[NetBehaviour] The Jeremy Bailey Interview on the Netbehaviour.

Fri Sep 19 15:49:32 CEST 2008

Hi Jeremy & all,

Thank you for your recent post to netbehaviour.

I am sure that many on here are aware by now, - the show is today. We 
are currently getting everything ready.

So, I will respond to Jeremy's questions over the weekend.

If anyone on this list just so happens to be in London, come along it 
would be great to meet :-)

chat soon.

marc
> Hey Marc,
> sorry for taking so long to reply, last minute business in prep for friday,
>
>   
>> Much of your work involves a GUI (Graphic User Interface). User
>> interfaces as we generally experience them, provide components for users
>> to communicate with a computer. The interface defines the boundary
>> between software, the hardware device or a user. What is interesting is
>> that you are actually within the interface as well, performing in these
>> environments.
>>
>> Could you talk about the relationship between you as the software
>> developer and the software itself, within your performances?
>>     
>
> It has always been very important for my image or the image of the
> user to be a part of the interfaces I create. My reason has a lot to
> do with my historical/theoretical approach. I have been exposed to a
> lot of 1970s performance video and have developed a very keen interest
> in the theoretical context of the period. Specifically, for what is
> termed "Performance for the Camera". A popular term, but for those
> unfamiliar, it specifically refers to a state as described in Rosalind
> Krauss' essay, The Aesthetic of Narcissism, in which the artist
> becomes part of a feedback loop between his or herself and the
> electronics of the camera. This creates a unique self awareness
> (reflectivity) that was not present prior to this time. The artist
> literally watches themselves (on a close circuit monitor) creating the
> work and responding simultaneously. To put this in perspective, take
> one step back in time and performances were created for live audiences
> (less feedback), take one step forward and we land in the digital era
> and our camera from the 1970s has become a computer (hyper feedback).
> I like to call what I do Performance for the Computer, and it
> necessitates a re-evaluation of some of the psychological paramters
> that artists were working with in the 1970s. There's a lot of shit
> that happened in between then and now, that's where things get very
> interesting IMO.
>
> ok, so with this in mind I can answer your question regarding my role
> as a software developer, I'll have to tell a fable. It's going to be
> long and poorly written and will repeat some of the above in crude
> language, I'm tired...
>
> So, it's 1970, you're a performance artist, you've been doing
> performances all over the place, in studios, outdoors, in concert
> halls, the back of police vans... you've got little to no
> documentation... probably some photos, maybe some writing, maybe
> you're lucky enough to have some super 8 footage and some halfway
> decent audio recordings. Consumer video comes along, The Porta Pack,
> wow, this is great! cheap tape, sync audio, live previewing. But shit,
> the thing is prone to unspooling when jostled, and to see what things
> look at you need a hefty monitor. Fuck, maybe it's not so great... but
> wait, you've got a studio, you could setup there and do all kinds of
> performances, watch them, adjust, finally get an idea of what/who
> you're working with. Ok, this is strange, if I turn the monitor toward
> me I can watch myself as if I were the audience. Hmmm... there's
> something different about this. I can't go on doing the same kinds of
> performances. Nope. this is brand new. Yay! Video Art is born!!
>
> Ok, so fast forward a decade. It's 1980something, you're an upcoming
> electronic artist using computers to make amazing things happen in
> REALTIME! You have one problem, how do you document and show people
> what you're working on. Oh, of course!!! you record it on a Handycam!
> You pass the tapes around, copy them, they get copied, you end up
> representing your country at the Venice Biennial. Happy endings are
> great! Strange thing is you don't ever notice any of the things your
> friends noticed in the 70s, nope, you go right on making documentation
> on video without thinking twice about yourself as a performer. "I'm
> not a performer, I'm a programmer, my MACHINE is the artist, HE's
> performing, ask HIM what HE thinks! this shows you what he does,
> that's all"... Ok... I'll do that, but don't you think your macho
> friend is making you look a little meek on tape? "nope, that's the way
> I like it, I've put all of me into that thing, don't pay attention to
> me". Ok, I'm going to just say it dude, your machine's got a bigger
> dick than you and you're a bit of a chauvinist for masculinizing it
> the way you are. I think you're using your machine in all kinds of
> weird ways and I think you should think about what it means to give
> yourself over to an object like that. I mean, seriously dude.
>
> Ok, let's fast forward 2 more decades.
> This thing called the internet is popular, everyone has a computer,
> realtime video processing is on every cpu, we video conference with
> friends and family, augmented reality is a burgeoning field. Ya, we
> can do anything with our data selves, artists and non artists alike.
> Yes! I'm going to share this video of me rotating photos and tossing
> them around using just my flailing arms to everyone in the entire
> world!! I look like an idiot? why do you keep looking at me??! Are you
> gay? yah. that's it, I'm gay. Fuck dude, would you realize what the
> fuck it means to warp your face with that ichat filter? PLEASE!
>
> end of story, guy is increasingly clueless, distractions are
> increasingly numerous.
>
> so, I've used some colloquial language here to try and get a point
> across in impossibly high contrast. I play the role of the software
> developer in performances because I insist on forcing the
> acknowledgment  that the computer is a site for performance and
> reflectivity. I am trying to use a laptop in 1975. I'm trying to
> understand what that means I guess.
>
> I hope this response doesn't offend anyone. I was just trying to have
> some fun with it,
>
> see you all on friday?
>
> jeremy
>
>
> I started this trajectory near the end of my undergraduate studies and
> built my graduate research around this idea.
>
> On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 12:26 AM, marc garrett
> <marc.garrett at furtherfield.org> wrote:
>   
>> Hi Jeremy,
>>
>> Thank you for taking part in the dialogue so far, it has been both
>> enjoyable and illuminating.
>>
>> Much of your work involves a GUI (Graphic User Interface). User
>> interfaces as we generally experience them, provide components for users
>> to communicate with a computer. The interface defines the boundary
>> between software, the hardware device or a user. What is interesting is
>> that you are actually within the interface as well, performing in these
>> environments.
>>
>> Could you talk about the relationship between you as the software
>> developer and the software itself, within your performances?
>>
>> marc
>>
>>
>>
>>     
>>> marc,
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Do you think that going through the re-evaluative process of
>>>> justification has helped or hindered your practice, in regards to your
>>>> creative-identity and approach to what your artwork could of been?
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> I think it's healthy to re-evaluate, at least it's healthy for me. It
>>> keeps me in check and appreciative of those around me. It has also
>>> heightened my critical awareness, not just of myself but of everything
>>> in my vicinity, which I think is what every artist should do.
>>> Ultimately if you're not critical of yourself, how on earth can you be
>>> critical of others?
>>>
>>> not sure what things could have been, I used to do a lot of
>>> impressionist landscape paintings in high school. I guess I could be
>>> in a rocky farmer's field right now, watching the sun set and
>>> considering the beauty of the amber light catching the silhouette of a
>>> windswept pine.
>>>
>>> jeremy
>>>
>>> On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 4:51 PM, marc garrett
>>> <marc.garrett at furtherfield.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Hi Jeremy,
>>>>
>>>>  >kickn' it up a notch with the Freud! great stuff.
>>>>
>>>> Yes, I may do this every now and then. Not necessarily with Freud, but
>>>> with other references, just to open things up but only if it feels relevant.
>>>>
>>>>  >the truth is, I started art school in the 90s
>>>>  >and all of my profs taught identity politics work.
>>>>  >Actually my first EVER studio class was called
>>>>  >women in art (I was the only man in the course).
>>>>
>>>>  >So starting out I always felt as though I wasn't
>>>>  >allowed to make art. I wasn't a victim of any
>>>>  >societal prejudices or discrimination, I was a
>>>>  >very happy privileged white man with very few cares.
>>>>
>>>> With identity politics being such a primary influence, it sounds like
>>>> your art education was a complex yet insightful beginning. I can imagine
>>>> that in order to find a voice for your work, there has been much
>>>> re-evaluation taking place.
>>>>
>>>>  >The type of work I make now, the type that casts
>>>>  >me as an ignorant/naive modern artist playing with
>>>>  >technology, was developed to try and create some
>>>>  >justification for myself in an ocean of those more
>>>>  >deserving than I.
>>>>
>>>> Do you think that going through the re-evaluative process of
>>>> justification has helped or hindered your practice, in regards to your
>>>> creative-identity and approach to what your artwork could of been?
>>>>
>>>> marc
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> NetBehaviour at netbehaviour.org
>>>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>       
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