Beuys and the Berlin Wall

Joseph Beuys' "entire artistic career was spent in its shadow. He'd satirised the wall in the 1960s by suggesting that it should be raised by 5cm, 'for better proportion'... Lightning with Stag in its Glare, came directly out of an installation that Beuys made in Berlin, in 1982, in the Martin Gropius Bau - notable for its close proximity to the wall and therefore a symbol of divided Germany. Beuys spent a week grouping objects together in the gallery's courtyard, as part of a temporary exhibition called 'Zeitgeist', 'Spirit of the Times'".

Tate Modern [2011] Track 6: Lightning with Stag in its Glare, Beuys and the Berlin Wall. [Online]  http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/beuys/transcripts.shtm#track6 [26/05/2011]

Tate Modern [2011] Untitled (Vitrine)  1983. [Online] http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=963 [26/05/2011]

MoMA (2010) Joseph Beuys. (German, 1921-1986) [Online] http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A540&page_number=14&template_id=1&sort_order=1 [26/05/2011]
Tate Modern [2011] An audio tour of Tate Modern. [Online]  http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/tours/materialslibrary/artwork14.shtm [26/05/2011]

Planer LC15 ANN 1000

Specification: http://www.planar.com/products/docs/IBU/current_manual/amlcd/mn-planar-lc15-ann-1000.pdf [27/05/2011]
http://www.planar.com/products/docs/IBU/current_drawing/amlcd/076-0534-00B_MECH_OL_LC15.pdf [27/05/2011]

Displaying images

How can I best display the images I create - is it with a projector, or a glass screen? After talking to Terry and Nick, I have been trying to determine how I should show my work. Without having a set environment for my work, it seemed impossible to design the accompanying soundscape.

I have in mind a plinth/column with glass, a vitrine, or something in between, to place a screen within. This seems more suitable than the large plastic-sheet projection idea I had previously,  as I want bright images. My intention is also to show the screen as part of the exhibit, to give emphasis on the observational nature of my work, and a sense of archived documentation and reflection on history. The vitrine would be used if I am to combine a book in displaying the clips, and I'm also looking into a display column with glass windows.

Next week I will get measurements of the NUCA vitrine, and the screens (as well as weighing them, to evaluate how I could hoist them), and discussing it with Nick and Terry. I am intrigued about how we could design the sound scape for images behing a glass or plastic. I'll also check the control menu of the screens to see if there is a timer setting.

Bernauer Strasse

A clip to experiment with transitions and discordance. I'd like to present a sense of uncertainty - as many Berliners felt throughout the unification process - and to maintain a level of ambiguous air, also a reflection on diversity of perceptions and experiences since 1989.

whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir & Winter Garden by Eve Sussman

I manage to visit the Eve Sussman exhibition at Haunch of Venison on the last day, almost by luck. It's very last-minute organisation as usual, and I have left my camera at work.

Winter Garden by Sussman and Simon Lee changes subtly from one video clip - some as still as a photograph - to another. Windows of pre-fab buildings in former-USSR cities are shown on 3 screens, morphing from one to the next, illustrating the dream that once was being "destroyed in a patchwork of humanity" [Haunch of Venison, 2011]. These images left me standing, waiting for more, just so that I can find out what happens next... or does it? Then I see a passerby. How to tell the future from the past, v.2, by Sussman and Angela Christlieb also uses 3 screens, shot during a 72-hour train journey. The window frames in the screen blurs the sence of time, and I'm left to wonder what documentation/observation defines.

How to tell the future from the past v.2, 2009

Whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir is a film being edited live by a software, combining 2637 video clips with sound, creating "the narrative through unexpected juxtapositions" endless and never repeated (Haunch of Venison London, 2011).

shots from whiteonwhite:algorithmicthriller, 2011

Haunch of Venison [2011] Eve Sussman | Rufus Corporation whiteonwhite:algorithmicthriller  2011. [Online] http://www.haunchofvenison.com/en/#page=london.current.eve_sussman
 [13/04/2011]

Haunch of Venison London (2011) Eve Sussman | Rufus Corporation  whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir. [Information sheet]. p.1.

Christlieb, A. [2011] How to tell the future from the Past, v.2. [Online]
 http://www.angelachristlieb.com/htttfftp.html [15/04/2011]

Rufus Corporation [2011] How to tell the future from the past v.2. [Online]
 http://www.rufuscorporation.com/projects.html#_self [15/04/2011]

Bernauer Strasse

A clip to experiment with transitions and discordance. I'd like to present a sense of uncertainty - as many Berliners felt throughout the unification process - and to maintain a level of ambiguous air, also a reflection on diversity of perceptions and experiences since 1989.

books, memories and smell

Considering formats of presentation. Last week, I was surrounded by personal history files collected by the East German secret police Stasi. These files are now stored at the government archive in an East Berlin district, in a block occupied by Stasi as their HQ. 

The Stasi building complex in Lichtenberg, Berlin

There is a distinctive smell of old paper as I enter one of the storage rooms, of the files that altered many lives,  that brings thoughts about Berlin's history and how it deals with its past, of the people's experiences I have heard in my interviews.

Based on this experience, I plan to try out variations of exhibiting using old books and documents, screens, to link memories, emotions. One idea is to cut out a book to fit a screen into it, so that depending on the pages you turn, different parts of the screen becomes visible. Sound enhances the clips I've been testing, and I could possible use smell also, to engage with the audience better.

I think of photographing the shredded/torn pieces on my next visit. Günter Bormann, who interviewed at the BStU library, says people's interests towards the files are changing after 20 years of unification, and not fading away. Perhaps how people perceive history - and the process of German unification - is changing over time also.

BStU [2011] Öffentliche Führungen. [Online]
 http://www.bstu.bund.de/DE/Archive/OeffentlicheFuehrung/archivfuehrungen_inhalt.html
 [07/05/2011]

Curry, A. (2008) Piecing Together the Dark Legacy of East Germany's Secret Police. [Online]

 http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-02/ff_stasi?currentPage=all [07/05/2011]

Faber, M. (2010) Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer – review. [Online]
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/18/tree-codes-safran-foer-review [07/05/2011]
Matas, M. (2011) Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book. [Online]
 http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html [07/05/2011]
Sinclair, M. (2011) Tree of Codes: the making of a die-cut book [Online]

 http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/april/tree-of-codes-making-of [07/05/2011]

Stafford, N. (2007) Anti-shredder aims to stick spy files back together. [Online]

 http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070508/full/news070508-9.html [07/05/2011]

More interviews in Berlin

I've been interviewing more people in Berlin, which have been successful. Out of many emails I send out requesting an interview, I get few replies, and even less that agree to be interviewed. Connections of people have helped me a lot, as a Berliner I speak to would introduce me to another. I've not had enough time to talk to everyone I had contacts for, but hopefully I will have opportunities later on.

My understanding about the divide and how Berliners experienced it (some still do today) expands every time. It's interesting to reflect on the fact I thought more about recording sound of the city when I first planned this visit, and how it has developed into a different experience from what I expected originally.

I have made up for some of the unrecorded interviews.

Interviews in Berlin

I have been interviewing Berliners. Some successfully, some not. I have left the recorder on pause thinking it was recording on two occasions... painful lessons. I'll just have to work on getting more interviews.

On the positive side, the wind jammer I made from a tupperware and tights has been working well, and when I interviewed a singer who was performing on Oberbaumbrücke, a bridge that once was a checkpoint, it didn't pick up any noise from the wind.

Tempelhof airport

This clip was made from shots at Tempelhof airport. Or what used to be. The result of a referendum in 2008 which asked Berliners on the future of the airport showed a divide in opinion between East and West, as well as a low turnout of 21.7%. One Shot, a short film by Dietrich Brüggemann, also uses the runway of Tempelhof, an airport once iconic symbol of Berlin Airlift, with dialogs on integration. 

One Shot by Dietrich Brüggemann

Brüggemann, D. (2011) One Shot. [Online] http://achtungberlin.de/programm0/made-in-berlin-brandenburg0/kurzfilme/one-shot/ [16/04/2011]

France 24 (2008) Tempelhof airport supporters lose vote. [Online] http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20080710-12983.html [16/04/2011]

Knight, B. (2008) A turd in Tempelhof. [Online] http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20080710-12983.html [16/04/2011]

Checkpoint Charlie [test with sound]

This one is another test with background sound, and uses shots taken from 2 angles looking East and West. The first is shot from the Western side, with the "you are leaving the American sector" sign, and second looks at the Western side, with a convenient representation of McDonald's in the background. 

The noise is recorded on the same street, where tourists, coaches and cars, cyclists all fight over the space. It's also the first trial in seeing how I short clips should follow the preceding one. This one just snaps to another.

Deutsches Bundesarchiv (1988) File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F079005-0022, Berlin, Grenzübergang Checkpoint Charlie.jpg [11/04/2011]

Checkpoint Charlie [test]

The first clip made from 4 still images, not 2. It's a little more confusing - and complex. I feel the changes are not simply from one to another, but mixture and accommodation of multiple perceptions. I'm trying to add an aesthetic depth to the clips also.

A food court with sushi, kebab and pizza has been replaced by McDonald's, which must have increased the value of Checkpoint Charlie as a tourist trap. The prop-guards will pose with you for €2 - or €1 if you're young and female. Some of them would cover their face with the American flag to prevent tourists capturing images without payment. This particular one had an aggressive attitude towards a family asking tourists for money, mocking them and calling them "gypsies". Perhaps he doesn't appreciate the capitalist competition.

Tourist Lovin' scenes at Checkpoint Charlie.

Traces of advertising in São Paulo

Adverts ban in São Paulo created signs with colours removed and walls with traces. These images share similar visual effect with Sophie Calle's The Detachment.

beckspacing. [Online] https://adayinthalifeof.wordpress.com/tag/sao-paulo-advertising-ban/ [10/04/2011]

De Marco, T. (2007-08) São Paulo No Logo. [Online] http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonydemarco/sets/72157600075508212/ [10/04/2011]


Spurlock, M. (2011) The greatest TED Talk ever sold. [Online] http://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_spurlock_the_greatest_ted_talk_ever_sold.html [10/04/2011]

The Otherside [Die Andere Seite 2007]

"Using first-person testimony from both sides of the divide, this animated documentary explores life with the Berlin Wall. Documenting the ideas, notions and preconceptions of Berliners about life on ‘the other side’, Die Andere Seite is a reflective visual essay on the interplay between myth and reality." (Land, 2007)

Berliners who experienced the divide are interviewed in Die Andere Seite. With segments of private memories, the work forms a broader collective feel/perceptions towards the Wall. With sound that accompany those experiences.

Land, E. (2007) Die Andere Seite 2007. [Online]
 http://www.ellieland.com/elliesite/?page_id=18 [07/04/2011]

Web-Elective Critical Evaluation

Link to Critical Evaluation for Web-Based Publication elective unit

Web-Elective presentation

Web Elective on Prezi

design paths

Through consideration, I decide to create a story for the website. It is structured around segments /mages of memories, some distant and vague, some clear and more discriptive. It will not have a clear navigation, as I want to draw the audiences' attention to the fading, subjective and fluid nature of how events are remembered.

Some mysterious and ambiguous elements of James Hart Dyke's work on MI6, and personal and investigative endevour made by Timothy Garton Ash into his own file created by the East German secret police, have influenced my thoughts in composing the ideas and designs of this website.

"How can you ever really know what is fact, what fiction, and what still lies entirely hidden?" (Garton Ash, 1997, p.205)

The hotspots on each pages are not labeled and viewers are required to hover over the images to before they can turn the page of their experience. After travelling through the path without a clear signposts, they will reach a page (or be transfered to) a page which will have my short clip The New Republic. These uncertain stages are in reference to what people experienced in Germany (especially East Germany) after the Berlin Wall was breached and two Germanys unified in 1990.

"Yesterday your secret was hidden in a single dusty cardboard file. Today it lies open on a million breakfast-tables." (Garton Ash, 1997, p.194) 

The project also follows a process of recording/observing Berlin, and making public the work I've produced - even though it does not have clear indications often seen in artists' portfolio sites. One idea is to lead visitors eventually to my vimio page.

Garton Ash, T. (1997) The File: A Personal History. London: Flamingo.

Mount Street Gallery [2011] A Year with MI6: James Hart Dyke. [Online]
http://www.mountstreetgalleries.com/prints/?page_id=6&shopp_category=2 [12/03/2011]

Clips from Berlin

I have not met a Berliner who speak positively of the current Checkpoint Charlie. The location is filled with tourists photographing guys posing as U.S. soldiers for 2€, with herds of coaches driving by the Checkpoint museum. I know there are things running deeper - the lives lost seeking freedom, or devastated by the Cold War policies - that are not glossy enough for the coaches to stop.

I'm first surprised with a McDonald's in front of the museum which was't there when I last visited, and I think to myself, it might as well.

This clip was made from shots at Griebnitzsee, on the border of Berlin and Brandenburg. The wall is on the former East German side, with West Berlin in the background. The wall used to have graffiti that changed every time I went, and it's now painted white. The riverside path that ran along the former border has since been cut up by houses built on the riverbank.

...and outside the former Permanent Representative [Ständige Vertretung] of West Germany, in former East Berlin. The facility had to be shut down in August 1989 as it couldn't cope with the number of East German citizens seeking  visa to exit East Germany.

The first 2 clips are 20 seconds long, and the last 30.

Capital cities

2 more test clips, of post-elections Berlin. The city has become the capital city of unified Germany, from being divided by the Wall, although various elections/referendum results show Berliners' diverse values.

'Operations can be surreal'

Ideas and concepts for website. I have been searching for a structure which is not as straight forward nor simply a portfolio site, with mysterious and uncertain narrative. The artist James Hart Dyke has worked with MI6, and due to confidential nature, he has made identities of agents vague and hidden.

Espionage 2010, oil on canvas. An ordinary street scene. But is it ordinary, or is something out of the ordinary going on here? 'In the world of the spy, extraordinary events happen in the midst of the mundane,' says Hart Dyke. 'Once you're part of that world, you're never sure that things are as they seem. It can seem paranoid but it's paranoia with a point. Is this an ordinary day in a city or is it the scene of an SIS operation?'  

Doughnut on Stripes 2010, oil on canvas. The intelligence community sometimes refer to the GCHQ building as 'the doughnut'

Housing Estate 2010, oil on canvas. A scene reminiscent of the cold war  

Ice Breaker 2011, oil on canvas. SIS officers need to be able to cultivate contacts. An officer contemplates how she might strike up a conversation with her target, who is having a drink at the bar  

Waiting in the Hotel Room 2010, pencil, watercolour and charcoal on paper. Spies spend long hours working, waiting for contacts and waiting for calls. 'There's a lot of hanging around,' says Hart Dyke. 'You're in a completely ordinary place, waiting for something quite extraordinary to happen... and often waiting for a long time.'

"James Bond, as Ian Fleming originally conceived him, was based on reality. But any author needs to inject a level of glamour and excitement beyond reality in order to sell." (MI6, in Norton-Taylor, 2011)

Guardian.co.uk (2011) James Hart Dyke: A Year with MI6 - in pictures. [Online]
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/feb/14/james-hart-dyke-mi6-in-pictures?intcmp=239 [16/02/2011]

Norton-Taylor, R. (2011) Former spies' verdicts on James Hart Dyke's MI6 paintings. [Online]
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/14/spies-hart-dyke-mi6-paintings [16/02/2011]

memory clips

I have been creating more clips, reflecting on loss and changes. The first clip pans from left to right, with a piano and a pianist. It focuses on the emotions of loss experienced by residents in the former East Germany, who ofter feel the unified Germany is not interested in hearing their views. The second clip portrays the changes they experience, from welcoming freedom and the democratic changes in East Germany, to uncomfortably altering their ways of life in the new republik.

The Patrol

A 15-seconds video clip made of photographic images. To portray the memory of the lost border.

Usuda, T. (2011) The Patrol. [Online]
 http://www.vimeo.com/19515677 [03/02/2011]

combination of text and image

Scenic Review IV, 1997/2002

Simple combinations of text and image that compliment each other. It not only informs, but creates a new form of communication.

 

A New York Times Op-Ed page 

Text become images - and how little of it speaks so much.

Wednesday, 16 June 2010: Sir Richard Dearlove, p.18

Hamburger Bahnhof [2011] Philipp  Lachenmann. Some Scenic Views. [Online]

 http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/exhibition.php?id=29033&lang=en [28/01/2011]
Iraq Inquiry [2011] Wednesday, 16 June 2010: Sir Richard Dearlove. [Online]

 http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/media/50694/20100616-Dearlove.pdf [28/01/2011]

Johnson, G. & Michaelov, A. [2011] A Brief History of the Art. [Online]
 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/09/25/opinion/opedat40-illustration.html
 [28/01/2011]
Norton-Taylor, R. (2011) OK, thank you – spy chief Dearlove's Iraq evidence revealed ... sort
 of [Online] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/jan/25/richard-dearlove-chilcot-testimony-redacted [28/01/2011]

20 things by Christoph Niemann

Christoph Niemann illustrated 20 Things I learned About Browsers and the Web, by Google. Readers can turn the pages by clicking on the screen or with arrow keys.

The site also gives you the option of starting from the start, or the page you were reading beforehand, on new browsers.

20 Things I learned About Browsers & the Web. [Online]
 http://www.20thingsilearned.com/ [26/01/2011]

Street names in Berlin

Vincent Trasov focused on history and changes by highlighting the phenomenon of the numerous street name changes, squares and underground stations in Berlin. "A direct expression of the rapid development of a once divided city into a vibrant metropolis" was installed nearby the former Berlin Wall.

"STRASSENBILD names the more than 60 streets, underground stations and squares which have been renamed in East Berlin. In the painting there is no direct connection between the old and the new name. They are placed at random. The work is a metaphor for the dissolve of a political system and the collapse of ideologies." [Trasov, 2011]

Trasov, V. [2011] Word Paintings. [Online]
 http://vincenttrasov.ca/index.cfm?pg=menu&filter=word%20paintings [21/01/2011]

filmtext by Mark Amerika

Investigating the links between net art, hypermedia and digital narratives and interactive cinema, Mark Amerika's Filmtext is " a hybridized online/offline storyworld experience created as a net art site"

"The work traces the nomadic movement of an alien light form known only as “The Digital Thoughtographer,” loosely inspired by the life and work of Ted Serios. The Thoughtographer wanders through an eerily empty desert landscape that looks like a synthetic rendering but is actually the Haleakala Crater in the South Pacific and other far off destinations. Set in the language of computer games, FILMTEXT’s techno music, eerie alien lifeforms, space travel, and sound collages burdened with static and transmission noises, precariously negotiate the netherworlds between sound and noise, film and literature, human body and networked being." (Center for Art and Visual Culture (2005)

Center for Art and Visual Culture (2005) Mark Amerika. [Online]

 http://www.markamerika.com/filmtext/ [16/01/2011]
Amerika, M [2011] Filmtext. [Online]
 http://www.markamerika.com/filmtext/ [12/01/2011]
Thompson, S. (2010) Mark Amerika on Digital Narrative. [Online]
 http://www.seththompson.info/html/interviews/markamerika.htm [16/01/2011]

Wolfgang Staehle

Wolfgang Staehle has worked on numerous web-transmitted work, including Palast der Republik (2006) and other topography in Berlin closely associated with the Berlin Wall and East Berlin.

"In 1996, Staehle began to produce an ongoing series of live online video streams. The first of these works was Empire 24/7, a continuous recording of the top one-third of the Empire State Building that is broadcast live over the Internet. Staehle has followed Empire 24/7 with online streams of other buildings, landscapes and cityscapes such as Berlin's Fernsehturm, the Comburg Monastery in Germany, lower Manhattan before and after 9/11." (The Trustees of Princeton University, 2007-8) 

Trustees of Princeton University, The (2007-8) Wolfgang Staehle. [Online]
 http://webscript.princeton.edu/~slashart/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=50 [16/01/2011]

New Art TV (2009) Wolfgang Staehle. [Online]
 http://www.newarttv.com/Wolfgang+Staehle [16/01/2011]

Postmasters [2011] Wolfgang Staehle:  "A Matter of Time" [Online]
 http://www.postmastersart.com/ [16/01/2011]

Staehle, W. (2006) Berlin, October 29, 2006 [Online]
 http://www.wolfgangstaehle.info/pages.php?content=galleryBig.php&navGallID=1&navGallIDquer=1&imageID=35&view=big&activeType=gall
 [16/01/2011]

Staehle, W. (2006) Palast der Republik, November 29, 2006. [Online]
 http://www.wolfgangstaehle.info/pages.php?content=galleryBig.php&navGallID=1&navGallIDquer=1&imageID=34&view=big&activeType=gall
 [16/01/2011]

Staehle, W. (2005) Alexanderplatz [Online]
 http://www.wolfgangstaehle.info/pages.php?content=galleryBig.php&navGallID=1&navGallIDquer=1&imageID=31&view=big&activeType=gall
 [16/01/2011]

Staehle, W. (2001) Fernsehturm [Online]
 http://www.wolfgangstaehle.info/pages.php?content=galleryBig.php&navGallID=1&navGallIDquer=1&imageID=12&view=big&activeType=gall
 [16/01/2011]

web+concepts

Heath Bunting's web installation _readme links each word from a newspaper article to a .com website of the same name. In this project, where "everyday language becomes totally occupied by the owners of Internet domain names utilizing almost the entire vocabulary" , one of the characteristics of the web, "an endlessly linked information space" is highlighted [Medien Kunst Netz, 2011]. 

For the project BorderXing, Bunting travelled along inner European borders and created an online "documentation of walks that traverse national boundaries", with limited web page access, challenging "the supposed liberties that accompany the concept of the Internet as a borderless space" [Tate, 2011]. Bunting creates a situation where people "are being refused at the entrance and because they require a certain appreciation of how to preserve, develop and mutually share a precarious knowledge without compromising the project as a whole". In the project Schneider [2011] calls "an electronic antidote against any virtual or real border regime", audience visiting a website out of curiosity "find they have to prove their credentials".

Olia Lialina's My Boyfriend Came Back From the War splits the screen when a viewer clicks on a text or images, leading on to further dialogues and questions, and "into subdivisions of increasing complexity" (Paul, 2003) and provides the user to drive the narrative. 

Lialina, O. (1996) My Boyfriend Came Back From the War. [Online]
 http://www.teleportacia.org/war/war.html [16/01/2011]

Medien Kunst Netz [2011] Heath Bunting «_readme» [Online]
 http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/readme/ [16/01/2011]

Paul, C (2003) Digital Art. London: Thames & Hudson.

Tate [2011] BorderXing Guide  2002 - 2003: Heath Bunting. [Online]
 http://www.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/borderxing.shtm [16/01/2011]

home pages

Various home pages. Some give you less choice - and information - than others. 

Brown, B. [2011] Splash [Online] http://www.brenebrown.com/ [13/01/2011]

http://www.shauntan.net/ [13/01/2011]

Gladwell, M. [2011] gladwell dot com [Online] http://gladwell.com/index.html [13/01/2011]

Kunst-Werke Berlin [2011] KUNST-WERKE BERLIN e.V. - INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART [Online] http://www.kw-berlin.de/ [13/01/2011]

Tan, S. [2011] home [Online] http://www.shauntan.net/ [13/01/2011]

Wenders, W. [2011] Welcom to the OFFICIAL SITE of WIM WENDERS [Online]

http://www.wim-wenders.com/ [13/01/2011]

The following plug-in has crashed

I seem to get this message "the following plug-in has crashed: Shockwave Flash" frequently on Google Chrome.

From wim-wenders.com

Wim-Wenders.com [2011] http://www.wim-wenders.com/ [12/01/2011]

a sitemap (partial)

From ArnoFischer.com

Fisher, A. [2011] http://www.arnofischer.com/ [12/01/2011]

web interfaces

One thing at a time. Small chunks of information.

Simplistic navigation, and a nice flow.

Cells: War on Weird and Four Derangements, web-comics by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, allow audience to interact with the comics. The entire comic is mapped out on Cells: War on Weird, which also works as a clear navigation where you can zoom in and out.

Drew Weing's "Pup" Ponders the Heat Death of the Universe, another web-comic, uses one giant page where visitors scroll instead. It feels more physical somehow.

Julia1926.net starts off with a short text and sound, and I'm left confused and curious to what happens next. Visual work and structure to highlight fluid memories and unreliable information to show what - I'm guessing - is like to have

            Alzheimer's disease. 

I wonder what it's like to lose your job, and all familiar things in life. They all become memories irrelevant to others.

And you feel foreign to the place which is your home.

In East Germany.

Goodbrey, D.M. [2011] Cells: War on Weird. [Online] http://e-merl.com/cells.htm

[12/01/2011]

Goodbrey, D.M. [2011] Four Derangements. [Online] http://e-merl.com/derange.htm
[12/01/2011]

Julia 1926 [2011] http://www.julia1926.net/ [12/01/2011]

Yuxiyou.net [2011] So You Still Think the Internet is Free. [Online]
http://yuxiyou.net/open/ [12/01/2011]
Weing, D. [2011] "Pup" Ponders the Heat Death of the Universe. [Online]

http://www.drewweing.com/pup/13pup.html [12/01/2011]

Lichtgrenze / Border of Lights

Designed by WHITEvoid to mark the anniversaries of the Wall's opening. Each balloon contains an LED light. These balloons will be released after 28 minutes, 1 minute for each year that the Wall divided the city. The installation marks where the Wall once stood, and celebrates the joy of freedom by releasing the balloons.

Eva Meyer-Keller also used balloons in Volksballons und geklonte Krieger at Palast der Republik, an installation also connecting time and memory.

Eva Meyer-Keller: http://www.evamk.de/daten/volksde.php
WHITEvoid: http://www.whitevoid.com/
WHITEvoid's Photostream:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitevoid/

web structures

I have been mapping websites, looking into structures and design, but I don't know how the Graft's site works, in relation to what I've learnt at uni this week. Or Get the Glass. The image below is the home page of Homeostatic.

Graft (2009) http://www.graftlab.com/ [08/01/2011]
California Milk Processor Board (2007) http://www.gettheglass.com/ [08/01/2011]
Homeostatic [2011] http://www.homeostatic.net/ [08/01/2011]

hosting transitional space

Art Cloud, at Schlossplatz, Berlin

Graft proposed to construct a temporary gallery in Berlin, where Palast der Repblik once stood, as a location which "breathes the identities of yesterday" today [Graft, 2011]. The "seemingly floating and resting for a moment" design fills the transition between "'what was' to 'what will be'". 

Graft [2011] Art Cloud: Here Today - Gone Tomorrow. [Online] http://www.graftlab.com/ [08/01/2011]

Imagine again

I have previously explored the HBO Imagine site, and have just come across their 14×14ft projection cube. Similarly to the website, audience were to choose from which side to view each scenes from. These were shot from 4 different angles, projecting diverse perceptions and experiences. The story came together after watching these scenes from all angles. Their message claimed, "sometimes a change in perspective changes everything".

The website had an interactive navigation, which allowed visitors to select the path in which they viewed each clips and images.

Thetrendwatch (2010) HBO Imagine. [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2m7JcD0dK0&feature=related [08/01/2011]
Virutic (2010) HBO Imagine Integrated Campaign / BBDO New York. [Online] http://vimeo.com/14029101 [08/01/2011]
FunnyAdsWorldCom (2009) HBO: Imagine. [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko2tHPAPr74 [08/01/2011]

Down and out in London

During the heavy snowfall in London, I visited Serpentine, Haunch of Venison, Tate Britain, National Portrait galleries and BFI Southbank Centre in London. Here are some ideas I picked up.

June 8, 1968, 2009

Visitors were guided through four rooms/spaces at Philippe Parreno: Films 1987-2010, which included film/animation installations by the artist.

"In Invisibleboy (2010), the viewer is delved deep into a world of both fantasy and reality where the boundaries between fiction and documentary began to blur. The movie features the story of an illegal Chinese immigrant boy who sees imaginary monsters that are scratched onto the film stock. June 8, 1968 (2009) portrays the train voyage that transported the corpse of assassinated senator Robert Kennedy from New York to Washington D.C. Kennedy’s invisible body and the Invisibleboy are characters that float between several layers of reality." [The European Graduate School, 2010] 

Serpentine Gallery also was showing Tom Hunter's A Palace for Us, where the artist interviewed residents of Woodberry Down Estate. The film has a documentary style, but the artist re-enacts scenes to narrate their history.

Nicolas Provost also works with moving image, and in his solo show at Haunch of Venison includes Stardust and Storyteller.  

And Winter's Bone at BFI Southbank. A daughter searches for her father to avoid the house, where she lives with her younger siblings, from being seized by the court. It's her experience, struggles and interactions with her neighbours and relatives the audience observe. 

I've been unable to shoot the ideas I've had, since my checked-in bag has not yet been delivered from Munich airport. My battery charger, a remore timer and my tripod for my camera are all in the bag, and my work continues to be disrupted days after airports managed to clear their runways.

The European Graduate School [2010] Philippe Parreno - Biography. [Online]
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/philippe-parreno/biography/ [26/12/2010]

Haunch of Venison [2010] Nicolas Provost: Stardust. [Online]
http://www.haunchofvenison.com/en/#page=london.current.nicolas_provost [26/12/2010]

National Portrait Gallery [2010] Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize. [Online]
http://www.npg.org.uk:8080/photoprize/site10/index.php [26/12/2010]

Provost, N. [2010] Work. [Online] http://www.nicolasprovost.com/#/workThumbs
[26/12/2010]

RoadsideFlix [2010] Winter's Bone - Official US Theatrical Trailer in HD. [Online]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE_X2pDRXyY [26/12/2010]

Serpentine Gallery  [2010] Exhibitions: Philippe Parreno: 25 November - 13 February. [Online]

http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2010/11/philippe_parreno_25_november_1_1.html
[26/12/2010] 

Serpentine Gallery  [2010] Tom Hunter: A Palace For Us: 8 December - 20 January. [Online]
http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2009/01/the_skills_exchange_project.html [26/12/2010]

Tate Britain [2010] Eadweard Muybridge. [Online] 

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/eadweardmuybridge/default.shtm [26/12/2010]

Reflections on MSN4

My deadline has passed. I now have the time to reflect.

I have been generating ideas about still/moving images. I have thought about how I could develop the concept of memory and recollection on absence. One of the ideas I have used for MSN4 was to combine a video and a photograph in the same frame, to contrast motion and stillness - one represents present, and the other past. 

It also crosses the boundary of my photographic practices.

The idea to juxtapose present and past has been used by Amie Siegel in Berlin Remake. Sophie Calle combined interviews of people's memories in text and photographs of locations where monuments once occupied the space, displaying the absence.

I feel that my test images are too subtle and need stories, and more engaging elements. I have considered using sound and have been discussing this issue with people. I have intentions of creating an experience, rather than just an exhibit of my work, and looked at Jannis Kounellis' and Douglas Gordon's works, suggested by Shaun.

I want cues and excitement. 

My tests of the images, as well as projection, have worked out to an extent. I do feel that these need reinventing, to better project/reflect the concept of loss/past. I will investigate the relation of still and moving images, explore with time, and play/combine it with past and present. Neither slide show nor video.

I also want to further develop the projections, of smoke machine and frosted plastic sheets, with something vague and impermanent...

Bradley, F., Lingwood, J. & Gordon, D. [2010] Arts: Douglas Gordon, what have i done. [Online] http://arts.guardian.co.uk/pictures/0,,818576,00.html [14/12/2010]

Tate Online [2010] Jannis Kounellis. [Online] http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1438&page=1 [14/12/2010]

Tate Britain [2010] Douglas Gordon. [Online] http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/douglasgordon/default.shtm
[14/12/2010]

Presentation

Masters Project Proposal

Masters Project Proposal

Learning Agreement

Leaning Agreement