Dec 17, 2009
BRIEF #2
To the students of DAI, Enschedé
Master Course / ArtEZ Institute of the Arts
From: Barbara Visser
A new brief
Amsterdam, December 17, 2009
Dear students,
In response to the invitation by Manifesta and the Dutch Art Institute to participate in the Platform for (un)solicited Research and Advice, I am writing you this letter.
My first question was whether the ‘brief’ mentioned in the project description actually referred to a letter. Since the email was written in Dutch, the word ‘brief’ really means ‘letter’, even if it is put in between brackets.
From the answer I learned that the word was used in the more professional meaning of ‘brief’: more or less a summary of possibilities and/or expectations. The reason I had understood it as being about an actual letter is explained by the fact it is in many respects very appropriate to the M7 project that I will be talking about on Wednesday, December 16th, in which a collection of letters are the basis for an investigation on the future– and retrospective views on an artwork that no longer exists.
In this colour/light/sound/drawing/collage/text installation, called Former Futures, I am using the ‘letter’ in various ways: as a medium; as a script; as the content of an artwork. But it has also been the instrument of the original author to communicate his questions, wishes and demands to another party, in order to achieve certain objectives. In the case of this piece, the source are letters from an archive: pieces of paper covered with handwritten– or mechanically typed text, that were once put in an envelope to be physically delivered to the adressee a few days later, who, in turn, took a piece of paper, wrote a response and so on. This process does not sound totally unfamiliar to us, but the part that is becoming more difficult to comprehend is the long timespan between message and response. Furthermore I was interested the verbal etiquette in the beautiful but poignant correspondence, a written exchange in which crude power relations are never addressed directly but emerge from between the well-sculpted lines. Another issue is that of linguistic aesthetics, which can be reinforcing a message, but are just as adequate in obscuring it. And to The conclude I could mention how the impossibility of objective translation from one language to the other was a point of consideration in the process.
The above was written on December 9th.
After speaking to you yesterday, and learning more about the project, understanding that this brief and your output are to be published on internet, I ‘m altering the brief you’ve received earlier, to adapt it better to the things you are currently researching.
I mentioned LANGUAGE AND TIME* as the two main ‘tools’ that I myself always employ in the research and development of any project. In discussing this, it became clear that literally any situation is accesible for me with the use of these tools. Therefore it really does not matter very much if a project takes place in Trento, Murcia, Timbuktu or in fact around the corner.
My question is: what is your main tool?
Which item, knowledge, person, medium, thought, scent, taste, sound or material you cannot work or think without? In short:
What enables you to be dropped anywhere in the world and still find a way to make a personal statement?
Good luck and best regards,
Barbara
*
LANGUAGE, as in
Spoken language, written language, visual language, virtual language (…)
TIME, as in
Clock time, subjective time, historical time, future time, time lapse, time stopped (…)