10.03.2020 - Tutorial notes - NM

Date of tutorial: 10/03/2020
Tutor Name: Neil Musson

Reflections since the last tutorial:

• working through the lists of material experiments,

• writing with practice is still working - the outcomes are providing the tactility of work that the
  audience is unable to encounter without touch

• documenting the work in PhotoStudio

• explored binding stacks but found this lacklustre

• working well with the style of writing on blog moving away from academic writing
  

Notes and discussions with Neil Musson:
Sent Neil an email with a link to the blog
Neil explains that as I didn’t follow the format of the rest of my cohort it offered an opportunity for him to dive into the practice. It was clear that I think through my writing - drawing with words in the way that I’m using words. Really strong is the direct impression of myself in my work - impressing myself into the work - as well as a metaphoric impression of thought process in the work -

Honesty - flicking through different dates on the blog, the consistency is the honesty of the work, a personality - not emotive in the way colour can be emotive - clearly a decision to remain monochromatic - in responding to the
contrast of line against the mist of abstraction that is undefinable - it’s definite - the layer, even if I don’t read anything, it gives a narrative, time, depth, confusion, contradiction.

Looking at the work, including those visible behind me in the studio it gives a sense of mapping, journey, going somewhere - my about page on website discusses rhythm and routine, you can find that context in the work.

Writing - Really importantly, looking at the way I write; write poetically in the format of a poem and the interesting moments of writing between that, the questioning of self - I discuss that for me it is the narrative aspect of the work - how I write the process in the format of a story - the writing is about the work, the writing is my offering of the experience of tactility of materials - giving the experience to the reader -

Referencing a blog post, Neil discusses the language and format used - ‘how I might proceed, line by line - maybe I should do this, maybe I should do that.’ Its a direct record of my thinking - so many potential things, it
reads like a recipe - if the audience is to read this where would the mind go? - should I do this or would it be counterproductive - it produces an assembling in the mind - As the audience, we questions ‘am I experiencing
the artwork now? Rather than the tiles and painting, perhaps the text and poetry is the work - the physical making is the mechanism that the work is made.

an exhibition of words - recipes of thoughts - drawings.
If I look at them aesthetically - how do I integrate the text - how do I show the text, is it typed, written? - don’t worry about being literal - it might be best to discuss it literally.
Does the process of display enhance the work or take away from it. Can the text become layered, burying, stacking, storing -

control - good to be out of control, it will surprise you and the work will feedback information to me, its a dialogue to making - if I plan the lack of control, I have controlled the lack of control - Neil calls it ‘Planned
Unpredictability’, it’s interesting as you are setting up a situation but don’t know what the outcome will be
- a way to explore this further is collaboration - a response (any response) to the work is a form of collaboration - they (another person) become a part of the work as soon as they respond when the artist listens to someone
looking at the work, - you relinquish control the moment you put something out there, hearing what others are saying is a collaboration
- plan to be out of control, 100%, its really important - its a paradox but you are encouraging dialogue between the work and yourself, then you and the audience, keep challenging this - for instance with the stacks - what if
it’s not me and someone else makes the stacks - I don’t make the assemblage myself, but I respond to the assemblage - inviting the work to talk to you. tutor note: this comment is based on allowing an element of the
process to be unpredictable to establish a dialogue between artist and process. It is reliant on their being a strong foundational research idea in place.
If you think of it as a conversation- they are the most interesting - take on the role of a detective to work it out.
Gallery scenario - they know the artist made the work for a reason - trying to work out the artist’s intention - putting work into a place where there are no preconceptions and being able to interpret without
- the contractions, paradoxes and anomalies - make it more interesting and the varied feedback dependent on the way work is seen. It the spice in the cooking.

Scale - is it a series, how are we confronted with your work, beyond that - overwhelm - the repetition of handheld objects that overwhelm -
if they are multiples, how many can there be, how big is would be - thinking beyond the oca course, the
difference in scale in the way something feels, how would it change if they are larger scale - 3m instead of 3 bricks high - a mist - not being able to interpret, take a photo of the work and enlarge it. - referred to desert
projections.

Really useful tutorial, Neil looked at the work from a ‘clean’ standpoint, without prior knowledge and gave similar feedback to that which I have received from other mentors and peers who are not part of the OCA course. The interesting aspect was the functioning of the text in the work, and its relationship with the making, that a product of process is a work, that perhaps the process of making is a process for another outcome.

Agreed actions (if any)
To move forward I will be looking into the display of the text, continuing with the experiments and writing alongside the work and considering the role of performance, instructive/descriptive art.

10.02.2020 - Tutorial feedback - KF

*To be updated once record sheet it back

Reflections since the last tutorial

• I have actually surprised myself with the work I have been creating, I am making tiles and writing the process at the same time.

• I know it works together but I'm struggling with the connections.

• The tactility is present in both but in a contrasting way, the tiles and painting are haptic and I feel that's visible, the sensuality is not. the writing, on the other hand, is sexual. It’s interesting that what is missing from one is present in the other.

• I am working on transparency with my practice, as I have been keeping a lot of my activities private, its time now to share them so they can evolve in dialogue together. This includes the manner in which I write about my work on the journal, I have opted for a style that comes naturally rather than trying to make my writing confirm to what I believe is the 'ideal' for university studies.

• Ongoing development of the blog, I'm still updating it and have been for the weekend. https://katievw.com/

• I'm excited, I feel like something is coming, my anticipation is building, but I'm just not sure what it is yet!

Discussion and recommendations

Notes and discussions with Kimberley Foster:

Discussing the tiles, showing Kimberley the test tile: I felt chaos and control - Kimberley felt calm - what is it beyond my experience of its doing? - complicated with the lines -  KF- complicated with the lines - difference between the making- the maker’s experience and the viewing /viewer.

multiples - book to stack to series to pile, moving on from the concertina books to tiles that are stacked on my desk - they are all a form of list - a physical list materials correspondences - 

the tension of touch  - work that has evolved - heightened sensory experience - touch - Ingold ‘Lines’ - ‘seeing through the ears’ - it about knowing something - feeling it - sensation the close correspondence of something - dialogue or conversation with it - senses are awakened by it. So actually about the feeling within the body not on the body, touch is just one way the feeling is evoked. Book: Touching feeling affect - Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick -  

What is it to encounter touch, to bind something - bind - the sensate - the correspondence I have as a maker and the correspondences of the viewer - distance - waiting - is slower than anticipated which is more anxious,

allow people to have this shift - the way we encounter the work - set up the work or allow people to get near it.

multiple, layers, correspondences - threads - connectors - lists are part of the practice - tile lists - containing devices - binders

Cellulose - flattened plateaus - tiles. they are forms of supports - Scaffolding, visible in the drawings

The key thing - layer - material adventure -  through a series of processes -

unpack what the layers are - theoretical layers, conceptual layers, physical layers - layers of process - 

how many discrete things make a layer? - how do these things happen and how will they sit with each other? - 

Practice - nudge it every now and then, another list - a different thing such as a curatorial list - 

what if I get my number of tiles, stack them and then in between the layers add something else - combine - 

write the list before, lie them side by side, connect them, plateaus - 

how do they correspond with each other? - gather group the things I'm doing and document them beautifully - it will give answers - this links with my white books in paint - 

subtle collisions - language - verbal, visual, text, follow fibre - subtle correspondences - subtle curations -

some control over the outpouring - herd them, lasso them in - look for similarities - don’t assume that makes sense - 

meet the work again - document and photograph it - 

lists scaffold an experience  - 

the work is about holding position - mobilising - the multiples talk about a movement that is implied - in their static and their potential -

I didn’t need to have people see them, its enough to know what’s in them and not have anyone read it, it wasn’t important - it was that it existed and that was enough - 

continuum is more important - a relay between each other - where is the nearest I can get to with it - 

I am uncomfortable with ‘process’ as a term - selecting the word, another word for process, what does it come with as baggage -  look up the process-based artwork - look at the language - KF - define what you terms are right and how you understand them in practice

the pieces have no stopping point - plaster to paper to stitch to projection, same language - 

play with the audience - concealing something or alerting them to something - 

not looking for something outside, define the experience that you are currently having - process methodology - material encounter, an entanglement of material, define it and flip it, frame it, deliver something - use different language - share at the group crit: don’t let it demoralised if they are negative - I'm testing it,

what is it about the chaos tile that makes it feel chaotic and the experience of the making - 

haptic is the audience - people not able to touch the work - very material relationship -

use the critics as a refresh - talk about the physicality of the work - levels of performativity - not performance art - being present in the work - being seen doing it. KF - The important element that arose in the conversation was that you talked about touch and the anticipation of it but it was not about the encounter with the work for the viewer but your own touch and materiality. So the haptic is in your process. You actually do not want people to touch your work. you can explore this.

Agreed actions (if any)

• unpack what the layers are - theoretical layers, conceptual layers, physical layers

• how many discrete things make a layer? - how do these things happen and how will they sit with each other?

• Practice - nudge it with lists - curatorial list, create taxonomies

• gather group the things I'm doing and document them beautifully - clear a space for them

• write the list before, lie them side by side, connect them, plateaus - how do they correspond with each other?

• define the experience that you are currently having

• work with the language and find alternative words to describe it

• prepare for the critique and use it as a testing space - what readings will the work give

KF - you might be interested in this work by Mario Merz  1971 - Function of 8. see below

27.01.2020 - Tutorial feedback - HL

Reflections since the last tutorial

Still painting, 

working on filming the process - need to source cameras - front-facing fixed camera, continuous shoot.

• writing during the process - the work link together but still concerned by the overtly sensual nature of writing
• Trying to consider the paintings as objects - having trouble with this, during the process it feels natural to see them as objects in production almost, but after they feel heavy with my process and not like object but like accounts

Discussion and recommendations

Notes and discussions with Hayley Lock:

Sent Hayley an email with links to blog posts that go with exhibition proposals 

Feedback on exhibition proposal - a few options which is a good thing. - think simple and manageable - pick 1 or 2 options - movement before potential - clarity - pin work down.

Questions: What are the sounds proposed? What are the museum signs?

Response: Sounds would be long play recording - an anonymous noise that may be very loud or very subtle that plays for a moment - a second, 10 seconds, intermittently and randomly. The idea that some audience members will never hear the sound while others do but for different lengths, giving mixed experiences. Responding to the definitions of anticipation and expectation. 

museum signs: Trigger warnings - ‘Beware of flashing lights’ - ‘Please be advised: This production contains strobe lighting effects, sudden loud noises, theatrical fog.haze, scenes of violence, adult language, sexual situations, adult humour and content’ -  but the content is the sign so there is no ‘trigger’, only the anticipation/expectation of one occuring.

Hayley and the other tutors noted that projection mapping is a high-level skill, install takes time, software expensive, only one blackout room - it’s a big ask for the exhibition - let it go.

I need to ask what do I mean by anticipation and expectation

think about how I will display the mixed media pieces - these are about control - my anticipation - my experience - 

the process is somewhat intrinsic with the work and more important if discussing the artist’s anticipation and expectation - 

consider Touch: material - touch - fleeting, physical, momentary, stories, talked around it, people we love, (already read Linden’s Touch, revisiting at moment, reading Primacy of Drawing and Vit-D)

See them as performative - presenting the performance - hidden with the references - the audience does not need to understand - writing to accompany - 

My concern is that the work (both writing and visual/audio pieces) are sensual - not sexual, Hayley advised to focus on the framing - be articulate - 

What the audience receive:

Mixed media - audience observe pieces that come from my experience of anticipation and expectation in making

sound- audience experience of anticipation and expectation

signs - audience experience of anticipation and expectation

Agreed actions (if any)

Writing the proposal:

• find a way in - reference touch, the moment, the fleeting experience
• the idea of the display - be more explicit in terms of the actual display
• remove the mundane and culture - or reference clearly in terms of materials and domestic and familiar
• record and document - film and audio making
• keep re-writing the exhibition proposal document.

28.11.2019 - Tutorial Notes - MW

Reflections since the last tutorial

Still struggling with keeping up with workload since job change, I have managed to continue working on my paintings at night and in moments of frustration. 

Concerned about the move from various media and material collisions in MA2 to painting in MA3, a medium I haven’t worked in since starting the MA in 2017. Feels like a waste to move from those investigations.

Discussion and recommendations

Notes and discussions with Michele Whiting:

Sent Michele an email with images of my current paintings in process:

Discussing the tactility and touch - the process of making

The light - search - searching

Process of making - the link between body and the making

The light coming through - monochromatic abstract paintings - 1970’s

Materials elements in the mix

The tension that I’m trying to work with is the place where the work resides

Writing is a similar space - 

Cathartic moments - not present but in the moments - conceptually a similar space - painting as an object - absorption of texture, your touch and process and the other idea of light that’s there and apparent - whether to consider it or not is my intention

Collapsing - rules around the painting - more about absorptions

You can see your weight - own and admit - into my methods - in my methodology and its evident in my work, the construction not removed in the sense of a paintbrush

An area in art practice - mise-en-abyme 

Light - Sandback - Turell - Flavin - dichotomy - process - working with the dark - sucks you in and the light forces you to stand back - metaphysical thing - go a lot further - elements are really there - held on to them in a polite way - let go and just deal with them - Michele worked with soot - alludes you as you try to fix it

Think about it - it’s very elemental - what can I use to force this really come through, the poetry to come through, 

A surface is an object, not painting - 

My investigation is monochromatic - texture, touch, light,

Anticipation and interruptions - poetry - write as I’m working - a response to my body and the surface and the body working on the material - write about how it feels like - feel the space and the ideology of the space and open it up - thinks about what my body is doing in relation to the surface - embodying the process - what does that mean, how am i doing it? Think about it philosophically - keep digging into the properties - the investigation.

Document the process - through video - don’t worry about editing - fixed camera- amass the documentation and the output - it will find itself - investigate the doing - what’s happening - 

Defying the normal painting standards - the Stuckists won’t like me - I’m doing the drawing - the primacy of drawing - Dianna Pepperbridge - the bible of drawing - find your sense in it - understand drawing as an idiom

Agreed actions (if any)

• keep working with the painting, 
• film the process - front-facing fixed camera, continuous shoot.
• write during the process - how do they work together
• consider the paintings are objects

Week 2 - Tutorial Notes- Mon 30.09.2019

potential for the sensory experience of touch, sensory awareness without physical data. anticipation, blind artist researching objects and touch, Kimberley will be helpful, material encounter and anticipation. heightened awareness, an altered state that we experience in an instance, you're heightened awareness as you go in. Newness. This lack of experience, uniqueness, primacy of touching, material encounter.
once it's happened it can't be experienced. is the work about the experience, are we creating an

disruption - normal and accepted anticipated interaction -
piece in the pods - could be a space that quite analogue, sensory experience

john cage - 4.33 piece, - stage setting exercise - unanticipated - exists differently at that moment

inviting the audience into the piece - the anticipation of the participation for the artist and the participant
predictability of putting art work out there
increasing the scale of the lack of control - sound, movement

Kira O’Reilly - body work and blood - invited people to cut the body 1-1 - the audience can refuse to participate
marina - distance, table, audience

when does potential become risk and the risk become too great, - how do fear and experience and the response go, is its step to far.

live arts festival in Scotland - annual -

where does the invitation come in to it, at what point does the artist connect with the viewer - does it still have a value,

how does the invitation -
selfishness - think of others - care - as women - make sure everyone else is okay - procrastination through cultural way of being - gendered bias, - cultural conditioning- 'our work' making it a toil and acceptable - develop a piece

Week 2 - Thinking for Tutorial - Sun 29.09.2019

Thoughts on touch, when is the tension of moment actually done? When is the initial sensation over> How long do goosebumps last?

Before you even start? They are a symptom of anticipation

Sometimes an indicator of the frisson of the thrill. So actually happen in the moment after the anticipation and the experience of initially felt

I use the book form and couldn't explain is, it just felt right. Now I'm writing and thinking about the primacy of touch, a lack of experiential information first hand, I can see a link between narrative as depicted in prose and poetry. An author leads you, page by page, somewhere, the anticipation is intrinsic, it is what maintains the action of turning the page.

Book as Anticipation Containment. A 'page turner' whats going to happen next, how will the material/line/substrate behave as we flip it over. What will be revealed...

Interruption
Heston blithe then
Antihithis study - antonyms
Can these be applied to this form
Glory holes- photographic sense? Negatives work - analogue photography, can you photograph something as a negative, what would work? Too obvious
Bridget Riley
Weaver - anne Albers
The writing over in Notts castle
Being watched and written about
How can the participants
Control feel sor the opposite how will the audience react. Can cater for aspects or your audience? Should you be?

Displaying Interruption Heston b…

Why do I deny myself pleasure?
I hold back
Refrain
Contain
Silence my desires,
Until they explode
I stop drawing
I stop my touch
I refuse to commit
Why do I deny myself so much?

Mon 20 May 2019 - Tutorial KF

Since the last tutorial with Catherine Baker I felt pretty motivated to create work. The making day was the next day so I managed to get quite a bit done. From then on I created relatively consistently although I hadn’t realised that until preparing for this tutorial (see previous post).

Prior to the tutorial I sent an email stating I was overwhelmed and unsure of expectations, whether I have ‘achieved enough this year and how to get the submission completed on time.

I have managed to work on more of the Leporellos. Simplified books by keeping content to one simple line that goes on a journey through the book. Highlighted the occurrence of time in my work, the line is the constancy of the work, that materials and actions create the collisions or ‘events’ as highlighted in the contextual study.

Working on discussing the videos, their reception and the thoughts of the work. Video work takes time but feels necessary.

Collision and Event - this feels better in the work but might be getting lost in the drawings.

Drawing out the different veins of the work, knowing it is okay to be exploring different things simultaneously.

The issue is that I am paralysed by fear of failure, worried blog/journal posts will be wrong so avoiding them concerned about diarising the actions and question what is happening - confused as I didn’t think I was but it keeps coming up. Trying to speak about how the piece feels and what is coming from it. Generally feeling lost and struggling with time-management, the desire to create complex/labour intensive work and the frustration of not creating ‘enough’. Working on simplifying but maintaining my truth.

Kimberley highlighted things for consideration as I work to complete my submission:

A lot of the work seems to be about language and translation - poetry is evocative, difficult to read, fluid to drawing and unfolding. How do I value the poetry in the context of the work? Its role is an ‘Unsticking’ -when I am ceased with drawing or line and don’t know what to do the words come in an ‘Unravelling.’

How do I position it? And what's its relevance to the practice? - relevance - nature of books, drawing -  

The video work ‘layers’ contains punctuation points, like accusations, it's like a ‘take that’ to the viewer, its arresting, important aspect - what are they important? Confronting.

BLOG POSTS - fear of failure is creating procrastination

Focus on:

What have I learnt through making, partaking listening?

Clarify the essence of the year, - JUST MY TRUTH - how to articulate what the work means for me, my intentions and evaluations/reflections.

Reflect on the tutorial with Catherine, how this was a turning point

The festival was a turning point

Action and performance, physicality

If I need to be safer- use the criteria and clarify, tab on work to link to a blog post, or add an index to highlight what links to what, don’t assume they will know, SPELL IT OUT!

Link to boundaries

Overview in posts - this is how I understand my process - map against criteria, this can be a way to break down aspects of the making/thinking which can help.

The critical and punctuation - the moments that stand out and changed or impacted the practice

The ‘To Do’ list is a strength and is valuable. Use it to get the work done and prioritise.

We discussed keeping on track and concentrating on the positive elements that had taken place through the work and the connection points between them. We discussed clarity and how to feel more in control of the finishing stages by using the list that you made and remembering the important aspects learnt and  experienced through the work produced.

Prep for tutorial with KFoster

MA 2  practical work:

Current physical work:
1 books in progress
14 books completed (14 if the work exchange is included)
1xA6/A5/A4 colour photo
1xA6/A5/A4 BW photo
16 drawings
8 collages
1 paper weave
6 painted backgrounds not used
3 relief trials
Digital works:
Video:
Line walking: https://vimeo.com/304611865
Layers: https://vimeo.com/304603390
Judged: https://vimeo.com/304603597
Wrote: https://vimeo.com/304603717
Circle book drop: https://vimeo.com/310311167
Making and Made: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pbecozqme7v3iy0/Making%20%26%20Made%20copy.mov?dl=0 1.Misalignment - speed and start time - recurrent 25% 4 layers, 2. overlayered 20% 5 layers, 3. Overlayered 10% 10layers
Poetry: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wgzBigkL3lrWAE46NXTu2pGAV18nPqtOGGbWDgrPJq8/edit?usp=sharing

Work to be completed:
Video to be completed:
Continuous line (a collection of lines filmed and assembled, travelling forward and then back on a loop)
Save the Making and made videos
Revisit the stop-go animations for MA1 and speed them up, as displayed in the desert)(https://vimeo.com/273836648 & https://vimeo.com/273833616)
Physical work:
1 books to be finished, either bound or filled, (1/2 day each approx if a stint in the studio is managed)
1 book to be started (large scale, people size books if possible)
Photos to be printed at different sizes and bound into a book format, 1xA5/A4/A3 colour, 1xA5/A4/A3 BW,  1xA3/A2/A1 colour, 1xA3/A2/A1 BW
Print poetry into book? - zine? Tashkeel?

Blog posts to write:
Feb -making day
Mar -intersections and articulations
Apr -Visiting lecturer tutorial
Apr -Making day
Apr -Intersections and articulations
Apr -Group crit
May -Tutorial KF
Artists that influence
Testing Boundaries: Reactions to video in environments
Testing boundaries: supermarket sweep
Testing boundaries: Music Fest
Testing boundaries: reflections, Artists that inspire - where to go next
Video making - why, how does video make me feel, what do I want from it
PPP
Overview of work - time line -ref;lection

Display - frieze master talks - the best display disrupts the expected.

Research:
Notes for video work: syncopation - see the dictionary of film studies from SMW

Solid external relativity, willing suspension of disbelief, contract of viewer and filmmaker, letting go of what you know to access what's in the film

Julian Rosenfelt - manifesto

Books:

Tira de la peregrinacion - codex, codices. Paper, vellum, papyrus, the trunk of a tree, block of wood, book, Maya/Aztec - concertina fold, random access as opposed to a scroll - sequential.

Waqas Khan
Sabrina Amrani
Julia ibbini