Seminar Tutorial, taught by Bill Seaman Spring 2006 at RISD. This class is sort of a prep for thesis class, so it serves likes another RisdBase. As such, be sure to check out DmRelated, DmRelatedTable, and DmCompendiumOfReferences, in addition to the info further down on this page.

Three-ply

Three tunnels

Associational Grid

The associational grid is a free-association exercise, which I've fleshed out into a 72 x 72 matrix bridging diagram. Check out the Equivalent Terms grid below, and some summary pieces of some of the major themes that are coming out of it.

Equivalent Terms

DmPostCol

DmCraft

DmPoliticalArt

DmThesisAsNarrative

First meeting, February 2006

Thematic focus

• narratives of false history
• misused metaphors
• missapply interface
• missapply materials

Material focus

• optical intruments + social space + analog machanics + affective computing

Check out

• Slaters mill
• Bruce Nauman

Second meeting, March 2006

Check out

• Chalmers: Seamful Interaction

Map of instances

• b/w post col and media
• b/w post-col and theysaysmall (DmPostCol)
• b/w theysaysmall and media (DmMediaArchaelogy)

Mid Crit Presentation

PART 1

I started with this anti-flash/powerpoint presentation meant to explore my thought-process (DmArtistBio) and dream project (DirtForNauru), narrated as such:

WAIT 10 SECONDS BEFORE SPEAKING EACH SLIDE. NO QUESTIONS, PLEASE

slide 1

i believe this in the lowbrow sense, but not in a totalizing way
i'm trying to work through my latent modernism, you see

slide 2

i totally believe this, but i think the second phrase is stupid

slide 3

this is an excuse

slide 4

70% of the island-nation of nauru has been mined for phosphate
they have almost no dirt, just a thin periphery of green surrounding these pinnacles
i went to the vegetable market and they had onions and canned carrots
imported from australia

slide 5

i was considering the notion that the art object is useless and decided i could not make this judgement until I had tried in earnest to create one that wasn't
i decided i would take everything I love and destroy 70% of it
smash out the inner 70% of my dead sister's guitar, for example, so it is visually reminiscent of nauru as well as symbolicly
(pause)
they'd still have no dirt

slide 6

this is art, not development
that frees me

notes

(I can be a cynic and hopeful at the same time
I can express the fact that art is useless yet essential
I bring them dirt. This is degrading. I give them dirt. This is paternalistic. I bring them dirt, This is essential.

And here's the kicker. That phosphate was used to create fertilizer.)

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PART 2

I stood in the corner of this video projected on the wall, arms crossed, nodding in time to the music and making eye contact with each person, one by one. I even did a little synched hand motion to coincide with the final 'Jordan Wolfson' shot.

Mid Crit References

Papa Neutrino

Vanessa Beecroft

Christian Marclay

Boyd Rice

Lothar Baumgarten

Fred Wilson: mining the museum

Hans Hakke

John Baldessari

Mike Kelley

Maria Abramovic

Chris Burden

Peter Stembera

Helen and Newton Harrison: Land Reclamation

Ad Reinhardt: the end...

Shardon Daniels (2)

Which one?????

Barbara Smith?????

Gina Paine???

Mid Crit comments

• schizophrenic you: the many me's: serious development, self-deprecating humor
• abstract self-portraiture
• different art for different mes
• humurous conceptualism
• make art for me
• world is more complex than language can describe
• address all issues

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Artist talk

An attempt at a sociodrama that misapplies notions of postcolonialism and postmodernity as the basis for time and space travel in the TheySaySmall ether. Different people were assigned different roles and told to attempt to travel through time by expressing alernative perspectives on the question "What is our Authentic State?" This document lays out the relevant quotes and characters.

This project cross-references with DmTadHirsch, as the solution "Do a Sociodrama instead of a powerpoint" came from the GhanaThinkTank.

Feedback

• do not confound what I am exploring (manufactured or selected authenticity) with postcolonialism. I am not explicitly exploring post-colonialism.
• there is a danger of slipping into the mind/body split, which I am not interested in
• this sociodrama works with a sort of embodied or recursive uselessness.
• alan kapro's events are sorta like this

something about rose a la quarry "war in the age of roses"?

StatementOfInterest