Censored Sensibility

Censored Sensibility has been a long and difficult process, but one that was hugely exciting. We have not had a single instalation without its problems, but everything is a work in progress, and that’s something we resigned ourselves to from the very beginning. No matter the difficulties, working with a dear friend on a hugely creative project that focussed entirely on something we are both passionate about – language – made every second worthwhile. We also received some incredible feedback (yes, friends, we are considering taking CS to another city and letting it grow), and – despite skin-of-our-teeth moments and change-of-plan situations – we are hugely proud of the work we created. We feel we put together a piece which effectively explored the nature and power of language, and which came across in a professional, creative and (most importantly, as noted in another post) hugely original way. English, Art, and Drama have come together, and everything came together in the end too. Trial and error is a strangely wonderful thing, and nothing we do is an exact science. We have made it through the process scathed but proud. Victory.

 

Just remember:

Word of Mouse is a Powerful Tool,

And the Pen is Mightier than the Swordfish.

Painting and Sawing Makes You Feel like a Fool,

So Be Careful for Just What You Wish.

 

We have reached the final Full Stop.

Censored Sensibility.

In an attempt to make our exhibition interactive, without forcing it upon the audience, we introduced a typewriter by the ten day poetry section. The audience was invited to write some of their own poetry or thoughts, and the result was completely beyond what we expected. I wondered if people would exploit the unsupervised medium of a typewriter by using profanities or leaving inappropriate messages, but thankfully this was not the case whatsoever. The poetry people wrote was thought provoking and beautiful, and the post-show feedback regarding the typewriter was overwhelmingly positive. It added a personal mood to the piece, and the way it was sectioned off only helped this.

In keeping with the idea of exposing the subtext of language throughout this exhibition, we did a piece which was affectionately known to us as ’emphasis’.

The idea of this piece was that it allowed the audience to de construct a sentence, and see how the communication of language is just as important as the vocabulary. We created an initial piece on the blackboards within the LPAC,

and enjoyed the prototype so much that this phrase became the one used in the final piece. It works because it fits in with our borderline pretentious requirement for all the installations, and gave us a lot of scope in terms of presentation.

This worked out, as our final piece was presented in frames, to create even more subtext. This was easily one of the more simple pieces, : its aesthetic qualities were just as prominent as its meaning, which in my opinion kept the gallery’s atmosphere light.

Hopefully in our performance, one thing that really came across clearly was how much work had genuinely gone into the final product, both overall and in each installation. In my opinion, this was never more relevant than in ‘the Machine’.

The Machine did not have any academic inspiration behind it. The Machine came to life when one day Scott and I were talking about interactive elements of performance and how they are great when they are original. Here, the idea of the Machine was born.

There was no initial plan for how it might function, what it might look like, or what it would do, until we decided that its two main components were being visually impressive, and utilising some sort of basic engineering to reinforce a theme within language.

We researched here by looking at phrases, quotes or even other people’s works to see if we could find any starting point in a phrase that is both simple, yet refreshing in its message.

I stumbled upon this:

A quote by Laurie Anderson which was a great starting point for letting us see how effective such a short phrase can be to give you a new perspective. This let us realise that the machine could be used to take an ordinary phrase, and distort until it forces the audience to see it in a new light.

After hearing about the phrase ‘time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana,” and its ability to confuse artificial intelligence, I read further into it:

“The sentence, “Time flies like an arrow,” was interpreted by a computer as meaning ‘A certain kind of a fly, called a ‘time’ fly, has a liking for arrows.’ This may seem like a unusually silly interpretation, but the same interpretation is perfectly all right in a sentence such as “Fruit flies like a banana,” because fruit flies are a certain category of fly that have a liking for bananas. So the difficulty was not that the computer constructed a totally implausible interpretation of the sentence, but rather, that it did not have enough contextual knowledge to resolve the genuine ambiguities in the sentence. Ambiguities abound in ordinary language. When human beings have the right contextual knowledge, we resolve such ambiguities very quickly. But without context, we encounter the same difficulties that hobbled the early computer models of language comprehension.” (The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology)

This was perfect, as its culturally relevant, and fit into our ideals: playful, simple and got our point across without making it didactic.

The machine was then underway. Initial sketches looked like this:

 

but upon realising we had no experience, tools, or space in which to build this, the machine became more simple as time went on.

Ultimately, it ended up looking as we’d hoped, and was a hit in the performance.

 

Works Cited:

Bernard J. Baars, The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology, (London: Guildford Press, 1986) p.167.

‘If you create values and ethos around what you do, people will relate to that’ – Kate Kendall, speaking at CreativeMornings.com

 

Spoken Word Poets:

The work of these veritable artists acted as a huge driver for my creativity and passion during this process. I stumbled upon Andrea Gibson a while ago and had loved the few videos I’d seen of her performing her SWP. Through talking with Cassie we continued to find others and I have learned a lot about this particular interest and passion of mine. Work like AG’s and her counterparts like Anis Mojgani and the glorious Jackie Hill is reflective, intelligent, and insightful – it can even sometimes be quite hard-hitting. I think it is this combination of commentary or critique with the beauty of performative delivery and skillfully crafted language that draws me to it, and is the reason our 10 Day Poetry Challenge (seen, in our gallery, on the divider which faced ‘Expression’ – the desk installation) was able to be so successful. I am not usually one for creative writing; I can write essays, and can perform, but the two never seem to come together as such. SWP inspired me to push myself and the 10DPC was a hugely enjoyable (and difficult) challenge; we have found a line by which we are connected to poetry, just as Acconci is connected by his background in with the medium. The poetry, initially shared only between myself and Cassie was hugely personal and intense in most instances, but received positive feedback when seen by our peers during the gallery. It is also nice to feel that we have somewhat repaid our ‘Worst Words’ contributors for their bravery, by being brave ourselves; we have made our piece a conversation between trusting friends, and what better way to creatively exist in a piece all about the power of words.

 

Creative Mornings:

CM are ‘free monthly breakfast lectures for creative types’, as they so call themselves (www.creativemornings.tumblr.com). They talk about the process of creation, design, marketing, failing, and everything else, and their tumblr is a great outlet through which to see the points which they feel are paramount from each lecture (and also to gain some sense of their company’s interests). They and their work seem so full of passion and knowledge and, most importantly for me, the wisdom to inspire creatives. It is often noted in their lectures that effort and willingness is key (as Shane Koyczan puts it, ‘effort is the siamese twin of success’), and as Censored Sensibility, I feel perhaps a truer word was never spoken. The attitudes and ideas they convery are encouraging and inspiring and notes like ‘Your creative imagination will always be greater than the technology at your disposal’ (from a CreativeMornings.com [www.creativemornings.com] lecture) sing to CS – our experiences, ideas, attitudes, issues, and so on – as if it was actually written for us. We prefer creative afternoons (mornings were made for sleep, friends) but CM was instrumental in driving me forward.

 

People:

A simple one. The willingness of our peers and friends to provide encouragement, feedback and questions has been a really useful thing. It has also been wondervul to see people so fully investing in each other’s work – it’s been the final countdown, our final pieces of work coming into being, and everyone’s heart is not just in their own projects but in everyone else’s. The support and assisstance, too, of outsiders like Lauren Barnett Kemp and the LPAC tech team has been staggering and haas had a considerable effect on our success – in fact, on our ability to be creative at all in the first place. Lastly, gallery visitors and professional feedback was extremely positive and it is so rewarding to know that the hard work has paid off.