Unit 2:Week 1
January 8, 2010
New printer installed, so back on track with the Glasgow edition of Mail Art.
Been trying out some experiments with a JVC digital video (mini tape) camera I got a while back on ebay. It came without discs, manual (though managed to download one after a bit of searching), or cables and I needed to get a port installed on the computer for it.
Having got these issues ironed out have been doing some experiments with the camera making use of all this snow we’ve been having.
Back in the start of the course in 2007 one of the first books I read was ‘Man’s Search For Meaning. The Classic Tribute to Hope From The Holocaust’ by Victor E. Frankl. There is a very powerful description of the Holocaust victims being made to walk through snow to their place of work frequently without shoes.
Shoes were one of the items that were often taken from those on entering the concentration camps. The survival of the holocaust internees was often linked to the condition of their feet, whether they had sores or infections and were unable to work due to this.
The piece I saw late last year in Newcastle by performance artist Alastair MacLennan involved him sitting under a pile of discarded footwear conveyed a layer of poignancy because of having read these accounts in Frankl’s book.
In ‘Snow Circuit’ I wanted to look at the idea of walking a repetitive circuit through snow bare footed. The original video clip is over 25 minuets with further video clips added each day. It becomes very difficult to walk these circuits due to the ground becoming icy and compacted or uneven. It becomes vey tiring not just from the cold underfoot but from the extra exertion required to keep balancing walking on an uneven surface.
The snow is very disorientating and blurs boundaries.
Quick note about health and safety:
I am being very careful about frost bite, split skin, and chill blanes, waiting for the warmest part of the day to undertake walking bare foot and limiting the amount of time spent walking on the snow each day especially once it becomes compacted. Not exposing feet directly to heat sources after walking through the snow. Also being aware of any possible damage to skin from ongoing exposure. Being very careful about walking through snow when out video ing ’ Snow Field’ incase of sharp objects/ uneven surfaces hidden by snow. Carrying a mobile at all times as well as basic 1st aid equipment.
Used this video to lift stills:
And make a short slideshow:
Also working on a piece ‘Snow field’ which has a different focus and is more to do with issues between body and environment. Some further work lies ahead now with research into filming and editing techniques.
Need to read though Tuesdays chat achieve and make notes for unit 2 requirements and create a timetable.
The printer finally broke down over Christmas in the middle of printing the Mail Art special edition for the Long Gallery show in Glasgow. Waiting to collect its replacement in the next day or so and get back on track.
Doing a few more photographs using eggs and it has proved difficult in several ways:
- Setting it… the environment/background/context/gender.
- There is the physical shock experienced when breaking an egg which gives the impression that there is more emphasis achieved than in the photographs.
- It still feels quite difficult to ‘waste’ food.
Finishing Unit One was exhausting. Hadn’t realised just how tiring it had been until it stopped then felt like had run into a wall. Now feel really confused by everything. Not sure if it feels like I’ve lost direction, the ability to communicate.
One thing I was looking to last unit was the idea in the prototype of seeing things partially. Viewing a piece through slits or windows or via a video screen as a metaphor for the way bodies are used as a place of social inscription and employed as a means of control.
Thinking about taboos… also the idea of a performance piece being documented by video or photograph if it needs to be witnessed in order to be a performance piece if the viewing of it can be accidental… and the possible implications not wearing shoes in western society… about Marina Abramovic saying she no longer did pieces about endurance… The shoe throwing political protestor… use of another taboo.
Yes it was bitterly cold, slippery and surprisingly challenging to let myself do. Very worried about explaining to any other walkers what I was doing and why.
Image Marina Abramovic presents….from the Manchester International festival 2009.
Marina Abramovic interview Journal of Contemporary Art, Inc. June 1990
essay
December 4, 2009
My project began as an attempt to question the link between our movements and our identities and understand if our engagement with mundane physical activities may be seen to contain relevance.
I have narrowed down the range of movements to focus on walking, an activity unique to humans, in an attempt to provide a framework to examine some of the issues around the lived body.
White sheet was an early piece that incorporated the use of mundane movements; in it I tried hiding the body with the sheet to express the idea of the hidden, unconsidered body.
I used the format of slide share in order to create a very basic form of interaction with the piece. These are themes I would like to develop within the final piece.
The things that worked about this piece:
The camera set up.
Using a video clip to lift stills from.
Using an activity that hides/traps the body.
What would I develop further from this piece?
Save slide sequences as iMovies and incorporate sequences in to Korsakow to keep interactive element.
The things that didn’t work in this piece:
The imagery is too soft /hackneyed it doesn’t convey the idea strongly enough. It is too pleasing.
I wasn’t clear enough about viewing slide show quickly like a flick book to create the sense of movement rather than as a series of photos.
Haven‘t provided clear rationale for using slow motion.
What would change next time?
Imagery.
Might also try speeding up sequences.
Provide a clearer rationale for image speed.
I am going through a phase where can’t seem to keep up with the course: going through the learning outcomes/assessment for unit one; thinking about the essay, trying to keep up with the chat content.
I realised today that a key element about walking for me is that it represents a freedom. A political freedom: anti capitalist not be reliant on money for a car, bus, whatever. I have never thought about the political implications. There was just a satisfaction in walking from A to B. That’s an issue that comes from the virtual walking environments currently being developed… lack of freedom. I will need to pay. Someone else will prescribe my views, my interaction, and sensory experience. Those implications worry me.
I was born and grew up in London. My family didn’t own a car and there wasn’t much money, if you wanted to go somewhere you walked. I would regularly walk from Kilburn where we lived to Oxford Street, Trafalgar Square or the Tate gallery and back again, without thinking about it.
Walking represents a personal freedom I never queried until health issues, location and transport became factors to me. For one reason or another it has become problematical to rely on walking and I realized that the small films I’ve made about walking for the course in some ways have acted as a document of that contrast.
It took writing the essay to make me realise these issues. It feels like not having seen something because it was too close. I wish I’d had had this overview before writing the essay but can start to take these ideas forwards from having engaged through the essay.
