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Category: PROJECT 1

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SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Working with the Found Object

Primary research

In this project I worked with an object found in my accommodation and public bathrooms: Disposal Bags. It caught my interest because I didn´t know about them and had an interesting detail: the image of a Victorian lady. I believe this is a symbol of the female stereotype and relates to the concept of shame associated with menstruation.

Disposal bags in accommodation and public bathrooms (Self-authored photographs)

Disposals bags founded on internet where the pattern of drawings associated with a delicate femininity is repeated (Self-authored collage).

The first approach to the project was to use the bag to hide any element of the city that embarrasses us. Although, after the discussing sessions, I decided to focus on the bag and its original purpose, because is an object use to hide menstruation even when nobody is seen it.

I experimented by intervening the bags with messages making their purpose more explicit and introducing messages inside them with menstrual-related content.

Experimentation on Disposal Bags (Self-authored photographs). Text on the messages inside was wrote based in this sources: Medine plus; NHS;  HOPE; Hello Clue.

Secondary research

JANNIS KOUNELLIS (Greece) (1936 – 2017) / Arte Povera`s artist

Kounellis presents objects and elements in a way that allow them to exist in a totally new perspective, where “everything and anything had the potential to be seen, regardless of its aesthetic or perceived use-value”[1].

Untitled (2000). 13 military hospital beds; 11 steel forms; 19 steel plates; 35 military blankets (Source: https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/85806/Jannis-Kounellis-Untitled)

ROSELLA BISCOTTI (Italy) (1968-) / Multimedia artist

Biscotti cross the boundaries of what could be considered as art, taking everyday elements from the past and the present, to transform them in a piece of art with a powerful message that allows the audience to deeply question some concepts that we take for granted.

Yellow Movie (2010). Film projection. Assembles a yellow frame with an audio work edited from recordings of controversial psychoanalytic sessions. Photo by: Hugo Muñoz (Source: https://wilfriedlentz.com/work/yellow-movie-2010/)

NICANOR PARRA (Chile) (1914-2018) / Anti-Poet

He made (anti) installations with found objects and words, giving the object a new meaning through this juxtaposition.

Practical work collection (1996-2002). Image 1: Message in a bottle; Image 2: I`ll be back soon (Source: http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/archivos2/pdfs/MC0013511.pdf).

Australian marketing campaign (2010)

This billboard was intentionally vandalized adding hair and changing the text over a perfume advertising, transforming it into something different and playing with the male stereotype.

(Source: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/outdoor/chill_les_man_adshel)

FINAL WORK: YES, I`M BLEEDING

Finally, I decided to go on with the previous experimentation and intervene the bags with messages explicitly talking about menstruation inside and outside them. These were written with markers and pens. Also, I painted the lady´s dress to resemble the blood.

Intervened bag photos (Self-authored photographs).

I placed them in locations throughout Edinburgh city, like bus stop and other crowded places.  The aim was to take the bags out of their private place, the women`s bathroom, to public space involving citizens in the intervention by making them react to the object.

Bags placed in the city (Self-authored photographs)

The day after, the bags appeared to have been opened and some of the messages inside had been taken out. One of them was removed from the site, which can indicate rejection to the message in the bags. I considered the intervention successful with respect to the objective of the work. However, to make a greater impact I could have recreated the bags in a larger size.

[1] Thorne, H. (2019, June 7th). Jannis Kounellis: A Taxonomy of Tired Things. Recovered from https://www.frieze.com/article/jannis-kounellis-taxonomy-tired-things

Making and Breaking Narratives

Primary research

In this work I opted to work with narratives related to my nationality and how Chile is represented abroad, because in Edinburgh I have talked with a wide range of people, and I noticed that they have some bias and do not know much about Chile. In addition, the UK government site has a section called foreign travel advice: CLICK HERE TO SEE THE WEBSITE; where the information about Chile is quite exaggerated.

Example of exaggerated information (Image source: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/chile).

On the other hand, Chile shows itself abroad as a country with wonderful landscapes and a culture isolated from the daily life of its inhabitants. As is shown in this video from the chilean Sub-secretariat of Tourism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR51pgjWXi8):

In addition, I asked people close to me what is the first thought they have when they listen to the word Chile.

Answers obtained to the question made on my Instagram platform: “F*ck Chile”; “It has a little bit of everything and the craziest people in the world live there!!”; “Mountains”; “Piscola [chilean typical drink]“; “I want to get out of hereeee jajajajajaja”; “Food”; “Take me away”; “Family…specially when I was in the USA”; “All the times I have said no more Chile”; “F*ck country”.

Regarding to all the above, my first attempt was to experiment juxtaposing some views through a collage.

Experimental collage made with screencaps from the above video and famous images of Chile´s 2010 earthquake and 2019 protests (Self-authored collage).

Original images:

Chile`s 2010 Earthquake and Tsunami (Source: https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2018/09/28/10-cosas-unicas-de-chile/)

Chile`s 2019 riots (Source: https://www.primeralineaprensa.cl/?p=3744)

Screencaps from Chile, where the impossible is possible (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR51pgjWXi8&t=1s)

Secondary Research

Jesse Jones (Ireland) (1978-) / Contemporary multimedia artist

Jones mixes film, performance, installation, and collective structures to explore, question and challenge historical narratives in culture through current concepts [2]. A remarkable element in her works is the re-script or re-enact from previous films or dramatic works to give them a new look from today’s perspective.

The Other North (2013). Film where South Korean people re-enact therapy sessions held by an American psychologist in the 1970s in Northern Ireland (Source: https://www.jessejonesartist.com).

Alberta Whittle (Barbados) (1980-) / Multimedia artist, researcher, and curator

Whittle explores concepts as racism, colonialism, inclusion, and diversity using film, collage, installation, sculpture and founded objects. Her work allows the viewers to question the society and themselves to battle xenophobia and racism through challenging mainstream narratives [3].

Business as Usual (2020). Collage with juxtaposed images of body, culture, and stereotypes about them. It challenges the narrative of power about inclusion (Source: https://www.albertawhittle.com/business-as-usual.html)

FINAL WORK: JUXTAPOSE

For this project I made an audiovisual piece juxtaposing images, text and sound of the video Chile, where the impossible…. (idealised view of Chile), with audio-visual footage of the country from a range of sources (other narratives from people and alternative media), and text from UK government website (narrative from another country). The elements sometimes are in accordance and sometimes are totally contrary, challenging what is being said by the official voices. This aims not only to question but also to broaden the narratives on and from Chile.

Final video / Juxtapose

(https://vimeo.com/696029131)

[3] Paik, S. (2018). Jesse Jones. https://ocula.com/artists/jesse-jones/

[4] Alberta Whittle. (n. d.). Biography. https://www.albertawhittle.com/biography.html

Mapping the Soundscape

Primary research

In this project I made an exploration in two city spaces: the court my window overlooks and Dublin during Saint Patrick`s Day weekend.

From my window

I live in Edinburgh city centre close to the Royal Mile where a lot of people walk around by day and night. I thought this could be interesting because I hear a wide variety of sounds related to live in a city, as drunk people, birds, ambulances, tourists, etc.

SoundCloud playlist with the sounds without edition:

(https://soundcloud.com/maria-francisca-escobar-nachar/sets/from-my-window)

St. Patrick´s Day

I went to Dublin from 17th to 21th March and recorded many sounds related to St. Patrick`s day. I was interested in all the sounds that could be part of the festivity atmosphere. But as the weekend passed, I realised that the festivities were not all over the place and I looked for other things to do and hear in the city, visiting beaches and surrounding towns.

SoundCloud playlist with some of the sounds without edition:

(https://soundcloud.com/maria-francisca-escobar-nachar/sets/st-patricks-feelings)

Secondary research

London Unseen (2008-2020)

These soundmaps are hosted in London Sound Survey (https://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/), website with a sound collection of everyday life in London through the years. I found remarkable that the  authors do not tell the auditors about the places where the sounds came from, so they must pay attention to guess what the location is or imagine it.

Two sound maps where the sounds are associated with images (Source: https://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/index.php/london_unseen/pitcairn)

Two layers of cake (2020)

http://acts-of-air.crisap.org/two-layers-of-cake.html

Created by Yara Mekawei (Egypt, 1987-), music and sound artist, the work is part of Acts of Air: Reshaping the urban sonic. This work presents several layers of sounds recorded in Old Cairo along the year.  The work invite the auditors to become part of a sound walk hearing the audios in their own environment. I found fascinating how in each auditor who listens to it a new sound construction is generated in situ.

FINAL WORK: ST. PATRICK`S FEELINGS

After the discussion sessions and research, I decided to work with the Dublin sounds. I made a proposal for a sound walk where the auditor is invited to travel with me to the city during the festivities.

The first aim is to visit through sound the most crowded places, feeling the music and the party, but also the moments of tension and escape from the noise of the city. The second aim is to build connections and reflections between the places where the listener is located and the sounds they hear. For this the auditor must follow the indications:

(Orginal file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b-fhz1gFnTykx7d8cpA7ChzzDoDyCyyA/view?usp=sharing)

The sound walk is available at the following site and is freely accessible to anyone who wants to experience it:

https://624dc6fd58d2a.site123.me/

Screen capture from the site (Self-authored)

On this occasion it was not possible for me to collect experiences from people who did the sound walk. In this way, the analysis of the audience`s reception is a pending challenge.

 

 

 

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Project 1: Realization

The project 1 about the founded object “Disposal bags” was realized last week intervening the bags and placing them in locations throughout the city. Specifically, bus stops and other places with high traffic of persons.

Bag intervention

Bags in the city

The day after, the bags appeared to have been opened, so we can imagine that people look inside the bags, and one of them was removed from the site, in this case that could be a sign of rejection to the message in the bags. Any of these actions can be considered successful with respect to the objective of the work, which was to involve citizens in the intervention and react to the object.

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Project 1: Changes and new ideas

Based on the feedback and the exchange of ideas during the last session, where one classmate told me about the possibility of seek where else I could find disposal bags, I decided to research along the city if I could find more of this objects. I found that there are a few of these bags in University´s toilets.
Also, on the internet I found many more bags for sale. In the collage above can be observe that in almost all bags the pattern of drawings associated with a delicate femininity is repeated.
After this new research I decided to focus my project in the bags themselves making an intervention where I will take the bags out of their private place, the women`s bathroom, to show them on the city.  Thus, an object from the private world enters the public arena challenging the ordinary citizen.
I found inspiration for the intervention in the art work of a chilean poet and artist, Nicanor Parra (1914-2018), who made (anti) installations with found objects and words:
(Source: http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/archivos2/pdfs/MC0013511.pdf)
Practical work collection (1996-2002)
Image 1: Message in a bottle
Image 2: I`ll be back soon
Also, I found inspiration in the following australian marketing campaign (2010), where a billboard was intentionally vandalized adding hair and changing the text over a perfume advertising, transforming it into something different:
(Source:https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/outdoor/chill_les_man_adshel)
Regarding to the intervention, I made some tests on the bags in order to literally make the purpose of the bags explicit, through the intervention of the image of the Victorian lady, and to speak openly about menstruation, with messages inside and outside the bags:
Work in Progress
This week I want to experiment with different kinds of paints, improve the writing and the messages inside the bags and seek where in the city put the installation.
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Project 1: Beginning the research

Project 1:  Working with the found object

In this project we have to work with everyday objects, elements, sounds, even smells that we can find surround us, analyzing and reinterpreting them in order to understand it in ways different from what we are used to and to communicate the new meanings or reflections to viewers.

To achieve this objective there are previous steps to be taken. The first of them is observe and find inspiration in the work of other artists. In this case I found an interesting and remarkable artistic proposals in the following artists:

  • JANNIS KOUNELLIS (1936 – 2017)

Kounellis was born in Greece and he was a pioneer Arte Povera`s artist. The term Arte Povera can be trace back to the late 1960s on Italy and means “poor art” because it proposed a questioning to the traditional materials, introducing the use of everyday elements that did not reach the level required to be considered as art materials and disrupting the conservative view (Tate, n. d.).

In the 1960s Kounellis started to work in a more physical and environmental way, using organic and inorganic objects and materials seeking to transmit sensations to the viewers and proposing new ways of understanding and relating those materials to each other (Fondazione Prada, 2019).

What called my attention about this artist is how he presents the objects and elements in a way that allow them to exists in a totally new perspective and sometimes, at the beginning, could make non sense for the viewer, however, when a careful and deep observation is made, new proposals about the world and the life emerge and “everything and anything had the potential to be seen, regardless of its aesthetic or perceived use-value” (Thorne, 2019, para. 8).

One notable example of Kounellis work is:

Untitled, 2000 (13 military hospital beds; 11 steel forms; 19 steel plates; 35 military blankets) (Art Basel, 2019).

This artistic installation seems remarkable to me, as it uses two materials that we know what they are for, on the one hand, the beds are for sleeping or resting, and on the other hand, the blankets are to cover the resting persons maybe in a military camp. But the iron is the element that by antagonistic contrast makes me think that those beds and blankets are not for just sleeping, but for the wounded and sick of the war. So makes me feel and think about the brutality of war.

  • ROSELLA BISCOTTI (1968-)

Biscotti was born in Italy and uses different formats in her work, like sound, film, nature material, sculpture and textile, through which it seeks to question the concepts of truth, knowledge and objectivity (Kadist, n. d.).

What called my attention about her work is how she cross the boundaries of what could be considered as art, taking everyday elements from the past and the present, to transform them in a piece of art with a powerful message that allows the audience to deeply question some concepts that we take for granted.

Rosella Bisconti was mentioned in James Clegg`s Lecture with her art work The Journey (2021), wich is centered on the decision and consequences of dropping a 17-ton Block of Marble in the mediterranean sea. The fact is she didn´t drop the marble into the ocean, but rather she invites the audience to think about what would happen if the marble block has been thrown? This is the starting point for provocation to make people think about the politics and policies related to this sea, the economical and environmental factors and the role of institutions and media (Blitz Valletta, 2021).
Another remarkable work is Yellow Movie (2010), wich consists of a film projection that assembles a yellow frame with an audio work edited from recordings of controversial psychoanalytic sessions, where a psychiatrist used drugs in therapy for trauma patients from the Second World War (Wilfried Lentz, n. d.).

Yellow Movie, 2010 (Single channel video. Exhibition view, Galleria Civica, Trento, 2012). Photo: Hugo Muñoz (Mor Charpentier, n. d.).
This installation mixes color and a found object, the recorded interviews, to invites the audience to listen attentively to the stories in the audios. However, it not only involves listening, but also invites deep listening, as the installation site is dark and the yellow color stands out in the darkness. In this way, the spectator becomes part of the installation, reacting to the audios, the enviroment, feeling and thinking about what he/she is hearing, become part of a performance.
The second step is to find an object. After observing around me I found in the accommodation bathroom an object called Disposal Bag, wich is a little paper bag with the name printed on it and a stamped image of a Victorian lady.
This object caught my interest because I didn´t know about this kind of bags and without knowing them I could intuit that they were bags for menstrual waste. Indeed the bags “are designed to aid the hygienic disposal of sanitary towels and tampons” (https://www.fulcare.co.uk/product/crinoline-lady-sanitary-disposal-bags-pack-of-2000-white-160x440x280mm/).
Analyzing the object some questions emerged: How did I notice the purpose of the bags without knowing them before? Why should I put into a bag my menstruation waste? Is it so that the smell is not felt? Then why don’t we put the urine or excrement in a special bag?
Related to the above questions, the bag has an important detail which it is worth mentioning: the stamped image of a Victorian lady. What´s the meaning of this image? Elegance? Pulchritude? The feminine concept? The real feminine concept?  I guess this Victorian lady is a symbol, because a lady like this must show an image in front of the rest and therefore she must hide her bleeding, that would be a shame if someone notice she is menstruating. So,
if you want to become a real lady, keep and hide your menstruation waste in the disposal bag because that is a shame.
After this reflections two concepts emerged:
HIDE
SHAME
Regarding this concepts and the focus of our course, the city, I wonder if there are other elements that make us feel ashamed in our lives and in our cities? What objects or elements the people want to hide because nobody should see them? Disguting elements? Tabu objects? Inspired by the work of the artists mentioned above, it might be interesting to go beyond the limits imposed by the original purpose of the bag by proposing it as a bag to hide any element that embarrasses us.
This leads us to think about the way how I could present this disposal bag in this different way. What format (s) should I use? Some premises to consider are that viewers should be able to identify with the feeling of shame generated by some elements. Then, how the people could be push to think about if they really feel ashamed or are they just embarrassed by the pressure generated by society and the ban surrounding those elements?
In summary, all the above questions and reflections will guide my research this week 3. For wich I will go around the city looking for those disgusting elements and I will think about how to present the bag to the spectators with this new perspective.

Bibliographic references

Art Basel. (2019). Untitled, 2000. Jannis Kounellis. Recovered from https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/85806/Jannis-Kounellis-Untitled

Blitz Valletta. (2021).  Rosella Biscotti: The Journey. Recovered from https://blitzvalletta.com/portfolio/the-journey-rossella-biscotti/

Fondazione Prada. (2019).  Venice: Jannis Kounellis. Recovered from https://www.fondazioneprada.org/project/jannis-kounellis/?lang=en

Kadist. (n. d.). Rosella Biscotti. Recovered from https://kadist.org/people/rossella-biscotti/

Mor Charpentier. (n. d.). Rosella Biscotti. Recovered from https://www.mor-charpentier.com/es/artist/rossella-biscotti/

Tate. (n. d.). Arte Povera. Recovered from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/arte-povera

Thorne, H. (2019, June 7th). Jannis Kounellis: A Taxonomy of Tired Things. Recovered from https://www.frieze.com/article/jannis-kounellis-taxonomy-tired-things

Wilfried Lentz. (n. d.). Yellow Movie, 2010. Recovered from https://wilfriedlentz.com/work/yellow-movie-2010/

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