Saturday 12 November 2011

Sleep 9th - 14th Nov

Sleep is the final instalment for "Art Camel's" vote collecting for this brief we all produced a response to the word sleep. It was a very open brief and we could respond in any media. I responded with a bed made from wood that I then smashed. This was to portray how a feel about sleep, that i find it to be a waste of time and would like to smash up my bed and never sleep again.

Again with this brief James Ackerley decided he would name all the work and what media it had been made in, he stated my work to be "Morning Wood" "found wood" this again was not discussed with me and I only found this out when I looked at my work and found its label. I don't think I would have had an issue with this at all if I had been told about it and it had been explained to me why he was producing such labels for all our work. It seems that certain decisions are made by James Ackerley or by James and a few group members, why these items are not discussed I do not know.

Human form 7th - 9th Nov

Human form was a mixed media response. We would all be responding in a different media to see if this would give us some insight to a "successful media". I would be responding in wood and had formulated to plan to display a wooden armature I had been working on for my personal practice. My reason for this was to see if I could collect the most votes as I had spent many many hours producing the armature and I felt this was apparent in the pieces aesthetics. However when I saw Hannah's man carved from potato's I had a strong feeling I would not be collecting the most votes!

Paint 2nd - 4th Nov

For this display we would all produce a painting on identical A4 paper using only black and white acrylic paint. This was a good chance to keep the materials identical and restricted and hopefully collect results based on the quality of the artwork.

Soap 31st Oct - 2nd Nov

Whilst the clay pieces were still being voted on Hannah Davies manages to source a large block of soap for each group member. We decided that we would all produce a piece using this soap and it would be displayed and voted on Monday the 31st Oct but we would only display it until the Wednesday when we would change the display so we could collect more results in the time we had left before our deadline.

I drilled a hole in my soap and used hot water to erode the hole further other group members carved, baked, shaved, microwaved and washed there soap blocks. The results looked really good and each piece looked remarkably different which we felt was good for collecting votes. James Ackerley also wrote a small paragraph on each art piece. This was something that I had not discussed with him and I don't know if other members of the group had it just seemed like something he wanted to do which wasn't really an issue It would have just been nice to have known this was something he had planned.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Art Camel!

When I returned to the studio on monday I was taken back by how far the group work had come. The group had created a series of clay art pieces that were displayed on a long plinth with numbers and a voting system. The project had a complete remodel "Art Camel" had been James Ackerley's brain child. He explained to me that he had read somewhere "a horse designed by committee is a camel" meaning if everyone has a say and is accommodated for the result is "a whole other animal". I like James' idea of art camel, it works well and gives every group member the same opportunity to produce work.

At this point in the project I was happy that we had finally found a direction and we had a fairly good idea of what we would be doing and how it would fit into the period before our deadline. I was glad the group had found its feet but thought it was unfortunate that it had happened in the two days I had not been in as I would have liked to have more input rather than turning up and being basically told this is the idea this is what we are doing till the deadline.

The clay pieces the group had made were displayed and voted on for the week Oct 24th - 28th over this week we discussed other ways of collecting data using different media and styles.

Facebook post 20th Oct - James Ackerly

"Today Me, Hannah, Tom and James had a pseudo meeting of sorts and have managed to secure a wall space in the foyer of the link gallery for next week (mon 24th to fri 28th). Our intention for this beta exhibition is to see how the voting system would work, the logistics of audience interaction, promotion etc.


After which we can arrange a meeting in the studio to collate what we've learned. This mini display will be used as a kind of microcosm for our eventual intention of having an alternating set of votable-onable responses to pre-set briefs on display in the link gallery from now until the project deadline, by which time we should have a solid body of statistics and data that we can extrapolate and, hopefully drawn something tangible from.


If you're interested in this project and working in our group please come to the studio tomorrow around midday and we can give you a more comprehensive explanation of where we're coming from, and begin to make initial preparations for our wall space; painting, sanding etc. If you can't make it tomorrow please let us know on here and we can accommodate your situation. Remember that the exhibition next week is only a beta so don't worry if you can't make it, because it doesn't mean you can't display the week after."


________________________________________________________________________




Unfortunately I had missed the meeting although it was my own fault and I could not make it in the next day due to prior engagements, when I got back on Sunday the 23rd Oct I posted on our Facebook page that I had lost touch (Due to myself) and need someone to give me a quick catchup I was told just come in tomorrow (Mon 24 Oct) and all will be explained. 



Response to an apple Tuesday 18th October

On tuesday we were expected to bring in a response to an apple and a photograph in the style of a photographic artist. The idea being that we could get votes for the apple responses and find the most successful and we could put the photographs up with the artists piece and see how the votes work and if the artist photograph would succeed with the most votes.

Everyone brought there things in for voting and I suggested we get a response from the rest of our peers in the second year by displaying our things and collecting votes in our Tuesday meeting. The rest of the group did not like this idea as the felt we were not prepared enough so we agreed after the meeting the work would be put out in the studio whilst I went to my lecture. I was disappointed when I found out the work had not been displayed and no votes had been collected for some reason as I felt like I had wasted my time producing the work.

Facebook group post - James Ackerley 14th Oct

Firstly we have cancelled the film project. We’re going to start working on project 6 in the projects doc. After a short tutorial with John we have decided to start making something physical. 

‘Homework’ is to respond creatively to an apple in anyway you want e.g. painting/sculpture/something more conceptual? Please bring in response on Tuesday and we can see where we go from there.

Also by Tuesday could everyone make a response to a photographic work? your response should not be an exact reproduction, just something carries the same kind of atmosphere as the starting photo.

The idea is to allow people to vote on which work they think is the most successful.

Working from the list

After our first meeting we decided that we would go away with our list of ideas and produce some starting points on our own. This turned out to be a difficult process for me as some of our ideas were quite conceptual or long running like the Fund Raiser idea or the Fame idea.

I started to produce components for my kinetic sculpture idea as I was still hung up on it and it was still a possibility. The group project had become a little cloudy for me and seemed off the boil so to speak.

On the 11th Oct a post on our Face Book page was made by James Hasker thankfully offering some direction it stated that on Friday the 14th Oct we would all come in and try to recreate a successful film scene an idea discussed by James Ackerley.

We all met up in the studio with filming equipment to hand and scrips to a scene in Pulp Fiction and the DVD to digest. as we got into the process and tried to make the idea happen it fell apart as we realised that it was not properly formulated and was a much bigger task than we had first thought we also discussed where the idea would be going and decided to cut it.

Following this we drafted an emergency tutorial with Jon Biddulph our second year tutor as we were getting worried that time was passing and we were not producing anything. In this tutorial we discussed our list of ideas and explained that the group talks are going really well everyone is having input and being listened to however we are lacking a direction after talks break down.

From this tutorial we further developed the Art Competition idea and decided it should not be a competition it should be a display in which we each create an artwork that will then be voted on from this we can understand what art is deemed successful.

Group meeting

We all got together for our first group meeting (6th Oct) I fell this meeting went very well. We decided to made a list of around ten ideas that we could use as starting points and do some tests with to find a direction in which to take the project, the ideas are as followed.

Fund Raiser - Our research suggest that there are strong links between the idea of success and money this idea would have us trying to raise an amount of money over eight weeks and then we would possibly spend the money on a final piece to display.

Chain reaction/Kinetic sculpture - Engineering success in a very literal form this idea incorporates lots of points of failure.

Fame - Research also suggests links between success and fame. For this idea we would attempt to make someone famous. (Since found out this is being done by another group)

Machine - The idea of a contraption that all group members would control if one person fails everyone does. One person could be the eyes, one the steering, one the brakes etc.

Artist Persona - What makes a piece of art successful and can it be emulated.

Art Competition - Art students pit against each other to see who is the most successful

Infiltration (Undercover success) - Can we successfully infiltrated business meeting by looking smart and successful or a building site with a hard had and florescent jacket.

Video Piece Success - A video of very unlikely successes for example a backwards basket ball shot from very far away or a golf hole in one etc.

The Ideas I am responsible for are Chain reaction/Kinetic sculpture, Machine, Infiltration and Video Piece Success


The Face Book group for our art group was also created on the 6th of October.

The Question

After the brief had been explained the whole of second year Interactive Arts with the help of Tutor Dave Griffiths formulated around eight questions related to success I chose the question "can success be engineered?" along with my peers Tom Ferguson, Hannah Davies, James Ackerley, James Hasker and Samie Ahmed.

At this early stage I was fixated on creating a kinetic sculpture in the form of a chain reaction. The reason for this is that I have a bad habit of going straight into "final piece mode" and I felt if the six of us worked for eight weeks building a sculpture of this sort the size and technical process would be sensational.

This formulated idea had to be left to one side because it was a final piece that no development had been involved in.


Above - Honda advertisement kinetic sculpture.

8 week group project

Background: During September 2012 Abandon Normal Devices (AND), a major media and art festival, will stage its final leg in Manchester. AND is jointly produced by FACT Liverpool and Cornerhouse Manchester in partnership with cultural venues and artist-run groups in the region. AND is funded by WE PLAY, the Northwest cultural legacy program for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Concept: What is success? How is the contemporary world shaped and measured by notations of success? How are dominant ideas of success propagated in our culture, environment and society? Can the ideology of success be challenged, and alternative models of success be defined?

(TEXT FROM BRIEF)