Fishli/Weiss installation

I was recommended to take a look at Fishli/Weiss past exhibition 'Untitled' at Tate. The exhibition has some similarities to my installation. I'm using everyday object as well and transform them into something else... At the first glimpse everything seems normal, but when you get closer you'll realize that something is different. As Fishli/Weiss I'm also transforming them into handmade imitations of mass-produced objects, but just as them, I'm doing something more. They did it in the material they used, I'm doing it with the design of the package. Whats the point? I want to create a reaction.

Text taken from tate:

'At first glance, this room appears to be a work in progress, littered with tools and the grubby detritus found in any construction site. It is, of course, an illusion, an accumulation of polyurethane sculptures carefully carved and painted to seem indistinguishable from the originals. This series of installations are like three-dimensional versions of a trompe-l’oeil still-life painting, designed to give the illusion of reality.

Over the years, Fischli / Weiss have made a number of these works: Untitled (Tate) (1993-2006), which is included here, appeared in the opening displays at Tate Modern in 2000.
At the heart of these works is the artists’ love of paradox and mischief. The room demands a double-take. It looks like the chaos of an artist’s studio where their work might be made, yet of course, what we see is the actual artwork, every smear and grain of dust artfully placed. There is also a certain perversity in the artists’ decision to devote many hours and much skill to handcrafting imitations of mass-produced objects.

These detailed replicas bring to mind Marcel Duchamp’s ‘readymades’. Duchamp took pre-existing, mass-produced objects, such as a bicycle wheel and urinal, and presented them in a gallery context as works of art. However, while Duchamp’s objects were the real thing, that sense of authenticity is undermined in Fischli / Weiss’ sculpted simulations. Discussing the parallel, Fischli comments: ‘Duchamp’s objects could revert back to everyday life at any point in time. Our objects can’t do that; they’re only there to be contemplated. They’re all objects from the world of utility and function, but they’ve become utterly useless.’'

Text taken from 2thewalls:
“Fischli/Weiss’ replicas have an inbuilt level of absurdity – why would anyone go to the lengths of producing minute imitations of ordinary objects rather than simply using the originals as ready-mades? Carved from polyurethane and painted to look almost exactly like real buckets, hammers, pieces of plywood, telephones or chairs, these pieces are absolutely not presenting the forgery of something particularly valuable – say a design object or antique. Instead they seem to be the monstrous evidence of artists ‘wasting their time’.

Google has changed the way we remember

 I think people are getting more and more aware of the disadvantages of the digital age I find more and more research on it and also by speaking to other people it seems like we have started to realize the powerful impact it has on us. My sister works as a teacher at a Upper Secoundary school, and she says that her students is less and less focused on whats going on in the lectures after it became mandatory that every student had to have a computer in class. They get more distracted. Research supports this, and I have also found an article with a video saying that Google has changed the way we remember.

You can read the article here

From handwriting to a reaction. Identity.

When I started this year, I wanted to work with handwriting. After getting more knowledge and the chance to work with the subject, I've realized that it has evolved into something else. Yeah, I still work with handwriting (it is very relevant, especially in the matter of identity), but I've started to focus more on the way technology is affecting today's society. We've been through a massive change, how is that affecting our identity? What happends with something who goes through a change? Will something change its entire purpose?

Symposium: Social Media Revolution

My speech at the Symposium was about how the technology has changed the way we communicate in today's society. What do we do to belong?

Here is the movie I showed:

Symposium - Research

As a preparation for the Symposium, one of the tasks was to 'research and document an actual symposium that relates to your own study project. Add this material to your blog'.

Apparently there has been many Symposiums on the subject of handwriting, most of them about the handwriting analysis/graphologists part, which is a bit unrelevant for my studies. More relevant Symposiums, however, is a Symposium written by two men called Josh and Tim which is very interesting and relevant for my subject. They have both good arguments, and I like Tims arguments where he writes about the relevance of handwriting in school for children.

Josh is a law school teacher, and he debates for the use of type and computer and seems to be 'against' handwriting:
Symposium Part I - Josh

Tim seems to be a teacher as well, and he has many great arguments why handwriting is so important:
Symposium Part II - TIM

Both of the Symposiums are found on the blog http://npinopunintended.wordpress.com/.

I also found a Symposium which might be relevant at http://www.dan.sperber.fr/?p=75, but I haven't had the chance to read it properly yet. I will comment it when I have read it and made an opinion about it.

Some questions before the Assessment

What have you developed and learned over the unit?


In the beginning of this course, I was a bit unsure about what I wanted to do. I struggled finding good projects and I did some strange movie projects (f ex handwritten news). I was not used to the self-structured form of learning, and felt a bit lost. Now I have a many projects that I'm working on at the same time, and I feel that I've finally creating something good.

What has succeeded and what has failed over the unit?


I had a hard time from the beginning of the course to a while after Christmas. I mentioned it at a presentation, and said that I considered changing the subject of my MA (I did not wanted to do handwriting anymore), but then I got convinced that I should keep trying, which I'm really happy about now. 

I feel like the beginning of the year was a bit a failure, I haven’t produced anything good from that period, but at the same time, I learn a lot. I wouldn’t been where I am today with all my projects if it wasn’t for all that testing and failing. I feel like my projects are getting better and better, especially the recent ones.

Has your project proposal changed or developed since its submission?


Has your study plan changed?


Yeah, it has changed a bit, but not radically. In the beginning I wanted to do something huge that involved many people, but now I like to just focus on the things behind everything, more the difference between computer based type and handwritten letters.

What changes did you make as a result of feedback you received in the Mid Point Review?


I have not worked that much more on the project I showed at the Mid Point reviews but someone told me that I should try to put the posters in a book, and try the book format rather than the poster. I tried that, and it was a much better idea. 


Trace - Posters

One of my concerns regarding the fact that we use our bodies and hands less as a consequence of the digital era, is that I'm worried we might lose some of the natural feeling on how to create things with our hands.. Through centuries we have been shaping and creating things with our fingers trough art-forms like  ceramic, painting, and just as ordinary as nice, readable letters.. Now that many peoples write most on computers means that we get another relation to writing, we get another feeling and touch with our hands. As a small protest to that, I've made 4 posters (size A3), who shows how much you move your hand to write a sentence, depending on wether you do it using a keyboard or a pen. The second poster is made by fingertips dipped in ink, before typing on a keyboard to show the moves. The last poster is made following every movement of the hand when you write with a pen. Is the difference as huge as you thought it would be? Hopefully will this project make people think.