TCCP 210914
14 September 2021
Themes in Contemporary Creative Practice
Class notes
Presentation of works in progress for “Pretty Vacant”. Feedback and comments.
On colour theory - Infected Mondrians: https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/news/stedelijk-museum-acquires-infected-mondrian-2
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/4327
Inbetween creative spaces.
Creative spaces that people don’t see.
Builds on the conversation on black and white photography.
Infected Mondrian
“General Idea” added green.
Working with the idea of “infection”.
Created a series of works “infected Mondirans”.
“Openly address’ the AIDS crisis.
Look at Andreia Gursky — People.
Notes on discussion of my work
Video is silent “Brakhage” action
The works in relation to surroundings
I said “not a lot” but there is a great significance to the works in the surroundings (georgette in tree). I want to install them in a part or public space and leave them up for a day. Or perhaps hanging from signage of veues and locations from which they were taken. In my submission for the State Library Fellowship 2022 (closed September 5 2021) I have suggested that a potential final outcome is a street poster exhibition. The comments on my TCCP assignment inspired the street poster exhibit. I subsequently resubmitted my application. In early August I also sent an email to Fiona (Art in Public Spaces) seeking advice on potential outcomes for another project I am working on.
PCP class notes 210909
Had a great talk with Martina after class today.
Website
Martina has also advised that we will be discussing this assignment in our next class. I will resubmit it after that. It would be great to talk it out beforehand.
Break down the assignment brief and briefly talk to each point.
Student site: Discuss the choice of template and workarounds to customise the site. Also, include that chosen template was released in 2012 and the template has not changed and required customisation.
Introduction and overview — what it was, what needed to change and why
Design
Aesthetic
Target audience
Community of practice
Editing
Writing style and standardisation (captions and blogs)
Images
Blog posts
URL remapping
SEO
Student site
Choosing a template and constraints
Coding
Talk to student website redesign and image display
Include workarounds such as writing custom CSS to resolve immediate issues
Professional proposal
Write the assignment based on my submissions to SLV Fellowships programs and Forty-Five Downstairs call out.
Include response to Assignment 1 feedback addressing how the feedback would inform my applications for future opportunities.
Keywords
Professional Creative Practice, PCP, Semester 4, Assignments, Feedback, Website, Proposal
TCCP Week 5
Themes in Contemporary Creative Practice
Week 5 — Class notes
18 August 2021
Assignment 1 Timeline
Use to explore and unpack time management and timeline of the project.
References and contemporary practice
Look to the method and or genre texts.
Intersections and dimensions
Physical and virtual encounters unfolding through time, subverting the integrity of the image. Note I am not sure what this means.
How does this relate to live music culture?
Is there a significant point of difference?
Additional notes
What is a SITE?
What is a milestone presentation?
PhD timelines.
Accidental translations.
Essay documentaries of dreams.
Digital stammers.
Sublimation in art and digital ghosts.
Narrative beneath the action. Do not illustrate the theory.
Keywords
TCCP, Themes in Contemporary Creative Practice, Semester 4, Class notes, Timeline, Method, Contemporary practice
PCP Week 2
Professional Creative Practice Week 2
Thursday 29 July 2021
Class notes
On Kossak Painting
Photography is often presumed "digital" and or representational over and above the idea of developing a relationship with a "medium" resonates strongly for me. The conversation leads me to think of photographic artists including Mariah Robertson, Justine Varga, Danica Chappell.
Thinking is in the doing.
One to one relationship with medium and practice.
Understanding yourself, your work, what images mean in the world.
Talking about art with artists.
Talking about art with people that are not artists.
Let life get into the work.
What is the artist responsibility with content and subject matter?
Find a way to inhabit and express moments.
To instigate and express.
Having something to do.
Make something every day.
Artists statement
An artists statement represents a basic introduction to your art. A good artists statement ensures greater understanding and appreciation in working towards informing as many people as possible about the artist and their practice or project. Be brief and specific. Aim for two to three paragraphs or approximately 150 words. Appeal to and involve viewers with what you are doing. Know your target audience. What is in it for them? Provide a connection, a reason to engage and care.
Written in plain English (without colloquialisms), an artists statement is not an academic paper and should be easily understood by experts and laymen alike.
Be personal and conversational. Inform what the art is about (signifies, intention of communication, inspiration). Explain why you make art, what inspires you, what your work signifies or represents, how you make it, what it is made out of and what it means to you. (NAVA)
CV
I am rewriting my CV, bio and artist statement as per the course recommendation, utilising the NAVA template “Writing an artist CV” (Cameron-Smith 2014).
The template is very useful, outlining the appropriate structure, citations, and general information required to create a concise and informative CV.
I have completed the Solo exhibitions, Group exhibitions, Collections, Awards and Residencies sections and am currently working on the bio. This includes referencing articles and media coverage. I am also adding curatorial roles to the CV.
CV draft. Zo Gay, 2021.
Bibliography
Cameron-Smith, Joan. 2014. "Writing An Artist CV". NAVA. Accessed July 22, 2021. https://visualarts.net.au/guides/2014/writing-artist-cv/.
NAVA. n.d. Q AND A HOW DO I WRITE AN ARTIST’S STATEMENT? WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?. PDF. NAVA.
TCCP Week 2
Themes for Contemporary Creative Practice Week 2
Wednesday 28 July 2021
Class notes
Themes of Contemporary Creative Practice Week 2, 28 July 2021 (Figures 1–4).
Figure 1. TCCP class notes. Week 2, page 1. Zo Gay, 2021.
Figure 3. TCCP class notes. Week 2, page 3. Zo Gay, 2021.
Figure 2. TCCP class notes. Week 2, page 2. Zo Gay, 2021.
Figure 4. TCCP class notes. Week 2, page 1. Zo Gay, 2021.
Discussion group
Program: Tell the group which program you are in.
Master of Photography, Semester 4.
Practice: What is your preferred mode of working? What processes do you use?
Film and cameraless photography, photo screen printing, darkroom printing, photogravure.
Project: What are the starting points for your project in this class.
As suggested, curate and consolidate works.
Priority: Can you articulate your project by telling us which of these you are prioritising (or most interested in exploring): Figuration; Representation; Virtuality. It can be a combination.
Figuration:
Representation:
Virtuality:
Problem: What problems are you encountering in your project?
Access to studio spaces to create works.
People: What are the key thinkers, artists, makers, writers, theorists etc that matter to your project … how might they help with the problems that you might be encountering?
Danica Chappell:
Justine Varga:
Sigmar Polke:
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy:
Dr Gregory Minissale: Neuroscientist and author of “Rhythm in Art, Psychology and New Materialism”.
Dr Michael Thaut: Neuroscientist and author of “Rhythm and the Brain”.
Steven shared from McEvilley’s “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”.
“Some of you might have looked at McEvilley's 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird in Strategies: Content that arises from the aspect of the artwork that is understood as representational. This type of content is widely regarded as the least problematical; ironically, this very assumption lies at the heart of a tangled problem. We tend to feel that representation works by a recognizable element of objective resemblance, yet it seems more accurate to say that what we experience as representation is, like aesthetic taste, a culturally conditioned habit response not involving objective resemblance. In fact, it is difficult if not impossible to say what would constitute objective resemblance. And in reverse, the conviction of objective resemblance habituated in our pictorial tradition seems to exercise control over our perception of nature. The pictorial tradition, presented to us as representation of nature, has remade our perception of nature to conform with the conventions of pictures (as Goodman and others have demonstrated in their critiques of representation and, especially, of the tradition of perspectival drawing). The resemblance we seem to see between pictures and nature does not result from the fact that art imitates nature, but from the fact that our perception of nature imitates our perception of art. Seen thusly, just as it seems we can't think anything that our language can't formulate, so it seems we can't see anything that our pictorial tradition does not include or imply.! Representation, then, especially two-dimensional representation, is not an objective imitation, but a conventional symbolic system which varies from culture to culture. What "looks like" nature to an Australian aborigine looks like symbols to us, and vice versa. Virtually every culture has a tradition of representation which it sincerely regards as based on resemblance. Faced with a painting of the Battle of Waterloo, we seem to recognize horses, weapons, warriors, and so on; what we are in fact recognizing are our conventional ways of representing horses, weapons, warriors, and so on. The fact that it is specifically the Battle of Waterloo must come from the next level of content.” — Steven Rendall
A motif represented through different processes tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/motif.
Anchor conversations in the work.
Studio Workshop Week 1
Studio workshop week 1
Friday 23 July 2021
Notes
The class was a repeat of the first class of last year. Alison discussed the course structure and Shane discussed the course history, RMIT as an institution, workflow, learning paths and outcomes. Both offer a concise overview of the course.
Discussion (Bennett 2021)
Class discussion on the essay “READING PICTURES: THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM?” Analysis and Metaphysics 9 (2010): 62–75 (Woodrow 2010).
View PDF
Class overview
Online Academic Workshop TEAM LINK
Overview of Friday Workshop Schedule
Using the Outlook Calendar
Process Journal
Introduction to technical assignment
Discussion of photography discourse
Tolarno Galleries with fine print consultants Andrey Walkling TBC
Bibliography
Bennett, Alison. 2021. “WEEK 1 FRIDAY WORKSHOP OVERVIEW with Alison Bennett”. Accessed July 18, 2021. https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/81834/pages/s2-academic-w1?module_item_id=3451357
Woodrow, Ross. 2010. "READING PICTURES: THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM?" Analysis and Metaphysics 9: 62-75. PDF. Accessed July 18, 2021. http://ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/scholarly-journals/reading-pictures-impossible-dream/docview/855603586/se-2?accountid=13552.
Studio Praxis Week 1
Semester 2 Studio 3 & 4
Studio praxis week 1 (Bennett 2021)
Thursday 22 July 2021
CLASS PLAN
Acknowledgement of Country
Introductions
Course Overview
Discussing images
Compare & Discuss: Bill Henson and Zanele Muholi
Work in progress will be presented via three group critiques through the semester and prior to the final folio presentation.
Bibliography
Bennet, Alison. 2021. “SEMESTER 2 STUDIO 3 & 4: THURSDAY STUDIO PRAXIS”. Accessed July 18, 2021. https://rmit.instructure.com/courses/81834/pages/s2-praxis-w1?module_item_id=3451356.
TCCP Week 1
Themes in Contemporary Creative Practice B week 1
Wednesday 21 July 2021
Notes
Thematical (investigative and speculative), not a technical class.
Figuration
Representation
Virtuality
Creative
Curatorial
Critical
Figuration, representation, virtuality
Use or base course work on “topic structures (flexible).
Concentrate on the main/most relevant topic.
What, why how
WHAT am I researching?
WHY?
HOW am I researching? Find a range of reference points.
Look up …
“Book of Titles” by David Thomas.
“A year in art: Australia 1992”. Tate, June 2021. Refer exhibition guide for more information on artists and collections.
Definitions
Survey
Series
Ersatz
Fugazi
Proxies
Consolidate
Steven has suggested I use the class to consolidate and curate my work, which would be incredibly productive. The photographs and prints I have created this year are interesting although as a body of work, feels disjointed, which is understanding and very reflective of my mental health. I am grateful for Steven’s input and look forward to seeing where this development leads.
Class links
miro.com/welcomeonboard/cnFVMTc1RlRKVDdwZHBqcjNNMG93R3JHY0ttVmtzekxnUEQ1UkhZaVNncVJKNHQ5b2piNEVZd2hod0hNbTRzOHwzMDc0NDU3MzYwMzM3NzM1NjEw
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/year-art-australia-1992
https://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/virtuality.htm
https://acca.melbourne/exhibition/on-vulnerability-and-doubt/
https://newart.city/show/linda-loh
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/items/detail/portion-pm-newspaper-containing-ad-reinhardts-cartoon-how-to-look-modern-art-america-16504
Look up the article by Andrea Eckersley on Fiona Abicaire's work in relation to theories of the body applied to fashion contexts.
Course structure — View PDF
Keywords
Themes in Contemporary Practice, TCP, Resources, Class notes, Figuration, Representation, Virtuality