Part one was great. Very much about experimentation and the start of an enquiry into broadening my approach to making work both contextually and practically. The 2D project we begun with had me seek different ways of interpreting a brief that would normally result in a painting. Marlo Pascual, during the lectures, gave me a collage but with a non 2D format – using candle sticks he made me re-evaluate what a collage can be. Alex Schady, an artist I found on Instagram, used balloons on which he collaged. With these starting points I begun to explore collage and image making with their practice in mind. Ambera Wellman’s Ritz which I saw at Art Basel saw a deconstructing of the male gaze and it’s internalization on how she perceives female sexuality – an interesting reference for me as, as a gay man, masculinity definitely configures itself repeatedly when I try and relate to my environment with regards to my own self-image and sexuality. Kevil Appel actually took these pathways of thought to a potential place of obscurity when put forth by a lecturer. The possibility of something seeming beautiful on the surface and putrid or vulgar underneath is an intoxicating idea in my mind. One I sought to explore but, in my eyes, failed to reproduce as the exploration of the materials I had found avenue within were too fun to not attribute to the process an ethos pertaining to the explicit.

Before the 2D project brief there was a short project which saw us make a collection of anything. During this process Bernd and Hilla Becher via a lecture helped me approach the things which are seemingly ‘invisible,’ validating them as noteworthy. Tomma Abts, also via the lectures, helped me consider a ‘haptic’ or ‘optic’ approach to consuming media. I am at odds with the given context of these entities as I am not sure they’re appropriate ways to describe the methodology or approach the lecturer was trying to evoke. However, it didn’t feel foreign for me to approach and deconstruct media and the environment by ‘seeing’ and ‘feeling’ at the same time – I obsessively try to evaluate context and sub-context of anything residing in my consciousness. In practice, during the Collection project, this lead me down a rabbit hole of sketching, documenting and exploring my environment settling on a fascination for two things made for each other but failing to cohesively stay true to their intended purpose (i.e. wall paint failing to stay attached to the wall it was put onto – it’s crumbling and decaying away from it’s intended purpose.)

The ‘Place’ project was fun. I had recently, via some sort of response to life being complex and weird, been mulling over Hideaki Anno’s The End of Evangelion and it’s referencing of Nietzsche’s thought experiment Eternal Reoccurrence which was released with his The Gay Science in 1882. Everything in existence is blessed or doomed to reoccur repeatedly for infinity. Anno constructs this idea magnificently within his work. I started to integrate this concept within myself – what thing or manifestation is omnipotent within my own experience? Now. Now is all we can ever really cling to – Now is all there really is. Is it a place or is it all things? Consciousness is thought to be the ever pervading presence that resides, looms and makes up all existence. We perceive ourselves as a single entity but our ego, body, psyche (whatever) prevents us from understanding our true nature. This battle of self and other we all undertake and participate in is the ultimate journey of life. How far we enter ‘Now’ is actually, I believe, how to truly measure the self and it’s journey. How can I construct this? I think we all, as humans, endowed with consciousness feel a sense of unease and comfort in the ‘Now.’ But say if the will to live has completely evaporated – then, consciousness configures it’s self as a singularly uneasy interpretation. Evangelion for me explores this depth of will and self – what makes it up and what informs our sense of reality in relationship to will and self. I have fascination for horror and am aware that in horror movies infrasounds have been known to make an appearance. During my research of infrasounds I discovered a mystery occurred when a group of hikers seemingly and unexplainably died on Dylatov Pass. Many conclusions as to how they all ended up naked and dead at the same time have been passed around but one stood out to me: infrasounds. Infrasounds produce an effect in the listener. Within the context of horror movies infrasounds are typically used at a range of 15-17hz. Infrasounds at 15-17hz are witnessed to instil a sense of dread or unease in the viewer. Coupled with womb-like heartbeat, I observed the audio offered a type of juxtaposed immersion. I was also looking at Christian Marclay who in The Clock looked at patterns of reoccurrence and repetition which helped me conceptualise my ‘Now’ manifestation. I used the audio experiment with the visuals of a clock set to 00:00 to try and attribute to my piece a reference of time and, in the context of the work, a place.

Kevil Appel, (2012), Salton Sea (half ground) [ONLINE]. Available at: https://www.kevinappelstudio.com/salton/iogkrzqy84t8eyqtxfs21esu3vmups [Accessed 19 September 2019].

Tomma Abts, (2005), Mehm [ONLINE]. Available at: https://workflow.arts.ac.uk/artefact/file/download.php?file=5224208&view=400007&time=1581271784 [Accessed 19 September 2019].

Nietzsche, F., 1882. The Gay Science. 1st ed. Germany: Penguin Random House.

Christian Marclay, (2010), The Clock [ONLINE]. Available at: https://workflow.arts.ac.uk/artefact/file/download.php?file=5353093&view=400007&time=1581271924 [Accessed 19 September 2019].

The End of Evangelion. (1997). [DVD] Directed by H. Anno. Japan: Gainax.

The Moscow Times. 2019. Russian Investigators Are Reopening the Dyatlov Pass Case. But What Is It?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/02/14/russian-investigators-are-reopening-dyatlov-pass-case-but-what-is-it-a64461. [Accessed 16 October 2019].

Marlo Pascual, (2011), Untitled [ONLINE]. Available at: https://workflow.arts.ac.uk/artefact/file/download.php?file=5355178&view=400007&time=1581271926 [Accessed 19 September 2019].

Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher, (1965), Gas Tanks [ONLINE]. Available at: https://workflow.arts.ac.uk/artefact/file/download.php?file=5223798&view=400007&time=1581271925 [Accessed 19 September 2019].

Ambera Wellman, (2018), Ritz [ONLINE]. Available at: https://workflow.arts.ac.uk/artefact/file/download.php?file=5213104&view=400007&time=1581271926 [Accessed 19 September 2019].

Alex Schady. (2018). #balloon #headshrinker. [Online Video]. 10 April 2018. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/BhZdMyFhI7H/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link. [Accessed: 6 September 2019].

I was torn between making my telephone from the Datafied project either orange or red. I felt the instinct at first to use a strong red which would go well with my body of work, however, found that if the telephone is going to be in a stop motion film piece set to the morse coding of polari slang via Grindr notification beeps then orange will be a stronger aesthetic choice. Grindr uses an orange aesthetic so I think this is a strong choice.

With the telephone made orange I started to put together the audio for the piece. I started by researching polari slang. Settling on the word fruit (which means queen - a way of addressing a queer person.) I took the word fruit into a morse code translator to give me the right material to take into Premiere which I would then alter - replacing the beeps assigned by the translator with Grindr notification beeps. I used morse code as via the Datafied project, Lux project and the different material assigned by the tutors I was able to think about technology in relation to the speed at which we are able to share and consume information and how this has changed humanity and our culture. For instance the industrial revolution saw communication ramped up leading to governments and the powers of the world speedily organising people to retain and acquire greater resources and footholds in near and distant places (war.) I see morse code as a reference of the developments that have taken place within the human's capacity to send, encrypt and share information over time. I don't care if this is clear within the work as long as the theme of communication is clear within the context of the work then I will be happy. The culture around cruising and seeking sex with strangers changing rapidly with the use of technology became apparent during my interviews and research - this fascinated me. I liked drawing the dots between these facets of technology altering the ways in which we communicate with another reference to queer culture and communication: polari slang. Polari was invented because gay people needed a way to communicate without fear of prosecution. It's bloody brilliant how focused we are on always finding a way to communicate - language is so powerful. 

So my experiments today were about having a conversation with representations and typical assets that are involved in cruising. Obviously I am using an old telephone but this is about the dialogue that has happened between technology and cruising spaces. With the use of the smartphone, the cruising space is still present but now people use apps such as Grindr to hookup leading to people having sex more at home or there are even occurrences of people using the apps to arrange meetings at the cruising spot. This effectively alters the user's interaction with the environment. I am seeing if this telephone, when placed in certain contexts, can raise these questions. 

Bit zoned out today but the theory of relativity and Alfred Hitchcock are two amazing reference points. I liked that there was a reference to the weird spaces that can be created by the artist. The line 'this is where I died, this is where I was born' breaches the initial paradigm of human experience and can be in itself a way of giving a voice to a concept. This is something I've explored myself - creating a space that communicates a world or realm relative to something that goes beyond the human experience. When I created a dialogue between the entities or forces that are HIV and 'The Hunt' I effectively constructed a space where the typical models of conversation entered a place of obscurity where time wasn't explicitly referenced but two forces act in a way we're not used to. The result felt linear in relation to our understanding of space and time but you realize when creating a space that works differently but reflects and tries understand relative to the human experience that your process of thinking needs to take a step back from normal modes of interpretation. 

I'm not sure how I want to move forward in terms of concept but I do have a starting point: I liked this idea of using a cruising space as it is in itself a space. What I realised while researching during this project is that technology has impacted the normal means of interacting with these spaces. When interviewing people who use cruising space I realised that technology has altered the culture and communication involved. With the introduction of social media platforms such as Grindr and websites such as Squirt there has been a change in how these spaces are used. There is often now a ceremony within the social media that brings people together to have sex with people that they don't know that actually has lead to people not using the spaces or the usual means of their original fuction within cruising causing them to alter and break down.

How can I show this? I have used a telephone in my past sculpture during the Datafied project that coupled with a video projection was a way of constructing some kind of understanding of how the infrastructure of the internet is perceived by us is somewhat at odds with the truths behind it in terms of the technology involved and how our data is used. I want to kind of cross-reference this project with the LUX project which looked at cruising grounds and the dialogues that happen there that happen but aren't explored. The telephone used in the Datafied project is quite old and is broken. I would like to see what kind of dialogue this object takes on when places in locations that are typically used for cruising? Will we be able to ask the question of how technology has altered these spaces relative to cruising and how the individual that uses them relative to their seeking of public sex. 

My work often looks at the eyes or references them. For me, I wanted a way of saying my name but using something that tied my work together. I like that anyone who has seen my previous work will know that this is my own. The sound I took from Gaspar Noe's Enter The Void - my aesthetic was also somewhat informed by Noe's introduction/title sequence where he uses red and yellow flashing. 

The Eye, Titus, American Horror Story, Jessica Lange 

I like it when media references the eye. For example, Jessica Lange touching Alan Cumming's forehead in Titus (Julie Taymor) is way of signaling his to 'see.' What this thing she wants him to see is open to interpretation - her character has to maneuver and configure herself in a male-dominated world. She is clearly a figure of considerable influence albeit hardship and for me, she is trying to control Alan Cumming's character. This signaling of his mind for me is a potential reference to the 'third eye.' I try not to be too literal when I approach the third eye in my work as it is cliche. I think the subtleties of referencing the third eye can be approached but I try and stay very self-aware.

Jessica Lange also features in a scene in American Horror Story where she is about to absorb the life force of a man who was a scientist enlisted to create a formula that keeps her young. Before she is able to attain his life force she touches his forehead or third eye. In certain spiritual schools of thought, there is this approach that the third eye is where male and female energy in the body meet. I think in a world that divulges identity and culture from the gender binary this makes for a very fascinating dialogue. How we integrate our male and female eyes into our own individual perception of the environment has huge implications. How can we have this dialogue with the viewer or encourage them to 'see?'

In line with my desired aesthetic as outlined in my sketchbook I went with a grainy representation of my footage. This I could force via Premiere Pro  if the footage wasn't inline with my intentions. This is the first time I've tackled film properly in this linear, planned manner and I found it daunting as I have so much love for film and moving image. My inspirations for this project in concept and aesthetic feature Lars Von Trier and Robbert Eggers so obviously my last instinct is to massacre them as I try and reference them. 

Have been getting footage and editing it. I am keeping this inline with the grainy, obscure montage and aesthetic as inspired by Lars Von Trier and Robbert Eggers. This is going well. The footage is weird and somewhat haunting. I found myself exploring known cruising sites such as the Barbican Toilets, Soho Square, Haggerston Square for footage. This changed my initial ideas developed in my sketchbook as obviously filming in toilets is something I need to be careful about. It also made me think of the explicit nature of the work - or literal. Using things that overly represent or denote cruising may take away from the context which is centred around obscurity. 

Text Session 13/1/20

I liked the discussion around the indulstrial period. There was an exploring of what art is and how it changed that I found quite striking. Photography for example changed how art is made and what is considered art. According to different surveys some people now don’t consider the movement into abstract or impressionism for example to even be art. 

‘Observer, philosopher, flâneur - call him what you will; but whatever words you use in trying to define this kind of artist, you will certainly be led to bestow upon him some adjective which you could not apply to the painter of eternal, or at least more lasting things, of heroic or religious subjects.’

I think the point is to capture the visage of a guy who’s free of typical restraints like religion, group or culture. This guy seems to be a wonderer of things - anything. He remains free of the binds and groupings and the pigeon holing that limits and configures modern society. 

I liked that this guy is compared to a child. This sort of ethos with life I value - to think of another’s experience relative to their own understandings is really important when looking at things outside of yourself. 

Obviously society is moving quite quick post colonial/industrial period. This has had a huge impact on urban green space as with city living people need space to spend time - green space. 

My work is sort of informed by this transition. Men have sought sex outdoors way back into history - the closer implications will be interesting to research. 

So having looked at Adam Chodzko’s giving voice to something that doesn’t already have one I started to look at certain narratives and dialogues I can produce by doing the same. My starting point was obviously in response to the LUX project brief so I started to think about parks and green space and the structures that occur in these spaces: public restrooms came to mind. I was reminded of Elmgreen & Dragset and their use of space, architecture and objects in their exhibition this is how we bite our tongue - which has a lot of queer references as well as their use of bathrooms and public baths. This took me down a line of enquiry that featured public restrooms and culture surrounding cruising and cottagging which is typically where to gay men will seek to have sex with other gay men in public. I had thought this a pretty nifty starting point when I read the project brief earlier on and took interviews and explored known spaces where this culture occurs while in Hong Kong. 

With this in mind I began thing of ways to create a dialogue. I wanted have a conversation between two entities in line with Chodsko's Adaption but linking back to this cruising culture situation. I evoked two entities: The Hunt (as a concept) and a disease (one I don't want to outline to keep it vague in a fun way.) I wanted a dialogue between these two. My main reference for the subsequent film, and dialogue I was to produce started with Lars Von Trier and Robert Eggers. They have a way of creating a dialogue between two characters that is similar and haunting. I wanted to replicate this. Equally these two directions use imagery in a way that evokes beyond the initial narrative. This is used often as a device and expands your interpretation of the story or inner concepts. There are moments in my dialogue that I want to breach with the imagery to try and issue sub-context and instil in the viewer my wider vision. 

Moving foward: 

Now I've got my concept, my film idea, my dialogue, my location, my reference points - I will expand my research and practice. Recording my audio and experimenting with my film with my aesthetic in mind is the way forward from here. 

I like the idea of dialogue appearing under the immediate focus or surface of green public space. There was a piece of work during the first lecture and one particular question that was asked in response to work shown: who is the protagonist? I wrote notes for this but have since lost then but it was a piece that showed a timelapse of light and life in different forests. Life, for me, or instilled light was the protagonist for me and time was the villain. 

This drove me to consider nature, life, energy in a way that I typically do when thinking about such things - as one being or entity.  

I'd like to consider the social implications of shared outdoor spaces and the subversive uses of them. For instance, I think the culture within the queer community of having sex in public spaces (cottaging) is pretty fascinating. I'd like to explore the origins of this culture (just an idea.)

Summary of initial ideas:

• Explore this entity that is 'one' and all things. 
• Hunger Of The Pine Alt-J
• Sex in public - cottaging 

I recall my previous observation. "This new but almost esoteric approach in controlling the masses within media, data and the internet got me thinking. Those young white men being radicalized via algorithms within YouTube - would they retort to the older generations 'ok, boomer?' Is the 'awakened' young person who believes in groups like Extinction Rebellion and the Labour party as being the saviours of the human condition still a slave to algorithm, data collection and the same control issued to their far-right counterpart? Aren't we all still existing within the framework set out for us by those who have held power for a long time?" 

I really like this question about the limitations of the culture surrounding 'ok, boomer.' Young people assume the older people have power but the power lies within big data - governments are already or soon to be dwarfed by organizations such as Google and Apple who effectively know everything and more about us than the government. I think the new generation using 'ok, boomer' as a rallying cry for the fight again oppression is incredibly naive as they exist probably deeper within the hands of the oppressor. 

How do I communicate this subservience? I liked the reference of sex within the flower porn in my research. What sexual objects denote submission? I experimented with this in thought and within my work photographing myself using a gag. I referenced my earlier use of facial distortion as well as the flower porn itself and made imagery within Adobe Photoshop and Premiere to create my desired outcome. I used the 'ok, boomer' reference to directly align the phenomenon within the idea of submissiveness and try and raise the question if it's actually as effective a movement as proposed. 

I am unsure at this stage if to project the new imagery onto or next to my work using the 'ok, boomer' media or project the live feed to keep the questions raised within media and data itself without having other culture such 'ok, boomer' as a reference point. Maybe I can include both? Have a QR code that the audience can follow to gain a live feed of themselves? I have my projector and all my media ready so I will see how it goes tomorrow and experiment with the QR. 

So my experiments led me to my live feed on top of my 3D work. The 3D work took heavy inspiration from Marylyn Molisso and I enjoyed using the found object. There is a sense that our footprint and the memory left behind of our having used the internet would amount to waste - this isn't actually the case... What we produce the wake of our consumption of media and marketing further implicates us within the trap that is seemingly being set. I think there is a disconnect and a lie or withheld truth somewhere lying in the god that is data. 

For my projection and use of media outside of the 3D work I wanted to create a dialogue between the entity of consumer and organization cashing in. Who is the observer and who is being observed? To do this I thought it apt to use a live feed via social media - a nod to my previous experiments using social media facial recognition software. I figured the use of the audience member viewing themselves within the piece would evoke the question: who is being observed and who is the observer? 

This new but almost esoteric approach in controlling the masses within media, data and the internet got me thinking. Those young white men being radicalized via algorithms within YouTube - would they retort to the older generations 'ok, boomer?' Is the 'awakened' young person who believes in groups like Extinction Rebellion and the Labour party as being the saviours of the human condition still a slave to algorithm, data collection and the same control issued to their far-right counterpart? Aren't we all still existing within the framework set for by those who have held power for a long time? 

The main questions surrounding today's lecture revolve around failure and I think, shame. There seems to be this pretense within the human condition that spreads throughout our culture and society that we need hold up this sense of things always are going well. We live with these small moments of shame wherein we acknowledge in fading moments the projection of precision and perfection failing... Do we truly acknowledge these moments? Do we stay with them and understand them? 

Using the polarity between success and failure to create a dialogue. The paradox can be a commentary. 

Yeah, I was happy with my outcome. The feedback I got primarily centered around where I should position my video as it didn't make sense to some of the audience as to why I projected through the piece onto the wall before. I think for me it was to unify the different media and create a dialogue. 

I didn't really do much today in regards to my work just getting the small nuts and bolts up and running - sketchbook, workflow etc etc. But I did think about the mini crit tomorrow. I think I'll experiment with projecting prerecorded video onto my piece as well as Facebook Live feed. I'll check it out tomorrow when Im with my piece in the studio. I am looking forward to the dialogue that happens as I really enjoyed the found object as some kind of window to an analogy about the disconnect between the colorful face of data and internet and the hidden or obscure physical side that we don't see. Maybe my object or 3D work will raise questions about how our footprint or data is assumed to be rubbish or refuse if you don't think about it. Maybe the inclusion of facial recognition/live feed will open this conversation in the work as to who the observer might actually be? Are we the observer as the consumer of the internet, of media, of marketing? Or is we who are being observed? 

I sort of simplified my previous concepts because showing flower porn via a microwave in a three week project would be fine but it so far hasn't really fit with somehow subverting social media culture or data collection via facial recognition software. I don't even know if my current work does that itself really. So far I've a pile found objects with intentions to project onto them. 

Eloise Hawser, Jesse Darling, David Altmedj, Daniel Arsham and especially Marilyn Molisso and Jeff Muhs informed this jump into sculpture and 3d work. I had in mind a lot recently things like ecosystems like data centers and Pando (some say world's largest living organism) and it struck how obscure the physical manifestation of the internet and our data actually is. I feel the impact of social media and marketing algorithms can be quite violent. It feels like there's a bit of a disconnect from what we see and what's actually going on. 

Somehow the refuse of our attention span or use of the internet is sold and becomes riches for other people. I think back to the internet when it was younger and it felt incredibly different. Everything is streamlined now to somehow present us with things that we're much more likely to consume or like to see. If the results of our using the internet could be just rubbish? What would the Internet look like if everything were completely impersonal and we had to dig? What if things weren't censored?

I also saw a lot from different articles and people on the net (especially Contrapoints) about the looming, everpresent radicalisation of young white men via Youtube. It got me thinking about the pretty, clean, impersonal, well protected data centre that I saw the other day how at odds to the violent impact data can have. How unprotected young people are.

Marylyn Molisso's work I really enjoyed. The constructed sculpture from the found object and what seems to be rubbish I found really beautiful actually. In one of the scuptures  there's a tape recorder with the part of tape that records information running through the scuplture. I wanted to capture this sense of a different media running through my work or sculpture. I intend to adapt my earlier experimental outcome that used video and facial recognition software to project onto the piece somehow referencing Marylyn Molisso's work. One part of the synopses of her work on Tension's website really stuck out to me in its context:

'Doomed to outlive their maker, these materials were intended for use, and now have been warped into impractical creations, obsessively remade, meanings constantly in flux, living in an anxious state of in-between, something, and ‘thing.’'

I thought his really went well with the sense that what we see of the internet/data and what's actually going in are two different things - disconnected but so completely connected - a literal ecosystem working together. We are but sheep, the consumer. 

So I did some more research today and the work that is pointing our most is that of Jesse Darling, Eloise Hawser and Nam Jun Paik. I want to take my current ideas and explore the dialogues that are being created. 

I have used facial recognition face filters within social media application which have resulted in some pretty interesting results. One thing that stood out was the face stuck to the door which was then captured within the software while the door swung back and forth. The particular effect made the face look fragmented and seemingly trying to catch up with some kind of attempt at a static image. What if I made a sculpture of this? What if I used sculpture as an object that to be projected onto? One of my outcomes had this simulation of a live feed video on my instagram page. I asm thinking to live feed onto my sculpture somehow. 

• To sum up my ideas:
• Make a sculpture of one of my experimental outcomes 
• Project onto sculpture or other objects 
• Work out how to do a live feed from my phone to my phone to projector 
• Look at plant biology and genealogy and draw parallels with human genetics and biology. 
  
  • Look at queerness and how it subverts this status quo of recreation through thought experiments around how our 'information' is just passed between each other.
  • Somehow we're one organism like that forest somewhere in the world that is just one living organism. 
  • Look at replacing pornographic images with flowers and wildlife.
• Project from within a microwave onto the translucent door something really cool like gay flower porn.
  • subvert humanity and it's need to reproduce and power a system that is actually destroying everything.
  • Joke but actually explore how gays could be seen as an meddling/mending entity toward nature.
  • Gay culture is political and subversive in itself.
• Maybe my sculpture of a fragmented static face could be looking at the microwave with images projected onto the translucent door? 
• Make a facial recognition instagram filter! 

We spent today looking at sound and keeping it within the limits of what is acceptable for the show we're gonna do at some point next year. This level of sound we have to not let our pieces peak above is actually a standard for most media we consume. 

Things I wanted to learn but weren't included or known: 

• How to reattach clips after cutting them in Premiere
• How best to configure the decibels of an audio file of a hertz frequency 
• When we will get a chance to emulate and try out the exhibition space for the piece we're making for it 
• When to use Adobe Audition instead of Premiere 

Today I got a handle on some ideas. I figured out I wanted to try and subvert social media by looking at facial recognition filters used within Instagram, snapchat and FaceApp. I wanted to have a dialogue between objects such as coffee cups and doors and the face - documenting it via these apps gave a narrative to the work. For example, when I attached a big face onto a door and opened and closed it there was a kind of story taking place. 

I want to not cling to the coffee cup idea and open the work with objects up further as I realized after experimentation that I was limiting myself.  This helped me derive a narrative from my experimentations. Moving forward I want to 

• Work with different apps that enable image-making (will be on my notes from today which I'll properly review tomorrow when I have more energy.
• Make a creature who is morphed together from images of the people I find hot on Instagram 

This brief fits in really well with my current obsessions and interests. One of my favourite TV shows Rick & Morty  are looking currently at everything being datafied and the human need for immortalise and connect via technology. The creators manage to subvert culture and society with comedy which I really appreciate as I often can be too serious when I care about something and need to communicate. I really loved the focus today on things like:

• The contrast between the control data technology imposes  and the benefits they can offer.
• We're looking at the parties who benefit from our participation as a consumer. 
• If data is used to predict the future is it imposed on us when we are more susceptible - I should include research on how young white men are radicalised via online algorithms within Youtube and other platforms.
• How data as interfered with our sensitivity to life itself - how porn has insinuated itself as some kind of ultimate expression of fulfilling our sexual urges. Is this need for instant gratification somehow a portal into an understanding of how removed human beings are from some of their own organic predisposition? Is our over indulgence with violence in media us reaching far back into the our more animalistic urges or an enforced device by those in power to issue us with a collective acceptance of the terrors being forged to claim resources and destabilise entire regions for the West's megalomaniac nature. RESEARCH NEUROBIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF PORN IN COMPARISON TO ADDICTIVE SUBSTANCES? 
• The internet on the surface appears to have a very public 'persona' but overtime has become more and more about the generation of footprint by the user to monetise data. 
• Lack of privacy makes people feel unsettled. 
• Oyster cards, credit cards, cookies, shopping, Amazon etc 
• The human's collective need to immortalise. 
• How some people totally lack the need to challenge the status quo within their lacklustre conformity and how some people would rather kill themselves that be beaten down by the crushing averageness that the universe demands life embody so it can feed. 

I enjoyed this project, learning how to better edit video was pretty useful. I met a lot of roadblock like how to do certain things with just audio but then adapted by using Adobe Audition. I used the knowledge attained in class:

• using different effects, layer overlays and transitional effects with video
  • Basic video editing 

It was fun expanding on the stuff I already knew. It was interesting to apply the new knowledge after collecting lots of different video and audio and imagery. My basic theme was around 'making a deal with the Devil' and likening the devil to capitalism. I had a 1:1 with my tutor who offered me some advice around the narrative and which parts to include. We spoke about exhibition spaces and what kind of things inform people staying around to look at work. I decided to remove the first part of my video and make the second half more polished and punchier which has a more cohesive narrative. I used footage and sound from different YouTube videos, movies, and music to make this work. 

Today was the most fun I've had since starting the course. I learned stuff I actually desperately wanted to know in regards to video editing and could not be more grateful. I assimilated the information/tutorial really well, as soon as the information was inside my brain I was able to apply these new principles in every direction which enriched what I was able to produce subsequently leading me down a number of rabbit holes within Adobe Premiere.  

I am currently mixing together a video using the tools given which is an insane amount of fun and I will evidence once I have done my first video. Being able to articulate the concepts and narratives revolving in my mind via video is a really stimulating process. I would have liked to have seen more precision in how to edit the screen size of the videos created (single and split screen) and been shown more tools around audio editing but I understand today was about basics.

I think it would be incredible if the tutors could do a non-compulsory tutorial focusing on some of the finer implementations of Adobe Premiere, audio editing and the application Blender.  

I was a bit thrown with the brief and the lecture. Ultimately the context was really great - I enjoyed the references and the work shown but found the need to immediately evoke my ideas of how the world and society are failing and what within this realm I take meaning from a complete drain. I think, sure, as an institution it’s really valuable to instil within your students a sense of being able to articulate your purpose and values but this line of questioning shouldn’t be mandatory. You can find precision of purpose and sense of self without caring about the bigger picture. Don’t get me wrong, on an individual level I can’t stand people who are narrow minded or dim in their knowledge of the world but feel that if having something that stimulates you is a prerequisite to progressing then maybe make it an entry criteria to the course? I can't exactly pin point why I found this brief so claustrophobic or condescending. I do however value the task of getting people to consider the world and perspectives wider than their own if this is truly needed generally. 

Mixed bag here. It went well I think because I was able to explore a huge amount of different media before reaching my conclusion. It went awfully because of  bad logistics of the photography room in the basement which led to quite a hiccup as well as the tripods in our room not having DSLR attachments both leading me to me having a shortage of time and a considerable amount of stress. This is something I can account for in the future and manoeuvre myself around however. 

The video is of the exhibition piece (the exhibition piece is not the video.) I wanted to consider the space to exhibit within and found the class room entirely not appropriate for what I needed the outcome to be. This is hilarious as the room equipment that was most appropriate was a complete nightmare to use or not even available and crippled my work leaving me unable to:

1. use my needed media on the monitor 
2. use my resources effectively
3. have enough time to perfect the work
4. shoot the work properly (no backdrop or tripod connector for DSLR camera.)

The piece itself had well thought out outcomes within the different media used. I retained the use of spherical assets from my research for their symbolic meaning and included the use of a square to denote the concept of containment, society and boundaries we exist within as a collective (see Belloli in Bruno Munari book within research.) Dangling over the square was a spherical structure to represent the human collective. This was in motion as if denoting a pendulum and the passing of time (see End of Evangelion in reasearch.)  I wanted to set up a perspective on the collective human psyche. This beast is set up before a monitor (see Nam Jun Paik in research.) I wanted to have static image with it's own presence and eyes are thing of mine with overarching meaning and symbolism but this particular use of an eye was to be an announcement of human submission to media and societal ideals much like the enforced submission of lifeforms such as dogs. I'm not sure if it is effective but this human collective being hypnotised through time has an aggressor - the dogs barking. I was reaching far trying to implicate my thought experiment around dogs being more sentient than us (see Rick & Morty in research) in creating this hypnotised model of the collective human psyche and I'm not sure if it was successful. I would have killed the presentation and produced something infinitely better with more time I am sure. It was mildly irritating having people turn their nose up at the quality of the work because I really feel proud of it at the same time because of how fun it was to channel some of myself into the work. 

(I have a lot to add about today in regards to pictures and text but I'll jot this down now so I can build from it later today.) 

I had a busy day. I got in and tried instantly to secure the studio in the basement with the backdrop. This room is logistically a nightmare. How long has this been going on?

• You can't book it ahead.
• The security team (who are lovely) have been endowed with the responsibility of it but have no power to ensure it's smooth running. 
• You can't be in there for 5 minutes without someone knocking to find how long you're gonna be because there is no cohesive booking system.
• The backdrop roll ended and no one knew where to get more.
• I have to make 5 trips from the classroom to get all my stuff there in between people commandeering it without permission and each time I have to somehow manoeuvre between these intruders to my benefit as one the door is locked you have to ask security to unlock it.
  • Security have to man the entrance to the campus and so if you have to make multiple trips to the room you have to wait upwards of 15 minutes to gain access while another comes back. 
• Security can't really be on top of it and allow an atomised student body to organise access themselves - this leads to people coming in and just using it while you're transporting stuff while the people who are using it before you don't have a personal enough stake in your needing enough to wait or decline these new participants entry. 

I understand limitations. Limitations can really enable us to be creative but the organisation around this room is hideous. It's such sought after commodity with more limitations than it's worth. The quality of my work suffered because of this scenario. On the other hand I met a lot of the students who attend the Archway campus and actually got to know some of them quite well. 

In the midst of my basement photography room fiasco I had some other difficulties:

• There was no DSLR connectors with the tripods available in the fine art rooms and no one knew where to find them rendering them useless. 
• I had so much going wrong and such a scramble to secure that blasted room that I wasn't able to get the imagery/video onto the monitor in my shoot so had to improvise.
• No backdrops. 
• Not enough time to get my desired outcome. 
• My camera wouldn't let me transfer any of the material shot.

The Crit

I was really excited to see everyone's work. Actually there was some really inspiring stuff - a practice that I want to assimilate into my own but nothing really stimulating in ethos or thought beyond the form and technique. I found it really engaging to cross-reference things with a few people - seeing them reference and have a dialogue with me enabled me to articulate and connect with them and the subject we share. I liked giving people references that might link in with their work - it was stimulating.

My crit was a bit of a joke, however. Someone decided to argue and speak over me and everyone about only one small aspect of my work they had a very strong emotional reaction to. I live for people debating and challenging my work but as there were so many influences and references I was compiling in the work it's a shame that it was purposely diminished all to indulge someone's belligerence. The issue arose over a thought experiment I was using to tell a wider narrative. 

My tutor however at the end gave me some amazing feedback and poured more life into the movement of my work. It's a weird one because I am not really someone who cares for validation but you have to implicate yourself on this course that in a way that leaves you open to question. I feel like I'm managing this well but there's a definite gap (age, experience, whatever) between me and my peers that isn't made obvious until scenarios like what went down today with one of them being quite rude. We're all learning here but I hope this experience bears more constructive fruit for some beyond just the technical knowledge to be gained (e.g. decorum.)