Joseph Kosuth – An Object Self-Defined

Today Hannah went over a few questions about conceptual art that cleared a lot of things up for me. Conceptual art is defined as: Art in which the idea or concept presented by the artist is considered more important than the finished product, if any such exists. 

Would the conceptual artist consider the audience when creating relational art works?

Art is created by the viewer; not by the artist or the art itself. As soon as you come into contact with art it’s meaning is created – conceptual art is not a narrative and should not be ‘this is how you’re going to understand my artwork’ and shouldn’t be a narrative to follow – it should be a set of things for you to explore that you can create your own understanding and interpretations from. The conceptual artist does consider the audience, but is asking more from them. They are trusting the audience and accepting that there are always multiple interpretations of a piece of work and offering a way for audiences to form their own interpretations.

How do we apply relational aesthetics in making documentary and can these documentaries be narrative?

We can do this by ‘asking’ the audience to participate in the artwork and through this the artwork is essentially ‘created’ the moment they see it. The artist is then somewhat getting rid of the grey space between audience and artwork and they are, in a way, becoming the same thing – as opposed to, for example, going into a cinema and watching a movie where we are taking in only what is explicitly presented to us. This raised yet another question. Is it possible make a documentary that erases the line between the creator and viewer?

Does category have to be explicit?

Someone in class brought up a movie they had seen recently called Earthlings. Earthlings is a 2005 documentary about humanity’s use of other animals as pets, food, clothing, entertainment and for scientific research. The documentary is separated into 5 chapters for each topic, and is comprised of mainly hidden camera footage. This was an interesting example and although is typically narrative play some role in blurring the line between viewer and creator – what you are seeing is live and somewhat unedited.

Some awesome examples of conceptual documentary to refer back to for inspiration:

• The Are You Happy? Project
• The Quipu Project
• Gap-Toothed Women
• Border Stories
• High school by Frederick Wiseman

Another conceptual artist that caught my attention was Richard Mosse who captured the war-torn landscape of The Democratic Republic of Congo. The message he delivers through this work isn’t being delivered through exactly what he’s capturing, but through the colour pink that replaces the greenery of the foliage when shooting with Aerochrome film. When asked; How much more constructed is a pink photograph than a black-and-white photograph? Mosse responded;

… They’re confused, and angry, and disoriented. And this is great! Because you got them to actually think about the act of perception and how this imagery is produced and consumed.

The use of different film which does no more than warp the colour of the photographs presents reality in the Congo in a completely different light and invites the audience to really consider the message of Mosse’s work and why this changes their perception of not only his media but the people and landscape of the Congo. 

In a way Mosse has created a message about something that people typically wouldn’t pay attention to – even though Mosse’s photography is static it does blur the line between creator and audience and invites the viewer to experience emotion through a different lens.

And again, for later reference I thought I would include a great snippet Hannah referred back to a lot in class from Widewalls:

The Conceptual art movement is probably the most radical and the most controversial plane in modern and contemporary art. Some artists, experts and art historians even dismiss it as art. Conceptual art is based on the notion that the essence of art is an idea, or concept, and may exist distinct from and in the absence of an object as its representation. Many examples of conceptual art (well-known works or statements) question the notion of art itself. Some conceptual artists believe that art is created by the viewer, not by the artist or the artwork itself. Since ideas and concepts are the main feature of art, aesthetics and material concerns have a secondary role in conceptual art. Conceptual artists recognise that all art is essentially conceptual. In order to emphasise these terms, they reduce the material presence of the work to an absolute minimum – a tendency that some have referred to as the dematerialisation of art – which is one of the main characteristics of conceptual art. As many conceptual art examples show, the conceptual art movement itself emerged as a reaction against the tenets of formalism. Formalism considers that the formal qualities of a work – such as line, shape and colour – are self-sufficient for its appreciation, and all other considerations – such as representational, ethical or social aspects – are secondary or redundant.

After completing this task I realised that there were a lot more aspects to noticing than I previously thought. Despite going out to the location my partner chose for me with an open mind, I still thought that the media I captured was quite limited and that I could have been a little more creative or a little more purposeful with what I chose to capture. That being said, though, perhaps the way I passively captured simply what was around me was a more honest way of noticing and could more effectively create a narrative or greater meaning. I have no idea.

My questions: 

• How can I practice noticing in a more creative way? (Vague, I know, but I think I’m being too stagnant about what I capture)
• What different themes can I apply to my noticing to help create greater meaning through the media I collect?
• How close or how far away should I be observing things from? Is there a sort of prompt I could create for myself that would allow me to create a more coherent collection of noticing that seems to have a little more flow?

Zane’s process of collecting media definitely included a little more attention to detail that I expected. This was an awesome way, though, for him to show me something about the area that I wouldn’t have noticed before. The media Zane captured highlighted the more aesthetic properties of what was around him such as varying textures and lighting. This task has opened my eyes to new ways of noticing, and especially the way that captured media can display such different aspects of a space compared to actually being there.

What I noticed about Zane’s pieces:

Sound piece: This piece was very ambient and made the area feel so spacious and surreal as opposed to when I remember actually being there where I felt surrounded by the hustle and bustle of South Yarra. There was a lot of movement and flow and the loud brash sound of trains passing contrasted with the peaceful sound of birds and quiet chatter of people passing.

Videos: These pieces felt very urban, I specifically noticed more than being there myself all of the different colours and contrasting hues of painted brick walls, graffiti and the bright green of the shrub around the train tracks. I noticed the combination of the urban environment and the natural growth around it made the area seem so different looking back at captured media; actually being there felt a little bit less artistic and I more specifically remember all of the litter always scattered down the path. Again, Zane’s captured media offered a sense of ambience that actually being in a place can’t and I picked up on a lot more of the varying textures of all of the different surface and the subtle sounds of the surrounding streets in the background.

Reflection: I noticed in Zane’s picture of a building above him lots of contrasting shapes and angles. After seeing this one I realised I was noticing the sky and skyline in every piece of media and the lighting that the sun brings to each one. I noticed straight lines, fences, boundaries and a sense of enclosement.

Nature: This photo was really delicate, detailed and beautiful and definitely not something I would have noticed walking down Lover’s Walk myself. It again had beautiful and contrasting lighting and a sense of closeness and detail that I would never have picked up on. Zane’s entire collection offers a sense of beauty in the detail of everything rather than the general ‘vibe’ that I associate with the space when actually present.

Things on the ground: I noticed a lot of Australian flora and everything contrasted by dark textured concrete. There a sense of beauty in even the litter that of course wasn’t that noticeable or special when I’ve been there. In the photo of the metallic Lover’s Walk on the ground I noticed the lighting and again, the texture of the ground in huge detail.

Above us: Again I noticed straight lines, flooding sunlight, the beauty of the surrounding nature and the perception of the area as luscious and romantic rather than littered and surrounding by scrub.

What Zane noticed about my pieces:

Videos and sound: The videos were taken some where I walk pass almost every single day. I can even recognize the specific location of where each video was taken. To me, those videos look very familiar. Looks like they were taken around 5 pm, and it shows the typical busy South Yarra. By listening to the audio I can imagine and image of people walking on the street and loud engine noise around you. The sound of wind also reminded me the unpredictable weather in Melbourne.

Things on the ground: I’m actually very surprised when I first saw these photos. I always walk fast around this area so I never noticed there was moss on the ground. The piece of broken mirror also caught my eye. I can’t help to wonder where does it even come from.

Nature: Those weeds on the ground and the texture(cracking) of the ground is also something I didn’t notice before. The way those weeds are growing and the texture shown really made this an interesting photograph.

Noticing

3 videos of what’s in front of us:

1. Zane’s

Mine

2. Zane’s

Mine

3. Zane’s

Mine

Something above us:

Zane

Me

A reflection:

Zane

Me

Nature:

Zane

Me

View post on imgur.com

3 things on the ground:

Zane

Me

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

1 recording of sound:

Zane

Me

There are many similarities in the pieces of media that Zane and I both collected. Lover’s Walk IS in South Yarra so both locations are very close together, and although they are very similar it is easy to notice the difference between the hustle and bustle of the main roads and the quiet ambience of Lover’s Walk. Both areas offer a stark contrast between an urban environment and nature.

It was difficult to come up with an idea for our process of collecting. After visiting the Patrick Pound exhibition I was really inspired, but I still couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was that made his collections so unique and so intriguing. My main focus for this task is to create a series of media that can hold and portray an idea. I’m not entirely sure what this idea might mean, but I hope that through passive noticing in the area my partner gives me I can join together my media and form some kind of informative and meaningful narrative that brings the place to life. The place I was given by my partner was South Yarra, but more specifically the intersection between Chapel Street and Toorak Road. I don’t know a whole lot about this area but spent a lot of time there as a younger teenager. I associate it with busy traffic and flow in and out of South Yarra train station, along with quite cafes and the peaceful chatter of passing people.

Zane and I decided that our process of collection for this task will be somewhat like a scavenger hunt, and decided on a few different types of media we will collect and compare in each other’s locations:

• 3 videos of what is in front of us
• 1 photo of what is above us
• 1 reflection
• 1 recording of sound
• 1 photo noticing nature
• 3 things we notice on the ground

Noticing sound, and honing in on only one specific sense creates a completely different way of breaking down what is around us and piecing it back together (if that makes sense) with different meaning. To begin with, I noticed the obvious sounds, trying not to judge where they came from or how interesting they were; they were mostly internal such as breathing or digestion, and then they moved outwards to being close by, such as pens clicking or classmates typing. The sounds I began to notice then became distant such as the sound of traffic or banging above the classroom. Throughout the process of noticing sound, I began to hear more than I did when I started and began to become more aware of subtle sounds I didn’t notice before, and how I identified what the sounds were without being able to see the source. Struggling to find any words to describe sound without revealing exactly what it is I’m describing, I compiled a list of descriptive words for sound to help explain some of what I noticed around me.

There was surprisingly a huge difference between listening with my own ears and then listening back to recorded sound. During our sound recording exercise, I listened in on conversations people were having and loud dings and clicks I could hear that I knew would be interesting to talk about after I recorded the piece. What I then noticed after listening to it back, is that I’m not filtering out different noises like I do when I’m physically in a space, but I’m listening to every single sound recorded as a whole layered soundscape and able to absorb everything that’s going on so I can then break it down into different levels of sound; from less noticeable to louder and more obvious noise.

It was curious to me in these recordings that I could very confidently identify the source of different sounds, and even those I couldn’t I still had a good idea of what materials or size of objects were involved; e.g. hollow furniture or coins dropping on a surface.

In photographic form, I’ve noticed shapes; outstretched and intricate.

Today we visited the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia to see Patrick Pound’s The Great Exhibiton. This exhibition was surprisingly super interesting and gave me great insight to all the different ways you can notice. Pound is an avid collector of many many things, his work was vast and invites the viewer to rethink the meaning of somewhat meaningless objects. Each room throughout the exhibit created a new logic or narrative to unravel or identify. It was pretty cool!

Here’s a little snippet of what we saw.

The photographer’s shadow

Damaged

Photography and air – this was a personal favourite. It was one of his most engaging collections despite only being photographs. It invites the viewer to figure out how each photograph relates to air.

Things Change

People holding cameras

Falling

“Some things have little to do with each other until they come into contact.”

“Photography stops people in their tracks. Eventually every photograph is a photograph of a dead person. The camera is an idling hearse”.

There were so many different ways in which Pound presented and arranged his collections, I spent the entire walk through re-evaluating every piece and the different ways his objects spoke to each other. There was a clear sense of rhythm and all in all it was sort of playful. It felt like the perfect introduction to ‘noticing’, and definitely something I’ll draw ideas from for the rest of the semester.

How can I construct meaning through grouping subtly similar objects?

From day 1 I was intrigued, excited and extremely nervous about our last project brief all at once. Liam pulled names at random out of a hat to choose our groups, and I ended up meeting two really lovely girls who I knew I could work well with.

My main worry from the start was being able to effectively collaborate with others. Not only do I find it extremely hard to come up with an idea that I’m happy with in all sorts of creative projects, I also find it really difficult to condense my ideas into something that could effectively be put into practice. So, as you can imagine I was really nervous about what we were going to end up focusing on for our prompt of ‘attention’. In the past, I’ve taken so long to stick with one theme or idea that I’ve ended up leaving everything to the last minute, and really quickly throwing everything together towards the end and it working out sort of like what I imagined. In group projects this can’t really be done – everyone needs to effectively work together towards a collective goal, everyone has to do their part, and everyone has to like the idea. Oh god. The first time we sat down and brainstormed some aspects of attention that we found interesting (or that we thought listeners would find interesting) we actually came to a collective conclusion on focusing on Facebook pretty fast. It was a relief that we could all semi-agree on a theme for the project and it gave me a huge boost of confidence right of the mark. I couldn’t quite envision a final product yet, but I knew that if we all worked together effectively it could possible actually end up being better than something that I could have done by myself (That’s my usual downfall – thinking if I was doing it alone I could do much better and work a lot harder, this simply isn’t true). I felt really comfortable with the task at hand and set out to start our annotated bibliographies and start throwing ideas together in a google doc. I was really surprised by how much work my other group members actually put it in and the interest they showed in our idea, it made the whole process really satisfying and everyone was always keen to meet up to work on things. Although group work is always pretty hard, and everything did take a lot longer because we’re not always together, my view on it has changed completely. The reason we’re assigned group work is typically because in a future work place it may be very common for us to have to work in teams so we better get used to it. I always found it annoying when tutors or friends said that, but now I see the value it has and what I’ve learnt from working in my group could practically be applied to any other group work I may have from this day forward.

In the end, I’m really happy with our podcast about ‘fake news’ and all of the ideas it presents. My group members made sure we had a succinct idea that could be specifically researched, which is something I always fall back on. My ideas are usually too broad and there’s way too much information to put into something as short as a 7-8 minute podcast, making my work feel disjointed and messy. If I had to do this again, I would put a lot more effort in and volunteer a bit more often to get certain things done. I left a lot of my part to the end, and the only reason I got through is because my team mates were effectively keeping up with their side of the bargain so I could drag behind until just before the due date. Although I know how much easier I can make my life by doing work as soon as it is assigned, I always somehow manage to procrastinate. I felt for a little while as if I was letting my team down, but when I found out that I wasn’t I realised that it’s not a feeling I want to experience again. In general, I do actually want to go well at uni alone or within groups. This project brief opened my eyes about many aspects of completing uni work that I won’t forget.

See you next semester! 🙂

Lots of ups and downs, but generally a steady improvement of the intensity/quantity/quality of my understanding.