Ideas For Exhibition

 When considering how the audience will view the work, I began to think about how to suggest the important conceptual aspects of the work without either: being too prescriptive, or too vague.
By placing all individual symbols together, next to, or above the diagram, an equal weight is given to both, encouraging links between the two. Furthermore, the title of the piece will also be on A2 paper, providing a final link, whilst hopefully exploring the idea of the importance of title text in how we then read/interpret the piece in front of us.

Circular Diagram

 Thinking about ways of representing my work for the exhibition, I drew this diagram (above) to represent the idea of both the circularity of the Image and Text relationships contained in the work itself, as well as the cyclical notion of time upheld by the Aztecs, and present within their calendar.

 Whether this shall be included with the work somehow is something I will think about in the next week.

Evaluative Report

 It is fast coming to the end of the elective, everybody was asked to write an evaluative report, considering both how much was learnt during the course of the elective, and how this has impacted upon our own varied practices, mine is below:

Evaluative Report

 With a background in Graphic Design, I felt that I approached Image and Text with a good foundation in some of the basic critical and theoretical approaches in considering how the relationship between Images and Text can operate. 

 I therefore approached the subject with the hope to gain a wider and deeper understanding of how Image and Text is applied across the fields of Art and Design as a whole, and how practitioners from these different areas approach the same questions and issues surrounding the subject.

 On this topic, I felt that cross-disciplinary exchange was at its most effective during analytical group discussions and presentations. For example, when the group had to prepare group presentations on a variety of examples of Image and Text applications, it was particularly interesting to hear, for instance, how a Ceramics Student and a Drawing Student approached John Baldessari’s series of work based on Goya’s ‘The Destruction of War’. Being able to see my peers apply analysis to work outside of their background knowledge and practice highlighted aspects of the work previously unconsidered. 

 In this context, it was inspiring and intriguing to see such widely differing approaches to Image and Text analysis applied in front of the group. For example, when considering the format of a Graphic Novel, a group of painting students were able to focus very closely on the technical construction of images as well as use of colour, whereas I think that I would have focussed much more closely on the composition of Image and Text elements: the positioning of Image and Text in relation to each other on the page.

 This exchange of ideas and critical approaches was further explored during Gallery visits, both at ‘Loud Flash: British Punk on Paper’, as well as ‘The Back Story’. The transference of discussion from the Lecture Theatre into a Gallery context helped, I thought, in imbuing the group with more confidence and openness in public speaking. It was particularly interesting to see how some of the members of the group with fine art backgrounds approached the task of analysing the Mott collection of British Punk posters at Haunch Of Venison. This produced engaging discussion about the effect of images and propaganda on the viewer, and certainly encouraged me to approach the pictoral elements of Punk imagery in much more detail. The opposite conclusion was drawn whilst visiting ‘The Back Story’ at the Royal Academy, where Students from Painting and Drawing where able to highlight the technical intricacy of Stephen Farthing’s paintings, and provide more of an insight into Farthing’s possible motives in creating some of the pieces on show, in particular ‘Mapping Artists’.

 However, that said, on the whole, there seemed to be a lack of practical engagement with Image and Text throughout the elective, or particular enthusiasm for any form of collaborative educational exercises. I found this quite disappointing as initially one of the most exciting aspects of the course for me was being able to see how members of the group from different backgrounds applied Image and Text to their own practice, or how they formed opinions about it’s use. For example, I have always been fascinated by the work of Ed Ruscha and would have been interested in gaining a Painter’s perspective on his use of Image and Text. 

 Unfortunately, in a Lecture Theatre context there appeared to be a general reluctance to contribute during group discussions that often led to a paralysis of momentum, as well as a general lack of motivation during practical tasks that resulted in fairly inapplicable criticism or conclusions. This however, was not due to our Tutor, who proved inspiring, engaging and enthusiastic throughout. 

 This said, Image and Text has strengthened my practice enormously, both lending my work strong critical and theoretical points of reference, as well as providing me with the tools to question my own approach to Image and Text with perceptiveness and insight. Much of my practice is concerned with the necessity of information and subtlety of meaning, and so in this instance, the deeper understanding of the function of Image and Text that this elective has provided is encouraging me to explore these themes with more confidence and thought.      

Work For Exhibition

 After some deliberation, I have decided to display all 20 individual barcodes for the Flat-Time House exhibition as above, on separate sheets of A4 sized paper. This is so that the images appear larger than they would normally be, and also so that the nature of the work has a sense of presence.
 As for the format, I was going to add a description or explanation to the work, but in hindsight I feel that it will be more successful as it is, I want a sense of mystery akin to the original symbols to be present. Furthermore, Image and Text doesn't have to be about explanations or illuminations, instead it could just be a study of the relationships between images and words, something I am interested in.

Exhibition Ideas

(Image: found, from collection)

 In my last post, after visiting Flat Time House, I had begun to consider the kind of work I wanted to make for the end of elective exhibition.
 Starting with the above found image as a starting point, I have begun to develop ideas surrounding the exploration of symbolism and Image/Text hybridity.

 After some reading around the subject, I found that the image I had was in fact an Aztec sun-stone, a sacrificial altar founded upon the 260 day Sacred Aztec Calendar (below).

(Image: http://luisnael.wikispaces.com/file/view/AztecCalendar.jpg/134459067/AztecCalendar.jpg)

 Each day was ruled by a different god, and each god was represented by a different ideogram. What fascinated me was the way that for some years even the Aztec alphabet was described with mutually agreed symbols, rather than representative letterforms (below).

(Image: http://tomlambert.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/letters31.jpg)

 Furthermore, this has transferred into the present day, with highly complicated Data Matrix barcodes, capable of describing complex codes and even images, being deemed 'Aztec Symbols' (below).

(Image: http://www.waveform.ie/_fileUpload/Image/Aztec_Code.JPG)

 From this, I have begun to take each of the 20 named symbols found on the Sun-Stone, and merge them into literal data matrix symbols of their description, as in below:

(Image: Author's own)

 In this case, inputting the word 'Monkey', to create this symbol:

(Image: Author's own)

 This process creates 20 individual 'Aztec Symbol' barcodes, which, if scanned by a computer would create the exact word to represent it, a kind of symbolism for the 21st Century? 

 I like how through this process, the Image/Text relationship becomes fully circular: an initial symbol creates the explanatory Text, from which a new image is created, one that is fully representative of the word, with no space for Artistic editorship.

 My only decisions now lie with how to display/represent this information and process in an exhibition situation, or whether any explanation would be needed? I think it may be sufficient to have a barcode with the word underneath, although it would run the risk of viewer alienation/disengagement.

Flat-Time House

(Image: http://assets0.artslant.com/work/image11/353094/qg7swq/20100926065416-Flat_Time_House_E_email.jpg?1285509257)

 On the 10th of December the elective group visited John Latham's Flat Time House in Peckham, where we will be hosting our end of course exhibition. The visit itself consisted of an in-depth tour of the house, with discussions about Latham's work, as well as a consideration of how our work may be placed there.

(Image: http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/images/page_images/685b1835d895eae0_john-latham-anarchive.jpg)

 Latham's work was built around a concept of the world called 'Flat-time', which consisted of events based on spans of time. Although far too complex to go into too much detail, or even for me to understand fully, his is a body of work so fully formed as to completely relate to itself, and I found myself overwhelmed about the idea of even beginning to think about showing work there.

 In consideration to Image and Text, and my own practice, Latham's work appeared to me to be almost entirely process-driven, any sense of aesthetic arising from the process of the work itself, with text used often as the image, as a description of an idea, or the definition or key of an abstract value.

 With regards to my own practice, I would like to develop the themes that I began to look at when starting this elective, with ideas of the authority of diagrams, as well as their nonsensical appearance when deprived of context.

(Image: found, from collection)

 This is an image that I have had on my desk for about 2 years, and I've always been intrigued by its absurdity and the fact that, although it is an explanatory diagram, it doesn't make any sense. I am thinking about using this content to create my own work based around playing with the authoritative nature of diagrams and keys, as well as the contradictions that text can lend an image.

 Fiona Banner's 'Harrier and Jaguar' supports this train of thought, as the simple action of removing planes from their contexts and focussing on their animal names lends a whole new nature and language to otherwise simple objects that I find intriguing.

(Image: http://www.art-agenda.com/idea_images/12797401492.%20Fiona%20Banner%20Press%2001_sml_1.jpg)

How Has Image And Text Informed My Practice?

 These images are from a small publication I recently made that went on sale at 'Everything' at the ICA, on the 11th of December.

 Whilst making it, it occurred to me that a lot of the book had been influenced by what I've learnt during the Image and Text elective. 

 The book is a written narrative accompanying still shots from a film that I made around the perimeter of an unfinished palace near the Town that I grew up in. 

 The choice of using still shots was very much influenced by ideas of how we connect images with text depending on their proximity to each other. I also wanted to play with ideas of suggestion, particularly how text can influence our reading of an image, in this instance, much of the narrative is deliberately fictional, exploring ideas of the imagination.

 I feel that, particularly recently, the conceptual and critical knowledge that Image and Text has given me has begun to lend my work a rigorousness and strength that before it was lacking.