Unit 3 February 22nd Critique
I have been planning a website art project as a representation of my MA_DA research from over the past two years. I have been researching how my memory of being an undergraduate art student at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax from 1974 to 1976, relates to my experience as an MA student at Camberwell College of the Arts from 2007 to 2009. I have been reflecting on how my sense of identity as an artist came about, how a sense of community is created by a school, and in particular I’ve been thinking about the artworld as an imagined community that we feel a part of as artists.
This has become a memory work. I’ve been reflecting on the art events- artworks, exhibitions, people and artist talks that I remember from the mid-1970s and how they contributed to me becoming an artist, and in turn how that led to me considering myself as part of a larger art world and contemporary art community.
I am collapsing my memories of that experience with my current experience as an online student at Camberwell, an art college in London that I have never visited, yet has formed a very particular, different sense of community for me.
I have been looking for an appropriate form for this artwork in relation to my research. In particular, I have been researching the form of Robert Smithson’s Non-Sites, reading about Marc Augé’s sense of supermodernity in his book Non-Places, Annette Kuhn’s photographic memory work, and most recently I have been considering Douglas Huebler’s artworks from the late 1960s and early 1970s which use photographs, maps, drawings and descriptive language to define time, location, place and a community.
One of my challenges has been how to come up with a design for the content of the website that appropriately reflects and collapses the content from these two distinctly different times: 1974-76 and 2007-09. I have started this project as: http://nonsite.com
My questions for this critique are as follows:
1. Can a text heavy website be compelling enough as an artwork for the viewer to take the time needed to reflect on the content?
2. How does this website which can be read anywhere at anytime online relate to an exhibition.
3. How would one present a website appropriately in the context of a large group exhibition- in this case the Camberwell 2009 exhibition?
4. Do you think there should be some particular ‘visual’ aspect or manifestation to this project- beyond the website, for an exhibition?
I welcome your thoughts and comments.
February 21, 2009 at 1:14 am |
1. If that is your vision, be true to it. You can’t please all the people all the time, you have to do justice to the content.
2. A thorny issue for all digital content. An added bonus as if you like it, you can ‘own’ it..!
3. I think that is decided by technical limitations. If they only have crappy screens….etc…
4. Go nuts. I think you send as much supporting visual material as you can. Perhaps the positioning of such material can be considered in the complete ensemble of website ‘v’ actual real stuff.
February 21, 2009 at 4:20 pm |
You seem to have the same problem I have with my project presentation.
Can be a web site full of text and data catch the eye and attention span of the audience?
My answer is YES. But…
1 – Don’t rely too much on text. A picture is better than a thousand words..
2 – If someone clicks the links for you he’s the “director” of the show… he decides when it’s time to click here and there and switch from one page to another. If you did a multimedia DVD using the website stuff – not only you can add commentary and music – but you can decide everything for yourself and send the packed presentation to the Camberwell guys. It’s definitely easier also for them…
3 – pls see suggestion #2
4 – I think that a multimedia DVD presentation is powerful enough and you should focus on that only.
If you go for the plain website option instead, you might consider a side exhibition of visual stuff as well.
February 22, 2009 at 12:41 pm |
Hi David,
Here are my thoughts on your questions. Hope that helps.
1) I agree with Pat. A picture is better than thousands words. But content is important as well, but maybe it’s limited to 160 characters (like a twitter limit)?
2) The website could relate to the show, when it starts to communicate or interact with the show. For example, the audience could skype or videochat with you, or see how you change the content.
3) Good question. This is just an idea: One computer screen showing your website and a second computer screen to communicate with you.
4) Do you mean an image, that is a kind of a logo? However, any form of visual material is great.
Best wishes
Ayhan