Streamline Project Pt. 2

Streamline project Pt. 2

The initial outline for the project describes a global data base geared towards large scale projects.

The structure could be implemented on an individual scale that would dovetail with the main project. Artists would establish “think tank” teams with the sole purpose of generating ideas that support and extend the trajectory of the artists overall vision.

This is a nod back towards the role of the apprentice with ideas and concepts being the material that is worked upon.

When content, be it physical or intellectual, is unleashed to move through an exchange of hands, the evolutionary component of creativity becomes accelerated.

Cory Arcangel in a discourse with Dara Birnbaum in Artforum 3/09 states: “It also shows how the internet makes it very hard to keep ahead. The question of who “did” something is moot. It’s just guaranteed that any idea you have has been executed by some kid somewhere.”

STREAMLINE PROJECT

STREAMLINE PROJECT

A societal proposal:

What I see as the natural progression of the fine arts is a consolidation and streamlining of creative concepts via the web. These concepts would be extracted from a vast pool of the world population and then used as project material on a large scale with input from selected experts in a variety of the major sciences.

This process would allow all mankind a tangible creative outlet that could be realized within a collective scheme. All humans have creative thoughts, fragments of thoughts or outright innovation which come in waves that could be gathered, fine tuned and streamlined towards a legitimate project.

A primary underlying goal in art is discovery. Any artistic process that falls short of this is self indulgent, egotistical and neurotic or at best therapeutic and although many interesting things have sprung from this realm, it still remains a roundabout approach. With this view in place, it stands to reason that a scientific approach is the ethical/logical route to pursue.

The proposal is to position a site where any individual at any time can deposit creative information which would be collected and stored in a data base which would function as a filter that would sort material into categories of relevance.

The essence of the creative information would be made accessible to a select panel of qualified representatives of the major sciences for review.

At this point, an aesthetic project(s) could be set into place based on information compiled and then could be split into branch projects and handed off to workers/artists for refinement.

The showcasing of these grand scale projects could be held on an annual basis.

Those participants who submitted ideas/concepts that are used as core material or even substantial supporting material could be included in the production process of the work(s).

The content of these artworks/projects would be substantial and current and thus beneficial to society by way of scaling back redundancy, obsolete content and the pit falls of going down blind alleys due to lack of information , misinformation or going over ground already well trodden.

This project description is only a rudimentary draft set forth as a template for further discourse.

Cory Arcangel in a discourse with Dara Birnbaum in Artforum 3/09 asks: “…where is art left when everyone is a producer?” and “If everyone is a producer now, then we have a data- archiving problem – meaning that we do not know where, or how, to look for accurate information.”

THE MARK

The Mark

“When the hand goes down… the first step is everything, decisive.” – Arvo Part

This quote not only speaks of determinism, but the essence of the creativity.

It stands to reason that the creative process is for the most part the act of leaving an imprint of ones self in anticipation of ultimate physical annihilation.

This act is apparent in life in general outside of the aesthetic realm, procreation being the most obvious example.

One could rightly suppose that boredom is a major component in the creative process, so let us examine the nature of boredom.

When an individual is bored, what is actually taking place is a reaction to a type death in the form of an exhaustion of content. The reaction to this mental cooling of energy so to speak is to search for active stimuli or unfamiliar content. An example of this would be the seven year itch or knowing a melody so well (Via modern recording technology) that one cannot bear to remain engaged. The quest for knowledge is another example of this nomadic drive.

With this view in place, I now move towards my reasoning behind working within a narrow framework in terms of my artistic process.

The boredom resulting from repetition within a limited playing field (such as a 2” image area) will in time produce an evolution of the image by way of the human urge to move away from the confines the familiar.

This is an involuntary drive that fluctuates in degrees from one individual to the next and can also change over time due to internal and external conditions.

My mindset is to hold to a rigid format over a life time in order to force a critical push towards unfamiliar territory. The residue left behind in its most basic form will be the mark.

WEB- (winter 2009)

Gallery Purgatory

In contemporary (Western) institutional art systems, There is a nuance that occurs in the gallery/museum setting in which the works displayed are positioned in a limbo state which hints of death by way of the works represented being absent of the actual artist (performance art excluded) The artist could be dead or alive but the frozen product is left behind to be consumed by the living. Works by a living artist can be displayed along side work done by a deceased artist with the result being: The deceased artist is resurrected and the living artist is put to death, in a sense. Death is a major factor in any culture or time.

Timeline Project and it’s relation to the arcade game phenomena.

The Timeline project consists of producing hundreds of thousands of hand-drawn figures that will be used as material for a case study documenting an evolution of the image. The figure is used as mental template which can be viewed as a cylinder that is divided into distinct sections that allow for a wide variation of moves. This neurological mapping will span a lifetime.

In a 2007 interview with Brian Sherwin (Myartspace) I stated that in regards to my earliest experiences, video games had been a stronger influence than art school, at least on a sub level and I believe this is true for most artists of that time period of the late 70’s to late 80’s.

This early influence has become the cornerstone of my aesthetic process.

The format begins with a 5ftx5ft square image area (white paper or canvas) which simulates a standard arcade screen of that era.

2 inch black pen/ink figures are then hand drawn in sequence onto the surface from top to bottom, left to right.(During production, even the movement of the pen simulates the ups/downs lefts/rights of the vintage joystick.) Figures are produced daily and conditions surrounding the production are documented, such as date, time and location.

The idea of starts and stops, moving through levels and keeping score as well as trying to advance towards a higher score is a key factor in the overall scheme of figure production. The finished sheet will then be framed in a 6ftx6ft white shadowbox simulating the arcade game encasement. The number of the completed piece will be on the outer, upper left side of the frame (In black).

The arcade analogy is not simply a case of adding a theatrical element to the process rather it is a direct cultural influence which is embedded in my approach towards work as is the time I spent in a factory setting during my early years.

When positioned in front of the machine (be it in an arcade hall, factory, computer monitor or canvas) the mind moves at light speed through space and time while the body remains locked into position. The subject is placed within the paradox of suspended motion and the primal tension that ensues is steeped in loss aversion. The merging of technology and the primitive was an essential component of the early Arcade experience and it is this hybrid approach that moves through the Timeline project.

There is a core drive in the mind of the player/artist when engaging in the game and this is the act of racing against time and the preservation of ones immortality. This act is symbolic yet the implications are very real.

This awareness of ones mortality is underscored in the Time Line: The time line is an actual (RED) line that runs vertically through the front surface of the frame. This line serves as a mortality marker. The line is inserted in intervals of .5cm at the completion of each canvas (The square canvas can be viewed as a clock, each side is a quarter.) On doing the math, it is assumed that in all probability the line will not complete one full rotation before the artist’s death.

Projected score stats:

*Daily production (minimum): 3 hrs. = 250 figs.

Weekly 1,750

Monthly aprx. 7,000

Yearly 91,000 = 29 canvases.

Decade 910,000 = 290 canvases

Projected remaining

Life-span (30 yrs.) 71 yrs. Old 2,730,000 = 874.9 canvases

(Aprx. 3,120 figures per canvas)

Timeline allowance: 1,120 canvases

* This is based on a 3hr.minimum production time daily schedule, a standard 9hr. day would triple the numbers to 8,190,000 (2,624 canvases) in 30 years.

WEB (winter 2009)