zakharikhov

10. ASOS

Asos, my first destination for clothing trends and fashion inspiration and more importantly, retail therapy that can be satisfied from the click of a finger from the comfort of home. Knowing the ‘standard’ of dressing on the streets gives me a sense of belonging and security and informs me about what i can or should wear. 

9. Instagram 

                                                   (Source: zakharikhov)

In age of ocularcentrism where the eye and visual images take precedence over all else, spectacles are celebrated and imagery produced, sometimes intentionally just for the sake of it. Nonetheless, as the top photo sharing platform in the world, Instagram remains my best source for a whole range of ideas be it in clothing trends, travel destination ideas, new party locations or even posing ideas. 

8. Dreams

Sleep is sometimes a luxury as an architecture student in Singapore (#thumbsdown) so it has become very common for me to fall into deep REM sleep and dream - sometimes even sleep paralysis and its accompanying frightful nightmares. Curiously enough, these dreams, bizarre and surreal as they are, have been sources of fantasy and intrigue for me.

7. Starbucks, Clarke Quay Central

Cafés have always enjoyed an affirmative reputation among artists, intellectuals and bohemians where they would meet to discuss issues close to their hearts or really just to feel inspired as they gaze onto public life on the sidewalks from their seats. For example, the former Café Royal in Piccadilly, London, that was the hangout place of notable figures like Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw and Mick Jagger. My personal favourite is Starbucks at Central in Clarke Quay where I would work on my architectural projects while reclining on my soft velvet sofa where the cafe’s lounge music drifts into my ears and also making the occasional glance to other patrons around me. 

6. Museums

                                   SONICreflection, Zulkiflie Mahmod (2016)

                                                (Source: zakharikhov)

Museums are not only repositories of memories where we might learn from the past. They are also projective of the future, and as such, remain entirely relevant and contrary to what many might think about museums. The installation above was one of the many exhibited at the Singapore Biennale last year and they continue to challenge our views and perceptions of society, thereby forging new boundaries.

5. Passport

                                               (Source: zakharikhov)

The perennial symbol of travel, the passport is a gateway to sights, sounds, tastes, firsthand knowledge and experiences beyond our typical comfort zone. Oftentimes during travel, I realise that I learn more about myself, others, and my position in society as I am immersed in a different culture and geographical setting. 

4. Friends

                                                    (Source: zakharikhov)

It is often said that man was born to connect and to form social bonds. True enough, it is often among friends that I gain happiness and the much needed drug called oxytocin that I so desire.  

3. GIFs and Internet Memes

Conventional news media outlets like newspapers and TV news continue to provide us with valid information. Nonetheless in some societies, they have lost their legitimacy in the eyes of many, being perceived to be the mouthpiece of the ruling elite or the wealthy. As such, GIFs and memes give an insight into what the common man is thinking about daily issues close to our hearts and act as vital resources to designers who design and create for the betterment of society.

2. Black Sketchbook and White Pen

                                                   (Source: zakharikhov)

Doodling is often my first step in any design project and I find the process especially fun and smooth with a white pen on black paper. The white pen then really takes on a life on its own. Another favourite medium is pencils (B,2B, until 6B) on heavyweight paper. 

1. Nature

                                                  (Source: zakharikhov)

Believer in intelligent design or proponent of evolution, we all agree that nature takes on the most interesting of forms, geometries, colours and textures. Not only is looking towards nature a clever way of getting inspiration, but is also spiritually soothing and rewarding for me as well.

The Big Mac is often held up as the emblem of globalisation, the archetypal symbol of economic progress and heightened connectivities between countries with the rise of powerful Transnational corporations (TNCs) that is McDonald’s. The Big Mac Index, clean and simple as it is, has thus become a powerful tool to scrutinise the health and wealth or rather, the general state of living between countries.

Intrinsically, though, the Big Mac is but an aggregation of many different elements; ingredients sourced all around the world - a complex operation involving cargo ships, trucks, local delivery companies and a synergy between vital stakeholders down to the cashier behind the counter that has curiously enough, been translated into a simple visual image of beef patties between buns juxtaposed against a clean background. Subsequently, this simple image continues to broadcast power all around the world in the 119 countries that Mcdonald’s operates in.

Martin John Callanan identifies himself as an “artist researching [his] place within systems”, and, his works thus far have demonstrated this constant seeking of an understanding of the mediation between individual man and larger, domineering and often even totalitarian systems that intimidate and subdue. For example, Grounds, a curation of photographs of spaces of exclusion that document an individual’s experiences walking through buildings that impose certain restrictions on visitors and occupants and Wars During My Lifetime, a collection of gazettes detailing every single conflict fought in human history accompanied by the announcing or public proclamation of the said wars by a Town Crier in period dress. 

Of particular interest to me however, was Departure of All, an LCD screen display that presented all international flight departures in real time. It seemed like a simple set-up that could be achieved algorithmically with data and information from all national civil aviation authorities or perhaps the ICAO. Nonetheless, it sends a powerful message as this planned simplicity or minimalism is celebrated and played out. I think that it is plausible to present Callanan’s work here to be an exposition of hypermodernity where the attributes of the “form” of international travel, i.e. flight city-destinations where the international airports are located and times in 24-hour clock format take centre stage over other critical aspects, i.e. function, such as air traffic control (ATC), the sophisticated coordination between ground-based controllers, pilots and other vital team players like security staff and cargo handlers that often go overlooked as they lay behind in inconspicuousness. 

That something as rigid and cold of an object as marble could be represented in such a cinematic way, as a product of perfectly-timed orchestration in the picturesque Alps. 

If someone from the distant future could take a look back at his past and the past in question would be the near future, what would it be like? 

The Death of Man examines the identities of the posthuman - the successor to mankind in time to come. Since time immemorial, art has revered the human body as the paramount vessel of rational thought and free will. Yet, the creeping proliferation of new technologies and its consequent rise of new digital cultures seeks to undo just that as they create and define new collective identities that mark a paradigm shift from the integrity of individualism and singularities. My website here documents life from the hypothetical lens of the near posthuman future starting from year 2054, with each GIF depicting a certain aspect of posthuman identity - the primacy of posthuman cyborgs over humans, heterogeneous identities in a single body, surrender of individual privacies and biotechnological implants, and finally culminating in the next century in 2108. 

                                                 Screenshot from website 

We cannot be definite about our future identities but we can be speculative about who or what we might be. The depth of fantasy offered by Surrealism/Postsurrealism and its blatant disregard for rational thought is an apt vehicle in which I can portray (perhaps, my) imagined posthuman identities for this assignment.