“Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.” — Karl Marx
Working on this final project, one thing that I was led to think about was the topic of Marxism, specifically the idea of dialectical materialism. This reflective essay will focus not on Karl Marx’s principal belief on the development of society, but more on several ideas and thought processes from Alexander Spirkin’s Dialectical Materialism, a published piece transcribed by Marxist, Robert Cymbala. There are many fundamental concepts emphasised in his writing that reflect on the growth and maturing of society, focusing on their associations with particular objects and various social relationships. I found that his thoughts and propositions, though are beliefs reworked into no more than words on a page guiding conceptual and theoretical ways of life, were also sentient and relatable in nature.
As I began to construct ideas for this project, I looked at the topic of ‘obsession’ as deeply studying a particular thing or entity – in this case, lines – and breaking it down into little pieces; an idea where those experiencing it would be prescribed to think of it through dialectics, intensifying yet directing the production of meaning. Utilising footages that encircled four central themes, I wanted to create interlinked ideas and connections between two individual elements that had a sort of parallel tie-in. The four main themes I had were: relationship, future, humanity, and passion. With each theme, I had two separate videos playing on each side of SIGNAL’s building. Both videos were different in nature, but similar and connected in idea; mutual in understanding. Spirkin (1983) believes that harmony exists in the world for the reason that materiality is present, signifying that it is the ‘carrier of multiform properties and relations’. Having that said, one can almost associate objects and elements of the world around us with one’s daily interactions and life in general – this is what I mean when I talk about the two individual aspects that I wanted to make respective to my themes.
Drawing on the concept of universal connection, it is stated that ‘every object is a link in an endless chain … [uniting] all objects and processes in a single whole and thus has a universal character’ (Spirkin 1983). The overall existence and narrative of the universe in which we reside is said to be dependent on an ‘infinite web of connections’. My audiovisual project was inspired by that idea of connecting one thing to another – I generated a story that told about the purpose and interrelations between Man and World, through my obsession with lines. In fact, considering the SIGNAL site as inspiration, I chose elements for my videos that had some form of association with the building’s physical surroundings – such as trees, train lines, people, and art.
Now, going deeper into dialectical materialism, Spirkin (1983) also talks about the principle of universal connection and development. ’Investigation of the various forms of connections is the primary task of cognition.’ Here, he emphasises the importance of careful reasoning and exploration, and how it guides our thought processes and ideas regarding universal connections. For instance, when I associated lines with the theme of humanity, I chose to think about it from two perspectives: the first being the ‘human barcode’, referring to the controversy revolving around the idea of having electronic chips assigned to every person upon birth; and the latter as a signifier of humanity, whereby the laughter lines from a person’s face were obliterated as a result of the occurring disorder. With two narratives simultaneously transpiring, it stirs the mental process by which one can acquire a deeper understanding of the given theme.
The playful behaviour between sound and visuals is another thing to explore in itself. ’Interaction is a process by which various objects influence each other, their mutual conditioning or transmutation and also their generation of one another’ (Spirkin 1983). As I watched my eight-second footages concurrently with the spontaneous sounds that emerged from SIGNAL’s sound system, it is likely to generate different understandings as art itself is subjective. After all, as Spirkin (1983) remarks, ‘interaction is causal’ and leads to what he believes is ‘development’, which is the notion that every form of connection or interaction will take a particular direction. As I ended each eight-second clip with a single word that iterated the theme, in a sense, I challenged that direction, orchestrating a specific course. There were many factors that could have influenced the audience’s perceptions, be it the visuals and/or the sounds; whether or not the text was successful in its efforts, is a question whose answers will remain a mystery.
By concocting pairs of videos for every theme, I fabricated a narrative that held universal connections with and within one another. My audio, in itself, was also a piece that contained bits of meaning and information that revolved around the brevity of human life, almost an epilogue to the four main themes. All in all, this project was an interesting exploration, and I am glad to have had the thrill of producing audiovisual works that were rich in both expression and obsession.
After having Robbie see my two previous posts, he gave me some feedback regarding the use of text for my 8-second clips and how it is as if I were telling the audience exactly how I wanted them to read it. That did make sense. So after discussing it further, I went with leaving out the parts that said “Part I”, “Part II”, etc, but kept the main points that said “Future”, “Passion”, etc.. Robbie also mentioned something that was helpful to my video, which is the fact that the crossbars might block my text, which is why I ended up blowing up the entire four screens with it. Below are my edited clips compiled in one video.
Also, I re-edited my audio by lengthening my first draft to 30 seconds. For the second channel, I shortened it and allowed it to start a little later. I edited the third channel exactly the same way, but against the second track. Here is a visual picture of what it ended up looking like.
Below is my final edit of the audio that I will be submitting for the exhibition at SIGNAL.
The idea of ‘obsession’ wouldn’t quite be complete if it didn’t refer to something that plays a significant part of our lives, would it?
The more I thought about the idea of lines, the more I wanted to associate it with my own life. As I began to closely study the concept map I had come up with, I started to see how one thing linked to another… It wasn’t long before I saw the association lines have with life, as a whole. The following image will give you a brief idea of my first train of thought:
The idea I had conjured involves four different themes. Utilising the four screens, I wanted to create a story that would resonate with SIGNAL’s own surroundings. The two screens connected by the corner of the building would be visually different, but married in significance; I will name the screen on the right, A, and the screen on the left, B.
Humanity Screen A – There is a barcode being crossed out, just like tally marks on a prison wall. Screen B – A person is smiling or laughing, but he/she then wipes the smile off from his/her eyes.
This theme refers to the ‘human barcode’, where by there had been some controversy regarding electronic ID chips being assigned to each person upon birth. I wanted to use this to signify humanity, and how the happiness in one’s laughter lines are slowly being robbed by the things of this world.
Relationship Screen A – Some tree branches are moving towards the opposite side of the screen. Screen B – A person’s hand is reaching out towards the opposite side of the screen.
What I want to signify through the 8 seconds is the relationship people have with what is around them – in this case, nature. I intend to use the hand of someone who has very prominent veins, such that the veins in his/her hand identifies with the branches of a tree. Our bodies are made up of dust and billions of atoms, much like every bit of nature around us.
Future Screen A – A girl walks along some train tracks, with a map in her hand. Screen B – Overhead power lines, expanding from few to many.
With the future holding so many ideas and uncertainties, I want this idea to stem from something we all go through as human beings. There is an unknowing look on this girl’s face, as she tries to decipher where she is heading. The overhead power lines signify something that is above, a Higher Power, and how there are many possibilities to every problem and decision.
Passion Screen A – A girl is doing arabesques. Screen B – Lines are being drawn across a piece of paper.
The arabesque is a ballet position, and this performance dance is one that places a lot of emphasis in having your body at straight angles. Art is something that brings people together, and I want to show in this theme, how passions are different but intertwined. Here I use drawing and dance to illustrate how they are both associated with one another.
The ideas I have for this project are concise, but may however alter as I begin to shoot it. Also, there might be many ways in which the audience may interpret my work, and I look forward to seeing what sort of effect it may provoke.
As I sat at home and began to brainstorm for ideas, I began to think about ‘lines’ not just as long, narrow stripes, but as part of an object or even a metaphor.
For instance, the phrase “crossing the line” could indicate things like limitations or boundaries, or something that is beyond your control. People lining up, on the other hand, gave me ideas of how the body is capable of creating rows and formations, and how the body itself too has lines – laughter lines, and also lines of sight and vision. In art, lines are visible not only in drawings but in poetry and music, reminding me of things from abstract shapes and instruments, to printed materials and architectural significance. What about telephone lines? They portray communication and relationships, words and language.
The possibilities are almost endless, how one thing is capable of linking itself to another, and being obsessed with that one thing has helped me discover more than I had initially imagined. Now, the thing to think about is how I might illustrate that in the form of a video.
In today’s studio session, we talked about some ideas that we had come up with over the week, on how we might want to tackle the Signal collaboration. One thing that I thought of based on Robbie’s idea on having a thematic approach is the usage of colour. What if each person were to focus on a specific colour, but still following the different themes? From there, Robbie noticed the pattern in that idea and began to talk about the notion of obsession.
It’s one thing to be interested in a particular subject matter, but to be obsessed about it is capable of bringing it to another level. As a class, we agreed on the idea of obsession, and the goal of the project was then to create four 8-second videos illustrating what we found ourselves obsessed with. Some of my classmates’ ideas ranged from body and movement, to nature and grotesque. I thought of perhaps doing something to do with lines or symmetry, because that is something that I do enjoy – with much inspiration from Wes Anderson.
We are now to go back and map out our ideas for tomorrow’s studio session. Hopefully I’ll be able to think of something good for my final submission.
We met at Signal for today’s class session, for a short brainstorming session on how we might be able to collaborate with Signal for our final class exhibition. There are a few glass panels that are able to project photos/videos, and a couple of speakers that produce sound. Our task is to come up with an idea that will utilise this technology and enhance our understanding of what it means to be specific to site.
Seeing as how Signal is located near Yarra River and a train station, some of the words that resonated with us were things like: water, reflection, light, buildings, home, body, movement, signals, city… The list goes on.
One thing I was reminded of upon looking at these glass panels was an art piece by Marina Abramovic. I had the privilege of watching this piece at the MONA museum in Tasmania a couple of months back. Visitors were recorded and invited to hold up a frame to their face, and scream as loud as they wanted. It was set in quiet Norway, atop a hill. The entire compilation of screams lasted for about an hour (if I’m not wrong) and as I watched it, it was compelling and almost painful; it was as if I could see the pain and expression behind those people’s screams. Here is a link to the story; I was unable to find a video on it.
From there, I wanted to think about an idea that involved the public in some way, that they would be able to participate and later see how they have contributed to our exhibition. This thought also reminds me of Marcus Cook’s work. I’m not sure if that would be too taxing, but it’s certainly something I’ll think about in the coming week.
Today, we were required to present our video and also what we found interesting about our respective artists. As Siobhan, who was editing the video, was unable to export the video, Jordan and I only got to watch it for the first time today. Happy to say that it turned out pretty well.
What I found most interesting about Marcus’ work is the fact that he had to give others the authority to play around with his invention. I wrote about it in my reflection, about how the audience was given an opportunity to participate, to collaboratively create something new with his piece.
Joseph and Robbie both gave us feedback on what they thought about our video. We were told that we managed to capture it well, and because there was a crackly sort of effect in our audio recordings as Marcus talked, Joseph mentioned that the inconsistencies would be something that Marcus himself would appreciate and be able to relate to.
It was something new to reflect upon, because it made me think about how videos are capable of capturing a person’s personality based not only on the content, but on technicalities as well. Overall, it was a really good experience, being able to talk to an artist who works the way that he does.
We also got to see everybody else’s videos today, and it was splendid. I could clearly see that the artists had left lasting impressions on the students with the way they worked, and just being able to be around such artistic individuals was indeed something that we needed, not just for our professional practices, but for our creative ones as well.
“You never quite know [how the project will be] until you’re installing it and you see it run for the first time; how the space is going to shape the project.” — Marcus Cook
For our third assessment, each group was given the opportunity to meet different artists, individuals who have previously utilised the Testing Grounds space for their projects. Marcus Cook of Shogun Lodge Services was our designated artist, and we had the honour of arranging an interview with him. We were unable to find much information about Cook off the Internet, so meeting up with him and listening to his stories and experiences was indeed a privilege.
Having had a dinner party at Testing Grounds with my fellow classmates a couple of weeks back, I kind of had an idea of what it felt to be in that sort of space, using it in unconventional ways. In Cook’s case, he set up a distance-based sensory project in which several sensors were placed around Testing Grounds. Brandon LaBelle (2004) describes “sound installation art” as work in which “sound [is positioned] in relation to a spatial situation, whether that be found or constructed, actualised or imagined”, and how it has reimagined the social-spatial power. As people moved around, and noise and sounds from the environment took their course, information was then collected on a network and sent back to processing computers that in turn, modified video projections that were displayed on the walls of Testing Grounds.
According to musicologist Helga de la Motte-Haber (1999), she suggests, “Located beyond the realms of the traditional art world, installations created a new consciousness of our perception of reality. Here, the public was also granted a new authority”. This was evident in Cook’s project at Testing Grounds. He talked about how he can never predict how people would interact with his invention. “There is a feeling of [the project] being a larger thing in that particular sort of space because of its flexibility and openness … If you’re building things you want other people to use, it’s one of the things you have to sacrifice very quickly – or, it gets taken away from you,” Cook says.
In Born’s Music, Sound and Space, Ouzounian (2013) talks about the “extended spatial imaginings within music” and how it brought about new relationships and experiences with audiences, especially the “repositioning of audiences as co-creators of music”. She emphasised a particular course at the New School for Social Research and how it essentially proposed audience-interactive works. Much like Cook’s installation, he was able to see people do things completely different from what he intended, and how that was actually one of the greater things about his discovery. “It reminds you that you don’t know everything,” he said with a smile.
Cook also mentioned that he used to see these things as somewhat fleeting; something that you had to experience for yourself as you are in that moment, knowing that it wouldn’t always be there. In the same way, Ouzounian (2013) talked about sound as sculpture, and how they were sometimes “particularly ephemeral, consisting of actions so incidental or brief”. Cook’s approach towards Testing Grounds was an experiment, and he found great pleasure in watching people interact with his work, seeing how the visuals projected on the walls would change, shift, and shape. More than anything, they were moments that happened once and were significant for that segment in time; sequences that changed every other second.
Listening to Cook talk about his experience with Testing Grounds, as well as sharing about some of his fellow artist friends’ works, reminded me that art is an important, collaborative effort that brings people together. His source of inspiration does not only lie in the people who come across his installations, but also the people who have utilised Testing Grounds just as he has, like his friend Keith Deverell. These artists have “imagined new interactions with their publics” (Ouzounian 2013) and thought of ways that these audiences are able to work hand-in-hand with what the artists themselves have created.
Overall, this documentary project was a fascinating experience as it opened my eyes to the various artists and their capabilities; their wild ideas and determination to make it work. By relating Cook’s work to Ouzounian’s take on sound installation art (together with her usage of ideas from various professionals), I gained a better understanding of how his work found its place in the world, and how interactions are formed and regulated to create brand new discoveries. More so, it has further sparked my interest in Testing Grounds as a space (and place), and how so many artists have once formed a temporary home in its margins, not forgetting the many collected encounters that have come together with it.
Ouzounian, G 2013, ‘Sound installation art: from spatial poetics to politics, aesthetics to ethics’, in Born, G (ed.), Music, Sound and Space, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 73-89.
Today’s studio class involved us playing around with sound and noticing just how much information can be found (and manipulated) from a single piece of audio. Sound plays just as important a part as the visuals itself, and is capable of introducing its viewers to an experience, be it long-lived or ephemeral.
We took a snippet from one of our Assessment 1 audio files, and I added a reverb and delay to it. Everybody worked on creating their own masterpieces, and we proceeded to the hallways of Building 13 where the sounds from our Macs filled the air. With our devices in hand, we entered the lift and proceeded to the fourth floor of the building, and continued our journey by taking the stairs all the way back down. Our sounds filled every corner, and it was a disorganised yet fascinating noise.
Later at night, I went for an event and did a little bit of recording. Took a snippet of it, and played around with it. This short audio is what I got – a second of chaos.
Today’s plan involved us visiting Testing Grounds, an outdoor art space for experimental projects, and artsy gatherings. Before that, however, I met up with Nicolette, who I will be working with to complete Assessment 2. We talked about how we might tackle this assessment, and looked up several interesting places that we could explore. Our research led us to think about cat cafés, rooftop gardens, and lanes in Melbourne. The things we came across were pretty entertaining. We haven’t decided on one yet, but we will soon.
Back to Testing Grounds – it was a brilliant experience, as I had never encountered a place such as that before. We met as a class at the Arts Centre, before walking over to Testing Grounds. On the way there, we walked on this bridge from which we could see the entire Testing Grounds site from above.
I remember first looking at it and thinking, “Why are we here? What’s down there? I don’t see a thing.” The place looked somewhat barren, with a couple of wooden boxes artistically positioned in the fenced up space. It looked like a construction site.
As we went down the bridge and into the place, I got to see everything as it really is. The boxes were really crates in which resided beautiful plants still wet and gleaming from today’s slight drizzle. A happy, energetic dog was playfully running about with her bright green toy. There were pastel-coloured doors for the outdoor toilets, a piano under a shed with books randomly atop of it, and a disco ball casually hanging right outside a little hut labeled ‘STUDIO’. All these things were left unnoticed when I was on top of that bridge, and to see everything up close was simply beautiful.
All this seemed a little surreal; especially just knowing that this place was nestled right next to a busy road, teeming with noise and cars. This place seemed almost like a sanctuary from the bustling outside world.
As we walked back that day, I saw flowers growing out and over the fence, into the space of where the road was. It was nice to see that a little bit of life had found its way to the tough, tar road.
