Tuesday 25 November 2008

Event theory

is a bit confusing…


Following is my attempt to grasp the initial ideas of event theory ….
An event can take many forms, they start with a screen. This is a setting for the event. So could be (using marks example) a café we decided to meet at for breakfast. The event has a place and a purpose.
We are going to meet have breakfast, perhaps have teas and with toast .we will chat about our plans for the day/evening. It’s a sunny morning so we sit outside. We might order more drinks (orange juice) final we pay and leave.
Or not. The thing with an event is that it’s unpredictable.

‘Chaos does not exist; it is an abstraction because it is inseparable from a screen that makes something-something rather than nothing –emerge from it.’
(Gilles Deleuze ‘whats is an event’)

I have played out the event how I imagine it event will unfold. (An event is the unfolding of life)
But of course this is not how it will happen, it will change due the ‘chaos’ factor.
We get to the café it’s closed (the screen has changed), its rainy. While trying to fine another we get wet. Cold and pissed off we order coffee in the local starbuck (boo).


Attempting to predict an event is futile


Live art is an event. So as an artist when I make a piece I am creating an event.
A setting/screen has been chosen. A time /place. And there is a (basic) plan to follow.
But a huge part of the work is letting chaos in.
The performance needs these inputs to process. The chance encounters.
If you put an event in motion something has to occur/ happen, you just can’t predict what, and let each minute unfold.

(if this is completely wrong please let me know, someone?)


Also

We talked about the process we go through while making work.
Because although the process is more obvious in a piece of performance, as the effect has a direct and immediate input. This also happen in a painting/ drawing etc. as everything has a period of time in which it was created. What took place in this segment of time? Everything happening around affects the process of making. And in turn the making process affect you. (working late into the night on a detailed drawing you wake up the next day tired and bleary eyed.)

Things to think about...
- Consider why I’m making work, what is instructing me to do so.
- What types of work do I create, why?
- Why do I want to create these things, what are the reasons behind each piece?
- Reflect on my work as a whole, what links each piece
- Apply it to a broader spectrum.

Those bullet point repeat themselves?( I just want to get these thoughts down so you will have to forgive me).

Thinking about my practice and how it will one day have to stands alone in the world scares me.
Just making work is not enough, there has to be reasons/depth within it.

I would say my work is about me trying to identify with and understand the world around me. And the many layers of this place in which we exist.
Were do I fit in? (too open?)


This started with me wanted to find out about the people around me, not the ones I know (they weren’t interesting) but the people rushing around me in the city. Each one had somewhere to go / or somewhere they wanted to go.
But were? Was it somewhere exciting/ dreary/ unknown/new?
I needed to find out, so I picked one of these bodies from a crowd and followed them.
Recording what I found intriguing about them (shoes, walk, glasses etc)
Making up what type of person they were.( were they lived, children they may have, hobbies, problems ,jobs etc)

These people (who I have records of, who I remember) don’t know me, but I have a tiny insight into their lives on that day.
They showed me around the city.
And now when I come across these places. I have a connection.

I was interested in conversations that took place in certain parts of the city.
I recoded walks I took in London, in parks, along the river, in shops.
Extracting the snippets of overhead conversations;
(‘ I just never thought of him until I saw Phil’ ‘more expensive then hers then?’)

Putting the back in place in the form of text. Taking these offhand comments (?) and making them visible.



This developed in to using the city as a place to play games. Rules were the basis of the games.
The people of the city joined in our games without realising. Their everyday action/appearance informed our action and appearances. They were our focus as we tried to find out place in the city.
i explored what happened when my space(my room) was relocated in the city.
how could a mark it as my space. with objects/belongings.




Recently my focus has shifted to the spaces directly surrounding me. Considering how I approach and react to these spaces.
For more details on this follow the link :thisisanon-space.blogspot.com


answers to these questions soon.....

Sunday 16 November 2008

what can i do today......

Documentation of live art....

The ghost of the live art rather than the live art itself?

Monday 10 November 2008

Protest

As a group we have come up with an ideas to protest against builders wolf whistling (or general leering, shouting and being horrible dirty men!) at women (and anyone else for that matter) .
I suppose this is a bit tongue in cheek, but at the same time it’s really intimidating and degrading when it happens to you.
Any woman who says they take it as a complement needs their head checking!
I think the idea at the moment is to give the builders a taste of their own medicine.
By harassing and wolf whistling them. But its early days and this might change.
There is a separate Blog for this project and the address is: http://wolf-whistle-back.blogspot.com/

Dates/time/places will be posted on here nearer the time. I hope other people will get involved!

The POWER of performance lies in it not really being there......

The POWER of Performance lies in it not really being there...


The different between Performance art and other Arts…
Take Sculpture for example: You can go and visit it, you can walk around it, and it’s an unchanging physical thing that has been placed in an environment. In years to come you can revisit it, and it will be the same, you might feel differently, but you are receiving the same information.
A piece of work that is performed only exist for a few moments, there are a limited number of witnesses to the actual event. It exists is a completely different way to other art.
Yes its true there are documentation of the work. In forms of film/images etc but this is never going to be the same as the actual event. You can never re stage the event as it was at first.
The narrative of a performance is very important and takes place in three stages: before/during/after.


‘Performance art is the runt of the litter in contemporary art’.

‘within the history of theatre the real is what the theatre defines itself against’
(Quotes from Unmarked by Peggy Phelan)

AMazing

http://www.eatock.com/project/alarm-dance/

Sunday 9 November 2008

Documentation of performance.

‘Live art development agency offers a portfolio of resource, professional development schemes, and projects and initiatives for the support and development of live art practices and discourses in London, the uk and internationally. The agency is committed to working strategically, in partnership, and consultation with artist and organisations in the cultural sector.’
(Statement taken from live Art Development Agency leaflet)

I gained a lot from the visit to the Live Art Development agency. The first was realising the support available for artist working in the live art sector. Sessions can be booked for one on one advice, artistic development schemes are available and loads of other things that help you on your way (I didn’t really know these places existed). And the study room with its vast number of resources of Live Art related publications including: DVDs, videos, cd-roms, magazines and journals. It’s an amazing place to go for research and to explore new artist and to explore the huge range of ways you can document your work.

I have never really fully considered how I document my performances. Just used the normal ways of recording a moment: photos, film, and objects/relics that were used in the performance. But the discussion we had on Monday opened my eyes to how carefully I must consider the ways I document my work. This becomes the trace that is left of that moment. This becomes a record of your work and its what you are left with as an artist.

The thing to do is document your work in as much ways as possible, video, photo, sound recording, writing about it, drawings, relics, objects. Then you have a choice afterward and lots of material to work with. Every little detail must be considered, as the person that is viewing the work will read into everything.
Quality of the work is important. Printing off a few pictures on a bit of old paper is not enough. These things have to be considered as they all add and take away from how your work is portrayed.
You can control the documentation of you work. The performance could have been shit, but the pictures could make it look incredible. Does is have to tell the truth? No.

So now I have to consider all these things when I make a documentation of our spur of the moment performances at Tate. (Pictures shown a few posts below) this is a challenge because they were quick and we were in a very controlled environment (the Tate has a lot of rules, no filming, no pictures etc) so I could only document it using a phone camera.
Perhaps in this case the rubbish quality adds to the images, Colours are intensified and images are grainy.
A book/ leaflet could be an interesting way to document these. Perhaps with diagrams of the poses I am mirroring. So the viewer could also pose in this way. Adding another layer to the work and making it interactive?

night riding