I set up an Indesign file where I keep adding page spreads (A4) to make new iterations of a/folder PDF to print zines.
I tested a few of the early ones with artist friends and refined and edited. I then circulated 3 so far, 2 within my Crit group, one in the OCAEU exhibition group.
The format of the the a/folders has a single A4 page as inside, as the specific object of the a/folder; it then on out the outside has a title page, a folder instruction (with links to the project padlet and a contact email address), there is a notes page and a short statement specific to each iteration too.
I am currently experimenting with
- audience: single, specific, groups; artists and/or other publics; anonymous/general online posting/reposting
- content: method, site, relationship between object/maker/participant
- aesthetics/design: various forms of photographic images, as such, of sketchbook pages, using font or handwritten text (immersive to detached)
- types of invitation, instruction: direct, subtle, disinterested
The post on feedback concerns a series of responses to the a/folder work presented in a couple of group/crit contexts and individually.
All of these so far are strongly mediated by my own relationship with the recipients, and I am interested in the responses to the digital distance, but also concerning the nature of exchange and sense of obligation involved; there are also all sorts of misunderstandings and different response to direction/control or lack thereof.
I have started to receive a number of responses back from the group processes, concerning #5 Make a Pocket; #3 detach and #6 drawing/ machine. They are vastly variable from each other, and quite distinct. Part of that is of course also who responds, but I start to sense the role opacity of instruction plays in this.
Possibly the most interesting response to date is the one from a durational group process among OCA students (working on an exhibition for June 2022), where collaboration is one of the shared working methods. It’s also the one context where the nature of a/folder was most sceptically received: its abstract, intangible nature as PDF format but also concerning the exchange modality. The a/folder invites a response of setting up a drawing machine on a plant, twig, bush, branch or tree and trace wind and other movements on tracing paper to return to me by post. It is one process I used quite a bit during Research but didn’t include in the BoW portfolio and the first responses were: ‘This is so much fun!’ — I had forgotten my own fun with this and other processes and was quite happy to see that surface so strongly and clearly as so much of my pre-Level 3 work was strongly informed by joy and playfulness and a bit of mischief. These seemed to have gotten a little lost with all the contact restrictions but here they were quite at the heart of my archiving process.
Within the collaborative group process I have also made two a/folders in response to one particular request by a colleague: to help preserving a leaf. She asked for different methods/routes towards trying to do so and I was intrigued how the a/folder process can work reactively but also for how my methods can circulate in such a manner.
I am inviting responses to any of the a/folders to post to this padlet and will write further updates on the process as it unfolds.
Next steps:
- how to post on FB, twitter and Instagram (it needs a couple of containers for each of these)
- to continue making further a/folders and exploring their modality and content
- to post to e.g. mail art groups or wider OCA discussions to invite more of the distanced responses to it
- to consider a mail drop to some of the people on my commuting walk and living adjacent to the site
