Tag: Performance

BOW: A3 dummy booklet

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ 3 Comments

Making this  – bringing the work off the screen was incredibly useful. I was asked if it will be this size… no. (This booklet was handy – I owe my son a stocking-filler though). I will make the book in ID over the next ten days or so and fix a size but whatever happens in the making of it is open to need and further development.

This is not a fixed sequence, in fact, I scanned it in the wrong sequence because I’m tired and kept missing pages – it’s not a fixed anything, just a step in the journey. There is lots more writing which I never got to include in this initial manifestation plus some images but that is what I need to work on some more. The writing is driving this at the moment rather than photography. That’s ok. I have countless notes on my phone, phrases and thoughts, sentences, ideas which keep coming (see example below) and so I have to let that continue. No, this colour scheme is not it. The book is from Tiger…

 

Dummy book 1001
I like the idea of having a random paragraph on the cover and no title in fact. that can go on the cover page. It breaks the boundaries and establishes the fact of the alternative cut immediately. My son (interested in design) liked the raggedy cut due to a borrowed guillotine –  which I now understand is in the cupboard not being used for a reason. But I will try to photograph a tear with the macro in daylight as a result of our conversation.
Dummy book 1002
This is a real blade and I would very much like to include it as such in a version. I wonder about making an expensive version of the book which has this and other interesting things like a fold-out page  (see below) for assessment but if/when exhibiting make a zine run which will need it to be a photograph. I would need help with a book and have mentioned this to another student who made a very beautiful book. I know where my skills lie and bookmaking is not one of them.
Dummy book 1003
I am likely to use either a frame from processing for this or the shot with the female scattered. or a sequence
Dummy book 1004
Folds out because of the size but in a finished product would not.

 

 

Dummy book 1006
Mistake with printer which I liked split over two pages in fact, then didn’t like all the yellow on this and next page, so tried the red. My son loves this colour mix, I don’t, and will remake using specific negs I have identified. Scanned.

Dummy book 1005

Dummy book 1007
Will use something from Three Sisters or Uncle Vanya. Wasn’t sure but then realised the unconscious entanglement meant something – this book is about meaning emerging out of entangled interactions so will keep but not sure what passage.
Dummy book 1008
Like this combo but will play with other versions of selfies

Dummy book 1009

Dummy book 1010
Mistake covered up with something lying around  – like it. but need to find another or make sure I can take this out and scan it well enough. I do like these colours and wall paper.

Dummy book 1011Dummy book 1012

 

As mentioned, some notes from my phone with ideas, writing, things I’ve heard etc. I actually like the randomness and unstructuredness of some of this as-is, there is a freedom to it that isn’ in the earlier stuff:

The traumatised grown up

Sons hand me their hatred to carry around 

To the academics who fail to recognise their privileged booty 

Manifesto for the digitised self/age 

/ Alexa I’d like a wife

Sure, it’s fine for Philip Larkin to peer out of his train window and scoff at cheap fabric and gaudy hats 

Behind the shopfront, beneath the surface  everyday consumer 

Transactions – film world 

Trapped inside these words which cannot entertain a different world  

Split atom

Colonialism 

Sum

Of

The

Time 

&

Other 

Entanglements 

Reality is fucking with you 

Void realm 

Simpering 

Deity, divine, godhood, diabolical, decapitation, apotheosis, Ex rain god, enchantment  / Zeus sat down with Greta Garbo  – they don’t know how to create gods anymore, they worship objects. Laughter/ Zeus, my children don’t listen to me, I might as well not exist, I despaired then you and your friends came along, but then it was like the old days, not like that guy who wanted sole charge. He got it all wrong, 

There are no photographic records of my Czechoslovakian relatives, brewers who perished under the Nazi’s, in camps and ghettoes – missing images 

Mushroom, beige, magnolia 

Cut advert, cutting room floor, shiny nose, cut hair, terrible ‘boyfriend’ jerk, more money than any other job, least money with the BBC – most recognizable.

Floor, my entanglement with Tom 

BOW A3: Text’s rewritten and placed in a suggested format

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ 2 Comments

I have spent the evening rewriting some of the texts and placing them into a book form – I’ve rejected the first ten or eleven I wrote but after that, they started to improve. -although still needed attention.

No doubt I will continue to write and make changes and add other writings. (Plus there are likely to be typos – editing straight into ID is not really ideal for me – I’ll have to transform to word and spell check later.)

I have not identified images to include but now that I can see an arc, I feel what is necessary will begin to emerge. I am interested in the Processing exercise I experimented with the other day using Tom’s First Film. (Not included any writing prompted by that in the collection below yet – will do later and then will see if it fits.) The possibility of corrupted, machine-informed collages might be just what is needed. Having put these texts into a format, I feel I can get on with that – I feel I have time and space ahead now (although received feedback from Matt for CSA3 which I need to write up and post too.). It would certainly fit the remit of ‘Chance’ to do things that way.

The theme of selfies seems to have emerged as significant which is hilarious given I stated quite clearly I was not interested in making a project about selfies in an earlier reflection.

This way of working feels completely counter to all I’ve been advised and learned the last few years… but it’s the way that’s led to something so I need to keep going. Saying that – it does feel emergent and informed and organic.

I have left space for images in the book as laid out  – I think space will be very important. But the order is not fixed, nor is the layout, or the texts included, or the size –  and there are no images (yes, I know, it’s a photography degree…) except for the ones I experimented with earlier. But I don’t think they are right at all.

And there is a bit of writing yet to be done – I have entered a heading on that page to show where it would go.

BOW A3

CS & Bow Notes: More re. Performativity

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ Leave a comment

One of things about studying this way (as opposed to in a classroom) is there’s plenty of freedom to go off and explore – which I do a-plenty. But because I tend to stray quite far (which is a good thing, I think, despite unavoidable pitfalls) I am prone to missing out on some basics which would make things simpler for me if I’d visited them before approaching certain topics, or at the start of doing so. I probably should have read the following and along with notes on philosopher John Austin before tackling Karen Barad’s paper. Having done a bit of digging, I get a much clearer picture about her rejection of language in favour of matter although I probably stand by my arguments for seeing language as a form of matter. I am also certain my experience of ‘actioning’ a script is going to inform my understanding and will be invaluable. I will add to this post once I’ve read Moya Lloyd’s chapter below.

To read and makes notes:

  • Metaphore widely used – perform
  • Derives from performance studies  – dramatic terms OR sociology to perform a function in everyday life
  • Connote different things  – 1 to act out or 2 to achieve an acceptable level of proficiency – a 50s man reached pique performance if he went to work and provided for the wife who achieved hers if she provided supper and slippers, etc. (no matter the cost to either)  – etymologically different:
    “late a5c., “accomplishment” (of something), from perform + -ance. Meaning “a thing performed” is from 1590s; that of “action of performing a play, etc.” is from 1610s; that of “a public entertainment” is from 1709. Performance art is attested from 1971.”
  • Difference between performance – performance studies and performativity from linguistic studies – (verbal acts which have an effect on the world)
  • Bulter in Gender trouble suggests both gender and sex are performative (3)
  • Austin JL  – originates from
  • Beauvoir (Second Sex) body is not a ‘natural fact’ but an ‘historical idea’ (4)
  • An identity through a ‘stylized repetition of acts’ (Beauvior, 1988-519) (5)
  • Butler – Turner, life as a ritual social drama – depends on repetition of social performances – (see Chater) page 6
  • repeated social performances (6)
  • replication of corporeal repertoire (7)
  • a gendered subject is produced (little autonomy or volition) NBNBNB
  • Collective rules around acting out gender and sexuality
  • Page 11/12/13 Erving Goffman – “frames”
  • Sociological sorting 1977:302-3
  • Doing gender is unavoidable page 14/15 west and Zimmerman 1987:137
  • Differences in gender performance between Goffman and Butler page 17
  • (Remember entanglement – Barrie who wants value non-linguistic elements of an assembly that results in)
  • How to do things with words
  • MacKinnon 1987: 171 page 18 pornography see example in S&O – nail polish NB page

Lloyd, M. (2015) ‘Performance and Performativity’ In: Ditsch, Lisa and Hawkesworth, Mary (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp.572–592. At: https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/Performativity_and_performance/9470270 (Accessed 07/11/2019).

CS: Assignment 2 – Literature review

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ 2 Comments

Write a 2,000-word literature review that identifies, summarises and critically discusses the most relevant texts that currently explore the subject area of your practice (i.e. the subject area you are exploring in Body of Work). Try to contrast differing points of view and indicate how you will expand your research into your extended written project.

Your essay should include a bibliography, be fully illustrated and reference citations appropriately throughout. See the extended written project submission requirements at the end of Part Three for more information about how to format your literature review.

 

I have sent the following draft to my new tutor Matt White. This PDF does not include (c) images. The offline version does. Web CS Assignment 2 Can you be dead and alive at the same time_ Draft 4

He sent the following link a couple of weeks ago which I found useful.

The structure of a literature review

Here is my reflection:

Demonstration of subject-based knowledge and understanding:

I didn’t set out to write about Brecht but once I realised that Fried had relied on his theory to prop up his own writing I was able to draw on previous knowledge. As an A level student in 1989 or so I was barely literate but I managed to get top marks for my Brecht essay. I just loved learning about his plays and methods. I am also interested in reality so pulling these strands together was enjoyable although I feel I have only scratched the surface. I will need to read Fried more carefully as I’m pretty sure I’ve made some mistakes based on assumptions.

Demonstration of research skills:

As I say above I need to dig deeper and make sure I’m not assuming things. Having written this, I feel I can now go on to do the real research. I have just about finished the Lupton book and once that’s done I can get to grips with Fried and Object Ontology.

Demonstration of critical and evaluation skills:

I have shown that I am able to question established views and even if others don’t agree with me, I hope I have given reasons which go some way towards supporting my arguments.

Communication:

It’s always tricky getting the balance tight – overly academic writing isn’t fun to write or read. Before she left, Ruth suggested experimenting with the form and I would enjoy that – not sure the OCA assessors would agree though. I love Chris Kraus’s ability to intertwine critical theory and autobiography and novel into one.

Writing a literature review was new to me – should we include our thoughts? Some fo the advice I got from fellow students was contradictory and confusing to say the least!

Please note: I will need to go through it with a very fine-tooth comb before printing for assessment, and there will be typos and repetitiveness, however, I am likely to revisit it and hone it in the run-up to sending it in.

BOW 1.1: Live audio recording of Sirens

~ Sarah-Jane Field ~ 5 Comments

As described in the assignment submission I introduced live voices to the recording when showing this work to the collective in London just before the summer. Some of the group bravely joined in and went for it with tremendous trust and generosity, for which I was grateful.

The track was provided by Carla. Please note it contains a silent section with lasts just over a minute in the middle.

As I mentioned before, I do think it was the sort of thing which is best experienced live and is somewhat toe-curling as a recording!