Engagement through the street, impact through the storefront
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Title
2019 ACUADS Conference: Engagement
Publisher
Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools, Victoria College of the Arts and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
School
School of Arts and Humanities
Abstract
This paper examines the field of expanded painting as a contemporary method to critique and comprehend post-internet consumerism; its impact on place, space and collective memory. The methodology used is practice-led research, and the aim is to produce a series of paintings and exegetical writing that use mashup as method in painting praxis, and retroscapes as source material. Mashup is defined as a creation using material from two or more disparate sources. Retroscapes are best understood in the context of philosopher and sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s discourse on ‘liquid modernity’, which provides the theoretical backbone of this research. There is void created by lack of meaning
in the digital age. Consumerism fills this void as it becomes incessant unfulfilled desire, which is performed in an endless cycle: the search for meaning through
consumption and the resulting unfulfilled desire. In Bauman’s liquid modern
consumerism this cycle is accelerated beyond our capacity to adapt quickly enough, which breeds anxiety. In defining retrotopia, Bauman’s retrotopia begins
with the storm of progress (the future): rapidly advancing and anxiety provoking. Nostalgia provides relief by generating a mythical utopic past. Retrotopias, or retroscapes, may be fictional, and if they did once exist, they may currently have
fallen into ruins. This paper will examine these concerns in relation to my current praxis which is located both within the white cube of the gallery and in the street.
Access Rights
metadata only record
Comments
Mitchell, L. (2019). Engagement through the street, impact through the storefront [Paper presentation]. 2019 Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools, Victoria College of the Arts and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC.