Borders: Tickets, Please

Tickets, Please, draws it inspiration from the train journey that connects Colchester and Ipswich. The train ticket allows us to cross over the border. It is elevated above what it is, a piece of card and it becomes something that give your access to a service. In a similar way, with this piece I am also elevating a piece of card to something else, a piece of work that exists in the art world.

The work draws on the train ticket as a symbol and hints at the original with the use of replicating the size, shape and lines of an original. I wanted the work to be recognisable but not to be a copy a when working with reproductions something from original is always lost (Benjamin, 2015) and so I wanted to avoid this by taking inspiration and elements, rather than the train ticket as a whole. 

The medium has been chosen to add a DIY quality and uniqueness to the objects, something that their inspiration lacks. As train tickets are mass produced and computer generated. This addas a human element to the aura of the artwork and is fitting to my art practice.

The work itself is sculptural – not 2D. It is intended to exist laying on a surface, preferably the floor – where it seems from experience most train tickets end up (or at least it seems that way!). There are parallels here too to the train station floor and the gallery floor, they are both spaces that are overlooked in everyday life, which is another reoccurring theme in my practice, the Duchampian unchoice territories (O’Doherty, 1986).

There is an intended simplicity here which helps give the audience immediate access to the work (Stiles and Selz, 2012). Just by putting something on the floor, draws attention to it, make it similar to the everyday encounter of the original train ticket and that experience of looking down at it (Virilio, 2010) and helps to replicate a moment from real life. It allows me to try and emulate that immediacy and experience of being in the moment and spotting something (Hayward, 2004).

The text on the tickets is taken from the letter coding used for each location within the context of the railways system.

It uses, as all of my art does, our shared language (Wittgenstein, 2007) and social facts (Burke and Crowley) – in this case social facts specific to train stations (COL instead of Colchester / IPS instead of Ipswich). All language aims at communicating something (Delacroix, 1924 in Ullmann, 1962) and

my use of linguistics within the artwork (both of the text and the title) sets out to communicate notions around train stations, to engage the mind of the viewer and take them to that train station context (Saussure, 2013, p19).

Tickets, Please at Firstsite

The work itself has changed since its inception, in meaning and in placement. I used to travel by train between Colchester and Ipswich three times a week for work – the pandemic ended that, and now I do not even work there and never returned before I left due to home working. This now represents a moment from my past, whereas when it was created it was my present. The work too changed once in situ at Firstsite, with photos showing slight movement in placement, something you come to expect with floor-based works.

References

 

Benjamin, W. (2015) Illuminations. London: Penguin.

Burke, L. and Crowley, T. (2000) The Routledge language and cultural theory reader. London: Routledge. (The Politics of Language).

Hayward, K. (2004) City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience. Routledge-Cavendish.

O’Doherty, B. (1986) Inside the White Cube. University of California Press.

Saussure, F. (2013) Course in General Linguistics. Duckworth; New edition.

Stiles, K. and Selz, P. (2012) Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists. University of California Press

Ullmann, S. (1962) Semantics: An introduction to the science of meaning. Oxford: Blackwell.

Virilio, P. (2010) Art as Far as The Eye Can See. London: Bloomsbury.

Wittgenstein, L. (2007) Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief. ed. Cyril Barrett. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Page Forty Three

As part of the Colchester Art Society Winter Exhibition I am showing two language-based works. This blog post will explore the first of these, Page Forty Three. Page Forty Three has been a side project that I started earlier in the year. Read about the process of creating this piece of work below.

This project came about out of a studio experiment in which I set myself some arbitrary rules to follow. Linguistics continues to play a part within my practice and in my studio, I keep a stash of old books (because as a text artist it is good to be surrounded by text). I knew I wanted to do something with the books and with the notion of editing and changing the meaning of language. I was keen to break some linguistic rules and bring humour into the work.

The process started simply - I picked the first book I came to out if the box, opened the book and took the page out. At this point there was not process involved in picking the page number (as the title of this project suggests the page number of this randomly picked page was page 43). I then edited each sentence with a black marker pen. Censoring all but one of the words on each line. Leaving only the 1st, 2nd 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th word respectively as I moved down the lines, allowing me to start to break up the language and push it to its limits (Deleuze, 1997). This number system added some structure to something otherwise random. It also set as a starting point, to create a system which could be reused and easily followed in subsequent pages used.

I was not overly taken with the aesthetics of the page-marker pen result. However, found the remaining text to be interesting and humours. I have a long-standing love for Dada and this plays into that perfectly. It allowed me to bend the usual linguistic rules of our shared public language (Wittgenstein in Kripke, 1984) and start to separate the text from reality. The words left give an insight into the content of the page they are taken from but are nonsensical and do not read particularly easily. This gives the work a playful edge as we are creatures of making sense of things (Peirce, 1931-58), but the outcome makes this difficult to do. We are usually apt at working out what things are supposed to mean and so the audience may still find some meaning in the words.

Having previously developed font ACcomplete4 I typed the words up. This further removed them from their origin and put a stamp of recognisability to them in relation to my practice. The words become easier to read and digest once typed as they became their own entity and appear at first glance as if there is a logical intention behind the word selection. Which is then dashed once the work is read. 

The decision to record the words came from wanting to create something that engaged more than one sense. It also felt relevant due to the tradition of reading stories aloud allowing for more than one person to be reached at a time. The work becomes a Dadaist story time. Within The Minories Page Forty Three is provided for listeners on a headset allowing them to become enveloped in the experience. The performance of the words is intentionally as smooth as possible, to give the initial impression that they are logical and follow linguistics rules and expectations. However, in reality the recording process become difficult as I tripped over the delivery of speaking words in a sequence that held little sense.

References

Deleuze, G. (1997) Essays Critical and Clinical. University of Minnesota Press.

Kripke, S. (1984) Wittgenstein Rules and Private Language. John Wiley & Sons; New Ed edition.

Peirce, C. S. (1931-58) Collected Writings (8 Vols.). Ed. Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss & Arthur W. 

Skinner, B. F. (2002) Beyond Freedom and Dignity. Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. Revised Edition.

Who is the audience of road signs?

This is something that I have been considering lately, in reference to audience and audiencing of the road sign (Rose, 2013). The natural audience for road sign is, unsurprisingly, people using the roads. This audience intentionally engage with the road signs daily. The road signs engage us with their use of our shared public language (Wittgenstein, 2007) falling into the category of conversational texts, instructing the audience on how to use the roads (Eco, 1979). Going forward I will also need to consider the audience of my copies too.

As I go through this process, I am trying to draw on comparisons between the two contexts for the road signs; real life and the art world. In their current locations the signs are specifically fitting and, in a context, allowing it to resonate. gives the audience immediate access to the work (Stiles and Selz, 2012, p.712). This will change once repositioned. Artists strive for immediacy to be ‘in the moment’ and road signs exist in that state naturally (Hayward, 2004).

Since starting The Road Sign Collection one of two things has happened; there has been a sudden rise in the need for road signs in my local area, or, I have awakened my attention to their existence. As I cannot now walk down a street without feeling absolutely bombarded by them. It is quite distracting. However, I do not feel fluent in this new language, so I investigated this system of signs to find out more about the basic rules.

Road Sign Shapes

Circular road signs -> give orders

Triangular road signs -> warn.

Rectangular road signs -> signs inform

(RAC, 2018)

Road Sign Colours

Black and white -> regulations (i.e., speed limits)

Yellow -> warning
Green -> guide signs

Blue -> guide signs

Orange -> construction occurring

Brown -> parks and recreation

(Top Diver, 2017)

Some signs are very to the point and I appreciate then for that! However, I find myself with odds with others, for example I learnt that this sign means ‘no stopping’ – who knew?! (This is of course a rhetorical question, I’m sure many of you did know).

Some signs irk me more than others, particularly the sign below. The mix if text and image annoy me. If you only look at the image you do not get the full message and likewise, if you only read the text, the sign also falls short. It appears that my own confusion is mirrored by most intended uses, with research showing that only 21% of people surveyed could correctly identify the meaning of the sign (Allen, 2019). 

The audience of the road sign is something that I want to address within my art practice. Firstly, I want to change who the audience of the road sign is, by repositioning them into an art context. My intention being that by positioning them away from the road they will be looked at by either; the same audience in a new way, a new audience in a way that differs to their original intention.

The next step in this process is to step away from the original features of the found road signs. By rendering the signs in tape, rather than creating copies in mental, the signs become cheap, disposable and physically weak. This uncrafted aesthetic communicates to the audience something about my art practice and positions me, as one of them, rather than as an authority figure (Eco, 1989). The font used on the original road signs will slowly be replaced with my own, ACComplete4, to further that feeling.

References

Allen, J. (2019) Survey reveals the road signs most motorists don't understand. [online] Available at: https://www.driving.co.uk/news/survey-reveals-road-signs-motorists-dont-understand/. [accessed 21/11/19].

Eco, U. (1979) Role of the Reader Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (Advances in Semiotics). Indiana University Press; Midland Book Ed edition.

Eco, U. (1989) The Open Work. Harvard University Press.

Hayward, K. (2004) City Limits: Crime, Consumer Culture and the Urban Experience. Routledge-Cavendish.

RAC. (2018) The Highway Code - Common UK road signs and what they mean. [online] Available at: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/learning-to-drive/the-highway-code-uk-road-signs-and-meanings/. [accessed 21/11/19].

Rose, G. (2013) Visual Methodologies. Sage Publications Ltd; 3 editions. 

Stiles, K. and Selz, P. (2012) Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists. University of California Press.

Top Driver. (2017) Black, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange, Brown: Know What Each Type of Road Sign Means. [online] Avalable at: https://www.topdriver.com/education-blog/know-type-road-sign-means/. [accessed 21/11/19].

Wittgenstein, L. (2007) Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief. ed. Cyril Barrett. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.