Mia/Captain's Log

29. 10. 2018 - Javi's tutorial

• sound (Arduino) - Editions Volumiques: Le livre qui voulait être un jeu vidéo
• John Baldessari - humorous, playful approach
• Tacita Dean
• links to References
• (downloading yt video/channel/playlist)

29. 10. 2018 - David's tutorial

• think about the subject that points out the relationships your camera is discussing (photo - drawing - layering)
• how can the subject (what is in the picture you make) emphasize this "conflict" of image and text or photo and drawing
• objective vs. subjective/poetic
• photography vs. (handwritten) text
• basics of semiotics: Charles Sanders Pierce
• fundaments of the medium - Wilem Flusser: Towards a Philosophy of Photography

26. 11. 2018 - Javi's tutorial

1. PHOTOBOOK - BRUSHSTROKES (working title):

• juxtaposition with paintings would be too straight forward, too flat, a single layer
• think about CHANCE and ACCIDENT (as fragments of reality)
• reading on the topic: George Brecht - Chance Imagery
• artists: Bruce Nauman - Coffee Spilled;
• references on traces/fragments dealing with time and past, accidents etc. Pierre Huyghe - Gallery Wall
• chance - gesture
• the selection (photographs) of found drips, stains, strokes is interesting enough to work with it
• important phase of trying out, printing, matching, replacing in physical form to make decisions
• interaction with the user: first intention is that user can add drawings, brushstrokes, that the object is between the photobook and a sketchbook - BUT! - how to not make it with instructions, to not make it obvious but natural, spontaneous (just as chance and accidents that are represented in the book!)?
• potential answers: to make a binding that can be changed (with screws), paper that is thicker, resembles sketchbook features, TITLE
• balance between open and fixed structure
• text included in the book? probably not (just as an explanation besides the project)

2. FOCAL CAMERA - DRAWING CAMERA

• for presentation is interesting to also see the camera as an object, a methodology
• seeing pictures all together is different than observing them separately
• from mere experiments try to focus on one aspect of the research and develop it in detail (either abstraction, text as a comment on the image, etc.)
• relation between the drawing layer and photograph is important!

27. 11. 2018 Barend's Tutorial

• performance with transparent layer with gestures
• photography with transparencies
• references of artistic practices above also include photographing (or seeing) through transparent materials (glass, plastic, water, steam etc.)
• how can this transparency be used to tell something about the subject (could be hiding, veiling, obscuring the truth/someone's true self, emotions etc.?)
• importance of gesture
• focal camera and photobook project feel related to each other
• continuous process of researching is encouraged

5.12. 2018 Steve's tutorial (below Steve's notes)

[What kind of writer do you want to be?]

• I like analysing art work and exhibitions. I think notes are impotent in this process. Analysis might take different forms: it may be very personal. To me analyses is a way of organising thoughts. I try to write something about every exhibition I see, which I store on my wiki. It is often the case that I need to go back and remind myself. I have found the synopsis exercise useful. I would like to finish the text I am working on by the xmas break.

[About your own work:]

• For image analysis I just typed out people’s work and I did the interview and the descriptions. It was also good to work together with Cem on the same text today
• [Steve suggests: Try to take the different sessions where you discuss your work and make one text out of it. By wich I mean: Use the texts as notes and make a new text which describes your work and identifies underlying motivations in your work]
• The relation between, drawing, painting, and printmaking – the last makes a link or crossover with photography.
• Cameraless photography. One section is a photogram, which seems closer than other things to printmaking, camigram which only uses chemicals and photo-paper and does not use light.
• [shows photographs]
• The relation between drawing and photo.
• The next stage, to go to the studio and make a photo of a figure and play with that. I want to do tests with the depth of field. The studio gives me a more controlled environment. The human figure provides more of a challenge. I don’t often work with figures. If you have a portrait it triggers a feeling or narrative. It might also be more obvious the difference between a photo and a drawing of a person. I imagine a female subject.