ERROR - Developing work for a Collaborative Exhibition (Interdisciplinary Actions)

Last Friday, we met two Fine Art lecturers from Plymouth University who have come to ASP Katowice for a Residency programme. We were told by our Interdisciplinary Actions tutors that we were being given the opportunity to collaborate with the guest lecturers and Polish students on a 2 week project concluding with an Exhibition at an art gallery nearby to Katowice.

I was excited to be told we could be a part of a Professional Exhibition especially considering we are missing the Exhibition unit at UCA. In contrast to our home university, we only have 2 weeks to discuss, create work and curate the exhibition before it opens on the evening of Friday 27th April so the pressure is on. I like the fact that it is such a short project time frame because it allows me to fully focus on the task in hand, going along with my instincts because I don't have time to keep changing or editing my ideas. It is a useful skill to transfer into the workplace in the future as well.

We also have opportunities to exhibit our work towards the end of the semester for our other classes, I will reflect on these in future blog posts when I am able to find out more.

The given theme is 'Error' and for the first week, we were asked to come up with a map of thinking and meanings alongside 5-10 images exploring our personal opinions of error.
I began by creating a mind map researching the definitions, how error manifests my own art practice, brief artist research and reading into some articles about mistakes made in art practice.

I went on to create a mind map of visual ideas for the theme. I thought about work I have produced since I have been studying in Poland as well as new ideas I could explore. My ideas included creating 'glitch' effects on photographs I have taken in Katowice, using watercolour very loosely (wet on wet technique) to see how many errors I make, creating illustrative narratives such as creating a pattern of 4 leaf clovers with one 3 leaf clover and visualising a lawn being mowed with a large patch of long grass being missed. Those are just a few of my many ideas and I decided to explore some of them in my image construction.

Error - map of thinking

Visual ideas for Error map

Online Articles
I did some web research and found some useful quotes relating to Error.
"Creative people understand that mistakes are not meant to be roadblocks and that.. more often than not.. innovation arises on the heels of error" (Dan Scotti, 2015)
This suggests that mistakes aren't necessarily a negative for creative people because they can help us to strive. By being able to recognise you have made a mistake, methods can be considered into how the mistake can be rectified or even built upon. Not every error that is made is unusable in a new context. A creative practice without mistakes would not allow an artist to fully achieve.

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes" (Oscar Wilde)
This implies that the occurring of an error should be thought of as an event in the process, a way of engaging in the process not a mistake because although it may not have been planned it can help a person to develop their learning.

https://www.elitedaily.com/life/creative-people-make-mistakes/1157136

Another article I found particularly interesting was about how mistakes and creative perspectives are linked. When you explore something that is unknown to you, you will have to make mistakes. False starts are attempts that fail at producing the desired result.

http://ryuc.info/common/creativity_perspective/mistakes.htm

Artist Research
When researching artists who work within the theme of error/mistakes I came across the style of Glitch Art. The style is experimented with across the disciplines of photography, video stills, moving image and other image data. It can be described as,
'chaos and purpose - an experimental collision' (Khaikin, 2014)

The purpose of the art style is to create technological errors that are either present already or stimulated, in order to produce an artistic statement. The examples of Glitch art work I found looked as if they were purposely created in a 'glitchy' way, adding visual effects to an otherwise clean image.

Work by Sabato Visconti - 'Glitching is the careful stimulation of malfunction. It's an absurd scheme that requires some finesse because some glitches will break a file beyond recognition and other glitches will have no effect at all'

Work by Stephen Lofstrom
I find this work particularly interesting. The placement of the glitching almost makes the image appear 3D in some areas. The colours blend together well and the distortion of the figures gives them more of a mysterious visual identity

Image Construction
I created as many images as I could based on the error theme for our next meeting with the tutors. I tried to experiment with a variety of mediums and concepts. These included photography, drawing, writing, text and image, sculpture...

In the meeting (Thursday 19th April)  with all the tutors after the first week of the project had gone by, we each presented the images and mind maps we had created to them and the other students involved. I explained the meaning behind each piece I had created and they helped me to pick out the strongest pieces that I can then develop further into the lead up to a final piece.

They thought the photo tube sculpture I had created was very interesting. I took one of my digital graphics pieces that I had printed on photo paper and rolled it into a tube shape, fixing it together with two hair slides. I count this photo as an 'error' because it printed slightly blurred on the photo paper, compared to when I printed it larger on matte paper. I cut out some areas to sort of deconstruct the photo and also added some ink pen marks onto the tree trunk and branches that I blended with my finger to make the image appear slightly distorted. I personally don't particularly like it, I think it looks like something a child would make out of paper. I also crumpled the paper before I rolled it into the tube format so it definitely relates to error, even if I did make it fit the theme rather than using a work that already had the potential to fit with the theme in a more obvious way. 

The tutors suggested I could create larger versions of the paper sculptures which could then be placed on the floor of the exhibition room at the gallery. I tried creating some slightly bigger models using some A3 lettering paper I had created roughly and a piece of matte paper that was a printing scrap. I don't think these worked well at all and the tutors agreed. I hadn't managed to find another material to fix them together other than hair clips and I obviously wouldn't be able to use them on a much larger scale! They were thinking I could create sculptures of around 2.5 metres high but this wouldn't really be achievable considering the time frame and the fact that I haven't got much experience on working on such a big scale. If I had more time, I would possibly consider developing this idea but I think it would require a lot of thinking and careful planning to ensure the end result is actually successful. 

Three paper tube sculptures 

My mini collection of paper tube sculptures referencing 'error' 

They also really liked my photograph (below, pictured with a photocopy of the original photo) that I took from my dormitory window on Friday 13th April. They like the fact that I took the photograph recently as well as the eerie effect conveyed by both the glitching and the added handwritten text that tells the date and time. I decided to hand write the date and time at the bottom of the photograph once I had printed it out on photo paper because I thought it added depth and a slightly uneasy feeling to the mood because of the fact that it was taken on a supposedly superstitious day. The black areas above and below the photograph were from when I took a screenshot of the photo on my phone to save it to my camera roll. I took an ordinary photo of the view and then edited it using an app on my iPhone called 'Glitch Photo Camera'. It was a very simple and easy way of editing the image without having to use any software. 

Original photo (left) photocopied photo (right)

The tutors suggested I could get the photograph printed on a large scale (around 70x100cm) so it can then be hung, possibly using a magnet in the gallery where the exhibition will take place. On Friday 20th April, I discussed my decision with the tutors. I wanted to print my photograph on a large scale to be hung in the exhibition. I photocopied the original photo to see how it would look when a copy is made. The tutors told me I really needed to get a scan of it instead because then it would be of a better quality. 

I went to do this in the University Photo Studio and then came back to show the tutors. The original photograph had gotten a little dusty and some writing had run through to the top of the image - this was from when Pawel (Interdisciplinary Painting studio tutor) wrote the room number of the photography studio now for me as I was struggling to find it! He wrote it on a piece of paper that I had wrapped around the original photo.  They liked that these errors had occurred and suggested I keep them when I went to order the large print at Rappid, the recommended print studio. It is actually situated very close to my dormitory and I have used it before to print some of my Digital Graphics images so I went there to order my large print and it will be ready by noon on Monday 23rd April. This is ideal as I will then have time to participate in the curating of the exhibition on Thursday and then the opening on Friday.

Scan of original photo

I look forward to reflecting on the curation and opening of the exhibition later next week. So far, I have really been enjoying this short project and it has been quite nice to talk to tutors who are English nationals especially as they are based quite close to my hometown in Devon. I am sure the exhibition will be a success and I am very pleased to have been able to be a part of the whole production process.