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Here are some web sources that I regularly use for reference material and just to check out what other people are thinking/ doing. 

http://www.ubu.com/ Gold mine of highly curated, experimental art. Spend all your procrastination time on here. 

https://www.e-flux.com/ Super influential online journal. They also have a range of creative web based projects that you can browse. 

https://www.dezeen.com/ Architecture and design magazine. 

https://www.designboom.com/ Another massive archive of creative projects. 

https://maas.museum/powerhouse-museum/ Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences is a super fun place to go visit for inspiration. They have a pretty incredible collection. They have a good digitised collection too that you can browse online. 

http://runway.org.au/ Local journal based around promoting and commissioning experimental art. They produce issues based on particular concepts. In the past they produced printed magazines but are now web based which allows them to publish content in a variety of media. They have also digitised all of their printed editions. It’s now an amazing archive of creative work and ideas. 

http://www.discipline.net.au/ Melbourne based contemporary art journal. Very meaty content. 

http://unprojects.org.au/ Excellent publication out of Melbourne. 

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/ Cabinet Magazine publishes articles on all kinds of amazing things that you might find inspiring. 

Remember to visit the library. Go in and browse new books and journals. 

Follow every possible gallery, museum, artists you like, designers you like on Instagram. Turn your scrolling into research. This is a great way to keep up with what is going on. You never know where inspiration is going to come from. 

Some galleries and museums to keep up with: 

https://artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-galleries (exhibitions that are currently on might be useful to you for references for your assessments)  

https://artdesign.unsw.edu.au/campus/student-galleries/kudos-gallery

http://firstdraft.org.au/

http://carriageworks.com.au/

http://art.uts.edu.au/

http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/

https://thecommercialgallery.com/

http://www.sarahcottiergallery.com/

http://home.alaskaprojects.com/

https://www.nas.edu.au/place/gallery/

https://www.artspace.org.au/

http://www.knulps.org/past/ (tiny artist run space, best visual identity, check out their exhibition posters)

https://www.airspaceprojects.com.au/

http://c-a-c.com.au/

http://www.penrithregionalgallery.org/exhibitions/

http://www.casulapowerhouse.com/

http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/

My method of working involves a cyclic process whereby the practice of making is followed by observation, further research, some resolution and then a subsequent return to experimenting, while reflecting on that which has already been produced. This method involves a constant consideration of my practice through research and the research through the practice in an enquiry that occurs within a conceptual framework. I use images that are objects, and objects that are collected or found, as well as images that I take, or make. The way that I collect, store and retrieve photographs that I have taken or found is a way of forming new connections and interpretations within the image and how that image comes into being and forms part of an art work. I often revisit my many folders and archive boxes where I store negatives, contact sheets, keepsake family photographs and found ephemera. It involves a process of shuffling, pondering and reading the pictures to try and ascertain their value in the present moment. The way that I read an image may change depending on when I view it, and what other parameters and influences are shaping the work at that moment. It is very much a process of discovery. My practice-led methodology explores the material functions and modalities of a set of strategies that are bound up with the physical, conceptual and metaphorical invocations of displacement and loss. Each of these strategies draw on a range of pictorial, aesthetic, material and communicative devices that operate out of broader fields of photography, the archive and practices of archeology. While the reoccurring element of each work is located within the practice of expanded photography the method by which the work comes together draws largely on finding, fragmenting, translating and reconfiguring material - that is both made (photographed) and found - each being of equal significance to my creative journey. Hence these practice-led strategies are not only bound to photographic reflexivity but engage with the explicit ways that material objects are encountered, experienced, collected, deciphered, presented or interpreted. I explore how a work of art might adopt a certain range of artistic strategies that describe and manifest what, in the present contemporary moment, it might mean to be from another place.

Dear Staff and Students,

The first round of workshop inductions are now available. These inductions are open to all Art & Design Students and are a prerequisite for additional workshop training offered later in the semester. We encourage you to sign up for these inductions, as they provide you with valuable skills, and access to tools and workshop areas.

Places are limited and fill up quickly, so please ensure that when you have registered to attend an induction, you do show up. If you are no longer able to attend please cancel your registration or contact the technical staff in the 3D Hub in FG04 or on Ph 8936 0663

Be prepared and arrive 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time and ensure you have the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) including long pants, closed in footwear, and a dust mask which can be purchased through the 3D Hub. Gain access to the equipment you need by completing each of the following steps:

BASIC WOODWORK INDUCTION

Complete the online quiz before attending the face-to-face induction. Follow the link to the quiz http://flip.unsw.edu.au/app/#/subpackage/4566 Log in with your zID and Unipass

Sign up and attend a face-to-face Wood Workshop Induction. The link to the Eventbrite registration page is provided at the end of the Basic Woodworking Quiz.

‘Declare as read’ the safe work procedure titled Basic Woodwork Induction - Using the Bandsaws, Drill Presses and Sanders in the UNSW Art & Design Wood Workshop in Safesys. The link to this safe work procedure sheet ishttps://safesys.unsw.edu.au/Lists/healthsafetyforms/DispForm.aspx?ID=9967 Log in with your zID and Unipass

BASIC METALWORK INDUCTION

Sign up and attend a face-to-face Metal Workshop Induction. The link to the Eventbrite registration page is https://www.eventbrite.com/e/basic-metalwork-induction-semester-2-2018-tickets-26872854431

Adrian Piper, Catalysis III, 1970

‘Not overly defining myself to viewers as artwork by performing any unusual or theatrical actions of any kind. These actions tend to define the situation in terms of the pre-established categories of ”guerrilla theater,” ”event,” ”happening,” ”street work,” etc., making disorientation and catalysis more difficult. For example, Catalysis Ill, in which I painted a set of clothing with sticky white paint with a sign, attached saying ”WET PAINT,” then went shopping at Macy’s for some gloves and sunglasses; Catalysis V in which I recorded loud belches made at five-minute intervals, then concealed the tape recorder on myself and replayed it at full volume while reading, doing research, and taking out some books and records at Donnell Library’.

Every Artist Remembered, 2009 | Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney

Every Artist Remembered is a project I began in 2008, which feels like eons ago. I have returned to the project here for Power to the People. Although it is very much a procedural work, I am always confronted by the variables that give each appointment, conversation and resulting drawing or constellation its very specific qualities. Each appointment is open to the public, although their presence is quite incidental for each collaborating artist and myself. The intimacy and connection established between us is at times strong, and at other times tenuous. The audience can, if they choose, bear witness to how this relationship, and the resulting image unfolds. I give each collaborating artist very similar verbal instructions before each appointment commences. It goes something like this: The task is, as the name of the work suggests, to remember every artist. This is of course impossible but in this 2 hours we will attempt to do so. The definition of ‘an artist’ is yours. I put no limitations on this and will not censor any name you say. We will alternately recall artists name for exactly two hours. You will name the first and last artist. I will note the artists on this piece of paper as we go, although where I place each name is intuitive and bears no relation to the linear formation of our conversation. I ask that each name be said in relation to the name before. This specific nature of the relation is up to you – it could be linguistic, social, historical, lateral, geographic, sexual, intuitive etc. I ask this so the exercise does not enter the realm of a display of virtuosity or demonstration of encyclopaedic knowledge. It also limits the extent to which this names are a document of taste, although of course taste, virtuosity and knowledge all come in to it. I am not a good speller, and you can correct me if you choose. You may choose to use this a as chance to memorialise certain artists. We can converse about any of the artists either of us don’t know. It’s fine to sit in silence. Ultimately, there will be no evidence of who recalled what name.

Agatha Gothe-Snape

“Sorry. Sorry. I’m sorry. I regret it. Please accept my apology. I’m extremely sorry. I regret my mistake. Pardon me. Pardon me. I hope you’ll forgive me. I’m deeply apologetic. Do forgive me. Pardon me. Accept my apology. Do forgive me. I’m deeply apologetic. Excuse me. Excuse me. It was my own fault. Do forgive me. I’m so sorry…”

Janet Zweig, Her Recursive Apology (sculpture), 1993

Introduction to Studio Gateway Part Two

During the studio, the class were separated into groups ranging from A to D. Each group was assigned a section of the campus to go to and create a mini documentary style video on the space to inform ourselves and others of the facilities at UNSW Art & Design. @hannahgd99, @ariane-m and I were partnered into Group D and assigned to the Tool Room. The Tool Room, part of UNSW Art & Design’s Technical Services Unit, provides technical support relating to the production of art and design for all students and staff.

The Tool Room staff Staff assist students with technical support for the faculty’s Academic programs, provide individual consultation on student and staff projects, and supply loans from a large range of tools and equipment. However, a large arrange of the tools require an induction on the use of tools, and workshop machinery due to the safety concerns regarding the space. Additionally, staff advice on techniques and materials while supplying guidance on work health and safety compliance

http://www.dronesurvivalguide.org/

Amsterdam-based designer Ruben Pater has created the Drone Survival Guide, a poster featuring to-scale silhouettes of common drones and tips for spotting them in the style of traditional bird or airplane spotting guides. The guide indicates each drone’s nationality and separates them into two categories: those used for surveillance only and those designed to kill. On the back of the poster, the guide imparts survival tips for spotting, hiding from, and interfering with the sensors of drones.

Our ancestors could spot natural predators from far by their silhouettes. Are we equally aware of the predators in the present-day? Drones are remote-controlled planes that can be used for anything from surveillance and deadly force, to rescue operations and scientific research. Most drones are used today by military powers for remote-controlled surveillance and attack, and their numbers are growing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) predicted in 2012 that within 20 years there could be as many as 30.000 drones flying over U.S. Soil alone.

You can download the Drone Survival Guide poster as a PDF in a selection of different languages, or order a physical copy on reflective aluminium paper from the Drone Survival Guide website.

Poster as a political medium. 

1,2,3. 

Paris May 1968: ‘The streets of the French capital saw workers and students protesting against the increasing levels of unemployment and poverty that were all too apparent under Charles de Gaulle’s conservative government. 

In Paris, on the 16 May, students and faculty staff took over the Ecole des Beaux Arts to establish the Atelier Populaire (the Popular Workshop). The organisation went on to produce hundreds of silkscreen posters in an unprecedented outpouring of political graphic art. In a statement, the Atelier Populaire declared the posters “weapons in the service of the struggle… an inseparable part of it. Their rightful place is in the centres of conflict, that is to say, in the streets and on the walls of the factories.”’ From 

4,5,6.

Hans Haacke, ‘Wir (alle) sind das Volk—We (all) are the people’ (2003/2017)

Ten thousand posters

‘Documenta participant Hans Haacke produced “We (All) Are The People” which did not go over well with residents of Athens. The poster translates the title phrase into a number of languages. It was printed 10,000 times to be plastered all over Athens in poster-sized editions. The gesture seems to play exactly into the obvious interventions that Documenta seems to encourage, with a rainbow gradient, a single phrase of unity translated in a democratic way and without making a single political demand. This begs the question: who has the right to proclaim themselves “the people?” Haacke, known for his critique of the corporate-institutional partnership while remaining a staple artist of the biennial, uses the advertising structure to make claims in a similar way that Documenta appears as a brand imposed on the city of Athens to legitimate its artistic relevance.

Member of Pussy Riot:

More fluxus performance from Alison Knowles 

And this one, another video of Make a Salad - check it out!

Week 11 - Repetition

This week we’re visiting the Art Gallery of NSW to view the exhibition The National and explore the weekly topic of ‘Repetition’. 

Meet on the front steps of the gallery at the usual start time for class. Choose 2 of the following activities to complete during the visit:

Activity 1: Find an artwork/situation/space in the gallery that you can interpret in relation to the theme of repetition. There are lots of different ways you can think about this! Look through the weekly resource PDF to get some ideas. Perhaps repetition occurs as a formal element. Perhaps repetition occurs as a process of making/doing. You might think about concepts around repetition such as: standardisation (and mutation), the copy, duplication, accumulation, norms, ritual, the everyday, repetitive labour, obsession etc. Document what you find and write a reflection on how it connects to the topic of repetition. 

Activity 2: Using your phone camera, capture an extreme close-up detail of one of the works 50 TIMES from slightly different angles. Experiment with different layouts of the images to emphasise their similarity and/or differences. 

Activity 3: Find a work and attempt to copy it using drawing. Do this by dividing the page into a tight grid (the way Chuck Close does) and copy what you see in each square, one by one.  

Activity 4: Use the works in the gallery to do some research for Assessment 3. Think about how concepts/techniques/processes in certain works might relate to or inform your project. Can you get any ideas for ways to realise or present the final piece? Document any relevant works to Tumblr with some dot points on what you like about how they’re presented. 

Image: Megan Cope. RE FORMATION part 3 (Dubbagullee). (detail 2017)

Probably my favourite triumph of art through failure.

A Spanish woman, while volunteering at her Church, was touching up the tunic on a damaged fresco. She accidentally painted onto the face, kept touching up, and eventually repainted the entire image. Everyone freaked out, of course, but I think it is utterly perfect.

Marclay’s iconic “Guitar Drag” might be considered in this week’s topic as it makes music out of an act of sheer violence, seemingly incongruous acts. Through destruction music both audio and visual, are created. Read Marclay’s words on the work:

Guitar Drag by Christian Marclay is now being released on Neon Records. The record is actually the sound track for Marclay’s video with the same title that was shown first at London’s Hayward Gallery sound art exhibition ìSonic Boomî in 2000. The piece as well as Marclay has become an icon in sound art circles, and although the video can only be seen in exhibitions as an installation, it is widely known. The full 14 minutes sound track is released on a beautiful 12’’ clear vinyl record packaged in a sleeve with stills from the video. Filmed in San Antonio Texas, it shows an amplified Fender Stratocaster guitar attached to a rope being pulled behind a pick-up truck. As the guitar drags across the road it produces a range of sounds from the bumping and the friction against the varied surfaces. A fantastic visual piece, but also an amazing sound piece, that stands just as well alone, and in some ways just as visual! From the first sounds of duct-tape being ripped, the familiar sound of someone gently slamming the strings of the guitar, to the sounds of an engine starting and then slowly the beginning of a sound that is hollow and at the same time human, and that takes us through the deepest roarings to high pitch screams until the very end when it all slows down and stops, unwillingly it seems. Knowing the story behind the work or not, the sound itself triggers your imaginaton, leaving your soul no peace. For even if this could be seen, or heard, solely as a beautiful noisy sound piece, there is too much to the idea behind Guitar Drag, for it to not leave you restless and thoughtful. Guitar Drag has many different layers of references, it alludes to the ritual of smashing guitars in rock concerts, it recalls Fluxus and its many destruction of instruments. It is also like a road movie, with reference to the landscape of Texas where it was filmed, with references to cowboys and rodeos. It is about violence in general and more specifically about the lynching of James Byrd Jr. who was dragged to his death behind a pickup-truck. I want the video to have these multiple layers and trigger people’s imagination in contradictory ways. The piece ends up being seductive and repulsive at the same time. Christian Marclay, 2001 

Computers have their own ways of seeing, and when they try to “look” like humans do, they often fail.   Hito Steyerl        Proxy Politics: Signal and Noise in e-flux is a great article on this issue. She writes:

“Let’s have a look at one example: drawing a line between face and butt, or between “acceptable” and “unacceptable” body parts. It is no coincidence that Facebook is called Facebook and not Buttbook, because you can’t have any butts on Facebook. But then how does it weed out the butts? A list leaked by an angry freelancer shows precise instructions given on how to build and maintain Facebook’s face, and it shows us what is well known: that nudity and sexual content are strictly off limits, except art nudity and male nipples, but also how its policies on violence are much more lax, with even decapitations and large amounts of blood acceptable.