Ed Ruscha

ED RUSCHA - HAYWARD GALLERY

Just got back from Ed Ruscha at the Hayward. Great stuff. He started off working as an illustrator but later developed typography. Bold oil on canvas, but he also used elements of the subjects he is painting, such as Pepto-Bismal. Strong elements of Americana, empty buildings, and quite "filmic". Some of the messages are the subject themselves, e.g. "Words without thoughts never to heaven go" (from Hamlet). Later work included landscapes and sunsets with words/phrases etched out on the canvas.

Dotting Is and crossing Ts (II)

The subject matter of words is interesting for me as I have been making my living through written communication for the past 15 years as an author, copy writer (not copyrighter!), sub-editor and journalist. I am fully aware of the need for written communication to be precise and unambiguous, a need, if you like, to cross the Ts and dot the Is. The expression means that certain statements cannot be understood unless they are expressed without space for misinterpretation. This was the platform on which I have decided to build the concept behind my IAP work.

What would some statements look like if the Is weren't dotted, and the Ts weren't crossed? Would their meaning be altered beyond recognition, or would the meaning still be recognisable due to the power of learning, and the human brain's ability to memorise words as patterns and therefore make up the "missing elements" of words, or fill in the gaps.

I therefore plan to compile a series of quotes and aphorisms by opinion formers and other people involved in future-facing industries, and remove the dots from the Is and the crosses from the Ts to show how meanings can be altered OR how meanings stay the same despite physical impairment.

For example:




Becomes:





Although the meaning in the second photo can be discerned, it makes you stop and question the words. I will be developing a typographical installation as a way of revealing and hiding these sentences so that the words will appear/disappear with crossed Ts and dotted Is.

Dotting Is and crossing Ts (I)

I thought about the idea of using language as a way of developing an intermedia art work when I was reading about the critical strategy of deconstruction, how languages, and by extension individual words, can be edited and truncated to form different meanings and different visual interpretations. I am reminded of a quote from a Prefab Sprout song from 1985 called "I couldn't bear to be special", in which Paddy MacAloon wails: "Words are trains for moving past what really has no name."

The meaning here, though, is clear, that words them selves hold no intrinsic value - they belong to no one, their origins are often mysterious, in the English language, words come from multiple sources and single words can have multiple meanings and synonyms. It is, in Jacques Derrida's terminology, "a question of how representation inhabits the real world, the antonymous relationship between perception and reality". *

Words are signifiers, signposts to meaning, and therefore, those meanings are subject to mis- and re-interpretation. As an example of what I mean by this, I have found a list of homonyms that can alter perception of a word. We must assume here that written words are not secondary to speech, as maintained by many exponents of deconstruction. But for the purposes of this exercise, the words must be spoken out loud to see the full impact of how definition is relative:

male/mail

aisle/isle

knight/night

grate/great

lyre/liar

pawn/porn

right/write

and so on ...

These examples of homonyms - innocent enough, but it east to how they can be misconstrued.

* "Deconstruction and Graphic Design" by Ellen Lupton and Abbott Miller, from Design Writing Research - Writing on Graphic Design (Phaidon, 2006)

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

This is a Nike ad that I found on Iain Tait's website Crack Unit. He is rather good, and he finds rather good things from the advertising world. Not being a cuckoo, but just thought this was something worth borrowing!

Roden's Crater

James Turrell - Atlan

James Turrell

Through examining Rob and Nick Carter's work I have come across the work of James Turrell, a installation/land artist who deals with light and shapes.

"My work is about your seeing. There is a rich tradition in painting of work about light, but it is not light – it is the record of seeing. My material is light, and it is responsive to your seeing."

James Turrell

Pantone

The whole Ishihara test project came out of Rob and Nick's ongoing project "Pubic Perception of Colour" (2009). Inspired by the Pantone colour chart, they decided to see how colour appeared to different individuals as a work for 100% Design in September 2009. So they invited some 300 men, women and children to their studio in west London to pick out seven spectrum colours from the Pantone range and recorded the results. It's amazing how one person's orange is another's red, how blue can become green, etc. This was not a scientific experiment, Rob insists, but an artistic one.

The project has been printed and framed, but is also ongoing on their website. It raises interesting issues about authorship, as the work relies on the participation of the public.

For the full results check out the link and you can also participate in this project online: http://www.robandnick.com/detail.php?thing_id=373&x=4&y=3

Playing with the Ishihara test

Just returned from a visit to Rob and Nick Carter's studio. They are currently working on a project that explores colour blindness by using the Ishihara test. Up to 12 per cent of the male population is colour blind, but it is much lower in females. Mainly speaking, humans are have trichromatic vision (they see three primary colours - green, blue and red). Can you see the number 23 on its side?

Why choose colour?

Imagine a world without colour. No more being green with envy, or red with rage, or shouting till you're blue in the face.

No "Purple"

No "Blue"

No "Yellow"