Saturday, October 30, 2010

Copyright issues


I really enjoyed the stimulating talks at the Art & Law Symposium held at the Dunedin Art School yesterday. The topics raised later that morning were so relevant to what we are doing, questions about authorship and copyright - is copyright hindering or benefiting creativity? - who owns an image in the age of digital remixes? - Creative Commons etc. Peter Shand divided art into 3 periods: pre-copyright, copyright and revisionist (todays art: relational, digital technologies, expanded practices). The laws really find it hard to keep up with what is happening now. We will have to have a clear and mutual understanding of our rights and responsibilities in the different contexts of our project/s.

More examples of groups of artists working sporadically on different projects:
- Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) - http://www.critical-art.net/
-DAS INSTITUT - http://www.swissinstitute.net/exhibitions/exhibition.php?Exhibition=78
- http://www.textezurkunst.de/daily/2009/nov/12/di-why-not-review-and-application-das-institut-met/






Thursday, October 28, 2010

First mediation re run.

So the image is taken at 1pm in downtown Hong Kong amidst a thunder storm which kept me from experiencing the last few hours of my trip.

Sue manipulated the image, extending the relationship between the natural structure and a natural environment.






This mediation of the image enabled me to begin to consider the application of how i began to imagine the setting that I encountered in Hong Kong, to begin to propose rather than record.

The final mediation for drawing/painting.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010


First exchanges - exploration of possibilities of continual transformation of an image, leaving some visible trace of the previous state each time it is mediated.

To create a random starting point, I proposed to take a photograph of where ever I was at precisely 1 pm the next day. I posted the picture of what I happened to be looking at to Michael (a clump of exotic hosta leaves in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens NZ).





Michael mediated it digitally and sent it back.

I overlaid a picture I took in Paparoa National Park NZ, and chose a further transformation from which to draw.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Time factor

We have exchanged digital photographs taken at different places at the same time, then manipulated and returned them. Now we will transform these again and realise them physically in some medium (or let them be realised). The result will be photographed and sent back. The one difficulty is that we have no time structure so far, so will soon have to decide how much time we can take to respond to the work. Some mediations could take weeks (a sun burn on an image for example). This is a trial at its first stage and so far has been promising: the transformations that happen potentially spin the work in continually new directions. Digital processes enable a quick production of work, manual or physical executions are generally slower. But all these processes, used in an exchange of work, can produce surprising outcomes.

An example of the needs to network

Comments to come



  http://www.lookatbook.com/

Friday, October 15, 2010

Temp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6CTk26DT64

Remix



So the posting of pictures have started. Sue sent me a picture taken in the botanical gardens for me to manipulate. I feel a number of things are at play in considering this, and I am sure that it is going to take quite some time and a number of experiments to extend this image. But so it begins, and the removal of choice of subject in the first instance is liberating.

My image was taken in Hong Kong on the return trip from Europe in the midst of a tremendous thunderstorm, so it is an inside out shot. I was very interested in the replication of geometric designs in the architecture, signs and air conditioning units. I am interested to see how it returns to me.

One of the most primary things in these exchanges is the complete removal of self in the application of the transfer, unlike in painting. Sure I have just given away my interest in the picture sent to Sue, and yes it might change her interpretation of it, but essentially what will return will be a remix of many things, much of which I would not have considered.

This the crux of these transactions, removing the singular from the painting methodology in part but not in total.

Interesting commitments.

M

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

An interesting proposal.

http://www.utexas.edu/finearts/vac/losing-faith

Collaborations

Some thoughts.
Narrative and the complex articulations that occur when unpacking or making imagery.
Many now see the use of pluralism of source/methodology in contemporary art production as a less than satisfactory way of expressing themselves, while for others it is a valuable tool in understanding their own current historical situation.
I am interested in exploring these concerns in collaborative works that consider process, developing processes and material concerns that release the maker from a type of fetisization.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Painting as mediation
The painter as mediator, not creator.
A go-between, intermediary or moderator letting something be transferred.
Letting something happen between machine and paint object (computer, web cam, transport, tools, etc), between nature and paint object (light, rain, snow, sea, animals, etc), and between people and paint object (customs, habits, laws, conventions, etc.)
Trusting the work to the realization of other people or nonhuman organisms or other machines...


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

In the garret once lived the Painter


Sometimes Painting is a contortion, like standing on ones head and looking in 'just that certain way'. However authorship is vaunted as unwelcome in a current and contemporary setting, painting still carries with it the stigma of the shamanistic act, converting a visible thing into a series of selected diagrammatic devices, proposing more of an individual imagination than a reality. The word reality is, for painters, like a niggly injury. It neither advocates a possible solution or a definite hindrance, but it does pose significant problems.
Painting as an act adopts the position of the secondary, the borrower and the poseur.

Networking painting for me looks to adopt a collaborative aspect to my own work, to draw from living sources rather than static images, working with others to realise how I integrate my ideas about painting with the wider creative community.