Studio Gateway

Ed Ruscha, Royal Road Test. 1967, book.

During the 1960s, Ruscha created a series of mass-produced, cheaply printed photographic books cataloguing the various kinds of banal roadside sites one might encounter on a typical drive through the American West, such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962), Some Los Angeles Apartments (1966), and Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass (1968). Ruscha’s books paid tribute to and slyly parodied the romantic vision of the road epitomized by writers and artists such as Jack Kerouac and Robert Frank, while also subverting the rapidly expanding market for what the artist described as “limited edition, individual, hand processed photos.” In Royal Road Test, Ruscha painstakingly documented himself dropping a vintage typewriter from a speeding Buick.

Hello team 

Here are a couple of Tumblrs from last year. This should give you some idea about what the mix of posts should look like for your submissions. You can also read the concept statements and see how the bibliography operates in this context. 

http://anneadad1002.tumblr.com/

http://hanarobinson-adad1001.tumblr.com/

Just a reminder to keep the criteria in mind while working on your Assessment 2 projects. 

Here is the process I went over in class - as I mentioned this isn’t linear or singular but a suggestion for how you could think about structuring your practice-led research:

Reflect on your poster and think about whether there are any themes, ideas, processes, materials you want to keep exploring. You need to keep the same topic but you can progress in whatever direction you like from Assessment 1. 

Devise some experiments/tests and then iterate one you find interesting

Iteration means repetition with variation - the variation could be adjusting a small parameter or something larger like translating to a different material or changing scale, colour etc - repeat, repeat, repeat!

Critically reflect on your experiments to work out what you want to develop and why

Alongside this do contextual research to develop your project. Research the work of other creative practitioners working with similar ideas/processes/materials. Look into theory around your topic

Once you have a series of iterations documented to Tumblr, think about refining one or some of those into the final work(s)

Hannah Black on value, capitalism and the generic.

Stephanie Syjuco, The Counterfeit Crochet Project (Critique of a Political Economy) 

2006 - present

“I created a website soliciting crocheters to join me in hand-counterfeiting designer handbags: Fendi, Gucci, Chanel, Prada, etc. Participants troll the internet and choose a design that they particularly covet, working off of low-resolution jpgs which they download. The final results may or may not bear resemblance to the originals, which also interests me.

The resulting “translations” are both homages and lumpy mutations. Crochet is considered a lowly medium, and the limitations imposed by trying to create detail with yarn takes advantage of the individual maker’s ingenuity and problem-solving skills.

I am also interested in how this project can be similar to contemporary manufacturing and distribution channels. As a collaboration it parallels the idea of “outsourcing” labor, but also adds a democratic and perhaps anarchic level of creativity–within the basic framework, participants have taken liberties with their translations, changing colors, adding materials (cardboard, hot glue, etc.) to suit their needs.

Makers are encouraged to keep and wear their bags, in an attempt to insert strange variants into the stream of commerce and consumption. I ask for people to send me snapshots of their items to share with others.”

“Hollywood Burn is an anti-copyright epic constructed entirely from hundreds of samples pirated from the Hollywood archive. It pits a righteous league of video pirates against the evil tyrant Moses and his Copyright Commandments. Determined to alter the present by changing the past, the pirates travel back to 1955 to construct the ultimate weapon: an Elvis Presley video-clone.

http://www.citypaper.com/bcpnews-abuse-and-accountability-in-the-arts-scene-a-reckoning-20170822-htmlstory.html

This brings up an important issue that UNSW is dealing with in the wake of the recent Australian Human Rights Commission releasing the results of its independent student survey on sexual harassment and sexual assault in Australian universities, and a separate report detailing the results for each of Australia’s 39 universities.The Commission’s national report and the UNSW report make for sobering and concerning reading, and we invite you to go to the website to download and read them. UNSW welcomes the release of the Commission’s report, which is an important step in addressing this serious issue.