Y3 T3 Degree Show Term
Presence
Absence
Mid-point
Hidden sounds
critical drawing
experience-based (for both audience and me (where it came from))
contact mics
hydrophones
disregarding acoustic recording
railings
essential oil pouring
light bulb
ice
fizzy water
rivers
canals
singing bowl
bike lock
LICA building
Pods
cycle route
plus more.....
Sonic Pi (coding sound)
Audtion (mostly manual editing)
Borderlands (granular synthesis)
Alain Badiou
'Inaesthetics'
Badiou - imaginative space - space for possibility is greater than current space
Grayson Perry, Reith Lectures
"What do artists do?" - Noticing Things
I don't like making art 'about' something
I hate throwing an idea on top of a piece of work, to make it 'about' something
I like GP's analogy from a child who said artists notice things. I think it's such a simple way to epitomise what they do.
With my work this term, it's been very much about getting out and about, making effort to notice thing you wouldn't normally, and having a sense of curiosity about gathering sounds. Places I've not tried before. Techniques to gather sounds. etc. etc.
Jez Riley French, article
https://issuu.com/ropis/docs/reflections_on_process3/0
This article really changed my approach to my practice. Need to focus less on theory, sitting down and reading, and just get out! Also realising that it's the experiences, encounters, phenomena that make up influences for art that I make. Once, somebody said it's almost like ethnographic work with the gathering.
CURIOSITY
- when I was at the TATE a little while ago there was this little toddler running about and looking underneath and behind every screen in the installation space, and I think that's what making art should be like... looking under things, being curios about the nature of things.
Child's book
I bought this book for my little cousin a while back, but forgot to give it to her, so it's been sitting on my desk for a month or two. I loved the illustrations and the story so that's why I got it, but I've realised there are so many similarities between this and my work in terms of how the objects have something mysterious/interesting/unusual about them. The aesthetic of the sounds that I have chosen are mysterious in nature anyway because they are hidden sounds, only attainable with special mic technology.
PSG piece - minus the drawings
I had a long think about it, and decided it would be a better piece without the drawings like I previously made it. The main reason being that I make the drawings bearing in mind function and design. I've been thinking about drawing as a critical medium more this term, after reading about Deanna Petheridge, and seeing her work in Manchester. She talked about drawing as a critical medium and I think that it can have that critical response like an essay does - much more abstract, but the process of drawing responds, , critiques problem solves and reformulates something else... doesn't it? So v. quickly, my drawings are meant to depict the behaviour of sounds/the sculptural qualities of sounds. It's a personal observation, process of problem solving hen responding. Sometimes the drawing determines the sound design and sometimes it works the opposite way round. More than that though they also act as a visual guide for the audience. So, thinking about the PSG as a space, it's going to be very busy, loud, not much space, so I don't think that the space is appropriate for the drawings to fuction. They merely become decorative... and I'm not about that! Therefore, I don't see the point in including them in the piece. I don't want to have 'pretty drawings' for the sake of.
Main Piece A10
Sounds
all contact mic
hidden
hidden aspect of an object or thing (like light bulb, river, railings, ice cubes, soda water etc etc.)
Books
act as a play on the midway and crossing into both of presence and absence -> original location: installation: wherever audience take it
something that audience can take away with them too, so the ideas in the installation don't just fizzle out 10 mins after
active
help - guide for audience - the biggest aid to a contextual framework for the sound piece
decided to use words/photography this time - because sounds are hidden sounds, not like last term where if you tried you could relate the sounds to an object - because the sounds sound so abstract there's no chance that idea would ever work, so I felt that a little more was necessary other than just the drawings.
abstractly portrays various locations - gathering process
Photos
https://jezrileyfrench.co.uk/scores-for-listening---photographic-scores.php
using imagery as part of the 'score' - part of the engagement process
Artist statement
In catalogue
I'm not sure how I feel about artist statements. I can see why their useful, but I think arguably they do more harm then good in some cases. When I began writing mine for the show, I didn't like the fact that I was just giving away everything that my work was engaged with - it seemed too easy. And surely many people would read it first before even experiencing the work. I wrote one anyway, but keep it only for applications etc. where they ask for one. I think one of the most interesting things about art is often what people say about it, so I gathered all the things people has said to me in conversations about my work, whether that was just a skype call home, group crit, chat over dinner etc. etc. I just think it's so much more interesting coming from various people other than myself. I already know what my work is so well, so naturally it's easy to give too much away - which leaves no space for the viewer to interpret, I would have kind of diffused the engagement with the piece I think.