Stencil

Tertemiz bir çöp kutusunda böyle mesaj verilmesi zamanlamasıyla çok 'manidar'.

Interviews with John Douglas and Nagehan Kuralı

Interview 1

John Douglas

10.12.2013

1. Can you define new media art for me? How did you become a multimedia artist? Can we say that your works are reflections of your ideas about the things happening in daily life?

I see “new media” as art that incorporates the use of technological advances of the last two decades: computer software, digital cameras, and for me typically a mix of older traditional techniques with digital. It can be difficult to define a term such as “new media’, as any definition risks restrictions, and our concepts of “new media” and the technologies available are evolving all the time. I think we have only begun in exploring what “new media” is, and how it can be used.

My personal conception of “new media” is best summed up as the combined use of old methods with new digital paraphernalia – new technologies combined with more traditional techniques is very exciting to me. For others I am certain it means exclusively using computer technology.

I like exploring novel creative areas as I want to continue to expand and grow in my creative expression. Even if a method or style doesn’t work out it is stimulating to have the adventure – and who knows what personal discoveries may come? Encouraged by the improvement in digital hardware and software I began to explore digitally created film and how the moving image would impact on my paintings, how my paintings would impact on film. I found I enjoy working with film very much – my paintings have almost always been created in a series film finds a natural abode in me.

I also enjoy working using found ‘real’ objects edited in software recording studio programs to create my own music/audio tracks

My works are very much an expression of my day to day life! From small moments big things come. As we know most of what we see is created in the brain, and I see my art in that way – whatever may stimulate from outside must always resonate within. 

2. I learned that your show “Scat, Cat!” has been cancelled in Bangkok in 2001. What was your attitude/response against that situation? Did this inappropriate event effect your next actions? If it did what kind of effects were they?

My initial response at the cancelling of the “Scat, Cat!” was surprise, as Thailand had an especially liberal reputation with regards to artistic expression. But at that time the uproar over Chris Ofili’s elephant dung “Holy Virgin Mary” was unfolding (the “Scat, Cat!” series are finger-paintings of cats done with cat faeces) and so the Thailand gallery was unwilling to risk a controversy.  But the reaction by the media in Thailand was unexpectedly strong and positive to me and my work, and so I ended up happy with how the situation played out.

The British Club in Bangkok asked if they could exhibit the works, and they displayed the cat paintings around portraits of the British royal family! (I don’t think they quite realised what media I had used!)

The Israeli ambassador opened the show as he believed strongly in freedom of expression – so with the encouraging media response, the support of many wonderful people, and a subsequent large exhibition in the USA as a result I ended up pleased with the Thailand gallery ban. It couldn’t have worked better for my reputation.

While I am aware and interested in media and public reactions to my art, I strive to keep my inspirations uninfluenced by such events. My next series was a very gentle set of paintings on the theme of all people living in peace and harmony  – I can’t say if these came as a result of the “Scat,Cat!” controversy, my general beliefs mean that these are recurring themes. Certainly the “Scat, Cat!” convinced me of the power of the media.

3. After watching your video “Thank you for not singing” I was obviously scared a little. What were you trying to say with your video exactly and do you think the whimsical and scary factors which you used are more effective ways in order to attract people?

“Thank You For Not Singing” was about love – using food and what lack of access to it and abuse of using food represents  – as a metaphor for love.  Showing how difficult and unpleasant a life without love or connection to others could become. The wrapping of the figure to blind the person – so much of how most of us we live.

Making the film lyrical and the almost cartoonish figure, the way the film evolves gently and slowly was a way to add impact to the emotional violence – sometimes the most violent and scary films are ones when the horror is suggested  – more than ever in an age when we have a great deal of exposure to images of violence.  We are all so immunised to exaggeration and hyperbole.

Strykermeyer – the performance artist who is the mummified figure in the film – liked the concepts I had in mind and he was very good to work with.  I don’t know how he managed to stay where he was with mouthfuls of raw meat! I threw the food, and we both then worked on the editing of the film.

“Thank You For Not Singing” was shown in a film festival in Melbourne, Australia, in 2009 where the films were broadcast on large screens in urban public places, and is currently screening in a gallery in Sydney. The theme of the exhibition is Love Conquering Fear, and the curators of the exhibition say the film is having a huge impact on the audience. I am grateful that people are responding to it in a strong manner.

4. You have worked as an advocate for the rights of people with HIV as well as disadvantaged children.  Can you tell me about the activities you have done to help those people?

I believe some art helps raise human consciousness when approached in certain ways – both for the viewer and the creator.

I conduct art expression workshops around the world – particularly for people with long term chronic illnesses or terminal illnesses.  These workshops are about helping free creative expression for the participants – too much pain can be caused by not being heard or understood.

I do as much as I can to provide practical help. I contribute money from sales whenever I can to help fund humanitarian projects and assistance for others in need.

I have helped finance vegetable and fruit gardens for children orphaned as result of HIV, supplied money and assistance to help provide clothing for children with HIV. I donate art each year to several international HIV benefit exhibitions – the money from sales goes directly to helping those who require it, and the media interest in those shows also helps continue raise awareness.

A decade ago in Australia (where I am currently based) I discovered by accident that the police were (illegally) recording the HIV status of people.

In finding this out I also found that the police had no training program for their officers in how to deal with HIV – many police still thought that by shaking someone’s hand they would contract HIV. After several meetings with police officials I mounted a legal challenge – it took a few years but in the end the police were no longer allowed to unlawfully document the HIV status of innocent people and a program to educate the officers was undertaken.

5. It seems you are related with most parts of the art. In which branch of art can you express yourself and your idea easily and more effectively?

I find painting – good old traditional paints – still the most satisfying. For some reason there is a connection and spirit in painting. That being said, I love as many ways of creating as possible - each has a quirk that appeals or an advantage in some way. I would dislike to be confined to only one avenue of expression.

6. Can you tell me a bit about your future projects?

Currently I am working on several projects.

I have a few music tracks underway, and I am working on 16 films about author Victor Barker – in each he discusses a different aspect of his novels and the process of writing.

I am slowly progressing with a film about my experiences in Antarctica, and completing some photography processing that I am terribly behind in. These photographs are about cafe society – how people inhabit such spaces, how they use and relate to the public social environment.

Also I am working on a series of 32 images that explore consumerist notions of male beauty, how the more attuned an artwork becomes to marketing the more one dimensional it risks becoming. In this series I am drawing the models using ink on paper, then scanning the drawing and reworking the scanned image in flat saturated colours using digital processes. 

I have a few exhibitions coming up over the next few months.

Interview 2

Nagehan Kuralı

22.12.2013

1. Can you define new media art for me? It is seen from your projects that you are really interested in interactive designs in urban space, do you have any concern that unifying the layman and the new media art? 

New media art covers digital and new technologies. We work as an art and design group called Design In Situ. I work with Selin Özçelik. We are interested in interactive installations in public space. Our concern is mostly interagrating user activity to artwork itself. Public space is a playground for us. We enjoy making people experience the artwork themselves thus involving in the making process of the artwork.

2. Have you seen any drawbacks of being a Turkish new media artist ? Since you have also lived and worked in foreign countries it should be easier for you to compare, is there any difference between the countries in approaches to art and artist?

There are some drawbacks but not in the sense of accessing digital material. There are some drawbacks for exchanging ideas since there are very limited number of artists who are interested in such projects. In Germany we had a broader chance to exhibit, compare and contrast artworks.

3. Amberplatform is shown as the most important art and technology platform of Turkey and the artist taking place there, are like the most important new media artists. In Amber 2009 you worked for two projects.Could you give me brief information about them and what was your main inspiration and idea while doing them?

The festival’s theme was the cyborg theory in 2009. In one hand we had new technologies and cyborgization processes in daily lives, on the other hand a public space in a country like Turkey, where people do not have any idea about ‘digital interaction’ or ‘ digital art’. We took this dilemma as a starting point and created a daily language for public space as if there was a culture of ‘new technologies’ or ‘cyborgization’.

4. In the year of your project “Adnan amca Siborg mu?”, the theme of the platform was (un)cyborgable? Could you define me the process of cyborgization in human life? 

We took this topic very simple. During our researches we noticed that many people around us, like uncle Adnan, are defined as ‘cyborg’. Not only some new ‘learned’ human skills which are shaped by new technological devices, but also contact lenses or platinum added organs causes a process of cyborgization. We wanted to make people aware of their state of cyborgization using a funny traditional- everyday language.

5.The explanation of “Adnan amca Siborg mu?” in Amberplatform is made as “mixing up organic and sytnhetic”. Did you visualize the the synthetic as a part of organic or you try to show the distinction of two concepts by showing awkward reflections on the scene,mirror? What do you think on that issue? 

Extracting the theoretical background of "cyborgs", we put it in everyday life on a street in Istanbul and observed the reactions of people through their own cyborgisations. We encountered them with the concept of cyborgization using their own mirrored image on a shop window. However the digital layer we added during interaction was stepping into the world of cyborgazisation and showing them some digital sentences about their cyborgisation level.  

6.Could you tell me about your future projects? In my belief, you are a young and a talented artist, by having these specialities, what will be the most satisfactory success in art for you?

Our profession and artistic state of mind is structured on using new media in public space. We like to create platforms to see people’s unexpected reactions on new media in public space. In one hand we have the medium we use, and on the other hand, the public. Both components we work on, alter and transform continuousnuesly.

In public space, the impression level left by the new technologies is still higher than the level of the communication of ‘the message’. That is to say,  new media art is still at Mc Luhan’s stage. But we know that the public space alters as fast as technology does. Our aim and success as artists lay at this point of staying up-to-date.  Therefore, it would be unrealistic to define an ultimate goal for the most satisfactory situation.

Free Subject - Ben Cola İçmem

It is just like personnel defence to Coca Cola's attack to leak into our lives through undesired campaigns. This images try to show the healthiness of a non-drinker young woman for the sake of the young generations.

Google Map - Star Shaped Location

THE FIVE POINTS of MANHATTAN

WORTH ST. : Latitude: 40.7159338 Longitude: -74.0037712
CANAL ST. : Latitude: 40.7194471 Longitude: -74.0015255
BAXTER ST. : Latitude: 40.7169294 Longitude: -73.9997101
MOSCO ST. : Latitude: 40.7144558 Longitude: -73.9992658
CIVIC CENTRE: Latitude: 40.7140519 Longitude: -74.0028364

These given coordinates represent the five points of struggle, conflict, famine in New York city in the history. These five points ,where the civilization was born later, were showing the thin line between poverty and richness, barbarianism and civilization.

Giovanni Bellini - Naked Young Woman in Front of the Mirror, 1515

Todays 'selfie pictures' are like phenomena. Even people are using their front cameras to look at their face. I used that installation to make Bellini women more modern in an old- fashioned background with an iphone mirror. 

Fruit Video

By using the orange and mandarins, I created the image of a theme park. They are at the queue to get into the machine. But one of them did not obey the rules!! He just experienced the unfortunate end of a fresh mandarin. Then FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS.

Sacred Emily by Gertrude Stein - Honor - Obey - Love Monotocity

This line making monotonic sequence shows the close relationship between love, honor and obey. They are causes and effects of each other through infinite series.