User:Emily/20160529

overview of the research project

The central figure of the research project is Symbolically charged obejects.
Be it in cinema, contemporary art, or ditial commons culture (specifially among these shared 3D files in the network culture), SCOs are distallations of certain structures, no matter if it's cinematic narration, institutional categorization or social condition at large.

The research and practice draw the attention to the affinity relationship between the chosen objects with readymades.

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The above will be explained in two parts that are mixed up, one is my own practices and the other is influences of the particular way of looking at objects that informs what I do.

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sybolically charged obejects in circulation

➡️Areas of research: Cinematic Objects (Objects as protagonists):
Hitchcockian objects img: The key in Notorious and Dial M for Murder, the wedding ring in Shadwo of a Doubt and Rear Window, the lighter in Strangers on a Train.
Typical MacGuffin/cienmatic pretext: Opening scene from Milano Calibro 9 (1972); img01, img02
Object of exchange: compare the key in Dial M for Murder with the letter in The Purloined Letter.

➡️Areas of research: SCOs in comtemporary art:
Duchamp's readymades, the informatioanl circuit, and the reproductions
The changing face of readymades: in Guy Ben-Ner's work, I'd Give It to You If I Could But I Borrowed It; img04
Sharable readymades, a work of Rob Myer, who "iconic art historical objects to the cultural commons"; (Pipe, Ballon dog and Urianl) img05

➡️Areas of research: SCOs in ditial commons culture:
Thingiverse as a case study: the leading website for 3d printing designs in its repository are free to upload and download. Object facing controversies
A group of objects are selected from Thingiverse, the most popular website for sharing creative commons of 3D files. They exist in a grey zone, a disputed border which questions what objects can be shared and produced. img06, img07
It goes to show the power of certian forms even when they are separated from their function.

Symbolic network / Symbolic structure

Symbolic efficiency: public-supposed-to-believe: "it can travel without being stopped and questioned"; "it can coexist nicely with deception or distrust" as long as "people are willing to let it pass".
symbolic institution must also register this "fact".
"There are no commons without community: commons are always maintained and managed by a community."
The readymade comprise not found obejcts, but instead "found structures beyong visible reality and its seeming concreteness." -- art historian Benjamin Buchloh
Like the readymades once towed the boarder-line of the art in the institutional museum-garllery, the sharable 3d printed files follows the same manner question what can be shared as digital commons.
My work(the interpretation of the physical shapes in my video work)deals with the ambiguity of both the shape of the objects themselves and the ambiguity of regulation (consists of individuals' ideology, conventions from community and institutional protocols, even regulation from states.)

Graduation project

For the Common Good
The culture of 3D shapes online (part of the ‘digital commons’) embraces a vast variety of methods of distribution. Within the context of the boom in 3D printing, virtual models easily become physical. The relation between the digital and physical features enhances the current hype about this medium. In For the Common Good, a group of objects are selected from Thingiverse, the most popular website for sharing creative commons of 3D files. They exist in a grey zone, a disputed border which questions what objects can be shared and produced. However, many shapes share the same coordinates, which provide the foundation for further shapes to be built. By viewing the physically printed objects, people are invited to discuss what they understand the objects to be. A video features the artist as an anonymous performer with a selection of ambiguous objects. The work requires people to reconsider the cognitive relationship with objects.

what to capture in the video format

• the well-organised absense of information that draws us in
• storytelling without a dialogue, the purest form of cinematic storytelling
• the domain of the production of artists; " the potential of the object for alternative representations and of the artist’s particular take on the object."