Independent Fine Art Practice.
This module is designed to help a student (me). With developing unique ideas as to how to produce my art in a more diverse and robust manner. The topic for the last term has been challenging at times while drawing back to the art work I also enjoy making virtually on the platform of Second Life. Saying that it has been challenging though isn’t justice to the enjoyment I have had while following a more scheduled routine to my practise. Which I fully believe. Has been enhancing the outcomes that I often produce when I make my art work.
The topic for this term which was set by the college. Is “Waste”, which is an exploration to the ideas and concepts that surround the idea of what waste is. Or which someone might deem anything as waste; For example, time can be wasted or a plant decaying could be considered waste. In the current political world when the word ‘waste’, is used. Often people think of plastic or landfill as an example. The interesting notion to the idea that waste to different people can be so many different things. Ultimately in my opinion this topic is exciting and can be very impactful.
What I chose to do within this topic
My choice of which I have been following this term. Is the notion of “undegradable waste”, or the ideas of waste that is in some way immortalized? Immortal in the physicality that it is made from materials that have an enduring life span. However, people would still call this waste old or redundant, items that at some points were admired and beloved. That now, no one would want at-all due to those same items being out of current fashion or use. Though the physical item is made from materials that could remain that same item for perhaps a thousand years or more.
Within my train of thought to this. I chose to look at items that were readily available to me. My latte father being a bit of a hoarder has mountains of items at my family home. Items such as furniture, bikes, phones and even as far as spoons.
All of these items unless they were actively damaged would remain frozen in time due to their trends being on the yo-yo that deems an item popular or not. However, within these items are things such as torches, phones, old electronic devices or even in some cases full blown machinery. Which will never be popular again with the exception of perhaps eccentric antique collectors’ years in the future or museums.
Why do we keep it?
This all said about my Latte father. What is waste to one person is treasure to another. my family retains a lot of this “waste” for a handful of reasons. The biggest reason being sentimental value. This brings the thought to me to the better questions of why would people buy anything? Because of our culture and what is presumed to be useful or popular? and to those questions raises the further questions on how a physical item gradually becomes waste in its own right.
I don’t believe that the predetermined life span of any item is a mystery to anyone anymore. It is in fact what the current societal model is built on. Though with some items being “built to last” it has produced an excess of items that perpetually exist for no other reason than they were made to exist whether they are useful or not.
This leads to ever more questions
Indestructible items, being immortal is either sad or wonderful. The items built to last, really have done what they were designed to do. This said as society deems these items as waste, I jokingly ask myself if humanity has done what it always wanted to do. Make artificial decorative useless rocks? I might joke about that idea. However, it does lead me into the question of if these items could or would ever become useful again? contrasting human-made items with the natural world. Where in nature nothing is wasted? a plant has a life cycle, when that life cycle ends it decays and becomes useful to the future plants. Can manufactured items even if they are built to last do the same thing with some human intervention?
This is the topic that I have been exploring so far, this last 6 months.
I have fully enjoyed the topic and my artistic outcomes from images of the indestructible items have been interesting to me. That said I am not entirely sure that I have found a resolution with this topic yet because for me it poses a lot more questions than it offers solutions, conclusions or answers. With a leading curiosity to if future historians and archaeologist will eventually dig up our time period, discovering these items as random and bizarre as they might be. Perhaps discovering a plastic immortal toy and believe that our society worshipped it?
Signed Roxk’s
I like that an archaeologist might dig something up and be convinced that we worshiped it. I think you can take this idea further – what is of value and why do we make so many ‘things’?
Thank you. I hope to see where it leads in the next 2 weeks 🙂