Lotte: Silence in the room

ROOM back to: Upload_your_room_of_silence_text_here
question 1: What are your ambitions for this trimester (Jan-April)?

For this trimester, after finishing my EYE project, I’d like to focus on what I want to get out of this master’s programme. I have been struggling with finishing actual work. This I guess has multiple reasons but for now I’d like to focus on what gives me energy and motivation. Lately I feel like this might be going back to making short films, instead of creating conceptual work and the individual process that’s part of this. I have been interested in conceptual work and have created a lot of different things over the past years but I also haven’t lost my heart for film, something I feel I want to explore again. I think film gives me the structure to realise my ideas. The coming trimester I’d like to work on a couple of short-film ideas I have and see If I cant translate them into short film scripts, and work towards a short film hopefully shooting this in summer.

question 2: What orders your life? (work for money; art work; big projects; family obligations; helping friends &c.)

I think the question that comes with this is; Am I in control or do other control me? I would say that regarding a lot of things I am mostly in control. For example how I spent my free time. Although there is something to say for how movie theater control the moments I watch movies on etc. 
I feel my family controls me more than I control them. They don’t really take me into account when making decisions, but do expect me to be there (and enjoy the situation, which is even worse). School, work, friends are quite in balance regarding control, but they do order me a lot. 
I guess late night phone calls have the biggest impact on my life.


question 3: What are you working on now? (what, how and why)


BRB is an poetic observation of online sex webcams where the absence of sex is the focus of the work. In sound you hear the girls talking to their ‘guest’ about simple things in their lives. In text the chat will appear where the girl announces her #BRB. It’s a 5 minute short film.

For a long time I’ve been intrigued by the world of sex webcam’s. On the one hand it’s quite a personal space where (a big part of) the girls are in control of their own action and environment. A lot of them identify themselves as feminists. On the other hand they are objectified and (mostly) men ask them to do stuff for tokens (cash money bitches). Like in other work I made regarding pornography, I work from a curiousness what remains or reveals itself if you take away the pornographic content and put the imagery in another context. The empty rooms become a poetic reflection of what is not there.

The images are collected form the website chaturbate.com. The recordings are made when the girls are gone, just after they left or before they come back. Sometimes you see them leave the frame, sometimes something else happens within the frame. In audio you will hear the chitchat the girls have with her viewers, only from the girls perspective.. Talking about quitting smoking, seeing friend etcetera. In screen the chat will appear when girls are about to leave; BRB and the responses before and after that, sometimes causing funny situations where other might have a darker context.

question 4: What choices did you recently make? (in relation to work) aka = identify choices you recently made.
question 5: Why did you make those choices?
I decided to put my work on memory on hold for a while. The reason for this is that for me it’s hard to see structure and have an overview of what and how I want to make work out of it. One of the other things that plays a role is the fact that I’ve been focussing on making personal work regarding the subject but I can’t seem to create distance. Sometimes it comes to close and at other times I feel like it’s totally uninterested for others. I definitely don’t want to throw all the work and research I have done away and the subject might come back to me when I start focussing on other things. I’ve decided to work with the subject of sexuality and feminism again. This because it gives me a lot of energy and motivation. I have noticed during projects in the past that I can spend hours and hours on this subject. I want to investigate if I want to go back to making film again. It gives me structure and motivates me. Also I can seem to look ahead when talking about film, something I can’t do with my more conceptual work.

[<The text above is really clear and unpretentious. You have decided what you want to do and are clear about why. This is a very good mode of address to use. There are moments when I would like to know a little more detail but the VOICE is very clear. In the future, please write in the form of a journal and take time to reflect on what you are making and what motivates you. good work]

question 6: What non-fiction have you recently read?
question 7: Describe it (aka what is the thesis and what does it conclude?)
question 8: How does it relate to your work? (aka = how is it useful to understanding your own work?)

It might have (actually I’m quite sure) nothing to do with my project I am working on right now but it’s a subject that interests me a lot. It’s a book by Frank de Waal called; “Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?”. Now that I think about it, it does teach us a different way of looking at our world, and with that in itself reflects back on everything. It’s about how we, for a long time now, have been seeing ourselves on top of the pyramid. And from this point of view have tested animal’s intelligence by comparing it to ours. In the book Frank claims that we have to realise that we can not test animals intelligence to human standards. Bats, for example, have a special skill where they use their ‘echo’s’ to find their way. Something humans can’t do.. Does that make them smarter than us? Like I said; it doesn’t directly relate to my work (but who knows in the future it will), but it does put things in perspective. And I guess these perspectives applies to any layer or social structure. No-one ever stands ‘above’ someone else. We all stand next to each-other.
question 9: Who is on your art radar? (describe the work)

Jon Rafman - The way he handle’s media and the internet culture is really interesting to me.
Melanie Bonajo - She works with film and documentary relating to the subjects; feminism and ecology, in a really original way.[<room to unpack this and say how so]
Santiago Sierra - He shows different power structures in a very interesting way. I often don’t know if I love or hate his (very provocative) work. [yes, I feel the same ambivalence. Again explain why it is provocative]
Sophie Calle - The way she works with the personal. [< good choice, but how does she work? What is there to learn from this approach (and how might her ethics compare with Sierra's]
Jonas Lund, LaTurbo Avedon, Metahaven, Kossokovsky, Yorgos Lanthimos. [Jonus was s student here!. What is about the approach of these artist/designers that interests you? they seem very contemporary to you.]

question 10: Was media are you consuming?
question 11: Is there a relation to your work? What is it?

Most of my work is also a reflection on the medium itself. Maybe not so much on what we use, but how we use it; webcams, porn, Instagram, facebook.. Of course I also read the papers, watch news, shows, films etc. They influence my work in another way, either aesthetically or subject-wise. 
Gaming is one of the media I consume that I’m not sure of yet. I do find it a very interesting media and culture that I would like to implement in my work more. I have not felt the need to do this yet but I can definitely see it happening somewhere in the near future.

question 12: What question needs an answer?

Chicken or egg?