Using Tumblr for my Architecture in Games Research

I will be updating my work here from time to time, but I am engaging in further research in architecture within game spaces.  I will utilise this space to discuss my fine art practice and the tumblr space as a means of discussing the architectural research topic.

I have linked the space below for those who are interested:

http://portergraphic.tumblr.com/

Also, I will be part of a group showing in Wellington on the 7th through the 20th of April at the following location:

MATCHBOX STUDIOS

166 CUBA ST, TE ARO, WELLINGTON (04) 381 3451

The exhibition is a portraiture show and I will be exhibiting two of my works that I presented at one of the seminars during my MFA studies.

Porter, M. 2013, Hard #5 [digital media photographic stock] Artists’ collection.

 

Porter, M. 2013, Angry #1 [digital media on photographic stock] Artists’ collection.

Final Exhibition

The MFA has come to an end.  With luck, I will get my marks in the next month or so and I will know if I have achieved or not.

I set up my exhibition space and we had the opening of the gallery on the 18th of Jan.  The show will continue until the 25th and then the tedious task of breaking down and shifting out of the exhibition space will begin.  It has been a wonderful experience learning and discussing art with my cohort and the other cohorts, who have since exited the programme or have come into the programme this year.  The staff and school have been exceptional in their support, despite my lack of communication due to work commitments.  I feel that most likely made me take on board every conversation, regardless of how brief, with much more earnestness and attention.

Below are still images from the interactive pieces that are currently showing at the Pearce Gallery in Parnell.  The exhibition spaces are wonderful and have allowed us a great venue in which to show our final pieces of making during out post grad submissions.

My final submission had six different scenes.  Here is the artist statement and the short essay regarding my exhibition.

Artist Statement:

My works investigates the boundaries of the gallery space. The gallery or ‘white cube’ creates a safe space where art is explicitly understood as art. While this space allows art to become the focus, it has the limitations of dimension, location, and the physical world which bind the work. Utilising game technology, emerging visualisation technology, and the concept of the gallery, I hope to expand beyond these limitations implied by the real world and allow the viewer to experience art in a different way.

The spaces within my works are representative of physical locations, or stylised locations that could be drawn from real world experience. It is the juxtaposition of real and imagined that is intended to create a discussion about the white cube space and how those spaces could be extended through technology.

As the technology advances, further exploration is needed to allow more avenues of delivery for the artist. The boundaries and limitations of physical space and traditional materials are changing, allowing artists to redefine the possibilities of how we can create artworks and broadening our viewers experience within the gallery space. As technology advances we are able develop new modes of artistic representation, opening avenues of delivery for the artist.

Essay:

The work within represents an exploration of digital media and technology as a means of expanding the conventional gallery space. These otherplaces are a mixture of real and surreal ideals of the white cube and how the space itself
can become both content and context.

Brian O’Doherty’s essay, ‘inside the white cube’, discusses how the gallery space controls not only the art object, but the viewing subject, and how that context devours the object, becoming the object. The space becomes a dominant force, which changes the context of the object or art placed within.

Marcel Duchamp’s works, ‘1,200 Coal Bags’ and ‘Mile of String’ were used to challenge the establishment of the gallery. Utilising the gallery space in a unique way, Duchamp’s work was a provocation of the viewer to reconcider the space in which they were engaged as an object of art itself.

The technology utilised in these works are meant to create that same provocation. Challenging the viewer to reconcider the spaces in which they find themselves.

Long overdue post

Today I am posting my oral presentation that I did as part of my master’s studies.  I have been so overwhelmed as of late, that I have been negligent in my studies.

Contentious Spaces

Video games have been infused into popular culture since the 1980’s and during that time they have been many things to many people, however until more recently games weren’t displayed in an art context. To be clear, this isn’t about the fidelity of the image, but rather than spaces that are devoid of the “real” and therefore an uneasy and contentious space.

Jean Baudrillard Retrieved from: http://getoutandstayoutofjail.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/jean-baudrillard-2002-2.jpg

In order to put context to the remainder of the presentation, it is important to define the hyper-real and how this definition has influenced my practice.  When Baudrillard states that the generation by models of a real without origin or reality, he is suggesting that there cannot be a real, as everything is mediated through a personal lens.  This lens creates a false copy, which becomes in new real.  Utilising this concept, my practice creates another false copy, in which the viewer may engage, utilising their own lens.

Norman, P. 1983 The Forbidden Forest [computer game] Cosmii corporation

In brief, games have simplified stories and mechanics that allow the user to escape reality and live out fantasies.  This fantasy, typically over the last thirty years, was of a very low resolution that allowed the player to utilise their imagination to fill in the gaps of that proposed reality.  Over the 20 minutes I will discuss hyper-reality, the unease, and how games or more precisely, how game technology has moved from play to art. The early adopters of this technology have become conversant in the language of games and game interaction.

In my research my main focus has been the hyper-real and the unease.  Utilising the works of theorists and critics such as Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Lacan, Marshall McLuhan, and most recently Benjamin Woolley, I hope to examine the hyper-real, the unease, and how new media, or digital media accentuates those concepts.  During this discourse, I will weave key points gleaned from authors and artists with related works gathered through the research process.  It is my hope that these key topics will instruct how digital media is currently viewed and how the a new critique process is instrumental in creating dialogues with this emerging paradigm.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Game development for the most part is an exercise in being all things to all people.  Through design sessions, teams will come together and discuss what would make a game “cool”, in many respects this is just an examination of zeitgeist. Rather than being a product of that age, games become a parody of the times.  This shift into parody is not a conscience one, but rather through a scale of economy that is needed in regard to time, attention, and computing power. Games must negate subtlety to ensure that the player has something to do straight away, focused engagement. This economy leads to the use of stereotypes and clichéd stories that are easy to follow.

This need for ‘shorthand’ is helpful to progress through story into the meat of the game, the play.  The designers become broad, rather than deep researchers and their research is influenced day to day through a variety of mediums.  There is a shift, however, that is part of a natural progression to include more emotional experiences for the player.  The balance lies in the delivery of both action and emotion.  Too much action and the player will not buy into the emotional element, and too much emotion will bore the player. These emotive games have been critically acclaimed for their realism and story, and still games do not quite have the same emotional impact that more traditional mediums can deliver.

Games have a distinct advantage, but also a disadvantage to film or other forms of artistic expression.  The advantages are that games are interactive and therefore performative or participatory in nature.  This ensures that the player or viewer is fully invested in the act, even if it is for a short period of time, or dismiss it outright as “too hard” to understand.  It becomes a binary function of investment or rejection. Once the viewer is invested there is another advantage.  Games can be played in a variety of ways, so the outcome is different each time the player engages with the artefact.  In an artistic sense, the viewer has direct agency over what they are viewing and how they are viewing it.

Multiple Authors, 2004 Half Life 2 [computer game] Valve Corporation

The problem however lies in the interaction.  Viewers see the avatars in games or game space as nothing more than a conduit for their fantasies, rather than a performer within a proposed reality.  This conduit lacks nuance, subtlety, and does not create empathy within the person playing the game.  Many times, in games at least, the most powerful avatars in the game world are the ones you never see. Their absence is there for the viewers  to embody, which speaks volumes about the power of fantasy.  These heroes or avatars become hyper-real, they embody a concept of self.  In a society that now has a true understanding of the global, the individual becomes lost.  Within the context of games, the other becomes the self. In the case of Gordon Freeman, basically a disembodied gun as seen in the image, resides in a game called Half Life 2. Gordon never speaks or is never seen on-screen, yet was voted the most realistic video game character of all time.

Multiple Authors, 2013 Battlefield 4, EA DICE

Game developers are usually immersed in popular culture and use this knowledge to bend the larger social construct into a superficial narrative within which a game can be played.   The most pervasive,  and financially rewarding games are militaristic and can be seen as a commentary of our times, but this commentary isn’t a conscience effort to point a finger at war, but rather creating a fantasy that resides within the reality.  Subsequently, reality is then examined through the lens of games, this quote, from Sue Masterman, who is commenting on the Iraqi war, fought in 1991,  states the following: “This is the war – brought live straight into your living room.  The biggest computer game of all time fought out right under your nose”(Woolley, 1994) Her comment typifies the unreal, or hyper-real state of the world.  Baudrillard, in his book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place, states that, “Against this obsession with the real we have created a gigantic apparatus of simulation which allows us to pass to the act “in vitro”. We prefer the exile of the virtual, of which television is the universal mirror, to the catastrophe of the real.” (Baudrillard, 1995)

Kojima, H. 2013 Metal Gear Solid’s Quite, [computer game] Konami Corp.

Typically there are no efforts to bring about a change or to demonstrate against social, economic, racial or gender inequity within the context of games, and in many respects games subvert the movement to remove these inequities.  The older generation that grew up with poor quality games can see them for the escapism that they are meant to be, however as the newer generations grow up playing ultra-realistic games that glorify war, guns, objectification of women, and other socially unacceptable behaviours, hyper-realism becomes the new real and children have less understanding reality.

Koons, J. 1994 Baloon Dog [high chromium stainless steel with transparent colour coating] the collection of Steven A. Cohen, Eli Broad

Artists of the contemporary, have utilised artwork as a means of communication of values or ideals, even if those ideals are not socially acceptable. In the case of Jeff Koons, who is derided by some for cynical self merchandising or the Chapman brothers, who poke at the self importance of fine art aficionados, their mode of communication is accepted as art because the technology utilised for this communication is understood. Traditional mediums are effective modes of delivering this information, but there is a real concern about, and a need for providing artistic expression and communication in a medium that is part of the digital natives vocabulary.

Retrieved from: http://s-usih.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Roger-Ebert.jpg

Thus far, the voices that utilise games to express their ideas have come under criticism about the validity of the medium. There have been many criticisms of games as art, from a variety of people in the art world but also the game development communities, and they state that video games cannot be art.  Most famously Roger Ebert stated that video games can never be art and went on to state the following:

I remain convinced that in  principle, video games cannot be art. Perhaps it is foolish of me to say “never,” because never, as Rick Wakeman informs us, is a long, long time. Let me just say that no video  gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form. (Ebert, 2010)

Viola, B. 2007 Night Journey [digital media, video] USC Interactive Media Division

Bill Viola’s, Night Journey (Viola,2010) is an experimental film utilising game development practices. This surreal piece puts the viewer in control of an invisible avatar in a black and white environment.  Rather than struggle with interaction, Viola instructs the user through a non-diegetic representation of the control apparatus.  As the player moves through the environment, there are opportunities to reflect and explore, but no agenda to direct the movement.  This removal of purpose, other than exploration is outside of the typical constraints in which games operate.  People who play games seek purpose, or to feel in power of their experience, and without that purpose would quickly lose interest. Game players may not be engaged in the exploration and therefore miss the point entirely or become dismissive. The research facility that collaborated with Bill Viola stated the following: “The interactive design attempts to evoke in the player’s mind a sense of the archetypal journey of enlightenment through the “mechanics” of the game experience – i.e. the choices and actions of the player during the game.”(“Night Journey Statement”, 2013)

Duchamp, M. 1917, Fountian, [readymade] Tate Modern, London, Retrieved from http://tagartteacher.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/aesthetics-in-classroom-what-is-purpose.html

As stated previously marginalisation comes from both the art and game community. Arguably, if there is a debate if something is art or not, it becomes art.  In the case of Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (Duchamp, 1917) his intention was not to create a significant moment in art history, but rather to play a practical joke on a democratic open exhibition.  It wasn’t until the work was rejected and then thrown away that the work became significant. This marginalisation of the artist became a transformative decision that still resonates today.  The marginalisation of games as art may justified, in that the purpose of most games is not to be disruptive as that “Bedfordshire” urinal was, but rather to be accepted by the largest group of people possible to maximise sales.

However, since the debate is still raging, games have by proxy become art.  As the games industry matures, so too does the tools and techniques that can be utilised to express complex ideas, and through the democratisation and ubiquity of free tools to utilise, more artists will have the ability to speak to the digital native. The engines listed are the defacto standard for creating high quality games, however there are thousands of engines that are freely accessible and allow for modding or remodelling of game play in a game. The real challenge is not in the making, but in the interaction.

Utilising this technology, artists are able to create immersive worlds that allow the participant to inhabit a space of the artists construction.  This collaboration of artist and participant is made possible through the tools that are typically reserved for a much more complex process, but much less complex goal.  In effect, game engines become the “readymade” of the contemporary, and practitioners, such as Bruno Martelli and Ruth Gibson of igloo have utilised these technologies to create stunning works of art.

Retrieved from: http://www.swanquake.com/OldSite/images/B&R.jpg

In particular Swan Quake, Vermillion Lake, and  most recently In Search of Abandoned  the artists utilise typical game development paradigms to establish unique works within the framework of fine art.  These artefacts allow the viewer to investigate the constructed environments in a variety of ways and through various control mechanisms.  In some instances the haptics or control through touch of the work mimic real life engagement.

Gibson, R. & Martelli, B. 2011 Vermillion Lake [Mixed Media] Djanogly Gallery, UK

In Vermillion Lake, the viewer is placed in a row boat and moves through the space by using the oars, which have hydraulics and potentiometers to make the rowing feel realistic in terms of tension and screen dynamics.  This interaction becomes hyper-real, as the physical world has direct correlation with the actions on screen. This interaction is a well known paradigm for many, so the participant is no longer aware of the false copy and is allowed access into the concept.

Gibson, R. & Martelli, B. 2011 Vermillion Lake [Mixed Media] Djanogly Gallery, UK

The uneasiness of these works lie in the virtualised spaces and how seemingly impossible realities are made real.  In the case of Vermillion Lake, the screen and row boat are not the only part of the installation.  The artists utilised a 3D model and printed out full scale panels and constructed a house to represent a physical space.  The participant must enter into this building in order to engage with the virtualised space.  The interesting part is that the viewer can then find this house beside the lake within this virtual construct.  There is a moment of introspection that takes place when the participant sees a location within the virtual space that they are physically in at the time of interaction.

To utilise a recent movie concept to label confusion, a moment of “inception” takes place.  This uncanny moment creates a sense of unease because our daily lives are becoming more virtualised than real.  This construct points out that we are no longer in the real, however since the participant is no longer making a conscience effort to interact with the art, they are free to become a part of that art.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Untitled [digital media, variable size] Artists’ collection. 

In my previous work, Untitled (Porter 2013) I utilised a free game engine called UDK or Unreal Development Kit which was also used in Swan Quake and Vermillion Lake.  This program or others like it are used to create commercial games.  I used this software, but removed elements of game play and had the viewer control an invisible avatar through a space that was an amalgamation of gallery and institutional spaces.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Untitled [digital media, variable size] Artists’ collection. 

The work was meant to be a critique on my personal experiences navigating through the master’s programme and feeling lost in that process.  One of the strategies of this work was to have the user engage with the work utilising a game controller.  Using a common tool of engagement for players meant that many people who are unfamiliar with that paradigm became uncomfortable in their inability to move through the space effectively. The change in the paradigm from goal driven game-play to an exploration of unfamiliar spaces was meant to provide unease for a game player.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media, variable size] Artists’ collection. 

As my work progressed, I moved into the idea around institutional spaces and how spaces were representative of power, but also of a larger than human scale.  Places of learning, or detention are built to allow the passage of a multitude of people.  In doing so the human is diminished in the environment and loses their importance or becomes a number.  While the focus of the work was not ultimately where I wanted to head, it did lead me to a realisation that the true unease that I wanted to critique was the loss of self in the sea of other. Jacques Lacan speaks of the concept of the mirror stage.  This stage of development marks a turning point in the development of human children, however at a point in the development of adults, the loss of identity or the comparative self may create anxiety and unease.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Untitled [digital media, variable size] Artists’ collection. 

In July, my works were more professional in terms of game context.  Utilising the CryEngine 3, I had a bit more technical freedom in terms of lighting and scripting.  At this point I was made aware the stark contrast between academic and game lenses.  In my eyes, I made more objects, with a more concrete foundation of place, or places.  There was a ramping up in sophistication of interaction with the environment and fidelity of the work.  This created a more cohesive sense of institution, but confusion if it were meant to be an amalgamation of places or a single purpose place.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Untitled [digital media, variable size] Artists’ collection

More unsettling was the revelation that what I perceived as subtlety was read as parody. It was clear at that time that I would need to think more about not only what I was saying, but how I was saying it. The use of the controller became a stumbling block , which was one of my fears early on.

My focus shifted once again to that feeling of being outside the process looking in.  This is a fairly typical viewpoint for gamers of my generation, but this paradigm is shifting. Gamers are becoming the norm, however I began to see how our interconnectedness has made us observers of our own lives.  We have become our own avatars and our day to day activities become dictated by digital screen. We tweet our locations, our status updates speak of us in third person, our families are talked to, and looked at through the mediation of the digital, camera, webcam, cell phone, and then digital delivery through a social media site.  We are living in an uneasy and uncanny hyper-reality.

As the numbers of people who are familiar with game control paradigms increase, so too will acceptance of games as art. Games are in their infancy and are still going through growing pains.  Each technology that affords the artist a means through which to express themselves must go through the process of maturity in order to become commonplace enough to allow ease of communication.  Speech, writing, painting, sculpture, photography and film were all technological advancements in expression.

Each new technology brings unease in what will become of the familiar. Oral traditions have been lost to the written word, a picture speaks a thousand words, photography brings about the death of painting, each one of these were fears of the new technology displacing the old.

As I move forward with my practice, the control mechanism for the interaction of my art will become the focus of the art.  Either the ubiquity of the devise will negate its effect, or the mode of interaction will need to become transparent.  In the case of an automobile, the paradigm in which this technology  is interacted with is secondary to the function. The physical act of interaction is no longer thought about, but rather the experience of driving is focused on and the user of that technology is immersed in the reality of driving.  User interface technology is advancing the game space and a large amount of the development of usability and interaction is being focused on.  Removal of barriers allows for greater immersion and suspension of disbelief, but also a larger marketplace in which to sell games.

There are user interface tools out there, but they are cost prohibitive, or still in development.  These tools are meant to reduce the barriers of interaction by introducing natural motions such as head movement, running on a treadmill, or walking through a physical space. As Marshall McLuhan states, “The medium is the message” (McLuhan, 1964).  Without consideration of how the viewer will engage in a meaningful way, the message will be lost. These extensions of ourselves initially cause conflict, but as our familiarity with the medium grows, the messages become clearer.

As I progress I hope to resolve some of the issues around interaction and dialogue between man and machine, in order to allow the art speak for itself.

Bibliography

Night Journey Statement. (2013). Retrieved September 20, 2013, from http://www.thenightjourney.com/statement.htm

Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra & Simulation. The Precession of Simulacra, University of Michigan Press. p. 1.

Baudrillard, J. (1995). The Iraq War did not take place, Indiana University Press. p. 28.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Routledge and Kegan Paul.  p.7

Woolley, B. (1994). Virtual Worlds: A Journey in Hype and Hyperreality, Penguin Books.  p.193-197

Essay about portraiture (Previous Essay before blogging)

Chuck Close and Martin Schoeller both utilise a very structured approach to portraiture in an attempt to capture their subjects.  While Schoeller is a photographer and Close is primarily a painter, the subjects are depicted in a very similar fashion.  These works appear to be intended to catalogue the subjects, rather than to objectify them.  The use of these very dispassionate, almost mechanical depictions of the face can create an uncanny effect.  Unpacking the meaning behind the artists’ works and processes, is the intent of this essay.

Chuck Close’s work starting in 1960’s utilises photography to catalogue and paint large format images of his friends.  Suffering from prosopagnosia or face blindness, Close created his images by utilising a grid system that was drawn over the top of the photograph and canvas.  By using this grid, Close was able to transfer very small bits of data from one surface to another.  This process involves looking at and recreating only one square of information at a time.  His process of painting with an airbrush is said to have inspired ink jet printers.  The process, rather than the result of that process seems to be the driving force behind the making.  Although this process appears digitally created, because of the grid transfer he uses, Close denies the use of computer and states that “I’m pre-pixel. They got it from me.”(Finch, 2010, para. 94).

Close utilises photographs in a portion o f his production process as he states: “I am definitely trying to nail down the camera’s vision, that frozen moment in time as opposed to the traditional portrait sitting which might take months or a year for an ambitious, large scale work.” (DeLoach, 1982).  It is this frozen moment, which is one of the hundreds of images Close captures over a course of hours.  Once his subject is comfortable and no longer posing for the camera Close says that it is the “potential energy” (DeLoach, 1982) that gives the face all the nuances and character. The other reason for the use of photographs is that in a sitting situation the model must sit in the same position, and try to approximate the look that they had on their face at the time of the last sitting.  The essence of the model can be captured by a live sitting, however it becomes an amalgamation of all the emotions the model has had over the course of the sitting.  Close calls this the “mean average” (DeLoach, 1982) of the emotions:

In traditional figure painting, one of the things that makes(sic) a lot of them so dreadful is that any urgency or sense of the painter’s attitude is dissipated over the long haul. I don’t mind spending a year on a painting, but I want to have the urgency of that frozen moment which cuts across time. (DeLoach, 1982)

Through this process the Close asserts that the artist becomes less important and that the camera is the primary observer. While the camera eye is less forgiving than the artist’s eye, there is still intervention through the process of selection, not only the subject, but the lighting and the pose.  Another technique that is utilised by Close is to soften or sharpen the look of the model.

As the images are based on a camera’s vision and then magnified, the artist is able to manipulate viewers’ responses through varying degrees of focus, detail, gradation of value and color(sic), and the distance between the image and the viewer. (Johnson, 1992)

Close fails at attempts of removing himself from the process since there are many layers of mediation as stated above. This mediation or intervention makes his works emotionally charged, despite the attempt of a neutral gaze on the part of the model.

The techniques utilised by Close vary from piece to piece, for instance, some of the earlier portraits are created with thumbprints, or inkpads or airbrushed acrylic dots.  His latest works utilises craftspeople to create jacquard tapestries. Despite the varied techniques to create his images, all of his works start as daguerreotype or Polaroid photographs.  The photographs that he uses are typically large format images that enhance the details of the model, as in the case of the daguerreotypes, “I have always attempted to create images that deliver the maximum amount of information about the subject, I was fascinated by the clarity and detail of the daguerreotype. Nothing gets lost.” (Rexer, 2000)  This detail in the source imagery allows Close to accentuate details or to push those details into the background in order to deliver the most visual impact to the viewer of the image.

The end result of all of the efforts in choices of subject, substrate, technique or mediums are compelling images that invite close inspection, not just of the technical prowess, but also the person who is being portrayed.   The format of Close’s works also create a un-canniness as up close the images do not read as a portrait but rather the process he employs and from far away the works are imposingly large, demanding attention.

An emotional connection may be easy to establish for some as the image is an honest and accurate depiction of a person in a moment of relaxation, in the company of a friend. The lack of expressions on the faces of the sitters allows the viewer of the works to unpack and bring their own narrative to the experience.  Lyle Rexer, an art critic states, “photography frames mysteries; paintings enacts them”. (Rexer, 2003)

Some see this lack of expression and the processes as boring and unimaginative approach to art. New Republic’s art critic Jed Perl says the following of Close’s works;

It’s all just piece-work, Close’s homegrown(sic) assembly-line product.  His coolness isn’t interestingly matter-of-fact; it’s deadeningly(sic) mechanized. The photograph is always a photograph. The grid is always a grid. Every one of these portraits has a dissociated feel. But for museumgoers(sic) who have spent decades training themselves to accept the latest hooey, dissociation may be the only experience left. (Perl, 1998)

Close however sees the lack of choices as a means of distilling down all of the choices until there is only the problem solving of how to make the mark, rather than what to depict.  He has stated, “I have never wanted to paint anything else” (Snaije, 1998). This single mindedness has allowed Close to focus on the processes of his art and he has been successful at maintaining that focus throughout his career.

Nat Chuck Close, 1972-1973 (watercolour on paper) Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest © Chuck Close Retrieved from http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=5669287

            Martin Schoeller’s works are much more diverse as far as subject matter than Chuck Close’s pieces, however a series of his photographs entitled, “Close Ups” have a very similar quality to the works of Chuck Close.  His subjects range from the famous to the anonymous, but are depicted as equals.  His goal is to capture what he considers the “subtle expression that underlies their personality” (Schoeller, 2009).  Schoeller’s models sit a set distance from the camera and the lighting is exactly the same for each of the models.  The camera height set based on the eyes of the models so that they are looking directly into the lens and his instructions to his models is to affect a neutral pose.  This prescriptive approach to these photographs is supposed to remove any differences; social, economic, gender and meant to be “more honest and much more interesting…” (Schoeller, 2010)

The subtle details of the models faces, like scars and blemishes are not retouched, but made all the more visible by the lighting used and the close proximity of the camera.  Schoeller creates these images in a mug shot format, which removes the background, clothing and other distracting factors from the image.  “I aim to record the instant the subject is not thinking about being photographed,” Schoeller has said, “striving to get beyond the practical facial performance, reaching for something unplanned.” (Eyman, 2012).   The images have been likened to a “cross between a mug shot and an autopsy photograph” (Eyman, 2012) but the harsh lighting and neutral expression is aimed at removing the artifice that is affected when being photographed.  The typical intervention of photo-retouching and flattering lights that takes place in a portrait are also absent in Schoeller’s works.

The un-canniness in Schoeller’s works, as in Close’s works is the imposing size that dominates the gallery spaces where they hang. The sharp details of the faces lies in the middle plane of the image, such as the cheeks, lips and eyes while the nose, neck and hair are blurred. This technique focuses the attention on the eyes, which are lit in a way to accentuate the colour and they seem to sparkle in comparison to the rest of the image.  This juxtaposition of harsh detail of the face and rich, accentuated eyes, which seem cat like in appearance, creates further since of unease.  The faces seem defiant despite the neutral expression.

A recent showing at Boca Raton Museum of Art was filled with the large scale photographs of Schoeller’s models. Scott Eyman, a writer for PBPulse wrote, “It’s a predominantly impassive procession of faces, often quite famous, that cumulatively say very little. That’s because without expression or emotion, even famous faces become nothing more than bare canvas that allows you to project your own emotions.” (Eyman, 2012).   Nico Machida writer for ARTslant states,

Each C-print proves a compelling visual text in its own right, an opportunity to precisely examine the complexities and contradictions of faces. But when hung in a large group, as they are now at Ace Gallery Beverly Hills, Schoeller’s photographs take on a haunting prosthetic agency, as if gazing back at the viewer from so many points. Their sustained intensity is at once potent and uncanny… (Machida, 2007)

The emotional context of the images goes through a mediation process when the viewer engages with the images.  The artist’s mediation in the case of these two artists is wildly different, but the investment of the viewer seems to be the same in both Close’s and Schoeller’s works.  In my opinion, when confronted with mug shot like images the viewers emotional responses will be based less on artist intervention and more upon the emotional baggage they have brought with them.

Schoeller, M. National Geographic  Retrieved from http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/hadza/schoeller-photography

 

 

Bibliography

Finch, C.  Close Up. Guernica Retrieved from http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/close_7_1_10/

DeLoach, D. Up Close: An Interview with Chuck Close. Art Papers Mar/Apr82, Vol. 6 Issue 2, p2-3, 2p

Johnson, M. Chuck Close: Editions. Arts & Activities; May92, Vol. 111 Issue 4, p18, 4p, 2 Color Photographs, 3 Black and White Photographs

Rexer, L. Chuck Closer Rediscovers the Art in an Old Method, The New York Times, March12, 2000 Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/12/arts/art-architecture-chuck-close-rediscovers-the-art-in-an-old-method.html

Rexer, L. Chuck Close at PaceWildenstein, Art in America; May2003, Vol. 91 Issue 5, p150, 2p

Perl, J. Death and Realism, New Republic; 04/20/98, Vol. 218 Issue 16, p25-30

Snaije, O. The Kaledidoscopic World of Chuck Close’s Portraits, Christian Science Monitor; 5/15/98, Vol. 90 Issue 119, pB6, 0p,

Schoeller, M.  Esquire; May2009, Vol. 151 Issue 5, p67-71

Smithsonian; Jan2010, Vol. 40 Issue 10, p25-25, 2/3p

Eyman, S. Boca Exhibit Gives Celebrities the Ultimate Close-up,

PBPost,  Monday, Feb. 20, 2012 Retrieved from http://www.pbpulse.com/news/entertainment/boca-exhibit-gives-celebrities-the-ultimate-close-/nMS83/

Machida, N. Facial Texts: Mostly Legible, Riveting All, ARTslant 13/9/07 Retrieved from, http://www.artslant.com/la/articles/show/431

Artslant gallery showing:Ace Gallery- Beverly Hills 9430 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 0212 September 8, 2007 – October 13, 2007

Environmental Psychology

While trying to discern the unknown element that might make people uneasy in large, empty institutional spaces, I came across several books which I felt would be of the most interest into capitalising on these feelings of uneasiness.  The first book, The Environmental Psychology of Prisons and Jails, and the book, Environmental Stress, seem to be exactly what I needed to move forward with my practice. The Environmental Stress book in particular has a great deal of information, not only in how prisons are places of stress due to the construction methods and materials used to make a structure permanent, but also includes information about schools and hospitals.

The information provided is mostly regarding things such as aural studies, light temperatures and the effect of claustrophobia in rooms without windows.  These studies of physical effects of the environmental factors can have positive or negative effects and planners of these buildings have been utilising data to make adjustments to these factors.  The conclusions, drawn from these studies is that different people respond to different room layouts, seating arrangements and noise pollution in such a varied way, that it is difficult for these researchers to draw firm conclusions about the best use and set up of these spaces.  This difficultly is prevalent in my practice as well.

Empty hallways that are meant for the safe passage of many becomes too large for the single individual and may create a feeling of being overwhelmed by the space. Emptiness and echoing noises that footfalls create in a perfect still environment may also add to the tension.  Perhaps the consideration of the architecture constructed for the many is too overpowering when taken out of the context of the intended use.  I will have to dig deeper as most of these studies are conducted in order to understand the impact of the people that are itinerant (students, inmates, patients) and the staff that are a more permanent figure in the institute.  Little research, at least in my weeks of scanning for information, is conducted regarding how empty spaces affects the person who finds themselves in these places alone.

I feel that when people are alone in places that are meant for a crowds, there is a sense of the history of place, of what has gone on before.  We have an innate ability to feel things that we can not see and perhaps that is a part of the unease.  I have always had a fascination with the paranormal and supernatural and while I don’t believe that every place we pass through is haunted, I do believe that there is a residue of our passage.  The aboriginal people of Australia have a long held belief that their Songlines are the paths that the Gods traversed and are used today in ceremonies in order to remember their Gods and their ancestors. Perhaps at the edge of our understanding or perceptions, these paths are like tape recorded memories of the many and is released when even a single individual passes.

For me the spiritual, and the psychological are intertwined, as I see our psychology as a rationalisation of what we may not understand.  Our minds are meant to create order out of the chaos.  In terms of imagery we see faces in the woodwork or bunnies in the clouds.  Our minds see moving images at the movies, yet it is a series of still images that creates the illusion of movement. Our minds fill in the gaps.    When a space that is empty, but should be overflowing with people, perhaps our minds begin to fill in those gaps as well and when our mind and our vision can’t reconcile the differences we become unnerved and uneasy by this error in accounting.

I don’t have enough information in the psychology of the empty, but perhaps that isn’t the only place I should be looking.  I believe that the harder I push against something the more it tries to become apparent in what I am doing.  In the case of the spiritual or supernatural, I have tried to push away those things from this research, as I felt that this may be outside of the remit of the research.  I have looked into the writings of Freud, Lacan, Baudrillard and Eco in an attempt to make order out of the chaos that is part and parcel of this programme.  I feel that perhaps I need to make chaos out of the order and I believe I should have been doing that from the start.  Part of my role as an educator is to remove preconceived notions about what the student believes is their role in their eduction and what my role is as an educator.  Once I have removed their preconceptions, we try to think about things in a divergent way.  How many ways can I solve the problem, not a specific solution, but a myriad of solutions that could create other ideas to expand upon.  I am now going to listen to my own advise.

I do believe that these books will help enable me to find a portion of what I am trying to sort out and express, but denying that reptile portion of the brain that tells us to be scared and to run is just as important, if not more important than trying to logically understand why we feel the way we feel.  I have felt my flight or fight response in empty places, the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and whether real or imagined, felt as if I were trespassing in a place where many eyes where upon me where I know there should be only emptiness.

I have ignored this feeling in my work, as I felt this was outside my course work, but I find now, this may be the thing that, alongside the logic, will help define it.

 

Positive Feedback

The April Seminar has been great in terms of catching up with my cohort and the people going through their first year of the MFA programme. The critiques that I have had, although varied, have been very positive.  I have utilised printed materials in this seminar, as the main focus was to concentrate on the ideas rather than execution.  I do feel that I should have shown in the lecture space in a projected way, rather than in still images as I received readings of my work as photographs rather than an interactive piece.

I think in terms of getting audiences to engage more, the use of a game controller creates a barrier of entry into the works and therefore is unsuccessful in anything but creating a tension or exclusion from the work itself.  There was the suggestion that I create a looping animation of the environment and have it play out without the intervention of the viewer, or perhaps that the animation is interruptible once a viewer decides to participate.  I will have to research the scripting involved in this level of interaction, but I feel that it is an achievable goal.

I recently read about a two German artists that I need to spend a bit more time investigating.  The first, Thomas Demand creates full scale environments out of paper and the photographs the results.  There is an uncanny aspect to these scenes that look real, but do not feel real. These spaces that he has constructed are very real, yet surreal.  It is very obvious upon closer inspection that the work is a constructed piece.  That aspect of the work, the artist’s hand, to me is a very important aspect of what I am trying to accomplish in my studio practice.

Demand, T. 2011. Control Room, [Diasec-mounted C-print 78 3/4″ x 118″] © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn/Artists Rights Society, New York, courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

The other artist, Gregor Schneider creates spaces in real places that are unnerving in that the proportions are off and that element of the rooms being too small in relation to the rest of the house creates an anxiety and claustrophobia while interacting with the spaces he has created.  His work below.

Schneider, G. 2003, Doppelgarage, [room within a room, plaster boards on a wooden construction, paint, plastering, 1 gate, 1 cellar window, 1 cement ground, electrical equipment [inside: 621x334x230cm, outside: 660x359x258cm (LxWxH)],  MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Roma

These spaces are constructs or spectres of real spaces.  Although made of physical materials, the spaces are artificial and create a sense of the uncanny because of their bending or blurring the line of truth.

I have included my works from the seminar as a means of contextualising what I am trying to accomplish in the interactive or virtual spaces.  Once I either create a means of interaction or intervention without the barrier of the controller, I will be adding more to this space.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Still from Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Further work on my institutional space

This is the latest works that I am preparing for my seminar on the 20th of April.  Once again, I am having to rush through what I want to do to get the works done to an acceptable standard to show to my supervisors.

There are several things I am quite pleased with however, but I think I am coming to an end of utilising this engine to express what I want to express.  There are a great deal of technical challenges to overcome and there are other engines that I can utilise, but they will have differing challenges as well.  I am limited by my inability to script and I think at some point in the future I need to learn to program as there is where I fall short each time I try to accomplish something out side of the  items that are already provided in the engine.

In the case of this work, I added a flashlight, or torch so that even in the darker areas there is a bit of light that will help with navigation.  This has the added visual element of creating a chromatic abberation on the corners of the screen and to increase the uneasiness of the areas being explored. This abberation is most visible in the third image.

There is still a great deal of work to do with this piece, however the most difficult aspects of this work is done.  I think the lighting is acceptable and the prop pieces, while not textured, are suitable in this stark environment.  I have created a few props to add into the scene and will need to create a few more, but overall I am pleased with the outcome.

The torch is one of the things that I think works well, but is not allowing me to have the full freedom to change it as I want.  The light is locked on the X axis, so the user is unable to pitch the light up and down.  The other issue with this light is that it is just a spotlight, or a projected circle.  Without the ability to add in a light cookie, I am stuck with the standard image, which I feel detracts from the visuals.

Porter, M. 2013, Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Porter, M. 2013, Remembrance [digital media] Artists’ collection.

Unknown, 2013,  Untitled, [digital photography] Retrieved from http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z230/Neoncypher/2799734218_41f756794c_o.jpg

Looking at an actual flashlight beam, it is evident that there is a great deal happening in terms of reflection, refraction, atmospherics and colour information.  This sample image I found is what I think would be acceptable visually.  With UDK, this is a bit of a challenge to get working in a short time frame.  As stated above, there are other game engines that I can utilise to get the results I am looking for.  

Valve, a game company in Seattle, Washington have created quite a few wonderful games and two of which, the flashlight or torch figures into the gameplay.  The first one, Half Life, the sequels and remakes all utilise the flashlight at some point in the game.  The other title, which I feel would best allow me to control the tension a bit more is called Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.  These games are created utilising the Source Engine developed by Valve.  Below is a screenshot of the flashlight from Half Life 2 and from Left 4 Dead2

Valve, 2010,  Half Life 2, [digital image] Retrieved from http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/video/HalfLife2/Part1/flashlight.jpg

Valve, 2010,  Left 4 Dead 2, [digital image] Retrieved from http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6130/wtflightingissue2.jpg

This bottom image is much more realistic and because the item is already an element of the gameplay, it allows me to make the changes I need to make without programming or scripting.  There are other issues that will need to be overcome, but this will allow me to move along and solve bigger problems rather than smaller ones.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has accomplished over these last few months.  I know that the upcoming months will need to be more focused, in terms of my art, communication and research in order to have an outcome that I am happy with.

Work on my latest project

I have been extremely busy with my work at Media Design School as we have four intakes of students and only three lecturers, so my ability to work on my master’s projects has been extremely limited.  My latest works are in regard to institutional spaces and how people feel uneasy being in these public places alone. I am also utilising the debate about video games and violence as a means of communicating an additional narrative of unease.

The most time consuming portion of my process is the objects that inhabit the spaces.  Although they are simple, because I pare back the realism I create more difficulty than if I just went the route of most games in terms of texture treatments or quality.  Because of the plain colours the diffuse materials of the objects shows every error of face normals or lighting.  The image below shows a desk that is similar to the one that I used to sit in at primary school.  I remember so distinctly how that desk looked that it was very easy to build this object quickly.  The image just below the render of the desk is showing how the desk is created, by building with a series of points and planes.  The faces (places) and vertices (points) can be unwapped of flattened so that the desk can be painted to look more realistic. The unwrap is the third image down.  Each object has to be built, then unwrapped so that the textures and lightmaps can be created inside the game engine that I am using.

These models that help set the stage are vitally important to help identify the spaces, but also their incongruence in various spaces help build a sense of unease.  When exploring vacant buildings, there would be many times that abandoned items were left to rot in the hallways.  These items, depending on the function of the building would be things like chairs, tables or various other detritus that has somehow made its way into the halls rather than staying put in the rooms they were left in. Below are some of the items that I have built and unwrapped this weekend.

The desk model is just one of the many I have created this weekend.  The list includes a wheelchair, office chair, the folding chair from the last seminar is in here, however I had to restructure it as the lighting was not working well on the faces. There is also a hospital gurney, teacher’s desk, a urinal, a cafeteria tray and plate and two sets of lockers (gym and hall lockers).

This is just a small portion of the pieces I am trying to finish in the next few days. I have a lot to get accomplished as I progress toward my final masters exhibition which happens in January.  I have been doing various bits of research into other sorts of ways to display my works.  I recently look at the process of projection mapping.  This takes a series of projected images and maps them to walls or rooms.  There has been great strides into this sort of technology, however I may have to work out a way to do this with a limited time, budget and technical knowledge if I hold out any hopes for making this happen in the short term.

The process of projection mapping is to create and project virtual environments over the top of physical locations. The artworks that are typically displayed in this manner are not interactive usually as this does not make the best use of the image  being displayed. The biggest hurdle to this sort of process is that multiple projectors are needed and there may be some sort of geometric warping that needs to occur to make the image project correctly. This process can be projected on organic or inorganic materials.  There are several examples below:

New Direction

During the January seminar, I had the fortune of having Judy Millar, Mikala Dwyer, Noel Ivanoff and Matt Elwood, who is my studio supervisor, critique my work.

I felt as if the work itself was well received but my responses to their questions surrounding the theory behind my work was less than enthusiastic. I felt in many respects the work that I was doing would be laughed at by my peers in the entertainment industry as an amateurish attempt a level design.  I was a bit embarrassed by my work in that regard, but more importantly, I was having an extremely difficult time conveying the message or the theory behind my practice that I was trying to convey.

The work that I presented in that seminar was a game environment created in the UDK engine.  This engine has been made available for free from the guys at Epic Games (http://epicgames.com/) to enable people who dream of becoming game developers to have an opportunity to do so with a world class, fully featured engine.  The environments that are typically developed in the engine are colourful, robust locations with a great deal of interaction.  In my works, I have removed many of the elements that are meant to represent specific locations. My intention is to create a sense of unease.

In the following two photographs, the locations that were available to traverse are visible.

Porter, M. 2013, Untitled, [digital media, projector, controller] Artists collection. Retrieved from http://artsdiary.co.nz/bt26/815/3.html

Porter, M. 2013, Untitled, [digital media, projector, controller] Artists collection. Retrieved from http://artsdiary.co.nz/bt26/815/4.html

I noticed at the open gallery that the placement of the controller on a plinth became a barrier to entry for the viewers, who didn’t know if they were meant to interact or merely observe. In addition, many of the people came through the exhibit, made a face, then left, without ever interacting with the piece. In my previous works, there was, at the very least, a cursory engagement in the images, (in my mind) these pieces seemed more worthy of the viewers commitment into participating with and spending time with my works.

After this initial reading from the viewers, I stated that I didn’t feel as if this was fine art, and I think I may have been misunderstood or due to my inability to convey what I was meaning, I may have created a false notion that I don’t think new media, or digital media can me fine art.  I have felt for a long period of time that games are absolutely works of art.  Games have the ability to move people emotionally in terms of their physical beauty, but also the stories that they tell.

My concern was not that I believed the work was fine art, but rather would the arts community believe this was fine art.  I had read several articles on the subject, as I would have to defend my work in the critique session.  One of the articles, written by Roger Ebert, stated that “video games can never be art” (Ebert, 2010), which makes the case that, “the difference between games and art is that you can win a game”. (Ebert, 2010)   Looking for a counterpoint to the Ebert statement, I found another critic who was in agreement with Mr. Ebert.  I read through Douglas Bonneville’s point of view and felt that he defended Roger Ebert quite well.

Bonneville posited the question, “can you “not finish” a Monet” (Bonneville, 2011), art is not a thing that you can finish, but rather experience.  You have either viewed a work, or you haven’t.  Bonneville cites a study that states that 90% of the people who play games never finish them (Snow, 2011).  Regardless of the time spent with a game, whether it is finished or not, games have the ability to move or inspire.

Art can be consumed, as in the case of Janine Antoni’s works Lick and Lather. In the case of the Lather sculpture, Antoni created a mould of her own head and poured liquid soap into the mould.  This became hardened and Antoni used this sculpture to bathe with, consuming the sculpture through that process.  Lick, a similar piece, was made entirely of chocolate and was licked until the piece was consumed by the artist.  The performance aspect of these works worked in conjunction with the artefact.

All performance art has a consumptive nature, it can be “finished”, it can be experienced one time and never be seen again.  The act of video taping these performances might preserve the essence of the experience, but being in the presence of the performance can never be captured to video, or film.  It is those experiences, in person, that add additional value to that performance piece.

Antoni, J. 1993 [sculpture, soap and chocolate] New Museum, NY. Retrieved from http://www.artnews.com/2013/02/21/chocolate-self-portraits-by-janine-antoni-and-dieter-rot/

In many ways games are performance pieces, which become an individual experience for the person controlling the camera, or even for the person watching the game as a spectator.  These different view points, active and passive carry a sense of burden or responsibility.  The person controlling the camera may feel uncomfortable, not knowing exactly what to do and this leads them to want to pass off the control to another person in the space.  The spectator, for the most part, wants to remain passive, as there is additional pressure now to navigate in a much more meaningful way.  The social interactions that happen in these events are certainly part of the game, and art.

My feeling, when I stated that I didn’t think of my piece as art, was not an indication that I didn’t understand art can be more than just traditional means of making a mark. The artistic message was easy to convey, but the technical aspects of the piece were less engaging for me as an artist.  I understand that art can take many forms, for instance, art is not a toilet, but given the correct context, in the case of Marcel Duchamp’s work fountian, a toilet can be art.

Duchamp, M. 1917, Fountian, [readymade] Tate Modern, London, Retrieved from http://tagartteacher.blogspot.co.nz/2011/11/aesthetics-in-classroom-what-is-purpose.html

To further explain the game paradigm, there are technical challenges, such as triggers and events in the game space that allows the person controlling the camera to interact with the environment.  To ensure that the viewers are stuck in a spot or not allowed to access some place until I see fit takes some time to test and adjust. There are also additional technical challenges, such as light maps, ambient sound emitters and particle effects, which if not handled correctly would break the immersion.  It is something I have done for a living for over sixteen years and not how I saw myself progressing through my master’s programme.

After speaking with my supervisors, I believe I have a better understanding on how I can utilise this method of delivery and feel inspired to continue, despite the boring aspects of the technical issues that surround making of a game space.  I am going to move forward utilising the narrative of the game environment to discuss social issues that surround games and gaming culture, which has been included in the gun debate in the United States.  In addition, the spaces I will be representing will be institutional spaces that are used for instruction, detention, monitoring and controlling.  Creating a narrative about cultural and social constructs that creates a sense of isolation, even in public spaces. I hope that using these architectural constructs I can create a dialogue about the absence of belonging, the dissolution of community and how games may be used to fill that hole.

My current research is looking at spaces such as galleries, hospitals, asylums, prisons  and schools.  There are many shared aspects of these public spaces and other spaces that are used as a place of passing through rather than belonging to. In the book, The Architectural Uncanny, author, Anthony Vidler states the following:

Equally, space is assumed to hide, in its darkest recessed and forgotten                      margins, all the objects of fear and phobia that have returned with such an insistency to haunt the imaginations of those who have tired to stake out spaces to protect their health and happiness. (Vidler, 1992)

My hope is that the public spaces I intend to depict will have the same effect. Below are some of the images I will be using as reference for my next set of works.

Conroy, R. 2007, [Fujifilm FinPix S602, Digital photography] Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronanconroy/887411942/

Unknown, Retrieved from http://tefee-stock.deviantart.com/art/School-Hallway-Stock-1-94419514

Robsurratt, Unknown, Retrieved from http://images.travelpod.com/tw_slides/ta00/bb6/6b2/new-prison-hallway-berlin.jpg

Unknown, Retrieved from http://prettydead.com/gallery3/index.php/reference_photos_CREATIVE/asylum-hallway

These spaces, although very similar, are extremely different in purpose.  The feeling I get when looking through these images is one of uncertainty of what is supposed to happen in these locations.  They are interchangeable with one another and in many ways, society has allowed these spaces to take the place of one another.

Once again Vidler discusses the feeling of these places, the architecture that is other than home, he states:

Architecture has been intimately linked to the notion of the uncanny since the end of the eighteenth century. At one level, the house has provided a site for endless representations of haunting, doubling, dismembering, and other terrors in literature and art.  At another level, the labyrinthine spaces of the modern city have been construed as the sources of modern anxiety, from the revolution and epidemic to phobia and alienation… (Vidler, 1992)

My next piece will hopefully explore the spaces that we feel welcome in during the day, but are frightened by at night.

 

Works from my August Seminar

One of the biggest milestones in the MFA programme is the first year August seminar.  At this point you are evaluated on your academic and artistic practice.  This mid-year evaluation is a GO/NO GO decision that will either move you forward into the next segment of your programme, or will send you packing.  I squeaked by with a C-.

My artwork was acceptable, but my theory was a bit wobbly.  I moved from high school into a production environment, with very little higher education other than a year or two of a bachelor’s degree that I never finished.  I was unaccustomed to the depth of the research I would need to undertake, however I am extremely good at the superficial finding of interesting tidbits.  One of the things I found along my way was website after website of mug shots.

The mug shot websites collect these images from police stations around the USA.  The people who have been arrested have their images taken as part of the booking process.  The police arrest the person, take them to the police station, take the photo, take their finger prints and then put them in a jail cell to wait for either a lawyer, or for someone to bail them out.  At no point in time is this person meant to be presumed guilty. It is only by the judicial process are they meant to be tried and if guilty, then convicted of that crime.  The part that made me a bit uneasy is that these images are distributed throughout the internet, yet no claims of guilt can be attached to these people until that judicial process happens.

I am not naive enough to image that these people are all innocent, but, I thought that perhaps, once that mug shot is taken, the truth no longer matters.  The image is mediated, not by interference, but by the context of how it came to exist. Their image, name and alleged crimes are displayed without due process.  I was a bit horrified by that thought.  The more I searched the more disturbed I became by this practice.  I decided to paint some of the people in these mug shots as a way of drawing attention to something that I felt needed to be discussed.

I chose two types of people to paint and I found that my choices has some negative connotations that wasn’t part of my intent.  I chose older men, in their 60’s or older, who appeared to be angry by the situation they were in and I chose women who are roughly my daughters age.  I felt that these two groups had some similarities which was displaying in their emotions of the situation.  They both had a strength and a vulnerability that I was drawn to and who I could have a sympathetic relationship.  The images below were the paintings that I displayed at the Pearce Gallery in Auckland.

I

My artist statement is below:

In my works, I am trying to create a sense of unease, but also a balance between attraction and repulsion.  The reference materials used for inspiration have very rigid parameters, beyond my control, that allow me to focus on process and production rather than trying to construct a scene.

The use of mug shots creates a sense of unease that influences my mark, but ultimately the narrative is delivered through the emotions of the subject rather than through manipulation of the image.

Another part of my process is the inventing of details that have been lost through the compression of the images, meant to be a way to store data, rather than to convey clarity and detail.  Because of this lack of clarity, I strive to create plausible details that are age and gender appropriate and that don’t add to or distract from the emotional reading of the subject of the mug shot.