June '14 Residency Summary

For my second residency I brought a body of work that moved in a vastly different direction from what I came with into the program. In the new series, I was interested in the camera's recording of the aesthetics of the passage of time and observing an urban environment's potential narrative. The following are the themes and issues that came up across critique sessions:

Conceptual:

• The lack of control/authorship is interesting.
• Refine the structure of the process before collaborating with other artists.
• Define the process conceptually with what I am trying to accomplish.
• There is not enough specificity.
• Define what I want to say about time, society or surveillance.

Viewer/Audience:

• How much does the viewer complete the work?
• There isn't enough payoff for the viewer.
• There is too much information.
• The series need to be translated with a focal point.
• I need to define what I want the viewer to walk away with.
• Viewers need more help to arrive at the conclusion that I desire. A title and description could be helpful. The artist statement should more effectively direct the viewer.

Display System:

• It needs to be more polished and worked out with more visual dynamism and sophistication.
• People said the book was more effective.

Moving forward:

• Continue to experiment more in different contexts.
• What really speaks to me?
• Get more complex.
• Take more risks in the location with higher stakes and a location with more meaning.
• Be accountable for everything static detail in the frame.
• Think about the installation.
• I need to engage in a process that works for me.
• I need to define my engagement in social space, whether that be with social media, a local community, or public and private space.
• What questions do I want to raise with the work?
• What is the significance of the location, time, or people?
• What is significant to me with what I'm exploring?
• What degree of engagement do I want with the people in the photos?
• Find a way to have a humanistic sense with generosity and community.

Artists:

Julia Cher, Robert Frank, James Bolog, Jan Dibbets, Roberth Smith, Pierre Huyghe, Zoe Leonard, Richard Mizrat, Sophie Calle, Trever Paylon, TJ Wilcox, Martin Kersels, Alan Sekula Soo Kim, Louis Boltz, John Dicola, Philip LiCordia, Teh Ching Shih, Dan Graham, Nakahira Takuma, Theaster Gates,

Rick Lowe, Steven Berens, Ed Ruscha, Roland Barthes “Mythologies”, Judith Williamson “Decoding Advertisements”, Structuralist photography, Serial photography, Harun Farocki, Carol Squires “What is a Photograph?”, Wolfgang Staehle.