The next Conundrum interdisciplinary discussion group will be on Wednesday the 9th of July starting 18.45 in my studio.The number of participants will be limited to 12 , as this has proven to be the most beneficial number for a lively debate.
Conundrum is attracting more attention, and was the subject for an article in the latest University of the Arts Alumni magazine.

Tiffany Jenkins, who is completing a sociology PhD at the University of Kent at Canterbury is also the arts and society director of the Institute of Ideas and a committee member of the Battle of Ideas Festival, will present her Conundrum:

‘Why cover human remains in museums when they are on show in galleries?

The holding, display and research on human remains in museum institutions in Britain, has become problematic in the last few decades. Initially concerning remains from overseas and once colonised groups; particularly the Aboriginals and Native Americans, this could be understood, in part, as the consequence of post-colonial thinking, the rise in influence of indigenous groups, and as part of a process which aims to make amends for colonisation by transferring human remains from collections, to culturally affiliated people today.
More recently, since 2005, members of the sector in the UK, have raised questioned about the research and display of all human remains regardless of origin, and despite the historical circumstances in which they were acquired. The Jewry Wall Museum in Leicester is setting up a storage space specifically for human remains, to separate them from objects. Manchester University Museum is trying to display the current exhibition of Lindow Man, more ’sensitively’. In May, this museum covered up one unwrapped mummy of Asru, a partially wrapped mummy of Khary, and a child mummy, which they argue is more ‘respectful’.

How can we explain the transition of concerns about the remains of overseas indigenous groups, to the remains of all people? Why are part’s of the sector worried about the display of dead bodies, especially when in other arenas, the skull and body parts; Damian Hirst’s, ‘For the Love of God’ or ever expanding work of Gunther Von Hagens for example, are on show more than ever before. What explains this paradox?’

For further information about Tiffany , go to her blog at:
http://www.tiffanyjenkins.blogspot.com

Please me e- mail at: info@bessfrimodig.com
with an RSVP by Monday the 7th of July and for further directions to the studio.

Conundrum Nr . 2 - 23 April 2008

Has Webolution displaced Revolution as the focus of cultural and political activism?
Dr. John Philips ( artist, designer, curator, writer and director of London Print Studio)
The conundrum discussion took place at the exhibition AgitPop: Activist Graphics Images & Pop Culture 1968 - 2008, in the London Print Studio on the 23rd of April 2008. John set the scene by the following words:
‘ The counter-culture and new-left movements that emerged internationally in the second-half of the twentieth century were frequently linked to the temporary or semi-permanent occupation of physical spaces: squats, communes, university sit-ins, factory occupations, arts centres, women’s centres, protest camps etc. These spaces enabled activists to express and enact transformations in lifestyles and social relations. Changes within the commercial and domestic property markets have, in recent years, restricted the availability of spaces to ‘occupy’ and people, radicals included, spend increasing lengths of time at home in the company of their computer and its virtual communities.
From the mid-sixties through to the mid-eighties posters, created in a wide-variety of styles, were an important vehicle of protest, publicity and pleasure within activist culture. With the advent, firstly of photocopying, and more recently computer graphics, stylistic pluralism has diminished, leaving much of the art of protest stylistically indistinguishable from corporate advertising. The digital ‘webolution’ with its virtual, as opposed to physical, spaces and ubiquitous Photoshopped graphics appears to be shaping activism. Whether this is for better or worse, is a conundrum.’

John started the discussion by stating that ‘ activism is space occupied in a way it is not supposed to be - such as by squatting – the rules are already broken.
Today, mobile phones, and the internet bring people together in a virtual community but we don’t occupy physical spaces. Being together we form working relationships that become transformation centred in protest. We change, as we aim to change society. Working with people through online activism doesn’t seem to be abut transformation.

Making the hand printed posters in the 60s and 70 s was about transformation, starting from inventing the original image and physically producing it together. Now, artists and students, alone in isolation, down-load existing, and already repeated protest images from the internet, re-arranging components thinking it is activism.
Few create visual protest, but copy over and over. Therefor, the web protest is too vast and creatively watered down , and there is difficulty to trust it is original content.
The internet is endless reproduction and not origination.

When communities got together in those spaces, they became a force to be reckoned with – creativity was a way of tribal marking –a process of self- identification through images. The web- revolution is the diminishment of protest. The potential for transformation , although seductively vast, global and instant – is by passed by the lack of relationships.

Joelle: Not believing in Web-evolution is nostalgia. The web is powerful – otherwise China would not ban it as done recently during the human right protests.
The internet is an open library. It is knowledge.

John: There is a difference between knowledge and feeling. Meeting face to face forces engagement. Relationships are forged. Making a poster from drawing to printing and together with a community becomes transformative.

Beth Anderson: Maybe you can say that because you were fortunate to experience the ‘ revolution ‘ in the sixties? Now there’s an apathy. There’s little incentive to go out and grab life. Apathy inhibits opportunities for protest. Yet-we are wrong to discredit the internet, and its potential for transformation. Teenagers use web-sites as a way of forging identities. It is not a real world, but they use it in ways an older generation can never fathom. However, to engage in a human dilemma- you have to go out there and to be face to face to develop empathy which catapults action.

Iris de Leuwe: Protest is being present. Printmaking is a physical process - we think through preparing the plate. Making the posters in the sixties you had to get physical – you had to be there in the studio- be there together to make and feel.

John: Presence is about the complexity of experience and presence enhances feeling. The web is not visceral and by not being there, in the studio physically making the print- only by moving the digital mouse- feeling is absent on the internet.

Bess: We, an older generation, don’t fully understand what the internet can achieve in ways of protest . We use it as a tool rather than approaching is a en entirely new entity, or as a new ‘virtual ‘ printing technique. If protest is about disseminating ideas, we need to remember that future wars will be about disabling communication and data storage systems. As result - the country is down!

Therefore, we need to redefine the revolution . It might be about overthrowing systems and changing societies, once through graphic images on printed posters, but now bybe taking over the control of information and data storage archives.

Beth: Then the hacker is the new anarchist.

Bess: Yes- the hacker is the new revolutionary. By redefining the revolution and making the hacker to new anarchist, protest becomes a solitary act- rather than the movement of communities.

Iris: Revolution is about responsibility. Being responsible for someone else. The web is too vast to develop that responsibility , trust is absent as the hacker works alone.

Bess; Is it the image- or the communities making the prints that drove the revolution ? We need to ask what that poster on the wall actually did? In what way did it aid transformation?

Eithan: First , it is about defining these key words: Trust. Transformation. Presence. Knowledge versus feeling. Responsibility.Relationships.

Bess: We have made the web the new God but forgotten us- the person on the street. Protest is about combining forces- the vastness of the web and its potential for the global, and the print’s physically limiting visual choices and thereby forcing innovation,as well as being present creating together in a dialogue through the visceral.

However, let’s remember that the invention of the printing press turned the European world upside down, Knowledge could be widely disseminated. God – and his monastic scribes were removed of their absolute power over knowledge.

John: The printing press opened up the age of reason. What has the web opened up but a mass of knowledge to get lost in . The print revolution observed knowledge. The web observes the usage of knowledge.

Rob: Lets’ return to what the hand printed protest posters did. The power of the image was driven and fuelled by the relationship between scarcity and politics.
The 1960s posters transformed the visual landscape through being scandalous and exciting and original. It wasn’t a cut and paste of regurgitated ideas.

The group concludes that the vast visual archive of the web limits the senses- by not physically occupying a space it hinders the relationships and visceral experience on which history, and the print rest , but is doesn’t hinder knowledge – on the contrary.
It is a matter of understanding how to use the internet to sustain a web evolution rooted in the innovation and relationships of 1968.

For more information on Conundrum . See: http://www.arts.ac.uk/alumni/bulletin08/apr/conundruminvite.html

For further information on the next Conundrum event, follow this link:

http://www.arts.ac.uk/alumni/41437.htm

Conundrum is a multi disciplinary discussion group where artist and scientists meet to provide answers to a research challenge. I presented my Conundrum: Measuring the gasp: can you create a system to calculate if images affect an audience? on the 28 February 2008 at Arts Club in Mayfair, London as part of my research in to the power of the artist’s print.
To see where the next meeting will be follow the link http://www.arts.ac.uk/alumni/41437.htm

The overall conclusion of the evening’s discussion consolidated that the making of the work comes first, and the measuring later. Even the measuring can become a part of the creative outcom.Nevertheless, the mystery ,and power, must remain with the image .
Then Dr.John Clark, Research Co-ordinator, London Metropolitan University Business School pointed out that perhaps- not all things need to be measured. I am still weighing up his comment…..

The participants added:

The gasp is appropriated
‘The image is appropriated by a community and reaches a powerful engagement when the image become the focus and locus of that community Thereby, distribution and dissemination could be a way of measuring the gasp.’
Dr.John Phillips, Director of London Printmaking Studio

The gasp has been consumed
‘Yet, art now is not a gasp- it is a cool and mediated response as mass media has converted the image into consumption. The very set – up of the gallery is a passive engagement – especially when being given headphones and told what to look at and how to look.
People don’t gasp when looking at art - as they don’t feel on top of the game.‘
Miriam Green,Senior Lecturer in Business studies

The organised gasp
‘Looking at Rothko at Tate Modern has been made into a religious experience – the room ordains a hush and the viewer the is made to ‘worship’ the work. A gasp would occur where your are not in the mindset of art worship.
A gasp happens when you escape reverence.

Measuring the gasp –is an anxious object. According Robert Fry People spend 50 seconds reading the caption and 10 seconds looking at the work. Galleries are empty and cold and there’s pressure to not to react as one is being watched. Instead- one reacts internally only. That’s an organised type of ‘gasp’
Victoria Bennet, Art in The Capital

An hierarchy of gasps
‘The gasp is sociologically set up for reverence – if that was to be removed, then the gasp would occur. The critic’s ‘gasp’ is deemed the most valuable. We don’t trust our own gasping.
Perhaps- if explanations were not given, the image has to live on its own.
Richard Osborne, Author and lecturer UAL

Young at Art gasps
‘One way to effectively measuring the ‘gasp’ is to take 14 year olds who have never been to an art gallery – you see, and hear the gasp – every time! Allowing the ’gasp’ to happen – is down to the confidence of the curator. When 14-year olds are brought in – through Young at art- the it is very much down to the curator to enable a series of gasps to be allowed and noticeable. Mysterious things happen – if and when the teenagers can move around, and make noise- they don’t like the silence. Measuring the gasp has to take place in a space where the viewer is comfortable – where you can allow for the image to confront you.’
Beth Anderson, Project manager and Consultant Creative

Following the gasp on the floor and creating a Gasp Pathway
‘Measuring the gasp could be done by observing how much time the viewer spends in front of an image- and to track the steps away and to the work . A Gasp Pathway would track a migratory audience and turn the ‘gaze’ into a physical movement and a pattern on the floor. ‘
Kasia Kwiatowska, Painter

Gasp variables
‘The gasp could be measured by creating a matrix for analysis drawing on the ones mentioned in the discussion where many variables were revealed, such as attention, interest, and emotional impact. Categories labelled ‘1. imminent time’ then ‘ 2 – prolonged time.” Also, add audience characteristics – such as age, education and background. Obtain the ‘gasps variables’ by asking fro verbal response and belated responses returning to the viewer later after the show’s completion’.
Ian Ladd, Mathematician and PhD Student

The aftermath of the gasp
‘The image which had the most impact on me, was a small Polaroid in a show long ago. It was only afterwards, that I came to think of it, and in my minds eye, it made me look closer. Maybe it made me an artist.’
Bex Singleton Photographer