Thursday, December 11, 2008

Projector Revolution!

A very very quickie post straight from the Carnegie Museum of Art where the 'Life on Mars' International is on. Will do a proper post on it with sneaky pics later...

But for now, have just been perusing blogs and catching up on news from the NZ and came across this post by Over the Net.

Those of you who know me know that I dabbled in some slide projection in the last semester (thanks to the guidance of Andy Thompson aka slide projector sensei master).

Indeed as pointed out by Over the Net, the projector is very much an icon. And one I want to see back in it's glory sunshine days. Look!! Nan Goldin is using one! She's a cool chick.

Back to projectors though, it's funny how much I do relate to outdated machines conceived before me. I think I recall a conversation with Julian about how he feels that a lot of artists now are looking back towards older technology as a reaction to the speed at which technology evolves and grows nowadays. I guess that is somewhat true of me, I often find myself shrinking at the idea of picking up any machine made in the last five years when it comes to art-making. Mostly because of the rules and languages I have to learn in order to run the machine. I find older technology speaks to me in a language that I can understand more so than newer, shinier machines. But I also find that there is this excitement and gambling of sorts when one takes on board obsolete technology and has to find parts to replace/fix. How quickly they can be taken away from you because of such reasons. I think I will cry when my typewriter ribbon finally runs out...But it's also this funny thing where you find you are re-learning skills which in turn are also obsolete...How valuable is my so far learnt knowledge of slide projection now? How about in 10 years time?

How long can we hold onto the fruits of the past? I will be clawing at it desperately for years to come. Sharpening my nails for extra hold as we speak...

- Agnes

No comments: