a prototype for a better tomorrow

I’ve been trying to focus on what I love about the idea of customizing bicycles.

Since I arrived in Banff, I’ve been looking Google Earth a lot. I’ve been thinking about geotagging and I’ve also been thinking about the street level version of Google Earth that has recently been under debate for privacy reasons. Last night I had this idea for a low tech bicycle version of Google City, recording a route along a long street within a city- or a few cities.

This is not an original idea and I’m sure there are numerous artists who have carried cameras or have mounted cameras in cars or on bicycles and moved through the city. Off hte top of my head, I immediately think of Jana Sterbak’s From Here to There, dog camera project for the Canadian Pavillion of the 2003 Venice Biennale. I’m sure if I did a search I would come up with many more. Barbara told me about this guy that mounted four cameras and rode through a city and recorded his ride and then projected the videos on four walls of a gallery space.

My plan here would design and build a bicycle that has a 360 degree camera mounted on it that records both sides of the street while the GPS tracks the location. The camera and GPS would still be powered by the bicycle as generator.

The second idea I find more engaging. It relates to an unrealized project for a flatbed scanner camera which uses a and uses GPS meta data to locate the photograph. For this project I would build a “camera” out of a used flatbed camera and a used camera lens and my laptop. The scanner could be mounted on a tripod of stability. I haven’t decided if I’m more interested in portraits or landscapes. The Banff Centre also has great photography resources and in Banff there is a great history of landscape photography, but the great thing about being here is there are 29 artists and many more staff open to collaboration.

One of the best things I have done lately is to come to the Banff Centre to this MAIV residency. What’s great about it is that it forced me out of my dailey routine and away from work in particular. I drove here and it took me two days. The first day, I drove Mike Banwell’s son Zak with me to stay with Mike at Stump Lake- 30 minutes south of Kamloops on the old Highway 5A. That was a great start to the trip. The second day I left fairly early and didn’t rush, and I arrived at the Banff Centre around 5pm.

Since then, other than a few days of introductions and presentations by the 29 residents in our group- I have had complete freedom to work, with a beautiful studio- two tables and a lovely view of the mountains, a great dining room to eat in and a big room in Lloyd Hall Residence.

Stairway Gallery, JPL Building, Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta

Part of my project here was to work on a MAIV wiki for the residency. That’s off to a good start, but the greally great thing is that I have the time- away from the distractions of work to focus on my research project. I feel I have been circling around a number of ideas and I haven’t been willing to commit to any one of them. I know they relate to locative media, geotagging, GPS and mapping, but I haven’t been able to figure out what would be an original project to research and pursue for the next year.

come closer- I want to get to know you better

Since I’ve been in Banff, I’ve been trying to focus on what’s the essence of my project.

What’s my research question? What’s my fight?

While I’ve been thinking about these questions, I’ve been struck by trying to locate myself: where are you?

YOU ARE HERE …………… COME CLOSER ……………. EVERYTHING I MAKE I MAKE FOR YOU

In particular I’ve been reflecting on both my imagined audience and my community. For many years I’ve always imagined a fairly abstract audience- yes, I knew my friends and colleagues would see my work, but I always imagined and knew I was making art for a larger art world. I was also making art in response to what was being made in that larger art world.

I WANT TO GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER.

The intersting thing about coming to Banff for this residency is that everyomne is coming from away- for six weeks and everyone seems pretty open to talk about where they are and where they’re coming from and what they value- both literally, emotionally, psychologically and metaphysically. This realization has led me to reassess where I am and what my values and priorities are.

I ASK MYSELF – WHAT DO I HAVE TO LOSE?

What is essential to my research project and what is capricious.

three things

N51 10.313′ W115 33.763′

1: How we locate ourselves- our sense of self within the world- literally, geographically- physically: “where we are” as well as psychologically and emotionally.

2: How we define ourselves within different communities- in relation to others- our family, our colleagues through relationships- extended relationships, professional communities

3: How we collaborate within a group- networks, social networks, email and then through formal collaborations and how we choose to record those collaborations

mapping London: commons and greens

I have a beautiful Geographer’s A-Z Map of London on my wall here in my studio here in Banff. It was the first thing I put up. I know it sounds corny, but I love all the names of the various locations throughout the city. I’m sure to readers from London, this sounds absurd, but for me they are all exotic and rich with a history of pop songs over many years: The Kinks, Waterloo Sunset, Donovan’s Sunny Goodge Street, Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger’s Vauxhall to Lambeth Bridge, and The Clash’s Guns of Brixton. Every time I look at Clapham Common, Battersea or Wormwood Scrubs, I think of Morrissey’s London and the Smiths.

I’m struck by how much green there is throughout London- all the Commons and Greens- Clapham Common, Peckham Rye Common, Camberwell Green all the way up to Hampstead Heath.

thinking about my viewer

I’ve been thinking quite a lot about why artists make things and for whom. Who do I make things for? Who is my viewer and does it matter?

I guess fundamentally my viewer is me. I am the first person that needs to be pleased with what I make- and if I am interested in what I’m doing, I’ll presume that others- like me, will also be interested. If I am willing to make what I do public and if I am willing to live with the feedback- then fair enough.

Is that enough of a plan for an audience?

Should that be a given- implicit and understood? Yes, although sometimes it is good to remind ourselves in relation to what we’re doing.

Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you

Patti Smith: Pissing in a River

Pissing in a river, watching it rise
Tattoo fingers shy away from me
Voices voices mesmerize
Voices voices beckoning sea
Come come come come back come back
Come back come back come back

Spoke of a wheel, tip of a spoon
Mouth of a cave, I’m a slave I’m free.
When are you coming ? Hope you come soon
Fingers, fingers encircling thee
Come come come come come come
Come come come come come come for me oh

My bowels are empty, excreting your soul
What more can I give you ? Baby I don’t know
What more can I give you to make this thing grow?
Don’t turn your back now, I’m talking to you

Should I pursue a path so twisted ?
Should I crawl defeated and gifted ?
Should I go the length of a river
[The royal, the throne, the cry me a river]
Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you
Oh I give my life for you.
Every move I made I move to you,
And I came like a magnet for you now.

What about it, you’re gonna leave me,
What about it, you don’t need me,
What about it, I can’t live without you,
What about it, I never doubted you
What about it ? What about it ?
What about it ? What about it ?

Should I pursue a path so twisted ?
Should I crawl defeated and gifted ?
Should I go the length of a river,
[The royal, the throne, the cry me a river]
What about it, what about it, what about it ?

Oh, I’m pissing in a river.

further reflections

Back in October I was in Toronto at York University and I heard Bruce Brown, Pro VP Research at University of Brighton speak about research in the fine arts. I wrote a post outlining his ideas about What is Good Research?

I am still struck by this dilemma: does good research make good art?

Obviously there are some big assumptions here- but what I’m wrestling with is the reality that most of the work that is done by artists that I admire does not come of of a “fine arts research” model. In fact just the opposite- I’ve seen and heard about a great deal of work that has been heavily supported by research funds, ends up producing work that is: a) illustrative of a “research topic” or b) visually uninteresting or c) lame.

What I’m trying to make sense of is how do the ideas that I am researching fit into the methodologies of a research paradigm and the artistic creation model that I understand and have worked with for thirty years. I feel like I am trying to tweak and distort my ideas to fit into this research model and I’m not sure how exactly to critique it from within. I think I’ve been a bit stuck by this dilemma.

Falling out from this, would be the further question: does good reflective writing lead to better work. I would say yes, assuming that the original idea is interesting in the first place!

Digital Arts is too big

Making sense of any field takes time.

When we say contemporary art- we could say we are talking about the artworks that are shown in art galleries, and museums- in exhibitions, biennials and events, and that are being discussed in a variety of art books, catalogues, magazines, and newspapers around the world.

When I try to do apply this to Digital Arts I get swamped- if we say that Digital Arts includes any art that uses digital technologies, including all digital media found in galleries, on the internet, digital videos, web sites, virtual projects etc. That’s a lots of stuff. Given how much more sophisticated search engines have become- searching any topic is huge- there is a fast flowing flood of information that keeps growing daily.

Digital arts is too big.

As a category Digital Arts ends up being to all inclusive and needs focus. I propose to consider what are the essential qualities, that make Digital Arts distinct from other forms of contemporary art. Digital Arts then, would refer to work that not only utilize digital technologies- but that wouldn’t be possible without them- the artworks only exists because of these digital technologies.

at the end of live songs

This morning I was listening to iTunes in shuffle mode and at the end of Morrissey singing a live cover of Patti Smith’s Redondo Beach, after the applause you can hear Morrissey say “and if you’ve got the time, and you don’t mind” which then cross faded into Ray Davies singing “It is time for you to stop all your sobbing”

That’s one of the great things about the digital jutebox and shuffle- you get some amazing juxtapositions.