Untitled(Mornington Crescent)

Untitled(Mornington Crescent) from sam hipwell on Vimeo.

Or on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhCczbEN8Rw

Untitled(Mornington Crescent, 2011, Video, 2:31

This video is a tribute to several television and radio programs from British and American culture, which have played a part in the development of the artist through his life. The main part of the video revolves around the act of making and drinking tea, with this act being carried out by the objects themselves. The use of stop-motion animation has several links with in the cultural context from old television shows like Bagpuss and Clanger's which where children animation show, which even with their short run; have become part of the building block of kids entertainment within Britain. Stop-motion allows the personification of object's, this act of personification only happens to this level within the realm of stop-motion, as other forms of animation use replica or generated objects. In stop-motion thought it is the real objects and in so creates a deeper link with the audience and a stronger sense of reality and the looking into the secret world of objects. This looking into the secret would of objects happens with in a lot of Jan Svankmajer's work mainly in the short video called “A Quiet Week in the House”(1969), in his work he uses a lot of stop-motion animation to give life to objects which allows him to have a greater connection with the audiences and the delivery of his idea's.

Another strong aspect of the video is the stereotype of BBC Radio 4 listeners, who are heavy tea and coffee drinkers and well educated. The video seeks to honour the BBC radio 4 show called “I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue”, which is a panel show were the main goal is to have fun and a laugh by weird comments and taking the mickey out of other shows. As this show has been running since the 70's there is a large level of alienation on newer viewers due to the use of running jokes and rounds that may be a comment on a show that isn't broadcast any more. This alienation has been incorporated into this video, by the use of some of the jokes from the self-deprecating humour to the use of the swanee whistle and kazoo for the sound track.

The sound track is a mix of a British music and comedy tradition and an American horror and television show tradition. The sound track is the Gonk by H. Chappel, but using the swanee whistle and kazoo to preform it. This song is used in some point (usually in the end credits) in most zombie and at the end of 'Robot Chicken', it has the connotation of a dystopia future where an event has happened that dramatically changed the courses of human progression. This song can be seen as the removal of humanity where the objects and nature is left and they take over. With both playing large roles in popular culture at the moment. This idea of a dystopia dark future also occurs in the Timothy & Stephen Quay short film called “Streets of Crocodiles” (1986), where the whole action is played out by dolls in a dark and dusty area.

Our cultures and the Remix

These 2 videos are from the TED website, they both take a look at the world's government and organizations view on copyright in light of the fair use and creativity. Both people talk about the Creative Commons as an example of how we can deal with modern creativity and the role of the author or creator of the content.

In our current world the music and film industry are trying to destroy or at least control the copying or remixing of their item's (which they distribute and hold the rights to) These action goes agents the digital world and the younger generations as they have been bought up in the environment and learning the skills which allow them to remix the materials. This fair use and remixing has happened all through our culture at different times, from Disney to present day political campaigns. We live in a world which is interlinked with pop culture and historic culture, which allows symbolism of all different mediums to occur; this has increased to a point where people understand and engage with society only through this symbolism, such as the internet with meme's.

So this cracking down on the out dated ideas of copyright maybe destroying our future ability to understand the world around us and to preform creative acts.

Granville Internet Connection

To download file click here

This work is a collection of different sound clips that have been recorded from everyday life. The composition of the clips have been arranged in a very choppy short similar to that of flicking through tv channels or browsing the internet, where the user quickly goes from one place to another and only focusing on a particular item for only a few moments. The track also transfers between the left and right speaker, which has a felling of a conversation between the sounds or the movement of one's place in a particular area. With this movement the audience is able to explore the space in a different way.

The work has elements of UVA's (united visual artists) work called "Speed of Light" which was an installation using record sounds from different sources and the movement of lights. Part of the work has elements of the light searching around part of the installation, picking up different sounds and noises. The sounds jump quickly over and around the different noises appears to be a constantly evolving element as new sounds from the audience are being added every time it goes over the area. The location where the work has been positioned has elements of the work called "Lament for a Drowned Love" by the artist Susan Philipsz, this work is a sound recording of a story underneath "George V Bridge" in Glasgow. The two locations are both underneath a means of connecting to area's together, it is also an area where members of the public can walk and contemplate at any time with out restrictions.

Walking Thought

Walking the cities

Link to the album

To download the Google Earth tour file click here

To download the Google Earth kml file click here.


Walking Thought is a virtual map that documents a walk preformed on the 6th of March 2011 in response to the Tate Britain to Tate Modern walk in London, UK.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking” is a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, in this piece the premiss of the work is to engage in this idea by walking to think. With this practise rooted into Situationist International, Dérive work. As an element of the Dérive, the Situationist used to take a map from one city or location and traverse a different city with this map trying to get to a location on the map. This comparing of the two cities in this way creates a connection between them, which is only discovered when acting the route. Part of the Dérive was walking and drop people's usual motives for movement and actions in the city, in the hope of changing their relations to the terrain and the encounters they find there. When seeing this piece in this context you understand that the combination of the two city images and the text it in an attempt to generate new way of thinking about the environment and how we engage with it.

The way this piece is set out and presented has elements of Sol LeWitt's 'Certificate for Wall Drawing' series, as the work sets out instructions on how to recreate and preform the work, it also shows the route and images of the way points. With the work giving out suggestions of thoughts through the text, could be seen to lead the participant in how they relate to the juxtaposing of the images. With the text being a poetic or quotation response to the images, hopefully this literature use is widely known in culture so it will allow the participants to engage fully with the work.

Review Of There/Here

In the art work called “There/here” by the artist Germaine Koh and Gordon Hicks, physically there is only two doors which have been linked together using technology. A door is an object that allows people to enter or exit when open, and denies enter or exit when closed while it is closed the door gives a sense of security and safety. While in this work these functions of the doors have been warped, as these doors are in the centre of the room with no connections to the wall or objects, they just stand there in their frames. This removes all their functions and leaves them as basic levers. This doors have a digital element to them as both doors have become synchronised with each other, through the internet, this means what ever you do to one door occurs to the other and vice versa. This arrangement creates a heterotopia with in the digital aspect, a heterotopia is a concept of space that function in non-hegemonic conditions. Which means there physical location does not change or effect the space, in this work the space is with in the digital dimension. With this in mind these door do act as door with the user allowed to open and close the door into the heterotopia.

This situation the doors synchronising makes the user when opening one door to feel a presents on the other door. This interaction with the doors seem to be an act of play as people could take it in turn to open and close the door, and play with the situation of trying to see if the door will always open for them when they touch one. This notion of play will be a instant reaction to the work, once this notion has been pasted the audience can fully interact with the piece. This type of learning curve is similar to what happens in technology, when a person first gets something new they play with it and try to work out what happens when they do something. It is a bottom to top action of learning, when you try something out and hope it works. When they have pasted this stage then the audience knows the relationship between the actions and use them to accomplish the tasks. This work is sited completely in new technology habits, with each part of the relationship engaging with the new ideas of the time. With the act of synchronising between the doors, makes the physical actions of the audience converted from a physical action to a cloud basted process which is then used on the door.

The cloud is when a computer system as been places on a web server so can be accessed anywhere in the world it is a heterotopia personal computer, where someone can place their work privately and hopefully securely. This notion of the cloud has become an important aspect of technology in the last few months. Specially with the wikileaks controversy, the idea that anything can be places on the internet and be displayed and used either privately or publicly depending on how it is setup is now in doubt as anything in the cloud removes the original authors permissions and protection of it. This makes any private information public without restrictions. This idea that the private actions of the audience's body movements in opening the door is changed into a public action as the other door is opened and it has become recorded in the cloud. This relationship can allow multiple members of the audience to interaction with each other and create a relationship between each other as their actions become a subject of public pleasure watching each the people interaction and preform for them and the computer.

Freedom and Privacy

Eben Moglen could be seen as one of the most important individuals in the FLOSS/foss community. He is currently a Professor of Law at "Columbia University", also the Director-Counsel and Chairman of "Software Freedom Law Center". Up until recently he has been a board member and general counsel for the "Free Software Foundation", in this role he helped develop the "GNU General Public License version 3". On the 5th of February 2011 he founded the "Freedom Box Foundation". This foundation is to prevent the centralization of personal information into large organisations like Facebook and other organizations, but instead to allow people to hold onto their private information and control it.
The youtube video below is from his talk at ISOC-NY on the 5th of Feburary 2010. This video discusses his idea's and concerns of our privacy and freedoms on the internet.

Diva 200 - UoQR Final

“UoQR” 2011, Vinyl Cut.
This compares the difference between a educational system similar to what was descriped in Sir Thomas More's Utopia with an actual institution. University of Openness (Uo) is an online social organized ideal university, that is based on an utopian ideal of “All Students are Teachers and vice versa” (UoCharter 2), with this university only having an online presents, it allows it to be structured in the relevant way. The placing of this banner is within the grounds of another institution, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, which is based at a physical location. As Uo has been displayed with in the Emily Carr premiss it give Uo a fake tangible like between the real and virtual education system, while giving it authority and statues in both worlds. This tangible bridge between the real and virtual world is created by the use of a QR-code, which is part of the banner's design. With in the book “Utopia” by Sir Thomas Moore, it describes a process of constant education for all citizens of “Utopia” through their entire life, with an emphasise on a free and open exchange of idea; as long as no one is forcing there idea's onto another person . Uo in some was can achieve this ideal, due to it's campus on the internet which does allow this ideal of “Utopia” education to be accomplished. Compared to the current educational system which is implemented around there world, with this being structured around hierarchies of knowledge.

These differences between the two structures change once the Uo has a physical place within the world. Uo will now have physical limitations, which previously it didn't have like the restriction of space and members. While Uo has a forged campus it displaces the actual institution by removing part of it's physical location. This act of overwriting something physical by the virtual can be see to be an element of the future, if you buy into science fiction's predictions. Utopia also plays a large role in depicting the future, as it is the place of perfection which does not existence. The artist want to bring these utopian idealism in to this area, as these idealism are used there is the idea of a marxism that can be constructed because the original utopian system has properties of marxism. This bringing of a marxist idea in to an increasingly hegemonic capitalist structure brings out some of the problems which are being encouraged by government change of position on the importance of higher education in our society. These problems include the funding of higher education and it's social standing.