"an hour of my time"/ 2019
Through an experiment involving YouTube, I seek to understand how I, as a user, respond to the information provided in the visual material found online.
I spent an hour of my time watching YouTube videos, resulting from a ‘poultry, warehouse’ search, allowing myself to browse intuitively through any of the algorithm’s suggestions.
The photographs taken from pausing then photographing YouTube suggested videos, led to a series of small sketches made in a ball pen. I was influenced here by what Nicholas Mierzoet said in his book “ How we see the world”:
“What we see with our eyes, it turns out, is less like a photograph than it is like a rapidly drawn sketch. Seeing the world is not about how we see but what we make of what we see. We put together an understanding of the world that makes sense from what we already know or think we know.”
My mixed media collection is made by repetitive layering and wiping off the coats of paint, soft pastel charcoal. Through breaking down the barrier between drawing and painting, I aim to make the viewer question where the line between reality and fiction lies.
"18:03/1:46:41"/ 2018
The triptych featured in my MA Final Show 2018 is based on the photos taken of the YouTube documentary entitled "Lucent 2014". Lucid is a feature-length documentary which explores the darker side of Australia's pig farming industry through a combination of hand-held and hidden camera footage, highlighting the day-to-day cruelty accepted by the industry as standard practice. By applying the processes I developed recently, such as; allowing distractions to affect my working routine, through working in undesirable conditions, repetitive layering, using imagery taken from the documentary ( including distractions such as advertisement), and also applying repetitive sanding action in between applying imagery, I aim to focus viewers attention on the imperfection of our perception of the online learning experience.
Noticing the limitations I accounted while watching "Lucent 2014'', such as my inability to watch the whole documentary, distractions created by the digital experience, multitasking and short attention span made me question the reliability of my understanding of the subject. As Susan Greenfield mentioned in her book " Mind Change. How digital technologies are leaving mark on our brains", the high multitasking culture seems to enable us to ignore the information which is not relevant or important.
"After YouTube" / 2018Heading 1
This series is the result of my interest in Karpman' s Drama Triangle theory saying that both oppressor, victim and the rescuer interchange their roles within the drama triangle. The source material for this painting was as a result of extensive research of YouTube documentaries where I settled on a single image of the body of a young boy lying on the beach, following the Myanmar genocide. The lack of clarity in the photograph I took from the screen, when taken out of context, gave me room to explore the ambiguities of the role the subject could play in the Drama Triangle. Through screen printing and juxtaposition of two subjects: the screenshot of genocide and the screenshot from the video of cute kittens, I was also interested in exploring our relationship with the reality and fiction created by the digital world.
"After YouTube" Acetate Print / 2018
"After Karpman's" / 2018
This series is the result of my interest in the roles of oppressor, victim and rescuer and the interchange between roles within the Drama Triangle. This made me explore the ambiguity of the subject being portrayed. In this series, I have worked with screen printing, which allowed me to make the multiplied variations on one image found online. This repetition was inspired by me reading on the Repetition Compulsion theory created by Freud saying, that those who experienced trauma in their childhood, are most likely unconsciously look in their adult life, for the situations which will make them re-act the trauma, which is the way of remembering it. Both, Karpman's Drama Triangle and the Repetition Compulsion theory, came to my attention while doing the research on genocides and the behaviors the acute situations might result in. This invites to the reflection on the ambiguity and complexity of human behavior.
