Group Critique

During the group critique I spoke about projecting the filmed cityscape outdoors, and the importance of capturing the essence of the city. Leigh Clarke reacted with a wide range of comments about the work. His main point was that the sound was more powerful than the time-lapse video since it allowed the audience to imagine a larger, more ambiguous space.

He also mentioned that my background as a privileged member of society, and the subsequent "god-like" perspective referred to the panopticon and I should be cautious about the meanings inferred from such choices. Tracey Emin's Folkstone work was mentioned in relation to illustrating a place by using one powerful symbolic object. Leigh Clarke felt that I should focus on a particular object or section of the city instead of trying to describe the entire "forest." He commented that I needed to have an original view of the city rather than something which has been seen before. Ai Weiwei's work Sunflower Seeds 2010 was also mentioned, however I am of the opinion that the work has little relation to mine since I'm looking at sharing the darker, hidden city. In terms of capturing essence however the work is relevant due to the clever play on porcelain versus sunflower seeds, and the issue of handcrafted versus mass-industrialization.

Overall the critique was motivating and provocative because he challenged my project at every level. I explored whether I could go ahead without the visual aspect altogether and looked at various installation concepts that would center around sound as a medium. Another important conclusion was that giving the audience too much information reduced the impact of the work. Overall I realized much more experimentation and research is needed before I can confidently defend my work.

Reference:

Bentham, J (1791). Panopticon Or the Inspection House Vol1 [ebook]. University of Lausanne. Available from: http://books.google.com/ebooks [Accessed 23rd April].

Calvino, I (1997). Invisible Cities. New Edition. London: Minerva.

Emin, T (2008) Baby Things [online] Available from http://www.folkestonetriennial.org.uk/2011-event/artists/2008-tracey-emin/ [Accessed 23rd April 2011].

Foucault, M (1977). Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison [online] Translated from French by Alan Sheridan. Available online from http://www.cartome.org/foucault.htm [Accessed 23rd April 2011].

Kennedy, M (Jan 2011). Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds to go on sale at Sotheby's [online] Available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/26/ai-weiwei-sunflower-seeds-sothebys?INTCMP=SRCH [Accessed 23rd April 2011].

Tate Modern (2010). The Unilevel Series: Ai Weiwei [online] Available from http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/default.shtm [Accessed 23rd April 2011].