Friday, May 26, 2006

Labelling - A Rant

I was very reluctant to interject a dissonant note concerning the discussion of labels, but I have deep misgivings about these. Although it might be considered inappropriate for me to cast aspersions on this project, I am extremely disturbed and unhappy about this label which, as I see it, is not at all relevant to my work.
Yes, I am convinced that there is a definite need for our Promotional Material to be well designed and as attractive, memorable and eye-catching as possible.
Yes, it is critically important that we have a clear logo which has dramatic and dynamic impact.
Design input should be confined to the logo, and any required promotional
material such as the label for the DVD and/or the flyer and Posters not to be appended to each individual's installation.
Every exhibition, gallery, or museum I have visited has had explanatory labels on White card with a black text which are clear, simple and legible, whose purpose is to convey crucial information regarding the presentation.
On the other hand, when I go to the shop to purchase a box of breakfast cereal or a container of juice, I quite expect to see colourful and descriptive packaging designed to differentiate the contents and promote the brand.
My work is neither a particular type of breakfast cereal nor a type of juice and I find the concept of attaching coloured labels deeply insulting. Coloured packaging is used to promote a brand and irrelevant to my work.
Therefore I am concerned that I should be obliged to put this kind of thing alongside my presentation.
You might say, I am not merely angry, I am incandescent about this matter.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Literature and Art:

The literary work, the written word feeds the visualization process
The Sound and The Fury, by William Faulkner and Deleuze’s concepts of Monads and Rhizomes.
This book poses some interesting reverberations with the concepts that concern Deleuze. The manner of writing [stream of consciousness] was innovative and ground-breaking when Faulkner wrote this book in 1928, but it is still as problematic and challenging to the reader today as it was then.
Deleuze always maintained that his book Mille Plateaus, could be read in any order, and did not require the reader to ‘begin at the beginning, stop when he reached the end and leave the middle for in-between’ as Lewis Carol might say.
The reader, indeed was encouraged to dip into the book, hopping from one chapter to another in no particular order. The ideas unfolded and echoed within the chapters. References appeared and filled out information available in other sections of the book. It is a book to be read and referred to at different times during the constructing process.
Faulkner also structures time in this seemingly disordered way. The book is divided into four sections and the first one is written by Benjy who is a congenital idiot. The time sequence in this section is not linear, but skips and hops from one incident which occurs earlier in time to other incidents in different times without the benefit of explanation or labelling. This makes it very difficult for the reader to follow the narrative and make some order or sense from it. This mixing up of time and place continues throughout the book and the only textual indication is the use of italics. Often Faulkner does not employ punctuation in a traditional manner which adds to the ‘challenge’ of reading.
Why does this interact with digital developments? Although video presentations occur in a linear manner [unless an element of interactivity is present], the construction does not necessarily proceed according to Cartesian principles. The Time Line in a Video Editing program can be constructed in a rhizomatic fashion, layering footage and stills; reversing, stretching, twisting and turning them and, in general, superimposing a non-linear logic to the sequencing of the elements.