Precious
An exhibition of 12 fine artists shown in an un-kept basement of one of the students’ houses. From what I can gather this exhibition was to show how an unsure space could house something as ‘precious’ as the fine art practice.
Marketing and promotion.
I’ve heard a lot about precious and seen a large amount of posters circulating around the college, they’ve also used social media to spread the word of the exhibition. Making a Facebook event and page for this, enabling them to communicate with a mass audience with a click of a button.
Visiting
The exhibition opened on March the 29th at 6.00pm, on arrival I was met with a sculpture in the front garden of the property, I found this gave visitors an insight as to what would be show cased at this exhibition. On entering the exhibition I was offered a drink of my choice, I exhibition was presented in a basement, showing a variety of works by twelve different artists from Leed College of Art. Precious also had a face painting room, people were invited in to have their eyes covered while having their face painted by one of the artists.
What I found
From speaking with a few of the invidulators, and people involved in the organisation and curation of this exhibition, I quickly found this was purely gorilla and they were not insured to have this event in the space chosen. Despite this being a wonderful exhibition, I was concerned about the risks involved in doing something so illegally.
What I can take from this
I would like to ensure my exhibition is fully safety checked and risk assessed, ensuring the safety of the general public, I’d also like to make sure mine is 100% legal, this is purely to ensure I’m not liable for any accident that could potentially happen.
I enjoyed the idea of including the visitors within the exhibition, in terms of face painting, this is not something I would do at my own exhibition, but I would like to get the public involved perhaps by doing workshops or live art.
It could be argued closed-circuit television is a modern form of Panopticism, the constant observation of the public relates directly with the idea of the panopticon. It is stated the average person in the UK is captured on CCTV cameras over 300 times per day.
“…one sees everything without ever being seen.” This quote relates to the viewing towers of Panopticons, it is said they were designed and build to ensure the prisoners never knew if and when they were being watched. This could be said of the modern day CCTV. When it comes to closed-circuit television it could be argued the same approach is being taken as that of the design of the panoptic viewing tower, the public know the CCTV is there, but don’t always know who’s watching them. “…but the Panopticon was also a laboratory; it could be used s a machine to carry out experiments, to alter behaviour, to train or correct individuals.” It could be argued the extensive use of CCTV is a way of the questioning of today’s society, constantly being viewed. It could be said this is a way of experimenting the human behaviour, and how the knowledge of being watch can alter the publics portrayed characteristics.
“Thanks to it’s mechanisms of observation, it gains in efficiency an in the ability to penetrate into men’s behaviour…” It could be said this quote can add to the idea of the conditioning of space, and how to idea of being watch effects and changes the way in which people behave. “…through out the whole social body.” It could be argued the used of CCTV and the idea of being watched allows the conditioning of mass space and behaviour, without limitations. “The panoptic arrangement provides the formula for this generation.” It could be said the conditioning of space, and the idea of being watched will enable the government and other ruling powers to alter our surroundings with the idea of Panopticism to the point of creating a perfect/ideal generation through the idea of constantly being watched.
Thomas. J. Reading Images (2001) Pelgrave, Hampshire, UK.
I went online to try and do some research on oblong, mainly to prepare myself for the visit, but also to get to know abit about what it is that oblong do. From the website, I gathered that Oblong have recently took over the building from the council. Their website tells the story about what they’ve done with the place as well as what it was like before. Aside from this, the website doesn’t say too much about what Oblong do within their community, I’m sure there is a wide range of activities/evens on in the community centre. I’ve looked over their website, and only one date and time is given for a specific activity. I think they could benefit from a more direct website. Meaning having more times and dates of events online, may attract more people and get more people involved.
Using more modern forms of producing design work, such as illustrator and combining it with an older way of working, such as silk screen printing.
