Separating Art and Artist

"There are many people who appreciate the expression of sincere emotion in verse, and there is a smaller number of people who can appreciate technical excellence. But very few know when there is an expression of significant emotion, emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet." - T.S Eliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent - The Sacred Wood (London, 1920)

More theory time!

To this day, I have maintained that the artist has very little influence in the dynamic setting of displayed traditional art. It is an outlook that I've maintained since the end of my time at New College Nottingham, in 2008. T.S Eliot here, though essentially giving a critique on the idea of originality in poetry, gave a very strong and transferable argument for the separation of art and artist. He likened this to a chemical reaction that acted as a metaphor for the mind of the poet acting as a catalyst; emotions and feelings acting as the two gases that will only operate in a reaction when the catalyst is present. In this case, you have a new "art emotion," but the catalyst remains neutral and no longer relevant.

This has greatly informed the viewpoint that I won't matter once my artwork is in the public eye. My expressions have left me to be received by others, and I tend to see that my contemporaries lack the same opinion, or insight. This is a bit of a problem in today's art world, because one hears more about the artist than the artwork e.g where they've worked, their backgrounds, what inspires them, the *idea* they promote etc. A lot of the time, I find myself to be uncaring of an artist's origins and opinions, only what they've produced and what the work says to me on the spot. 

Cromer Terrace Review, by Oliver Wallington.

So one can see why I find absolutely no appeal in "conceptual art." This is also why I needed a new angle on Fine Art, and to understand how people engage art in a gallery. Speaking as an artist, I too feel alienated as the audience to the usual contents of Tate Modern, and ultimately an industry of self-indulgent elitism that's way too patronising to its audience. However, that is partly due to my own viewpoint of detaching the artist from his/her medium of suspended expression. 

Saying that, though, I'm not considering all the angles of Performance Art, here. But this reflection stems mostly from traditional art, and that which is on display. Traditional or solely displayed artwork, in my opinion, is a lone statement, or beacon for artistic expression. What the artist says at that point will matter little.

Isadora unit/experiment - breaking out into the space

Remember the scribbling I was doing for an imaginary unit, which I subconsciously knew already existed? Well, here it is, saving me the groaning headache and financial burn of putting one together from scratch (and I hear they have two more over in the Waverley).

Nobody was using it, so again: dibs. David, my course tutor, was kind enough to put in a porter request for this to be shifted over into the Bonington building, and I was also encouraged to make myself a space in the MA studios. That, however, raises the necessity of defending it from anyone else's occupation, via polite notices in pen, paper and sticky tape. I'm quite surprised that I even have a studip space now, because I didn't think I'd be using one. Then again, my background is Fine Art - I made a flag for my last territory of creative mess.

My Isadora samples are ready, so now it's just a matter of sticking a decent camera for the video in-watcher, hooking in a mac to run Isadora and connecting all of it to the screen for people to approach and see how they influence it. This is not to forget the traditional drawings I've written about in my earlier plans, but I figure that getting the later phases of this interactive experiment ready to jump straight onto will make for a more efficient outcome.

vanishingPoint, by Jason Geistweidt

This is very close to the effect that I want for the interactive version of my displayed drawing (when it actually goes on display). I admit that I've been quite lazy with my practice into Processing, but it's nice to have others posting me this stuff and throw inspiration my way.

Sound TARDIS at Nottingham Contemporary and reflective discussions on art reaction

So, I went to this launch at the Contemporary, last night. It's the kind of art show that's right up my street, because of my instant love of sound installations. Plus, I have a friend working there who tends to keep me posted about what's on. I caught the last few minutes of the work upstairs, which consisted of some crude and hilarious paintings, performance pieces that strongly resembled the brain bugs from Starship Troopers, as well as a life-size catbus for children to climb into. The sound installation downstairs was a very intricate piece in the form of a boxed, rectangular space, where you could walk inside and hear the very subtle sounds that played from small lights that dangled from the mesh ceiling. I walked around in this space for five/ten minutes, feeling like my hearing had become more acute and sensitive. 

Later on, I had joined a few friends in the bar for a rare treat of beer and experimental jazz bands. Said friends had also seen the exhibition and were talking about the weird paintings. These friends don't really have much of a background in art like I do, but their reaction to the paintings were the identical to mine: giggling hysterically. This opened the way for a conversation about how people react to art like that, and the tension of a gallery space was pointed out. To my own surprise, my immediate response to the question of how artists wanted viewers to react was "Fuck what they want." This reminded me of the studies I had made in my second year of Art History at DMU, mainly involving the writings of T.S Eliot and Clement Greenberg, as well as the exploration into the irrelevance of the creative individual once he/she displays the artistic piece in a public domain. This is why I am coming full circle within my proposed project, and I am still unchanged in the view that it is thoroughly down to the viewer whether an artwork achieves or fails its conceptual goals. 

Magic Light - aftermath

I was at work this day, so I didn't get much of an insight into the setup of the final piece. However, I saw the last half an hour of the show last friday. Trent also hyped it up by tweeting about it. Over 500 people, I was told, entered the exhibition from Shakespeare Street and took to the light on the steps very well... even my voice, which bellowed the D.H Lawrence passage I recorded the week before.

A few things were drawn upon when viewing the piece for myself:

• The interactivity of the piece only involved the volume of my recording getting louder (to a certain limit) according to how many spectators walked past the cameras (one on each side, the last time I checked, but it might have just been one). Due to limited time, we couldn't program the proposed footstep path left behind by the viewers as they ascended/descended the steps.
• The luminosity of the lights - for a night piece, this point stuck out like a sore thumb in its finality. I was made aware that the lights were not at their full level of brightness, and subsequently saw just how blinding they were originally. It was also reported that, as a result of said levels of brightness, some people found it disorientating against the natural dark. Thus, it was turned down to a more appropriate level. There were comments that suggested that some could only see the lights ad not the steps. 
• Referring to the first point, it is possible to display this piece again elsewhere, and apply the interactive footstep path that were trying to achieve in the first place. This gives us a lot more time to experiment with the LED lights elsewhere (probably some of the spaces within Bonington), as we won't be pressed with the restraints of the deadline.

I still believe that the overall disappointment stemmed from the mixed communication from within Trent and those publicising the event - whether it be within the council or the university itself. If one should agree to do something like this again for Light Night, then a more rigorous and lengthy schedule should be applied, and communication between all parties need to be as clear and precise as crystal.