Ayanah Moor - 'All My Girlfriends'

When recording my work for Followers (2012), I remembered hearing Ayanah Moor speak at AUT about her work, All My Girlfriends (2011).

I was always going to install my work in the studio space, instead of the elevator, because I enjoyed the way you could hear my droning voice as you walked through the studio space. When you arrive in my space, you are able to hear exactly what I'm saying, and finally, properly engage with the work. It reminds me of the performance I did in Talk Week, where my voice drew people in from different parts of the studio. Perhaps this work, on some level, does the same. When you arrive at the space, you encounter a small speaker, with two little speakers on the top facing outwards at opposite angles. I chose to have small speakers because I did not want to take away from the voice. Instead, the big, droning voice that one can hear throughout the studio, is only coming out of a small space. I could liken this to the way in which we use our digital voices in the small boxes we call computers, but I'll leave that for now.

I thought about Moor's work throughout my setting up process, and the recording process too. She uses an "audio book" like voice too. Her afflictions and pauses are used only when they need to be. It's as though she is introducing pageant contestants to the stage. Mine, however, needed to be a little more monotone. I was indeed reading the title of a persons blog and their follower numbers, but I wanted them all to be equal and speak for themselves. I knew that the affliction in my voice could make something SOUND interesting, however, the names and numbers themselves are already interesting and do not need unnecessary dressing up.

AYANAH MOOR - 'ALL MY GIRLFRIENDS'

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is probably one of the bravest people on the face of the earth. This week, she was shot in the head and neck by Taliban members as she was leaving school. She's 14, and the reason they shot her was because she's been a global advocate for the rights of woman and girls, and their education for years; since she was 11 actually. This tiny person was targeted by the Taliban. Targeted, meaning she was a threat... a 14 year old girl was a threat to men who carry guns like they're permanently attached to their hips. I read dozens of news articles regarding the shooting, and one said something along the lines of, "...it shocked an unshockable country (Pakistan)" This was really poignant. Think about it. We get shocked when we see a show like Fear Factor, where people eat bugs and voluntarily fling themselves from skyscrapers. For the people of Pakistan, for example, they have endured so much they are "unshockable". Actually they'd probably think some crazy westerner was nuts for flinging themselves off a skyscraper too. But the sentence was thought provoking for sure. The shooting of Malala has shocked the world, I think, and rightly so. We should be shocked! Everyone should hear her story and that's what I've been thinking these last few days.

I have been working predominantly on this blog for the greater part of this year, on - at times - very political subjects. The Internet is a space of global sharing where you can say and do as you please (as I have many times reiterated, apologies) with less potential scrutiny then perhaps if you were to be physically expressing the information or ideas you release on your blog or other social media forum. It does not mean that those who blog or express themselves via digital means are not subject to potential physical abuse or are not held accountable for their words or actions, I just mean that I can write this post about Malala Yousafzai and if someones reading it, if so inclined, could post a comment saying something along the lines of "shut your blabbering pie hole", or numerous variations. Unless of course they were my neighbour and could egg my house or light my rubbish bin on fire... don't do it.

So you get what I mean.
It's a place to share, like sharing has never been done before!

This year I've especially looked at Jacques Ranciere and his writings like The Emancipated Spectator and the Ignorant Schoolmaster. I've studied and experimented with The Emancipated Spectator mostly and have been really interested in Relational Aesthetics, and replacing the word 'viewer' with 'Interlocutor' ("someone who is involved in a conversation" - Cambridge Dictionary), a term introduced to me by Andy. Simply, I wanted my work to be open to anyone and everyone, non discriminatory, non assuming or dictatorial. I think it's wiggled it's way through different forms and mediums, and ended up (surprisingly!) here, my research blog for Year II. In addition to this, the aspect of vast advancements in technology to create a futuristic, perhaps, utopic or distopic world in the novels and films of Science Fiction (big nerd) has also been a heavy interest for me this year, starting at the very beginning with my newspaper paintings.This relates to my blog in so many ways, as I said before, this is sharing platform which has never been done before. This advancement in our own world, has opened up communication into a whole new realm and it's only just beginning. It's changed our human nature; the way we encounter eachother and the world around us. We are living two lives at once, one in the digital and one in the physical.

Is this post, if not all posts, the embodiment of this thinking? A sharing of information, not dictatorial in nature but evoking in thought and potential activation. Perhaps a "share" or a "like" will occur, as we often use these actions to express a confirmation of listening or agreement. Maybe a disgruntled comment or a further action to dismantle the very forum I'm working on.
These are the ideas of my work, that have grown from the paintings in March, of creepy trees on the foreground of American Newspapers.

As for Malala Yousafzai, maybe I can help to share her story of courage and compassion. At 14 years old she's got more bravery then many people I've met in my life.

On wednesday, surgeons operated to remove the bullet that was lodged so close to her brain, and she survived! Amazing! Perhaps she will live to tell her own story, and tell the Taliban to shove it up their ass.

Read about Malala and her survival here

(One of many, many articles)

Pick a city, any city.

LA
New York
Chicago
Montreal
San Francisco
Boston
San Diego
Philadelphia
Atlanta
Detroit
Houston
Minneapolis
Portland
Austin
Baltimore
Denver
Phoenix

Surveillance, from the comfort of your living room.

Wafaa Bilal

Domestic Tension

2007

http://wafaabilal.com/works/

"Iraqi born Wafaa has become known for provocative interactive video installations. Many of Bilal's projects over the past few years have addressed the dichotomy of the virtual vs. the real.

He attempts to keep in mind the relationship of the viewer to the artwork, one of his main objectives being to transform the normally passive experience of viewing art into an active participation."

"...his latest effort, Domestic Tension, viewers can log onto the internet to contact or "shoot" Bilal with paintball guns. Bilal's objective is to raise awareness of virtual war and privacy, or lack thereof, in the digital age."

http://wafaabilal.com/works/

 I won't say much, as I'm not feeling well today, but this work was incredibly interesting. It addresses so many things-as does so much of Bilal's work- but what relates back to my interests and issues within my work, is the use of the Internet. It's almost like a video game, where you log on and shoot at people, only this time it's real.
It's like any kind of confrontation on the internet, these days. You can call someone something horrid, you can be anyone you wouldn't normally be in real life, and not have to worry about the consequences as such; there is no face value.

Earlier today I was also lead to this website - www.blueservo.com, where you can log on and watch surveillance cameras along the Texas/Mexico boarder. It reminded me of a site where you can listen to live police radio feeds, paired with atmospheric music. Listen here.
I always liked listening to the Minneapolis feed.

These three things may seem only slightly relative, but to me it's much more. I haven't figured everything out yet, but listening to the feeds from the police radios and watching the surveillance videos are two things one would think were illegal right? With the birth of the internet, we can all spy on one another, listen in to eachother cities, I just heard that some dude drove his car into a house in New York. It's an experience, it makes us seem so much closer, a lot less different. Maybe this post is just me thinking out loud, but Bilal's work started something today that I'm rather excited about. All this talk about Social Media and the net, about Science Fiction narratives etc etc... perhaps this is an avenue worth taking. Too many ideas in one basket! Blah!  

Man Bartlett - #24hKith

Speaking of social media.....

"Complete the sentence "I AM..." and tag it: #24hKith"

Image and film acquired from here.