Experimental Studio 2,3 (Simmons)

  • For our last assignment, my intentions revolved around the concept of recurring dreams. I thought this was an interesting topic to explore as it gave me a number of things to consider, work with, and think about as I’ve always found dreams to be so fascinating on their own. When constricting and building on my work, I was most fixated on we can and can’t remember from a dream, the repetition and randomness we experience from dreaming, and what we see when we close our eyes. I thought most about this when constructing my audio component as I wondered what sounds we hear or remember, and if so, what are they?

    My audio component is only included in this posting due to lost progress – Here, I explored what I ‘heard’ from looking and examining my animation before I lost it (even though I could not physically hear anything from the abstracted visuals), but I wanted to reflect this in order for it to align with my audio piece. I found this part very interesting as I don’t remember what my dreams sound like, but due to the freedom we were given, this gave me more possibilities to consider and think about.

    Lauren McDowall

  • By: Lauren McDowall

    For the Anti Archival Assignment, I chose to focus my attention around the topic of memory, time, and change. For the materials used inside both bottles, I wanted to include significant items that relate to, and were once strongly associated with my childhood. I wanted to experiment with these items and over the span of a week or so, and see what happens to them. Will they dissolve completely, hold their shapes, dissipate, change its presentation overtime? Luckily they did, as I hoped to reflect how time can change so much in relation to memory as we get older. We start to forget things as we grow; such as people, names, stories, and of course, memories – though (sometimes) we return to them years later. These items hold a strong association to my past and most of them ended up dissolving, breaking apart into small pieces / layers began to form on the outer shell of the candies, and some of them remained in their original state. As far as the overall concoction, its presentation changed overtime since the start of last week, looking quite different (visually + the scents of both bottles). However, not drastically. As time went by over this period, the materials used in both bottles changed overtime. They dissolved, some held their original shapes, and others altered minimally, just like our memory as we age. I wanted to focus on this topic as memory loss affects so many people, wether it’s mild to severe, so it was interesting to see, explore, and experiment with this from a different and creative perspective.

    Items Used:

    • Woodchips
    • Grass, Moss, and Soil
    • Glitter
    • Candies (nostalgic)
    • Dry Spaghetti Noodles (Spaghetti was my favorite food as a child)
    • Baby Tooth
    • Construction Paper
    • Reciepts (Used to go shopping with my mom a lot)
    • Chalk
    • Tea Bag (grew up drinking tea)
    • Hair clips and Beads

    Day 1: Top Image ________________________________________ Day 9: Bottom Image

  • For this assignment, I wanted to delve into the topic of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), attempting to replicate patterns of repetition in order to represent what compulsions are, what they look like, and how it can affect individuals effected by these repetitive behaviour(s), while also focusing on the negative factors that interfere with everyday activities; such as numbers and counting. I want to expand on a series I previously started following this subject; as OCD plays a large role in my life and has for the past couple of years due to past events, in which, I have been consumed by. OCD can represent and reflect different behavior’s some might not be aware of, focusing more of my layout on the subject of ‘fear’ which lead to my compulsions instead of the common association of OCD, what is cleaning and germaphobia. I decided to create a longer film than I initially planned, in order to reflect the time these compulsions take away from my everyday, as it takes me up to an hour to leave the house sometimes due to these behavior’s, and again the idea of constant ‘fear’ when completing these activities. The goal for this film was to create the feeling of uncomfort + fear, along with the idea of perfection to try and mirror as best I can, what OCD feels and looks like. I had a lot of fun with this assignment as the freedom given, created more opportunity to focus on something more personal which has also helped me understand more about the disorder alone through a lens I have not yet explored or knew of previously. The title of my Surveillance film is called “Numbers of Chaos” (a more personal reflection in order to represent the pattern of counting / numbers I follow when completing a compulsion; until it “feels right”) or in other words, until the fear has diminished.

Experimental Studio II/III

Winter 2024 Tuesdays + Thursdays 2:30-5:30

Course Information

Overview of Projects

Conceptual Art Exercise/Presentation

Short presentations that will take place throughout the semester (done in pairs)

10%

Food + Performance + Photography

Beginning with taking video of a friend of family member telling you their favourite recipe, you will then use those ingredients to create a series of photographs and a performance-to-camera.

15%

Surveillance Art/Art After the Internet

Using EarthCams, you will create a piece of video art. You will also be recording voiceovers.

15%

Artist Multiples

TBD

15%

Anti-Archival Art

Utilizing techniques such as mold-making, cooking, fermentation, you will be making artworks that either melt, rot, or stick.

15%

Experimental Animation + Field Recording

You will use your phones to 3D scan objects from your environment and learn to animate the scans using Blender. Additionally, you will be using field recorders to capture sound in order to create soundtracks for your animations.

15%

An array of resources

List of spots to go for inspiration and assistance:

Ed Video

  • Equipment rental
  • Workshops
  • Local (on York St.)

Rhizome.org

  • Massive database of post-internet art + video
  • Free