It's Art o'clock

It has come to my attention that the summer holidays are drawing to a close and I will soon be back at college, on my course at Wimbledon, Fine Art - Print and Time Based Media. And I haven't done any work yet.
I am hoping to use this blog or something similar to document my work over the coming year, not just for fun but instead of a research folder, so it might start getting very arty soon.

Before I start wittering, I went to the Ernesto Neto exhibition the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. My only regret was that I went by myself, because it made me feel like a little kid. I had to pretend I didn't have the urge to run around squeaking with delight.
It was beautiful. I loved the colours, I loved the skin idea, the thin layers, the organic shapes. I loved the way that there was lavender sewn into the purple section. I liked the fact that we had to take off our shoes. It was just fantastic.

My only worry was that it reminded me a little of playzone. And it's a very strange thing, when you're presented with a place that feels like a kids play area but it still asks for the respect of an art piece. It's like trying to have it both ways, and its disappointing becuase you really do want to roll around and have a party in there, but you're constantly worried the security guy is about to tell you off.

Here are some of the project ideas that have been on my mind.

This summer I have immersed myself in science. I've become addicted to newscientist and popsci.com, I've been reading 'Why does E=MC2' and 'Pale Blue Dot', downloaded space simulators, kept up with nasa and cassini, attended Physics Q&A sessions, and even visited the science museum for their brilliant late night party. Even the music I've been listening to has been science related..

It is almost like i'm only doing it because its the opposite thing to art. I have a tendency to enjoy things only when I'm not supposed to. If I were studying phsyics I wouldn't shut up about art exhibitions. You would be right in pointing out that it has got a lot to do with Brian Cox, but my interests often stem from an initial wonderful male's input, so no surprises there.
Anyway I made a list of notes while watching George Smoot on the design of the universe on TED. Space is such an amazing thing to make art about. Not only is it incredibly beautiful, it has mysteries and concepts that you could do all sorts with.

The most obvious thing for me is to use some of the already beautiful imagery of space and turn it into a painterly, involving animation. Imagine something along the lines of the very first few seconds of this music video [which doesn't allow embedding]:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFolUn88q-o&ob=av2e

I had an idea for an interactive projection, based on the textures and colours found in space. Similar to Mehmet Akten's 'Body Paint'

I would need to make my own film effect that reacted similarly but with a painterly animated texture e.g. of spattered paint 'stars', interspersed with looped space themed animations.. No idea how that would work.

'Space is Massive'
Sometimes when I'm on google earth or Worldwide Telescope I lose control of the cursor and the planet ends up spinning out of control, or I end up zooming really really fast and it genuinely scares me. One time I was looking at Mars and searched 'Earth', my screen zoomed THROUGH the sun. really fast. Terrifying.
I'd like to try and communicate the feeling of being really tiny and powerless into an installation. I guess you'd probably need a really big room.

'Cosmic Spheres of Time'
One of the most amazing concepts I've come across is the fact that the further away a star is, the longer ago we're seeing it.

So we can actually see what happened just after the big bang, because the light that it created is only just reaching us. This would make a very cool artwork. I'm thinking cross sectioned paper spheres, with projection.

The Environment of Space
If not an idea by itself, its important to bear in mind the possibility of using senses to imitate space as much as possible, so making the room cold, and completely pitch black. Nothingness is an idea, but I hate cop outs. :)

Image from Cassini Equinox Mission http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

Light in space
Finally, I've always wanted to do a project about light and I think space is a great angle to use with it. I could look at the way light travels, hits things, bounces off, based on the way that it travels through space. I could try putting light through glass spheres, or through various liquids, or quality street wrappers (always a winner). or I could use partial lighting, highlighting the mysteries of space.

The thing about science is that it seems to be more about looking outward, where art seems to often be looking inward. I'd like to try and pull in some of the inspiring and humbling qualities of Space into my art.


My other idea for a project is synaesthesia. I think its a good starting point for a sketchbook at least, because you could do lots of work on colour and texture.
I think my interest in the subject started at GCSE when I did my exam project on Kandisky, and for my final piece painted a song. It wasn't bad actually, I printed the sound levels of the song and doodled around them on the appropriate part, trying to fit the right shape and colour to each section, then arranged my favourite shapes into a composition.
But that wasn't how Kandisnky did it by any means, he actually saw the colours and shapes he painted when he heard music. Are you jealous? I know I am.
In fact, here's a test so you can see whether you do have it.

A friend on twitter showed me her own synaesthetic portrait of her mother which made me decide to make my own, and here it is.

Its hard to explain why it is how it is, but I guess my Mum is ovals and hexagons because they are safe shapes, the colours are really just colours that suit her but they are all warm, which is again a safe thing. The texture too is important, she's definitely a knitted or fleece like texture over an oily or cold hard surface. But I do not have synaesthesia, so I have to think these things through, so I can't say whether there's even a point to it all.
However I have been wondering about starting an experiment on myself to teach myself colour/sound synaesthesia. This article suggested it was possible.
I do believe that my own links between colours and letters are due to the toys I played with as a child. And I think that films like fantasia would have influenced a lot of people.

My idea was to listen to different instruments and cover my eyes with a piece of coloured film, and look at the sky or something large and blank. For example I could use a yellow film and listen to high pitched trumpet sounds. I would need to do it repeatedly over a period of time, but maybe eventually I would listen to music and at the very least be reminded of these colours.
Alternatively I could just take some LSD.
So how does this relate to art? Well I feel that the best art is completely involving. As with the space ideas, I would love to make an installation that puts the viewer in an environment that makes them FEEL something. I could either make an installation where senses are linked in a way that tries to imitate the way a synaesthite perceives them, or I could make it interactive, e.g. the viewer could mix their own choice of visuals to what they are hearing.

Either way its an ambitious idea but I am always over ambitious with my ideas. And then I end up doing nothing, which I'll be getting back to doing now thankyou very much.