30/04/20

this document will be a place where i can record thoughts and work through things about my practice and basically just talk to myself. edit: this document is genuinely for just talking to myself, sometimes it’s about practice and sometimes it’s about the lack of practice… at this point it is a diary. a working thoughts document. i mean the intention is to talk about practice but sometimes i don’t talk about practice, sometimes i just need to say stuff. but… it is mostly about practice. i’m struggling with productivity at the moment with the lack of studio, it’s not even about materials that’s the problem, though it doesn’t help that i don’t know what to make work with – it’s more the fact that i can’t see others making work in the studio, the conversations in the studio, people being productive and working things out with each other. the fact that i’m not communicating with the people i would usually communicate with to make work. it’s getting very lonely, to have a solo studio. it’s not the same digitally. i thought it would be fine but it’s not; it’s very difficult. how do i make work that comforts me and others if i can’t bring myself to be productive? how can i make work where no one can touch it and experience it physically; it won’t get their expected outcome, the final validation of oh, i made a work and people like it and think that it’s calming or soothing or the complete opposite. i’ve been going off topic for a while it seems, not only with this ramble but with my practice. i think the eating/sweets blobs took me down a path that i’m trying to get out of but don’t want to revert back to the soft, cuddly blob – it was successful, but it’s already been done. i’m trying to move on and not repeat works, to develop them, to develop the concepts behind it. but it’s so difficult when you just have your own brain to bounce off of. i tried connecting the blobs to the natural world by carving them out of the stones from my front garden, tree stumps that i found at my local pond on our walk. the stone blob worked, but at what cost? why? it holds the same aesthetic as the gem blobs from unit 5 but i don’t know if it’s adding anything more than; i found this in my garden. how do you develop something that is successful? that follows on from what you did but it’s not the same? anyways, it physically hurt to make the stone blobs so, that wasn’t an option; the idea was to make a stone blob every day – to address the productivity problem but i fear i wouldn’t have working hands at the end of a week. the tree/wood carving/chiselling proved itself even more challenging – it’s physically painful to make work, how can that produce something of comfort? if it causes the artist so much pain to make. i wanted to place these natural blobs out in the natural world and record hours of footage of it just sitting there… thinking about it maybe it wouldn’t have been the best idea… who would sit through hours of still footage? now i don’t know what to do. these natural blobs were a response to a complete 180 from the virtual blob – a blob that you care for. but from feedback, i’ve realised that not everyone cares for virtual pets, or loves virtual pets as much as i would have. they are right though. the virtual space doesn’t suit the blob, at least not for providing comfort; perhaps it would have provided ‘comfort’ for the blob, but the audience wouldn’t have gotten anything in return – so the symbiotic relationship between artist-blob-holder would have disappeared. the blob would have become a burden, a responsibility rather than a passive exchange of comfort. however, considering that people have compared some of the blobs to that of babies is interesting when we consider responsibility. maybe the holder has no responsibility for the blob then when the blobs needs are digitised, or it becomes a living creature through the digital? 30/04/20

group tutorial feedback, highlights:

• taking care of us, taking care of them. growing a blob. – blob as a plant? at what point does the blob become something/someone to sympathise with. i think from the moment of creation, i sympathise with them. i feel bad if i ‘hurt’ them and i feel bad that comfort is left in my uni room all by themself. – could i do some writing imagining what it’s like to be comfort right now? how dogs live in a moment, is comfort the same.. is our time apart like an eternity for them? connecting to someone else. connecting to another person because someone else made it.
• i feel like a pet game makes me care less about the objects actually. the game format adjusts my mindset into an unreal thing whose life does not actually matter. physical objects are more valuable now that everything else is virtual. you’re right, virtual beings have no risk of being broken or damaged, unlike ‘real’ objects.
• see how it works with social distancing ideas create a blob that physically restricts people from touching each other good idea to look into those practice baby dolls how interaction with the blob will change once it needs to be cared for physically
• can you recreate the sense of emotion that we got from physically touching them how can you create these energies online?
• ed fornielies - finiliar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzmq0sq5xam
• consider still drawing or painting the character: there is a warmth to painting and drawing that clearly resonates with people
• how to transpose the tactile nature of their work in order to access it remotely
• what would the spaces in between the blobs be like? we interact with them but now we might see them interact with one another? how might their form evolve through interaction with humans vs interaction with other blobs
• animism a lot and giving soul or qualities to inanimate things. colour as as having qualities of it's own. the blob as a conduit for use / you to connect
• https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/30/goatman-and-being-a-beast
• https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-secret-lives-of-color/
• https://frieze.com/article/see-hear-touch

also, thinking about the usual porpoises project, you can still make what you want to make, you just have to adapt to the context that you are in 😊 – the blob creator – kind of like a pic-crew? or make a worksheet for kids @ homeschool! – submit online somewhere…

today i created two copies for the image sequence task. havent thought about practice as such… attended the unit 7 usual porpoises talk given by mia taylor – most interested in the exploration of attention/distraction… been feeling this… the blobs manage to gain the audiences attention – particularly thinking back to comfort. maybe in regards to blob bath.. the work requires the audience to pay attention and spend some time with it. “sustained relationship with an artwork”. another thing mentioned by mia was the idea of distance – proximity – care. we tend to not care about things we cannot see or that are far away – a distant problem. – perhaps i could think about this with our current situation. how do i get people to care about the blobs when they cannot physically hold them or be close to them – close enough to care?

book recs: art as experience by john dewey | essays on the blurring of art and life by allan kaprow

we had a pathway meeting today… and it made me sad. i miss the studio so bad.

really need to do ‘practice’ tomorrow…

30/04/20 ☹

01/05/20

today i created the forth copy for the usual porpoises task. i attended the usual porpoises session today featuring a practice talk by sarah cole. she spoke about working with others as a practice and the ethics of that. a few questions that she discussed were; how to manage expectations and constraints of context and situations. staying true to your process, but be able to adapt your strategies and take responsibility. understanding the context you are making in and give yourself time to reflect constantly on what you are doing and why. 01/05/20 😐

[prepare work documentation for mini crit on monday morning with usual porpoises]

^ what do you want from the project? questions i’d like to explore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmhfrarkw8e the power of animism: john reid

“[dog] can show love and affection – they can relate to it, see its identity. personality – relate to it. we know its not a human... we know it’s a different species but we can say that because it has a personality that it is a person because its part of our family but its not a human person… it’s a [dog] person.”

“experience of personhood – spread out to all living things.”

“the personalities of everything around you, a river, a lake, a mountain, a tree.”

secret lives of colour: 13:34

do colours make people have specific responses? red? – elemental. red – one of the oldest pigments – rust. insects on the brink of extinction to make pigments/colour.

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-41-the-human-human-interface/

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/everything-is-alive/

22.25 brainstorming

develop blob bath – using our actual bath at home – bathe them… am i in the bath? would this be weird? a bit sensual rubbing blobs over your body… has a different feeling than washing your hands with them.. – make soap blob bigger, think lick and lather: janine antoni… big block of soap to carve into…

make small comforts – a smaller version of comfort blob, to place around local area? post to people? tutorial on how to make a blob ? but how will that benefit me in my practice?

chia pet blob – clay sculpture with chia seeds growing out? thinking about growing a blob
clay whistle? https://www.instructables.com/id/bear-whistles-bird-whistles-how-to-build-sculptu/ thinking about the blob having a voice – whistle sounds? is this relevant?

comfort space – is now an opportunity to make a giant beanbag like blob? long blob like isabel suggested? – super long one? connects two people or make it exactly two metres? thought about buddhist bug: anida yoeu ali.

blob made out of our old sofa

writing about/for the blob – never really consider this a possible outcome for a work, but maybe i should think about it… descriptive? how does a being that is designed for touch respond to the absence of touch – link this to how touch-deprived society is atm – lore.

ways to develop the idea of the blob coming from the earth, the elements? the life cycle idea is contradictory to previous lore about the blob, it supposedly is immortal? is this still true? could you just develop these ideas through writing? blob made from the elements – air, land, water, fire – but how relevant is this to the notions of comfort? are any of these ideas relevant to my questions? !

would like to make more video work – but what of?! can’t keep making videos about the making process… or can i… no i cant. so what? info vid about the blob? narrative? could the blob from the earth be an idea for this? everything is alive approach? – could we make a video based off the [non-existent] writing as a script?

comforting/soothing ways of practice/making:
crochet, embroidery, sculpting with clay, carving soap? (was that comforting… was a bit annoying… it was easy though), drawing, painting, writing?, the fur making, plaster/casting, modroc – could i make something w this? – its okay to do some painting or drawing….. why don’t you do that tomorrow? or some writing maybe? draw!!

research plan thoughts:
ideas of desire, comfort, care… [think of a question]
comfort of art objects – art/therapy? – how can art objects provide comfort? anxiety, depression, autism
art/affection – touching art
projection onto objects
object oriented ontology – sentient objects – animism – rebecca horn?
emotional value of art – happy objects
artist as creator – making objects
the rights of objects, power over objects?
touching – art experience in a pandemic?

01/05/20 😐……

02/05/20

how am i supposed to make work when everything is so bad? people are dying. and i’m sitting here thinking about how to make work about a being that doesn’t even exist; i made them up… obviously. productivity is difficult. but maybe i should make work about something that doesn’t exist, if it gives me an ounce of happiness – its worth it? and also obviously because i have to. i have no choice, i have to make work. making ‘life’ as a distraction to the horrible things of reality. i should make work, not just for me but for others. other people find joy and happiness in the objects i make, even if its only for a few minutes. do i owe them this? in this time of crisis, do i owe people the blob? is it too much to ask of myself, to make others happy when i’m finding it difficult to make myself happy and motivated? should i make work to make me happy? probably. but what do i make? what will make me happy? maybe i’ll listen to music and draw some shapes.

a strategy to get out of this rut: does it have to be about the blob? can it be something else? am i hindering myself by putting the restriction of the blob onto myself?

what about a video of the blobs just floating about – w soothing music. would that be nice?

i’m going to go draw outside…

i drew some blobs but that made everything a bit worse… it made me more frustrated… i don’t know what to do. so here i am, outside, writing. i’m really very stuck. i want to make but don’t know what to make so i’m going to sit here and whine about making but not actually doing anything to help that. there is no point in making for the sake of making, just like there’s no point painting or drawing for the sake of doing something. i’m very worried. should i write? like, actual writing? like creative, productive writing? yeah maybe. the experience of a blob… there i go again! obsessed with the blob, it doesn’t even have to be about the blob anymore we have discussed this. it can be about the concepts, the ideas behind the blob but not necessarily the blob… but maybe just write about the blob for now… maybe something will come out of it. you don’t know until you try. until you do. i am hungry.

think about the blob as a plant? life cycle? shall we do that? i don’t know. i’m so stuck! how many pages of ramble do i have to do before i think of something that i want to do… or before i get the motivation to do it… i really need to do something…

do stuff! make stuff! write stuff! but… i can’t. why not? i am just doing nothing. i should have been in the doing nothing group because i am pretty good at that now. or maybe i’m not because i’m always doing stuff… like this… thoughts… but this doesn’t count. because it’s for me. you know what you can do? start your research plan… just a thought.

ok so just found out about analysis paralysis and i think… i might have it…

um. uh.

i’m going to read the rambles from unit 5… maybe that will help?

should i just make… more blobs? why don’t you use polymer clay? but! this is just repeating what has already been done… is that okay?

i’m going to do some writing… ‘proper writing’:
should i recreate comfort? comfort 2.0?

02/05/20

Comfort, all alone.

Comfort is alone in the creator’s dorm room, where they were made. The creator left them, sitting in a room, all alone. The sun shines through the window and then it disappears, over and over again. The creator has not been back for days, weeks, months. The creator wonders whether Comfort is okay, is Comfort still there? The uncertainty leaves the creator to constantly question, are they safe? Comfort has not been touched for days, weeks, months. Comfort is all alone. Comfort wonders, when will the creator return for me? It’s been hours, days, weeks, a month, an eternity.

conversation with myself:

What is it like to be a blob?

Well, I just don’t know.

Why not? You made them.

Yeah, but I don’t know what it’s like to be one of them. How could I? I’m human. They’re Blobonian. Blobonian. I just made that up! [Check if that’s already a word. I’m sure it’s not.]

Do you not have an idea of what it’s like to be one?

Oh yeah, sure. I have an idea of what it’s like, but I don’t know for sure, only the Blobs know that.

Can they not tell you?

No. They cannot speak.

So how do they communicate?

I suppose they communicate through touch… or sense… they can sense you. Like a snake? [Check if that is factually accurate. I’m sure it’s not.]

Oh, okay. Well, what’s your idea of what it’s like to be a blob?

I would suppose being a blob is quite difficult. To not be able to talk, hear or see. That sounds like a lonely existence, I would imagine.

Yeah. That does sound rather lonely… but you made it that way.

Yeah.

Do they communicate with each other?

I think they do… they have no one else. Maybe it’s like how cats can communicate to each other non-verbally.

So, like brainwaves, thoughts? Telepathy?

Conceptually, yeah. But, literally, no. They don’t have brains; they are not real.

Well, of course. I know that.

https://frieze.com/article/see-hear-touch

03/05/20

today i made a showreel for the mini crit tomorrow, https://youtu.be/VOdMfrwImIk. seeing my past work made me want to make more videos. – okay so what about the brushing video you were thinking of? making a furry, fluffy blob and brushing them? that could be nice… doesn’t have to be the same form as comfort… would you want to put them outside? in nature? but would a fluffy blob look weird? thinking about a fluffy blob makes me think of fimbles… or puppets from those types of childrens shows i watched as a kid… maybe this is where it’s coming from! oh talking about puppets… do you want to make a puppet? puppet blob? …nah… unless? what about a blob costume… heh. could be fun… what about… fluffy blob & me dressed as a blob… like their parent… this… …hmm…

living sculpture…

i suppose this would take longer than the time we have? topiary? moss? https://homeguides.sfgate.com/cover-sculpture-moss-42552.html maybe not… it takes weeks… maybe it can be an experiment in the background but i don’t want to waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! i want moss blob nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. tillandsias? – air plant, wraps around objects… but how am i supposed to get these plants and such with all the gardening shops closed! but… thoughts about a plant blob… the same dilemmas and questions as a virtual blob.. would this type of care become a burden? having to look after the plant/sculpture, it’s no longer a symbiotic relationship. i’m not getting anything out of it, apart from a purpose… but a non-plant blob can provide me with a purpose. living sculpture is a lot to commit to. so, i’ll pass.

blob made out of towels – blob bath ?

03/05/20

notes for mini crit w/ usual porpoises:

showreel link: https://youtu.be/VOdMfrwImIk
creation and interaction link: https://youtu.be/SBhY7NbQkIs
affection link: https://youtu.be/mFFS3ALzaSY

• using a fictional character of the blob to create works around comfort, desire, autonomy, power dynamics between artist/object when thinking of the blob as a living being - animism
• this is comfort, theyre a being that you can hug and they're heavy. physically and emotionally comforting
• collection of works intended to be touched by the hand, held, stroked, fidgeted with
• unit 7 : resin blobs, very smooth and you can see your finger through the object. fidget objects to relieve anxiety. reminded me of sweets... and from the smaller ones before, ideas of a desire to eat them was voiced
• experimentations in creating blobs that you can eat
• i love it so much i could just eat it! peoples responses to cute things like babies/puppies/kittens
• experiment in eating the blobs... raised questions around the ethics of this... if i do think of the blobs as sentient things that i have created then this piece is a bit morbid... playing on the sinister/cute vibe... the readings/responses to the video wasn't what i intended so ive held off that idea for now
• soap! response to people not wanting to touch the blobs in our current situation - pre lockdown - open studio. forced touch? soap carving - asmr? technique very relaxing....
• open studio - blob bath - very intimate to wash the blob. some drowned the blob - again raised questions of ethics... bit sinister
• work made in lockdown - trying to think about digitising the blob and creating a virtual pet that you can care for but in the crit - the point was raised that it doesnt have the same affect as irl - makes people care less about them, more responsibility for the viewer to keep them alive - a disconnect
• so now thinking about a 'nature blob'
• about how nature is providing most of my comfort, being outside is desirable
• blob made out of a stone from my front garden - idea was to make a few natural blobs and put them around my neighbourhood for public to interact out of curiosity? but how will they respond outside of an artistic context? stone was too difficult though...
• tried making a blob out of wood... failed. turns out its super hard to carve/chisel tree stumps into something nice - the process hurt me rather than comforting me. so this is how far i got.
now i am not sure what to do next in my practice. im starting to do more writing and develop that more. maybe a video... i dont know what i want out of the project atm but before i wanted another perspective on the blob... the blob as a being that is within us all - what does your blob look like? - and then i make it or you make it.

04/05/20

today i had a mini crit/sharing of our practices with the usual porpoises project group. below is a copy of the chat in response to my work:

olivia

11:51 AM

i remember the weight of it was sort of bizarre but comforting at the same time

Sarah Cole

11:51 AM

Where a practice involves more haptic qualities, this is a real challenge to now negotiate

11:51 AM

Perhaps you could make instructions for others to make their own Blobs out of soap...

Alexander Schady

11:51 AM

so interesting to think about weight and other sculptural concerns now that everything has become image (through web conferencing)

lilytwells

11:53 AM

comfort for the insides

Alexander Schady

11:53 AM

how would taste and touch be communicated online

Dandy

11:53 AM

yeh seems to have the opposite effect now

olivia

11:53 AM

have you looked into cute aggression*

Alexander Schady

11:55 AM

that they are hand held is important K think

Dandy

11:55 AM

Pokemon character?

lilytwells

11:55 AM

tamagotchi

11:55 AM

!

11:56 AM

i always overfed mine and they died

Alexander Schady

11:56 AM

there is an idea that the Venus of Willendorf is the shape it is because it was intended to be held in the hand in a dark cave.**

lilytwells

11:58 AM

have you looked into touch stones also..? plastercine – people fiddled with it and created work out of nerves? but it wasn’t ‘work’.

Sarah Cole

11:59 AM

one of the few benefits of this digital landscape is also how you can play with scale...

12:00 PM

The miniature can appear to be gigantic

Alexander Schady

12:01 PM

material and dematerialised objects

* https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/12/31/679832549/when-too-cute-is-too-much-the-brain-can-get-aggressive?t=1588602003648

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/prehistoric-art/paleolithic/paleolithic-objects/a/venus-of-willendorf ** ?

hmm… instructions?

rewatching the session, notes, feedback… transcript:

the nature of the object to be understood by holding it rather than looking at it. sculptural requirements for understanding your work and how you make those apparent, visible and understood in the digital environment where everything has to come through a webcam – a really good question. if weight, touch is what matters then how can somebody else experience that when they can’t hold the object because you have the object in one place and theyre looking at it through a webcam in another? answering those questions would be a rich area for investigation. something beautiful here precisely because the medium seems to challenge it in some way, with video work, digital work seems ill equipped to consider the more formal properties of sculpture.

they might need to make their own object – tell them what the weight of it is, rather than the shape, maybe the things that they copy and not the look of it but the feel, the weight, the.. other considerations or instructions for someone else. e.g. make something cold, weighs 200 grams and fits in the palm of your hand. a way to get people doing things. making through sculptural instructions rather than image ones.

something similar to giving people plastercine to fiddle with in conversation, conversation leads to an object, they take a photograph of it and then you make it – you make the blob from that? what they have created through touch?

lots of ways to generate new ways of shaping these forms and the conversations somehow inform the object; even if it’s not obvious.

the fact that i couldn’t make a blob out of the chopped wood is a work in of itself – the struggle of making.

generator? make your own to randomly assign qualities of the blob? use perchance.org. descriptions of the blob: the blob is… rather than make a blob.

qualities: warm, cold, hard, soft, fluffy, tiny, hand-held, colours, textures, slimey, weight 100g-500g, heavy, light

make a blob that is [adjective], [adjective] and weighs [weight].

make a [colour] blob that is [temperature], [size], [adjective].

make a blob that weighs [weight].

make a blob that is [adjective].

make a blob out of [material].

https://perchance.org/theblobgenerator#edit

https://theblobgenerator.neocities.org/ !!!!!!!!

code for the blob generator:

title

the blob generator

output

make a blob that is [adjective], [adjectivetwo] and weighs [weight].

make a [colour] blob that is [temperature], [size] and [adjective].

make a blob that weighs [weight].

make a blob that is [adjective].

make a blob out of [material].

make a blob that weighs [weight] out of [material].

make a blob that is [colour].

make a blob that is [adjectivetwo].

make a blob that is [adjective] out of [material].

make a [colour] blob out of [material].

make a blob that is [adjectivetwo].

make a blob out of [adjective] [material].

make a blob out of [colour] [material].

draw a blob that is [adjective] and [adjectivetwo].

draw a [colour] blob that is [size] and [adjective].

draw a blob that is [adjective].

draw a blob that is [colour].

draw a blob that is [adjectivetwo].

colour

blue

black

orange

light blue

purple

pink

grape

lavender

grey

red

green

white^0.5 // this item is HALF as likely as the others

yellow^2 // this item is TWICE as likely as the others

weight

100g

200g

300g

50g

250g

a lot

a little

the same as you^0.5

1kg^0.5

150g^2

temperature

freezing

room temp

cold

warm

boiling^0.5

room temp^2

material

paper

fabric

food

clay

soap

stone

wood

mud

using paint

fluffy fabric

towels

concrete

sticks

plaster^0.5

plasticine^2

size

tiny

small

average

big

huge

bigger than you^0.5

fits in your hand^2

adjective

cute

helpful

mean

soft

fluffy

slimey

nice

heavy

light

hard

adorable

alive

lonely

gentle

odd

adjectivetwo

small

tiny

big

massive

scary

sad

happy

04/05/20

05/05/20

today i attended a usual porpoises session where we were split into three groups; conversation, networks and instruction. i’m in the networks group with pegah, maisie, yumin, jade, tilly and charles. our task for the week is to generate conversations, actions, possibilities for how we might work collaboratively or individually under the word ‘networks’. this week is for experimentation, play, messing around, testing different ideas, possibilities and opportunities for development. we have planned to meet on wednesday, thursday and friday around 1pm – hopefully this time will be okay with everyone. i have quite a bit to do this week – might be busy… need to make a start on the research plan… bit bad that i haven’t started it yet but whoops. in usual porpoises today, mia said something that i need to remember, something along the lines of “it’s the process that matters, not the outcomes. don’t have to have a specific outcome, just experimentations and documentation of processes…” it’s okay if they fail… but why did they fail?

generator ideas:

how to make a blob – not just make a blob… but give instructions how and then the generator jumbles this to make something weird… follow instructions.

descriptions of the blob: the blob is…

how would you make a blob in the first place?

take a piece of clay, roll it into a ball and squeeze it to form an indent. add a head, carve the arms into the clay and give the blob an illusion of legs. smooth their body down using water and sandpaper.

take a block of plaster, chisel the form of a head into the block, chisel out the space between the head and the shoulders. carve lines into the plaster that give the illusion of arms and legs, if you want. sand until smooth.

cut out two big circles, four long stretched ovals, two small circles, a triangle and an oval out of fabric. put the two big circles together inside out and stitch together to form a bag. at the hole, stitch the oval onto the bag. stitch two long stretched ovals together facing each other, to create one long stretched oval. do this to the other set of two long stretched ovals. stitch the two small circles and the triangle together to form a ball like shape. before sealing, turn the limbs so they are no longer inside-out and stuff each limb with stuffing and weights. seal. attach arms to the side of the body and attach the head on top of the body.

^ something like that…

pre-made generators to use in the generator:

{import:common-first-name}

{import:common-unisex-name}

{import:crayon-colour}

{import:object}

{import:complex-form}

{import:fabric-type}

{import:adjective}

{import:emotion}

{import:speech-verb}

{import:verb}

{import:mood}

{import:color-name}

for the description i’m going to copy and paste the writings i wrote for the blob last unit… new idea! blob poem generator.

The blob is a genderless spiritual entity that manifests within two-dimensional and three-dimensional planes respectively. This being is a personification of the inside of the bodily form. They are immortal and everchanging. They are a shapeshifter - a form-shifter. They adapt their bodies to distort the societal expectation of bodily standards within the structures of gender. The blobs are brought into existence by the hands of their creator. The newly ‘born’ blobs exude a certain vulnerability as they are easily cracked, chipped, dented or broken. The creator fixes them, nurtures them, protects them, cleans them. A simple identifier of the blob is that, they have no face – or at least no humanistic facial features. They cannot see, breathe, smell, hear or move. They can only feel. They are fixed in a certain position. The blobs are serene creatures that are created to comfort fellow bodies and in return, be comforted, protected and loved. The blob is a guardian, protecting ones that encounter them from worry and harm.

??????

The blob is a genderless [creature] that manifests from the creator’s brain to the physical plane. This [creature = c] is a personification of the inside of the bodily form. They are [adjective] and [adjective]. They are a shapeshifter, taking on [complex-forms] shapes primarily.

?????

create a blob that is {import:adjective}, [adjectivetwo] and weighs {1-1000} gram{s}.

create a {import:color-name} blob that is [temperature], [size] and [adjective].

create a blob that weighs {1-1000} gram{s}.

create a blob that is [adjective].

create a blob out of [material].

create a blob that weighs {1-1000} gram{s} out of [material].

create a blob that is {import:color-name}.

create a blob that is [adjectivetwo].

create a blob that is [adjective] out of [material].

create a {import:color-name} blob out of [material].

create a blob that is [adjectivetwo].

create a blob out of [adjective] [material].

create a blob out of {import:color-name} [material].

draw a blob that is [adjective] and [adjectivetwo].

draw a {import:color-name} blob that is [size] and [adjective].

draw a blob that is [adjective].

draw a blob that is {import:color-name}.

draw a blob that is [adjectivetwo].

[n = name.selectOne] was born on {01-28}/{01-12}/{1500-2019}. [n] is a Blob. The Blob is a [creature] that loves to {import:verb}. They are very {import:adjective} and {import:adjective}. [n] is made from {import:color-name} [material].

name = {import:common-name}

https://theblobgenerator.neocities.org/blobdescription.html

https://theblobgenerator.neocities.org/blobgen.html

blob description code:

title

the blob descriptor

output

[paragraph]

paragraph

[n = name.selectOne.lowerCase] was born on {01-28}/{01-12}/{1900-2019}. <br><br> [n] is {a} [size] blob. <br><br> the blob is {a} [creature] that loves to {import:verb} and {import:verb}. <br> they are very {import:adjective} and {import:adjective}. <br> [n] is made from {import:color-name} [material].<br><br> [n] would love to [verb] and [verb] you.

name = {[first]|[unisex]^0.5|[fem]|[masc]|[herb]^0.3|[flower]^0.5}

first = {import:common-first-name}

unisex = {import:common-unisex-name}

fem = {import:common-female-name}

masc = {import:common-male-name}

herb = {import:herb}

flower = {import:flower-species}

material

paper

fabric

food

clay

soap

stone

wood

mud

paint

fluffy fabric

towels

concrete

sticks

plaster^0.5

plasticine^2

creature

creature

being

entity

monster

immortal

glorified shadow

spirit

size

tiny

small

average

big

huge

verb

pat

befriend

help

comfort

love

protect

nurture

05/05/20

06/05/20

just found an idea i scrawled into my sketchbook before going to sleep: “FELT A BLOB. FELTING > FELTING.?” – so maybe i could do some felting. today i attended the academic support session about writing the research plan. from this, i feel a bit better about it; i’ve kind of been doing the idea generation about concepts and such in this document, i feel? after the session, i made a research plan thoughts document… and created a ‘word circle’ and freewrote 500 words about my practice. it’s a start! baby steps… and a few notes about things… look at the research thoughts doc for more info… in regards to practical work – nothing made today… but that’s okay… no new generators – yet. it’s only 19.24 so something might happen but unlikely… i will develop research plan stuff tomorrow. also, networks group meeting moved to tomorrow because a member of our group couldn’t attend today’s session, so hopefully that will start tomorrow at 1pm. 06/05/20

07/05/20

today i had a personal tutorial with louise:

https://hotglue.me/ - tactile website

plants self-reproduce – blob self-reproduce? own species? spider-plant. blobs become seeds? give to others to plant/grow? plants with similar qualities to the blob, soft leaves, scents etc. materials relate to blob – affect.

generator – the background links to the description – eg. pink blob? pink background. – use if/else code? is that right? no you can’t do that… took about four hours to figure it out… but i did it! the background colour syncs with the words… only problem is that the word colour “orange” appears at the very top of the page and is connected to the “orange” in the text… if i try to delete it, it breaks the code! i don’t know how to fix it but at least i got the gist of how to do it. i’ll work on it more tomorrow, as well as work on the research plan for the tutorial next week… and the hotglue thing!

https://blobsite.hotglue.me/ 😊

porpoise hotglue: https://networks.hotglue.me/ password: porpoises

met networks for half hour – came up with hotglue idea… everyone put stuff on there.

07/05/20

08/05/20

update: fixed the “orange” text problem!! it’s gone. turns out you just add hidden to the code! brilliant… im a genius… coding makes me feel so smart… time to add more colours! ok i really am smart… i dunno if it was the code i copied or genuinely my code as well but… we did it… we changed the text colour in sync w the background colour so its nicer to the eyes! very clever… but i have wasted a lot of time doing this… oh well but it’s not really wasting time because i’m learning and doing my practice!

https://blobsite.hotglue.me/blobsite - the generator! nice… the hotglue host doesn’t exactly have a smooth transition to the different colours… very jolting…

today i have been working on my code for the blob description generator, getting the colours to sync together as well as changing font colour and formatting. i might experiment more with hotglue.me tomorrow, as well as put my generator on the networks server… might do research plan bits but… might relax… ttyl oh! also was thinking about introducing fonts having emotion, or impacting affect… kind of discussed it with louise yesterday and i’m already doing that but perhaps i can do it more intentionally.

08/05/20

https://theblobgenerator.neocities.org/blobsite.html

09/05/20

today i uploaded a collage of work onto https://networks.hotglue.me/ - it’s really interesting to see all my stuff together on one page… i think i am going to experiment more with hotglue outside of networks, for my own practice. haven’t done any work towards the research plan, i’ll do it tomorrow, seeing as we have a networks meeting at lunchtime. think next week is pretty empty so i will definitely do more work on the research plan then. i’ll divide my time between research plan, practice and porpoises. but… it’s saturday, so i will be relaxing now… chilling… that’s okay, right?

09/05/20

networks google doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FGad5vztXo8YXrwIsGvbffhwVbRGIpYVGzVN7Oobshs/edit

11/05/20

virtual piano – add sounds to generator? or writing?

https://aeon.co/ideas/why-the-power-of-cute-is-colonising-our-world - very interesting... hmm..

“The craze for all things cute is motivated, most obviously, by the urge to escape from precisely such a threatening world into a garden of innocence in which childlike qualities arouse deliciously protective feelings, and bestow contentment and solace. Cute cues include behaviours that appear helpless, harmless, charming and yielding, and anatomical features such as outsize heads, protruding foreheads, saucer-like eyes, retreating chins and clumsy gaits…

…But if cuteness were merely about the charming, innocent and unthreatening, or if our attraction to it were motivated just by protective instincts, or the search for infantile and reassuring distractions from the anxieties of today’s world, it wouldn’t be so ubiquitous. Those qualities speak only of what we might call the ‘sweet’ end of a whole spectrum of cuteness. As we move toward the ‘uncanny’ end, sweet qualities get distorted into something darker, more indeterminate and more wounded. Something like Jeff Koons’s Balloon Dog series (1994-2000), which seems at once powerful (made of stainless steel) and powerless (hollow and lacking a face, mouth or eyes). It is hulking yet vulnerable-seeming, familiar and also unfamiliar, reassuringly innocent and also unsafe, defective, knowing. It both comforts us in a world of unnerving uncertainty – and gives voice to that same world, but crucially in a lighthearted register…

…Cute is above all a teasing expression of the unclarity, uncertainty, uncanniness and the continuous flux or ‘becoming’ that our era detects at the heart of all existence, living and nonliving…

…This ‘unpindownability’, as we might call it, that pervades cute – the erosion of borders between what used to be seen as distinct or discontinuous realms, such as childhood and adulthood – is also reflected in the blurred gender of many cute objects such as Balloon Dog or a lot of Pokémon. It is reflected, too, in their frequent blending of human and nonhuman forms, as in the cat-girl Hello Kitty. And in their often undefinable age. For though cute objects might appear childlike, it can be strikingly hard to say, as with ET, whether they are young or old – sometimes seeming to be, in human terms, both.

In such ways, cute is attuned to an era that is no longer so wedded to such hallowed dichotomies as masculine and feminine, sexual and nonsexual, adult and child, being and becoming, transient and eternal, body and soul, absolute and contingent, and even good and bad – dichotomies that once structured ideals but that are now taken to be more fluid or porous…

…Although attraction to such cute objects as the mouthless, fingerless Hello Kitty can express a desire for power, cuteness can also parody and subvert power by playing with the viewer’s sense of her own power, now painting her into a dominant pose, now sowing uncertainty about who is really in charge, now making her realise that the cute one’s surrender is actually a way of entrapping her, now making demands for care or protection from her.

For this reason, cute is one – perhaps very trivial, very tentative – way of exploring whether and how the paradigm of power can be exited. Indeed, this might explain why cute has stormed popular culture in those parts of the world – notably the US, Europe and above all Japan – that since the Second World War have sought, intermittently and with many setbacks, to reduce the role of power in determining the structure of human relations and, most conspicuously, of international relations…”

yesterday, the networks group met up to discuss how the website was going and to have a look and see if we could see any connections. today, i attended a session with the usual porpoises where we shared what each group has been up to over the week… we got some feedback and direction in how to progress the website or our thinking about networks… notes on this are on the networks document google doc that i started in hopes that the rest of the group use it to communicate ideas and such… ^ linked above. found some links to potential references for the research plan, about cuteness… was thinking bout cuteness today… particularly because i saw some baby ducklings and geese…geeselings at the pond today. they were very cute and made me coo a lot… good content:

notes from today’s meeting: 11/05/20

• describe the collection (of images) with group writing - how they connect?
• attach words onto others work - like in the mindmap exercise (see below) on https://networks.hotglue.me/

• using ‘mindmaps’ as a way to network - reformat the website, move things around - pair different things 
• one collaborative video - or collection of short videos eg. taking the camera for a walk - 10sec?, can all edit them? create 7 different edits? or edit them in a chain? 
• use https://miro.com/ for another mindmapping exercise - infinite whiteboard
• network group -> a person we each know -> a person they know : chainmail?
• idea: post something to each other? or to random addresses? - chain?
• idea: family tree?
• idea: social network - social media - twitter bot? - perhaps we make a twitter acc and upload work to that or make the acc the work? - rt chain?  
• daisy chain 
• analogue/digital works 
• obscure/overlap others work - invade others work? jumping onto each other’s work to produce new work - changing it in some way… kind of like image sequence task but no need to replicate - chain?
• work could be the investigation into networks - creating a net

11/05/20

12/05/20

https://chisenhale.org.uk/programmes/offsite/amalia-pica-i-am-tower-of-hamlets-as-i-am-in-tower-of-hamlets-just-like-a-lot-of-other-people-are/ thinking about how to allow for the blob to be interacted with again… but can i do something like this in these times… ?

did some research for the research plan, thinking about what i want to write about… thinking about sentient objects… think this could develop my work. would like to work on it more tomorrow before the tutorial on thursday, (see on research plan doc) listed potential people to look into/that i am interested in… no practice as of such today, but just came across an old file – sound bite of me playing the virtual piano, very badly… could introduce this as a way of giving the blobs voices… perhaps i play what the generator says? hm. maybe not but i do kinda wanna add music to it… music invokes a lot of affect… lot of emotion.. but i suppose silence does that too. going to do more thinking tomorrow… maybe more making we will see but deadlines are approaching… but that’s okay – plants! remember plants idea!

13/05/20

not entirely relevant but i just found something that i wrote on 14^th october 2018; “a studio environment is somewhere where you can feel safe and welcome. a place where support and constructive criticism exists. sharing of ideas and experiences. a place to be comfortable yet intellectually challenged. a place to be experimental. a place of belonging.” and i just…. 🥺😥 particularly thinking abt the situation we are in now… missing the studio… missing the vibes… anyways.

# - oswin

done some more work on the research plan thoughts document^tm today and i think i know what artists i want to write about maybe? this might change tomorrow… the tutorial may send me in a spiral but we praying it does the opposite. at the moment, i want to write about animism and its role in how we see sculpture? is this a thing? i dunno how much I can write about it though… is this a valid question… idk… but i’m gonna try… more details in document. going to call it a day for now. it is 21:18 so i think that’s valid of me. goodnight, thoughts document.

13/05/20

14/05/20

today i had a research plan tutorial and it was really helpful tbh… it helped me make sense of and connect the thoughts i have; turns out the word i was looking for was… empathy… this word links all my thoughts together… animism allows empathy, it makes us feel empathetic for the artwork, so much so we want to touch them… other than the research plan tutorial i haven’t done much today. ordered some books for the research – should be coming tomorrow so i might do some reading for it. idk i am just feeling a lot of pressure, theres so many things i feel i need to do but i have to keep reminding myself that it’s okay to not do work 24/7. it’s okay to have unproductive days as long as it’s not all unproductive days. i need new headphones or when the laptop shops open back up i need to send them in for a check up – my headphones keep cutting out! but it’s not urgent. i really need to keep my brain active man, took me ages to think of the word urgent. well i suppose not ages but longer than it should have. plants idea! remember it! do something with it! i keep forgetting… really need to read through this document and remind myself of what i want to do. anyways. tomorrow is a busy day, kind of… we have a potential networks meeting at 11, studio meeting at 1 and a creative computing information session at 2. hope we get somewhere with the networks thing tomorrow… might do something with ceremonies? apparently? just remembered the idea of using food as material… - but don’t eat them

oh! do stuff with hotglue.me! perhaps… write writings to go on there… 😊 love you lots. you can do this bro, you got this! ^ i don’t know what ur gonna write but i’m sure it’ll be great but even if it’s not that’s fine! it’s all good bud! (this quarantine do be making me lonely tho. i do be talking to myself. self-love) okay. goodnight, thoughts document, til tomorrow… or if i think of something before bed. i might document everything i do in a day tomorrow just because i can do that and that seems like a thing to do. as in every. single. thing. just maybe. or maybe not. i was just thinking: what… do i do all day? what have i done? these potential documentations will probs not be relevant but eh. we could do it. but, yeah. goodnight, thoughts document.

hi, me again. just to say, think it would be interesting to make one of the generated blobs. maybe make a select few. what about doing a mad libs version of the code? 🤔 use social media or fb chats – make form to fill in ? that way the audience can be involved or it can have a humanised feeling to the words? ok. now i’m going to bed! …night, thoughts document.

14/05/20

_________________ was born on __/__/____. ___________________ is a ________________ blob. The blob is a ________ that loves to ___________ and ___________. They are very ____________ and ______________. ____________ is made from ______________ _ ___________. _______________ would love to ___________ and __________ you.

• name
• date
• size
• noun
• verb
• verb
• adjective
• adjective
• colour
• material
• verb
• verb

hey! i made a google forms cos i have no self-control https://forms.gle/JhUvJaRWV9P4Axou8 myb share on twitter and the like tomorrow… ok. for real. goodnight thoughts document. goodnight me.

15/05/20

uh cool. networks meeting post-poned… i am just going to do the image generator idk idc anymore.

image generator ? side by side ? overlaps images, adds random filters? idk

https://networks.hotglue.me/imggenerator

https://perchance.org/imagegen2

😊 think i did it… it’s a first draft… won’t be doing anymore until i get feedback from the group – just an idea generator kind of thing i dunno… but i did it.

15/05/20

16/05/20

sent out the google forms to twitter and the 3d group chat; i’ve got 5 responses so far! they’re very interesting…v

response 1:

lissy was born on 07/05/2046. lissy is a large blob. the blob is a mask that loves to dig and smell. they are very glorious and musty. lissy is made from pink felt. lissy would love to sing and play (with) you.

response 2:

gertrude was born on 06/10/2009. gertrude is a teeny blob. the blob is a yoghurt that loves to swish and laugh. they are very foul and magical. gertrude is made from teal velvet. gertrude would love to morph and hug you.

response 3:

camilla was born on 04/04/4004. camilla is a colossal blob. the blob is a cardinal that loves to cackle and cajole. they are very capacious and cavernous. camilla is made from chartreuse concrete. camilla would love to cane and cauterise you.

response 4:

tree was born on 06/02/2098. tree is a normal blob. the blob is a bookcase that loves to breathe and talk. they are very mysterious and glamourous. tree is made from pastel yellow satin. tree would love to enter and delay you.

response 5:

lavender was born on 30/04/1968. lavender is a miniscule blob. the blob is a hand that loves to swim and fly. they are very cute and squishy. lavender is made from green silk. lavender would love to cry and wobble (with) you.

response 6:

georgia was born on 01/04/1997. georgia is a microscopic blob. the blob is a dog that loves to sing and dance. they are very beautiful and precious. georgia is made from yellow silk. georgia would love to walk and jump (with) you.

response 7:

x was born on 06/09/2020. x is a large blob. the blob is an orange that loves to do and jump. they are very lovely and dark. x is made from green rubber. x would love to dance and cry (with) you.

response 8:

narf was born on 27/03/1967. narf is a middle-sized blob. the blob is a tiger that loves to fly and drown. they are very yellow and slow. narf is made from orange plastic. narf would love to eat and melt (with) you.

response 9:

ruby was born on 12/09/2020. ruby is a small blob. the blob is a box that loves to shop and work. they are very beautiful and lovely. ruby is made from blue fabric. ruby would love to phone and clean you.

17/05/20

ive put that ^ in a generator today https://perchance.org/madblobs i made individual colourways of the textures. it still needs developing – need to figure out how to change the text colour again, for some reason the text colour code isn’t working. ☹ i can do that in the week though…

18/05/20

goslings… ducklings… bloblings… feelings… bloblings feelings…

today we had a day of briefings, but progress was made for the networks project – we have made a start on a couple experiments surrounding image associations and the connections/links between different things in the world and we are adapting this to fit our practices, as an idea generation thing. not much practical work done today, but i will get working tomorrow! saw some more baby goslings today 🥺 had an idea last night before bed: video version of the blob generators, where it types out the generator sentences and also shows the blob described. for example; a teeny blue silk yoghurt ^. maybe like a story time thing. magical and fantastical. also just a note to develop: technically… the blob can be a blue silk yoghurt or bookcase or tiger because as previously stated within the lore, the blob is a shapeshifter, a formshifter so… technically… it’s kind of right.

19/05/20

today, we had a session with the usual porpoises where we shared where we were at in the working groups project. ideas around potentially making the network more complicated by sharing the image to a random person in the group, instead of an ordered list; a more chaotic and complex approach that will create an intertwined web of ideas… potentially? or will that just… reorder the list? god i don’t know. we also were set a challenge by the other group to create a surface to invite the public to draw or write something, so i drew on our front garden. feel like im not getting much out of this… or at least out of that. im going to read through my notes for what i should do now. going to highlight things. i suppose… what colour? lets let a randomizer decide… just realised i can’t do custom highlights in word ☹. ok. i need to be productive. i was also thinking, instead of growing a plant (i haven’t acquired a plant yet) make footage of plants look like blobs. or blobish. i don’t know how you will do this. how i will do this.

thinking about nature… if we consider the blob to be a living creature, a being of some sort, then they must come from nature. they must derive from nature, surely? louise pointed out the language of “nature blob” implying that before, the blob wasn’t natural… what does this mean?! what does it all mean?! is the blob natural? or is it artificial? i suppose technically they are artificial:

so technically, they are artificial… artificial beings… another thought or statement: about the natural blobs, blobs made of plants – perhaps… i could use artificial plants. are blobs blobs because i say they are…? …yes… i am deciding what a blob is. and what a blob can be… a blob can be anything… literally I suppose… I don’t know if this is developing the idea of a blob or destroying it.

artificial plants, grass, flowers, things. might be more expensive than buying actual plants. you can make your own artificial plant…

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-you-make-fake-plants

this could be interesting… thinking about the mad blibs work in relation to this… textures, the materials mentioned in the forms are the same materials that can be used to make fake plants… is this something? crepe paper. hmm… idk..

perhaps you should investigate into blender. make digital ‘blobs’ that have the different textures of the materials.. or fake plant texture, technically, they will still be artificial.

blender resources: https://www.poliigon.com/

https://blenderartists.org/t/yet-another-thread-about-cycles-materials/562346/169

just finished messing around with blender – made an orange ‘felt’ bookcase, influenced by the generator:

19/05/20

20/05/20

sometime today we should have a meeting to prepare for the group tutorial tomorrow… hmm. we did! doing a collaborative piece and google slides presentation 😊

maybe could adapt one of the generators to ft. all nouns?

generators:

what does the blob feel?

what does the blob want?

how does the blob feel today?

thoughts: using generators to decide what the blob is, how it feels and what it wants is a way to combat the “problem” of power within the blob/creator dynamic. i no longer decide these things about the blob, the blob has more agency with the use of generators. with the date of birth from the mad blobs, i love the implication that the blob lives in our future, they are not bound by time…

name is a blob made from colour material. they are feeling particularly emotion today. i wonder if they will verb and verb later.

name is a blob. this particular blob feels very emotion today. perhaps it is because they are a noun made of colour material.

name is a blob. name is shaped like a noun made from colour material.

how are you feeling today name?

i feel very emotion, creator.

^ https://perchance.org/blobfeelings

chatbot? maybe.

thoughts for group tutorial tomorrow:

allowing for external forces to decide what the blob is or what it says. developing the language and lore surrounding the blob; the writing element of my practice. generators expand what the blob can be, technically they can be whatever they want because as previously stated, they are shapeshifters. level of absurdity comes with using random generators, but i quite like that… like.. wow.. didn’t know they did that. – makes it more interesting for me; it makes me question hmm.. maybe the blob is a drain. ok. going to call it a day now. thinking about realising this in a video, using blender… potentially. i have a lot of ideas but haven’t committed to many. also. bloblings… 😐

goodnight

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1mn1uBPaPBX4dxgWW-1YC_cwh7I6pYjzubolCFsqy5bg/edit#slide=id.g80650c52d2_0_0

20/05/20

21/05/20

we had a group tutorial today, where we shared work as a group of three; showed the collaboration that we did and our own individual works. some interesting ideas came out of this, one was to find a way to make the blob that is generated physically appear in image form. i do not know how to do this. another was to manually do the generator using newspaper cutouts… this would be a great idea and an easy idea to do straight away… if I were in london where theres a newspaper stack every ten minutes. i will probably still try this. think it is an interesting way to make the work physical again. blackout poetry. another idea was to get people to draw their interpretations of the generated blob. it did not occur to me that i could draw them. i genuinely forgot i could draw… just kept thinking about how to make objects… not draw them. so i would like to try that.

some links gabe sent, for visually generating the blob:

https://forum.unity.com/threads/random-2d-shape-generation.376836/

https://www.blobmaker.app/

i also managed to write 500 words of my research plan… made a start. to be honest… the 500 words are probably gibberish ramble but i will read through it tomorrow and add more develop more etc. i also read some of comfort of things (didn’t find anything interesting so far) and evocative objects (loads of good stuff about stuffed toys, comfort and imagination).

the texts in evocative objects led me to question “is the blob an imaginary companion?” and another question that i cant remember but noted in the book…

21/05/20

22/05/20

just drew some drawings based on the generated blobs, it’s really interesting to actually visualise them… one of the blobs loves to nest… and i thought that was really interesting tbh… the blobs behaviours. do they have humanistic behaviours or animalistic behaviours?

i think i would like to bring the generator to a video format? to visualise the blobs described through stock images/videos or my own images/videos. maybe pick a couple blobs or just one. am i allowed to use stock videos for my work? uhh. hm..

24/05/20

i looked into some more texts for my research plan, i have gathered quite a lot of material that i need to look over. i set up a google drive folder to put the image rotation photos in. i have written a bit more of my research plan – it’s very rough and very gibberishy but i’m at 700 words at the minute. i’m going to focus on the research plan this week, so will be a bit mia on the practice. maybe i can do some bits here and there. but. focus is on the research plan 😨😖.

28/05/20

mark leckey – the long tail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro3MOPZPugI

recreation of an image from obsession, demonstration, feels theatrical, different areas of focus using spotlight

a mechanical scanner, felix the cat – first pic on air. – becomes ethereal,

quote spoken by narrator instead of leckey – carole tanko serato

all at once – coexisting

uses different media to make it interesting

the long tail video – description and narration over the top, describing it. moving, tentacles, they seem to be caressing each other, touching and embracing itself, themselves – they hear and feel and possess an awareness from music – living non living, newborn what is it! nameless yeast achieving consciousness… self organising yoghurt, living custard – humour – a poetic narration over the top of this video

at 8.00 leckey’s voice begins to echo… and noise is starting to drown him out, droning, he is the swarm, cos the swarm is he…. are they bee sounds? more distinct echoes, definitely intentional, starting to feel more like an art piece rather than a lecture; intervals of art after spoken references. fades back out at the end

hannah dargavel-leafe, oral rinse https://oralrinse.tumblr.com/oralrinse4

spoken words, linked words? words that sound the same overlapped words, two people speaking? one person to sound like more?

around 2.00 different sounds begin to be introduced, sounds turn into words… can hear sounds within the music “stay on the beat”? “stay on beat”? “they are good” ?

slower voices, stuttering, repeating same words, starts to sound like a beat “jean kent?”

“you can hear me” ocean sounds? abrupt sounds, broken communication, loss of connection

“the revolution must come” starts to sound like an old radio broadcast

sound in different ears – soundbite from someone talking “specificity” “do something” – altered, makes me want to do something… my mind when im not making any work: “do something do something do something”

digital sounds – machines trying to talk “very soon now, very soon now, very soon now… you’ll be dead.” – abrupt end

starts quite normal… you think that it is just going to be 9mins of them saying words but it starts to alter into something more absurd

different voices – some that sound digital and others more humanistic, found from different sources?

notes on notes on blue , moyra davey

narration, film? or is it made to look like film?

domestic, personal, pacing back and forth
anonymous mask ?
personal to the general, concrete to abstract
sight
suddenly outside, more public place
blindness – interiors are dark, no light inside. only from outside, shadows inside, their experience?

small slithers of insights into a personal space, through the open door of their bedroom

at 5.00 you see the person in the film talking, and realise that the person narrating is the person walking and pacing around… notes, pacing, talking to themself for future reference? cuts from narration, person pacing around their house to a film scene – use of film ‘aesthetic’ ? shows when the work is… film ‘aesthetic’ seems genuine, past works?

the narration starts to feel like background noise, i cant follow what theyre saying, words blend together – monotone?

narration feels like a stream of consciousness, thoughts at the moment? narration is notes on their work and practice? analysis, a verbal, visual essay – speech-to-text?

nicholas hatfull

spaghetti …

animist, sorry for the sandwiches, empathy for the sandwiches that are not eaten? “tokyo ga” ? that’s such a neat sandwich!
combination of links and references that you wouldn’t think link to each other do; classical painting with a driving video game aesthetic ?
finding links between things from the past and things that happen now

up the beanstalk

atmospheric, each reading an excerpt from the text followed by musical intervals, musical intervals feel quite melancholic. an auditory experience

the f*ggots have no leader, only dead heroes

jesper

exercise ? american? the audio of an exercise routine

blank male

interesting when you press more than one play button – tactile, almost like the audience is helping to create the work by choosing which audio to play and how many

29/05/20

i’m picking up my stuff on the 4^th! 😭 i’m going to be reunited with comfort on the 4^th! idea to make it into a piece… reuniting with comfort… sounds so nice. a video piece… stunning… omg you can get newspapers too! weird to go all the way to london for newspapers but guess you could!

02/06/20

hi thoughts document! finished the research plan, submitted it so i suppose its back to practice… yesterday we had a usual porpoises session where it was proposed that as an outcome we would have a slot in a live zoom broadcast… that will be livestreamed on youtube 😱 we dunno what we’re gonna do but probably an association thing… feel weird that we r still doing associations esp. cos i put that idea to the group… but i suppose everyone feels okay with that? we’re doing a practice run on thursday, well they are… im not because… picking my stuff up but im gonna prep summin. dunno what.

myb do some writing abt the blobs that r generated – some creative writing … dunno iff you would be up for writing after the research plan but…

how am i going to do the presentation thingy?

hotglue? make it feel … tactile somehow

make a generator story… through pages perhaps… - yeah for the presentation

the blob can be a [noun]. the blob has been around for [number] years, living under the [noun]. they are everywhere, in the [noun], [noun], and [noun] all over [country]. do you want to know more?

no yes

no: oh, okay. i see. (you were supposed to click yes…)

yes: [brilliant, okay, great, lovely, nice, wonderful]! the blob is a [emotion] species. they can be a [noun] or a [noun]. the possibilities are [endless, boundless, neverending]. they are very [verb] as a species. they seem to be made from all sorts of materials like [material] or [material]. do you want to read about them?

yes no

no: well. [okay, fine, alright] i’ll show you something else… like this: [img generator from networks]. [more stuff from networks]

yes: [page of blob generators]. do you want to see them?

yes no

no: [networks page]

yes: visualised blobs based off of generator, physical or digital blender renders.

backgroundPlugin = {import:background-image-plugin}

backgroundImage = [c.image]

<iframe src="https://null.perchance.org/blobsite" style="width:100%; height:100%; border:none;"></iframe>

<iframe src="https://null.perchance.org/blobfeelings" style="width:100%; height:100%; border:none;"></iframe>

<iframe src="https://null.perchance.org/madblobs" style="width:100%; height:100%; border:none;"></iframe>

<div style="color:[t];font-size: 20px;text-align:centre;letter-spacing: 1.5px;font-family:georgia;"><u><i>yes</i></u></div>

<iframe src="https://null.perchance.org/colournoun" style="width:100%; height:100%; border:none;"></iframe>

<iframe src="https://null.perchance.org/colournoun2" style="width:100%; height:100%; border:none;"></iframe>

<iframe src="https://null.perchance.org/colournoun3" style="width:100%; height:100%; border:none;"></iframe>