[NetBehaviour] fail better

Simon Mclennan mitjafashion at hotmail.com
Sun Jan 15 22:01:46 CET 2012


That's it Michael, I like and crave the physical engagement that  
comes with drawing, painting, music and film making.
Artists can use any medium, of course they are all valid - I would  
never ever beat people with sticks of their mediums [sic]  (unless  
they were chalk - Mark, Heath take note)
When I make a super 8 film I like the work to be projected in its  
final form - because it's made of light partly, and because of the  
physicality of film - its more fun, for me, than sitting in front of  
my laptop. I like to practice spinning when I am happy and in the  
moment, usually not when I'm on the laptop alone, but out and about  
with other artists and people. (In fact I challenged Heath Bunting to  
a hand walking contest recently - but he chickened out)

Ha ha

Si

Your drawings look a bit like storyboards at times (your editing  
background maybe)




On 15 Jan 2012, at 17:55, Michael Szpakowski wrote:

> OH - I'd be very unhappy to have even lent  anyone a stick to beat  
> anyone else's way of making work.
> For me it's the increasing convergence of the most ancient and the  
> most modern ways of doing things that is fascinating. I can't  
> imagine stopping taking photographs or making movies or writing  
> music but I also crave lots more of that physical engagement that  
> comes with the drawing.
>
> This year I have had a show where my piece used javascript, html  
> and lingo to make something generative;
> I've done lots of stuff arising out of the idea of remixing, I've  
> taken a shitload of photos and I've...drawn. All of them were great  
> to do & I can't belive that they didn't have some impact on each  
> other.
> The only thing I am sceptical about is when people say "ought" ...
> The fact that I present my drawings to you, not as drawings but as  
> digital images of drawings a on a web 2.0 application has too, I  
> think, some significance...
>
> I have to say though that, personally, I still feel that what goes  
> on in my head when I photograph and when I draw is very closely  
> related (and I think this is because I only came to feeling I had  
> the confidence to *photograph* well after the digital was standard  
> and I've never made a photo that I didn't work over in some way,  
> even if it was just getting it from RAW to jpeg, it's just natural  
> for me to think that a photographic image is both performative, a  
> selction but also compositional). Likewise there's something  
> performative and snapshot like about some of the drawings which  
> were done trying to capture someone moving fast across my field of  
> vision (some done from the passenger seat :) of a car) & I can't  
> help feeling my years of working with *frames* of video has some  
> relevance here in the places in the drawings where I've almost  
> stacked up, superimposed, different positions of the subject..
>
> I'm delgihted that netbehaviour can embrace a whole number of  
> different practices and approaches & that we're able to have  
> discussion like this...
> warm wishes
> michael
>
>
> From: Joel Weishaus <weishaus at pdx.edu>
> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity  
> <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 5:26 PM
> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] fail better
>
> Simon;
>
> I've found taking photographs rewarding because the camera seems to  
> have a mind of its own. Even a digital camera is still a "magic  
> lantern."
> As for writing code, I personally agree with you. The computer to  
> me is a tool; although, to paraphrase the poet Gary Snyder, "Tools.  
> Now there's a subject!"
>
> -Joel
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Simon Mclennan
> To: bob catchpole ; NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 8:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] fail better
>
> Very very interesting that this has been commented on so much.
> I suspect the reason is that this is a web based forum with  
> contributers who have some stake in new media ie freakin boring  
> computers (I say this as a one time street artist and latecomer to  
> computers) and so when somebody picks up a paint brush it's like  
> woo hoo how exotic.
> Personally I still find the idea of programming a computer  
> incredibly boring - however I give you guys some slack and say cool  
> if you want to make code into poetry. To me a machine is merely an  
> end to a means, in this case artistic expression.
> Lets all paint paint paint - make a big bonfire of cameras - they  
> were always a con ;)
>
> Simon
> On 15 Jan 2012, at 16:27, bob catchpole wrote:
>
>> Michael,
>>
>> I disagree with John Baldessari. Painting and photography are  
>> radically different picture-making processes - one is based on  
>> synthesis and the other on selection. In a painting or drawing you  
>> start with nothing and have to add. In photography you start with  
>> everything and have to extract.
>>
>> Your drawing are strong because they capture something about you.
>>
>> Bob
>>
>> From: Michael Szpakowski <szpako at yahoo.com>
>> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity  
>> <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, 15 January 2012, 15:11
>> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] fail better
>>
>> Once again thanks for the interesting, helpful and encouraging  
>> responses.
>> I feel strangely the same when I point my camera at something and  
>> when I do a sketch "in the moment" - I'm quite impressed by  
>> Patrick Maynard's argument which seems to be that drawing and  
>> photography are essentially both just processes of mark making....
>> I think I could quite quickly produce you a photo of a unicorn  
>> actually - I'm deeply sceptical about all the indexical , one-one  
>> correspondence to reality - blather about photos. It was pretty  
>> much never the defining feature ( ask Joe Stalin) and it certainly  
>> isn't now.
>> Moreover I'm not convinced that when I draw I'm any less a  
>> "mechanism" of some kind for creating a kind of map of at least  
>> some parts of reality than I am when I photograph (or remix photos  
>> which is something I've been doing a lot). I'm with Baldessari who  
>> scratched his head ( I'm dramatising of course and quoting from  
>> memory here) and said he couldn't really see that much difference  
>> between painting and photographs...
>> Anyway, theory aside, that I should get such kind and helpful  
>> feedback is one of the reasons I love netbehaviour :)
>> warm wishes
>> michael
>>
>> OK -just found it:
>> John Baldessari : “A photograph and a painting are essentially the  
>> same thing. One is just a series of pigments in emulsifier put  
>> down on canvas, while the other is silver nitrate deposits put  
>> down on paper. There is very little difference between the two.”
>>
>>
>> From: Perry Bard <perrybard at gmail.com>
>> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity  
>> <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
>> Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 1:53 PM
>> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] fail better
>>
>>
>> Last night a philosopher friend Nick Pappas and I had this very  
>> conversation-about the properties of photo vs painting and  
>> drawing. WJT Mitchell in Intention and Artifice isolates an  
>> essential difference- the referent adheres in a photo- you can  
>> paint a unicorn but not photograph one (irrefutable, no?). Nick  
>> argued that a camera is an object- you point and record, even if  
>> you make a mistake or someone jostles your hand you record a  
>> specific moment in time whereas a drawing records a moment in  
>> consciousness.
>> Perry
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 8:19 AM, Annie Abrahams  
>> <bram.org at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I do think Michael you have a lot of formal technique - the way  
>> you chose, frame and compose the image, the way you look at things  
>> is very "sophisticated".
>> I was wondering what for you makes these drawings so different  
>> from your photos? Why do you want to do it?
>> Is it a question of time? of attention?of meditation? of trying to  
>> grasp something in a world too full of information?
>> For me your drawings are full of time and
>> they are brave
>> I love to see them.
>> Annie
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 15, 2012 at 1:56 PM, Rob Myers <rob at robmyers.org> wrote:
>> On 14/01/12 17:00, Michael Szpakowski wrote:
>> > thank-you Joel...
>> > I don't honestly know how I expect people to react. I'm pretty  
>> obsessed
>> > at the moment...
>> > I know that drawing is something I really want to keep doing.
>> > warm wishes
>> > michael
>>
>> You have a good eye for form, space and tone. As someone who's an
>> enthusiastic rather than a competent draughtsperson I really  
>> admire what
>> you are doing here. Do keep doing!
>>
>> - Rob.
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> -- 
>>
>> Extrait en photo et son de la performance HUIS-CLOS / NO EXIT  
>> Training for a Better World
>> http://www.documentary-art.net/tag/watch-now.php?&ref=344
>> Plus de photos :  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramorg/sets/ 
>> 72157628514083331/
>>
>> "Die Ewigkeit/ L'éternité", Antye GREIE / Annie ABRAHAMS - DUET -  
>> SATZ 4  - Rêves / Utopia / Dreams http://vimeo.com/33907750
>> http://www.bram.org
>>
>>
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>>
>> -- 
>> www.perrybard.net
>> http://dziga.perrybard.net
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