All things die and decay there is nothing that is untouchable, nothing that is beyond the process of time, biological generations, life cycle. Yet we place eternal faith in technology, in the digital world everything is eternal, preserved in perfect condition stored in the virtual world of the internet and the various storage system. We ignore the technological process of time, life cycles the next generations and versions of software. The Microsoft operating system "Windows" is 35 years old, the JPEG is 25 years old it is only logical to assume that these systems and file formats will become obsolete at some stage. And yet we continue to store and file important photographic images and archives solely in the virtual realm. C 22 was a colour process introduced by kodak in the 50's became obsolete 46 years ago in 1972 this was superseded by the C 41 process. C 41 process continues to be readily developed to this today where has the C 22 process can only be developed by 4 commercial photographic labs and only has a black and white print. 4Facebook is 14 years old, whole archive of personal images and memory stored on a virtual platform that surely come to an end one day. Image recovering 14 years worth of digital photographic archive of one person! When my eldest reaches the age I am currently (44) Facebook would be 32 years old if it continued in the future, I would be 74 years old with a Facebook archive of 43 years!!!! of course the accounts of the dead would need to be closed down. Not including 8 plus computers/ hard drives and other storage platforms.
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I am one of those people that if it can be picked or pulled I will act on that compulsion and go ahead and pick or pull. So my current thread seems to be seated around time, memory, personal events, archive and constructed images.
I have noted that although that assignment work has all been created or is in a process of being created are all individual work, triggered by different personal responses to the assignments. I believe that maybe I have created one continuous piece of work, a constructed story of an event and experience of somebody. A story based on truth that has led to a fiction. Assignment one - Postcard, work based the lost of my, like a postcard to heaven without saying mother or death. Assignment Two - Halfway Land, work based on a seizure and recalled of my wife has a witness. Assignment Three - Echo Chamber, based around the pointless act of trying to write in 300 words your day, trying to describe how you feel, what you think, a self portrait. Assignment Five - Work in progress, construction of damaged negatives and family archive photographs with the negatives obscuring people maybe has an indication of lost. If viewed has a whole is it a postcard to heaven, a traumatic event, the after effects of the event, and the photographic memory of somebody that is no more, damaged and fading memory. Something to think about............. Vivid dreams are pretty weird. I use to get them every night when I started my medication for my epilepsy (a side effect) I use to call them sweet medicated dreams but has I have gotten use to the medication over a period of time they have subsided.
Had my first floating dream, I felt light feeling myself lifting rising up it slowly took my breath away it felt good.........then my wife snapped me out of the dream poking me because I took a deep breathe in but not out - guess that was the floating :) Not sure why I have posted it here maybe something to work with? Well I guess it is beginning to happen again, the course work is taking a big back seat. I still haven't submitted assignment two, although it is almost there. I have been working on assignment three and five at the same so the impact is on time and course work.
Its a tricky one, assignment work is my priority, ruminating put it down, if the assignment work presents itself strike while the iron is hot. Of course this means it is not informed by course work first then I will be in the same position I was in on EVY completing assignments first then taking the line of it is pointless to retrospectively complete them. I guess if they are completed retrospectively it can still inform me and the work. I could still retrospectively add to written assignment work and indicate that that is the case. Effectively a large part of this unit is done......essentially backwards, which seems to be working for me. The time management? well my target was a 8 week assignment submission and I guess that I am just creating unnecessary pressure by self imposed deadlines. If the work is weak then deadline pressure will just further weaken it because it will be rushed. I am still on course for completing the course in a year, I still have 20 weeks. A1 is complete A2 is 90% Complete A3 is 60% Complete A5 is 30% Complete I've asked my dad for old photos, I am digging through all of my stuff in the loft, old photographs, an archive of time, place and memories some of which I have forgotten and some of which I have never witnessed until the photograph awakens a trace of memory or a question which always leads to a story. My memory and these photographs share commonality in that they are both hidden away either at the back of my brain or at the back of the loft waiting to be rediscovered.
Where is here? somewhere and nowhere? a suitcase? a biscuit tin? an attic? the back of a brain? A snapshot, the vernacular and the mundane.............. This is a story but of what? I do not know. The presentation and the format the work takes will impact on the viewers interaction with the work. I am beginning to get a very basic feel not just how the presentation and format impacts this interaction but also the works setting.
I think that this seed of understanding is forming out of visiting exhibitions and the different experiences of viewing work online and within a gallery or museum setting provide. So far I have visited Ikon Gallery Edmund Clark - In place of hate Rie Nakajima - Cyclic Langlands & Bell - Internet Giants : Masters of the universe Birmingham Musem and Art Gallery Coming Out So guess what I have been thinking (Jesus I am like a blood yo-yo) .............no doubt written and research is going to be a tough one to break in terms of comfort zone - assignment four is an essay, I feel like I am struggling with the written and the research element. Rumination is kicking in. I sound so needy so self absorbed and irritating but it is not done seeking a pat on the back or looking for comfort. I need and I am motivated to break this cycle.
Look back and review Post EVY Reflection Feed Forward Short sweet, relevant and be honest - I can only do what I currently do but I can look at small changes in practice and approach. Try different things. Continue to type here in my journal who knows I maybe able to turn it in a physical one. Pick a book up here and there. Read one or two paragraphs, write a sentence or two. See work write a sentence or two. I need to organize myself like this learning log, I need to peel back the layers into separate elements. So current exploration of self, memory, time, death is continuing to grow. Its not really faded away which has surprised me. How much work could you squeeze from it, I guess it is never ending.
It will soon be the 14th year anniversary of my mum's death. The course has brought back feelings from my childhood experiences with in education. I am 44 soon to be 45 and I am at a transitional point where am I going? I feel like a 14 year old teenager not sure which way I should go..........thinking just fuck it all off there's no point. And the part thinking keep going no matter what because there is a point i just don't know it. Maybe I will call the final assignment 14. More visual experiments |