Transmedia 2002 / 03 Dossier Valerie Swain 188 rue Terre Neuve 1000 Brussels Belgium Tel 02/ 503 09 75 Email swain_valerie@hotmail.com Table of Contents Introduction page 1 Artistic Concerns and Trajectory page 2 Stranding Research Proposal page 4 Welcome/ Designated Waiting Area One Text page 9 Sweat/Shiver Text page 10 Data Tapestries Text page 11 Previous Works page 12 Including: Did Fare Other Projects in Process page 12 Including: Screen Saver Series Collaborations in Process page 13 Including: Image and Narrative Project Contributions page 13 Including: Digitales 2002 – Sound Archives Choices at BSBbis Appendix I Curriculum Vitae Appendix II Netzspannung.org available only in print version – please see Selected Bibliography Appendix III Virtual Chora: Welcome available only in print version – please see Selected Bibliography Appendix IV Selected Bibliography Appendix V Sweat/Shiver Proposal available only in print version Valerie Swain page 1 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Introduction My focus during this year at Transmedia has been the further development of my work. I have been able to finish the work Welcome / Designated Waiting Area One, which is a further study of visual palindromes. This spring, I completed a funding proposal to the Canada Council for the Arts for the work Sweat/Shiver. This work is also based on the idea of the visual palindrome, but is a departure from my previous work in that it incorporates a programmed process rather than an interactive process. An important step in my studies here in Brussels has been my involvement with constant vzw. I began working with constant in January as a volunteer. During January, February and March I contributed to the Digitales 2002 archives by editing sound recorded during three of the Conferences. These files are now a part of the Digitales 2002 online archives, and can be downloaded for playback. http://www.constantvzw.com/cyberf/digitales2002/digi2.html, click on Sound Archives. My experience during the sound editing for the archives and my interest in the programs and feminist direction of constant led me to propose to them the stranding research project. I am pleased to continue working with constant over the next year in the development of a prototype for their archives. Valerie Swain page 2 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Artistic Concerns and Trajectory One of the most important aspects in my work is the function of image reversal, or rewinding. I use this primarily to challenge expected readings of an image. This use of reversal is situated in a strategy of ambiguity and shifting perspectives, in which I seek to disrupt focus on the image in order to bring it into the context of the space the viewer occupies. The initial example of this in my work can be seen in the installation Fare (2001)in which the relationship between the site and the reading the actions of the woman is one of ambiguity. The most recent manifestation of this is my use of visual palindromes in works such as Did (2002), and Welcome/ Designated Waiting Area One (2003). The term palindrome can be defined as: running back again, recurring. Palindromes are usually manifest in language, as a word or phrase that can be read in the same way both backward and forward. The visual palindrome presents the same gesture recorded in movement, or the same footage, played both backward and forward. In terms of what has been witnessed or recorded, the images are identical. However, this identical image can be understood simultaneously with different meanings if the image is playing forward or in reverse. There is no conclusive reference point as to which way a gesture has been recorded, and as such there is no reference to an event as understood based on the act of recording. The reference point of an image is the connection made between the image which appears during playback and the event which has been recorded, and a lack of conclusive reference point opens up the image to multiple readings. If the reference point of the image is unclear, then the clues for the meaning of the palindrome shift from the image as a source of information to the viewer. One can construct the meaning of the image with a greater reliance on their experience as a source for information. The gestures that become visual palindromes are unspectacular. They are gestures which produce mirror images when reversed, which makes it possible to reverse them with continuity. My intention is not to present the palindromes or images in a sensual or erotic way. The focus is on the mundane or daily gesture and the possibility of reading that gesture. I approach my work from a feminist position. Broadly stated, a feminist approach means consistently rethinking production, representation, and circulation in terms of historical and present positioning and conditions of women in an effort to disrupt power discrepancies. In terms of my practice, this approach means developing an awareness of the potential of both physical and conceptual space to create an opening through which these discrepancies can be challenged. Visual palindromes are related to this because they do not offer one a conclusive reference point, and as such do not close the image to a master reading. Within feminism, this can be considered in terms of one’s location as an embodied subject. The use of images of the body Valerie Swain page 3 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 that are not easily attributed to either gender in the Did and Sweat/Shiver videos also reflects these considerations. Images of the body in art ‘are easily retrieved and co-opted’ for partriarchal readings, and one strategy I use for resisting that co-option is to present an image that is deliberately ambiguous. I use the word approach to indicate the way I formulate my process, rather than how I anticipate the outcome: my work is based in feminism as a practice, it is not about feminism. I endeavour to uncover the dynamics of space from a feminist approach not to consider solely female production, but to rather join the importance of feminism to the way space is perceived in a broader sense. In my work, programmed processes and interactivity are used as a means of rethinking the boundaries between production, consumption, and representation. The distinction between programmed processes and interactivity in one of input: programmed processes are systems which are closed to external stimulation. With interactivity, I see the relationship between the viewer, the interaction, and the image as one of surplus in that there is more information available within the system than the interactive process can channel. Interactivity is used in the installations Did and Welcome/ Designated Waiting Area One. I use programmed processes, on the other hand, as a tool to create controlled surplus to propose possibilities. An example of my use of a programmed process can be seen in the proposal for Sweat/Shiver. Presently, I am following a new direction in my work with the research project Stranding, and the data tapestries project. Both relate to my previous work in their preoccupation with the idea of the reference point, but in these cases the structure of information is the focus rather than the act of recording an image as such. Valerie Swain page 4 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Stranding Resarch Proposal Contact: Valerie Swain 188 rue Terre Neuve 1000 Brussels Tel. 02/503 09 75 Email swain_valerie@hotmail.com Partner constant vzw Proposed Research Duration: 8 months Total Budget 7984 euros Valerie Swain page 5 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Stranding The stranding research project aims to develop a prototype information structure for the archives of constant vzw based on a critical and theoretical understanding of archives, both as singular documents and as systematic structures. Valerie Swain page 6 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 The objective of the stranding research project is to develop a prototype information structure for the archives of constant vzw. My aim is to develop a critical and theoretical understanding of archives, both as singular documents and as systematic structures. Together with this, it is my intention to research archives in order to develop an understanding of the archive within a feminist context. Finally, I aim to explore how this understanding can affect archival practice. I endeavour to consider archives from a feminist approach not to consider solely the place of the feminine within the archive, but to rather join the importance of feminism to considering archival structures in a broader sense. My proposed method is to begin with the critical examination of archival models, followed by a study of archives from a feminist approach ( For more detail about my conception of a feminist approach see my motivation statement). This can mean in specific terms, for example the singular document, or it can mean the conceptual and contextual basis for the entire system. I intend to move from theoretical models to practical experiments conducted to explore how theory impacts practice. The trajectory of the stranding project will be available for viewing and public input online at http://www.constantvzw.com/stranding. In an effort to clarify the proposed scope of my research, I suggest as a departure point a consideration of the role of referencing within the archive. This consideration of referencing relates to my previous work with respect to the reference point of an image and the role of the viewer. What interests me is the relation between the user and the referred event, artifact, or document, and how this affects the context of the archival system. In the case of archives, we can begin to see the archive user as a sort of collaborator, bringing to the archival structure their memory and desire as part of the constructing process of the archive. Memory and desire are of particular interest to my research. They have played an important part in recent writing about both archives and feminism, and as such provide a rich source of possibilities for further study. Arjun Appadurai in his paper ‘Archive and Aspiration’ discusses the connection between neuro-memory, social memory and desire as they relate to the capacity to aspire among migrant groups. The relation he sees between these concepts and archives is thus: ‘ Archives, viewed as active and interactive tools for the construction of sustainable identities, are important vehicles for building the capacity to aspire among those groups who need it most.’ Desire in a feminist context, particularly that of sexual difference feminism, emphasises ‘the political importance of desire as opposed to the will, and of its role in the constitution of the subject.’ Desire in this sense specifically refers to the desire of the subject to be. In my view, the stranding project can be seen to straddle these two ideas by incorporating a political involvement in feminism with the construction of the archive: conceived here as a tool ‘for the construction of sustainable identities’ . Although the focus of these two writings are different, I believe that there are enough intersections between the two theories to warrant a closer look. In terms of a feminist approach to archive systems, what particularly interests me is the contradiction that documents or artifacts in an archive are presented as disengaged from any social influence or context while simultaneously referencing past events. I am interested in the possibility that archives have buttressed a distorted conception of historical stability through this contradiction. Also of interest to my research is the possibility that contested terms within Valerie Swain page 7 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 feminist debates such as authority and neutrality could be thought of as encoding power discrepancies under a cover of universality within the archival structure. Several elements make up the archive system. These can be divided into three overlapping categories: - the basis, non-divisible elements such as the object, or document - the network of the archive, which includes the collection of objects - the object both as a reference and as a physical element - and the information structure. Overlying these are the contextual frame, the modes(s) of access, and the sense of the purpose of the archive. I am interested in how community and individual influence the contextual frame, if at all, and how this influence can be analysed as part of a feminist approach to theorising archive systems. This is coupled with a feminist approach to the construction of the archive prototype, forming a link between theory and practice. One project that seems particularly promising to my research direction is the current research into digital archives being undertaken by the netzspannung project . The term stranding can mean either the act of bringing filaments together to make an intricate whole, or to bring into or leave in a difficult position. The first definition is equated with craft, a term that has a long association with women’s activity in the visual arts. I have chosen to relate the stranding project with the idea of craft in part as a reference to this association, but more importantly to emphasise the roots of the archive in embodied production. By this I mean that the idea of a hand-crafted archive appeals to me for the possibilities it opens into thoughts about the place of the community and individual, in short ideas about the archive user, in archival systems. Stranding, as the act of bringing into or leaving in a difficult position, presupposes one of the characteristics of the archive prototype: that of an archive that demands a distinct level participation from the user. Valerie Swain page 8 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Stranding Budget Materials ( books, CD’s, disks, stationary, etc.) 700 euros Travel ( Conferences x 3 approx.) 1500 euros Living Expenses (650 euros per month x 8) 5200 euros Post, telephone, fax (25 euros per month x 8) 200 euros Internet (48 euros per month x 8) 384 euros Total 7984 euros Valerie Swain page 9 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Welcome/ Designated Waiting Area One Welcome/ Designated Waiting Area One is a responsive video installation. Its placement is in a public space which is habitually crossed by commuter traffic. The video image projected within this space is of a woman opening and closing the front door of a house. The video is played through a process in MaxMSP which gathers the sound produced by passing commuters to alter the speed of playback of the video. Thus a louder, or approaching sound begins the playback, and as the sound recedes the playback slows and then stops. This process also alternates playing the video forwards and then backwards, so that as the video reaches the end, it begins to play in reverse, and as it reaches the beginning, forward play begins again. Welcome/ Designated Waiting Area One grew primarily from a consideration of public and private space. It is a reflection on the place of agency and hospitality in public and private spaces and how femininity is implicated at the intersection of these spaces. Public and private spaces in this context refer to the delineation between the common urban space and the home. The visual palindrome created by the woman opening and closing the door is an observation of welcoming as an act of hospitality. Hospitality in Welcome/ Designated Waiting Area One is seen as an action which requires that in order to give welcome, or to provide hospitality, it is necessary to provide openness, passivity, and unconditional acceptence of the other. This visual palindrome acts as a starting point for a deliberation of the relationship between the passivity of the other and one’s personal comfort and feeling of safety. Valerie Swain page 10 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Sweat/Shiver * Sweat/Shiver is a digital video installation. The images in the video range in one shot from skin sweating through skin in a normal state to skin shivering with raised hairs and goosebumps. This shot will focus closely on the detail of the skin. The image of the skin is framed in such a way that it is not recognisable as belonging to any specific body part, and so that the edge of the skin makes a horizon line against the background. The video is played though a process designed in MaxMsp which alternates playing the video forwards and then backwards, so that as the video reaches the end, it begins to play in reverse, and as it reaches the beginning, forward play begins again. This process also randomly alters the speed of playback of the video, both as it is running forwards and in reverse. The video is presented on a lcd display of a laptop, mounted in a casing and attached to the wall. Additional lighting in the space shifts from brighter to darker, and darker to brighter, regulated as part of the digital process. The lighting shift corresponds to the video shift from sweat to normal, or from shiver to normal, in time frame but not in sequence. This means that for example the lighting will not always be brighter during the sweat sequence of the video, and vice versa. Sweat/Shiver is a visual palindrome with two exits, situated where the reference point of an image, one’s experience, and the potential meanings of the image intersect. The Sweat/Shiver palindrome is proposed as a vehicle for potential meanings. The random process in Sweat/Shiver is used as a tool with no fixed reference point which proposes different readings. The alteration of the lighting in the installation affects one’s perception of the space, contributing to the process of proposing potential readings. * Sweat/Shiver has been proposed for funding to the Canada Council for the Arts and is awaiting a decision in June, 2003. To read the proposal in full, please see Appendix IV. Valerie Swain page 11 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Data Tapestries Data tapestries is a translation of images of computer data into a woven medium. Through a web page, people are invited to email me images of their computer data in fragmented and defragmented states. These images can be gathered by choosing print screen when one is using defragmenting software (such as Norton Utilities). The images will then be translated into a pattern and woven using thread into two tapestries: one of fragmented data, the other of defragmented data. The web page and email address will be available indefinitely, and thus the tapestries will continue to grow as for as long as I receive new contributions. Valerie Swain page 12 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Previous Works DID 2002 Located in a collective film editing room, this installation responded to the sounds produced by both students working in the room and those who had come specifically for the installation. The sounds were gathered by two microphones placed in the middle of the room, which were attached to two hidden computers. Sounds which reached a volume threshold, namely that created by active discussion or by the film edit equipment, caused two moving images projected onto opposing screens to freeze their motion, thereby momentarily becoming stills. This freezing can be seen in relation to the editing process. The images were of women performing the mundane, daily gestures of dressing and undressing. Both images were looped into a visual palindrome, and it was impossible to tell which way the gestures had actually been recorded. This installation grew out of a desire to explore the shifting purpose of a venue as a site of production and consumption and the dynamics of elements which advance or recede within that space. FARE 2001 Industrial stairwells inspire apprehension. Often they are the site of terrifying scenes during popular films or on television. Presumably, they are as dangerous as they are portrayed. The video installation FARE was placed in the basement level of an industrial stairwell. A video loop of a woman, crouching and breathing heavily, was projected onto a small wall under the stairs. The image was placed so that it would be discovered by chance. The relationship between the site and the reading the actions of the woman is one of ambiguity. Is the woman crouching in fear, hidden for the moment from the predictable assailant? On the other hand, didn’t she just smile? The prosaic response, that the woman is about to be attacked, gives way to speculation. The clues that seemed so apparent become disparate and unimportant. At once, the video play stops and rewinds. The woman moves rhythmically back to her starting position, preparing herself over and over again. Other Projects in Process Screen Saver Series The screen saver series is a collection of text-based programs which can be downloaded and installed onto personal computers. These programs only run during the idle time of the computer. The aim of this project is to consider the possibilities of presenting and decoding written language in various time frames. Valerie Swain page 13 Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Collaborative Projects in Process Image and Narrative Project with Lise Van Tendeloo Using four found images as a departure point we plan to reflect on the potential of the narrative as collaboratively produced. Thus, Lise and I will focus on the development of the collaborative process as the fundamental characteristic of the project, rather than emphasising the final work. Contributions Digitales 2002 – Sound Archives Spring 2003 From January, 2003 to April 2003 I contributed to the archives of Digitales 2002 by editing the audio recordings of three conference speakers: Irina Aristarkhova - Hostages to Hospitality: The Case of Undercurrents Maria Fernandez - Globalisation and Women’s Networks Ruth Oldenziel - Crossing Boundaries, Building Bridges These sound files can be downloaded from the Digitales 2002 archives online at: http://www.constantvzw.com/cyberf/digitales2002/digi2.html, click on Sound Archives. Choices at BSBbis Spring 2003 For this event I contributed the programming of the video jukebox. This program allowed visitors to select various videos for projection in the event space. Valerie Swain Appendix I Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Valerie Swain 188 rue Terre Neuve 1000 Bruxelles 02-503-0975 valswain@hotmail.com education 2002 Transmedia Postgraduate Program Brussels, BE 1998 - 2002 Ryerson University Toronto, ON Bachelor of Fine Arts New Media Fall 1999 Universitiet Van Amsterdam Amsterdam, NL ECCIS Exchange Program exhibitions 2002 Ryerson University Toronto, ON Maximum Exposure Installation of DID 2002 ArtSystem Toronto, ON Funtitled Video Nude With Fruit #2 shown 2001 Universitč du Qučbec ŕ Montrčal Montrčal, QC ICV - Eleventh Edition Video Nude With Fruit shown on public monitor 2000 Ryerson Gallery Toronto, ON Second Year Show Presentation of photographs relevant experience 2003 constant vzw Brussels, BE Digitales 2002 Archive Contributor Responsible for editing three sound recordings from the Digitales 2002 Conferences: Irina Aristarkhova- Hostages to Hospitality: The Case of Undercurrents Maria Fernandez- Globalisation and Women’s Networks Ruth Oldenziel- Crossing Boundaries, Building Bridges 2000 - 2002 InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre Toronto, ON 2001 - 2002 Communications Coordinator Responsible for media and member relations. Duties included maintaining press and member databases, and editing the weekly axon newsletter. Coordinated and partnered in the production of the new InterAccess website at http://www.interaccess.org Developed comprehensive manuals as support for the new database system. Assisted for such exhibitions as: Between Time And Space (June 2001); F2F: New Media Art From Finland (September 2001); Estranged Body: The Work of Kinga Araya and Alternative Interfaces by Stelarc (October 2001); Alpha Girls (November 2001); Flow (April 2002); and Substance (May 2002) April 2002 Installation Coordinator Responsible for coordinating and overseeing the installation of Remain In Light by Haruki Nishijima for Flow as part of the Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, 2002. Remain In Light received the Best Installation Award 2000 - 2001 Archive Assistant Education initiative partnership between InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre and Ryerson University. Responsible for preserving and cataloguing archive material in both digital and original formats 2002 Arnaud Dejeammes at the Ryerson Gallery Toronto, ON _________ Artist assistant 2001 Nurun Toronto, ON Production Artist Worked closely with design team in realising website concepts. Duties included HTML mark- up of design templates, image production and compression, and preparing XML source files 2001 Ryerson Gallery Toronto, ON Abbott after Atget: Photographs of Paris and New York Participated in the preparation and installation of the exhibition Abbott After Atget: Photographs of Paris and New York as part of the Curation and Conservation course with David Harris 2001 Magali Desbazeille at the Ryerson Gallery Toronto, ON The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side Assisted in installation 1997-1999 Ryerson Women’s Centre Toronto, ON Resource Manager Responsible for maintenance and acquisition of resource material for the Women’s Centre. Contributed to the implementation of a new database filing and borrowing system. Valerie Swain Appendix IV Transmedia Dossier 2002/03 Selected Bibliography Aristarkhova, Irina. Virtual Chora: Welcome. http://www.aristarkhova.org. Braidotti, Rosi. Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming.Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art and Society. Third Edition. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 2002. Dekoven, Marianne ed. Feminist Locations: Global and Local, Theory and Practice. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Parker, Rozsika and Griselda Pollock. Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology.London: Pandora, 1981. Personal Narratives Group eds. Interpreting Women’s Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. Pollock, Griselda ed. Generations and Geographies in the Visual Arts: Feminist Readings. London: Routledge, 1996. Sawelson-Gorse, Naomi ed. Women in Dada: Essays on Sex, Gender, and Identity. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1998. V2_Publishing. Information is Alive: Art and Theory on Archiving and Retrieving Data. Rotterdam: V2_Publishing, 2003. http://www.netzspanning.org Rosi Braidotti speaks about this “ The politics of location refers to a way of making sense of diversity among women within the category of ‘sexual difference’ understood as the binary opposite of the phallocentric subject. In feminism, these ideas are coupled with that of epistemological and political accountability seen as the practice which that consists in unveiling the power locations which one inevitably inhabits as the site of one’s identity. The practice of accountability ( for one’s embodied and embedded locations) as a relational, collective activity of undoing power differentials is linked to two crucial notions: memory and narratives. They activate the process of putting into words, that is to say bringing into symbolic representation, that which by definition escapes consciousness.” Rosi Braidotti, Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming p. 12 Parker, Rozsika and Griselda Pollock Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology p. 130 Arjun Appadurai Archive and Aspiration p. 25 Rosi Braidotti, Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming p. 22 Arjun Appadurai Archive and Aspiration p. 25 See appendix II or http://www.netzspannung.org Parker and Pollock discusses the division of art forms based on sexual categorisation which emerges during the Rennaisance Parker, Rozsika and Griselda Pollock Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology pp 50 – 51 Please see appendix III Irina Aristarkhova Virtual Chora: Welcome p. 2