open discussion

Mon, 3 December 2018 -Group crit - KF

Group crit - KF

Open discussion -

On the 3rd of December, we will be having an Open Discussion in which we can have time to discuss emerging issues within our practice/writing/thinking. what do you NEED to discuss and share - what is exciting you - what is preoccupying, puzzling, interesting you. Can you share a question, or an image or a quote, or text or….. by Friday 30th, please.

we can see the practices you are involved with as a whole, not just making, not just thinking, not just theory…...all of it.

Make it useful!

KF- how we manifest practice - Charles Garoian - how we make things concrete, how we see things differently when they are outside of our heads 

https://youtu.be/MKY6VN2Tsis

conceptual wonderings, the ideas of what practice can be and how we find our route through it.

Slide show - - how do we take risks? the ways we all take risks are different and appropriate to our own practices.  Kettles Yard - small things are shifted and made a little more interesting - Jim Eade - Keep off the grass - signs that were ignored and then one that wasn't - things that we are afraid of that we don't know, the sudden fear of what we don't know.  - whats our grass? what are we afraid of? 

my question - think through the making - that is your research - allows there to be concrete links through the process and be embedded in the practice - so we are researching through the materials

Art pursues knowledge and yet resists the assimilative urge to know. This is the why, the what and the how - the questioning through our stuff not just in our heads

Speculative and emergent - a relationship with the work - acknowledging the movement - try to feel unity while in flux - understanding that I am part of the relationship - 

Greenhill - thinking and the aspects - can you replace the word making - is that what I need - this list, to consider that practice and thinking are the same, that research is the making, that thinking needs to happen through the making - let the making research and think for me. 

meeting point - this is something I want to articulate - how do I make these ideas come together - worrying away materially and conceptually - trying to get to the foothold. trying to find the foundations - 

the questions are mapping the practice and doing so appropriately - the difference between thinking and making - having an intention and playing purposefully. 

audio film from Joseph Bouys - link to come.

My moment was actually at the end of the session - I have included the notes from othere members moments below my feedback.

https://katievw.com/2018/12/01/30-11-2018-questions-for-open-discussion/

Above is the initial post with my question in. 

Key points are:

Changing a practice - more art based from design led

Influence or guidance - how to get comfortable

Can a practice change dramatically with a simple term change? 

outside sources impacting directly on practice - to credit? ownership?

materials led vs research led - help!

KF - entanglements happen - differentiate between what you know, what you learn and what you are influenced by and how to unpick it. constantly influenced but don't reference it all - when you find something that influences perfectly and understands your position within it - how do you determine which part is yours. the drawings are coming from me - it's been read through my work - she saw it and offered it - she saw it and found it there in the work. 

jv - would the it help to stop questioning?

KF - don't have to do either or - allows you to play you can do both and allow them to coexist and that they are interdependent and correspondent. complementary - what its doing is enriching - don't have to say whether I am practice-led- or concept based - push the 'what I am doing' sometimes labelling it actually blocks us in to a corner - shift it out of the head and allow the work to happen and realise that the thinking and creating happens at the same time. Let it happen and the drawings take shape.

chatbox:

-We are all building on the work of those before us


-
we all need a framework to give our practices context!
you are tethered!


- 
By a chair?!
You seemed so happy on making day getting into the materials


- 
I guess the difference between design based practice and art based practice is intention even if the outcome is the same physically


- I recognize what you say. I can easily get overwhelmed by my thoughts. That is why I tend to focus more on making because I know my head will continuously do its work; this makes its way easier for me.


- 
I always thought that fine art is a deeper version of other art/design disciplines

- Some of the best scientists are artists too


- 
also Katie: embrace the experiences from the past. I always try to use whatever I developed in the past

KF - the shift from the architectural - to joins and then built - back into drawing and flattening. all the work to happen - allow the drawings to grow in their potential - just let them grow and be surprised by it. Interesting questions of authorship and influence - do my work! collision - disruption - confidence - drawing colliding.

Immediate reaction after the session:

That felt really awkward - there was a point where the pause for feedback was too long and no one had anything to say to me. How do I read that? Were my questions not challenging or engaging enough, was everyone just over it and I was the unfortunate soul a the end of the session no-one could be bothered to engage with as they all wanted their beds? I feel like I'm at a different point to the other members - I spent last year questioning my research and how it feeds into my work while everyone went through materials and making and now I'm going through materials while everyone builds on their research and concepts. Is there something wrong with my practice? is it weak? Some days I question what I'm doing here and if I belong - the language frequently evades me and I spend so much time looking things up to play catch up.

Perhaps sleep will help.

Takeaways from other peoples moments:

questioning time - images that are timeless - or from time? unmooring time - I’m thinking about the way we digest time - the photo is a second in time - a time-lapse is time past but sped up - the piece at Ways of Seeing in NYUAD

https://davidclaerbout.com/The-Algiers-Sections-of-a-Happy-Moment-2008

tactile materiality and physical experience of visual experience - 
the tactile eye by Jennifer Barber

Paul Klee - taking an line for a walk - 

lens based media - analogue vs digital - scale, time and distance - how close you become to something - 

carve out time - using the commute to make work - the car journey productive.

Is the possibility more compelling than the product? How much consideration should there be for the audience? How much research do they need to see? Is a poem enough to let them in? 

KVW - My students and I had a conversation about the conceptuality of space last week - the fact that we talk about space being ‘out there’ but that we are also in space - it’s around us and in us
 - 
a vacuum is still something though—nothingness is still a 'thing’



A metaphor
 - Zen nothingness

Interpretation of objects - looking for a similarity of object - for validation? symbolism - semiotics - scientific drawing to understand an art practice
studying objects - how they speak to us - question how long is culturally acceptable to listen to an object? 

Are all art pieces related/connected to ethical questions? Is the term political correctness* intertwined with the term ethical responsible? Are artists expected to be politically correct/ethical responsible? Or are they may be expected to sometimes deviate from it? Related to the previous question, to what extent can artist behave ‘unethically’ for the sake of increasing awareness or making a statement?

if we are seen to be misrepresenting something - being open to the fact that you might trigger someone or something. Do I need to know what happened next? blocked the path -  put our work out there consistently.

working with others

narratives to be simple, but multiple layers can add to the complexity.

the chance element is really interesting

the butterfly effect - that aspect of a happening having a massive impact or a nothing impact
 and not knowing

work put out there -  let it off and it's beyond the control 
- the instigator

playfulness is fascinating and reminds me of this http://playthecitynowornever.com/

KF - punctuation of every day - situationist's - happenings - a shift has happened with the work as you can see it and it is beyond you. People being annoyed by it - slinkachu - model people enacting things with the debris of daily life

Friday 30th November - Questions for Open Discussion.

Things are changing, my thoughts are rapid, getting quicker and picking up pace, which sounds great but is actually a nuisance as my physical practice doesn't keep up.

Things I'm discussing mentally:

How can I change my practice; to move away from the design based thinking and be more 'art'? Does that sound weird? The processes are different as the end points have various requirements, how do I 'forget/park/ignore' the old habits?

How easily influenced am I? Does that matter? Is it influence or guidance? Am I simply being enabled by people with the tools and insight to guide?

I am drawing again and I'm loving it.

I discovered a talk by Amy Sillman which I have linked below:

https://youtu.be/BLOgc466nRk

Like Richard Serra she lists verbs to describe what drawing is/can be.

I took from the talk and my tutorials with both Catherine Baker and Kimberley Foster that drawing is so much more than pencil on paper....leading me to reevaluate my previous work. Dr Baker changed the word 'chaos', which I had been clinging on to with urgency as I really felt it was important, to the term 'collision'. It's was a moment. The moment. You know the ones....where you hit your self in the heard for not seeing to and celebrate the release at the same time. Where everything flashes before your eyes in a new light, a new frame, glistening and invigorated.

This leads me to the question, can it really be that simple? To change a couple of terms, give new frames and different angles and give a body of work more agency? I say simple although it doesn't feel like it. It feels like I've been banging my head for the past 6months hoping to shake something loose. Is it okay for these things to come from outside sources? Is that still organic? Is it still mine? Can I still say the work belongs to me?

How does a material led practice work? I'm confused as I have worked hard over the past 5years to create a practice with a conceptual context. Diving head first in to research, how do I balance the two?