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GRAVITY STEPHEN WILSON 19.03.2015

Lecture Notes:

Amateur Time, Kids, Youth and Transitivity - Gravity 'time' Lecture

What it might mean to have a better understanding of time?
Where is the optimism in terms of the future? raised issues of constant surveillance

Joao Penalva 1949
From the Weeds of Hiroshima 1997
photographs, gelatine silver and ink on paper.
 - Used photogram technique to capture images of weed flowers which pushed themselves through the ground hit by the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
 - Weed has uses in medicine and symbolism of life
 - Radiation connotations in silhouette like photograms, shadow of previous life imprinted to the page.

"the future is not what it used to be"

Vivienne Dick
Guerillére Talks 1978
Revisits an era of having no money meant to possibility of having more time. A way to survive in London on the welfare state in the 80s - allowing time to develop practice without interruption.
Continually framing a female perspective. Gorilla filming to emphasise mood and texture. Part of the 'no wave' movement.
 "Wanted to make films where men are peripheral, much like women are."
Testament to youth culture.

'...We live in a talkative era, one in which the public display of opinions, raciness, declarations and diverse 'comings out' has reached a level seldom seen in the past.' - Marc Augé - The Future (2015)

"Imagine an exhibition that cannot be sustained. Thats is falling apart before installation has begun. That flickers on and off to Skype notification sounds" - Hito Stereyl

Work Shown - Mercela arms - Exhaust, 2009
(6 cars, plastic container, gas combustion, bridge)
- presents an image the provides a public reminder to what cities now represent in these current time. Very complex results in these grown up cities.

Yuan Goang - Ming
The 561st Hour of Occupation (2014) - Video
- Students occupied the parliament of Taiwan for 561 hours
- Students wanted a closer watch on how taiwan is being governed, especially in regards to their future.
- soundtrack came from the taiwanese national anthem, slowed down in order to give a 'church-like' chorus.
- filmed on the eve of the withdrawal.
- visual index the coveys a amateur youthful revolt.

Opavivara! Formosa Decelerator (2014)
Transmedia: 220 x 1000 x 1000cm
16 hammocks around a tea table.
Questions on productivity.

'Can we speculate collectively on how to move beyond the present confines of contemporary arts practices, and begin articulating what can  appear from it's 'formerness?'" - Camiel Van Winkel - Statement taken from an ICA lecture on February 4th 2015

Questions:
Do you think theres a politics in wasting time?
So much being written about social 'structuristic' job work which don't help to support culture let alone art. How we have navigate this cruelty and optimism at the same time.

'Can we think of a future after the future?'

Lecture started questioning society and culture in terms of time and how our cultures have changed in time - 'The future is not what it used to be.' What we thought we once about the what the future would be like has not occurred - time itself has changed society. Explored questions of work and play. The time we spend reflecting on work as artists and the time we spend creating artwork, questioning this balance. Letting our practice into our own lives just that little bit more.

Gravity Ben Judd 12.03.2015

Lecture Notes:

Interested in Interstitially ( a state of between-ness) 

Work - I Miss, 2002

• Group of trainspotters at Doncaster station. 
• Interested in how they have a group but which still distinguishes them from everyone else. 

Work - I Love, 2003

• Went to film the men taking seeded photos for glamour magazines 
• added a voice over as to why he loved the men? 

Work - I Will Heal You, 2007 

• Went to work with a witch in south america, people warned him not to go near her 
• He visited her and put himself into her hands 
• Had a psychological impact for a short period after the ‘Cleansing Ritual’  
• Set up his own religion, hired a team to make a collection of objects which would give grounding to the belief 
• He wrote a statement to say what the religion was about but also warning people that it was also a sham  - links to his ideas of contrasting interests 

Work - Close to You, 2008 

• Started going to night classes whereby he learnt how to draw people from beyond the grave. 
• Quickly became fairly well recognised and did several talks and shows about it. 

Work, Observance, 2009 

• Approached 2 witches living in London
• theres a performance of nature in what they do
• so he asked actors to perform the ritual 
• is there anything that actually happens in this case. 

Transmission Rory Pilgrim 10.03.2015

Lecture Notes:

What do we hope to become? 

Fascinated by words, suffered with a stutter but appreciates how necessary they are in life and communication. Have we become artists because its another way to say something? 

started with speech when he first started to make work. “What on earth do I have to say? What on earth do I do? who is my audience? who am I actually supposed to be making work for?” 

As an artist its not clarified exactly what you supposed to do.The freedom of being on artist. 

Began to learn Estonian - Interesting way of learning speech, considering previous stutter. Opened up to the fact he could speak to another 1.3million people. 

Spent 3 years learning Estonia, spent 3 years trying to twin weymouth and happily (Estonian town) 

Love in Uganda, 2010 - Perfomance and Installation  

illegal to be gay in Uganda - trying to pass a bill to allow hangings. 

• Churches in the UK said nothing for 2 months. 40% of Ugandan follow same anglican religious beliefs. 
• Wrote a song during this silence called ‘love in Uganda’ 
• Asked churches around sheffield to perform the song, to which non excepted. 
• Produced an announcements poster to display this, displayed in a concert dates format. 
• Found hand written poster advertising ‘morning coffee and tea’ absorbed by the use of a hand written sign - it was traceable, someone was responsible for this. 
• Traced the sign writer and asked to collaborate. David (dSigns) hadn’t worked as a full time sign writer for over 10 years. 

The Rainbow, 2011 

• Made piece called ‘Rainbow’ - collaborative poster states “I guess we are not ready for this yet” tried to included things that would relate directly to him but also to everyone  
• Began to work more with young people in 2011, just after the students protests. 
• Made largest sign to hang in the window of museum. 
• Group of 8 young women got together to sing, empowering songs. 

The Rainbow, 2011, Installation

2012 - Went back to ‘Love in Uganda’ 

After work he began to focus on words 

• Peace in the 60s, Love, War, Legality and Opportunity, What if these words were to become saturated of meaning for future generations? 
• What if there aren't the words for future generations to express what they need to say? Do we have those words? 
• Freedom, for example, comes with a lot of baggage but equally amazing. 
• Started, not only to think about words but space. They require space in order to grow and gain life. 

New work thinning about what space offers now. Words are like repositories which retain meaning and time. 

Words Are Not Signs They Are Years - Work at Site Gallery, Sheffield 

• open room in which for people to talk about words, time, what you want to become. 
• “Family, affection, communication - if people communicated more the world would be a better place, and freedom, people should be able to live where they want and how they want.”
• “Freedom to be a wife, freedom to be a mother”

Transmission Grace Shwindt 10.02.2015

Lecture Notes:

"Only free individual can create a free society"

Production uses film, dance, interaction, interrupting the idea of a narrative. Costumes reflect the narrative. Tried to turn everything into a material tried to make them all individual.

Taking the reaction out of the viewer rather than introducing it - monotone narration.

Used trained contemporary dancers, made them use ballet techniques. Ballet has strong lines and a rigid form.

Always trying to take the system apart. Lines of ballet is broken through costume and movements. 'she can move freer'.

Themes of breaking freedom. Long process of parallel development. In depth preliminary drawings and extremely detailed script.

6 Month process to shoot and edit the film, heavily post produced. One years process all together.

ONLY A FREE INDIVIDUAL CAN CREATE A FREE SOCIETY, 2014 

Medium: Full HD, single channel video, sound, colour, english language 

Running Time 80 Minutes 

Transmission Richard Layzell 03.02.2015

Lecture Notes:

Reading about life after Art College:

 - Graduated from Reading (Fine Art)

 - Video Piece, people walking along herringbone patterned wood flooring.

 - Narrates personal story in third person.

 - Begins to deconstruct flooring, 'once one leaves the rest will follow.'

 - Begins to build structure from the removed structures, creates imagery of a developing city. Film ends with the destruction of this city of blocks.

Becoming Other (acting) - Visiting Cambridge as Bailey Savage.

- Extreme acting/ performance art

- Fully embodies and becomes the character at the time.

- Visited the area for a week and began to become know and recognised as this character (Bailey Savage) by the local public. Testament to his skills, begins to get a real life reaction to his work and the characters he embodies.

Max Hombre - Colchester

Tania Koswycz - Imaginary conceptual artist.

Exhibition about art does to people. Developed four imaginary artists to take part in an exhibition. Was originally going to use real artists work but had issues with ownership of the work. Then had to develop and create the artwork for each artist himself. Found this easier then developing the characters. Found he had more of a connection with Tania more then any of the other artists and work he developed, Tania's work was particularly easy for him to generate and make.

Felt so strongly connected to this character that he began to develop work off of the original show. Found himself having regular dialogues with Tania and used to write to her. Produced a large show in London based on his communication with Tania, posted his conversations with Tania in a script format online.

"RL Maybe I should open an e-mail account just for conversations with you, Tania?

TK All I’m interested in is what this project is about. For you to dedicate time. No half-measures with this. It’s becoming so complex that there’s no escape. It’s all piled on, piled in.

RL How do you mean?

TK Like your dream about a woman with a name like mine, Vesna Falkirk. Do we run along with this person as well? Are we talking to her too?

Like your speculating with me about what you should or shouldn’t do, how you should act.

Whether you should talk to me via e-mail or text. Whether this dialogue is more dynamic when it ‘goes live’ by e-mail to Andrew, then to web. If so, how to set it up, and when to start.

What these dialogues are about. Are they about you and me? Or are they about you telling me what’s going on artistically? Your musing about whether to ‘act’ [make actions] here, or not.

And who’s listening in? Is it Caroline or Chris? [did you just zone out?] Is it Rosie? Is it Lois? Or Kate? Or Andrew?

And when to work? You had two days off, now you’re back into it. You could take the sunrise shift at 06.15 for the early swim, then work till 13.30, siesta and take it from there. You could do this for 5 days. You could try all sorts of stuff. Treat it like a laboratory, including repeat performances of Catching the Breeze and International Cleaning. And those 5 days could be Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sun.

What do you think? And what’s been happening since our e-mail chat this morning, like animal conversations?

RL Sounds good. And like the Australian Log [2003] it’s ok if some days are quieter than others. But does it become Proustian musings about doing or not doing, acting or not acting, performing or not performing, and tracing the process in all of this?

TK Remember Caroline’s view of the self-conscious reference to process?

RL So you think leave this out, or see what happens when it’s pure dialogue?

TK You said it.

RL You think it might reveal more?

TK I think it would make better reading. I mean, let’s face it, we’ve started now, so let it roll on. Global dialogues. Number one, Skyros, Greece. I mean, the context is so meaty, so fleshy: you’ve been facilitating your workshops on the senses, the place is thick with resonance and memories. Even this taverna you’re in now, where you sat silently with eight people three weeks ago. And there was enough going on at Time Place Space to justify a web journal.

RL I’d like to bring the video camera into it, for images, and more technology.

TK The animal conversations?

RL Was looking at the tethered donkey, then the mule, then the horse, on the way down here, with Ari. He wanted to start some kind of friendship with the donkey. Then I thought how Tai Chi and Walking in Circles has related to animals. How they accept it and move with it. And I wondered if this could become one of my actions?

TK What?

RL Standing still with them or moving very slowly with them.

TK Why?

RL Haven’t thought it through enough.

TK Are you gonna wear grey and grey?

RL Think so. It’s the only semblance of a considered outfit I have here.

TK Clothes didn’t matter when you cleaned the Rupert Brooke statue [International Cleaning 2002].

RL True. Anyway, what do you think?

TK You need to work on it, but why not try it alongside everything else. It’s a lab situation. Kind of sad that I want to snigger when you talk about ‘working with animals’. Innocence as a currency. So would this be aimed at video documentation?

RL I guess so. But more of a creative conversation to see what happens. Like swimming with the ducks in the sea this morning. Like thinking of animals as potential audience and collaborators.

TK It’s happening. Call Andrew about setting up the daily web journal.

RL Ok. But hang on. Last time I had the 4 categories: Practicals/Methods, Intuitions/Insights, Freeflow and Your View. So this time it’s just dialogue with you, right?

TK I hadn’t forgotten the structure of the Australian Log. How could I? Let’s see how it goes.

RL Ok." - Skyros, Greece - August 2004. Conversations were posted daily. The accompanying visuals are stills form video footage. - http://www.rescen.net/Richard_Layzell/TalkingToTania/ttt01.html#.VOda400fyUk

Inhabited his characters, particularly Bailey Savage - Satirical take on right wing politics.

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Gravity Savinder Bual 19.02.2015

"My practice is driven by my fascination with the illusory qualities inherent in cinema. Imagining myself as a film pioneer I explore the interplay between the moving and the still creating works that sit between the pre-cinematic and the digital. 

By discovering low-fi ways to aft movement to single images and commonplace objects/materials my intent is to ignite an element of wonder at the illusion of cinema, giving the everyday enough of a twist to allow the imagination to run free." - Savinder Bual 

http://www.savinderbual.com/about.html

Lecture Notes:

- Moving image, both subject and medium within her work.

- Early films about movement, something she explores in her work.

- Traditional film, half of the films are in darkness caused by the interruption of the shutters inside the projectors.

- Interested in what happens in this black space between imagery. Sees this blank black space as room for imagination. The darkness is more powerful than a still image itself. This was a clear theme in her moving image piece Flicker.

Flicker from Bual on Vimeo. - Made from a single photograph, 1 second (looped) 

- Fascinated with the juncture point between the still and moving image.

- Explores themes on journey and travel

- Talks of how she likes trains, sitting on a train is like going to a movie, you get your seat and and the window becomes the screen - constantly changing.

- Used pre-cinematic devices because tangible.

- Aimed to emphasise how things are made, loops to highlight its mechanical nature.

- Believes in living in the now and in the moment.

- The themes of flight play a large part in her practice.

Flight from Bual on Vimeo. - 40 Seconds (looped), 2012

Bual's short film Flight is a clear exploration of her fascination with movement. The short film depicts a mechanically simple flying bird attached to a ceiling fan. This piece intrigued me with its indications of the freedom of flight yet the bird is still attached and on a planned trajectory. 

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