SM Thesis proposal
OBJECTIVES - What do you want to make?
Below I have outlined several projects, some which are currently underway. I will likely not be able to realize all of them and will establish a complete plan by month’s end to determine feasibility. Working titles below:
Imphe (booklet – in progress) – this is an ongoing project framed as a booklet that explores archeological material from the medieval city of Imphe. It is based on the mention of Imphe in the Song of Roland, as a city visited by Charlemagne to lift the Muslim army’s siege. There are also many scholarly attempts to identify Imphe with a historical location. The booklet itself is a work of fiction positioned as a parafiction (written as if it was real). It uses 3d ‘reconstructed’ images of artifacts in (fictional) recent archeological excavations and speculatively extrapolates the social arrangements of Imphe as a unique site of eastern-western cooperation, of an alternate timeline to western’s orientalist history. It posits a history of a medieval city that has been purposely forgotten for its embarassement to the ‘western canon’, its contradiction to established worldviews. It largely follows the format of Borges writings as well as the non-specialist book “The Living Theatre of Mediaval Art”. The work also examines discourse as a material practice, and the relationship between history and evidence. In particular, I am interested in the fabrication of physical artifacts and objects that are used to attest to a particular history or reality.
Worldmapping (visual posters – in progress)– series of large visual maps (or infographs) based on alchemical engravings from 17th C that illustrate a highly structured and ultimately usable universe. These engravings list the elements of alchemy, the virtues of the alchemist, and their universal arrangement in relation to a godhead project; they are a very organized worldview. Much like Left Accelorationist Nick Srnecic’s call to create ‘maps’ that allow us to understand the complex relationships of power, capital, etc of neoliberalism, these visual maps illustrate both a neoliberal understanding of the worlds arrangement as well as a more global emancipatory worldview. These maps are populated with symbols, historical figures, flags, and ‘values’ that relate to each worldview. They are meant to be understood as a sort of propaganda poster that allows the viewer to begin to make sense of the dynamic forces behind certain understandings of the world.
No Pioneers! (film) - performative gesture, in which a speaker calls out to north america’s pilgrims to turn their boats around and return to Europe. The performance is filmed in Plymouth, the site of the Mayflowers departure, with the speaker calling out over the ocean in the Plymouth port. The speaker’s speech is an appeal to establish the emancipatory struggle in Europe rather than in N.A. Rather than an obvious appeal to prevent the new world’s destruction, the speech lays out an impossible timeline in which colonialism remains an aborted project. The work recalls the final collective prayer pilgrims would take on the shores of Europe before embarking on their trip. The work is inspired by Bartana’s “any europe will be stunned”
The Beaurocracy of Sisyphus (film)– a migrant worker leaves his home from the rural south (location ambigious). He leaves his family behind swearing to return successful. He waves a single piece of paper claiming it authorizes him to work/succeed (think Chamberlain’s speech waiving Hitler’s signature). He begins on the road, following signs that point him northward. His journey is at first on motorcycle. He then is shown on a bike with a backpack full of papers, the number of required ‘authorizations’ is beginning to increase. He is subsequently on the road with a cart with boxes of papers, always following signs northward through roads, fields, etc. The landscape changes following a northern route. He is finally shown pushing a giant ball of paperwork before him. He struggles up hills or sand dunes. In the distance a car approaches. His family emerges from the vehicle and encourages him. They shout from a safe distance at him to not give up. He continues to struggle up the hill, sweating, eyes closed, family yelling. We are not sure of his success.
The Trial (film) - A participative performance + film that is staged much like the Soviet trials of the 30s in their aesthetic form. On trial are a handful of activists who participate in the alter-globalization movement and economically emancipatory tactics (i.e. ZAD, Indigenous movement in BC, etc). They are accussed of neoliberal sabotage and contempt of institutionalized power. Their testimony offers instruction, while the examiner outlines how power and control are established and how it serves the interest of the state. Not clear who the judge is, perhaps it is the audience. The public is invited to participate as spectators or in a jury box. The public is also invited to submit ‘evidence’ in the form of personal problems or physical artifacts which are then addressed by the accussed with his own solutions. The work is inspired by Jack Tan’s Kareoke court that revives Inuit form of legal arbitration through singing competitions in a karaoke ‘court’ where people resolve disputes through karaoke and subsequently sign a legally binding arbitration agreement.
Escape Room (concept proposal) – escape room with the theme of “escape capitalism”. Escape rooms are immsersive games where players are put into a locked room in which they must solve a series of puzzles/clues to ‘escape’. They began in Japan and have grown in popularity in N.A. and Europe. Escape rooms are characterized by the need to escape from a terrible situation: one escapes a dungeon, or a haunted house, or from a murderer. In this sense, escape rooms are an example of Badiou’s passion for the real as entertainment (last year I looked at videogames as the passion for the real as entertainment). My escape room is set up in form as a participative lecture, in which participants must learn basic ‘rules’ of capitalism or neoliberalism, applying facts to advance to the next stage. The stages are currently conceived as a boardroom, a slum, and a typical bedroom. Conceptually, the player explores the relationship between ‘the capitalist’ – ‘the impoverished’ – ‘the self’. Participants are filmed with the work existing as both a participative theatre and film. The work is not meant to be a heavy-handed or moralistic lesson, but rather a useful game where one can walk away having learned something about the complex relationships of globalization in a tongue-in-cheek parody of escape rooms (themselves a form of game that could only have been invented in affluent countries). The work explores how actors in very different parts of the world, with different forms of power all affect each other. The details are very vague at this point. My goal is to fully conceive the project rather than to build it. I believe the expense of building such a room, even basic, require funds that I can only access as a non-student.
CONTEXT - Relation to a larger context
-To be thoroughly discussed in the thesis: propaganda, worldmaking, democratization of political channels, separation of power + politics, propaganda as performance + power, historical relation to activist, embedded art practices as well as state propaganda, other lens-based artists engaged in the same
OUTCOMES - Why do you want to make it?
-Interested in the instrumentalization of art, as a means to position it outside of the art world.
-as an artist engaged in political art, I’m interested in conversations outside the art world echo chamber, as well as exploring art as a vehicle for political agency
-I am interested in ideas of usable art, 1:1 art, propaganda etc. and institutional loopholing (as opposed to objecthood and spectatorship of the artworld)
-Interested in exploring the use of (archaic?) utopic language in dystopic world (where everything is privatized).
-Interested in exploring image and its role in world-making, its ambiguous position as low-meaning/devalued to its cultural primacy and authority