artist entry: week 10: november 01

Clay Enos: photography: a kind of visual dialogue

interest and relations:
I am feeling the idea of meeting someone for the very first time photographing their portrait and getting them to write me a piece of their mind. I want to see how much of their self do they allow me to have, to take along with me. Will they confront the camera and let me look into their soul or will they shy away and look off into the distance? With that correlate with what they write for me? Will the ones who look straight into my "eyes", give me the most honest piece of thought? Can I read that thought through their eyes? Does it form a complete circle? I am facing my fear. I am stepping out of my comfort zone. Because to look into someone's eyes, is almost a sense of merging. A bit of me is exchanged with a bit of them. A bit of the private self is transferred, maybe?

biography:
Clay proved his eye for portraits in his first large scale photography project, Streetstudio. Launched in 2000, Streetstudio involved shooting portraits of random passersby on the streets of New York. By bringing his studio to the street he gains access to the most remarkable faces in the city. This access combined with his sheer enthusiasm and friendly rapport, allowed Clay to create quiet, poignant, portraits of everyday people that reflect the myriad beauty and electric spirit of New York City.

quotes:
"Portraits are a funny line between fiction and reality." -Enos

"I take most of my photos with the intention to share or honor. I am always aware that my pictures will be seen by others so I try to make images that are strong and compelling. But I am also aware that the people in my pictures need to be respected. Most of my portraits are a kind of visual dialogue between me and the subject. Since those interactions are usually steeped in gratitude and curiosity, the resulting images tend to share those traits. Make sense?" -Enos

images:




review, artist & gallery link:
http://www.clayenos.com/index.html
http://claystation.clayenos.com/
http://blog.clayenos.com/

idea entry: week 09: october 28

word of the week: DETACHED

quotes:
"Our modern view is that one can remain free so long as one is in contact with the inner, private self, which is self sustaining. This inner self, whether viewed as a private self or as a soul, is an alternate means of being in the world. As Aristotle observed, the freedom to make moral choices raises one above an unpropitious environment." (Modell, 63)

"The density of social life made isolation virtually impossible. People who shut themselves up in a room were looked upon as exceptional characters." (Modell, 68)

"Not only are there multiple levels of the self in relation to time, but there are also subtle adjustments of the self in every social interaction. We are never precisely the same person with different people. The self that emerges in social interaction is a constructed self. " (Modell, 70)

[Modell, Arnold H. The Private Self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993. Print.]

annotated source:

"I achieve self-consciousness, I become myself only by revealing myself to another, through another and with another's help. The most important acts, constitutive of self-consciousness, are determined by their relation to another consciousness. Cutting oneself off, isolating oneself, closing oneself off, those are the basic reasons for loss of self... It turns out that every internal experience occurs on the border, it comes across another, and this essence resides in this intense encounter... The very being of man both internal and external is a profound communication. To be means to communicate... To be means to be for the other, and through him, for oneself. Man has no internal sovereign territory; he is all and always on the boundary; looking within himself, he looks in the eyes of the other or through the eyes of the other...I cannot do without the other; I cannot become myself without the other; I must find myself in the other, finding the other in me (in mutual reflection and perception). Justification cannot be justification of oneself, confession cannot be confession of oneself. I received my name from the other, and this name exists for the other (to name oneself is to engage in usurpation)." (Modell, 88)

[Modell, Arnold H. The Private Self. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993. Print.]

"He looks in the eyes of the other or through the eyes of the other...I cannot do without the other; I cannot become myself without the other; I must find myself in the other, finding the other in me (in mutual reflection and perception).”
This could not be truer. I believe this new embankment will give me just that. I will be able to find the answer. It is all so paradoxical and ironic. So by having a private self, we are really our self, because to be aware of our self, we must express our private self. “Cutting oneself off, isolating oneself, closing oneself off, those are the basic reasons for loss of self.” We could never win. Honesty to the self is embracing the private self and sharing it to others, but what would be so private about the private self is it isn’t really private at all? I understand that sharing and being in tune with your inner self confirms and consolidates the self. It is grey matter matter. We choose not to share part of ourselves to others because of so many social reasons, but does that mean that we are losing ourselves?

summary:
I take a part of how I find myself embedded in the physical public world and it lead me to want to understand how others find themselves. I feel completely split in half, my body is in one place and my mind is in another. One is tangible, touchable, taste able, see able and the latter, intangible. The body is just a vehicle to the mind. And yet for some reason, we are unable to drive ourselves to the place we want, the place our mind wants us to be. Are be bad drivers of the body? Why are we unable to fulfill the desired destination of our mind? Perhaps because we are 'bad drivers' we are unhappy. And we constantly feel this detachment and unsatisfactory feeling inside, which makes our mind and body never really in the same place at the same time. What a horrible way to live day in and out, driving our body around pointlessly to places we really do not wish to be at, but due to social obligations and responsibility, we bite our tongue and move from one point to the next on autopilot. Our mind is on vacation in parallel dimension.

artist entry: week 09: october 25

Dawoud Bey: photography: products of the attitude

interest and relations:
I believe a valuable piece of information while looking at Bey's work was what he said about the environment in his images, "Because that is the place in which they spend a significant amount of their time. I wanted to have that aspect of their experience represented in the construct of the pictures, even if what the text revealed was outside of that experience". I feel that this is the reason I am photographing the way I am. I am capturing people in the place where they are most comfortable, juxtapose that to the act of being monitored which might be uncomfortable, and then have my subject write about that moment, write about the experience. So as a final product, I have the physical aspect of the person captured, but I also have a piece of their mental and emotional state of mind. I feel it is important to look inward and be reflexive. We sometimes forget to look inward and be conscious. Sometimes, we run on autopilot and numb our feelings and our thoughts and just let the days run together.

biography:
"A product of the 1960s, Dawoud Bey said both he and his work are products of the attitude, “if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”² This philosophy significantly influenced his artistic practice and resulted in a way of working that is both community-focused and collaborative in nature. Bey’s earliest photographs, in the style of street photography, evolved into a five-year project documenting the everyday life and people of Harlem in Harlem USA (1975–1979)."

"Bey is interested in the portrait as a site of psychological and emotional engagement between the photographer and his model. The multiple panels of Bey’s signature style, evident in this 1993 Polaroid triptych, allow him to capture momentary changes in expression, fleeting gestures, and the subtle articulations of personality."

quotes:
“My interest in young people has to do with the fact that they are the arbiters of style in the community; their appearance speaks most strongly of how a community of people defines themselves at a particular historical moment.” -Dawoud Bey

"Because that is the place in which they spend a significant amount of their time. I wanted to have that aspect of their experience represented in the construct of the pictures, even if what the text revealed was outside of that experience. Visually, I wanted to situate them in the context of the space but not have that space dominate or even be equally as present as they are on the photographs, which is why they are more optically foregrounded." - Dawoud Bey

images:

review, artist & gallery link:
http://www.dawoudbey.net/
http://whatsgoingon-dawoudbeysblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFX0ti0fTUs&feature=player_embedded#!

individual meeting with paul: october 18

analogy that highlight today's discussion.

Paul, you are good at what you do. You allowed me to feel safe enough to step out of my box, even if to step into another box, it was a good trick, but I am one box away from where I started. The fact is, I made progress, moved from point A to point B. I hope to continue to step out from one box to the next and the next and next. If we flatten down this analogy into two-dimensions, those boxes become squares and those squares become sidewalks when placed one next to the other. And I shall skip and frolic my way from one square to the next, far away from the point in which I started out at. I will follow the path that will lead me towards that wonderful vanishing point in the distant, so we can safely resume our journey in a three-dimensional world.

IMAGES:

SUBJECT 003

"As an artist and dancer, I have always loved to move around. I think best by moving. It may seem frantic and uncomfortable, but it works for me. Dance is good for my body and my mind. It also allows me to let go and concentrate deeply. This meditative state allows me to have deep thoughts."

SUBJECT 002
"Choked amid clouds of ash gray and the bottles collected, green and amber, my movements - as slow as they may be - are apparitions; I am a ghost. I read. I write. I slowly pass from room to room to the outside terrace; I'll sit. I'll shift. I'll turn in position - I am the mode of my unconscious - I am the unquiet mind's vehicle; my name is Ben. This is me - this is my title - this is my Story."

SUBJECT 001
""White Tiger" When not disturbed, the white tiger is calm, collected, and majestic. It lays in peace and goes about doing whatever makes it comfortable and content. This is the time when external forces can't break its peace. But the moment the white tiger steps out to face the surrounding world, stress and agitation once again take their place."

THINGS DISCUSSED:
[ Current format; too structured, graphic-like, clean, neat, orderly, too sterile, everything is contained, edited.

[ Edit: that was the key word of the meeting.

[ Editing is often a good thing. It is a very good thing. But for this particular project, edit stunt the growing process. Editing put things in nice, neat boxes, which is no good, not now, not for this.

[ The main image, the one hour worth of humanism, feelings, emotions, human behavior, ruthless behavior, uncertain thoughts, mechanic movement, physical gestures, busy body, mindless actions, movement, etc. All these things render themselves to be 'unedited' in the image.

[ Text: the same treatment needs to happen to the text for it to yield the same result as the image. It needs to render itself to be un-edited, un-composed, wild and raw.

[ Shift and Nudge Effect: Add unedited text - change to the layout - change to placement - change to scale of different components... reconfiguring lots of things.

[ I am too graphic designer-ly programmed. Paul came to the rescue, for this project, at least.

[ Book format: very good chance for that to be the end product. This work, Paul and I agree on, is definitely fit for book work. There are work made for the walls, there are some made for the private self, and there are work made to be unraveled from between two covers; a back and a front cover. There are other kinds out there, but those are the three for now.

[ Revised format might consist of three columns, one for the main image, one for the unruly text, and the third portrait.

[ Constant variables: Individually photographed, individual event, individual reflection on event.

MY AGENDA FOR NOW: collect more data, expand demographic, and be more jello-like.

the path it is taking

A format has been established.
And the tendency for it to change in the near future or far future is unlikely.
Unless the project encounters some unworldly, uncontrollable forces that shatter the structure.

SUBJECT 003
"As an artist and dancer, I have always loved to move around. I think best by moving. It may seem frantic and uncomfortable, but it works for me. Dance is good for my body and my mind. It also allows me to let go and concentrate deeply. This meditative state allows me to have deep thoughts."

SUBJECT 002
"Choked amid clouds of ash gray and the bottles collected, green and amber, my movements - as slow as they may be - are apparitions; I am a ghost. I read. I write. I slowly pass from room to room to the outside terrace; I'll sit. I'll shift. I'll turn in position - I am the mode of my unconscious - I am the unquiet mind's vehicle; my name is Ben. This is me - this is my title - this is my Story."

SUBJECT 001
""White Tiger" When not disturbed, the white tiger is calm, collected, and majestic. It lays in peace and goes about doing whatever makes it comfortable and content. This is the time when external forces can't break its peace. But the moment the white tiger steps out to face the surrounding world, stress and agitation once again take their place."

artist entry: week 08: october 18

Dan Graham: photography: both objective and subjective

interest and relations:
I believe that if I can take Graham's explanation for his work and apply it to my body of work, it would fit with ease. I find his work to be the kind that can only be experienced and graspable after allowing all five senses to explore the landscape. It is not the kind of work that is understood through language or reading of visual text. One must roam and satisfy the senses' curiosity. The thing I enjoy most about Graham's work is the ability of giving up some 'control' and allow the viewers, the audience, the participants, the subjects, the individuals who are in front of the camera take the 'experiment' and run with it, leading you along to the unknown destination in the vague out there; rather than herd them along to the destination you predisposingly have for them.

Another factor that makes the unraveling process wonderfully suspenseful and anticipating is; increase in numbers of 'participants' and 'data'. Within each increment of increase, with each addition, with any amount of 'collected data', there reveals a partial truth. In any selection of data, a form of coherent basis surfaces. It is a wonderful feeling to see that 'collection of data', which ultimately and potential holds the truth, expand and grow larger and wider in size, categories, demographic, etc. It becomes addicting, an obsession to grow and see growth.
Like a balloon in need of an increasing amount of helium to float high, high, high up in the sky.
It is how we continue to persevere; it is that kind of desire and curiosity for answers to the human kind; about me, about you, about us.

biography:
"Dan Graham's work questions the relationship between architecture and its psychological effects on us and remains as poignant today as it did in the late 1960's when Graham first began to investigate the relationship between architectural environments and those who inhabit them. His work continues to investigate the voyeuristic act of seeing oneself reflected, while at the same time watching others. This overlay of experience creates a focused dual perception amid a changing environment and / or audience. Dan Graham has described the broad practice of his work as "geometric forms inhabited and activated by the presence of the viewer, [producing] a sense of uneasiness and psychological alienation through a constant play between feelings of inclusion and exclusion."

quotes:
As Dan Graham explains, "The philosophical base for the films with the camera attached to the eye…is that the camera was objective, being a mechanical box attached to the subjectivity of the gaze of the performer, which is also the gaze of the spectator. The spectator identifies with the performer, identifies with what the performer is looking at, which is another performer. The camera is objective, but the gaze can be both objective and subjective."
The use of the two-way mirror and the reflexivity and transparency of surfaces in the later pavilion projects has an antecedent in the interplay of mutual reflections first experimented with in the films and other early works."

"Dan Graham has an extreme interest with interior and exterior space in the relation behavior of the viewer when the anticipated boundaries are changed. Dan Graham has not only been a participant in, but has also been a developer in the conceptual art movement. Conceptual art is more about the idea behind the work and the process of creating the work than the actual finished product itself. The concepts behind Dan Graham’s artworks engage the viewer in the artwork. His artworks explore architecture and space and the effect it has on the viewer."

images:review, artist & gallery link:
http://www.jca-online.com/graham.html
http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/dan-graham/

idea entry: week 07: october 14

word of the week: PRESENTMan's attempt to visually depict "the present".

quotes:
"The direct experience of the present for each human is that it is what is here, now. Direct experience is of course subjective by definition yet, in this case, this same direct experience is true for all humans. For all of us, 'here' means 'where I am' and 'now' means 'when I am'. Thus, the common repeatable experience is that the present is inextricably linked to oneself.

In the time aspect, the conventional concept of 'now' is that it is some tiny point on a continuous timeline which separates past from future. It is not clear, however, that there is a universal timeline or whether, as relativity seems to indicate, the timeline is inextricably linked to the observer. Thus; is 'now' for me the same time as 'now' for you on a universal timeline, assuming a universal timeline exists? Adding to the confusion, in the physics view, there is no demonstrable reason why time should move in any one particular direction." -wiki

"What we perceive as present is the vivid fringe of memory tinged with anticipation."
– Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of Nature

"To design a conscious creature you have to ensure two things: one, that its consciousness can be suitably embodied in a collocation of matter; and two, that three should be properties of its consciousness that it is conscious, of, i.e, introspectable properties. You have, then to build in a deep and a superficial layer. Both demands need to be met, but there is every reason to suppose that they cannot be met in the same way." (McGinn, 80)

"Thy letters have transported me beyond, this ignorant present, and I feel now, the future in the instant." - Shakespeare, Macbeth.

annotated source:
"Because time is such a slippery concept, we tend to image the future as the present with a twist, thus our imagined tomorrows inevitably look like slightly twisted versions of today. The reality of the moment is so palpable and powerful that it holds imagination in a tight orbit from which it never fully escapes. Presentism occurs because we fail to recognize that our future selves won't see the world the way we see it now. " (Gilbert, 162)

"When brains plug holes in their conceptualization of yesterday and tomorrow, they tend to use a material called today." (Gilbert, 125)

"If the past is a wall with some holes, the future is a hole with no walls. Memory uses the filling-in trick, but imagination is the filling-in trick, and if the present lightly colors our remembered pasts, it thoroughly infuses our imagined futures. More simply said, most of us have a tough time imagining a tomorrow that is terribly different from today, and we find it particularly difficult to image that we will ever think, want, or feel differently than we do now." (Gilbert, 126)

[Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. United States of America: Vintage Books, 2007.]

We are broken. According to this man, we are default-ly broken, from the very start. We are like hamsters running forever in our little wheels.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_this_is_broken_1.html

summary:
It has been a constant struggle to feel at the most conscious; I've been on auto-pilot.
The hardest thing is not the trying to keep up with all the commotion surrounding me and words exchanged part; it is merely the fact that my body is aching to act conscious, over all the unconscious atoms in my body. It is like a candle flame trying to with stand the gusts of wind, thriving to burn bright.
And I am having trouble imagining that things will be better tomorrow, that tomorrow will differ from today in all the good sense.

progression of imagery for project

SUMMARY ON CONVERSATION WITH PAUL:
"Paul and I talked today about gravity, physical forces upon objects, quantum mechanics, Heisenburg's uncertainty principle, how particles are move and the inability to measure them, the camera can capture metaphors or it can be a scientific instrument, what can a camera measure, the principle of looking, observing.

We spoke of sleep, a period of time where our brains can rest, is it possible to disengage it from all forms of stimuli, modernized studies of Muybridge, multi-tasking, why people behave differently when monitored, we can only be slightly conscious when we look back on memories, where the unconsciousness of our behaviors and manners surface.

All these subjects and sub-subjects that Paul and I spoke about were potential paths in which this body of work could easily walk down. The the body of images that I am creating act as a hub, from which all these paths shoot off from it. Now it is only a matter of collecting data, observing, witnessing and analyzing the data; it will be an attempt at finding an unending "spiritual resevior - ineffable, mysterious, and yet the surest, truest ground of existence."

I asked Paul how he felt about the in-camera vignetting, which lead to be an aspect in which the work could be addressed by. The barrel of the lens is part of the raw, it is what we see, the honest photograph is actually in the form of a circle, not a rectangle. We we talk about being an observer of phenomena, we must see in its true form.

"SUBJECT 04"

"SUBJECT 03"

"SUBJECT 02"

"SUBJECT 01"

Images attained so far for the project, subjects will soon submit a working title to me. It will accompany the image and serve as a reminiscent artifact, a moment of conscious reflection on the unconsciousness that may have surfaced in the image of the past, a re-evaluation of the memory created, a step back in time, to live "consciously in the past" and make sense of behavior, mental states, and the physical being.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
I am wondering if anyone knows of willing able bodies in the age range between 30- 70 plus, who would be kind enough to allow me to photograph them in their space. If you would be kind enough to gently ask around and see if they are interested, then put me in contact with them, I would appreciate it. Think of family members, friends of friends, etc. I am not lucky enough to have that kind of connection being here in Richmond. Paul and I believe my work will benefit greatly if the demographic could be expanded.

artist entry: week 07: october 11

Dave Nightingale: photography: i can lose myself in the moment

interest and relations:
Nightingale's images caught my eyes, not just because of the vibrant colors that burst from every seam, but also because of what he said in an interview that sounded honest and sincere. He responded to a question in a interview (below in quotes), and it was his response that gave more value to his images, for me personally. Sometimes, I cannot explain why I photograph the things I photograph. I believe anyone can relate to this, sometimes you just photograph what you do and just do it to rid it from your system, perhaps it will take more than a few shots, but a lifetime commitment to the content. But if only you could just go on and release that indescribable driving force, satisfy that hunger or curiosity, follow that desire, do all of that without having to explain, justify, or reason with anyone else. Why, why, why? I honestly am so over hearing that question. Should we not encourage one another to seek, to explore, to search, to find, to discover? Not everything in life is worth the breath or time to explain and reason with. By the time one has reasoned, the moment has past by and you are left standing without ground beneath, holding you up. Not every moment of the now photographed needs some sort of profiting or gaining reason behind it to be projected into the future. Every shot should be taken, because it is for the now, for the here, for the selfish self. I try to practice that, because I do not want to lose myself over to _________.

Another thought that came from Nightingale's images is, I find a strange relationship between the images that I have chosen below. The number of people does not have as strong of an effect as the color atmosphere of the image. For example even if there are two beautiful people portrayed as together, happy and carefree, when it is set against a calm, self-losing tone of blue, the only feeling that comes across is loneliness, something that once was, a memory. Another image with just a single hunched over person surrounded by radiating gold and yellow, warm and wonderful, gives the meaning of individual, singular, alone, a whole new meaning. Pictures rendering great distance render different feelings depending on the number of people, the atmosphere. For some reason, we are all drawn to the "other side", even if it equates to the "vague out there". When we are given the choice of thinking it and acting on it, the "out there" is the most gorgeously rendered stretch of land. However, when we are forced and projected out there involuntarily, due to forces out of our control, we seek to return to "square one", to "the other side before this side". It is sad that we suffer uncontrollably, but I laugh thinking about it, perhaps a nervous laugh to cover up the fear that seeps from the truth and the on going pain in each and all.

biography:
"David Nightingale is the photographer behind Chromasia, an award winning photoblog that was selected as "Best Photoblog" by numerous publications, and was ranked as the 6th most influential blog in the UK by the Financial Times."

quotes:
"Question: You seem to take a lot of photographs from strolls on the beach. Could you tell us a little about that?

Answer from D.N: One of my favorite ways of relaxing is to take a walk along the beach, photographing either the landscape, or any items washed up along the shore. In some ways, though I’m not sure I could explain it all that coherently, walking along the shore and taking photographs is one of the ways I can lose myself in the moment."

"Being aware, really aware of these colors and how they affect our perception and the responses they evoke inside of us is important. Understanding how you can affect these colors with the tools we use every day is even more important. I'm not talking about Photoshop or some bizarre filter, but basic tools you should have in your camera bag or vest at all times."

[http://www.moosepeterson.com/techtips/color.html]

images:
review, artist & gallery link:
http://www.chromasia.com/
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/davidjnightingale

idea entry: week 06: october 07

word of the week: BOOKS

quotes:
"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted;
nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested:
that is, some books are to be read only in parts,
others to be read, but not curiously, and some few
to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. " - Francis Bacon

"I've traveled the world twice over,
Met the famous; saints and sinners,
Poets and artists, kings and queens,
Old stars and hopeful beginners,
I've been where no-one's been before,
Learned secrets from writers and cooks
All with one library ticket
To the wonderful world of books."

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." - Joseph Addison

"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain." - Louisa May Alcott

annotated source:
"Language externalizes the disguise consciousness throws over thought. The original obstacle to our doing logic correctly is thus the apparent structure of our conscious thoughts, rather than that of public language. Language gets the blame because of its relative palpability: you can point to the offending portion of the sentence but not to the corresponding component of the thought." (McGinn, 96)

McGinn, Colin. The Problem of Consciousness: Essays towards a Resolution. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell, 1991. 96. Print.

I think this quote is fascinating, the fact that if we took this analogy of thoughts and consciousness and applied it to a photograph. We can point to the physical aspect of movement and behavior shown in a image, but we cannot point to the very "gesture" of a person in real time and analyze. It has to be done through memory, whether recorded through an image or a film. Only then can we dissect each part of the action and study it. So with my project, a study of behavior prescribed from unconscious states of mind, I can point in the image part of a person's action that reveals their mental state of mind, but I cannot uncover that state of mind in the present real time. It is fleeting, intangible, ungraspable and only be looked at and analyze in terms of the past.

summary:
We look to books for answers. We read to understand. We read and over analyze what we read and begin to contradict ourselves. We escape to books to live other lives. We hide in books because we need answers and we are too afraid to let anyone know and ask for their help. We live in books because it has happy ending sometimes. We live in books because we can choose who we want to be around, who we want to fall in love with, and who makes our wishes come true. We read books to better understand ourselves. We look to connect through books. We look to be books, because new ideas in books can be metaphorical to hands that lead and pull us in new directions we haven't thought to go about. Books understand us. Books are non-judgmental. Books only echo our curiosity. If we are clever enough, we can get through life and find all the answers to our troubles along the way through books, loyal company and guidance.

BUT, they also drive us crazy! Book make us doubt ourselves. Books contradict our views. Books argue with our believes and confuse our mind with what we have previously acquire. Books lead us to feeling of mistrust, sometimes. Books sometimes lead us down stray paths. Books play games with us. Books trick us and attacks our mind with unexpected twists of plots and endings. Books sometimes hurt us with the truth. They keep us in balance with the thoughts and imaginations that we make up in our head.

Everything said is relevant to my work, from ideas arising, to satisfying curiosity, to looking for answers. Photograph can substitute in for the word book above and everything remains the same.

julika rudelius: lecture questions & response

Visiting Artist Lecture: Julika Rudelius: October 5th, 2010

"Julika Rudelius (b. 1968, Cologne) addresses a broad field of complex themes in her videos and photographs, ranging from structures of social power and prejudices to role clichés, identity, and cultural hegemony. Rudelius sees art as a form of social expression, as a communicative tool for drawing attention to seemingly trivial observations of everyday life, revealing at the same time their complex social characteristics."


Question one: "In addition to Rudelius's delicate sense of social dynamics, it is these clear structures that make the sometimes edited, sometimes free dialogues in her works so powerful for the viewer." How do you think the edit of your questions out of these "conversations" effects the audience? You remain unheard, yet your questions are what lead your subject to think and speak of something they did not think to project out vocally.

Question two: "Her photographs document the tension between togetherness and distance most subtly. For these pictures are by no means “documents” in the sense of authentic representations of social reality in the Netherlands. The pictures are faked. And Rudelius has carefully inserted little mistakes into her arrangements... Sometimes the mental clichés block access to the world around us and then we see a person only as a race rather than as an individual." If this is so, then why try so hard to embed "artificial elements in to make a point? Is the act of that, not only embed a little of your mental cliches into it rather than the audience?

Response after lecture:
I believe the most interesting part of the lecture was towards the end, the artist's attempt to re-evaluate her methods and research and answer questions that arose from the audience. Perhaps because of her honesty and genuineness in trying to answer the questions that made her answers more believable. I think the way I felt at the end was what Rudelius wanted me to feel through all her other works too; assessment of truth, curiosity to find it, and where truth tends to show up.

Three words to describe Rudelius & work: curious, human agitation, connectedness
The find the ability to feel disconnected and yet still try and try and try to understand and become whole with other elements surrounding you is inspiring. It is hard to constant want something solid to stand on. And also harder to keep it and feel secure enough to not be constantly worried about it being taken away from you at any moment.

After listening to Rudelius's lecture, something that stands out to me was the things she said towards the end, after watching her work "Forever" and "Politician; Charismatic Leader", was when she spoke of her work being "manipulated". That in this manipulation lies the truth.
Because she "controls" her subject through head pieces, guiding them to answer certain questions and move in a particular fashion, it is contradicting when she originally states that "although I manipulate the films, my subject, and the viewers, I still keep the authentic nature in it". From that I have been able to form this:

:People will not have "truth" be handed to them.
:They deny the thought that "truth" can be a gift to give.
:Non-controlled parts of people are only easy to detect when every thing around them is controlled.
:We desire to have truth, but we refuse it when it is handed and delivered to us.
:So we come up with this way to sort of trick ourselves, we manipulate the "truth", steer it in directions we want it to go, push certain ideas forward, and only then do we begin to reach the outer skirts of "truth". By seeing what is left behind, the honest "slips" or "mistakes"; the truth is revealed. And in these mistakes, we are able to trust ourselves, we feel human again, human enough to admit to mistakes and that is the the sincerest form of truth.

We basically trick ourselves only to later realize that, it was and will always be the only way to get ourselves to where we want to be.

All of Rudelius's work have lead me to that conclusion, and that conclusion is only relevant for the "now", because tomorrow everything will be re-analyzed and re-evaluated again.

P.S: I wish I could have actually seen all her work in its full length. What a let down, they were truly intriguing and engaging. The role flopping back and forth from spectator to participant definitely exist like she wanted.