Helen’s talk touched on many subjects, most of which resonated with the work I am currently undertaking.
Her talk began with an overview of the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) phenomenon. This describes a sensation felt by the subject which is triggered by audio and visual stimuli. It is an unusual condition and is probably difficult to describe outside of experience but it can apparently be quite intense.
I myself have had strange almost transcendental experiences from quite an early age and I’ve never quite understood what was happening. I am always interested in new forms of experience. ASMR is closely linked with commodity fetishism in that it will usually involve a mass produced object which helps trigger the response. One video shown to us by Helen showed a woman wearing Reebok Classics squeezing a balloon with her feet. The rubber on rubber action made a strange slightly unpleasant noise until the balloon burst under the pressure.
Reebok Classics are one of the products which have become synonymous with this community, which mostly exists online.
As artists it’s good to be aware of these other realms of experience and remain open to them. Art at its best should, I believe, explore and express all of the deepest recesses of human experience. This presents many challenges as experience is personal and subjective. I sometimes see art as a massive ongoing communal science project which is exploring what it means to be alive. The project can never really have a conclusion as we are constantly evolving.
Helen then gave us an insight into mass production and “Fordism”, a term I had not come across. Ford himself was an interesting character. He seems to have cared about his workforce and tried to ensure they were treated fairly with decent pay but at the same time he created this new form of production which has ultimately caused great suffering to people and the environment. He was also a notable racist and played a part in the dissemination of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion manuscript. But these were the days of segregation in the USA and there was much suffering and struggle to come before civil rights for all were won. Some might argue there’s still much work to be done.
Another new term I learned, post-Fordism, refers to the way mass produced products are individualised — 1936 saw the first custom Ford Coupe. I often muse on all of this when visiting pre-industrial buildings such as the breathtaking minsters of Beverley or York where every single piece of masonry was hand-carved. I don’t think it’s a good idea to be sentimental for those days as it was probably quite miserable for most but we can definitely still learn from their more connected and hands-on modes of working. Balance in all things is good. I have tried my hand at wood carving and even flint knapping and this has given me a great deal of respect for my more “primitive” ancestors.
This theme was followed with a description of the Arts Council’s post-war Sculpture in the Home exhibitions between 1945 and 1959 which displayed contemporary sculpture in modern domestic settings. This was aimed mostly at the more wealthy middle classes as the average worker would not have been able to afford such fine art.
The average person of this time was more likely to be living in a small flat in developments such as the Park Hill estate in Sheffield. This development was originally intended in the 1950s as a clearance of the Victorian slums but ironically by the 1980s had become a run-down slum itself. It was then bought by Urban Splash for the token sum of £1 and redeveloped into trendy flats.
We then moved onto Helen’s current project, Damn Braces: Bless Relaxes, which I am involved in. It’s an investigation of the landscape and how technology has impacted upon it and the way this has been depicted by artists and their responses through history to the restriction of movement and issues relating to common land.
I’d recently watched a strange low-budget 70s movie, Winstanley, which covered many of these topics. It was obviously made with lots of passion and tells the story of a 17th century social reformer who attempted to set up a farm on common land but was unfortunately thwarted by the state.
We’ve lost so much of our land and rights of access and it is sad that most people are not aware or do not care. We have had to fight here on my estate to keep fields surrounding us open as contractors constantly propose new housing projects.
We were shown some great paintings along this theme, one of which was of Kett’s Castle by John Snell Cotman, 1809. Robert Kett led a rebellion against the enclosures in 1549 but lost to the authorities and was executed at Norwich Castle. This turned my mind to my current public art project in which I am researching the use of some of the common land around our estate. I am pretty sure that it was drained as part of the enclosures act and put under the plough (this land was previously part of a farm). I am planning on researching into this.
This talk gave me lots of ideas and inspiration.
absurdcontingent 