I am from Calgary Alberta, and currently completing my BFA in visual arts. I work in sculpture, video, and pretty much any medium that will best serve my concept at hand. Last semester I focused on the idea of traces in my practice, understanding the trace as a means of documentation of life, and a comment of the human experience without including a presence of a body. Mediums that I chose to explore were soap, plaster, and video as a means of documentation of performances.
“Cubism changed the nature of the relationship between the painted image and reality, and by so doing it expressed a new relationship between man and reality.”
I don’t know if this relates at all to the reading but this weeks project I was interested in contacting strangers over a digital platforms. through text, omegla, or any open chat platform. I am interested in this interaction and interested in an attempted relationship through a platform and understanding if you can know someone through a digital platform. Do we need physicality of a body or a presence to know someone, where does a human essence reside?
Cubism changed the nature of the relationship between the painted image and reality, and by so doing it expressed a new relationship between man and reality.
chat room platforms, or vertual platforms of communication where individuals have the potential to establish relationships, enable questions of what constitutes reality. What is the real and what does a real relationship and interaction contain. Do we need to meet in the physical body to have a real and genuine relationship, or can it exist completely on a digital platform. I will continue to stay in contact with strangers I have texted in an attempt to produce a ‘real’ relationship .
So far in this work only two out of five random numbers have responded to me. One individual named Dave, and one individual named Pete. I will continue to upload pictures of our conversation over drop box throughout the semester.
Man & technics: Bernard Stiegler (video):
The fable or greek tale that Bernard Stiegler explains reminded me of Sartre’s opinions on man and their mans relation to functionality and purpose. Sartre states that we are condemned to freedom. This opinion is understand as man having a sickening responsibility of establishing ones own purpose. This responsibility is understood as a freedom. The understanding than man is a blank slate and that man does not have a predetermined function. This notion of man not having a predetermined function is reflected in the Greek tale when Prometheus has no qualities left in his basket for man, and that it is up to a human to decide what they will be.
This week I decided to do a short video work. I focused on stacking pebbles. Finding the limits of an object and the limits of my attention towards this object. https://youtu.be/xfYx8d9Txzs
A lot of my readings, and work this year have been alined with concepts of documentation. I often find myself asking whether the work is the documentation or is the work the art object. Concepts of documentation are not only affect our art world but our everyday lives. Almost everyone is a part of social media, and the reality of these platforms is that they are tools for documentation, weird perverse albums. These platforms have taken on a strange motto of I document therefore I am. I wanted to produce a work about documentation, where I continuously photograph a piece a paper, the link below has the documented image.
I think that a very human quality is that we no longer have survival of the fittest, and natural selection. Our technology has become so incredible that even the least able bodied person can live a long a prosperous life and even procreate even though your genetics aren’t “desirable”. In fact statistically individuals with higher intelligence will have less children compared to those with a lower intelligence. What does this mean and do to our species? This problem is strictly a human problem in that it creates an extreme over population.
Yes I would agree that Capitalism is a type of survival of the fittest, but I feel that this isn’t that same as survival of the fittest in the sense that there isn’t a physical biological component in our era. Survival of the fittest I guess would be understood in a cognitive sense, rather than the body. “Survival of the most cognitively fit mind” so to speak .
After todays talk, we discussed that every facet of life could be understood as technology, because of the logic that defines movement of life. That every facet of life has the ability to relate and communicate to one another. I think this is a very interesting idea but if everything is understood as technology then what isn’t technology?
I have continued my interest in documentation and saw the Natalie Brettschiender exhibition by Carol Sawyer. I wrote a short essay on this exhibition and my experience with it
The Natalie Brettschneider Archive, created by Carol Sawyer, is teeming with an assortment of photographs, letters, and videos which serve to illustrate the life and times of Natalie Brettschneider. Early in the exhibit we develop an understanding that Natalie is in fact a fictional creation, actualized and modelled by Sawyer. Carol Sawyer’s exhibition succeeds in stirring an ethereal understanding, a poetic gesture, that of being an artist who has created not art but an artist. The archive is a trace, a snap shot of Natalie Brettschneider’s life, an artist who lived during the early 1900’s. This being a time when female artists were often over looked, if not outright dismissed. Carol Sawyer’s piece serves to establish a platform and space, via her Natalie Brettschneider Archive, for the many women of this era whose accomplishments were invisible and uncelebrated during their time, falling through the cracks of history. A defining feature of the Brettschneider archive, as is with all archives, is the use of documentation. Documentation being varied via the use of various mediums such as photography, text and video. These diverse methods of documenting the subject matter serves to reflects upon, while also engaging with the past. The manner of displaying the archive also allows the exhibit to develop a contemporary dialogue while looking back at the past.
Documentation, as it relates to performance, assumes two perspectives, the theatrical documentation, and the documentary documentation. The theatrical being constructed by the artist in a “performed photography” and the documentary taking the form of reality in a sense, a pseudo reality of the performance. One could easily categorize the Natalie Brettschneider archive as a theatrical documentation of performance. Carol Sawyer has carefully composed images, texts, and videos to reflect and represent a surrealist avant garde artist. The final images, are the work of art, rather than the act of creating them because the individual doesn’t exist in ‘reality’.
However, upon speaking to Carol Sawyer about Natalie Brettschneider we begin to understand Brettschneider not as a fictional character but perhaps even real. When Sawyer is questioned: “Would you ever perform live the character of Natalie Brettschneider?” To this she answers, “No, because she is dead”, followed with remarks along the vein of: “I know I have an uncanny resemblance to her though.” Sawyer speaks of Brettschneider as if she is not only serrated from herself, but real, statements which reinstate both artists as individual beings. This separation between the two artists takes the reality of Natalie Brettschneider even further via an understanding of Natalie being a past being and the only means of accessing her is via the documentation. Thus enabling one to see Natalie as real, through Brettschneider’s comments we come to understand the exhibition as a documentary rather than from a theatrical perspective. Natalie Brettschneider’s identity comes to fruition via the documentation. The idea of documentation preceding identity, rather than identity preceding documentation, serves to embody the notion, “I document therefor I am.”, or “I document therefor I could be.”.
The Natalie Brettschneider Archive illustrates the significance of documentation in relation to identity. Constructing this identity establishes a reflection of this era, within the purview of female artists, that being the undocumented and veiled quality associated with female artists of that time. The documentation of Natalie Brettschneider serves as a means of rewriting and re-examining art history, which has often neglected a female identity with agency. Many images, within the archive, use a surrealistic avant-garde style, using materials, mirrors, and masks to perform and reflect a dream like quality. The images of Natalie Brettschiender, due to this stylistic choice, are often manipulated to a point where she is unidentifiable. The individual found behind the African masks, giant rhubarb leaves, brimmed hats, and cut paper could in fact be any woman. These carful obstructions may just be the purpose and legacy of the archive itself, that Natalie is simultaneously no woman and every woman, a nobody, and anybody.
The technology of our body is significant because we encounter it everyday. Automatic gestures of our body are fascinating because it’s the technology of nature itself over riding our psychological social decisions. The action of blinking is of interest because it establishes a duality between experiences darkness and lightness. But the reality of this situation that we only experience the light, but we are actually missing milliseconds. Vito Acconci did a blinking piece where when he was walking down a street he would snap a shot every time he blinked, capturing moments where he would technically miss. This awareness of missed moments and moments of light and dark provides a different perspective for the simplest of gestures, giving a platform to moments that are often over looked.
Yes, from our understanding in class of every function of nature being a manifestation of technology, the blinking itself is a means of adapting and surviving in our environment. It provides moisture for our yes. But this action also functions as a tool to communicate body language. I am continuing this technological function of the blinking eye in my future projects through the use of morse code. The morse code acts as a direct indicator of technology, acting as a language. But what we don’t realize at first glance of the work is that the whole work reflects technology because everything is technology. the body, the blinking, the documentation, the need and want to communicate.
This action of blinking in front of a camera as a performance, causes one to become aware of the common repeated action of blinking. The person who is blinking is specifically most aware of the excessive blinking. The thing I find interesting about the action of blinking is the understanding that we aren’t missing anything, but in reality our perceptions are not as clear and accurate as we make them out to be. If within a segment of 1-2 minutes we ‘miss out’ on multiple seconds. I wonder how many moments of darkness we experience throughout our day via our own automatic actions. Even though these thoughts of perceived intermittent darkness seem bleak and unsettling I find a comfort and a discomfort in know that we don’t ‘see’ ourselves living in darkness, or maybe that is our body and mind creating delusion. This causes me to wonder what other moments are being missed, but also what our body and mind choose to not perceive. It makes me think about how our body copes with prolonged repetition, whether it’s needed and healthy in terms of blinking or moments that just become naturalized within our schedules, addictions, abuse, etc.
I wanted to follow the train of though of blinking into this weekly project, and make a short attempt at communicating with my eyes. I felt that the most logical means of communicating with my eyes was via morse code. Morse code is a means of transmitting text information through on off tones. lights are clicks, are commonly used in this now archaic means of communicating. I am interested in this means of communication because of it’s ambiguity in relation to blinking. If one was unaware of this being an attempt at morse code we would not attempt to symbolically communicate with this organ. By illustrating to the viewer that I am using morse code the viewer looks harder at my blinking to find the hidden message. There is a secret beneath the moving image. I don’t know how successful this work is because I am still attempting to get better at morse code, but I will do future blinking morse code videos.
I have been thinking about future projects, reading about Yoko Ono “A Hole” piece. Where she shoots a pain of glass, leaving behind a trace of the bullet hole. This is of interest to me because this act of violence is damaging a barrier between to diametrically opposed sides. The work takes on a perspective of creating a mark through erasure, recognizing that you can not have a heaven without a hell. I have been thinking of drill holes in coins bridging two sides of the coin, finding a mutual ground within the object.
– The discussion begins by Yuval Harari explaining the value and significance of data
– Saying that data today is analogous with land centuries ago
– Data is equal to power
– Yuval continues to explain how data can track our biological behavior similar to how the internet tracks how browser history to understand how to market products successfully to us
– He continues to explain that software could even identify sexuality before an individual even is self-ware of their sexuality. This comment raises many questions for myself.
o What is the soft wear compiling it’s information to make accurate assumes of peoples sexuality?
o Is it taking mass statistical behavior analysis and if so what if an individual being assessed by this system is an out lier? How does a program account for the ‘unique’? OR is their no such thing as unique in terms of human behavior?
o If a software system knows more about us where is our agency?
o Can we have agency within these platforms?
o OR is this software system just revealing something that is already there? Revealing that we don’t actually understand our own human behavior and the data itself is merrily detecting it.
Well I don’t know really where to start with critiquing this system that China is debating about implementing. The first thing that comes to mind is an ideal I often remind myself perhaps as a coping mechanism for every day life is “care about your character not your reputation”. I often tell myself this because it reminds me that I have no control over peoples perceptions of myself, which is understood as reputation; but I do have control over my actions and how I mold myself which is my character. A system that is based on an external perspective of understanding ones self ultimately cares about the reputation over the character.
Within this system if you want to get a high rating you want to satisfy the majority, now I am not saying that people should be mean or rude but if we are always incentivized to satisfy the majority then we sacrifice authenticity. Facts and truth do not care about feelings and emotions. Existence should be honest and meaningful not structured on “being nice”.
I have been reading a lot lately on trauma and how it affects DNA. I am interested in this topic as my ancestral back ground has been through dramatic events. My Oma a German born woman grew up in Nazi occupied Germany and fled when the wall was being constructed to divide east and west Germany. My Oma faced this impossible task of leaving her native country like many have done but also had to make the difficult decision with her mother and brother of leaving her father behind. Her father my great grand father wasn’t interested in moving Canada and chose his nation over a new life with his family in Canada. This is an unbelievably traumatic event which could based on the article above have the potential to alter DNA and there by be passed down to me.
Another ancestral trauma that I am aware of is my great grandfather once being a prisoner of Auschwitz.It is easily understand that through his personal journals and memories that his life had profound trauma and suffering that could perhaps have altered his DNA and this chemical altercation could be passed down through generations. I personally other then having the mental awareness of profound empathy to my families history I am sceptical of the DNA altercations having an impact on myself. I am also sceptical to this research as I think it could open doors to individuals making excuses for present day troubles based on ancestral trauma.
I don’t know if this is an art object or if I can define this letter as art.. probably not but I still felt that it had an impactful presence so I wanted to post it anyways. I recently asked for my great grandfather’s journal/accounts of his life experiences from my opa. My Opa was happy to mail me his father’s journal and accounts but also a letter to me. I felt that this letter meant something as it is most likely the last letter and or object that I will ever receive from my opa as he is very ill. My Opa is a man who I have often struggled to understand throughout my life but still appreciate and have profound respect for his hardship to give me the beautiful life I have today.
I have decided that I need a final project to focus on. I have been using soap a lot many art works lately and I don’t think that I am finished with this material and it’s potential in my artistic practice. I have cast my mothers hands in soap for a past work and am interested in using the soap in another cast. I am interested in a cast of a book because of the lack of ability to transfer the actual text through the duplication of the object. I am struggling to think of what book to cast though. Right now I am considering doing cast of my artists sketch books and journals.
I have used soap in many works making cast, from virgin mary sculptures, my mothers hands, and now one of my old note books. I find the medium of soap spiritual and mythical, traditional ingredients being lard and ash.
The medium of soap not only has a spiritual sense but also has an uncanny ability to references the body through the ingredients that are present and used to produce the soap object. Traditionally soap consists of lye which is produced from hardwood ash and fat. The use of fat in this object references the body, because of it’s visceral organic origins but also because of it’s means to sustain a bodies life. The use of fat in this performed object not only references the body, but the female body. Women must have higher levels of fat to sustain and birth of a child, women must have fat to give their bodies to another. The use of ash also lends it self to concepts of sacrifice and rebirth. Wood being cultivated and burned to produce energy and warmth and eventually ash as fertilizer for the soil. Their is a cyclical and generous nature to the very ingredients of soap. These concepts of degradation, and breaking down the earth around to create a new is a sacrificial gesture in an attempt to produce something more significant.
Hey there, my name is Kelly Holmes
I am from Calgary Alberta, and currently completing my BFA in visual arts. I work in sculpture, video, and pretty much any medium that will best serve my concept at hand. Last semester I focused on the idea of traces in my practice, understanding the trace as a means of documentation of life, and a comment of the human experience without including a presence of a body. Mediums that I chose to explore were soap, plaster, and video as a means of documentation of performances.
“Cubism changed the nature of the relationship between the painted image and reality, and by so doing it expressed a new relationship between man and reality.”
I don’t know if this relates at all to the reading but this weeks project I was interested in contacting strangers over a digital platforms. through text, omegla, or any open chat platform. I am interested in this interaction and interested in an attempted relationship through a platform and understanding if you can know someone through a digital platform. Do we need physicality of a body or a presence to know someone, where does a human essence reside?
I will be attaching a drop box link
Cubism changed the nature of the relationship between the painted image and reality, and by so doing it expressed a new relationship between man and reality.
chat room platforms, or vertual platforms of communication where individuals have the potential to establish relationships, enable questions of what constitutes reality. What is the real and what does a real relationship and interaction contain. Do we need to meet in the physical body to have a real and genuine relationship, or can it exist completely on a digital platform. I will continue to stay in contact with strangers I have texted in an attempt to produce a ‘real’ relationship .
So far in this work only two out of five random numbers have responded to me. One individual named Dave, and one individual named Pete. I will continue to upload pictures of our conversation over drop box throughout the semester.
dropbox link, pictures on conversations: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ei4po9dz6jkdnyr/AAA1TuzdILdOjSZEbu3IQfkca?dl=0
Man & technics: Bernard Stiegler (video):
The fable or greek tale that Bernard Stiegler explains reminded me of Sartre’s opinions on man and their mans relation to functionality and purpose. Sartre states that we are condemned to freedom. This opinion is understand as man having a sickening responsibility of establishing ones own purpose. This responsibility is understood as a freedom. The understanding than man is a blank slate and that man does not have a predetermined function. This notion of man not having a predetermined function is reflected in the Greek tale when Prometheus has no qualities left in his basket for man, and that it is up to a human to decide what they will be.
This week I decided to do a short video work. I focused on stacking pebbles. Finding the limits of an object and the limits of my attention towards this object.
https://youtu.be/xfYx8d9Txzs
A lot of my readings, and work this year have been alined with concepts of documentation. I often find myself asking whether the work is the documentation or is the work the art object. Concepts of documentation are not only affect our art world but our everyday lives. Almost everyone is a part of social media, and the reality of these platforms is that they are tools for documentation, weird perverse albums. These platforms have taken on a strange motto of I document therefore I am. I wanted to produce a work about documentation, where I continuously photograph a piece a paper, the link below has the documented image.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/21rxun0kf5059pw/IMG_4997.jpg?dl=0
I think that a very human quality is that we no longer have survival of the fittest, and natural selection. Our technology has become so incredible that even the least able bodied person can live a long a prosperous life and even procreate even though your genetics aren’t “desirable”. In fact statistically individuals with higher intelligence will have less children compared to those with a lower intelligence. What does this mean and do to our species? This problem is strictly a human problem in that it creates an extreme over population.
Wouldn’t you say that Capitalism is the socialized version of survival of the fittest? That would also be argued for the global economical order…
Yes I would agree that Capitalism is a type of survival of the fittest, but I feel that this isn’t that same as survival of the fittest in the sense that there isn’t a physical biological component in our era. Survival of the fittest I guess would be understood in a cognitive sense, rather than the body. “Survival of the most cognitively fit mind” so to speak .
After todays talk, we discussed that every facet of life could be understood as technology, because of the logic that defines movement of life. That every facet of life has the ability to relate and communicate to one another. I think this is a very interesting idea but if everything is understood as technology then what isn’t technology?
That is precisely the question: What isn’t Technology?
I have continued my interest in documentation and saw the Natalie Brettschiender exhibition by Carol Sawyer. I wrote a short essay on this exhibition and my experience with it
The Natalie Brettschneider Archive, created by Carol Sawyer, is teeming with an assortment of photographs, letters, and videos which serve to illustrate the life and times of Natalie Brettschneider. Early in the exhibit we develop an understanding that Natalie is in fact a fictional creation, actualized and modelled by Sawyer. Carol Sawyer’s exhibition succeeds in stirring an ethereal understanding, a poetic gesture, that of being an artist who has created not art but an artist. The archive is a trace, a snap shot of Natalie Brettschneider’s life, an artist who lived during the early 1900’s. This being a time when female artists were often over looked, if not outright dismissed. Carol Sawyer’s piece serves to establish a platform and space, via her Natalie Brettschneider Archive, for the many women of this era whose accomplishments were invisible and uncelebrated during their time, falling through the cracks of history. A defining feature of the Brettschneider archive, as is with all archives, is the use of documentation. Documentation being varied via the use of various mediums such as photography, text and video. These diverse methods of documenting the subject matter serves to reflects upon, while also engaging with the past. The manner of displaying the archive also allows the exhibit to develop a contemporary dialogue while looking back at the past.
Documentation, as it relates to performance, assumes two perspectives, the theatrical documentation, and the documentary documentation. The theatrical being constructed by the artist in a “performed photography” and the documentary taking the form of reality in a sense, a pseudo reality of the performance. One could easily categorize the Natalie Brettschneider archive as a theatrical documentation of performance. Carol Sawyer has carefully composed images, texts, and videos to reflect and represent a surrealist avant garde artist. The final images, are the work of art, rather than the act of creating them because the individual doesn’t exist in ‘reality’.
However, upon speaking to Carol Sawyer about Natalie Brettschneider we begin to understand Brettschneider not as a fictional character but perhaps even real. When Sawyer is questioned: “Would you ever perform live the character of Natalie Brettschneider?” To this she answers, “No, because she is dead”, followed with remarks along the vein of: “I know I have an uncanny resemblance to her though.” Sawyer speaks of Brettschneider as if she is not only serrated from herself, but real, statements which reinstate both artists as individual beings. This separation between the two artists takes the reality of Natalie Brettschneider even further via an understanding of Natalie being a past being and the only means of accessing her is via the documentation. Thus enabling one to see Natalie as real, through Brettschneider’s comments we come to understand the exhibition as a documentary rather than from a theatrical perspective. Natalie Brettschneider’s identity comes to fruition via the documentation. The idea of documentation preceding identity, rather than identity preceding documentation, serves to embody the notion, “I document therefor I am.”, or “I document therefor I could be.”.
The Natalie Brettschneider Archive illustrates the significance of documentation in relation to identity. Constructing this identity establishes a reflection of this era, within the purview of female artists, that being the undocumented and veiled quality associated with female artists of that time. The documentation of Natalie Brettschneider serves as a means of rewriting and re-examining art history, which has often neglected a female identity with agency. Many images, within the archive, use a surrealistic avant-garde style, using materials, mirrors, and masks to perform and reflect a dream like quality. The images of Natalie Brettschiender, due to this stylistic choice, are often manipulated to a point where she is unidentifiable. The individual found behind the African masks, giant rhubarb leaves, brimmed hats, and cut paper could in fact be any woman. These carful obstructions may just be the purpose and legacy of the archive itself, that Natalie is simultaneously no woman and every woman, a nobody, and anybody.
Visual Essay
The technology of our body is significant because we encounter it everyday. Automatic gestures of our body are fascinating because it’s the technology of nature itself over riding our psychological social decisions. The action of blinking is of interest because it establishes a duality between experiences darkness and lightness. But the reality of this situation that we only experience the light, but we are actually missing milliseconds. Vito Acconci did a blinking piece where when he was walking down a street he would snap a shot every time he blinked, capturing moments where he would technically miss. This awareness of missed moments and moments of light and dark provides a different perspective for the simplest of gestures, giving a platform to moments that are often over looked.
https://youtu.be/aKPcz1JeEfY
Can you expand on the notion of humans as technology to complement your visuals?
Yes, from our understanding in class of every function of nature being a manifestation of technology, the blinking itself is a means of adapting and surviving in our environment. It provides moisture for our yes. But this action also functions as a tool to communicate body language. I am continuing this technological function of the blinking eye in my future projects through the use of morse code. The morse code acts as a direct indicator of technology, acting as a language. But what we don’t realize at first glance of the work is that the whole work reflects technology because everything is technology. the body, the blinking, the documentation, the need and want to communicate.
Visual Essay
This action of blinking in front of a camera as a performance, causes one to become aware of the common repeated action of blinking. The person who is blinking is specifically most aware of the excessive blinking. The thing I find interesting about the action of blinking is the understanding that we aren’t missing anything, but in reality our perceptions are not as clear and accurate as we make them out to be. If within a segment of 1-2 minutes we ‘miss out’ on multiple seconds. I wonder how many moments of darkness we experience throughout our day via our own automatic actions. Even though these thoughts of perceived intermittent darkness seem bleak and unsettling I find a comfort and a discomfort in know that we don’t ‘see’ ourselves living in darkness, or maybe that is our body and mind creating delusion. This causes me to wonder what other moments are being missed, but also what our body and mind choose to not perceive. It makes me think about how our body copes with prolonged repetition, whether it’s needed and healthy in terms of blinking or moments that just become naturalized within our schedules, addictions, abuse, etc.
I wanted to follow the train of though of blinking into this weekly project, and make a short attempt at communicating with my eyes. I felt that the most logical means of communicating with my eyes was via morse code. Morse code is a means of transmitting text information through on off tones. lights are clicks, are commonly used in this now archaic means of communicating. I am interested in this means of communication because of it’s ambiguity in relation to blinking. If one was unaware of this being an attempt at morse code we would not attempt to symbolically communicate with this organ. By illustrating to the viewer that I am using morse code the viewer looks harder at my blinking to find the hidden message. There is a secret beneath the moving image. I don’t know how successful this work is because I am still attempting to get better at morse code, but I will do future blinking morse code videos.
https://youtu.be/A73audO7BWk
p.s. I would look up a morse code cheat sheet to try and decipher the message
I have been thinking about future projects, reading about Yoko Ono “A Hole” piece. Where she shoots a pain of glass, leaving behind a trace of the bullet hole. This is of interest to me because this act of violence is damaging a barrier between to diametrically opposed sides. The work takes on a perspective of creating a mark through erasure, recognizing that you can not have a heaven without a hell. I have been thinking of drill holes in coins bridging two sides of the coin, finding a mutual ground within the object.
Notes:
Will the future be Human?
– The discussion begins by Yuval Harari explaining the value and significance of data
– Saying that data today is analogous with land centuries ago
– Data is equal to power
– Yuval continues to explain how data can track our biological behavior similar to how the internet tracks how browser history to understand how to market products successfully to us
– He continues to explain that software could even identify sexuality before an individual even is self-ware of their sexuality. This comment raises many questions for myself.
o What is the soft wear compiling it’s information to make accurate assumes of peoples sexuality?
o Is it taking mass statistical behavior analysis and if so what if an individual being assessed by this system is an out lier? How does a program account for the ‘unique’? OR is their no such thing as unique in terms of human behavior?
o If a software system knows more about us where is our agency?
o Can we have agency within these platforms?
o OR is this software system just revealing something that is already there? Revealing that we don’t actually understand our own human behavior and the data itself is merrily detecting it.
China Rating system
Well I don’t know really where to start with critiquing this system that China is debating about implementing. The first thing that comes to mind is an ideal I often remind myself perhaps as a coping mechanism for every day life is “care about your character not your reputation”. I often tell myself this because it reminds me that I have no control over peoples perceptions of myself, which is understood as reputation; but I do have control over my actions and how I mold myself which is my character. A system that is based on an external perspective of understanding ones self ultimately cares about the reputation over the character.
Within this system if you want to get a high rating you want to satisfy the majority, now I am not saying that people should be mean or rude but if we are always incentivized to satisfy the majority then we sacrifice authenticity. Facts and truth do not care about feelings and emotions. Existence should be honest and meaningful not structured on “being nice”.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/daily-videos/can-trauma-be-passed-to-next-generation-through-dna/
I have been reading a lot lately on trauma and how it affects DNA. I am interested in this topic as my ancestral back ground has been through dramatic events. My Oma a German born woman grew up in Nazi occupied Germany and fled when the wall was being constructed to divide east and west Germany. My Oma faced this impossible task of leaving her native country like many have done but also had to make the difficult decision with her mother and brother of leaving her father behind. Her father my great grand father wasn’t interested in moving Canada and chose his nation over a new life with his family in Canada. This is an unbelievably traumatic event which could based on the article above have the potential to alter DNA and there by be passed down to me.
Another ancestral trauma that I am aware of is my great grandfather once being a prisoner of Auschwitz.It is easily understand that through his personal journals and memories that his life had profound trauma and suffering that could perhaps have altered his DNA and this chemical altercation could be passed down through generations. I personally other then having the mental awareness of profound empathy to my families history I am sceptical of the DNA altercations having an impact on myself. I am also sceptical to this research as I think it could open doors to individuals making excuses for present day troubles based on ancestral trauma.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f31wuqxqn7y89a6/28741709_1883655901664982_962788509_n%202.jpg?dl=0
I don’t know if this is an art object or if I can define this letter as art.. probably not but I still felt that it had an impactful presence so I wanted to post it anyways. I recently asked for my great grandfather’s journal/accounts of his life experiences from my opa. My Opa was happy to mail me his father’s journal and accounts but also a letter to me. I felt that this letter meant something as it is most likely the last letter and or object that I will ever receive from my opa as he is very ill. My Opa is a man who I have often struggled to understand throughout my life but still appreciate and have profound respect for his hardship to give me the beautiful life I have today.
I have decided that I need a final project to focus on. I have been using soap a lot many art works lately and I don’t think that I am finished with this material and it’s potential in my artistic practice. I have cast my mothers hands in soap for a past work and am interested in using the soap in another cast. I am interested in a cast of a book because of the lack of ability to transfer the actual text through the duplication of the object. I am struggling to think of what book to cast though. Right now I am considering doing cast of my artists sketch books and journals.
FINAL work
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3e9xbs7849mun6l/Soap%20work%20FINAL%20481.gif?dl=0
My note book
documentation of a soap sculpture
Here is a link to past soap works
https://www.dropbox.com/s/guxaudmo0xl2s8g/Mymother%27shands.png?dl=0
My Mother’s Hands
I have used soap in many works making cast, from virgin mary sculptures, my mothers hands, and now one of my old note books. I find the medium of soap spiritual and mythical, traditional ingredients being lard and ash.
The medium of soap not only has a spiritual sense but also has an uncanny ability to references the body through the ingredients that are present and used to produce the soap object. Traditionally soap consists of lye which is produced from hardwood ash and fat. The use of fat in this object references the body, because of it’s visceral organic origins but also because of it’s means to sustain a bodies life. The use of fat in this performed object not only references the body, but the female body. Women must have higher levels of fat to sustain and birth of a child, women must have fat to give their bodies to another. The use of ash also lends it self to concepts of sacrifice and rebirth. Wood being cultivated and burned to produce energy and warmth and eventually ash as fertilizer for the soil. Their is a cyclical and generous nature to the very ingredients of soap. These concepts of degradation, and breaking down the earth around to create a new is a sacrificial gesture in an attempt to produce something more significant.