François Matarasso (2019) writes that “art creates change, but it should be in the hands of the person who experiences it, not at the command of another, whether artist or funder.” Reflect in a blogpost about how your work in progress might effect change, and where you think the power lies in that.
One of my portfolio artworks will explore the relationships between nature and technology and I think that the viewer of this creation will be able to experience this relations through a piece of art. I certainly believe that the true power of art is to convey messages or ideas and make an impact on gallery visitors. I want the spectator to be an important piece of the installation himself, and understand these relationships through the medium of sound, sculpture and technology. I truly support this statement, and we as artists need to understand that our work needs to deeply touch the heart of the spectator and definitely create change in their way of thinking.
Pay attention to how artists and visiting practitioners frame their work through websites, work descriptions and CVs. Does your public artist profile reflect the themes of your developing portfolio? Re-draft your artist statement on your blog to convey the concerns of your current practice.
Artist statement
Daniel Marin is a sonic artist, experimental electronic musician, sound designer, content creator and creative coder based in London. He likes to play with electronic devices and experiment through different genres of music and forms of art, always trying to go a little bit further and finding new fields and techniques which are innovative. Currently focused in composing electronica and ambient pieces, he has been involved in diverse projects in sound art and sound design testing gear and creating content for companies like Dubreq Stylophone (UK), Artiphon (USA), Synido (China) or Playtronica (Estonia), and also performing and exhibiting at many venues and galleries like Cafe 1001, Gallery 46, The Crypt Gallery or Q Shoreditch among others mainly in London but having performed also in the US and Spain. He has also recently worked in film composition and sound design for the films Green Girl (India) and Brothers (Australia). The sound emerging from the modular synths and tape recorders he uses, brings us tracks full of immersive atmospheres and rich textures, creating an abstract world to submerge in and having released albums, EPs and collaborations with labels like Diffuse Reality, No Slack or Kama.
1) Complete your ecologies of practice diagram (given in class) and upload it to your blog.
2) Upload one key text and one key artwork to your blog that your prototype will be inspired by and write a paragraph on why/how these are relevant.
David Tudor – Rainforest (1965)
Rainforest is a key work in sound arts and in the interactive installation field that has been largely acclaimed and copied during many years until present time. It will be one my main references for my research during this last year and more in particular for this portfolio unit for a variety of reasons; first, the artwork is interactive, the spectator can touch the different objects in the gallery and the installation itself will react with sonic changes emitted through loudspeakers. Interactivity is one of the main topics that I want to explore this year and this work fits perfectly as a reference. Secondly, I found interesting the relation between the name ‘Rainforest’ and the technology involved in the installation, not looking or sounding as a rainforest, but bringing this metaphor of technology as nature which I would also like to explore as the background meaning of my first portfolio project.
I found interesting this text from Peter H. Kahn about the subject:
“Two world trends are powerfully reshaping human existence: the degradation, if not destruction, of large parts of the natural world, and unprecedented technological development. At the nexus of these two trends lies technological nature, technologies that in various ways mediate, augment, or simulate the natural world. Current examples of technological nature include videos and live webcams of nature, robot animals, and immersive virtual environments. Does it matter for the physical and psychological well-being of the human species that actual nature is being replaced with technological nature? As the basis for our provisional answer (it is “yes”), we draw on evolutionary and cross-cultural developmental accounts of the human relation with nature and some recent psychological research on the effects of technological nature. Finally, we discuss the issue and area for future research of ‘environmental generational amnesia.’ The concern is that, by adapting gradually to the loss of actual nature and to the increase of technological nature, humans will lower the baseline across generations for what counts as a full measure of the human experience and of human flourishing.”
