#contemporarypracticeincontext

[katiecrowther-blog]

Author Iain Sinclair takes us on a walk through the City of London to discover the songs of Surround Me by Susan Philipsz, placing them in their historical context and explaining the significance of the locations.

[katiecrowther-blog]

Annotated Reference List 3

Conversation-Time-Based Media. 2004. Tate. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/about/our-work/conservation/time-based-media#art. [Accessed 01 April 16].

This link is a website, a conversation page including all artistic techniques which relate to the notion of time. The link is from the Tate gallery website, the conversation I was looking at is called “time-based media” which talks about different practices that can affect the sense of time and how we experience it. I used this link in my ‘Drawing Transformations’ project, where I was researching into time and our relationship with it. This link was useful because the processes I read about can all relate to time and each one has a different effect on time and how we encounter it, for example an audio based piece, can still give a sense of time through sounds that we associate with it and space. Similarly to film based art, using only images we associate with a certain period in time to change the way we think about time and how we encounter it.

I found this source useful because it made me think about using duration as an element in my art. This made me think about what “duration” could mean and what effect it could have on the viewer, for instance if an installation had to be taken down and then created again, the repeated action would almost create a cycle, giving a sense of infinity which relates to time. Therefore, this would play with the concept of time, beginning and ending. Overall this source has made me think about using different practices to relate to the context of my work, I thought about using film and sound to give a surreal, timeless experience to the viewer.

[katiecrowther-blog]

Annotated Reference List 2

Quentin Carnialle. 2015. M.A.DGallery. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.mbandf.com/mad-gallery/creators/quentin-carnaille/. [Accessed 31 March 16].

My next source is a website link, this website has helped me throughout my studio practice and contemporary practice in context work. The website is an article about an artist called Quentin Carnialle, he is a French artist deeply fascinated with the notion of time, questioning theories of infinity and relativity. I researched this artist during my project “Drawing Transformations” when I was looking into the concept of time and our relationship with it.

This article helped me research into Quentin Carnialle to gain a better understanding, but it also helped me with my studio practice. I liked Carnaille’s style of mixing sculpture with architecture, his work is made from parts of watches including metal cogs, rubber and glass. This gives his work a solid and timeless look. His love for materials also comes through in his presentation, one piece I love appears to be hovering in mid-air mysteriously, Carnialle never explains how he has made his work but I think this is created using repelling magnets. The floating piece of art fascinated me, I liked the dream like feel it gave to the piece which linked to time, it really inspired me to try something different in my creative practice. Therefore, my current work is based on my new found interest for materials, which gives an architectural look to my work. My work is now a constant experimentation with different materials and processes like resin, which is like a liquid glass, and Perspex. Therefore, this source has been very useful in my practical work, I now have a new style and interest for sculpture which has made my work much more interesting and contemporary.

In addition, this source has been used in my contemporary practice in context work. Quentin Carnialle has a strong understanding of time and the theories around it, I found it interesting to read some of his comments in interviews that are mentioned in this article. I used one of Quentin’s comments in my useful quotes, he believes there is no such thing as time, he says it is simply “the constant human motivation to materialize it”. I found this quote quite inspiring and thought provoking, to consider time does not exist at all, it is something man made we have completely made up. I loved how this quote made the reader question time and existence itself, I got completely lost in the idea of time and what it might be. I now use this thought process in my work, rethinking my relationship with time, somehow made me appreciate it more and therefore manage it better, which I can apply to my work ethic.

[katiecrowther-blog]

Developed in close collaboration with Bill Viola and Kira Perov, YSP presents a major exhibition by the internationally renowned American video and installation artist Bill Viola.

I saw this piece on a trip to yorkshire sculpture park and decided to learn a little more about it. The artist specialises in film and audio installations, this made me consider different practices I could use in my project Drawing Transformations where I am looking into the notion of time.

This is a piece I found interesting and I thought it would be useful for my object reflection, my chosen object is a pocket watch, so I am looking at the representations of this object. Therefore, I am looking into the concept of time, this piece made me feel isolated and had a timeless feeling to it because of the video and audio that disorientates the senses.

[katiecrowther-blog]

It is neither a secret nor a surprise to know that, regardless of broad worldly appeal, the average Louvre visitor views the Mona Lisa for a scarce fifteen seconds before moving on. In comparison to this unmoving matriarch of art history, one almost expects film and video art to defy this short attention span by virtue of its tendency to unfold over a longer period of time. However, in my capacity as both artist and critic, I have all too often witnessed people bring a new flavor of evasiveness to the viewing of time-based works. The darkened gallery space is approached tentatively like the site of an unseemly peep show, where the visitor clings hesitantly to the threshold of the room – inevitably hindering the entrance of braver souls – before slinking off with the visible shame of one who feels he/she has failed to get the point of it all. Rather than turning a blind eye to this phenomenon, it is more productive to acknowledge the very real and physical challenges presented by film and video art in order to appreciate the transformative potential of a thorough engagement with this temporal, and sometimes spatial, burden. In a cumulative context such as the recent Images Festival (a Toronto-wide exhibition that pushes the time limits of even the most seasoned art viewer — after one day of gallery visits, my pupils had dilated to twice their usual size), these challenges can be rewarded or exacerbated by the intent of the artist, who is increasingly conscious of the viewer’s presence as an indispensable part of the finished work.

This is a link I thought would be useful for my object reflection task for my contemporary practice in context module. This website will also be useful for my drawing transformations project because it has examples of videos and other art pieces that link to the notion of time. It has made me consider using different techniques like film and sound pieces.

[katiecrowther-blog]

Time-based media art ‘Time-based media’ refers to works of art which depend on technology and have duration as a dimension. Tate’s collection of time-based media art spans the early 1970s to the present day. It includes artworks that use video, film, audio, 35 mm slide and computer-based technologies and focuses mainly on artists’ installations rather than single-channel works. It is, however, a fast-growing collection with an increasingly broad global reach, reflecting the interests of new curators. Artists make very specific decisions in their choice of media and the way in which their work is presented. Specific display equipment might be important because of a particular quality of sound or image it creates, or because the artist has made conceptual links between a particular item of equipment and the meaning of the work. Specific technology places a work at a particular point in history and may convey ideas about the spirit in which the work was made.

“duration as a dimension.”

This is a link I found useful in my drawing transformations project and contemporary practice in context module. This link has lots of information on different practices that can all relate to time, each one effects the way time works and how we experience it. I used this resource to think about different techniques and processes I could use to make my work and display it to give a timeless feel and experience to the viewer. This resource made me consider techniques I had never considered like film and audio, reflecting back on this I think I need to experiment more with different techniques to develop my practice.

I also used this link in my contemporary practice in context module. I used this resource in my object reflection because it aided my drawing transformation project and it made me reconsider what time really is, which I wanted to explore in my project and essay about my chosen object, pocket watch. 

[katiecrowther-blog]

Annotated Reference List 1

Simmel G. (2000) ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ In. Miles, M., Hall, T., Borden, I., The City Cultures Reader. London: Routledge

This is a piece of writing I have been looking at called the “Metropolis and Mental Life” by Georg Simmel, whom is a German sociologist, philosopher and critic. Georg Simmel analysis and documents urban life and seems to ask “what is society?” throughout his writing. Simmel has wrote a number of essays that still apply to modern life today even though Simmel’s description of city life was wrote in 1903.

I chose this source because it linked to my recent project “Documentation and Interpretation” where I was looking into modern life and the overwhelming effect it has on us that make us want to escape. Simmel gave me a better understanding of urban life, and why it forces us to want to escape to another world, which therefore helped me with my studio project. Moreover, because this source is a piece of writing, it has broadened my research, which I learnt I needed to do in my formative assessment, this research helped my creative practice to be more varied and developed.

Furthermore, this source will help me with my short essay, as I am writing about “the everyday” and what I believe it to mean. This piece of writing has given me an understanding into everyday life in the urban city, how it is repetitive and boring which forces us to have what Simmel describes as a “blasé” attitude towards life, so I can expand and write about in my essay.

In conclusion, this is a very useful source that I can use in future work because it still relates to urban life today, which is an interesting concept to think about, how urban living has not changed since 1903.

[katiecrowther-blog]

Keywords and Definitions:  Escapism

My last word is “escapism”, this is a noun I encountered in my studio work during my last project “Documentation and Interpretation”. I was interpreting a David Bowie song “Life on Mars?” which I think is a song about escapism, how our boring everyday lives makes us want to escape to a different world, in Bowie’s example, the world of entertainment.

The definition of escapism is described as the “tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy”. The word “distraction” links to the context in my studio work, as I believe the world makes us want to escape to another space. Furthermore, “entertainment” and “fantasy” links well to my idea of another world, the world of entertainment and fiction. Also, “unpleasant” relates to our metropolis that is the hard, exhausting, chaotic world which overwhelms us.  In conclusion, I think this word means wanting to run away from real life by immersing ourselves in the many worlds of escapism such as entertainment, which is ironic because entertaining such as television, is based on real life and vice versa.