep the victim reacting to, and therefore "conforming" to, the pressure source. There is a third way of dealing with pressure that involves neither rebellion nor conformity, which allows a person to fully develop his innate potential, without outside interference.