I thought that it might be helpful (both for you: the reader, and me: the writer) to focus less on my jobs and professional interests, and more on my almost (hesitantly) artistic interests*
*I have not made work as an artist for a very long time, but I will again, at some stage. Dammit.
These recurrently all things that float around in my head and pique my interest. But I’d like to take some time to be more considered in what I do – to reflect on how is composed, my methodologies, motivations and outputs – artistically – and which skills I have or must develop. This accounted for the bulk of the work I set out to achieve through my residency at Hospitalfield. I don’t yet know if I have successfully achieved it or not; perhaps it is better to think of it as work in progress. But whatever stage they are in resolution, I also think it’s important to say these things, ‘out loud’ as it were.
With that in mind, quite simply, my research interests are the following:
- Language
- At the forefront of my thinking is that I use languages (primarily written and verbal) that are different to and ineffectual in articulating the language with which I work (largely visual). I would like to examine this process further, sieving it through whichever language seems most appropriate.
- Tone and intent
- Slippages in meaning
- The information we are given, by whom and to what end
- Rhetoric and instruction, and their subsequent impacts on autonomy (the current proliferation of ‘Fake News’ is something that irks deeply on many levels – not least because it has been a research interest of mine for a long time, and now appears bandwagon-y)
- I am drawn to work that is precarious (literally or metaphorically), kinetic or occupying liminal spaces.
- I am interested in diagrams, systems, processes, every action having a reaction, nominative determinism, algorithms, information repositories, data, the information offered to us and why, technology, politics, humanism and education.
- I’ve never quite got past the signs, symbols, markers and indicators that preoccupied me during my MA, but I suppose it took me longer to realise that they were also simply forms of language.
- I would like to aim towards designing a collaborative PhD within the next few years – perhaps one of the best ways to articulate and invest in both my jobs and my practice interests concurrently.
