Erosion of medium purification by time-based media in the 1970s

Erosion of medium purification by time-based media in the 1970s

Video artist Nam June Paik and computer artist Lillian Schwartz were pioneers of their artistic fields. Even though both artists worked within their medium, their work with time-based media in the 1970s combined aspects from other media and therefore undermine the ideologies of medium purification promoted by Clement Greenberg.
This essay will look at the Video art works TV Buddha 'figure 1' TV Garden 'figure 2' TV Cello 'figure 3' by Nam June Paik and computer art works PIXILLATION 'figure 4', UFOs 'figure 5' and ALAE 'figure 6' by Lillian Schwartz. And discuss how the artists integrated real-time generation, illusions of three-dimensions and sculptural elements, philosophical and scientific exploration , and combined moving images, both figurative and abstract, with music and at times with spoken or written words.


For Greenberg modernism was to be the formal focus of a medium, self-reflexive, on its own specificity and it was modernisms task to purify media of all that was non specific to the medium.
Greenberg set out a series of parameters for the visual arts. Artists should refrain from the use of words to prevent perversion of the medium. The implementation of the illusion of three-dimension in two dimensional media of should be removed as pursuing the illusion conflicts with the sculptural medium. In regards to music Greenberg considered it the art of pure form and immediate sensation, and as a result its susceptibility to tainting by other media is lessened. And Literature which focuses on subject matter, is therefore dichotomous to music.¹


Time-based media therefore is antithetical when placed within the frame of Greenberg's view of medium purification. Time-based media combines aspects from other media which are not native to their medium. In the case of Paik, the integration of real-time camera feeds and sculptural elements whereas for Schwartz the illusions of three-dimensions in the two-dimensional image which therefore erodes the ideologies of medium purification. Paik's initial explorations into video art were heavily influenced by association with Fluxus art and studies in the late 1950s in music and philosophy. This influence led to his combination of elements from performance and theater, painting, sculpture, dance and music.² In his video installation TV Buddha (1974) Paik combined elements from sculpture and video. The work is perhaps one of Paik's most identifiable as it employs an iconographically identified object, a statue of Buddha who, through a closed circuit TV, is viewing a real time image of itself. This use of camera, real time circuit loop and iconographic imagery blurs the object to subject distinction.³ In another seminal video installation which combined sculpture and video by Paik, TV Garden demonstrated a new aesthetic discourse and capacity for technological composition by combining a vast number of tropical plans with thirty television sets of various sizes. The site-specific installation created a new visual experience, a liminal space between the natural and scientific, setting a new standard for immersive video. Paik's also merged real time video and sculptural elements in his work TV Cello but additionally integrated music and performance in his collaboration with classical cellist Charolette Moorman. TV Cello was constructed from three television sets which had been removed from their casing and installed into plexiglass boxes to show their inner workings. A cello bridge and tailpiece were adorned with strings to form a cello-like instrument which Moorman stated was the first real innovation in cello design since the 1600s.⁴
For Lillian Schwartz, her practice developed through her innovations with the computer as an art medium and digital film manipulation at Bell Labs, when the systems were linear in time and space. Each of her computer art works PIXILLATION, UFOs and ALAE are hybrids of medium employing the use of computational image generation, hand colored animation, film and music. Programs had yet to be developed to provide a malleable palette and the ability to control moving pixels so Schwartz intermixed hand colored animation with computer-generated black and white texture. To permit the eye to see a deeper saturation of color arrangement she developed an editing technique to match the colors between the two media. What makes these works unique is the illusion of three-dimensions which arise from the interplay of texture and saturated colors when viewed through CromaDepth 3D glasses. Essentially this technique works by sorting the three-dimensional position of colors according to their position in the rainbow, for example bringing red to the foreground. These techniques were applied to PIXILLATION (1970) which is a four minute computer art work and UFOs(1971), a three minute computer artwork . Another unique aspect of this technique is that while the works give the illusion of three-dimensions while wearing ChromaDeph glasses, the works are compositionally coherent when viewed without them.⁵


It is important to note that this scientific exploration within Schwartz's practice is dichotomous to the self-reflexive nature of medium purification. Paik's practice was also non self-reflexive in that his works often delved into philosophical and spiritual dialogue. The scientific exploration into the boundaries of technology by Bell Laboratories in the 1970's was influenced by popular news and culture of the times. For Schwartz her investigations into the science of vision were prompted by her contraction of chorioretinitis, which manifested in inflammation and scar tissue of the right retina. Causing permanent visual distortion and loss of depth perception, a devastating ailment for a visual artist but one that had a profound effect.⁶ While the exploration in PIXILLATION primarily focused on chroma depth her exploration in UFOs expanded into a film breakthrough that developed an individualised viewing experience. Schwartz reshot film using an optical bench through a series of specialised filters to exponentially intensify color saturation, which was inter-edited with black frames. The stimulation of the rods and cones in the human eye disrupt the brains alpha rhythms a process called stroboscopy, thus when combined with the ChromaDepth glasses, created a unique viewing experience.
While Paik also explored the boundaries of technology, in his case the television and portable camera, he pioneered its transformation into a post-modern art form due to his understanding of technologies meaning and social presence in the 1970s. He believed that it was short sighted to view television as the equivalent of a radio with pictures or as a commodity for entertainment.

television represented a new communications technology of enormous potential and signaled the beginning of a post-industrial age where manufacturing, the organization of society, and the making of art would be transformed.⁷

Composer John Cage suggested to Paik to integrate religion, which was influenced by his oriental heritage, into his practice. Later Paik proposed that technology had the potential to explore elements to visualise spiritualization. This exploration is evident in TV Buddha, the buddha, in a meditation mundra, is denied its transcendence from its own physicality as it sits contemplating its own projected image in the closed-loop circuit. The buddha, grounded by the surface of reality and time, caught in its own reflection becomes the exemplification of ceaseless meditation on thought and non-through. The inward looking contemplative state of Buddhism is transformed by Paik in TV Buddha, to outward looking state and through the use of technological multiplication the buddha has been prepared for mass media consumption and secularization.⁸


Finally it is important to note that while time-based media used by Paik and Schwartz in the 1970s relied on using technology as a visual and audio medium, combining elements from other media further eroded the ideologies of medium purification. Aspects such as the combination of moving images, both abstract and figurative, with music and at times with words, spoken or written. Sound for Paik was integrated into his works in varying ways. In the video installation TV Garden the thirty televisions are all playing Global Groove, the 1973 collaboration with John J Godfrey. Global Groove contains a mix of music and spoken word, still and animated images both figurative and abstracted from performers from around the world. Where as in TV Cello the often distorted images of cellist Charollette Moorman and other cellists were visible on the screens when Moorman moved the bow or plucked on the strings and a ominous electronically distorted sound was produced and amplified.⁹
For Lillian Schwartz her works relied heavily on music, figurative and abstracted images to enhance her practice. And due to the limitations of the technology available, she integrated traditional materials such as silkscreen, cell animation and film into her early works.¹⁰ PIXILLATION ,one of Schwartz's earliest works at Bell Laboratories, is an intense assault on the senses with soft blossoming forms that transform into labyrinth patternations of flickering hard-edged abstraction, while swirls of blood drop shaped forms phase in and out of existence. During the course of the work the effects escalate in a crescendo. To achieve this effect Schwartz combined hand colored animation with black and white computer generated textures. The optical experience is accompanied by a auditory score produced by composer Gershon Kingsley, in which each visual queue is punctuated by Moog-synthesized industrial sounds.¹¹ As technology improved so did the reduction in editing time and the complexity of elemental shapes. UFOs was created using 35mm black and white microfilm reshot through colored filters onto 16mm film, the video effects were programed on a computer and visual resembled an early Richter animation.¹² While at no point the forms seen in UFOs are in the same frame together the illusion of three planet like rotating spheres is produced and in the background abstracted computer generated landscapes flash in rapid succession. The electronic music for UFOs was produced on a Moog-synthesizer by composer Emmanuel Ghent. Drawing on inspiration from Eadweard Muybridge, ALAE depicts digitally broken down, optically scanned images of sea birds in flight. They are accompanied by geometric overlays, which when viewed with ChromaDepth glasses create the illusion of depth. The animation is glitched, transformed chromatically and geometrically phasing between figurative and abstraction. The electronic audio track produced by composer F.Richard Moore is hauntingly unsettling, intensifying the viewing experience.


Even though Nam June Paik and Lillian Schwartz were pioneers of and worked within their medium, their work with time-based media in the 1970s combined aspects from other media. In the case of Nam June Paik as the pioneer of video art he integrated video, real-time camera feeds, sculptural elements, music, spoken word and live performance into his works TV Buddha, TV Garden and TV Cello. Whereas for Lillian Schwartz who pioneered computer art , her computer art works PIXILLATION, UFOs and ALAE are hybrids of medium employing the use of computational image generation, hand colored animation, film and music. The scientific exploration into chroma depth which produced the illusions of three-dimensions in the two-dimensional image and the unique viewing experience through Stroboscopy within Schwartz's practice is dichotomous to the self-reflexive nature of medium purification. Additionally Paik's interests within his video works were non self-reflexive as they often delved into philosophical and spiritual dialogues. In conclusion, time-based media for Paik and Schwartz therefore erodes the ideologies of medium purification when placed within the frame promoted by Clement Greenberg.

1. Ernst van Alphen, "On the Possibility and Impossibility of Modernist Cinema: Peter Forgács Own Death" Filozofski vestnik 35, no.2 (2014): 255–269, ttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/279044989_On_the_Possibility_and_Impossibility_of_Modernist_Cinema_Peter_Forgacs_Own_Death.

2. Bruce C. Jones "Projects: Nam June Paik", MoMA, No. 3 (Summer, 1977), p. 6 Published by: The Museum of Modern Art http://www.jstor.org/stable/4380700 Accessed: 05-06-2018

3 Faye Ran, A History Of Installation And The Development Of New Art Forms; Technology And The Hermeneutics Of Time And Space In Modern And Postmodern Art From Cubism To Installation (Peter Lang Publishing Inc, 2009), 189, ProQuest Ebrary.

4 Elizabeth Bacharach, "Charlotte Moorman: Shattering Barriers Between Art And Technology," Medill Reports Chicago, February 24, 2016, http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/charlotte-moorman-shattering-barriers-between-art-and-technology/.

5. Maureen Nappi, "Lillian F. Schwartz redux: In Movement, Color and 3D Chromostereoscopy." Leonardo 48, no. 1 (2015): 55-59, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/566119.

6. Lillian Schwartz, "Oral History Of Lillian Schwartz" Interview by Christopher Garcia, Computer History, Computer History Museum, 2013.
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2016/06/102746737-05-01-acc.pdf.

7. Robin Oppenheimer, "Video Installation: Characteristics of an Expanding Medium." Afterimage, (March-April 2007): 14+, http://link.galegroup.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/apps/doc/A161758501/EAIM?u=griffith&sid=EAIM&xid=d33b00db.

8. Bert Winther-Tamaki, "The Oriental Guru in the Modern Artist: Asian Spiritual and Performative Aspects of Postwar American Art" Questioning Oriental Aesthetics and Thinking: Conflicting Visions  of “Asia” under the Colonial Empires 38, (2011):321-336. https://doi/10.15055/00002439.

9. "Arirang Special(Ep.312) Nam June Paik's Art and Revolution 1 _ Full Episode" Youtube video, 48.10, posted by "ARIRANG TV", January 22, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0E2v_rbY7s&index=113&list=WL&t=0s.

10. Sue Gollifer, "ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art: Lillian Schwartz." Leonardo 48, no. 4 (2015): 324-325, https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_01083.

11. Claire Voon, "Paying Tribute to Lillian Schwartz, a Computer Art Pioneer", Hyperallergic, last modified October 19, 2016, https://hyperallergic.com/329466/paying-tribute-lillian-schwartz-computer-art-pioneer/.

12. Xtine Burrough and Michael Mandiberg, Digital Foundations: Intro to Media Design with the Adobe Creative Suite (Peachpit Press 2008), 307.

Frank Murri - for the love of pi

Frank Murri : Beauty in the infinite

Figure 1. Frank Murri, The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi - Panel #1 (1-322 digits), 2016. Timber,acrylic and ink on board. Source: Artcollector 2017. Accessed March 14, 2018. http://www.artcollector.net.au/FrankMurriThePrimeIngredientinaBigPieceofPi

For those who celebrate international Pi Day on March 14th (3/14) , you are in for a visual treat. Artist Frank Murri's exhibition The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi (π) is on display at Tweed Regional Gallery, murwillumbah from 24 November to 22 April 2018.

Why Pi ? Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi is a transcendental and irrational number. Pi has been calculated beyond one trillion digits past its decimal point without repetition or pattern. It is the epitome of randomness. What comes before has no influence on what comes next, there is no evident structure or pattern. It appears to be infinite and random yet it embodies order inherent in a perfect circle. The beauty of pi, is that it puts infinity within reach.

Frank Murri (born 1967, Newcastle) is an australian artist who's practice is based in Newcastle , New south wales. Murri is a Self taught Sculptor, who travelled extensively through Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia obtaining the knowledge and developing the theories and skills of sculpting. Over the past 10 years Murri has exhibited at Newcastle, Sydney and Hamilton galleries in solo and group exhibitions as well as being a finalist in various artprizes [1].

For Murri his practice revolves around his interest in capturing not only the truth but the beauty hidden within pure mathematics which transends usual visual forms by abstraction from data representation. The visualisation of data as art is not a new concept. Artists such as Ryoji Ikeda , Nadieh Bremer and Martin Krzywinski have explored the various applications of pi to diverse aesthetic outcomes [2].

Murri has taken a unique approach to mathematical based visual art by developing an art form that attempts to synthesise a design aesthetic, sculpture and advocation of pure abstraction.

The body of work,The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi , consists of a collection of 43 panels. Each 94 x 58 x 5cm. Timber, acrylic & ink on board. The sculptural relief works are constructed from hardwood timbers such as ramin and white wood and are wall-hung. These panels have the first 12,586 digits of Pi enconded in them through the carving and color coding the panels.

Describing the visual process embued into these panels can be as dry for many as sitting through a maths class, but it is nessesary for understanding the work. In The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi - Panel #1 (1-322 digits) (Figure 1) Murri represents each integer of pi by carving a groove into the black timber strips which are joined to form the panels.. The first number, 3, is carved 3cm down from the top left hand corner, next the decimal point and from this point the next integer is carved 1cm down, the following 4cm from the last. The numbers are placed top to bottom, left to right and the process is repeated for the 12,586 digits. The first four prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7) have been highlighted with the primary colors red, yellow and blue sequencially [3] . This structured and formulaic approach has produced a visualisation of pi that creates a tension between order and randomness.

The Tweed River Art Gallery has displayed murra's artwork in a long , climate controlled, hallway . This space is brightly lit by natural light from several windows and with artificial lights which are shone down apon the panels. The windows are located on the north side of the hallway, causing disjointed breaks in the placement of the panels and ultimately lossing the sense of an infinite number which is in contrast to the connecting panels on the opposite wall.

This being said, the works were designed to be modular, with Murri commenting that the body of work itself, as it is based on an infinite number, is limited by the gallery space in which it inhabits.

The strength of this exhibition is that on seeing the digits of pi visualized in physical space, the hidden beauty of mathematics is revealed. It is not just numbers on a page. We see the beauty in the infinite complexities around us which are often overlooked. The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi (π) gives you the opportunity to take a moment to appreciate and recognize the extent to which math has allowed us to describe reality. Exposing the inner workings of our universe and putting the infinite within reach.

[1] https://frankmurri.wordpress.com/cv-bio/

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/14/10-stunning-images-show-the-beauty-hidden-in-pi/?utm_term=.b21c68f5b91c

[3] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/essay.php?artistID=102

https://www.facebook.com/frank.murri




[1] https://m.tweed.nsw.gov.au/CommonLatestNewsDetail.aspx?css=tsc&Domain=www&id=2221


[2] https://m.tweed.nsw.gov.au/trgExhibitionsDetail.aspx?css=trg&id=131


[3] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/essay.php?artistID=102


[4] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/images/MURRI,Frank_CV_2.pdf


[5] https://frankmurri.wordpress.com/cv-bio/


[6] http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4634719/neverending-story-of-beautiful-fractals-photos/#slide=5




[7] http://mrag.org.au/exhibition/frank-murri-the-prime-ingredient-in-a-big-piece-of-pi/


[8] https://www.echo.net.au/2017/11/the-art-of-mathematics/


[9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/14/10-stunning-images-show-the-beauty-hidden-in-pi/?utm_term=.b21c68f5b91c


[10] https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/pi-day-why-pi-matters








[3] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/essay.php?artistID=102


[9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/14/10-stunning-images-show-the-beauty-hidden-in-pi/?utm_term=.b21c68f5b91c
[5] https://frankmurri.wordpress.com/cv-bio/

“This art form I’ve developed advocates pure abstraction in an attempt to synthesise a design aesthetic,”

Says Kryzwinski, "Pi Day is a great time to take a moment and recognize the extent to which, as a language to describe reality, math has allowed us to write the details of the workings of our universe."

"Thanks to numbers and math, we can build devices that will deliver this text to you. And, as you read it, we know how fast the photons will be traveling and what happens when they hit your retina. The rest is up to you." [9]

considering the sequential nature of the work seems an odd choice, unless a collector purchased purely for aesthetic consideration.

What else can we take away from these graphics? For one, seeing all of the digits of pi visualized in physical space should help bring home another attribute of mathematics. Math isn't just numbers on a page: From physics to architecture, math is the language that we use to describe and construct the physical world around us. That's especially true for pi, which describes a perfect circle that appears everywhere in nature.

Interpretations of modernism : Clement Greenberg and Walter Benjamin'

Interpretations of modernism :  Clement Greenberg and  Walter Benjamin

This essay discusses interpretations of modernism through the writings of Clement Greenberg's Avant-Garde and Kitsch and Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. For Greenberg modernism brought about two distinct arts, the avant-garde and kitsch, with the avant-garde striving to resist the exploitation of culture by kitsch. He makes his case based on  social, historical, and political observations.
For Benjamin modernism was profoundly impacted by mechanical age of reproduction, which resulted in  concepts such as aura of authenticity, creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery, being made obsolete. Art therefore would be based on process of politics in the absence of traditional and ritualistic value.

While reproduction of art was not a new concept, for Benjamin the advent of the mechanical age and modernism brought about two new methods of reproduction. The process of technological reproduction as a work of art, for example film. And technological devices such as photography which can reproduce any art form, which affects the originals authenticity. For Greenberg the industrial revolution, urbanization and an increase in literacy led to the development of the dichotomous relationship between the kitsch and the avant-garde. The relevance of folk culture dwindled and popular culture filled its void. The  new popular culture, kitsch, demanded nothing from the consumer other than their money. The traditions, acquisitions and refined self-consciousness of a developed culture were exploited, for the mass produced kitsch. It was highly profitable, tempting to the avant-garde and had the potential to masquerade as genuine culture.

Mass-production and kitsch allows mass culture to easily assimilate a work of art, this assimilation is discussed by both authors. Greenberg states that a work by Repin is kitsch , the work predigests the art for the spectator,  the spectator in this case being a Russian peasant.  Repin paints so realistically; with a continuity between art and life; that everything is obvious; presenting no difficulties in interpretation; nothing is left to the viewer.  In contrast an avant-garde work by Picasso relies on a cultivated spectator, permitting viewer reflection. “Where Picasso paints cause, Repin paints effect” But to appreciate Picasso's work the viewer requires the necessity of leisure and education. Class dynamics therefore are recognised in the disparity of the avant-garde and kitsch as few have the privilege, time and means to appreciate high art.
For Benjamin the reaction toward art by the masses changed with mechanical reproduction. The cameraman penetrates the veil of reality where as the painter maintains a distance. Resulting in a progressive reaction towards a Chaplin movie as opposed to a reactionary attitude towards a Picasso painting . And as Greenberg also noted, Benjamin identifies the distinct difference between the educated viewer and mass audience. The educated viewer appreciates the aesthetic value of the work through close observation and is absorbed by it. Where as the artwork is assimilated into the mass audience who only seeks to be entertained and distracted . Once the process of assimilation by the masses is complete the work of art then becomes an instrument of political mobilisation.

Greenberg claimed that artists whom were influenced by historicism, drew on revolutionary political ideas to oppose the masses. The emerging avant-garde liberated themselves of this political foundation and of society, in the pursuit of progressive art, “art for art's sake”.
The art of the avant-garde became reflexive, concentrating on the medium itself. For Greenberg that meant that art was and should be justified in its own terms, and was the subject matter of itself. Regarding film, Benjamin found the defining feature of was the relationship between the actor and the mechanical apparatus. The 'aura' of the actors original performance dissolves as it is replicated apon screens. Benjamin notes that the concept of authenticity of the work of art originates in tradition and ritual . And “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: Its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” . With the creation of art in secular settings, a work of art is liberated from its ritual roots by technological reproduction. The aesthetic authority of a work of art is absent in the reproduction by changing its cultural context. And the social-value is diverted to political goals once separated from its ritualistic origins. The value is thus determined by is exhibition value, as opposed to being defined by its ritualistic cult value . Quality therefore is found in quantity, and the viewer an absent-minded examiner.

Both authors discuss the political relationship with the arts. Greenberg notes how kitsch was used as the official culture in Russia, Italy and Germany. To ingratiate themselves with their subjects, totalitarian regimes employ kitsch as an economical tool. Regimes flatted the masses by bringing culture down to their level, instead of raising the cultural level. Kitsch was used as a tool for fascism, propaganda was imbued into the entertainment of the masses. Where as avant-garde art, due to its critical nature, was not suited for this purpose. On the contrary, it posed a threat not only to totalitarianism but to capitalism. Benjamin presents an analysis of art in capitalist and fascist society. For capitalism he explains that mass production and the socio-economic conditions result in the exploitation of the proletariat and creates conditions which lead to its downfall .  A formulation of a new theses is therefore identified, diminishing the arts traditional concepts which would render fascism dysfunctional. Factual material is susceptible to manipulation by fascism if these concepts are applied. In the end if aesthetics are integrated into politics, it will lead to war.

Both authors acknowledge the political relationship with the arts and the consumption of the arts by mass culture. For Greenberg modernism brought about two distinct arts, the avant-garde and kitsch, with the avant-garde breaking free of society and historicism, to develop art for arts sake. For Benjamin modernism was profoundly impacted by mechanical reproduction, which resulted in concepts such as aura of authenticity being dissolved.

























Bibliography

Greenberg, Clement. Avant-Garde and Kitsch. Partisan Review, 1939.

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Translated by Harry Zohn.. New York: Schocken Books, 2007.

The dilution of locality in a globalised world

Figure 1. Eva and Franco Mattes No fun 2006, performance art. Source: 0100101110101101.org 2017. Accessed 15 September. https://0100101110101101.org/no-fun/

Figure 2. Eva and Franco Mattes Reenactments: Impoderabilia, 2007. Video still of documentation of performance in Second Life. Accessed 15 September .http://0100101110101101.org/reenactment-of-marina-abramovic-and-ulays-imponderabilia/

Figure 3. Stelarc Ear on arm 2006, Engineering Internet Organ. Source: Stelarc 2017. Accessed 20 September. http://stelarc.org/?catID=20242

Figure 4. Stelarc Fractal flesh 1995, performance art.

Source: Medienkunstnetz 2015. Accessed 15 September. http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/fractal-flesh/

The dilution of locality in a globalised world

This essay discusses the dilution of locality in a globalised world regarding social interaction, personal identity and physicality in the digital age and how artist have engaged with the global network of communication as a medium.

Eva and Franco Mattes explore the interplay between the global and the local, identity and ethical issues that arise through their works No fun (figure 1) and their second life performance Reenactments:Impoderabilia (figure 2).

While Stelarc explores this interplay with issues of bodily boundaries, the obsolence of the body and the resulting identity issues through Ear on arm (figure 3) and his performance Fractal Flesh (figure 4)

Zygmunt Bauman defines 'globalised' as the contraction of the dimensions of time and space and 'globalisation' as the term for information and the social global network of communication and for the problems arising from the economical and political. Over the past decades our fascination of a future exploring the frontiers of space has shifted to the frontiers of the Internet. Where we can imagine leading whole lives disconnected from the physical world (Cornish 2010 ). According to Eric Schmidt the human race now generates as much information as we did from the dawn of civilisation, never before have we documented so little, so well. The rise of social media has been the primary contributor and as a result of this technology at our fingertips, we are more connected globally and disconnected locally than ever before (Tardanico 2012). For Bauman 'local' is defined as isolated and excluded from the globalized mainstream community which is expressed in the dichotomous notions of here and there, close or far (Wojtowicz 2010).

Over the last few years Eva and Franco Mattes (also known as 0100101110101101.ORG ) have created some of the most provocative Internet art, placing them among the pioneers of the Net Art movement. The investigation of the avatar, social projection, the dislocation of artist and beholder and the fabrication of situations has been a primary concern in their practice.

The Mattes began an ongoing series called Synthetic Performances in 2006 ( to present), where they re-enacted seminal performance artworks using their avatars in Second Life in front of a 'live' audience (Shindler 2010). The personal avatars used in the re-enactments have been designed to mirror the phyiscal bodies of Eva and Franco Mattes. They have re-enacted historical performances such as Vito Acconci's "Seedbed" (1972), Gileber&George's "The Singing Sculptures" (1968 – ongoing), Joseph Beuys's "7000 oaks" (1982-1987), Chris Burden's "Shoot" (1971), Valie Export's "Tapp und Tastkino" (1968-1971) and Marina Abramovich's "Imponderabilia" (1977).

In 2007 artists Eva and Franco Mattes performed Reenactments:Impoderabilia in Second Life (as part of the Performa 07 Biennial) using avatars that resembled their real bodies. The only modification made in this re-enactment is that the door frame in which they stood did not lead into a museum. It did not lead anywhere. The (approximately thirty) cyborgs who took part in the performance by walking through the door frame were not doing so to some other end; the virtual performance “event” was confined to their encounter with the Mattes avatars’ naked bodies and the conscious, and rather awkward, choice of how to engage with the bodies in this virtual environment.

The avatars or simulated bodies are controlled in first-life( real world) time and manually manipulated by users in the first-life with in the Seconds Life's multi-user virtual environment.

The users and their avatars are thus situated in a liminal space between the simulated and the living where time functions in a virtual space that they exist within. The cyborg character is created in this context, blending machine and man and comprised of the human user and virtual avatar (Tyber 2014). In this digital environment of Second Life the question is raised for the spectator to reflect upon, what is left of the body ? (Ruffino 2009) .

In No Fun, the Mattes staged a false suicide for people on the social networking and video chat website Chatroulette. As the websites name suggests, users are randomly paired with strangers and can video chat with one another until either of the participants decides to leave the chat and move on to another random pairing. While broadcast on the Internet, the suicide featured Franco's actual body, rather than that of an avatar, a key to the element of realism and real time was that a portion of the chat screen was visible, so that participants could see themselves in realtime. The event was witnessed by scores of Chatrouletters, their reactions were varied ranging from shock to disinterest, some in disbelief, others laughed and insulted the corpse, while some took photos with their mobile phones. It is important to not that some were completely unmoved by what was before them, and only one, out of several thousand, contacted the police.

As it is unclear to the audience on Chatroulette as to the authenticity of the event what they witnesses is closer in resemblance to subtle ad-disruption. Exaggerating the lack of real engagement and distance in online encounters, No Fun creates a situation of the most dire loneliness, to slow down the endless social media flux with a moment of absolute reality (Mattes 2010).

The work No Fun has a dual existance as a live performance and to show the audiences reaction to a secondary audience, a video document that original performance . The video documentation is a selected compilation of the Chatroulette users reaction to the false suicide that had been presented to them (Tyber 2014).

In No Fun the Mattes draw on the long history of public performance art which plays on interactions and permission, in this case the lack of permissions resulted in it being quickly banned from YouTube. Tho the key to the success of No Fun was its un-mediated interaction between an unsuspecting public and the Mattes through the internet, with complete disregard for locality during the entire interaction process.

Audience interactivity is an integral part of the Mattes practice their definition of interactivity being associated with the freedom that the user has to not only govern their own movements but to duplicate, manipulate and simulate the subject matter. The Mattes state "by their mouse clicks they choose one of the routes fixed by the author(s), they only decide what to see before and what after"

"the beholder becomes an artist and the artist becomes a beholder: a powerless witness of what happens to his work" (Baumgartel 1999). These concepts of interactivity suggesting that the virtual space is comparable to the localised gallery space and visa versa as one decided what space to view and when.

For Stelarc his conceptual exploration focuses on posthumanist ideals of disembodiment and transhumanism through remote conciousness. The Platonic significance of a body being a prison for the soul, talks about the Foucaultian means of controlling the body. There is someone who is me and there is something that is my body, as soon as you say 'my body'. The body then becomes its own means of expression, experimentation and experience . The virtual body, the machine body, the biological body. 'The body' has become a fluid signifier, being defined by whatever meaning we give it (Kalinowski 2013).

For Stelarc the body can now perform beyond the boundaries of the local space that it occupies. It can project its physical presence elsewhere making the notion of a single agency problematic.

The obsolesence and inadeqecies of the human body, motivated Stelarc to construct the additional technological augmentations turning him vessel for the conciousness of a remote entity. (TEDxVienna 2014).

Ear on Arm is a ten year ongoing conceptual work in progress which has become an example of a new technological body pushing Stelarc to explore transhumanism in new ways.

Ear on Arm has involved the cultivation of a prosthetic ear out of cartilage and cells, several surgeries, and the insertion of a microphone and blue-tooth transmitter that would wirelessly broadcast to the Internet the sounds of Stelarc and his environment (Schwartzman 2015).It is located on his inner forearm, which is anatomically an optimal site due to thin, smooth skin, and ergonomically as there is a reduced risk of inadvertent damage. This extention of the body sees the body extruding its awareness and experience and acting as an extended operational system. Making the ear a remote listening device for people in other places. For example, someone in Venice could listen to what Stelarc's third ear is hearing in Melbourne. This project has been about replicating a bodily structure, relocating it and re-wiring it for alternate functions. Stelarc is now extending this project to include a blue tooth reciever and speaker which is positioned within his mouth. The intention is so that he can receive a call 'inside' his head if his mouth is closed or if someone is close to him and his mouth is open, that person will hear the voice coming from the body. An acoustical presence of another body from the body. Effectively transforming the Ear on Arm into an Internet Organ (Stelarc. 2017).

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For the “Telepolis” event in 1995, participants in Paris (the Pompidou Centre), Amsterdam (for the Doors of Perception Conference) and Helsinki (The Media Lab) were invited to manipulate Stelarc's body for the performance Fractal Flesh in Luxembourg. Fractal Flesh was achieved though combining previous prosthetic art pieces Third Hand and Involuntary body, a muscle-stimulation system and a heads-up display which allowed Stelarc to view the person who was manipulating him. Via a website these were electronically linked to a remote access and view control panel interface which would enable remote agents to manipulate Stelac's body (Stelarc 2015). Participants remotely activated the muscle-stimulation points on Stelarc's body via a remote access producing involuntary movements and were able to view the results on a view control panel.

There was a one second delay due to the technology available at the time between the participant input and Stelarc's physical response. Images were live streamed via two computers and viewed in South east Asia, North America and Europe (Curtin University 2014).

Fractal Flesh is the concept that spactially separated bodies and body parts are electronically connected. Therefore issues are raised with the authenticity of unique individuality, the individual is rather the multiplicity of the remote participants that it hosts are raised through the remote muscle-stimulation of the body. The body can now project its physical presence through other bodies and machines, becoming a chimera of metal, code and meat . The body, currently know as Stelarc,due to the nature of prosthetic and muscle-stimulation has been converted into an avatar for the multitude of manipulators (Stelarc 2012). As described by Donna Haraway, the body (Stelarc) becomes a hybrid creature, particularly when controlled remotely by a female agent. Pushing closer to the posthumanism ideals, the body simply becomes hardware.

Eva and Franco Mattes and Stelarc explore the dilution of locality in a globalised world through their artistic exploration . In the Mattes's works No Fun and Reenactments:Impoderabilia, the primary medium is sociality, but are not typical bodies, conversation, or even proximity, but rather a mutual feeling of local spatial confusion as participants connect and disconnect to view the performances. The in Reenactments:Impoderabilia a cyborg character is created blending machine and man and comprised of the human user and virtual avatar propting the spectator to reflect upon, what is left of the body ?

For Stelarc in fractal flesh and Ear on arm the body is no longer bound and limited by its skin and is not limited to the local space that it occupies. The body is made up of multiple agents performing beyond its skin and beyond the local space that it inhabits. The body is now fractal flesh, bits of bodies which are electronically connected, generating reoccuring patterns of connectivity at varying scales. The remote participant is now transhuman as they interact with the body...

List of References

Baraibar, Aitor. 1999. “Stelarc's post-evolutionary performance art: Exposing collisions between the body and technology” Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory 11(1): 157-168. doi: 10.1080/07407709908571320.

Baumgartel, Tilman. 1999. "Copies Are More Important Than Their Original" 0100101110101101.org. url: https://0100101110101101.org/press/1999-10_Copies_are_more_important.html

Cornish, Matt. 2010. "The future Unhurried" A Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 32(2) 40-50. url:http://www.jstor.org.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/stable/pdf/40856540.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:b297561fc222999eeb3a85f20a4bd7b5

Curtin University, Zombies, Cyborgs & Chimeras: A Talk by Performance Artist, Prof Stelarc (Youtube: Curtin University, 2014), video.

Hassan, Ihab. 1977. “Prometheus as Performer: Toward a Postmodern Culture?” The Georgia Review31(4): 830 -850. url: http://www.jstor.org.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/stable/4139753.

Kalinowski, Filip. 2013. "Phantom Flesh: Extreme Performance Artist Stelarc Interviewed" The Quietus. url:http://thequietus.com/articles/11469-stelarc-interview

Mattes, Eva and Franco. 2010. "No fun" 0100101110101101.org. URL:https://0100101110101101.org/no-fun/

Pasek, Anne 2015. "Errant Bodies: Relational Aesthetics, Digital Communication, and the Autistic Analogy" Disability Studies Quaterly vol 35 (4) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v35i4.4656

Ruffino, Paolo 2009. “Game Art: Event: Eva & Franco Mattes 'Synthetic Perfomances'” Gamescenes url:http://www.gamescenes.org/2009/09/game-art-event-eva-franco-mattes-synthetic-perfomances-by-paolo-ruffino.html

Shindler, Kelly. 2010. "Life After Death: An Interview with Eva and Franco Mattes" Art 21 vol 5 (28) url:http://magazine.art21.org/2010/05/28/life-after-death-an-interview-with-eva-and-franco-mattes/#.WcI51442sy5

Stelarc. 2017. “Ear on Arm” Stelarc.org. URL:http://stelarc.org/?catID=20242

Stelarc. 2012. "Fractal Flesh  — Alternate Anatomical Architectures Interview with Stelarc”. By Marco Donnarumma. Econtact , 15 September. http://econtact.ca/14_2/donnarumma_stelarc.html.

Stelarc. 2015. “Fractal Flesh” Accessed 15 September. http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/projects/fractal/ffvid.html

Schwartzman, Madeline 2015. "Ear on arm" Sensory studies. URL:http://www.sensorystudies.org/picture-gallery/ear_on_arm/

Tardanico, Susan 2012. "Is Social Media Sabotaging Real Communication?" www.forbes.com. URL:https://www.forbes.com/sites/susantardanico/2012/04/30/is-social-media-sabotaging-real-communication/#4eb0e9bd2b62

TEDx Talks, Alternate Anatomical Architectures | Stelarc | TEDxVienna (Youtube: TEDx Talks, 2014) video.

Tyber, Sydney. 2014. "How Can We Talk about Affect in Digital Performance?" Canadian Theatre Review, Vol 159. 82-85. doi: 10.3138/ctr.158.014

Vicini, Andrea and Brazal Agnes. 2015. “Longing for Transcendence: Cyborgs and Trans- and Posthumans” Theological Studies 76(1): 148 – 165. doi: 10.1177/0040563914565308.

Wojtowicz, Ewa. 2010. "Global vs. Local ? The Art of Translocality" Art Inquiry. Recherches Sur Les Arts vol. 4 (13) 299-307. url:http://www.hz-journal.org/n8/wojtowicz.html

Wolfe, Cary. 2009. “What is Posthumanism?”. Minneapolis: Univeristy of Minnesota Press.

Lyndal Hargrave: Behind the cotton wool of reality

Lyndal Hargrave: Behind the cotton wool of reality

Figure 1. Lyndal Hargrave, Flourish, 2017. Oil on canvas. Edwina Corlette Gallery, accessed July 27, 2017, http://edwinacorlette.com/exhibitions/7507_lyndal-hargraveprismatics/8052/flourish Lyndal

Hargrave's exhibition 'Prismatics' is on display from the 11th of July till the 3rd of August 2017 at the Edwina Corlette Gallery, Brisbane. Lyndal Hargrave (1959-) is an Australian artist whose studio is based in Redland Bay, Queensland. Hargrave studied art and teaching at Kelvin Grove CAE university. Prior to persuing her passion for dedicated art making she taught for a number of years. For 20 years she juggled art-making and raising a family. Since 2006 she has dedicate time to her studio practice, with her works being added to collections nationally, and exhibiting in numerous group and solo shows.1 Hargrave won the 2011 Mosman Institute Sculpture Award, was a finalist in the International Lace Award at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, the Stan and Maureen Duke Prize, and the Blake Prize Directors Cut Exhibition . At the heart of Hargrave's art practice and understanding of the universe, are the concepts of fractal geometry and cellular biology. “I’m drawn to patterns that shape our universe – the hexagons of a beehive, the fractals of a fern, the prisms of minerals,”3 says Hargrave. “It is a constant idea of mine that behind the cotton wool (of daily reality) is hidden a pattern, that we – I mean all human beings – are connected with this: that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art.” (Lyndal quoting Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being2 ) Hargrave’s explorations use key elements of repetition and complexity to consider theories of evolution, connectivity and interdependence and the belief that we are not separate from the world, but a part of it. Working intuitively, these explorations result in a kaleidoscope of patterns and grids, fragmented and prismatics expressed through painting and sculptural forms that is indicative of her practice.2 Hargrave states that her arts practice serves to filter her internal and external worlds, allowing her to understand the meaning of balance and explore the liminal space between order and chaos . This exhibition consists of a collection of 15 oil paintings, each 120cm square and 2 plinth based sculptural forms which were primarily produced between 2016 to 2017, with the exception of A CAPPELLA [Figure 3] which was produced in 2013. The two sculptures A CAPPELLA being three forms made of piono keys, standing 70cm each and BLOX being multiple wire mesh cubes presented on a plate with the total dimension of 45 x 87 x 70cm. “I’m moving away from hard edge geometry to a more organic, lighter approach.” 3says Hargrave. From a distance the paintings appear to have a graphic design, digitally rendered, hard edge, execution. But upon closer inspection one sees painterly mark making,soft, uneven, feathered edges and gaussian bluring. This new painterly method is particularly evident in the paintings STAR LEMON QUARTZ, FLOURISH [Figure 1], FORBIDDEN FRUIT as opposed to the predominatly geometic approach in AMO ROSSO [Figure 2]

Figure 2. Lyndal Hargrave, AMO ROSSO, 2017. Oil on canvas. Edwina Corlette Gallery, accessed July 27, 2017, http://edwinacorlette.com/exhibitions/7507_lyndal-hargraveprismatics/8048/amo-rosso

With this variation in the execution of the paintings in mind the Edwina Corlette Gallery has successfully displayed the paintings throughout the space so that they read coherently. But the inclusion of the sculptural works appears to be a secondary consideration due to their aesthetic disconnection to the paintings and placement within the gallery space. The plinth supporting the sculpture BLOX is used as the place holder for the pricelist and artist statement as one enter the exhibition, with A CAPPELLA being displayed in the doorway towards the rear of the gallery. Aesthetically the sculptures lack resonance with the paintings, through the lack of the prismatics, coloration, scale, and particularly the 'ready made' materiality of A CAPPELLA. The latter could possibly be an earlier itteration of Hargrave's explorations into reconfigured componenty of human habitation that was included in the exhibition.

Figure 3. Lyndal Hargrave, A CAPPELLA, 2017. Oil on canvas. Edwina Corlette Gallery, accessed July 27, 2017, http://edwinacorlette.com/exhibitions/7507_lyndal-hargraveprismatics/8081/a-cappella

The Edwina Corlette Gallery is a commercial gallery, located in a re-purposed building in a semi industrial aesthetic, with exposed copper piping and polished concrete floor, and white chiprock walls. The space is divided into two section, one L shaped with natural lighting from the roadside facing windows, a second small internal is small where the gallery attendant, is seated, relying primarily on artificial lighting. While the artists statement and price list were provided for patrons, these were to be kept on the premisis. The Edwina Corlette Gallery has successfully displayed the works within the framework of the commercial gallery system, which was evident with many of the works donning the red dot sticker. While it is easy to be caught up in the didactic and dogmatic concerns and theories underlying Hargraves works, take the time to become immersed in the shimmering compositions of form, color and prismatic patterns. The artist has intended for the viewer to be drawn into the works, inspiring a contemplative and instrospective state, and inviting interprative abstract thought.

 3 Edwina Corlette Gallery, "Lyndal Hargrave" URL: http://edwinacorlette.com/index.php?p=news/p7 Accessed July 27, 2017.
2 Dr Bunyan, Marcus 2009. "all the little pieces’ by lyndal hargrave at anita traverso gallery, richmond, melbourne" Artblart. URL: https://artblart.com/2009/09/12/review-all-the-little-pieces-by-lyndal-hargraveat-anita-traverso-gallery-richmond-melbourne/ Accessed July 27, 2017.
 1 Walton, Natalie 2016. "Artist Lyndal Hargrave" Daily Imprint. URL: http://www.dailyimprint.net/2016/02/artist-lyndal-hargrave.html Accessed July 27, 2017.

Madeleine Grant - interview reflection

Madeleine Grant is a Brisbane based printmaker, painter, acrobat, aerialist, clown and cabaret performer currently working with  Vulcana Women’s Circus  and Commonthread. Grants arts practice is driven by a passion for physical performance and expression of personal beliefs. With issues such as arts conservation, financial sustainability and career longevity being ongoing concerns.

Grant currently splits her time performing with Vulcana Women’s Circus and Commonthread (of which she is a founding member). The interview was held at Vulcana Women’s Circus, which is a social circus, that is volunteer based and performs nationally. The respect for diversity and feminist principles is a starting point and centrality to their work and creating opportunities for women, youth and the LGBTNB community to express ideas through physical and creative process. Due to being ill informed prior to the interview, initial research was focused on learning the terms, beliefs and practices. While I considered the implications of being a Christian male in that environment, a personal revelation was that, for me, identity of the individual is internal (the soul). Transcending boundaries such as race, gender and sex.

For Grant and I, our practices revolve around our belief systems. Grant stated that her “radical left” political views of Agrarian Socialism, influences everything she does. Particularly how she views society and the media. She consciously accepts that she lives in a capitalist society, that she is a part of it and she tries to work with in it. While endeavouring to make art that is in-line with her beliefs, and attempting to avoid organisations that hold dichotomous views. Grant acknowledged that there are works that successfully combine circus with politics, but applying these views in her physical performance is difficult.

The nature of performance work for Grant also causes issues regarding conservation. This is also a personal concern as a digital/interactive artist. A lot of value and commercial success is weighted on the ability to conserve art, but as a performance artist much of her work is ephemeral as is my own. She chooses to reinvent her work rather than conserving, which is especially true for clowning. An audiences experience when they are laughing and the timing is good, the high that she gets and the high the audiences gets can not be captured. The performance can be repeated and improve upon, but recording for conservation is difficult.

Developing long term financial sustainability and practice management is an ongoing procedure. Grants financial stability is achieved by splitting her time as a librarian and performer, both of which she considers an integral part of her arts practice. In her early practice, working in a small arts community gave her a narrow focus, now the alternative work aids her in developing ideas and interactivity. She currently spends 70-80% of her practice training and rehearsing, 10% performing and the remaining time spent in administrative and logistical work including stage managing, special effects work and costume stuff and prop production. Additionally Grant is constantly recovering from injury due to the physical nature of performance, it is a field that practitioners adapt to depending on age, prior training and physical capacity.

Artist Interview : Madeleine Grant

Artist Interview : Madeleine Grant

Madeleine Grant

Acrobat, aerialist, clown, printmaker, painter, and someone who constantly runs into doors instead of through them – roll up and meet Madeleine Grant, the centrepiece of this circus show. On the training mat of the high-ceilinged room of circus apparatuses and first aid kits at Vulcana Women’s Circus, we chat about the bones of an arts career.

Tristan Griffin, Elijah Jackson & Alexander Wright

As a fairly established performing artist in Brisbane, it seems crucial to ask: How and when did you first become interested in the arts – not just performing, but any kind of arts?

I started art school in 1992, just after my 18th birthday, and then was kind of working in Sydney at art school, we did guerrilla art shows as well, we did a few Warehouse break-ins… where we would do installation work and stuff like that too.

I did a double major in visual arts and printmaking but I was also simultaneously working with a physical theatre and performance company… we did absurd stuff… we had an industrial flamethrower, I don't where it came from, and we used to make big puppets. Once I dressed as a profiterole and danced through Sydney for a Fringe Festival [i.e., a festival that showcases works from small companies, generally of an experimental or unconventional nature] … So, it's been a kind of long-term passion.

So, you’ve been interested in installation work. Can you expand on that and how that influences your career now?

I guess it was an indication of my future in clowning… I did one [installation work] in a warehouse where I made a lot of recordings of news stories about children trapped in wells and disappearing in old buildings and then I ran around dressed like a small boy bouncing a ball and sort of darted behind everyone. It sort of worked… in retrospect.

I also made an installation about the Oklahoma bombing once where I filled the space with fertilizer and played the soundtrack for the musical Oklahoma over and over again. In retrospect, I don’t know if any of my ideas were particularly good.

How did your career develop after art school?

I kept working in Fringe theatre; I did Sydney Fringe, Melbourne Fringe, Canberra Fringe Festival for a few years with a company called Odd Productions. Eventually that petered out and then I was exhibiting as a printmaker and occasionally doing kind of random puppetry stuff, really weird stuff, but over time for a while it became less and less. I was working more as a chef in Sydney to pay my rent because it's very expensive and had less time for arts practice. It kind of become, for a while, I would say a career on hiatus.

As you say, rent is expensive. Now in your career, where do you find your main source of income from to survive as an artist?

I manage a library 4 days a week which I’m trying to get down to 3 days a week; it provides me with the ability to train, to buy props, and support my arts practice, and luckily, it's flexible enough that I'm able to be [at the circus] generally.

Is it a goal to have like your arts career to be how you make a living solely?

I think it used to be but honestly, I like the parts of my brain that my other job uses, I like the people that it forces me to interact with, the research work I do… All I wanted for a long time was a career only in the Arts but now…

I want to keep being an arts practitioner and it would be nice to earn enough to maybe only do something else 2 days a week but I don't think I'll ever stop that [other job] now.

It gives me ideas as well, the more different parts of the world I'm able to interact with, the more influences and ideas that I have coming in… I know for me when I was at art school and after art school and working in a small arts community, I got a much narrower focus, which I think can be a problem.

How do you feel about the commercial side of things in your career?

I did [have commercial goals] when I was at school, I had a level of success - my work went to Canada and interstate, I won a couple of prizes and I sold a bit of stuff. Then my work got more radical and I became disillusioned, I remember doing Professional Practice [course in university] and becoming more and more disillusioned with the way that the artworld essentially works and the way that it's necessary to sell yourself. The concept of having a CV and going through a terrifying job interview process, I know it's necessary if you want to sell work and survive, but it seemed so anathema to the process of creation that I really struggled with it.

You were described as having “radical left” political views in your online bio…could you tell us what they are and how they influence your career and performances?

It influences everything I do …my dad is a Maoist, I am not, but I was raised by socialists, when I was a kid, we would take car trips through the USSR to learn about socialism… my leanings would be Agrarian Socialism, and it influences everything I do - it influences the way I look at society, with the media. I accept that I live in a capitalist society, I'm a part of that and I try to work in it, but I also try to make art that is in line with my beliefs, so I avoid companies and things I don't agree with and shout at the TV a lot when it gets hard [laughs].

So, when you work with companies, how do these views affect your professional relationships?

Basically I won’t work with companies whose views are in opposition to mine.

For the most part, my personal presentation and the biographies you find online and in my work would probably scare most people away that would potentially be in opposition to me, so it’s not really an issue

How do you apply these views in your performance works?

I try to but I don't think when you do physical work that they are easy to portray… there’s some powerful works in the last couple of years that people have done with successfully combining beautiful circus work with politics but… I don't think I’ve found a way… yet.

So, you work with multiple different institutes, can you explain why you work with each of them?

I work with Vulcana, it's a community-based organisation, it's very supportive and I feel like it has enabled me to be braver in my arts practice. I work with the director Celia [White] and all other people here have helped me to really push what I do, work out how to self-edit, understand how to do better, not just kind of spew it all out onto the stage or onto a piece of paper.

I trained at Circa before that but that was purely kind of grunt work, lots of physical strength focus instead of performance.

Commonthread is our new company, so that's me and three friends working together and that's a new adventure… but other than that it's been mainly solo stuff… I do work [mainly] with another circus performer Elisa, we have an awful lot of ideas, in fact we have 3 shows worth of ideas, but… they’re currently unrealised.

I've worked with Ruckus Slam and… for the West End Festival, I’ve worked with many different companies but generally that's been applying as a solo artist, so these relationships have generally been fairly short lived.

How did your physical practice become centred on circus?

When I was a kid I did gymnastics and I also did a lot of summer holiday clowning kind of stuff in summer camps - you know, your parents go to work, so they send you somewhere every day for a week, those things. Every summer I did circus stuff in Canberra and then when I was 35, not long after I moved to Brisbane, I just kind of decided I wanted to join the circus. It seemed like a good way to get fit and for a few years it was kind of just that [fitness centred] before I started to drift back into actually wanting to perform and… actually seeing the correlation between that and the previous stuff that I've done, realising that physical theatre and circus maybe do have a link… it’s very interesting.

Did you find your previous main way of work [i.e., printmaking and painting] have influenced your performance works? Did these two arts practices converge or remain separate?

The content was always similar, there was always political content and always kind of social commentary but…

I think the access to printing presses disappeared after art school so I was painting for a while and printing become very difficult, but the performance definitely took over… so I still paint and print but it's become secondary to my physical practice

How do you think your arts practice has developed from art school until now? Are there any elements that remain the same or different?

I think everything I did was absurd and everything I do now is absurd …conceptually, I think concept-wise there's a timeline there. The interesting thing is I think I always start off with these grand political statements of these ideas about social justice and then I end up tied to a piece of elastic fighting with a box on the other side of the room, so I think actually what I realised over time is conceptually, I realised that I can work without having to have such a punch you in the face message perhaps. So that maybe the arts practice can stand alone without hiding behind some kind of theoretical framework.

Relating to the comment about the box… On the Commonthread website, you say you are in an “ongoing war with inanimate objects that seem intent on tripping you up” … Can you expand on that and how important this might be to your arts practice?

I did a piece last year where I crossed the room without touching the floor with 9 hand balance blocks and a red chair as the objects used to cross the floor with but not in a very logical way.

And then I’ve ended up trying to put a piece of furniture, that is the chair, together which is in a box …and now I'm working on a ballet on a spinning office chair… And I also put on an entire suitcase of clothes and wrestled with a beach ball last year for a show. So, the point I’m making is somehow I keep ending up with furniture.

What do you think is influencing that?

I suppose, honestly, at the core of it is the idea of the difficulty of everyday life.

Like, I frequently try to walk through doors and miss… it’s that kind of frustration that I feel, and that I'm assuming everyone else does though I could be wrong, with attempting to perform a seemingly simple task and how wrong it can go - that is to me the most difficult route to solve the simplest problem. Almost the idea that everything is acting against you but obviously to the outside observer it's your stupid decision making which is causing this problem. That’s what I like to showcase in my performances and its absurdity.

So that’s definitely a thread for your clowning performances, does that also tie into cabaret or other works you do?

Yes, so the next show that I'm working on, there will be furniture fights but I will also be doing acrobatic work with a lot of people on top of me… There will be aerial work and I'm also going to do a reverse striptease with 100 different pieces of Spanx underwear… So again, having an argument with a seemingly simple apparently helpful object. But with other elements of circus involved.

Could you tell us a bit more about your next show?

It’s called The Resting Bitchface, which is a show with Commonthread… so it hasn't officially been announced by the festival we are in yet, that happens hopefully next week and then we’ll start flying blimps over the city with our name on them [laughs].

Nowadays we don’t fly blimps anymore! Advertisement has become an Internet game. How have you managed over your career in the arts, in terms of having an online presence?

We opened a Hotmail account in 1995 for Odd Productions and we were cutting edge at the time… We used to go to Kinko’s and use the computer and send emails to three other people who had Hotmail accounts… So, there’s a whole period of my arts career which doesn't really exist online which is interesting.

[A lot of what I do isn’t documented] …I think with the timing of some of the stuff that I do… When you see it second hand it's very diluted, it loses something some of its power. It's very difficult to perform something to a camera the same as an audience.

Plus, if I’m getting ready for the show the last thing on my mind is that I need someone to document it and then afterwards I go, oh, that’s another undocumented work of mine…

It seems that a lot of your work is very ephemeral, how would you respond to that?

I think that goes back to our warehouse break ins… A lot of the time the work would stay there, it would get destroyed, things would get burnt down, you'd come back in and some kids have broken in and trashed everything before the opening… so it gave me this attitude to my work that you can do it and walk away.

My graduation piece – which I guess was the height of my arts education - resulted in a fire … post- Oklahoma bombing piece I became obsessed with terrorism …this was 1995 so nobody cared, I printed all these lithographs, all these matchboxes with different riot slogans, and historical terrorists…

I got several buckets of the matchboxes with slogans on them and put a single match in each one and everyone who entered the grad show got one match and a riot slogan… and eventually someone set fire to the six-foot-high pile of matches… The print lecturer [was not] supportive of my scheme, he didn't think that anyone would do that [set the fire], but somebody did. He also made like a masking tape kind of police line and stood behind it waving a fire extinguisher and no one was allowed into my installation.

Anyway, it came to the end of the week and I have one of each of the match books Ive printed in a folio somewhere and the rest just got swept up and put in the bin…

I understand that narrative is incredibly important to your work… Can you expand on that?

What I do, there must be a beginning, a middle, and an end… I have in some ways a very traditional outlook about physical comedy [what I’m working with now]. It must have a story or a Journey to engage with. And if there's not I try and build one into it in my head. Some of the clowning stuff I do in shows, there isn't a narrative, but I've created a narrative structure for myself because it makes it easier for me to perform.

With work like this, and with performance work, conservation is a major issue. A lot of value and commercial success is weighted on the ability to conserve your art and have it last. What do you think about that in relation to your practice?

I think it's great if your art can be conserved. My partner is an artist as well and his work honestly to me is more deserving of conserving, I don't think it's worth any more or less value than mine but it's different.

I reinvent something rather than conserve it… I feel very passionately about Conservation and archiving but not so much about my own stuff.

Some work lends itself to being conserved, and some does not. I think with my work, especially doing clowning. Say, when people are laughing and the timing is good and it's happening, the high that I get and the high they get from the experience, I can't capture that so if I can do it again, if I could improve it, that's great, but it can’t be conserved – in videos, it just looks weird and dry.

I know one of your more recent group shows received some negative reviews and feedback… How do you deal with this inevitable side of an arts career?

It’s necessary sometimes to take them on board. It can be hard when they’re negative and single your character out but it's also bad when there's a positive review and they don't single your character out. They haven't had a huge influence on me… but even with the bad ones, when they're written by people who see a lot of circus shows, a lot of theatre, sometimes even within that negativity they'll be points that can be worth considering.

Negative reviews are definitely a cause of anxiety, but what about the nerves before a performance? How do you deal with that?

When I am performing, I’ll be a little crazy in the hours before. I'll needlessly pack and unpack large bags full of objects I probably shouldn't have brought with me … and I do a lot of ab exercises which is actually useful for a circus performer but probably way too many.

A couple of years ago, we did a three-person clowning pole act on a 9-metre pole and we were in a 40-degree room in suits… and when we tested, the pole was moving and it was quite slippery, so I fell [in the test] … The following night, I had these weird dreams that I was in a cafe drinking coffee and the pole was always behind me, and that has happened with other shows.

The type of works you do are very physical and high-risk. Do you think you’ll still be doing it in 10 or 15 years? Do you expect there to be changes to your practice?

I think there will be modifications… But some women who train here are in their 50s, there was [a woman] who stopped last year at 63 because she found that she was losing muscle mass which comes with old age… but this is what I've done for years so there's affects with that and it'll change what I do.

But I can't imagine not doing it.

What other parts of the arts industry do you engage in, apart from being performer and artist?

I often work backstage… I did stage managing for a while many years ago, I've done special effects work and costume stuff and prop making. I still do as required on an ongoing basis because there is not a lot of money. I also support other people by volunteering in shows.

Would you consider that part of your arts practice or something separate?

Part of all arts practice, definitely. And I also think promoting and grant writing and festival applications and showreels and videos and all that stuff are part of arts practice.

Finally, as a summary… if you were to divide your arts practice up into segments, what would it look like?

It would be 70-80% rehearsing and training, 10% actually performing and the rest is administrative and logistical work.