*Please click on the images below.

I. Project Development

A. Technical Research & Development

B. Conceptual Research & Development

II. Final Show Build

A. DVD Team Leadership

B. Curation & Coordination

C. Personal Exhibit

III. Colloquium Presentation

IV. Artist Statement & Reflection Paper

V. External Exhibitions

I curated the MADA show with Adriano Casanova, and working with him was brilliant. Not only did I learn a lot, especially about being firm and making quick decisions, but also how to organize the space and to think not only of each artist’s work and needs, but the entire class as a whole. Here is the text we wrote for the brochure of the show:

‘Fluid Identity’
an art exhibition from MA Digital Arts

‘…images are mediations between man and world. Man “ex-sists”, which means that he has no immediate access to the world. Images are meant to render the world accessible and imaginable to man…Images have magical meaning.’ (Vilem Flusser)

The twenty-seven artists from the show ‘Fluid Identity’ create images to communicate their research of society through technology.

In this show, the interaction between the digital platform and the human being is the unique vehicle that articulates how our identity is always in constant flux.

Being a part of a generation that faces an endless barrage of information and intense socio-political change, these artists use technology as a powerful weapon to create a statement. They ask and answer the questions, ‘Where are we going?’ and more importantly, ‘Where do we want to go?’

This selection of work deals with this issue in an informed way, translating these constant interactions into a fluid environment.

The intention is not only to be a college exhibition, but an exposition of how a group of active individuals create – with poetry – artworks of meaning.

Adriano Casanova
and
Katrin Maria Escay

FLUSSER, Vilem. “Towards a Philosophy of Photography”. 1983.

Here is the floor plan that we decided upon. Adriano made this in Illustrator:

Honestly, I couldn’t have done this without him. He was incredible with the planning and we worked very well together, organizing the space and coming together to find solutions during the show build was great. We had to make many on-the-spot decisions about how to install the works, moving equipment, etc… Especially because of the rules of the building manager, and the lack of equipment, there was much thinking on our feet. And somehow, the class really pulled through.

All this couldn’t have been done if not for several other people who were tremendously generous with their time and effort in building things for the entire class. These were Moshe Ladanga, Nick Buer and Lucy Blackwell. Moshe built all the plinths for the entire class with the help of two part-timers Chris and Zai, who painted and drilled for the rest of us. Nick Buer also built some plinths, but went on to paint the corridor and Katsura’s room (since she could not be there). Lucy Blackwell was amazing. She basically looked at all the details and solved it independently, regarding the blacking out of the light as well as buying the black cloth for the Drawing room. She also took on setting up the work of the other onliners. This couldn’t have been done without her.

The other people who also gave much of their time were Dayoung, Sharon, Nikos and Chrysanthos. They painted walls and cleaned up the space as well. Dom was also very helpful, helping us with the coordination with the building manager (which was a very important aspect) and he even lent us all of his tools. He came in and drilled for us, despite it not being his own space. Even the others who came in late in the week, put in a lot of work when they came, like Ryo, Yan and John Baugh. Tim also arrived to help paint for the afternoon.

Despite all the last-minute changes, the class really pulled together and I am quite proud of everyone. Everyone did a tremendous job.

I have also been coordinating with Sean Clark for the MA08 website, and all the work he put into it is great. This can be found on www.ma08.org.uk.

For our personal exhibit, there was much planning and coordination as well as problem-solving that took place. First of all, since we were exhibiting in a corridor, getting permission from John Carbery was quite difficult. I had a meeting with him to be able to get permission to hang our screens using braces, but he didn’t allow us to do so. He also told us that we needed to have a space of atleast 1.5 meters between our work. Since the corridor was 2.2 meters, we only had .3 meters for each of our work.

Because of that, Mosh and I had to put our heads together and find out how to do this. We could not use the screen stands, so we decided to create thin plinths which would house the CPUs as well as would be the base for the screens. Since there would be a danger of it tipping over, Mosh and I designed a way to both hinge the plinth to the wall as well as lock it down on the other side with a padlock. We also went to Whitten Timber, where we spoke to the son of the owner, James Whitten. He designed the plinths so that it could withstand the 30kg of weight without it getting unstable.

Mosh built the plinths, while I prepared the corridor space, which included asking for permission from Alain Ayers and the Admin regarding the removing of the canvas boards as well as the form boxes on the walls. Even after getting permission, preparing the space was still quite difficult. I was reprimanded for not warning the admin offices that I was going to begin drilling, even despite their admission that they knew I had permission to do so. After giving my apologies, I proceeded to remove the boxes.

I also received quite a degrading comment from the building manager. First, when Ryo was painting the wall and he saw that a drop of white paint went unto the floor, he turned to him and told him that he’d better wipe it off. Ryo respectfully said he would. After that, I decided it would be best to clean the floors and scrub the white paint off. I was on my knees scrubbing when the building manager came up to me and told me with a laugh that now there’s a new MA, Cleaning Floors. I was honestly, too tired to respond, so I didn’t and I just continued to finish the job. This was a good choice, since I was able to complete it and we were able to finish most of the work that day.

Thankfully, I was helped by many people in preparing this space, without whose help it wouldn’t have happened. Chris, Zai and Yan helped me paint and clean the floors. Ryo also helped me paint the walls. Dom helped me by drilling back the boxes into place. Much of this I owe to them. They really didn’t need to help, but they did and I am so grateful because honestly, I couldn’t do it on my own and Mosh was building the plinths for the rest of the class.

I realize now that this class is really special. People are exceptionally generous and all this couldn’t have happened if not for these people. I also realized that when problems occur, you just look at the solution and do it. Don’t look at the problem, look at how to solve it. And because of it, I have come out of it stronger and with an excellent space to exhibit the work.

*Please click the image below.

MADA03_KatrinMariaEscay_Statement&Reflection

We had our colloquium presentation. Here is the video of ours:

We had to collect everyone’s work, which took a bit of time, so we weren’t able to burn it on a singular DVD. Plus, the formats all differed, so this proved to be a problem. The thing was that the audience questioned this. One person was particularly bothered that the presentation of the work was not on a singular DVD and that the technology (meaning computer desktop) was visible between the presentations. I suppose this is a small element, but it did bring to my attention that how we present the work is of utmost importance. Even though the presentations over-all were quite good, and students put a lot of effort into them individually, it’s still so very important to make sure that it is presented well to the public. I suppose regarding these things, the audience can be quite unforgivable, but this is training for the real world , where professionalism is the key. For the final show, I am keeping this in mind. The details are very important and must not be overlooked.