This incredibly dense article raises several contemporary ideological concerns about public, collaborative, and digital art. The author uses her work, "Project B" as a jumping off point into exploring these muli-faceted issues. To sum it up, "Project B" involved the creation of a structure that would come to be know as "The Birmingham Sebilj." (see picture below) Two artists, Françoise Dupré and Myfanwy Johns, along with a dedicated group of everyday people from the community joined forces in the hopes of creating, "a collaborative public art community project referencing the functionality of ornament and it's transformative quality on architectural space." The artists used a combination of traditional crafts, (i.e. crochet and cross stitch), along with technologically complex digital art.
One of the reasons I find this project unique is the way it deals with the conundrum facing today's media artists: digital versus analogue.
"The transformation, through digital process, of a hand made crochet sample into a machine etched pattern displaces the intimate and tactile relation that one has with the original object. There is a sense of loss as one's original seems to be disregarded in favour of the slick machine finished hard edge product. Within the context of a diasporic community, this sense of loss cannot be dismissed."
This project initially amplifies the loss of the craft, but offers participants a way to bridge their grief by connecting their original tactile creations with their digital counterparts, by teaching participants to use the software that creates the digital facsimile.
The project was also concerned with building social networks by bringing people together with a common goal. Unlike digital art which usually involves one person burning their retinas out after hours and hours in front of a screen, tactile art is mobile and can be performed almost anywhere, individually or as a group.
I personally walked away from this article feeling...overwhelmed. I have a tendency to favor digital arts. I find them less messy and exponentially easier to circulate. I am getting rid of all my physical DVD's, CD's, photos, and in some cases, books- in favor of their digitized forms. This article left me unsettled as I considered my future life in a digital bubble. I will not sit down with my grandchildren and go through family photo albums- I'll plug in my hard drive or send them a link. I won't sit on the floor sifting through old CD cases searching for that certain song- I'll just download it on itunes. These conveniences enthrall me, a life uncluttered. But...I'd never considered the grief.
To be clear, I'm not sure I'm making any sense. I'm conflicted by the transition we face in the digital age. This project is so emblematic of the challenge and so successful in striking a balance that it gives me hope, while restoring my somewhat jaded view of analogue life. Though it brings philosophical quarries...
No comments:
Post a Comment