Thursday, February 26, 2004
The show opens tomorrow! There is an opening 'event' on Tuesday, but if you happened to be in North Shields tomorrow and passing by the gallery, you could pop in and see Modus Operandi (apparently - though more than likely there will still be last minute hanging mayhem going on).
I took some time selecting an appropriate lever-arch file for my faxes to be 'filed' in, and a suitable position for it on a shelving unit within the gallery. I will aim to send a few through tomorrow and on Monday so there is some substance to the piece by Tuesday evening. With regards to other works that will be in the show, I am not 100% sure yet. Not being part of the 'Normalife' collective I am somewhat out of the loop. I know Ant Macari will display a wall drawing and has supplied original photographic portraits of three people who work in shops near the gallery to Sarah Harvey, who will use them as a basis for painted portraits. Adam Walker will be based in the gallery throughout as custodian and artist-in-residence of sorts, aiming to create works that promote the show. And something else to do with cards and Artist Top Trumps...? Anyway, I will give a thorough breakdown after Tuesday's event.
I have just written a review for the Static Pamphlet. Static is an art organisation based in Liverpool and the Pamphlet is their monthly newsletter/arena for critical writing. The reason I mention it here is that I found similarities in one of the works in the show I was reviewing, Put Your Hands Where We Can See Them, with this project. Becky Shaw's piece, 'The Production of the Critical Moment' aims to generate critical discussion surrounding the exhibition. Part of this is achieved through inviting artists/writers/curators etc to review it. Other elements include chaired discussions, firstly between the artists in the show, and later a public forum. It is the use of systems for critical discourse, presented as artwork, which interests me in relation to this little baby.
So don't be afraid of leaving comments 'cause this won't work if its all one-sided.
C U Next Tuesday! xxx
I took some time selecting an appropriate lever-arch file for my faxes to be 'filed' in, and a suitable position for it on a shelving unit within the gallery. I will aim to send a few through tomorrow and on Monday so there is some substance to the piece by Tuesday evening. With regards to other works that will be in the show, I am not 100% sure yet. Not being part of the 'Normalife' collective I am somewhat out of the loop. I know Ant Macari will display a wall drawing and has supplied original photographic portraits of three people who work in shops near the gallery to Sarah Harvey, who will use them as a basis for painted portraits. Adam Walker will be based in the gallery throughout as custodian and artist-in-residence of sorts, aiming to create works that promote the show. And something else to do with cards and Artist Top Trumps...? Anyway, I will give a thorough breakdown after Tuesday's event.
I have just written a review for the Static Pamphlet. Static is an art organisation based in Liverpool and the Pamphlet is their monthly newsletter/arena for critical writing. The reason I mention it here is that I found similarities in one of the works in the show I was reviewing, Put Your Hands Where We Can See Them, with this project. Becky Shaw's piece, 'The Production of the Critical Moment' aims to generate critical discussion surrounding the exhibition. Part of this is achieved through inviting artists/writers/curators etc to review it. Other elements include chaired discussions, firstly between the artists in the show, and later a public forum. It is the use of systems for critical discourse, presented as artwork, which interests me in relation to this little baby.
So don't be afraid of leaving comments 'cause this won't work if its all one-sided.
C U Next Tuesday! xxx
Monday, February 23, 2004
I've started a much more light-hearted blog which may or may not be art. I consider it another piece made for 'Modus Operandi', although it is only available online and doesn't have even the tenuous links to the gallery that this blog has.
It's called 14% Geek and is quite simply the collected results of numerous online personality tests and character-determining quizzes that I have completed, asking the eternally perplexing question, 'Who am I?'
The tests can range from 'What is your IQ?' to 'Which Pokemon are you?' Some are based on real psychological profiling studies, but most are done by American teenagers with too much time on their hands. Anyway, I have tried to answer all questions as honestly as possible.
Will the internet be able to help me in finding my true identity?
So far I have established that I am a 'Planner' with a 'Heart of Stone' who 'Desire(s) Darkness' and is not gay. And of course, I am only 14% geek!
It's called 14% Geek and is quite simply the collected results of numerous online personality tests and character-determining quizzes that I have completed, asking the eternally perplexing question, 'Who am I?'
The tests can range from 'What is your IQ?' to 'Which Pokemon are you?' Some are based on real psychological profiling studies, but most are done by American teenagers with too much time on their hands. Anyway, I have tried to answer all questions as honestly as possible.
Will the internet be able to help me in finding my true identity?
So far I have established that I am a 'Planner' with a 'Heart of Stone' who 'Desire(s) Darkness' and is not gay. And of course, I am only 14% geek!
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Pierre Coinde and Gary O'Dwyer of London gallery The Centre of Attention have been very inventive in their use of blogging in the service of art. In an online exhibition called International Art Blog, they invited twelve artists/writers/curators from around the world to submit regular correspondence over the course of one month which related to the artistic environment of the city/country they were in.
'A network of operatives covering the globe. [The] show aligns and deploys art world practitioners using the power of digital technology to survey the art scenes from across the world.' (from their press release)
This would definitely fit into the diary model or journalistic approach to a 'blog-as-art', with most contributors offering fairly straightforward responses. (The most original entry seems to be from artist Dave Muller who reports from Los Angeles and Lyon by submitting his entire e-mail correspondence for a month, including love letters and baby photos!). But is it an 'exhibition'? It is perhaps closer in nature to a magazine. If those involved were willing, it is something that could easily have continued and become a useful ongoing resource for gauging the current artistic climate in various parts of the world. As it stands, it is a closed document which shows twelve views of the art world at a fixed point in time. Globe Blog will be similarly limited by the duration of 'Modus Operandi' (a regular exhibition) and this may be an important feature in determining to what extent it can be thought of as art.
Another imaginative exhibition from Centre of Attention, 'Email Art', was similarly closed down inasmuch as artworks were sent by email to a subscription base. This was free to join and the emails sent included works by Jenny Holzer, Sylvie Fleury and others. But they are not available online. Instead you can see submissions from artists on the subscription base, which were sent in response. If space is not a factor in determining what an exhibition can be (ie. it is online and not in a gallery), then time, it would seem, still is. Exhibitions have a beginning and an end, or rather they open and close. The interesting thing is, we can still experience online artworks in some way after the event.
'A network of operatives covering the globe. [The] show aligns and deploys art world practitioners using the power of digital technology to survey the art scenes from across the world.' (from their press release)
This would definitely fit into the diary model or journalistic approach to a 'blog-as-art', with most contributors offering fairly straightforward responses. (The most original entry seems to be from artist Dave Muller who reports from Los Angeles and Lyon by submitting his entire e-mail correspondence for a month, including love letters and baby photos!). But is it an 'exhibition'? It is perhaps closer in nature to a magazine. If those involved were willing, it is something that could easily have continued and become a useful ongoing resource for gauging the current artistic climate in various parts of the world. As it stands, it is a closed document which shows twelve views of the art world at a fixed point in time. Globe Blog will be similarly limited by the duration of 'Modus Operandi' (a regular exhibition) and this may be an important feature in determining to what extent it can be thought of as art.
Another imaginative exhibition from Centre of Attention, 'Email Art', was similarly closed down inasmuch as artworks were sent by email to a subscription base. This was free to join and the emails sent included works by Jenny Holzer, Sylvie Fleury and others. But they are not available online. Instead you can see submissions from artists on the subscription base, which were sent in response. If space is not a factor in determining what an exhibition can be (ie. it is online and not in a gallery), then time, it would seem, still is. Exhibitions have a beginning and an end, or rather they open and close. The interesting thing is, we can still experience online artworks in some way after the event.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
A few developments then. Firstly I've added my blog to a couple of directories (Blogwise, Blogarama etc), and added a counter. So more people (very likely with no prior knowledge of the exhibition or of the gallery) may come across it via search criteria on these sites, plus I will be able to see how much attention it is getting via the counter (2 hits so far! Lucrative advertising deals here we come!)...
Secondly, I have found that I am far from alone in this art-blog/blog-as-art endeavour, and have added links accordingly. 'art happens', the four-month-old blog of New York artist Daniel Fictum, is scarily like this one. It even looks the same (except its blue where this is orange and he doesn't have the ads!). It started as a diary of the processes involved in putting together his MFA show, but it also has an ongoing awareness of the artistic potential of the form, he says of it, 'I am convinced that it is an art object, even if it becomes one by me say (sic) it is art'. Whether or not he has resolved this remains unclear, but I will contact him to find out.
Really though, asking whether or not a blog of this kind is art is much like asking whether a diary/journal is art or not. It is much easier to appreciate the works in 'blog.art' in this respect. These are online works, stemming from existing forms of net-based art, where '...the blog is the conceptual foundation of the work'. Each project creatively utilises the idiosyncrasies of blogging to form a digital media work (always involving collaboration of some kind) which is unique. But don't just take my word for it, go and have a look. Go on, both of you!
Secondly, I have found that I am far from alone in this art-blog/blog-as-art endeavour, and have added links accordingly. 'art happens', the four-month-old blog of New York artist Daniel Fictum, is scarily like this one. It even looks the same (except its blue where this is orange and he doesn't have the ads!). It started as a diary of the processes involved in putting together his MFA show, but it also has an ongoing awareness of the artistic potential of the form, he says of it, 'I am convinced that it is an art object, even if it becomes one by me say (sic) it is art'. Whether or not he has resolved this remains unclear, but I will contact him to find out.
Really though, asking whether or not a blog of this kind is art is much like asking whether a diary/journal is art or not. It is much easier to appreciate the works in 'blog.art' in this respect. These are online works, stemming from existing forms of net-based art, where '...the blog is the conceptual foundation of the work'. Each project creatively utilises the idiosyncrasies of blogging to form a digital media work (always involving collaboration of some kind) which is unique. But don't just take my word for it, go and have a look. Go on, both of you!
Monday, February 16, 2004
Modus Vivendi began in earnest today with 8 drawings made whilst I was at work (well, 3 really, but one of them is a six-parter!). The work won't really begin in its intended form until I start to fax these drawings etc through to the gallery. I mean, have you ever heard of a more inventive way of interacting with the physical space of the gallery? (I've actually robbed it off someone else but that's not the point!). Anyway, with that in mind, what follows is the copy from an email I just sent to the Globe Gallery to ponder a few practicalities...
"Hi,
I am participating in the upcoming student-organised show at Hub ('Modus Operandi'), and have been referred here by my good friend and housemate Ant Macari (one of the co-ordinators of the show).
Basically, my submission consists of two parts and I have two resultant questions/requests....
Firstly, I hope to make drawings whilst at work (at a-n) and fax them through to the gallery periodically over the duration of the show. So I guess my first question is, is there a fax machine at Globe Hub? and if so, what is the number? (if not, would it be ok to fax to Globe City and arrange for the drawings to be collected and taken by the students to the Hub site occasionally?)
The second part of my submission is called 'Globe Blog' and is a temporary weblog on the net. It is kind of like an online diary and will likewise develop throughout the duration of the show. I would very much like for its web address to appear on the flyer/promotional material for the show (Ant has agreed to this), and also, if possible, for it to appear on the Globe website (which I notice is not fully functional yet, but perhaps it could be placed on that page temporarily?)....
Anyway, the address is http://globeblog04.blogspot.com (note no 'www.') and it would mean a lot to the development of the work for this to be disseminated as far and wide as possible.
Thanking you very much in advance,
Phil Marsden"
"Hi,
I am participating in the upcoming student-organised show at Hub ('Modus Operandi'), and have been referred here by my good friend and housemate Ant Macari (one of the co-ordinators of the show).
Basically, my submission consists of two parts and I have two resultant questions/requests....
Firstly, I hope to make drawings whilst at work (at a-n) and fax them through to the gallery periodically over the duration of the show. So I guess my first question is, is there a fax machine at Globe Hub? and if so, what is the number? (if not, would it be ok to fax to Globe City and arrange for the drawings to be collected and taken by the students to the Hub site occasionally?)
The second part of my submission is called 'Globe Blog' and is a temporary weblog on the net. It is kind of like an online diary and will likewise develop throughout the duration of the show. I would very much like for its web address to appear on the flyer/promotional material for the show (Ant has agreed to this), and also, if possible, for it to appear on the Globe website (which I notice is not fully functional yet, but perhaps it could be placed on that page temporarily?)....
Anyway, the address is http://globeblog04.blogspot.com (note no 'www.') and it would mean a lot to the development of the work for this to be disseminated as far and wide as possible.
Thanking you very much in advance,
Phil Marsden"
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Another day, another blog! I am debating whether or not I should be updating this everyday, or whether I should be doing it at all until the exhibition opens proper. Perhaps it is the sheer novelty value at the moment, but I think that if I am to regard this as an 'artwork' (we can come back to this questionable assertion another time), then it would be beneficial not to leave anything out. It is organic, and will grow to a certain point and then stop. Whether or not it will resemble a finished work is perhaps not as important as the fact that its audience will be able to trace its origins and the way in which it developed. This will all be helpful in finding out whether there is a place in art for social software of this kind.
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Hi everyone! If I've learned anything about weblogs today its that they're often a lot less formal than the two dry entries that have appeared in this one so far! With that in mind I think I'll switch to a more personal writing style. Yes, why not.
Well, I've added a few links. They're over there on the right. See? Check out the British Blog Awards article on Guardian Unlimited to see what some of the more inventive bloggers are doing with the medium. And defo take a look at Nick Crowe's site. A Manchester-based artist whose work deals directly with the internet and such. His alternative websites for prestigious UK art galleries are a particular highlight (their MIDI soundtracks will be like music to your ears!). The iSociety, a branch of London-based think-tank The Work Foundation, looks at the impact of communications technology on UK businesses and social networks etc. and member William Davies' essay, 'You Don't Know Me, but..., Social Capital & Social Software' was kind of the inspiration for this whole endeavour.
I've also added a facility to leave comments. Your contributions are welcome and you can add to the whole sprawling, viral, web-based poisonous deluge of autonomous personal opinion!
xxx
Well, I've added a few links. They're over there on the right. See? Check out the British Blog Awards article on Guardian Unlimited to see what some of the more inventive bloggers are doing with the medium. And defo take a look at Nick Crowe's site. A Manchester-based artist whose work deals directly with the internet and such. His alternative websites for prestigious UK art galleries are a particular highlight (their MIDI soundtracks will be like music to your ears!). The iSociety, a branch of London-based think-tank The Work Foundation, looks at the impact of communications technology on UK businesses and social networks etc. and member William Davies' essay, 'You Don't Know Me, but..., Social Capital & Social Software' was kind of the inspiration for this whole endeavour.
I've also added a facility to leave comments. Your contributions are welcome and you can add to the whole sprawling, viral, web-based poisonous deluge of autonomous personal opinion!
xxx
Proposal for ‘Modus Operandi’
‘Modus Vivendi’ and ‘Globe Blog’
Where modus operandi is the way of working, modus vivendi comes from ‘way of living’, but is used to mean ‘an arrangement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully’. The conflicting nature of art and the organisations which surround and support it will be examined through a series of works transmitted by fax from my office at ‘a-n The Artists Information Company’ to the Globe Gallery in North Shields. This activity will dually explore the notion of being creative whilst at work and that of a different approach to the gallery environment.
Although a-n (and other arts organisations) exist to promote activity in the visual arts and creativity generally, it is unlikely that this would be encouraged as part of day-to-day office activity. Productivity would likely suffer as a result, and artistic activity is not as quantifiable as revenue generated from selling advertising, for instance. Could a modus vivendi exist between creativity and bureaucracy?
These faxes, which will consist of drawings and probably scraps of writing, could be sent in varying numbers per day for the duration of the show (presumably on some days none will be sent as I work part-time and may be too busy even when I am there). I have thought that they could be collected into a lever-arch file in individual plastic wallets available to view by the exhibition-goer, extending the feel of the office environment aesthetic. The work is therefore durational and will not exist in a finished state until the exhibition itself has ended.
This is likewise the case with ‘Globe Blog’, which is to be a durational weblog on the internet. A weblog is essentially an online diary, and this is something I can update in real-time throughout the show. It is separate from the physical content in the gallery but can, I believe, exist as a component of the exhibition, exploring how ‘social software’ can be used in the service of art, in a way that is accessible to anyone, anywhere with access to the internet. Globe Blog is already online at http://globeblog04.blogspot.com/ where this proposal has been uploaded, and I will look into how content can be linked to the Globe Gallery website, and the possibility of allowing participating artists to add to it, forming an online journal surrounding the development of Modus Operandi .
Phil Marsden
Feb 2004
‘Modus Vivendi’ and ‘Globe Blog’
Where modus operandi is the way of working, modus vivendi comes from ‘way of living’, but is used to mean ‘an arrangement allowing conflicting parties to coexist peacefully’. The conflicting nature of art and the organisations which surround and support it will be examined through a series of works transmitted by fax from my office at ‘a-n The Artists Information Company’ to the Globe Gallery in North Shields. This activity will dually explore the notion of being creative whilst at work and that of a different approach to the gallery environment.
Although a-n (and other arts organisations) exist to promote activity in the visual arts and creativity generally, it is unlikely that this would be encouraged as part of day-to-day office activity. Productivity would likely suffer as a result, and artistic activity is not as quantifiable as revenue generated from selling advertising, for instance. Could a modus vivendi exist between creativity and bureaucracy?
These faxes, which will consist of drawings and probably scraps of writing, could be sent in varying numbers per day for the duration of the show (presumably on some days none will be sent as I work part-time and may be too busy even when I am there). I have thought that they could be collected into a lever-arch file in individual plastic wallets available to view by the exhibition-goer, extending the feel of the office environment aesthetic. The work is therefore durational and will not exist in a finished state until the exhibition itself has ended.
This is likewise the case with ‘Globe Blog’, which is to be a durational weblog on the internet. A weblog is essentially an online diary, and this is something I can update in real-time throughout the show. It is separate from the physical content in the gallery but can, I believe, exist as a component of the exhibition, exploring how ‘social software’ can be used in the service of art, in a way that is accessible to anyone, anywhere with access to the internet. Globe Blog is already online at http://globeblog04.blogspot.com/ where this proposal has been uploaded, and I will look into how content can be linked to the Globe Gallery website, and the possibility of allowing participating artists to add to it, forming an online journal surrounding the development of Modus Operandi .
Phil Marsden
Feb 2004
Welcome to Globe Blog! An experiment into the potential of social software in the realm of art!
An exhibition opens in a couple of weeks at the Globe Gallery (Hub) in North Shields, UK. The title of the exhibition is 'Modus Operandi' and it is co-ordinated by 'normal life' collective. Normal life are inviting proposals for work to go in the show. I am about to make such a proposal which will feature this weblog + a series of drawings/works on paper sent by fax to the gallery entitled 'Modus Vivendi', about which more later. Both will run and expand throughout the duration of the show, providing they are accepted.
An exhibition opens in a couple of weeks at the Globe Gallery (Hub) in North Shields, UK. The title of the exhibition is 'Modus Operandi' and it is co-ordinated by 'normal life' collective. Normal life are inviting proposals for work to go in the show. I am about to make such a proposal which will feature this weblog + a series of drawings/works on paper sent by fax to the gallery entitled 'Modus Vivendi', about which more later. Both will run and expand throughout the duration of the show, providing they are accepted.
