Documenting Design@COFA S.1

[experimentalprocess2014]

Week 13 - The Responsibility of Production 

This week we will be reflecting on cofa1001 by thinking about the ethical dimensions of being a creative practitioner in contemporary culture. What responsibilities do you have as a producer and consumer of culture? What standards and expectations will you put in place for yourself? How can you make sense of making work in a world marked by increasing global inequality and environmental instability? 

What is your philosophy of materials? How will you disseminate your work? What context and community of creators do you see yourself belonging to?

These are all big questions! And ones that you won’t answer immediately. Yet part of maturing as a practitioner is not just developing your work, but also how you think about it. This is taking responsibility for your own production. Perhaps a good place to start is making a commitment not to make boring work!

Image: John Baldessari, I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971

[experimentalprocess2014]

Thinking back to Tim Gregory’s lecture from the beginning of semester - we must consider the privileged position from where we work. Both as citizens of a democracy and as part of a university we have a choice in how we represent ourselves. We have the power to drive and determine our own production. This is a luxury. We might then say that there is an ethical imperative to take this seriously….serious play!

[experimentalprocess2014]

Artist-run initiatives

Artist-run initiatives (ARIs) are projects, run by artists, that present artist’s work. They are often spaces that represent emerging artists, artists in the first years of practice. Some of them offer affordable or free gallery space, development programs, residencies and professional support and promotion. They are often the first place where artists exhibit their work.

Experimental work needs places to be shown and often communities develop around these spaces. With property demands in Sydney artists also struggle to keep such spaces open and thus the ARI landscape is constantly changing. This documentary looks at the landmark Sydney Artist-run space, Lanfranchi’s Memorial Discotheque, that closed in 2007 after the landlords decision to develop the warehouse property in Chippendale. 

Some current Sydney ARIs:

ALASKA

Articulate

Slot

Marrickville Garage

airspace projects Firstdraft

SNO

107 Projects

55 Sydenham Rd

Red Rattler

MOP Gaffa

Sydney Guild

Underbelly

Safari

Electrofringe

Kudos

[z5015889-blog]

Erasure

ITERATION 5)

Erasure of Knowledge - Absence of Understanding - we move about our everyday lives at such speed that we miss the smaller things, the details that are import.

I have chosen to broaden my understanding of Erasure of knowledge, which was my WK5 experiment. I have developed this concept to one of Absence of Understanding.

In my previous iterations I have been looking at what would happen if you didn’t know what the original/traditional function of an object was and how you would interact with it. 

For this experiment I am still looking at Absence of Understanding, but with more of a look at how we move about our lives so quickly these days, that we lack understanding and appreciation (have an Absence of Understanding) of the world around us.

I have Documented this concept through video and edited it on iMovie, layering the video with a music track. The original video is slightly blurry due to the speed I am moving at and the camera being unable to focus. At first i thought that this might be a negative thing however, i believe that it adds to the overall concept - moving at such a speed that we don't  stop to focus on the details.

Music: 'Feeling of Being' - Lucy Schwartz

[z5015889-blog]

ITERATION 4)

Erasure of Knowledge - Absence of Understanding - of the original function of clothing

I have chosen to broaden my understanding of Erasure of knowledge, which was my WK5 experiment. 

I have developed this concept to one of Absence of Understanding. What would happen if you didn’t know what the original/traditional function of an object was? How would you approach or use an object if you hadn’t previously interacted with it or seen how society interacts with it?

To choose the objects that I would experiment with I did a small Chance experiment. I closed my eyes and when I opened them wrote down the first things my eye was drawn to: glass of water, t-shirt, amongst other things.

Documented through photography, this is an example of how, with an Absence of Understanding of what the original/traditional function of clothing is, what the perceived function of that object may be. 

The original function of clothing would be to cover a persons body etc. However, in this iteration I have utilised the clothing to form a shelter- protecting someone from the elements

I have secured the clothing to a tree in a way that it could shield someone underneath. Through editing in Photoshop I have manipulated the image to look darker and more menacing - but still clearly showing the fabric so that it is clearer what I am trying to do.

[z5015889-blog]

ITERATION 3)

Erasure of Knowledge - Absence of Understanding - of the original function of ice

I have chosen to broaden my understanding of Erasure of knowledge, which was my WK5 experiment. 

I have developed this concept to one of Absence of Understanding. What would happen if you didn’t know what the original/traditional function of an object was? How would you approach or use an object if you hadn’t previously interacted with it or seen how society interacts with it?

To choose the objects that I would experiment with I did a small Chance experiment. I closed my eyes and when I opened them wrote down the first things my eye was drawn to: glass of water, t-shirt, amongst other things.

This iteration is a development specifically from Iteration2 due to the object being experimented on, still being ice.

Documented through photography, this is another example of how, with an Absence of Understanding of what the original/traditional function of ice is (inspired by the glass of water I noted in my Chance experiment), what the perceived function of that object may be. 

The original function of ice would be to cool water etc. However, ice can be used in a number of creative experiments.

I filled balloons with water and left them in the freezer overnight. Here, I have completely removed the balloon shell and placed it in water.

The green foliage here is originally layered in a way that it doesn't move apart despite the water current. I have used the ice to erase this sense of order by dropping my ice balls in the centre and seeing what effects it will have. Visually i quite like the results! It sort of reminds me of Andy Goldsworthy's earth art which is also temporary.

In a way there are three different things that jump out to me as ideas to do with erasure:

My original idea of erasing the original function of ice and seeing what results when considering what an absence of understanding of the original intention of ice may result in.

Making the sense of order in the foliage disappear.

The ice being a temporary element that even in the short time it took me to take to document this experiment, I could see it melting away.

[z5015889-blog]

ITERATION 2)

Erasure of Knowledge - Absence of Understanding - of the original function of the ice

I have chosen to broaden my understanding of Erasure of knowledge, which was my WK5 experiment. 

I have developed this concept to one of Absence of Understanding. What would happen if you didn't know what the original/traditional function of an object was? How would you approach or use an object if you hadn't previously interacted with it or seen how society interacts with it?

To choose the objects that I would experiment with I did a small Chance experiment. I closed my eyes and when I opened them wrote down the first things my eye was drawn to: glass of water, t-shirt, amongst other things.

This iteration Documents through photography, an example of how, with an Absence of Understanding of what the original/traditional function of ice (inspired by the glass of water I noted in my Chance experiment), what the perceived function of that object may be. 

The original function of ice would be to cool water etc. However, ice can create beautiful sculptures.

I have filled balloons with water and left them in the freezer overnight. I had originally planned to completely take off the balloon covering but during the experiment, I found that having a mix was aesthetically pleasing.

During the photography process, I have sat the ice sculptures on coloured acrylic and reflective card for visual effect to emphasise that this is to show that ice's function could be one of decoration.

[z5015889-blog]

Erasure

ITERATION 1)

Erasure of Knowledge - Absence of Understanding - of the original function of the glasses/mugs etc

I have chosen to broaden my understanding of Erasure of knowledge, which was my WK5 experiment. 

I have developed this concept to one of Absence of Understanding. What would happen if you didn't know what the original/traditional function of an object was? How would you approach or use an object if you hadn't previously interacted with it or seen how society interacts with it?

To choose the objects that I would experiment with I did a small Chance experiment. I closed my eyes and when I opened them wrote down the first things my eye was drawn to: glass of water, t-shirt amongst other things.

This iteration Documents through video, an example of how, with an Absence of Understanding of what the original/traditional function of glasses, mugs and bottles is, what the perceived function of these objects may be. Here I have utilised them as sort of wind chimes - an object that brings pleasure and entertainment.

During the Editing process in iMovie, I have given the video a dream like quality with the intention of highlighting that this is an experiment of what ifs. What if someone didn't understand the traditional use of glasses? I have also lowered the volume from the video footage and layered it with a separate sound that I recorded separately, of the glasses/wind chime. This was to emphasise the chime sounds and the pleasure and entertainment that it can bring.

[experimentalprocess2014]

Heike Bollig, Errors in Production (samples), 2004 to present

Since 2004, I have been working artistically on the theme of mistakes in our everyday lives as they arise in manufacturing errors, malfunctions and in our perception of mistakes. Errors in Production is a collection of various small objects with individual manufacturing errors. Due to strict quality management in production and the striving for perfection and efficiency it is extraordinarily rare to find such lone objects that deviate from the canon of industrial standardisation. Each object tells a special story about its production and makes a concise record of the moment that went out of control.

via

[stephystewy1001]

Thinking about editing

Someone mixed up sounds and dialogue from the film Alice in Wonderland and made a song. I think it feels really relaxing to listen to!

[morgan-bryant-deactivated201505]

this is pretty cool ^_^

[cofa1001sghll-blog]

week 10 experiment

make a stick structure and then remove the sticks one by one while taking photos, then make a stop motions of all photos to show the whole process of erasure. and another stop motion showing the experiment. another stop motion showing the experiment.

[steveusang-blog]

Sculpture (ten minutes bust ) made in class

[astridcofa2015]

Probably my favourite triumph of art through failure.

A Spanish woman, while volunteering at her Church, was touching up the tunic on a damaged fresco. She accidentally painted onto the face, kept touching up, and eventually repainted the entire image. Everyone freaked out, of course, but I think it is utterly perfect.

This is a ‘fail’ in the internet vernacular sense of the word: a public bungle that brings amplified pleasure.

[1001sarah2014-blog]

Week 11 Failure – important discoveries, embrace failure

unwinnable games/ video games / war games winning the battle but losing the war sabotage fear of failure software viruses / debugging embrace fear don’t follow rules persistence / artistic brilliance / stretch your comprehension no formulas colour outside the lines risk creativity discover / innovation results from failure / growth

[experimentalmilledge2014]

What to do when you get stuck

Move on to another iteration. You don’t have to follow out iterations to their logical conclusion because there should not be any logical conclusion!

Go to the Toolbox on our Tumblr.

http://experimentalmilledge2014.tumblr.com/tagged/toolbox

[z5015889-blog]

What Our Eyes Can't See, The Brain Fills In

Researchers from the University of Glasgow have shown that when parts of our vision are blocked, the brain steps in to fill in the blanks.

Interesting! Could this be incorporated into an iteration?

[z5015889-blog]

If all but the first and last letters are scrambled, you can still read the word, so say Cambridge researchers.

Could this idea somehow be incorporated into an iteration of my 'Erasure of Knowledge' class project?

[experimentalmilledge2014]

Assessment 3 tips

There are two very helpful files in the week 10 resource folder in Moodle on assessment 3. Thanks to Tim and Astrid for putting this resource together!

Please also see the whiteboard notes we made in class and talk to your fellow students if you missed the week 10 intro class.