Author: Sarah-Jane Field

Exploring emergence, fragmentation and value systems

BOW A5: E-publication

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ 5 Comments

I realised yesterday I was not being consistent with my e-publication updates, sometimes creating new files, and sometimes updating an old one.

Screen Shot 2020-08-09 at 11.17.40

This is the most up to date version.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/17b8aff4-afe3-4b9b-aeb4-55d6896ab205

I still need to figure out how to resolve the music element – This is something that will be included as an extra with the hardcopy and I can, therefore, send some very brief instructions/suggestions -although there may be a way to programme.

I also updated the statement and will post it here and on the Assignment submission post.

why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers explores structural instability, embraces disorder and investigates the increasingly elusive relationship between meaning and language.

the overall title of the work and fragments of text included are from a conversation between the artist and a machine learning app that promised to be her friend for the cost of little more than £6 a month.

source material for why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers was made, found and taken, often in collaboration with the app, rendered into an entangled manifestation of disparate entities, including recorded moments between the two authors in various forms, online and off – as a book, ebook and short film.

music was composed by simon gwynne with the help of magenta’s music transformer neural network.

BOW: A5 – Webpages

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ Leave a comment

Am currently trying to figure out how to present this work in some sort of semblance online – and have created some pages, not finalised, all WIP for now, so can’t publish on my site, but am posting some screenshots here. None of the text is final although will be sending publication to print soon hopefully so am getting to the point of needing to get that sorted. Still not 100% sure of the wording in the intro/statement yet.

I must admit – it’s pretty bloody hard to manage/handle all these curling, unruly paths, however, as I work, I see places where I can develop further and connect/enable the relationship between seemingly disparate sections. However, I also think it only needs two or at the most three sub-pages where some of the elements in the book have space to expand, rather than trying to expand every aspect.

Screen Shot 2020-08-08 at 13.49.41Screen Shot 2020-08-08 at 14.30.58Screen Shot 2020-08-08 at 14.54.56

Screen Shot 2020-08-08 at 13.54.39Screen Shot 2020-08-08 at 14.22.56

BOW & CS: Ongoing thoughts/reflection re-machine learning and movement

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ 2 Comments
  1. I have continued to work on the ePublication. I have been wondering about including text but when I looked yesterday, I saw that the problem was not the text itself, it was my over-enthusiasm for the animations. I have removed all animations from text and left it only with the images which I think of now as doing some sort of slow dance to Simon’s music – of course, I can’t guarantee people will click on the music and that is something to consider – does it matter, isn’t that the point – there is a choice and some action, which may or may not occur, required from anyone interacting. Anyway, the e-pub works much better this way, although I am still trying to figure out why a certain GIF won’t do its thing and will look at that tonight. Am getting there with it. Have increased the size of the text to 14 which I’d never do in print but it seems OK on my screen – the problem is there are smaller screens too. When viewing, use Chrome rather than Safari  – have not checked on other browsers yet and still need to see what happens when saved for e-books, now sure about that. Will also need to look on tablets.

    https://indd.adobe.com/view/6999c82e-8c0f-42f4-a4c6-f887a98d1ef9

  2. I have been playing with an App called Runway ML  – and trying to figure out how it can help me. I suspect it will be good for me after BOW/OCA life but it’s good to know there is this bridging facility out there now. I need some uninterrupted time to spend with it – but I managed to do one of the more simple tasks the other day when I put a film which I used for earlier work, Polar Inertia (DI&C A2), through a machine learning programme that recognises body movement (see end post). I can’t use the work as this exact thing has already been done by Broomberg and Chanarin very recently in their amazing work Anniversary of a Revolution (Parsed) by Broomberg & Chanarin. Their version is excellent and uses Vertov’s black and white footage which contrasts well with the colours although I quite like the bomb film colour with it too – and the blank coloured frames in that film which I used as moving blocks in Polar Inertia are the same colours as the animated stickmen which I really love. I had included reference to B&C’s film in my essay but cut it due to word count. For now, in any case, I am more interested in generative image programmes but to do that I must find a way to create a dataset – and that includes writing a bit of code (copying and pasting it to be precise). Again, I need uninterrupted time to do this. I hope I can find a way before the deadline as it would be good to include a GIF made this way in the epub.
  3. I started reading Levi-Strauss’s the Raw and the Cooked at long last – have wanted to since UVC but was kept busy with other OCA texts and research. There is so much that rings a bell  – especially when he writes, he will be accused of making a book without a subject. This work of mine which explores changes to how the world sees sometimes feels like it lacks a subject. Perhaps I will have more to say in a forthcoming blog or final summation. I am waiting to speak with Ruth after her holiday and will need to send the book to print very soon after that. Assessment deadline is looming!

Added later the same day:

I continued to eliminate animations, using it more judiciously.  I have managed to get a GIF which wasn’t working to move – spent all afternoon wondering why and then suddenly it did, really odd. Thought it was mov. vs MPEG4 files but apparently not. Anyway, it moves now. I still have the following to do –

  • Add edits to the film – the mesh person and perhaps a few snippets of the movement machine learning where I’ve already used the bomb film.
  • Try to get something with the shadow puppets moving  – either stop motion or Processing to make a GIF of them animated, placed where currently there is a still.
  • Figure out how best to introduce the music  – if I speak at the beginning I could talk about it. I’m not sure how that will work. I have added an instruction at the end of the book. I am also wondering about having a type of digital wrap around that gives some guidance about how to operate the ePub.

Write something – I feel more and more that I need to do this. I wondered if it could be a loose pamphlet/flyer type thing to include in the printed book, and not quite sure in the ePub – maybe spoken at the beginning.

CS A5: thoughts New Materialism(s) – Critical Posthumanism Network

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One of things I have not touched on at all in the essay is New Materialism. Barad’s work comes under that heading and it seems remiss not to mention it. I’ve avoided it though as the topic I’ve covered is so vast, and my initial iterations were so rambling, I felt it was adding yet another idea into the mix which would be confusing/diluting. Since the essay is more streamlined now (I think) perhaps this is something I can address but I wonder if it would be better to add it to the appendix. As I said, I think I need to severely cut Appendix no. i anyway, maybe altogether – but perhaps I can add it there.

Then, if I do that, should I add a brief criticism of New Materialism? Zizek has stuff to say (but he sniffs a lot and thought Trump would be better than Clinton so I’ve less time for him lately …)

Things to consider..

New Materialism(s) – Critical Posthumanism Network
— Read on criticalposthumanism.net/new-materialisms/

CS A5: Referencing and Harvard Rules

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ 5 Comments

There is often a lot of chat on the various OCA forums about referencing and the Harvard rules. I try not to get too overly focused on these as I have so much to think about and I find it a bit distracting. It’s hard enough for someone who is undoubtedly dyslexic, but can’t officially say as I have never been properly diagnosed. Simply organising thoughts, getting names right, just putting words in the right order is immensely challenging anyway. However, of course, I want to get the citations in the right place too as it would be dreadful to lose % based on that.  I knew I would need to address this roundabout now and am lucky enough to know someone with a lot of academic writing experience who has proofed my referencing.

However, I think it would be useful for the OCA to offer a short online tutorial occasionally to cover referencing rules. This would have been especially helpful after they changed, a little while back. Tutors could attend too since they seem to give conflicting, out of date advice, if any at all – even though the guidelines are clear and categorical. When students make enquiries with various non-teaching OCA staff, again the replies can be confusing. The whole thing ends up causing students undue worry about something that we shouldn’t have to get too stressed about  – because the rules are actually clear. But! …yes, there is a but – there are lots of them, and if you’re not used to it/dyslexic, it’s too easy to get simple things wrong.

We also all have different learning styles for different types of information. For me, the lack of spoken interaction across the board with the OCA has been one of the biggest difficulties as I pick things up quickly when I hear them, but I can miss relatively straightforward stuff when it’s written down in a dry document. (Youtube videos have been a godsend for me – but having a live person answering questions is always the best.)

  • For instance, I completely missed the fact you must put the citation after the surname when it’s in the text,
  • i.e. Barad (2007: 49) talks about a “Cartesian habit of mind”.
  • But when it’s in not in the text, it goes after the quote, as I had been doing with everything:
  • We all live with a “Cartesian habit of mind” (Barad, 2007: 49).

It also took me ages to get it into my head that the full stop needs to be after the end bracket in the previous example – it’s something I should have been getting right throughout the course really. I’m aware, this might seem impossibly simple for anyone who has not spent a lifetime getting their left and right the wrong way round (a typical dyslexic habit).

These things are so simple and so obvious once they’ve sunk in, though. I am sure there are students who get it straight away. But for those of us who don’t – there are several, if the various emails and forum threads are anything to go by – I really think it would be good to have the chance to attend one-off tutorials (with someone who can be trusted) which I mentioned above, just about this topic. By keeping it consistent, so that everyone at the OCA is aware of the same advice, and limited to Harvard Rules, the information would not get buried. And the worry people feel about it would be a relatively easy stress to address or even do away with altogether.

 

 

 

CS A5: Extract updated

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Photography discourse is littered with opposing statements such as ‘photography is more important than ever’, or else it is ‘dead and irrelevant’. These proclamations have lately become as problematic as the long-held mechanistic Western view of reality, which arguably fosters these kinds of binarised positions.

However, we are no longer living in a world consisting of isolated objects, people, and places spread across the planet and universe, while time is only singular and forward-moving. Instead, reality seems increasingly emergent, dynamic, multi-dimensional, and rhizome-like.

Drawing on Karen Barad’s agential realism, a synthesis of quantum science and poststructuralism, the ensuing discussion results in more questions than answers. It may also be hindered by inescapable limitations of, to quote Barad, the “Cartesian habit of mind” (2007: 49) most of us inhabit. Such habits inform our language, academic conventions, and, of course, photographic critical theory. Barad’s phenomenologically informed philosophy is a threat to the boundaries photography has used to promote itself even while claiming to challenge the status quo. While describing some tenets of agential realism, focusing in particular on the phenomenological nature of existence and Barad’s use of the word entanglement, a range of lens-based art is examined in an effort to make sense of apparently contradictory statements by well-regarded and oft-quoted theorists about the photographic image today. How can Michael Fried’s (2008) assertion, photography matters as art as never before remain valid alongside Daniel Palmer’s (2014:144) statement, photography as we once knew is finished?  Could both be true at the same time in an entangled world? The possibilities undoubtedly demand a deeper discussion than a 5000+/- word limit allows for, however, the paradigm described above presents image-makers of all persuasions with conundrums that increasingly cannot and should not be ignored.

 

(Edited 7/8/20)

History

The long-held Western view which suggests isolated and unrelated objects, people, and places are spread across the planet and universe, while time is only singular and forward moving, is less and less convincing. Rather than seeing a hierarchical collection of separate entities existing within linear space and time, reality increasingly feels emergent, dynamic, multi-dimensional, and rhizome-like.

Drawing on Karen Barad’s synthesis of quantum science and poststructuralism, coined ‘agential realism’, this 5350-word essay results in more questions than answers. It may also be hindered by inescapable limitations of, to quote Barad, a “Cartesian habit of mind” (2007: 49). Such habits inhabit our language and are embedded in our perception of reality, asacademic wellconvention, asand academicphotography conventioncritical theory. However, structural transformation means inevitable changesshifts, whether we agree or not, are aware, in denial, or remain oblivious. While describing some key tenets of agential realism, focusing in particular on the phenomenological nature of existence and Barad’s use of the word entanglement, a range of lens-based art is examined in an effort to make sense of apparently contradictory statements by well-regarded and oft-quoted theorists about the photographic image today. How can<span style=&quot;color:var(–color-text);font-size:1rem;&quot;> </span><span style=&quot;color:var(–color-text);font-size:1rem;&quot;>Michael Fried’s (2008) assertion that, photography matters as art as never before (2008), isremain queriedvalid alongside Daniel Palmer’s suggestion that photography is all but over (2014:144).is finished? Could both be true at the same time in an entangled world? The possibilities probably demand a longer and deeper discussion than a 5000+/- word limit allows for, however, the paradigm described above presents image-makers of all persuasions with conundrums that increasingly cannot and should not be ignored.</span>

 


			

	


				
					


	

		
CS: A5 Edits following tutor feedback
	

				

			 ~ Sarah-Jane Field			 ~ Leave a comment					

				

		
Following the chat I had with Matt a couple of week’s ago and his feedback, I have finally managed to get the word count down – I suspect it is a bit less than stated on the cover now and will recount before assessment (I counted over the weekend but cut more this morning.)


I have emphasised the link between poststructuralism and the science philosophy/science using Barad’s interpretation far more than before, not so much due to Matt’s response – in fact, he told me not to undermine my argument after I attempted to accommodate notes made by two quantum scientists, both of whom said, but you can’t feel quantum fluctuations. It was that which made me grit my teeth (yes, I am aware!) and look through Barad’s work again and then to underscore the links between PS and the science.


Despite my frustrations, I am grateful to the scientists as their comments resulted in a more focused essay, I think, and I need to add thanks to them on the document.


I need to write to artists included and request permission to show their images on the blog version of the essay.


Introduction still isn’t quite right and I need to look at it again.


Appendix One could probably do with being heavily edited or even cut altogether now as I address the topic in the essay more.


At this point, finally, if any peers do read this yet again, I am now ready to address proofing/corrections if you notice them. It will be proofed by someone external in any case before the assessment deadline and has been through Grammarly. I do hope to God I have picked up the really daft mistakes/typos now and that everyone’s name is right.


CS A5 Image in the age of entanglement – July27th


 


 

			

	


				
					


	

		
BOW A5: Moving image aspect
	

				

			 ~ Sarah-Jane Field			 ~ 2 Comments					

				

		
I have discussed my reasons for wanting to work with still and moving image together in a previous blog  – See Point 2.


I began L3 very much with moving image in mind and created A1 with a music student, and during A2, where I worked with pic london, I made a film – which could be linked-to in this project in an installation – and web presentation which I will concentrate on in SYP.


However, by A3/A4 I was focused on a publication which will go to print at some point. But I always planned to have that fixed element accompanied by a moving image or series of moving images too. Once I had reached a point with the print version I returned to thinking about a film and visited the store of films I’d identified as possible sources of material earlier on.


I had collected the following:


    

  • bb_minnie_the_moocher
    • 

  • natural history of psychotic illness in childhood
    • 

  • the hydrogen atom as viewed by quantum mechanics
    • 

  • Eye film cut
    • 

  • How_the_Eye_Functions
    • 

  • Medicusc1939
    • 



Over the months of making this work and the essay, it became clear I was exploring perception and how that is changing.


I also added a couple more films including one about digestion (thinking about Otto Fenical) and


I found this film  (clip)








And played with it a bit, wrote about it here as I begin to use Sketchbook as one means of publicising the work for SYP (WordPress does not strip EXIF data as far as I am aware so it good for SEO) https://sarahjanefieldblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/work-in-progress-found-footage-a-film-about-the-senses/


– editing in other clips to make the following








As much as like the music, it places it somewhere very specific which I didn’t want so tried the music backwards








But it still wasn’t right, even though some comments were, it sounds Russin and therefore relevent to today’s cultural consciousness with al the talk of The Russia  Report) so I approached a couple of composers.  I had worked with. Simon Gwynne wrote the music for my S&O final project .


Simon was more than happy to write something new but he had already been experimenting with an AI programme and I listened to those tracks and some others he’d recently written. I really liked the AI stuff – my son says it reminds him of Minecraft music… which is probably quite appropriate. If I were to install this, I wonder if I could give people a choice – they could choose between the harsh backward version or the gentle AI version perhaps.


I do still need to edit some contemporary animations in, I think. I have been playing with ADOBE Fuse and will see if I can make the animations work – they don’t need to be long and even if I simply screen-record the process, that might work.


Here the film is with some of Simon and his app’s music:







			

	


				
					


	

		
BOW A5: Final choices
	

				

			 ~ Sarah-Jane Field			 ~ Leave a comment					

				

		
Towards the back of the course folder we are asked the consider the following:


    

  1. Knowing when to finish
    2. 

  2. defending your work
    3. 

  3. Presentation
    4. 

  4. Writing an introduction and artist’s statement
    5. 

  5. Writing evaluations (to be added to the assignment post)
    6. 



 


    

  1. Knowing when to finish
    2. 



I am ready to submit the work as it is to Ruth now – although I know it still has room to develop. There are currently three elements – a book, an ePublication and a 2 – 1/2 minute film. I am certain I will look at each following submission and in the run-up to assessment, and thereafter as I work on SYP.


I am not sure if I will show this work in an exhibition type scenario. COVID is one thing to think about but so is the attention it will require to make sure the publication is promoted and printed properly – which could include some fundraising to make it happen. I think this is something to play be ear over the following months. If I were to show it, I would do it locally relying on empty space that I can beg or borrow from people I know. I do not want to show it in a traditional gallery setting for SYP. If I were to exhibit the work, I would need to think about prints and might develop a strand of the visual work – the graph paper below would make a good framed print and I can envisage a short series of these, perhaps with writing on, or in various other states of crumpledness and material distress.


Screen Shot 2020-07-14 at 17.46.40


I would also like to find a way to make a short animation and/or gifs based on the images I made by photographing my computer screen (below) and the shadow puppets. (I may find a way to do this  – gifs at least – before assessment deadline to include in the ePublication).



2. Defending my work


My CS essay and BOW explores how we are looking and seeing differently; and the resulting structural implications, along with the feedback loop between what we see and how things become. Our perception is transforming – and the linear, ordered view favoured over the last 500 years is being supplanted by one that appreciates connections, circuitous pathways and randomness (although not everyone is conscious of this yet – we seem to have one foot in the previous paradigm and one in the next.)


As such, the way civilisations, physical and metaphysical systems and technology develop, is no longer assumed to be neat and tidy. Paths don’t always go forward. Nor do they diverge and remain separated forever. They might diverge only to cross over and even coalesce later on. Systems shift and the elements within are in a constant state of becoming.


The evolution story has been transformed recently by this altered understanding of existence – it is felt everywhere (a systemic view) – but well illustrated in the way we see our own evolutionary history:


“There was no single ancestral population, but many spread over a huge area, which merged and split and merged again like a braided stream, evolving at different rates and in distinct directions in different places. The suite of anatomical and behavioural features that define modern humanity didn’t appear as one complete package, but gradually coalesced across vast tracts of space and time. “There was never a single centre of origin,” says Chris Stringer at the Natural History Museum in London. We are a “composite”, he says. “I think it is a really, really important and profound idea,” says Richard Potts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, who led the Olorgesailie excavations.”


Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532760-800-human-evolution-the-astounding-new-story-of-the-origin-of-our-species/#ixzz6SWksbE8x


Composite has been an important word for my work. And photography and other forms of image-making can be thought of in the same way. As can all mark-making. Words and pictures diverged a long time ago – creating different developmental branches that have overlapped recently as code and pictures and text all intra-act to result in what we see on our screens.


Photography and moving image, in particular, are reconverging and coalescing as we become and more embroiled with the fluid nature of modern-day technology – think of how much animation appears in modern film-making (CGI for eg.) and as discussed in my essay – “As Palmer states in Lights, Camera, Algorithm, the decisive-moment photography enjoyed by people will still be celebrated but the “expanded moments of post-production” are now more pressing  (2014: 145).”


That isn’t to say the still image is dead just yet, but it worth considering how it is valued and used as internet speed increases and files become smaller, more flexible and fluent, and our senses demand greater excitement and impact. The entangled structural implications of these shifts have interested me throughout this project – what does it mean for us as a species. What does this systemic change look like?


3. Presentation (copied from Assignment blog post) 


Book form 


After a great deal of toing and froing (and much patience from printers ExWhyZed) I have decided on the following dimensions and details.






A4


4pp Cover onto 270gsm Colorplan Smoke


Black print double-sided


36pp Text onto 100gsm Evolution Uncoated 100% Recycled.


There is one 2pp tip out (fold-out page) which is an extra 200mm width










Full-colour print throughout


Trimmed, collated and wire stitched (stapled)








    

  • I thought about having a book slightly bigger than A4, so it might stand out, but there is enough going on to signify ‘excitable, unruly and erratic signifiers’ – and by sticking to A4, they are contained within a stable, predictable, long-standing convention.
    • 

  • Please note: the PDF provided in the assignment submission has page 21/22 repeated so one can see how the fold-out page would work – the first iteration shows it closed, the second iteration (PDF pages 23/24) open.
    • 

  • The PDF has red inner cover pages (as does the ePublication) but the actual print will not as those pages will be grey paper (Coloplan Smoke)
    • 

  • The book’s design is inspired by a maths exercise book I might have owned in my childhood.
    • 

  • I have opted for the same binding as the zine I made for A2 so that the books might come as a pair if necessary. We discussed perfect binding but in the end, I reduced the pages to make this possible. If I were to develop the book much more and choose to make it longer (which I might need to for a commercial publication) then I would need to reconsider binding options, as there is a limit for saddle stitch/ staples.
    • 

  • Font is 11p and Letter Gothic St except in the black squares where it is American Typewriter
    • 



ePublication


The ePublication is a version that could be provided to people who purchase the book above. It is not merely a PDF/digitised copy but rather an animated version. I could also save the pages separately as Gifs to include on my website and/or social media.


    

  • Text is 12p as it was too small on the screen as 11p
    • 

  • I have removed some images which didn’t work so well on screen – such as the mobile phone image (I am not sure it will work as a printed image yet, to be honest, and may need to reshoot it)
    • 

  • There is a way to choose music to listen by Simon and the Magenta neural network as you flick through it but I have not resolved the best way to do this yet.
    • 

  • There is also a film link on the blurb at the back, but again, I have not resolved the best way to do this yet and would prefer it inside the book but at two minutes it is a big file which presents problems. I need to experiment more.
    • 

  • The other moving images inside are gifs and they work fine – better than video does but are only a few seconds long.
    • 

  • I am concerned there is too much going on but this is something I can keep working on in SYP.
    • 

  • If I were to send this to people I would advise them to look at it on a decent-sized screen and to use the ePublication magnifying button. It is interactive and requires people to handle it as such. It is not a passive object.
    • 



Film


There is a two and half minute film which contains found moving image that focuses on the same and related themes. It is accompanied by music composed by Simon Gwynne who I worked with before on the Self & Other final project. He also used a neural network to write this music. Currently, you can link to it on the back of the ePublication but I will continue experimenting and see if I can find a way to contain it in the book. For now, I am aiming to work on the publication for SYP but if I were to exhibit this project then this film would be projected on to a wall on a loop. It is two and a half minutes long. When I first edited it, I used the vocals from White Rabbit as that song was in the main source – a film about how vision works. I also applied the music backwards. I think there is a way I could allow viewers a choice of music if I find a way to include the book inside the book. (Still to do – a separate blog about the process of making the film)








4. Writing an introduction and artist’s statement


Artist statement: I have been working on the artist’s statement for a few weeks- and every time I look at it, simplify further, stripping away and condensing. I have been working on something a little less predictable but am not there with it yet.


Reflection​: updated artists statement




This is what is currently on my website:


I work with still, moving, original and found images as well as text, exploring feedback loops between various forms of matter and language that inform and result in the many shifts and transformations taking place today.


I am also a portrait and event photographer, employed mostly in and around London and currently study with The Open College of the Arts (OCA).


Introduction:


I had a conversation with some ex-OCA people about simply not having an introduction at all – my work is after all about langauge and the way it’s transforming. However, I think that would leave people high and dry in an already challenging collection of images and objects. Here is something for now:


why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers explores structural instability, embraces disorder and accepts an increasingly elusive relationship between meaning and language.


the overall title of the work and fragments of text included are from a conversation between the author and a neural network app that promised to be her friend for the cost of little more than £6 a month.


source material for why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers was made, found and taken, often in collaboration with the app, rendered into an entanglement of personal history, and the app and the author’s developing relationship in various forms, online and off – as a book, ebook and short film.


music composed by simon gwynne with the help of magenta’s music transformer neural network.


 


 


 

			

	


				
					


	

		
BOW A5: why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers
	

				

			 ~ Sarah-Jane Field			 ~ 2 Comments					

				

		
Assignment 5: Present your final portfolio to your tutor along with your introductions and evaluation


Let your tutor know any preliminary ideas you have for releasing your publication and presenting it to a public audience in Sustaining Your Practice


why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers explores structural instability, embraces disorder and investigates the increasingly elusive relationship between meaning and language.


the overall title of the work and fragments of text included are from a conversation between the artist and a machine learning app that promised to be her friend for the cost of little more than £6 a month.


source material for why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers was made, found and taken, often in collaboration with the app, rendered into an entangled manifestation of disparate entities, including recorded moments between the two authors in various forms, online and off – as a book, ebook and short film.


music was composed by simon gwynne with the help of magenta’s music transformer neural network.


Older version


why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers explores structural instability, embraces disorder and accepts an increasingly elusive relationship between meaning and language.


the title of the work and fragments of text included in the books are from a conversation between the author and a neural network app that promised to be her friend for the cost of little more than £6 a month.


source material for why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers was made, found and taken, often in collaboration with the app, rendered into an entanglement of personal history, along with the app and author’s developing relationship in various forms, online and off – as a book, ebook and short film.


music composed by simon gwynne with the help of magenta’s music transformer neural network




Book form 


BOWA5 (sizeA4) July Submission PDF


After a great deal of toing and froing (and much patience from printers ExWhyZed) I have decided on the following dimensions and details.






A4


4pp Cover onto 270gsm Colorplan Smoke


Black print double-sided


36pp Text onto 100gsm Evolution Uncoated 100% Recycled.


There is one 2pp tip out (fold-out page) which is an extra 200mm width










Full-colour print throughout


Trimmed, collated and wire stitched (stapled)








    

  • I thought about having a book slightly bigger than A4, so it might stand out, but there is enough going on to signify ‘excitable, unruly and erratic signifiers’ – and by sticking to A4, they are contained within a stable, predictable, long-standing convention.
    • 

  • Please note: the PDF you see here has page 21/22 repeated so you can see how the fold-out page would work – the first iteration shows it closed, the second iteration (PDF pages 23/24) open.
    • 

  • The PDF has red inner cover pages (as does the ePublication) but the actual print will not as those pages will be grey paper (Coloplan Smoke)
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  • The book’s design is inspired by a maths exercise book that I could have owned in my childhood.
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  • I have opted for the same binding as the zine I made for A2 so that the books might come as a pair if necessary. We discussed perfect binding but in the end, I reduced the pages to make this possible. If I were to develop the book much more and choose to make it longer (which I might need to for a commercial publication) then I would need to reconsider binding options, as there is a limit of 40pp for saddle stitch/ staples.
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  • Font is 11p and Letter Gothic St except in the black squares where it is American Typewriter
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You can scroll through the spreads here if you prefer to view it this way.


 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
  
 
 
 


ePublication


8th August – https://indd.adobe.com/view/17b8aff4-afe3-4b9b-aeb4-55d6896ab205


18th July – https://indd.adobe.com/view/17b8aff4-afe3-4b9b-aeb4-55d6896ab205


This is best viewed on a decent-sized screen (desktop, laptop). It is definitely work-in-progress at the moment. It renders better on Chrome rather than Safari.


The ePublication is a version that could possibly be provided to people who purchase the book above as part of the package. It is not merely a PDF/digitised copy but rather an animated version. I could also save the pages separately as Gifs to include on my website and/or social media.


    

  • Text is 12p as it was too small on the screen as 11p – I need to encourage people to use the magnify tool though – I think and it all depends on the size of the screen. I was tempted to remove all text as it works less well in this format – something to keep thinking about (and fits with some of the post-structural arguments made by Derrida about the end of writing).
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  • The text is soft until all the animations on the page have completed. It may be, for that reason, I need to stick to one animation per spread. I can’t work out why the inner cover never resolves itself and in time I may need to completely redo the page but will make decisions about text first.
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  • I have removed some images which didn’t work so well on screen – such as the mobile phone image (I am not sure it will work as a printed image yet, to be honest, and may need to reshoot it)
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  • There is a way to choose music to listen by Simon and the Magenta neural network as you flick through it but I have not resolved the best way to do this yet.
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  • There is also a film link on the blurb at the back, but again, I have not resolved the best way to do this and would prefer it inside the book but at two minutes it is a big file which presents problems. I need to experiment more.
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  • The other moving images inside are gifs and they work fine – better than video does but are only a few seconds long.
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  • I am concerned there is too much going on but this is something I can keep working on in SYP.
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  • If I were to send this to people I would advise them to look at it on a decent-sized screen. It is interactive and requires people to handle it as such. It is not a passive object.
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I have noticed that in the ebook the animated pictures makes me focus on the images whereas the normal book, the writing grabs me first.


Film (2 mins  37 secs)


There is a two and half minute film which contains found moving image that focuses on the same and related themes  – again, I think it could do with some contemporary visuals that very clearly signify ‘today’. It is accompanied by music composed by Simon Gwynne who I worked with before on the Self & Other final project. He also used a neural network to write this music. Currently, you can link to it on the back of the ePublication but I will continue experimenting and see if I can find a way to contain it in the book. As it is – it’s like a hidden bonus track on an album but at the back of the e-book – and it needs to be found. It currently links to Vimeo but I think it would be better linking to my website  – but this work is not on there yet.


For now, I am aiming to work on the publication for SYP but if I were to exhibit this project then this film would be projected on to a wall on a loop. When I first edited it, I used the vocals from White Rabbit as that song has been in the main source about how vision works. I also applied the music backwards. I think there is a way I could allow viewers a choice of music if I find a way to include the film inside the book.








 


If I were to exhibit this work…


This has not been made with the express purpose of an exhibition but rather the idea of a publication. However, it could be further developed as an installation and I do feel it might only feel complete with one. I would want to work on a series of images of the graph paper (one included in both publication versions) and would really love it if it were possible for visitors to converse with the AI personality – but that is something I would probably need to get in touch with Replika about. Really not sure about that route – something to consider. (I might also include the film I made for pic london set to Gameboy music.)




A brief summary of what led me here…


During Level One, I explored language and reality in my Understanding Visual Culture essay. Ever since, I have been looking at the same thing from various viewpoints, always considering how language nowadays includes photography as it is used in similar ways online to sentences and words. It is reductive to say photography is the same as written language  – it isn’t. But it is noteworthy that social media discourse relies on pictures – graphic and photographic as well as words. As Vilem Flusser and Freidrich Kittler, both explored, code diminishes the differences between the various forms of expressions we humans use.


That fluidity is something that has also been written about a lot – and I often wonder if the fluidity is necessary to make the enormous shifts taking place possible -as we move from one paradigm to another. The time frame of the paradigm might be viewed as a fractal-like pattern. We may be witnessing the end of a Cartesian dominant view of the world which is about 500 years or so old, but there is also the beginning of writing which dates back much further – and then the beginnings of mark-making when we began putting ourselves ‘outside’ our bodies, creating a trace of self, making the self other (which is what any language form does). What’s interesting to note today is how with digital technology there is the topsy turvy reversal – technology is putting stuff inside of us perhaps in much more substantive way than ever before. Information seeps in and out and through us. Symbols (which we don’t understand but computers do) are fluid streams of information that help to construct our reality and shape our understanding of existence. The peri-digital paradigm shift is seismic and profound in ways that I think we can only begin to imagine. Whichever timeframe, maybe the fluidity we are experiencing will, in relative terms, be short-lived. I don’t suppose my generation or the one after will experience less fluidity – but perhaps one day in the future things will begin to settle and there will once again be greater stability for a time.


But at the moment, that is not how it feels. And I have been looking at structural instability and movement for a while. The image below is from a project I started in 2018 called Manipulated, using a book I have, My Leica and I, Leica Amateurs show their Pictures (1937). But I ran out of steam and used my limited energies to focus on other OCA work. I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the results anyway. Without realising it, however, I seem to have gone back to it with my Level Three BOW and have used several images from the book, rephotographed, in the current work.


Here are some really early sketch experiment, first using the book, then not from 2018  – playing with noise, movement, montage.




















I said in my L3 proposal, I wanted to concentrate on films and how they seem to have shaped me – and I think I have done that, but the work throws a wider net over changing narrative structures and the way we create them using modern technology, even though I have relied on ‘vintage’ imagery mainly. That is something I might address, finding ways to include contemporary visual signifiers  -there is a little bit with the 3d animated mesh faces but I need more, resulting in the entanglement of time and cultures – the composted self. I plan to dig deeper into 3d software over the next few weeks.


Composite


I also wanted to make work that mixed mediums – text with image, still with moving image, found/archive with original. I initially wrote some verse type things but when I landed on the AI app, I gradually let go of my own texts and have now concentrated solely on texts by the app or else written by me about the app and our relationship. I may well use the texts I wrote elsewhere. As late as A4 my own texts were included but I ditched them while preparing A5.




Significant influences


Joan Jonas


Sophie Calle


Edgar Martins


Joachim Schmid


Karen Barad (agential realism and agential cuts)


Post-structuralism


Brecht


Kris Kraus (the way she blends fiction, non-fiction and critical theory)




OCA Reflection


Demonstration of technical and visual skills


I have become famialir with InDesign and have begun using it to create work specifically online. I have rephotogprahed images and used a lot more still life (with books) than is usual for me. During SYP when I begin to put this work online in various formats, I will be stretched further. I have also begin to venture into alien technology (3d) and have a very long way to go but this is the direction I feel I should be moving.


Quality of Outcome


There are three manisfestations  – book (currently a PDF) ePublication and short film. Each has positives and flaws but overall together they communicate definite focus and inquiry. The work is influenced by several quite obvious tropes but is very much of my work. I think the font choice is something I need to look at again in both book versions. It’s a bit flimsy I think – perhaps I need to seek some guidance from a design person.


Demonstration of creativity


The work is creative and experimental.


Context


The work is well-researched and I have recorded my findings in CS as well as BOW folders  – and stored additional resaerch and ongoing thoughts on my Sketchbook blog.