Workshop- Hybrid (13/12/16)

Hybrid
‘Appropriate, Borrow, Steal. Liberate, Remake’
Screening in workshop;
-‘The History of the future’- Reynold Reynolds (1996) Re working of many fiction films depicting the future. Specific focus on technology and the apocalypse, themes of humanitarian destruction. Relevance to own work, future and conception of progression. Media (films) perception of progression ultimately leading to progression. Arguably a self-fulfilling prophecy within society. Humanities obsession with the end of the world is ironic due to the lack of effort and will to alter current forecast.  
To develop my own hybrid work I combined many sources to appropriate a poem that reads over an industrial scene. The mechanically generated voice mimics modern obsession with technology. The subject of each line is in direct relevance to either climate issues or classical literature (often with undertones). Such as the tempest extract, the colonialization by the British empire was due to the abilities gained through the coal revolution.
The decision to not heavily edit the work was a conscious one. The archive footage used, although not self-filmed, fitted well with the theatrical rooting of my piece. The destruction within the footage metaphorically embodies corporate power and overriding of the basic natural needs of our planet and economical system.  The heavily industrialized footage therefore juxtaposes certain aspects of the poem yet emphasizes others.

‘art as the gradual re-shuffling of a basic set of cultural terms through their strategic re-use eventual transformation’[1]
This evaluation of art is very true for this specific hybrid poetic work. The movement of cultural involvement, however, is needed due to the lack of intake when originally released.  Appropriation, however, is a vital aspect to be cautious of due to the sensitive historical rooting. Forcing modernity and specifically art upon many historical aspects is not respectful to their deep rooting’s, which were often traumatic. Therefore, within my work when referring to colonialization, I am careful to link the theme back to British industrial involvement in allowing such to happen.

‘the gap that separates production and consumption narrows each day’[2]
The fact consumerism grows daily and the independence of each consumer also growing. The lack of separating between people becomes an issue Due to the fact we could possibly be moving into a new age of; ‘super-individualistic’ mentality.

Poetry produced from multiple sources for audio; overlaid onto industrial archive footage.
Re-Writing History
1.     I wandered lonely as a cloud
2.     Securing limited agreements but at establishing peace and harmony in life-among all races and with Nature
3.     Coal is the black ink
4.     Capitalism is written
             5.     You taught me language, and my profit on 't Is I know how to curse
             6.     changing in ways that will have profound impacts on all of humankind.
             7.     Conscious of his responsibility
             8.     Less time than it takes to say it, less tears than it takes to die; I've taken account of everything

References-

1-    William Wordsworth- I wandered lonely as a cloud (classical poetry)
2-    Indira Gandhi’s speech at the Stockholm conference in 1972 (irony as we have seen the problem approaching)
3-    Naomi Klein- ‘This changes everything’ (climate and capitalism historically)
4-    Naomi Klein- ‘This changes everything’ (climate and capitalism)
5-    The Tempest- William Shakespeare (colonial issues of the coal age)
6-    Obama’s climate change speech (ironic input)
7-    Indira Gandhi’s speech at the Stockholm conference in 1972 (irony as we have seen the problem approaching)
8-    Andre Breton- less time (surrealism)











[1] From Jan Verwoert, Living with Ghosts: From Appropriation to Invocation in Contemporary art
[2] From Nicolas Bourriaud, PostProduction: Deejaying and contemporary art; similar configurations

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