time studio final

lately ive been looking a lot toward the work of early video artist and the way they used the new medium as documentation of quick performances they were doing in their studios and otherwise. this carries over from my last surface reaserch project when i looked toward these pioneers video players for my historical context thing. well ive been thinking about how video is used today and its more performing for the camera instead of performing and using the camera to document. i also was looking up the art critic rosalind krauss and came across her essay Video:The Aesthetics of Narcessism. although i couldnt find the essay to read online i read different peoples takes on it and their opinions on how instant playback and the monitor as a mirror adds a narcissist layer to the work. its interesting to investigate those ideas from krauss in the 70s and see how it pertains to video artists today. jeremy bailey uses new media and videos to talk about new media and videos. his art is a hilarious way is commenting on how the artist recognizes that they are a part of the art.

duncan malashock is another artist that ive been looking at a lot. im especially interested in his piece "rubbing the square" because it really shows human hand in internet interaction.

i think you can make the connection between malashock and all these talk about narcissism in video art. as humans controlling the computer we have the hand in creating these quick videos, we have the capability of editing our images and the focus always comes back to us, and what were doing and what were talking about in the video or action. duncan malashock made his video of rubbing the square about himself and the way hes personifying the mouse in a human action of rubbing somehting. of course rubbing is touching something, something tangible. rubbing the square makes a connection to the computers in the way that their actions are not human, but we can assign human qualities to them. jeremey bailey takes his programs and media and does somewhat of the same thing by making these virtual objects and controlling them through his webcam and sensors. he creates a sense of human control over the computerized creations.  

mascots/anonymity/representation/reality/perception

so for my surface research project we were suppose to find a certain painting in the vmfa that we were particularly drawn too and research that artist, the time period, and the historical context surrounding that artist. with that information its our job to create a work responding to the historical context and artists influences. we are not however to make a work solely inspired by that artists work and aesthetic. i chose the painting duo verde by ed paschke which was painted in 1978. its so confusing to me to focus on one aspect of history pertaining to his life and influences and the world around him. ive done so much research on him that it makes it even harder because im so interested in so much. 70s chicago itself was such a city of turbulence and nightlife and that greatly impacted ed paschkes whole life, however i think reflecting on the nitty gritty of the city (no rhyme intended) could become to history book like. ive been trying to look to his work within the chicago imagists group and figure out what thats all about. ive discovered that the imagists were people who, influenced by media (not necessarily commercial media like pop artists in new york so fondly look to) combined aspects of representation and fantasy in their work. confused at the idea of representation i really started looking into what that exactly means because to me representation could have a number of different definitions. reading the wikipedia about representation actually made my brain hurt. as interesting as it is, part of me couldnt fully grasp the concept of it. representation is mediation to reality and the way you perceive that representation is how you can create your own reality. it really struck me that objects dont have specific meanings but in the context of their specific cultures its up to the person to assign it meaning, and that meaning may only be relevant to the person. representation is how each individual takes it, there is no reality that isnt mediated by a certain representation of reality, and reality is always more complex than anything can every represent. so what is our own reality? IS THE REALITY ALL REPRESENTATIONS OF A DIFFERENT REALITY?

reading this different definitions really started making me question the reality of everything. as im typing right now im creating a representation of the thoughts in my head and the information ive read, which is actually a representation of a definition of words which represent thoughts. so is the only reality in our minds? the only reality we can come to is our thoughts and feelings and once its place in a physical space it becomes a representation?

in simpler terms ive also been intrigued by the idea of anonymity which is also seen a lot in ed paschkes later works. i read that he started thinking about anonymity when he was watching the news and saw peoples covered faces with masks during terrorists attacks. that made me think that anonymity is trying to take away from representation of a certain thing or person, but the more i thought about it the more i came to realize by through the anonymity its drawing more context and curiosity in the viewer therefore leaving it up to them to take the anonymity into their own interpretation of representation or let the viewers curiosity create multiple different representations that it could be.

ive been thinking a lot about mascots. this weird combination of trying to represent a common public identity and also trying to represent luck, but through a masked figure. mascots are creepy to me. i dont know whos in that suite, playing that eternally happy character with. for me mascots represent curiosity and creepiness, they evoke unsure and unsettling feelings inside me. i never wanted to get my picture taken at any sporting event with a mascot because all they represented to me was a strange sweaty person i didnt know. but thats my perception, and my reality of mascots, and everyone has their own reality.