Screenshot Cameos of ‘After the Flood’; a project archived
(2025)
author(s): Mike Croft
published in: Research Catalogue
The project comprises text, location photos, photos of artworks, and video animations that record the experiences of a natural flood that affected house and studio. The project’s content is a consideration of the consequences of the flood towards an existing project in progress at the time and on existing finished artwork. The finished exposition had two unsuccessful reviews; the first due to insufficiently proposing a workable consideration of failure, the second for insufficient clarity of purpose. As this self-published iteration, screenshots taken from the original iteration as formatted on the RC are overlaid with short summaries of aspects of the project’s content, in terms pertaining to both the staining of the flood water and the often unacknowledged writing, re-writing, and over-writing of whatever is the language basis of one's practice. The screenshots, as simulated text-and-image cameos, have the summaries ranged next to them as legible text. The original submitted project is archived though accessible as a PDF only, along with its supplementary papers and video clips.
Thirty Artwork Iterations (Daily through February and into March, 2025)
(2025)
author(s): Mike Croft
published in: Research Catalogue
The project began as a commitment to 30/30, an initiative offered by Artquest, where subscribing artists were required to upload a new artwork to a 30/30 dedicated platform on a daily basis though the month of February and into March, 2025. The response formatted as this exposition is variations of text, image, and video animation, archived as still-image iterations mostly sized at 21 x 29.5cm and hyperlinked videos of up to two-minutes’ running time.
The works’ content wavers between anecdotal and academic/theoretical. (Artquest issued non-obligatory collective prompts at the start of each day, which is in this case sometimes either used.) Any texts from each iteration have been copied to a companion page and corrected, rephrased or explained. The iterations play with oscillation between text and image, where the look of text under these circumstances becomes more noticeable while retaining much of its readability.
Theoretical reading during the project had been Isabelle Stengers's book on the philosopher A. N. Whitehead, which is variously referenced in the iterations. At the same time, the author’s recent interest in a question of adaptability of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's Logical Square to the question of the artistic research process is referenced. Given that the theories of these two authors do not in any obvious sense relate, their conflation in a sense holds their function in the iterations open to question, analogous to how one reflects on interests in and through one's visual practice.
While the 30/30 structure required daily decision-making and action, any one iteration tended to be of consequence to the next, which afforded continuity of duration to the project.
THE BLACK MANA AND THE EVIL SPIRIT OF THE COBBLESTONES
(2019)
author(s): Gian Luigi Biagini
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
This hyperstitional text describes the Disturbanist practice of the Anartist, that consists in subversive urban interventions on the edge of politics and counter-sorcery. Drawing on the theory of post-structuralist philosophers, it focuses particularly on artworks made with black cobblestones. This material, taken as symbolic concentrate of "black mana", evil spirits and spectral antagonist mythology is remodulated in provocative installations and interventions. The text shows also how the intensification of repetition of gestures, materials, symbols and forms can generate a singular territory-refrain based on a transpersona that - at its hyperstitional limit-unfolding - could resist, infect and counter-attack the Integrated Spectacle of Capitalism.
MY PUBLIC STAGE
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Ioannis Karounis
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
"My Public Stage" is not merely an artistic practice; it is a dynamic fusion of performance art and civic engagement that transcends conventional boundaries. At its core, this practice navigates the intricate relationship between the artist and the public sphere, offering an unconventional perspective on how art can reshape our understanding of the world.
The essential aspect of this artistic journey lies in the intentional placement of artistic interventions and performances within public spaces, where the encounter with viewers is not a predetermined spectacle but a meeting. This deliberate approach seeks to dissolve the traditional separation between the artist and the individual, fostering a unique connection that is spontaneous and genuine.
I view public space as not only a material but also a social environment that is produced, reshaped and restructured by the citizens through their experiences, their intentions for action and the relations they develop in it. My project draws on Lefebvre’s (2019) approach to urban public space not as a neutral container of social life, but as a fluid entity, both constructed and produced by social practices. Lefebvre’s approach confirms and expands my view that public space is not fixed, yet it requires a conscious effort to intervene in its production.
The philosophy driving "My Public Stage" aligns with the concept of civic engagement. By presenting long durational performances in the heart of everyday life, the artist consciously assumes the role of a creator, using performance art as a medium to unveil the interconnected elements that bridge art with life. This philosophy echoes the sentiment of Joseph Beuys, who believed that everyone is an artist, actively sculpting the intricate sculpture we call life.
In embracing the public sphere as its canvas, this practice transcends the conventional boundaries of art and daily reality. It becomes a catalyst for a different perspective on how individuals perceive and engage with their surroundings. The transformative power of performance art is harnessed to reveal the latent artistic potential within each person, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between art and life.
Optimistic Criticism: A Work in Progress
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): James Wood
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
An introduction to and for myself as an attempt to more clearly define what I am calling Optimistic Criticism.
Frustrated with limited teleological analysis in any form, this evolving, never finished exposition is a postcard of my critical perspective. More postcards will be sent when I travel to different shores, but my home berth will be here.
This hyperstitional text describes the Disturbanist practice of the Anartist, that consists in subversive urban interventions on the edge of politics and counter-sorcery. Drawing on the theory of post-structuralist philosophers, it focuses particularly on artworks made with black cobblestones. This material, taken as symbolic concentrate of "black mana", evil spirits and spectral antagonist mythology is remodulated in provocative installations and interventions. The text shows also how the intensification of repetition of gestures, materials, symbols and forms can generate a singular territory-refrain based on a transpersona that - at its hyperstitional limit-unfolding - could resist, infect and counter-attack the Integrated Spectacle of Capitalism.open exposition comments (1)
An introduction to and for myself as an attempt to more clearly define what I am calling Optimistic Criticism. Frustrated with limited teleological analysis in any form, this evolving, never finished exposition is a postcard of my critical perspective. More postcards will be sent when I travel to different shores, but my home berth will be here.open exposition comments (0)