POSTMAKINGSENSE

In the starting phase of conceptualizing my final project, for the Authorship & Methodology class, I began by writing down reoccurring thoughts about myself, things that I do alongside my work (things that up until that point I didn’t necessarily consider as unified with the core of my work) such as sculptures and other hand based work. I also wrote down notions and terms that seem to stay with me, such as semiotics, semantics, language based art work, the use of rules in life, messiness, randomness, nonsensicalness, absurdity, queerness, discomfortness and awkwardness.
During the first tutorials I was asked a few questions in relation to the thoughts that I shared which helped me to filter out my thoughts about the conceptualization of the final project and I immediately got an idea of what I would approximately produce . At the time I thought of making an exhibition, in which the exhibits would be commonly known and used items, but those items would be named in ways that semiotics and semantics wouldn’t be in accordance with. For example an exhibited spoon would be labeled as ‘book’ and an exhibited fork would be labeled as ‘plate’. I later on thought to create, alongside the aforementioned ‘known items’, unknown items and give them names that are used for items of common use. An example would be a 3D printed object of unidentified shape, labeled as ‘spoon’.

The next step was research by looking into works and artists that occupy themselves with the notions that I wanted to dive into. I tried to dive into the definition of messiness, looking at work that would either be considered, labeled or I would classify as messy.
By dwelling on the questions ‘Why,what and for whom would an artwork be considered messy?’, I realized the subjectivity of aesthetics is not something I would be willing to dive into. My attraction to what I think can be sometimes considered more “messy” leads back to my exploration of rules and agreements of order and investigation of what happens in the absence of them.

Later on I made the decision to create my own language by mixing the two languages which I use the most (English and Greek). My sister programmed a code which enabled me to make a new combination out of the letters of each Greek and English word and therefore create new words, which can be heard during the video piece and seen alongside the objects. Around that time I also came across the book ‘My Name Is Language’ by Nicoline van Harskamp, which was of great inspiration as it touched upon themes that I was also busy with and also explained how the artist produced a piece in the English language by using distorters in the way the script was written. The distorters were created according to the different ways English is spoken around the world. The themes I shared in terms of research with Nicoline van Harskamp were focused around comprehension or the lack of it, language fluency or the lack of it, evolution and molding of language and self naming as a form of empowerment.

As part of my exploration of my processes while working and researching I recorded my ‘screen action’. While the outcome was the conclusion that I definitely have a messy way of operating my browser and applications, I also decided to use parts of those recordings in my final video work. The parts that I chose to include in the final work were conversations with and A.I. about language and questions around engagement with content that we don’t understand. I realized that talking with a developed A.I. can help in terms of research and core exploration of chaotic questions as it always brings you back the basic knowledge. Artificial intelligence is fed data and knowledge based on notions that are logical,therefore if an A.I. is asked complicated questions, it will always simplify them and connect the answers to core notions.

While reflecting on my final project for the Authorship and Methodology class, I acknowledge that semiotics and semantics turn up often in my work. I also tend to explore performativity through video and in some cases I am drawn to a theatrical way of doing things. I like to be playful with my work and more often than not I resort to poetry. In terms of the process of how I work I recognize a returning pattern of beginning working on projects based on a spontaneous idea, more often than not, building up on the concept as I go and making alterations as I proceed with research around the topics related to the subject.

This exploration was important for me because I got to dive in a little deeper in notions that are intriguing to me and got to reflect and pinpoint some patterns in the way I work.The work reflects on me as an author because both the topic of the work and the way it was made is representative of the current reflection of my artistic identity.