What is the point? There is no point, we are dust and will return to dust in the winds of time, we are at the “still point”. My Ba Hons degree discovered, talked and touched upon this, something I did not understand at the time and which others quite happily overlooked, perhaps because they needed to because of their misunderstanding, or perhaps their own eloquent intrusive misdirections, a play by ear, or a catastrophic inquiry into craft, such are susceptible to misdirection. But now I am beginning to understand through contemplation, through defiance. at the still point: you are governed by rules and tick-able boxes aren’t you, you feel empowered to have a beautiful three dimensional substance but surely beauty is in the whole idea.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, bullshit, this is a democratic belief which excuses you of mis- understanding the purpose and pure and simple fact that you do not understand the forces in play surrounding you; this was not made for you, this is a vessel for me to understand me, my surroundings and beliefs, you are merely passing through my time, you are merely a bystander, you are not even the catalyst for this procedure and predicament. We carry on our walk through the deep and dark orrifices of the plant, the fear grips me again, walking into the uncharted, Chris says i haven’t been here before, or at least accompanied. I can feel something is not quite right in this room. and I later learn that a certain number of arms have been removed from bodies by belts which drive the unstoppable machines and I can smell and taste it. Yeah it ain’t cool, the spirits are angry here, Ollie you have to make a bell to drive them away, and i think,”we need a drum to aid the spirits across into their world”, and right around the corner is a drum kit, coincidence? You have to draw the line somewhere however this isn’t the time or place, many years will succeed us all, drone on as you wish, the world is no longer that safe and subtle place, you are no longer alone, yet you are far from being surrounded, which would you choose? The answer is clear here, is it clear there? What does the world you weave have to offer, are you strong enough for the ultimate answer, sadly not, as the answer isn’t here as you haven’t asked the question, and how far does the hole go? Yes a hole that travels deep into uncertainty, a hole that never relinquishes, never, never, never fold. But what is in a question, what is the point, is there really a still point? Fundamentally you will cower, you hope for the best, you hope for a rounded outcome, an outcome which object and words form a distinct picture, the room is dark and I have a choice left or right, how would you choose? I flipped a coin, very simple one or the other, left or right, loose and fail or what win? Win is in which context, accomplishment, an answer? Sounds like you took the easy option, you knew the outcome before you started, front of the queue for you, boxes ticked, nice life, bollocks. Boring, why are you here, who are you here for? Quite obviously not yourself, back of the queue of humanity for me then. Or maybe you've been working towards this outcome for years upon years, and then why are you here? We walk left through the very dark door, you cannot see any light in there, its far from the comfort zone for the familiar faint hearted, only the strong, only the brave rings out in my overwhelmed brain, do it a voice tells me, the sweat is pouring again and it is pure fear, the purest of them all, the floor creeks, its rusted, they tell me bats live here, do it, don’t be afraid our bell will protect us, believe, believe.
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We descend back down the mass of rusted and definitely unsafe stairs until we reach the bottom. For me, I now felt at ease but I’m sure for most people the feeling of fear would still be present. He points out that a friend replaced the lagging around the pipes only to find out at a later date that the original lagging was asbestos. Great bloody asbestos, crafted sounds kryptonite. this is the only thing that truly stands in my way, now i truly understand the saying “suffering for your art” .
I’m now sure I will probably suffer an excruciating death like my grandfather did at the feet of asbestosis so I need to make the most of this precious time i have left. “Don’t make art which shocks people” rings in my head, I then realise what this means. It resonates that they wish to stand alone in their shock treatment, sorry but you are full of shit. We carry on our trip around the massive expanse of a building and I imagine hundreds of people rushing around like ants scurrying through corridors and towing and growing between jobs. Chris tells me that they always knew the colour of the paper being produced as the river was that colour, bright greens, blues, yellows and purples. The pollution this place made was enormous, and I would later be told that the soil in this area is badly affected and there are lots of deposits found in it. I met an artist which has a plan for an art piece and that is to collect various soil samples throughout Sweden, followed by tests to show what is contained within the soil and to then display them as a sculptural piece to bring both awareness and vision to the public and government which are in denial of this existence. I expect generations have been silently affected and this is visible with abnormalities in human forms. The building is full of heavily rusted objects and also sound producing sculptures which other artists apart from Chris have left there, almost discarded but free to experiment with. Chris starts to climb through a tight gap reminiscent of potholing and so I pluck up the courage and decide to follow like a lamb to slaughter. And wow I’m so glad i took the plunge. We are in another silo that has perfect white tiles on it, fresh as the day they were removed from the kiln and I freeze to the spot. I freeze as there is a white substance on the walls and the fear of asbestos flies back to my overwhelmed brain. chris softly says, hey ollie don't worry its only paper! We are standing in a paper mush silo, it’s a storage tank. I glance upwards when I use my wearing out torch and see a large white disc. This is when the fun really starts and I can see the smile revisiting Chris’s face. The white disc is similar in form to a drum skin where later on I see a remarkable video he made. The skin was inhabited by two dancers for a live show they did that was open to the public and was over subscribed. The sound-art-video depicts two ladies dancing in a hypnotic fashion and you can only see their shadows illuminated and projected through the skin and it is difficult to see their bodies but only their outlines or gender. Re-fucking-markable. this is what many describe as “out there”, craft; what a joke, nice shiny well made things standing truly alone by themselves, no theoretical backing, what the hell is the point? I guess that I am going to die one day and that it is unacceptable that leaving a beautiful object isn’t enough, I have the unprecedented ability to leave a theoretical legacy, one which inspires and neglects the impoverished thinking of our fore fathers, the true belief that everything is finite, that ephemera cannot truly be diminished and that we are truly alone. The certainty that life is not eternal and that it circumflexes the true injustices of social impoverity. Thus we must trust our inner judgement regardless of what others believe and we must impart this on the world which we live in regardless of whether we truly understand what we are doing. What is then point in doing something which we understand, life is a journey, art is our life, plans never work out, so plans are irrelevant if we wish to push boundaries. Boundaries are created by persons which have a common intellect, they are created for the minority of thinkers, we are not a majority or even part of it, we are merely outcasts in an abrupt and social volume of discriminations. So i have been given a tour of old Paper mill. I cannot get over the amount of the debris that is lying around.isbn 978-089281455-8
R murray Andy Goldsworthy Processes Rivers and Tides. He works intuitively with nature.(documentary) baschet brothers France (athens) designer and sound artist betroia visual sculptures so where does your work fit in, what category or where would it be seen, is it fine art, conceptual craft, art etc… screens on one side, sound emitters on the other, as the viewer and listener moves down the strip, each screen independently shows a silent video and the sound is emitted behind them for that particular video. we need to use some type of sensors for this interaction. So I have arrived in Sweden and have been picked up by Chris at the train station in Åmaal. We drive to not quite about 22km from the station into the wilderness and society starts to evaporate. Upon arrival we drop my things off at his place and he says “Lets get started”. We take a walk down to the paper mill. Unlike all of the places I have visited before we have free access and I become excited at the prospect of not having to illegally enter the site. The tour starts and it becomes apparent to me that there is a wealth of really interesting spaces with their own types of debris specific to their location. I get a tingle down the back of my neck and spine, I start to sweat; not from being too hot or being gripped by fear but from the sheer abundance of stuff in this wonderful place, and it is more than wonderful. It is like no other site i have visited as you can feel something extraordinary oozing out from beneath our feet and we are only in the first room that is filled with pumps and turbines. Chris says “ this is the place for sound” the floors and stairs creek beneath our feet as we slowly meander around this massive and impressive place. Chris describes what the place means to him in a spiritual manner which excites both the teller and listener alike, and I start to realise that i am in a truly remarkable void that stands still in time, unchanged, undisturbed and unchallenged. The ephemera of this place is subtle yet strikingly obvious to the naked eye. He exclaims that this is the place where you will learn to listen, this is the place where you will understand what quietness really is. At first I do not understand, until we visit the “clapping room”. We had climbed a multiple if staircases and the sweat is starting to drip from my armpits, down my back and from my forehead, this time the sweat is pure fear, as i am not the best with heights, but i soldier on to a point until I have to admit my fear of heights. We open a thick rusted bomb proof like door and it squeals. The door which he had opened with a crow bar years previously groans in anticipation. Inside the door is a small platform on top of which i can only describe as a huge silo and the feeling that it will crumble at any moment is almost inevitable. We stand on the edge and he claps, the claps echo in different ways depending on the energy created by his hands, a smile grows across his face as if to say “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. Are we famous for our arrogance?
I'm looking to craft a drum with a bell inside it. The idea is that it can be rolled down the hill the wind can sound it common in the rain will act on it and Play the drum. I will be using the debris from the Sheffield ski Village and respond to the landscape the site. I am going to respond to the materials from the site and explore their characteristics properties and potential both visually and auditory. I will play and explore by cutting Burning dissecting dismantling manipulating reforming layering and trimming. These processes are to be recorded both visually and auditory. I am to consider the concept and process of Rolling Down the hill or slopes and jumps. I will use this to inform the object and it's visual aesthetic linked to the function and sound qualities. So how would you like to display the object. I would like to view the object on film in a dedicated area or orb that reflects the shape of the created objects? So I've come back from the United States of America and it was fantastic. However I quite by accident stumbled across an interesting site up in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. I strongly believe that I have found a site which encapsulates a lot of what I have been looking for. The site has risen, Deceased and is in a state of ruin and disrepair. I visited the site neglected up lots of very interesting pieces of debris. I took my camera and tripod and try to talk in front of the camera and beside it. I guess that point I should've had some sort of script to follow. So I've got a digital SLR that takes great photos and also supports video. I have a lack of underpinning in film making but have been Learning about it via YouTube and I've been looking at basic tutorials. A tutorial by Moritz Janisch (Fenchel & Janisch) Blog & Website: http://www.fenchel-janisch.com I think at this stage i should strongly consider finding some people who are professionals. I have been using a digital slur for my videos and also my iPhone. I started using final cut pro x but at $300 a pop I transferred to iMovie, but sadly it doesn’t cut it. Mind you the iPhone records sound very well but a professional depth of field. Chart time. Now having removed this section in regards to video and production there is a lot more “effort" to be divided up between for remaining categories. I will continue to use charts in this manner to illustrate the use of effort throughout Recording my artistic practice. I revisited the site to collect some more material. So we’ve decided to do a research trip to visit a Blacksmith and sound artist by the name of Chris Porcarelli. Chris originally hails from the USA and is a blacksmith. He is a post graduate masters degree student. This is how Chris describes his Practise and has been directly taken from his website. Sculptural forms, interaction, movement and sound are sources of investigation and inspiration. My practice weaves interests in social dynamics and material based objects in hopes to develop opportunities for creativity and face to face relations. The focus of my work is to encourage a relationship between the participants unique ideas with the power of movement, in order to create either a personal or shared experience through the use of a sculptural object. I am currently focusing on developing objects that are interactive acoustical sound devices that stand quiet until touched. Forms and sounds are designed to evoke curiosity and encourage exploration with one or multiple users. When engaged, objects reflect the unique physical input of a users’ movement by producing auditory signals. Such interactive motions actuate layers of sound and rhythm that compose a unique event experienced by those present. |
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