Hon's indulgent reading spree and reflection on escapism.

Ensemble of books and magazines read.

artists books etc.

It’s almost a year since the renovations of my flat.  It’s been a while since my last blog entry. I have a new job, Director of the FADA Gallery (Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture), University of Johannesburg. We are weeks away from the opening of the 2014 Taiwan Ceramic Biennale - opening reception 2 May 2014.  My ceramic installation with projected animation titled, …….and the ship sails on, will form part of the Wendy Gers’ curated exhibition. I will also do a presentation at the symposium – my talk is titled, Surfaces in a digital age: beyond the gloss. Needless to say, I have been very busy. My greatest concern has been the fact that I have not spent much time drawing or developing the concepts for my next artwork.

 

Latest books read, Siegfried Sassoon a biography by
Max Egremont, Coke, the biography by Natalia Naish &
Jeremy Scott.

Last year I provided insight into my latest work – an artists book, illustrating the work of Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature (A Rebours). I have read two English translations of this literary classic, that in the words of the author Baldick, exploded ‘like a meteorite’ and has enjoyed a cult following ever since. Reading the introductions and prologue to these translations, including reviews and responses to Against Nature, evoked a variety of creative ideas. 

But more importantly, I have also read numerous books, biographies and autobiographies of historical figures whose recluse lives are strikingly similar. More specifically, their lives echo the need to seek adventure, to withdraw from boring society, reality and embrace the unknown, the otherworldly, and for me ultimately ‘virtual paradise’ (Arcadia). This should be seen in the context of my creative aim captured in the following statement.

My creative intention is to draw parallels between one of my most inspiring reads ever, Joris-Karl Huysman’s Against Nature (a Rebours) and contemporary life – seen in the context of a information age and cyberspace. Analogies will be drawn between the main character in Huysman’s book, named Des Esseintes, in particular his response to life at the end of the 19^th century. 

In describing the situation, Patric McGuiness wrote in the introduction of one of the translations in my possession, ‘that the Romantic heroes had travelled to exotic places in search of themselves, only to discover that it was themselves they were trying to escape (McGuinness: xviii).’ In the Hero’s case, ‘the quest terminates indoors, the final bastion of the privacy that feeds on itself until there is nothing left’.(McGuinness: xviii).

During the renovations I stayed in a friend’s flat, very close by. The stunning apartment had no TV, or Internet access and as yet I had no smart phone. For three months, even when I moved in to my partly renovated space, I had to find alternative ways of entertaining myself. As the sun set during the cold winter months, the darkness made its presence felt. The apartment was set up on a hill, with a most spectacular view and sunsets. 

However when darkness fell, the mood shifted, every second of every minute brought on a discomforting spell, boosted by the lack of access to new media.  I took to reading in a big way, escaping into a shared life of interesting characters including, the poet and adventurer Rimbaud, the artist Gauguin, art theorist and spy, Anthony Blunt, the eccentric Stephen Tennant and Edmund White’s autobiography titled, My Lives. 

I read as soon as I made and ate dinner (normally before six pm), read until about ten o’clock. Went to sleep and continued reading when I woke up between three and four am. Very soon I got into a routine. Weekends presented more time to read as I escaped into these fascinating lives lived. 

a step by step ballpoint pen drawing titled, Sink or Sail - a metaphorical folly illustrating social relations totally mediated by the Internet.

This post depicts my current interest in illustrating the absurdity of navigating the Internet and the World Wide Web. The folded paper with circular holes and paddling oars depicts the  precarious and fragile nature of surfing the World Wide Web – especially the ‘time-wasting social [things]’ like Twitter, e-mail, Facebook and Web-surfing. 

The sail-shaped paper, hovers just above the twirling water, representing the vast expanse of the ocean - no land insight. The folded paper manifests the actual physical page (folded and pierced), aimlessly blowing in the wind – aligned to the fact that I am creating an artists book (a page in the book). Referencing the art of paper folding - traditionally called origami.  Suspended between the water and the sky it symbolically represents our physical space (the tangible) – reality if you like. 

The circular holes drawn in the paper represents virtual information spaces we frequently inhabit, in particular those individuals whose social lives are mediated by Facebook and texting - visit previous post tiled Hon's Artist book; abook with a face of loneliness - the paradox of social networking and alienation. 

Inserted into these holes are rowing oars that extend into space beyond the format of the square page. They cross over each other like pickup sticks, suspended in space before they collapse (idling time).  Instead of tracking in unison (and tacking in sailing) see definitions below, they add to the alienation of the individual (lost and distracted). Especially those individuals who are seeking fulfillment in a world where surfing the Internet takes priority over everything else. 

The blank spaces in the frenetic and colourful sky represent speech bubbles, illustrating voids left by un-fulfillment in the futile act of virtual engagement. This is a metaphorical folly for ‘sink or sail’ in a world where virtual engagement is being favoured above face-to-face conversation. 

This ballpoint pen drawing is ultimately an artist’s impression, illustrating the ever-increasing domination of social relations mediated by the Internet (addiction to be connected and noticed). With regard to the creating the artists book – I am exploring the impact of the ever-increasing number of virtual information spaces – it will lead to demise of the paper (increasing overlapping holes), and eventually the physical book itself.

Inspired by the patterns of visual data as illustrated in the books tilted Data Flow and Visual complexity mapping patterns of information by Robert Klanten (one of the editors) and Manuel Lima respectively. One in particular caught my attention titled us and them.

Community Marian Bantjies 2005,
cited in Visual Complexity Mapping Patterns of Information. page 181.

The word community usually makes us think of friends, allegiances, commonality and unity. But in any community there is necessarily a division between us and them. That which unites must also separate. It is often by defining them that we define ourselves.  

A diagram exploring the concept of community, specifically the ideas of inclusion and exclusion as they relate to geography, personal identification, interests and involuntary circumstance. (Cited in book Visual Complexity, Mapping Patterns of  information editor Manuel Lima 2011; 181)

Definition of tracking

Definition for tacking

4 Sailing an act of changing course by turning a boat’s head into and through the wind, so as to bring the wind on the opposite side.

a boat’s course relative to the direction of the wind: the brig bowled past on the opposite tack.

Hon's Artist Book; a book with a face of loneliness - the paradox of social networking and alienation.

Ballpoint pen drawing illustrating social navigation;
virtual information spaces and places accessed.
  

Living in an information age, with thriving digital technology and the growing impact of social media, presents new creative challenges, options and solutions for contemporary artists exploring artists books. It is in particular the studies of the 1990’s that interest me. Scholars termed it the “internet paradox”, the contradiction between an increased opportunity to connect and a lack of human contact. The question asked therefore is, does the Internet make us lonely, or are lonely people more attracted to the Internet - for more information follow the link to a report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and society, written by Stephen Marchie titled  Is Facebook making US Lonely

'Yet within this world of instant and absolute communication, unbounded by limits of time or space, we suffer from unprecedented alienation. We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are. We were promised a global village; instead we inhabit the drab cul-de-sacs and endless freeways of a vast suburb of information' (Stephen Marchie: May 2012).

One of the most noteworthy findings, they wrote,’ “was the tendency for neurotic and lonely individuals to spend greater amounts of time on Facebook per day than non-lonely individuals.” And they found that neurotics are more likely to prefer to use the wall, while extroverts tend to use chat features in addition to the wall (Stephen Marchie: May 2012).

The main character, Des Esseintes, in the book titled Against Nature – published in 1884, I am referencing for my artists book, withdraws from society. In his irritable state, sensitive to anything and everything, he dreamt of ‘a desert hermitage equipped with all modern conveniences, a snugly heated ark on dry land in which he may take refuge from the incessant deluge of human stupidity’. A new existence beckoned – he would immerse himself in the peaceful silence of his country retreat. The hero is impotent and misogynist – he seeks out even richer more dazzling and dangerous pleasures – becoming even more eccentric.  It brings out something of the theatrical director in him. What is more he has access to resources to indulge his vanities. The author depicts a world in which the main character withdraws from society (at the turn of the 20^th century) – a feeling prevalent amongst us at the dawn of the 21^st century. For most of us however, it is an opportunity to withdraw and connect via the Internet – a world awaits, beyond the constraints and boundaries imposed by emotional and physical limitations.

A considerable part of Facebook’s appeal stems from its miraculous fusion of distance with intimacy, or the illusion of distance with the illusion of intimacy. Our online communities become engines of self-image, and self-image becomes the engine of community. The real danger with Facebook is not that it allows us to isolate ourselves, but that by mixing our appetite for isolation with our vanity, it threatens to alter the very nature of solitude (noccolo and donkey; April of 2012)..

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, Des Esseintes, the novel’s hero, sleeps during the day, to take advantage of the still of the night – ‘holding that night afforded greater intimacy and isolation and that the mind was truly roused and stimulated only by awareness of the dark…….the world is dark, silent and dead. The information superhighway (social networks etc.) is a means to escape reality - surfing the net in search of self-fulfillment – in itself an alienating experience (withdrawing into ones own fortress).  The time of day is of no consequence when one surfs the superhighway.

'Among 18-to-34-year-olds, nearly half check out Facebook minutes after waking up, and 28 percent do so before getting out of bed. The relentlessness is what is so new, so potentially transformative. Facebook never takes a break. We never take a break. Human beings have always created elaborate acts of self-presentation. But not all the time, not very morning, before we even pour a cup of coffee' (noccolo and donkey; April of 2012).

It must be said that we are therefore lonely because we want to be lonely. We have made ourselves lonely. Robert D. Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone (published in 2000), attributed the dramatic post-war decline of social capital - the strength and value of interpersonal networks—to numerous interconnected trends in American life: suburban sprawl, television’s dominance over culture, the self-absorption of the Baby Boomers, the disintegration of the traditional family.

'Facebook, of course, puts the pursuit of happiness front and center in our digital life. Its capacity to redefine our very concepts of identity and personal fulfillment is much more worrisome than the data-mining and privacy practices that have aroused anxieties about the company. Solitude used to be good for self-reflection and self-reinvention. But now we are left thinking about who we are all the time, without ever really thinking about who we are. Facebook denies us a pleasure whose profundity we had underestimated: the chance to forget about ourselves for a while, the chance to disconnect'  (noccolo and donkey; April of 2012).

Two of the most compelling critics of Facebook—neither of them a Luddite—concentrate on exactly this point. Jaron Lanier, the author of You Are Not a Gadget, was one of the inventors of virtual-reality technology. His view of where social media are taking us reads like dystopian science fiction: “I fear that we are beginning to design ourselves to suit digital models of us, and I worry about a leaching of empathy and humanity in that process.” Lanier argues that Facebook imprisons us in the business of self-presenting, and this, to his mind, is the site’s crucial and fatally unacceptable downside (noccolo and donkey; April of 2012).

Huysmans books are full of retreats – exploring solitude, the yearning individual in a valueless world. He attempted a book that would banish that world. Central to the book is one decadent character referred to above. As an author Huysmans had a passion for reproducing and commissioning copies and more importantly he had a fine collection of finely bound books. He is a bibliophile – lover of book as object, overcomes the reader. The hero in his novel does not read, instead he is obsessed about the paper quality and the bindings.

Installation of Artists Books by Penny Payne.
Exhibited at FADA Gallery last week.
 2012 B Tech Visual Arts student.

In the context of my anticipated artists book, it is important to note that we live in a digital era, the impact of digital technology and other key influences are changing our environment in which information is sourced, processed and distributed. We therefore need to ask - will digital media change the dynamics of the book from an object, which is bound by a beginning, middle and an end? Tablets have also had a stronger negative impact on the market for hard copy magazines and books. 

The paradox referred to in the opening paragraph of this blog post (with reference to social media) can also be applied to the dissemination of information in the future – when we wish to read do we connect or disconnect with hardcopy in hand for the couch. The following study conducted in Australia anticipates the transformation of accessing and the dissemination of information, as we know it.

Installation of artists books by Penny Payne.
FADA B Tech Visual Arts Student.
2012 yearend exhibition.

Book as a cultural concept’ (cluster 1), ‘generational change’ (cluster 4) and ‘eBook and digital technology’ (cluster 5) have been used to identify the vertical axis for the matrix.  This looks at the way the cultural concept of the book is changing from traditional formats at the bottom of the axis to the transformative formats at the top. The workshops showed great interest in the potential for the book to be transformed in the future by the fluidity of its boundaries in a digital environment. The changes being seen include the way multi-media platforms may change the book’s content from traditional textual material supported by illustrations to a textual content that is ever-changing and supported by audio, video and content that is co-created by users in collaboration with authors and publishers. This axis therefore, addresses the significant uncertainties relating to the adoption of new technology and its transformative power – driven by generational change, the social media and the future of reading, which – among other things – may change the way consumers engage with books in their many different formats. An extract from a publication of an Authors and agents workshop held in February of 2011 in Australia.

The installation of artists books featured here is the work of Penny Payne, a B Tech student at the university of Johannesburg - exhibited at the FADA Gallery last week. The Cube installation represents the balance of the body, mind and soul. The tablets for each wall is intellect, psyche  and spirit.  Text from the artist's Statement at the exhibition.

Each wall has been created around specific experiences remembrances, discovery of identity and anxieties.  The book as an object becomes a symbolic format not only in being a container for stories but distorting and disfiguring the book to form a narrative itself. 

I use books frames and boxes to create pieces which portray a growth and an understanding of self and the struggle to find identity by transforming books from the past and constructing them into symbols and metaphoric images. The construction of this wall, with its infestation of book art, channels the search for my identity.