Tuesday, 25 November 2008

WEEK 7: HOSTED BY NATALIE MORTIMER

An online conversation between students of the BA Fine Art and MArt courses at Sheffield Hallam University.

Begun at 9.00PM on Monday November 24th.

Hosted by Natalie Mortimer, on the subject of death and the familiar, with reference to Death and the Enlightenment by John McManners, Western Attitudes Towards Death From the Middle Ages to the Present by Philip Aries, and Art & Obscenity by Kerstin Mey.

In attendance: Luke Chapman, Jamie Crewe, Luke Dilnot, Daniel Fogarty, Jonny Fox, Zuzana Godalova, Luiza Holub, Pippa Lennox, Natalie Mortimer, Sarah Smizz

TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.box.net/shared/cjdd2xiob2

POSTSCRIPT:

Madeleine Walton

Thanks for the transcript. These are my thoughts

1. Dead people do not look like themselves. I saw my Dad and my mum
after they died in the funeral parlour and they both looked
completely different. What stays with me is the smell. I can still
smell that horrendous smell from two years ago.

2. The current life expectancy for a British male is 81 and 85 for a
female. For you guys who are in your twenties your life expectancy
will be even higher. I think the issue isn't about life it is about
quality of life. My father's final five years were hell as he had
Alzheimers.

3. My mother was brought up as a catholic and she taught me and my
brothers and sisters divine retribution through the bonker fairies.
The bonker fairies were all knowing, all powerful fairies who watched
our every move. If you did something wrong they punished you. So if I
fell over and cut my knee and went to my mum, she would say, 'what
did you do wrong earlier today because the bonker fairies are
punishing you'. I still worry about those bonker fairies and I admit
I have told my own children about them.

4. On a lighter note I read on the back of a toilet door evoking 'I
think therefore I am', 'I'm pink therefore I am spam.'

Madeleine



Tim Thorpe

Sorry I missed last night. Nat, the subject is one of great interest to me. I'm interested in the role of objects in the process of grieving, the role of memory and objects and the way the consumerist nature of modern society is counteracting the investment we make in objects.

We deny death in our society, not spiritually, but by sanitising; removing it to another place. At the same time it is dramatised in mass media to reinforce a sense of unreality or superficiality. We have become obsessed by recording ourselves and others. From the photograph to the moving image, the process of recording is creating a record of the past in the present. We, in our turn, are becoming increasingly challenged in our capacity to live in the moment.

The dead take up residence in our psyche; they are ghosts within us. We are living crypts of the dead. The objects of the dead can be a symbol of absence, invested with "sacred status" and the representation of the pain of grieving. This may dissipate with time; the custodian of the object is complicit in the conituation of this secret life.

At some point we will not be part of living memory. We will cease to be a memory trace or embodied effect in the lives of the living. We will simply disappear into oblivion.

"We die twice, once physically and the second time in the heart of those who love us" (Victor Hugo).

Tim


RESOURCES:

http://www.box.net/shared/k50tf3bn5f

Monday, 17 November 2008

WEEK 6: HOSTED BY JAMIE CREWE

An online conversation between students of the BA Fine Art and MArt courses at Sheffield Hallam University.

Begun at 9.00PM on Monday November 17th.

Hosted by Jamie Crewe, in Taylor Le Fín's absence, following on from WEEK 1 with a discussion of Richard Linklater's film Before Sunset, with reference to Victor Burgin's Nietzsche's Paris and the song Quit While I'm Ahead by Lonzine Cannon.

In attendance: Luke Chapman, Jamie Crewe, Luke Dilnot, Jonny Fox, Zuzana Godalova, Matthew Hand, Luiza Holub, Natalie Mortimer

TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.box.net/shared/xp525lhi88

POSTSCRIPT:

Sarah Smizz

I haven't discovered what love feels like yet. I know the love of a mother and a love ina friendship form, but the love of a man is something that I have yet to discover. And yet, the main reason for me to announce this to gmail and contacts is the fact that i personally would risk losing something in the discovery that my chance of love, a point 2 prove, the meeting of a once stranger and disappointment is just all too good to pass off.
It's the same type of situation, where you haven't seen a close friend in like a year or two... you used to be able to keep the best conversations going. To the point of finishing each others sentences. and then, with this moment of meeting with a year or 2 gap - you start to question yourself and what you had.
Have I changed? Have they changed? What are we going to talk about now. I'm obsessed with the idea of smizz as an artist, and the ideal of sculpturing, nurturing of a future into something positive for the next generation.... they work full time at ASDA Cafe scrapping chicken fat off trays. We no longer have a relation of which we first met, like school and the people who surrounded us. It's just us. what are we going to talk about? Is it what are we going to talk about or is it the acceptance of the fact that we both have changed. Outgrown? Outdated. Unwanted. Uncanny.
before sunset i don't think its necessarily about the stranger, or even love. It's about missing. Sunset in itself is a melochanic element. and in desire you project upon the stranger what is indeed missing from yourself.
And thats why we make a sequal, and thats why we take risks - or becoming needy. You project what you want, and read into signals and thoughts for hope.
For me personally, im very emotionally detached when in a relationship - as result i feel like i'll probably die alone lol. But it doesn't faze me. As long as I have my friends and my books and a copy of before sunrise and before sunset on dvd and that. And New York. It's all goooooood in the hoooood!



RESOURCES:










http://www.christineburgin.com/burgin_victor/nietzsche/index.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_/ai_76333004

WEEK 5: HOSTED BY LUKE DILNOT

An online conversation between students of the BA Fine Art and MArt courses at Sheffield Hallam University.

Begun at 9.00PM on Monday November 10th.

Hosted by Luke Dilnot, an online tour of the Liverpool Biennial.

In attendance: Luke Chapman, Jamie Crewe, Luke Dilnot, Jonny Fox, Matthew Hand, Luiza Holub, Natalie Mortimer, Sarah Smizz

TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.box.net/shared/7z7lf5zb4a

POSTSCRIPT:

Madeleine Walton


Thanks Luke so much for the virtual tour of the Liverpool Biennial as I haven't managed to get there myself it was good to get a flavour of the work. I particularly enjoyed the drawing room and the work by Charles Avery, Avish Khebrehzadeh and Rachel Goodyear. I have read about Richard Wilson's Turning the Place Over and it was amazing to see it moving - even watching the other clip from the inside it is still unbelieveable - how did it work for real? Ai Weiwei looked spectacular and when I realised the size of the piece at the end it was amazing. My two favourites from the tour were at the new contemporaries. First, Joe Daldon's intricate lace like floor made of cardboard and second, Paul Westcomb's coffee cups - which were old coffee cups beautifully and intricately painted with watercolour ink.
My overall impression of the biennial was that it seemed to have involved the city. I constantly heard voices in the background and often children and they always had Liverpudlian accents.
Madeleine


Daniel Fogarty


A differing take on e-crit, With regard to the work as I have not seen the Liverpool Biannual, I was able to remember the work that was shown or the range of work that was show from exhibitions I have seen previously, I was keen as always on Rodney Grahams work, but i felt limited by the inexperiense, but a set of works that i would of not seen otherwise. I perticually like the Richard Willson work. I feel that the work that was explained, that was veiwed and explained by the artist spoke to me more, this was mostaly on the FACT.TV website. I find the intrest in the interaction and the descussion between the work and the arctual work of art. I will have to get over to see it all in reality as soon as I can, Thank you Luke


RESOURCES:


http://www.biennial.com/content/LiverpoolBiennial2008MADEUP/AlisonJackson/Overview.aspx
http://www.biennial.com/content/LiverpoolBiennial2008MADEUP/DavidAltmejd/Overview.aspx

http://www.biennial.com/content/LiverpoolBiennial2008MADEUP/RodneyGraham/Overview.aspx
http://www.biennial.com/content/LiverpoolBiennial2008MADEUP/DrawingRoomatTate/Overview.aspx

http://www.biennial.com/content/LiverpoolBiennial2008MADEUP/GuyBenNer/Overview.aspx


http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/artist_list.php?app_year=2008&PHPSESSID=673caccb8a0d04e8592d04b84ab9b915
http://www.afoundation.org.uk/greenlandstreet/details.php?id=39
http://www.newcontemporaries.org.uk/artist_list.php?app_year=2008&PHPSESSID=673caccb8a0d04e8592d04b84ab9b915

http://www.fact.tv/videos/watch/239

http://www.fact.tv/videos/watch/234
http://www.fact.tv/videos/watch/236
http://www.fact.tv/videos/watch/237

Monday, 10 November 2008

WEEK 3: HOSTED BY SARAH SMIZZ

An online conversation between students of the BA Fine Art and MArt courses at Sheffield Hallam University.

Begun at 9.00PM on Monday October 27th.

Hosted by Sarah Smizz, on art and the everyday, with reference to David A. Ross and Nicholas Serota, Jonas Mekas and Letterist International.

In attendance: Luke Chapman, Jamie Crewe, Luke Dilnot, Daniel Sean Fogarty, Jonny Fox, Zuzana Godalova, Luiza Holub, Natalie Mortimer, Sarah Smizz

TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.box.net/shared/aur62pkb8c#Transcript_Ecrit3_Smizz

POSTSCRIPT:

Martyn Cashmore

' fundamentals of what the everyday is and what it can be' discussion of art and everyday.
In dialogue with everyday we can find language we can convey its complexity, ambiguity and elusiveness.
Art and galleries - does it need to be in there, if not why does it seem to slip through the nets of the art economy? why do we increase the status of galleries even though they are not necessary? this has even compelled some anti-artist to display in them.
i.e. duchamp. But is this just another protest with many contradictory layers; he wanted to be seen as an artist against art but an in vogue one or vice versa?
why do artist feel a sense of achievement and status when they get something displayed, in a gallery? I don't think that it is a necessity for pieces to be shown in this way even though it has happened to me. I feel that the space should suit the work, not the other way.
But this opinion has holes. It really depends on the viewer to view it as art and not just the mundane. This is where I feel that the artist loses control of the piece, especially in the public sector. can an art object become mundane?



RESOURCES:




WEEK 2: HOSTED BY DANIEL FOGARTY

An online conversation between students of the BA Fine Art and MArt courses at Sheffield Hallam University.

Begun at 9.00PM on Monday October 20th.

Hosted by Daniel Fogarty, on an excerpt from Maurice Blanchot's Death Sentence (L'Arrêt de mort).

In attendance: Luke Chapman, Jamie Crewe, Luke Dilnot, Daniel Sean Fogarty, Jonny Fox, Luiza Holub, Natalie Mortimer, Sarah Smizz, Joanne Storey

TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.box.net/shared/7zmg0g8e2g#E-Crit_20102008

POSTSCRIPTS:

Madeleine Walton

Having read the text you gave us and the e-crit text I would like to make two comments.
Firstly that if you speak more than one language you have a different identity for each of those languages. When I speak Spanish I am not the same person as when I speak English.My personality alters as the language shapes me and how I can express myself in that language.
Secondly, I spent the weekend in Aberdeen with my daughter who is deaf at a Deaf Swimming Camp. Everyone signed and it was the strangest experience being in a room of some thirty people mostly young all communicating at great neck speed in silence. I have only recently started to learn to sign and so I felt an outsider. It struck me that signing is an interesting mode of communication as there is no voice that can be heard and yet there are regional variations in signing.
Thanks
Madeleine


Martyn Cashmore

Disscussion about the role of language in relation to the other, in relqation to the 'Autrui' text.
A few things came to mind out of the transcript and the reading.
firstly, Identify the effect of difference.
Did the encounter happen or was it imaginary?
It's about not understanding the other through the failure of language because we cannot say what we actually intend because of S/s. Language only expresses the symbolic and not the reality. Is language just a futile endeavour or is it a protest against sertainty
The impossibility of understanding what it would be like to be the other.



RESOURCE:
http://www.box.net/shared/pe6bm3i7s1#Death_Sentence