Assessment 2346QCA Interdisciplinary Sculpture 1

2346QCA / Interdisciplinary Sculpture 1
Dr. Sebastian Di Mauro
sebastian.dimauro@griffith.edu.au
The Phenomena of Process
The project asks you to address issues surrounding the conceptual and technical
mechanisms of investigation as a genesis for art making. Your studio work will explore
methodologies of contemporary art and thought – working with process to engage your work
to evolve and change.
You are asked to address questions of your work and research through the exploration of
conceptual and technical methodologies that focus on notions of process and phenomena.
Questions that arise may include:
• Does one generate work through issues related to “natural”, “fabricated” and
“chance” processes?
• What of the investigation and influence of facts, occurrences, risk and the
extraordinary to contemporary and individual art practice.
• How does one navigate the exploration of permanence and transition
through studio work/research?
• What are the similarities and differences of phenomena (phenomena : an object or aspect
known through the senses rather than by thought or intuition; a fact, occurrence, or
circumstance observed or observable: to study the phenomena of nature.) and process
within visual (and non-visual) art?
• How will you develop a working methodology to critique and/or challenge
conventional notion of the form visual art takes.
• How do you investigate issues of process and phenomena in connection to
time and chance?
So think of:
Change and examine how one thinks of change in viewing the practice of Western
Contemporary Art? Are many artists conscious of change, or are they content to just let things
flow? How much does an artist accommodate, alter, convert, and modify an idea/ideas
through process and change?
What about improvements, development, refinement, rearrangement, transformation or
transition?
What part does change, chance, and/or nature play in the process of creativity–or are they
deleted completely in the final process?
What of a predetermined, decisive end of process?
And then there are other terms to ponder, such as: willful, decide, specific end result, product
control, plan, permanent.
Permanent/Permanence – Or can “anything” be permanent? Or is everything in transition?
Permanent – lasting or tending to last indefinitely; remaining unchanged; enduring. (opposite
of temporary – temporal; or pertaining to time. Pertaining to or concerned with the present life
or this world; worldly).
Is there any phenomenon in existence that does not change? If not, a paradigm (the set of all
forms containing a particular element) that presents permanence as reality is in opposition to
Nature. The culture’s representations reflect a belief that it can be distinguished from Nature.
It follows that a cultural paradigm that does not acknowledge Chance sees itself able to
control Nature thorough understanding of and harnessing natural forces.
And then there are the Oppositions to ponder…
Oppositional ways of ordering phenomena can result in ‘difference’ being perceived in a
judgmental way that forms hierarchical cultural values based on black and white distinctions.
And what about the ‘grey’ areas – the merging of the ‘either’ ‘ors’?
EITHER OR
culture nature
conscious unconscious
willful instinct
mind body
analytical irrational
reason emotion
clear obscure
science arts
light dark
good evil
spirit matter
exposed enclosed
exterior interior
masculine feminine
(and so on)
Documentation Process – Is the Documentation the “Permanence” in terms of the artwork?
It appears that it is the “evidence” that some work ever existed – Does this make the
“evidence” more important than the “process”?
Think about the similarities and differences in notions of the temporal and time within various
media areas of the visual arts (and disciplines outside the visual arts).
What working methodology can you employ that may challenge conventional notions of the
form an artwork takes?
How can you explore time and temporality in your research/work?
Project 1
You are to develop studio work that is generated through the notion of ‘process’ – (or the
action and operation of working through a series of changes) to produce the first studio
project. Process plays an integral role in contemporary art. It is important to remember that as
an artist’s ideas and concepts change – so does the visual outcome. Often mistakes can be
the opportunity that the artist was looking for….
Your work must involve 4 distinct changes (or evolve through 4 different processes).
Think of your materials – these may be object based, the moving image, sound, text, or a
combination of materials and methods. The work may begin as an object that then develops
to a time-based stage, and then back to an object…the possibilities are endless.
Remember that you are working from a conceptual starting point that may be generated
through issues of culture, place, history (or non-history) and that the mapping of your ideas
plays an important role.
Reference points include: The 6th, 7th and 8th Asia Pacific Triennial’s of Contemproary Art;
The everyday: 11th Bienniale of Sydney catalogue; 20th Bienniale of Sydney exhibition The
future is already here–it’s not just evenly distributed.
Also Artists: John Cage, Nam June Paik, Bruce Nauman, Shaun Gladwell, Joseph Beuys,
Robert Rauschenberg, Rosemary Trockel, Rebecca Horn, Ann Hamilton, Simone Mangos,
Sophie Calle, Annette Messanger, Wolfgang Laib, James Turrell, Spike Jonz and Marcel
Duchamp (to name just a few).
Your process works are to be reviewed in Week 7. Thursday 18 April.
Process/processing your ideas and materials
Please consider the following ‘low tech’ items that you can use in formulating your
series of changing works:
1. Nail/hammer
2. Screw/screw driver
3. Needle/thread
4. Sandpaper
5. Wax
6. Paper/Cardboard
7. Wire
8. Glue
9. And – all the amazing ‘found’ objects that can be c