– bit of a reflection on last term –
Having had the summer to look back on what could have been during the TAKEOVER 2022, I thought my project could have been seen as obnoxious or annoying to visitors of the Arts Centre. Approaching them and asking them about purchasing a house in Hell would raise some eyebrows and potentially lead to unwanted altercations. Towards then end nonetheless I felt less confident about the project overall; although I enjoy the notion of performance but when it comes to actually going forward with it I get cold feet. I have been part of performances before, but perhaps what aided me in going through with them was the presence of other performers to bounce off of. The uncertainty and unexpectedness of doing a solo performance is far more daunting than when I am with an ensemble. I also found that I was not reaching the amount of engagement on social media as I expected, but further reflection on the matter made me realise that ‘likes’ on a virtual platform are not a hard indicator for success.
Focusing on this term I am looking to forward for simplicity in my project, in terms of execution, consistency in my work especially the notebook, but I am also looking to challenge myself with this project so that it doesn’t get too boring while carrying it out.
– thoughts on ‘the everyday’ –
‘The everyday’ lends itself to a multitude of avenues to explore. Seeing as I am more inclined to produce a work based on narrative, I would like to explore the idea of an interactive storytelling experience. One where I would write segments of a story and at intervals I would offer the readers a choice which would decide the fate of the protagonist.
Upon discussing my idea in my tutorial I remembered how last term’s project did not receive the desired attention online, so I am not sure how I will get enough engagement this time round. Creating instagram posts did not garner enough attention, but I find that stories are easier to respond to and more interactive. Being able to interact with readers/online audience is important for this idea to work.
Initially I wanted to come up with a completely original narrative, character and world to tell my story with but then I backtracked on this idea I had a few weeks ago about a videogame. ‘What if Vincent Van Gogh mental illness was contextualised through the lens of his paintings?’ The main premise of the game would be for Vincent to go about creating his paintings, but the catch is that he would have to find the appropriate location and visual information in order to begin painting them. While doing this he would be plagued with visions of monsters perhaps and voices that would warp his perception into the style of his paintings, causing him to become anxious etc.
Now, I do not feel that I am in the position to talk about mental health and any mental illnesses that Vincent might have had, so I want to re-contextualise that idea of telling stories based on already existing paintings, or setting a story in a collection of paintings.
Readers might be able to choose one of two paintings at the end of each segment and I would then base the next instalment on the most popular painting. Another idea I had was that readers would be able to give positive or negative prompt words that would influence the events of the next part, but that would require more thinking on the author’s (my) behalf as I would like for the readers to have a greater but more nebulous influence on the story.
‘The everyday’ lends itself to a multitude of avenues to explore. Seeing as I am more inclined to produce a work based on narrative, I would like to explore the idea of an interactive storytelling experience. One where I would write segments of a story and at intervals I would offer the readers a choice which would decide the fate of the protagonist.
Upon discussing my idea in my tutorial I remembered how last term’s project did not receive the desired attention online, so I am not sure how I will get enough engagement this time round. Creating instagram posts did not garner enough attention, but I find that stories are easier to respond to and more interactive. Being able to interact with readers/online audience is important for this idea to work.
Initially I wanted to come up with a completely original narrative, character and world to tell my story with but then I backtracked on this idea I had a few weeks ago about a videogame. ‘What if Vincent Van Gogh mental illness was contextualised through the lens of his paintings?’ The main premise of the game would be for Vincent to go about creating his paintings, but the catch is that he would have to find the appropriate location and visual information in order to begin painting them. While doing this he would be plagued with visions of monsters perhaps and voices that would warp his perception into the style of his paintings, causing him to become anxious etc.
Now, I do not feel that I am in the position to talk about mental health and any mental illnesses that Vincent might have had, so I want to re-contextualise that idea of telling stories based on already existing paintings, or setting a story in a collection of paintings.
Readers might be able to choose one of two paintings at the end of each segment and I would then base the next instalment on the most popular painting. Another idea I had was that readers would be able to give positive or negative prompt words that would influence the events of the next part, but that would require more thinking on the author’s (my) behalf as I would like for the readers to have a greater but more nebulous influence on the story.
[…] a text’s unity lies not in its origin but in its destination. The reader is simply “that someone” who holds together in a single field all the traces by which the written text is constituted.
Barthes, 1977. p. 148
Some research into artists who engage with their audience might be appropriate here…
A good first post Matthew, lots to think about here. Firstly I wonder what lead you to think about using Van Gogh’s paintings? you don’t mention your thoughts on this in the post? why not paintings by any painter? why paintings? why not other art works, or why not songs or novels? I can see that the question lays in how to get audiences to interact, it can take a long time to create a following, consistent posting on the same project can work but you don’t have time, how about individual invitations, so asking specific people each time, the opposite of social media – an intimate, personal, specific approach. You could chose a wide variety of people form different backgrounds, cultures, ages.. this research could be interesting in itself, you could then also think carefully about the nature of the invitation. Look at Sophie Calle’s project with Paul Auster and his novel – a writer and artist collaboration. Look at the book Documents of Contemporary Art – Participation for examples of participatory work – its in the library and the CA Reading Room (for reading in the room only).