The proposal for this project was born out of an initial idea (a film about town centres) that seemed, at the time, too big and perhaps lacked the artistic merit that I was looking for. Time spent on this initial idea was not wasted; key concepts very close to my own feelings about film and art emerged.

There were three important key things arising from my sketchbooks. The first was my interest in the 1970s 3-D ‘View Masters’ toy. In wanting to look at my subject matter in a different way I studied what happens to the internal picture movement of a View Master picture when you clicked the button. I wanted to work this into the beginning of my film and also use the sound of the button clicking – each click signifying the beginning of a new world.

The second area was the box that I constructed for this project. This box, initially, was designed to help me conceive how my Audio and Video piece would be shown. It was to be a sort of model stage designed for holding relevant material and subject matter. This box was influenced heavily by the ‘Valise’ (suitcase) artworks created by Marcel Duchamp (1897 – 1968). I will return to this important influence later.

There was no third item or object but rather the connection between the first two. As the deadline for this proposal approached I began to lose interest in my initial idea, and therefore entered into dialogue with colleagues, peers and friends. What came out of these discussions was a link to my childhood.

When asked why I was using the ‘View Master’ I replied, “Growing up in Belfast in the 70s and 80s didn’t offer me many beautiful views (apart from the landscape of rural Ireland). When I looked into the View Master it was like windows to other worlds.” People seemed to like this link and advised that I should capitalise on its significance.

My sketchbooks and box came under the microscope. When asked why I kept so many sketchbooks and why I went to great lengths to make a ‘stage’ for my audio and video piece I answered, “I always have – a sort of aid to help me understand things in a better way.” In contrast to the way I am now, as a child I was very withdrawn, enjoyed my own company and therefore spent lots of time creating ‘mini’ books and odd boxes. This appropriation of size was very important to me. I did not care much for my real environment and thus created my own. To this day, I realise that this isolation affects the way in which I work and try to understand art.

At this point my proposal began to take shape. My main interest in this MA in Computer Arts was the ‘Arts’ bit. What is Art today? What does it mean for me and how can I engage with it? As a practitioner and teacher of Graphic Design, 20th Century Art and Design History has been an area that I have studied for some time. Conceptual Art has been the one area that has intrigued me the most, especially the work of Marcel Duchamp. Morgan & Welton, in their excellent book ‘See What I Mean?”, described Conceptual Art as, ‘…emphasising content at the expense of form: what matters is not the specific object produced by the artist, but the processes by which it was produced’ (p92). With this in mind I decided to try record my working processes, combining audio and video inside the box that I had created. Before this point, the box was just a by-product or back-up piece. The question was, ‘How could I put a film in the box?’

Influences

Marcel Duchamp made 21 Valise boxes creating 71 hand made miniatures of his artworks to go inside. This painstaking process must have been very difficult and could be interpreted as a reaction to rejection by galleries and artists of his time. Lack of acceptance into the pack did not stop Duchamp – he created his own gallery in his suitcase collections. Unwilling to compromise his beliefs Duchamp seems to me an admirable character.

Susan Hiller’s (1940 - ) ‘From the Freud Museum’ is a sort of anthropological installation that attracted me when I first saw it in the Tate Modern in 2004. It is a series of boxes that contain objects, writings and images about mythology, history, religion, comedy, etc. that tells stories about different places and happenings around the world. There is one called ‘FATLAD’, an acronym for the six counties of Northern Ireland: very sharp and well observed. One of the boxes has a small screen embedded inside, called ‘Séance (seminar)’. Hiller uses this box to collect shadows, which she has appearing in a loop on this small screen. This embedded film seemed very powerful and gave me the confidence to pursue similar opportunities.

Bill Viola (1951 - ), a leading video artist, created a video installation piece in 1992 called ‘Nantes Triptych’ that uses three screens. One shows the birth of his child, the middle one is Viola himself suspended in water and the last shows the death of his mother. Extremely powerful and thought provoking, this piece borrows from the traditional Renaissance style of framing. The number three occurs in many artworks as well as in literature. Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321) wrote the ‘Divine Comedy’ in which the number three is at the very centre of the construct (three books, a rhyming scale of three, etc.). The use of this mystical number three has interested me in the past and indeed I would like it to feature in my video and audio work.
(See past works on my web space:
http://www.paulglennon.co.uk/art_og/iii.html)

Concept

With all these factors collected I began to build some sort of proposal. My first step was to get a film inside my box. Recently I showed my tutor (Mike Barker) a short film I made entitled ‘Lecturer’s Lunch’. This film was made entirely with a mobile phone and edited in ‘Imovies’ with the intention of demonstrating how easy it is to make a simple film with basic materials. I was able to transfer the film back onto my mobile and this prompted me to think about using the mobile itself, in the box! This seemed excellent as I could loop the film to keep it playing (the only problem was to stop calls and texts from interrupting the film). Quickly I constructed a holder inside the box to house the mobile and isolate the screen. This word ‘isolate’, quickly became a powerful component for my concept and signified me, on my own as a child.

After successfully doing this I realised that I had no film to show in the camera other than ‘Lecturer’s Lunch’ and other stand-alone, recently recorded films. I paused for thought at this point and considered what I wanted the piece to connote. You will recall from earlier the quote from Morgan & Welton: ‘what matters is not the specific object produced by the artist, but the processes by which it was produced’. I decided to make a short film about the ‘process’ of what I was doing. Therefore the box with audio and video would demonstrate a process rather than be a final piece. (Below, box without screen inbedded).

I shot the film in around 5 minutes with no edits on a computer. Instead I followed a script and shot the film in real time taking about 10 minutes with pauses in between. The film was called called ‘Paul’s ‘Wee’ World in a Box’ and did what I am now trying to do in this written proposal. (It can be see on my web space under Module 3: www.paulglennon.co.uk). Below are some stills from the film.

Direction

The intention of this box is to show the processes that I engage in to help me discover what art means for me and how I can communicate with it in today’s world. My ten-minute presentation on Tuesday 4th April proceeded differently from the way I envisaged it. I thought that there would only be three or four people present, but there were seven. After giving a short four-minute introduction, I hoped to walk away from the piece and let the audience watch the film in the box. As there were more people, I was forced to stand in front of the audience. With the triptych lid open it felt a bit like being at Mass, only I was the priest! (Not sure if I liked that.) What was interesting was the way we all had to be quiet to hear and be still to see the small screen.

I now intend to develop the piece more with the box having images and objects directly or indirectly linked to the audio and video piece exploring this ‘process’.

References

Hiller, S (2002) After the Freud Museum
Book Works

Morgan, J and Welton, P (1992) See What I Mean? An introduction to Visual Communication
Arnold