Ruby Chou
documentation
“My Voices, You Never Heard”
In this project, I was experimenting with the sounds from different spaces and overlapping them that might create a new form of sounds or cancel each other out. The idea came from the reading Now and Elsewhere about the word of contemporaneity --- “the sensation of being in a time together”. To extend this idea, the sounds that happen at same time create new types of sounds with either brightness or darkness, narrow or broad, high or deep. On the other hand, when sounds happen at the same time, some of the sounds might be cut out, especially human voices. For example, people are speaking out loud at the same time when they are protesting, and some of the demands and thoughts will cut out sometimes. This project might not be identified as a “beautiful” artwork, but it is a artwork that opens to everyone for a different perspective.
Shannon Washburn
“Out of Time”
This art piece was related to Sarah Sharma’s reading, In the Meantime. The text helped me think about what constitutes a socially acceptable way to spend time, and how society discriminates against people who don’t live at the proper times. The part about unhoused people occupying the Vancouver Library, as long as they appeared to be “working” intrigued me especially. I thought about how making art can feel very unproductive at times, for several reasons. I often feel myself switching between two modes of art-making: there is the experimental mode where I am just trying out different ways of painting, or gluing random objects together, or doodling without necessarily thinking about what it will look like in the end. And then there is the mindset that I am making this one specific painting, and I want it to look like a beautiful finished “product” that I will be able to sell or submit to an art show/gallery. Oftentimes, in the first way of making, I am feeling more introverted, and the second way of making, I am thinking more about what it is communicating to others. Even though the first way of making I discussed is vital to making good work, it is not considered “productive” in a capitalist sense, as I would probably never be able to sell that work, or show it in public to gain prestige. The irony of making this type of work on camera, then destroying it, but also making a finished video piece recording the process, is what I wanted to achieve in this piece.
Julie Chow
“Poetic Lyrics in Quarantine”
This project sprouted from an idea I had in the back of my mind for a long time to make something that involved interviewed peers. After reading Why I Don't Talk About 'The Body': A Polemic by Gordon Hall and learning about Emily Jacir's Where we come from. The readings described explored the thoughts and experiences that are the embodiment of the host and I wanted to find some connection between music and the sentiment value it has on the people I interviewed.
Julia Talgo
"Disabled Time"
Raqs Media Collective: “Time girds the earth tight. Day after day, astride minutes and seconds, the hours ride as they must, relentlessly. In the struggle to keep pace with clocks, we are now always and everywhere in a state of jet lag, always catching up with ourselves and with others, slightly short of breath, slightly short of time. The soft insidious panic of time ticking away in our heads is syncopated by accelerated heartbeat of our everyday lives. Circadian rhythms (times to rise and times to sleep, times for work and times for leisure, times for sunlight and times for stars) get muddled as millions of faces find themselves lit by timeless fluorescence that trades night for day. Sleep is besieged by wakefulness, hunger is fed by stimulation, and moments of dreaming and lucid alertness are eroded with the knowledge of intimate terrors and distant wars.”
What does it mean to be a disabled artist? There is not enough time. Disabled people run on a different schedule, but face so much pressure to “overcome” and “keep up” with our abled counterparts. Yet, if we manage to do that, our disability gets erased. “You can’t possibly be THAT disabled, you’ve accomplished [graduated from college, have a career, care for children or other people, won an award]. Disability is, at least most of the art that I’ve been exposed to as a self identified non-artist, brushed under the rug. Vincent van Gogh was incredibly famous, and incredibly mentally ill. When this fact about him gets acknowledged, sometimes it sounds like “if he didn’t have mental health issues, he wouldn’t have produced the art he did.” When I hear that as a disabled person, it sounds like: your worth is what you can provide for other people. You should value what you can produce over your own health. This message often is internalized into everyone, not just disabled people. College students sacrifice sleep for assignments and tests, medical students have internalized that 12 hour shifts are normal and an acceptable thing for an employer to expect. What kind of world are we headed towards where we have limited time (and not all of us have the same 24 hours in a day, similar to how not all of us live on the same planet), and in that time, the only thing drilled into us is “produce!” An artist is valued on what they produce, as are many other professions. Time is inextricably tied to art, it changes how art is perceived, what counts as art, who owns and can use and perform art.
I decided to step way outside my comfort zone for this project— I am not an artist, but when I do art it comes in the form of coloring or sketching, not digital art. I researched disabled artists, came up with a concept, and executed it. I deleted and re-started five times, and I wish I had recorded that part of the process too, but I’ve learned and will know for next time. I was inspired by the above quote from the Raqs Media Collective about time, because it really resonated with me, especially in my (hopefully) last semester of college. I decided to submit the video process as my final project, rather than just the still for the artwork, because the process of spending that time making art about time was a really valuable thing for me to do. Sometimes I obsess over small details on projects I make, and I did recreate it a couple times and edit some things out, but I’m satisfied with my effort to focus more on the bigger picture of the art and less on the minutia. I also learned how to do digital art with an app I’ve never used before, and it was frustrating at first because there was a learning curve, but it ended up being an enjoyable process and something I would love to revisit.