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The Fabrication of Art and Beyond: Making and Inventing in Digital Culture
CHArt 30th conference

Micheál O’Connell a.k.a. Mocksim
Poetic misuse of technology, functional systems and the contemporary supply chain

The intention is to present elements from three recent areas of my art practice which relate to engagement with the current technological landscape and everyday functional systems. These series of work will be discussed in relation to art history and theories, in particular the significance of conceptual art and reappropriation. Kenneth Goldsmith’s points about the copyright and the digital network are particularly relevant to this work. Secondly, in line with my practice-led PhD research, attention would be given to the mischievous, jokey aspects of the process and the way these activities are reflected in the resulting artefacts. As part of the presentation I would demonstrate how the raw materials for these initiatives were obtained. The three activities are:

  1. Contra-Invention: I discovered that it was possible to collect the photos traffic wardens routinely take in Britain as evidence of parking violations. Amongst the hundreds accumulated I found 'quality' shots, noticed anomalies, occasionally wardens capture themselves in reflection for instance, and I was able to manoeuvre myself into their photos. The downloaded images also included metadata and EXIF information revealing camera type, shutter speed, aperture, the kinds of metrics certain photographers are frequently interested in. I included the pictures and data in a catalogue along with Hito Steyerl’s essay In Defence of Poor Images and I selected other materials to exhibit.
  2. Missing You: Following repeated failed deliveries by a courier of a package to my home I found that people’s Point of Delivery Signatures, generated when parcels do arrive, are accessible on-line. I collected these signatures, produced a book of them PODS, exhibited outcomes and created a looping film Delivering in 2014.
  3. Currently I am working on a new project which involves engaging with supermarket self-checkout machines (working title: Less). I've discovered it is possible to buy nothing but still interact with the technology, hold conversations of a sort and collect a receipt as proof of that exchange. So far I've produced a book containing one hundred of these zero-transaction receipts and am working on a film and other materials.
    Both the processes involved and the production of artefacts involve computing in its current form. I employ Print on Demand approaches to create books and 3D Modelling tools with physics engines and simulation techniques to produce experimental films.

Biography:

I have exhibited, presented or screened in locations as diverse as Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, the online world Second Life and a campsite in Venice.

Contra-Invention was invited to Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles 2011, subsequently nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012 and part of From Here On at Arts Santa Mónica, Barcelona in 2013.

Work from Missing You was exhibited in Macclesfield, supported by Arts Council England, in 2014. A public event was run to coincide with the show, entitled From Jacquard to JPEG, at the Silk Heritage Centre with artists Rut Blees Luxemburg and Mishka Henner. In recent months my film Delivering was screened in Birmingham as part of Turtle Salon, a collection initiated by producer and director Michael Shamberg.

 

 

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