| Ideas and Focus of the Research |
|
I am concerned with non commercial exchanges and the principles of gift exchange; it is important to understand there is no animosity toward those wanting to make money, I simply am reticent because of the effect that commerce, particularly capitalism has on art and society. Rather than making art for money I choose to make art for society and work within Baudrillard's framework of Relational Aesthetics, "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space" (Presses du Reel, 2002).
|
|
My principle areas of interrogation are alternative currencies and the social elements of participation; principally activation and play. Alternative currencies reference the practices of those who are working within the public domain, those working within communities, acting on their behalf after consultation or more significantly in conjunction with them, and those attempting to build new communities or bridges between socially diverse groups by highlighting their similarities. A suitable definition of this type of work can be provided by Germaine Koh, who is interested in the values of "non-commercial exchanges, particularly social bonds of trust that elude quantification." (Koh:2007) It is also concerned with practices and working systems engineered to build new communities or bridges between socially diverse groups by acting as a catalyst or instigator in a creative process.
|
|
Social elements of participation that specifically interest me are activation through play. Play, or more specifically art as play investigates the new collaborative works that are invested in interaction and vicariously activate the viewer through participation. When examining the activation of the viewer one has to refer to installation art to properly contextualise it. According to Bishop's "Installation art: a critical history" an essential element for the development of installation art came from a desire for works of art to initiate a more explicit link with the viewer, this direct involvement furnishing the viewer with shards of information that they need to scrutinize and combine sensationally activating them.
|
|
Adopting the liberating framework provided by my opinion that; an artist's job is not to tell the truth, it is to occupy your attention for as long as we ask for it and if we happen upon the truth at any point during the process then it is a good day and we got lucky. This means that the work does not take itself too seriously and it is eager to provide opportunity for humour, fun and interjection. A notion which can be located within the work of Tilleke Schwarz who hopes for viewers to create their own narrative to her works. There is a significance placed on the works being enjoyable. A seriousness remains in the intent for the works, in that there is a need for gravitas but this is assured provided that the work responds in a genuine way to the world in which it is located. There is no fear of any individual piece failing as granting that it is an educational experience that develops the practice, leading to a preference for pushing work to its limits and fully embracing the experimental process. Being unconcerned with interpretation and criticism and therefore not defensive of the work allows for finding allegiance with Charles Fort who offers;
"The simplest strategy seems to be - never bother to fight a thing: set its own parts fighting one another" (Welchman Graw Vidler:1999:112)
|
|
Attempting to maximise the opportunity for Sock Monster infiltration I am also concerned with points of distribution and social networks with a view to appropriation. Points of distribution which show particular potential are also points of dispersal, for example graduation from university. At graduation students become alumni, they sign up to newsletters and often feel an obligation to keep the university apprised of developments in their career; this system could be easily infiltrated provided that the university would allow access. The understanding would be that upon graduation the new alumni would receive a Sock Monster and play the game; this would allow for the appropriation of the graduate magazine structure for the Sock Monsters, using both the graduate information that they provide the university and the additional information that they share with the Sock Monster community to make a Sock Monster graduate magazine, or perhaps the incorporation of the Sock Monsters into the pre existing graduation magazine
|
|
A recurring theme in the production of the work is the way in which it encounters ethical and legal quandaries. The most recent of these is the discovery of a simulacrum of the Sock Monster Project; in California there are two women who have started selling Sock Monsters under the name Sockmonzters, their design is alarmingly similar as is the way in which they encourage customers to send in photos of themselves with their monsters. However, this imitation is vacuous; their interest lies in capital gain, profit my interest lies in stimulating creative potential and community what might be termed artistic gain. That being said the gain is equally shared, similar to profits in a cooperative, with the members of the Sock Monster community. As a direct result of this discovery I am investigating the realm of copy write. This in itself is a bizarre framework since traditionally copy write is used to defend profit and in this instance I would be using it to defend principle. It is the vacuous simulacrum that threatens the work through its thirst for capital, the genuine work thrives on interaction and thirsts for social capital.
|
 
|
|
The criticism of the gallery system could be assumed to have Marxist connotations, whilst there are similarities in my position to those of Marxist or Socialist persuasions they are not entirely analogous with my stance. There is no judgement passed on those wishing to make money out of art, my position is duplicitous; with reference to the positional production of the work I am perpetually standing on the fence, viewing the works from two very different critical stand points. I am an artist and I work within the realm of fine art, my work is assessed with Fine Art criteria but my work is produced from the stand point of someone who disagrees with the way that the Fine Art spectacle has divorced itself from life through the Modernist and Post Modern movements reaching a point where some artists seem to make art to snub, criticise or mock those who have already been excluded.
|
|
My practice searches for equilibrium between these two divergent vantage points and therefore exists as an anachronism; simultaneously subverting and reinforcing the Fine Art spectacle. It is essential to remain vigilant and conscious of the paradoxical nature of working this way since there is a great risk of the work becoming self defeating; for example by approaching potential players in a gallery appearance might suggest my endorsement of the gallery system, however, the act is subversive since the acceptance of the Sock Monster will either draw you out of the gallery to a less restrictive atmosphere where you can produce works, or if the gallery allows the photography the Sock Monster is divisive since participants then use the gallery as a backdrop to create their own art.
|
|
There is mileage located in the struggle to make the works universally acceptable, it frequently encounters obstacles particularly with regard to consent. A current example of this is finding a way of allowing those who are under the age of thirteen and wish to become participants and therefore adopt a Sock Monster. As this requires parental consent since you are unable to become a member of the website independently until you are of that age because of legal restrictions. Negotiating this issue and others like it forms an essential element to the work; it is in this struggle, this diplomatic process that an essential element of the social participation happens on a larger systemic scale. One could even go so far as to suggest that these negotiations form the practice and once the obstacles have been overcome the work has been seeded and to a greater extent I relinquish control.
|
|
| |
