Spencer Roberts - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Spencer Roberts

BankARTLifeIV: Dreams of East Asia, Aug 1, 2014

Is ez ak i-c ho ja m ac hi St a.

The concepts of the algorithmic and the mechanical express a set of common processual concerns wh... more The concepts of the algorithmic and the mechanical express a set of common processual concerns whilst cutting idiosyncratically across ideal and material planes. As descriptors of internal and external influence, the notions of the relational and the parametric are implicated in the genesis and transformation of twenty first century life. What then, are the qualities of the contemporary city symphony? Is it the algo(rhythm) and the mech(animism) that serve primarily to sonify the everyday? This talk will examine the contemporary interest in process-philosophical notions of rhythm, relation and parameter in the context of making - exploring the ways in which such ideas are reflected, refracted and contorted in both hacktivist and institutional contexts.

The question of eating ourselves (and of eating others) seems particularly pertinent in the conte... more The question of eating ourselves (and of eating others) seems particularly pertinent in the context of artistic research, where, in its focus upon subjectivity and affirmation, the issue of framing an opposition can all too easily become moot. Orthorexia refers to an obsession with only ingesting food that is 'pure'. What is considered to be 'pure' or 'impure' varies from person to person, but an individual's belief about what constitutes healthy food may lead them to exclude certain nutrients or entire food groups from their diet, resulting in a cannibalisation of their internal resources. Conditions such as orthorexia, anorexia and bulimia reflect a set of broadly immanent, and affective concerns, whilst nevertheless embodying somewhat tensile attitudes towards relation. As such, they provide an interesting perspective from which we might address notions of affirmation, argumentation and opposition in a creative-research context. Arguably, anorexia is an auto-cannibalistic, overtly non-relational activity. That is to say, in avoiding consumption, the anorexic tends towards the imperceptible, whilst ultimately consuming themselves from within. In contrast to this, the bulimic appears to gorge on relations-tasting, affirming, and ingesting everything-whilst subsequently purging it from the body in a partially digested fashion. Interestingly, both conditions are accompanied by symptoms of body dysmorphia, a mode of self-caricature that also functions as a regulatory motif. Nevertheless, the bulimic remains close to average bodyweight whilst the anorexic withers away. With these observations in mind, this paper explores strategies of contestation and negation as they occur in Deleuzian philosophy-a philosophy highly influential in the formation of practices of artistic research, which is likewise associated with the affirmation of relations and with becoming imperceptible. It is claimed here, firstly that Deleuze's mode of criticism is bulimic in character-that his directive that we should strive to become imperceptible can proceed only after he has first 'virtualised' his opponents-reducing their difference to self-identity, and secondly, that it is through consideration of Deleuze's virtualisation of others, that we might develop strategies of argumentation and creative contestation that are still noticeably lacking in the context of artistic research

This paper explores themes of image, technology, temporality and becoming in a design-art pedagog... more This paper explores themes of image, technology, temporality and becoming in a design-art pedagogical context. It considers Deleuzo-Bergsonian approaches to the concept of 'image' in the broadest sense of the term-firstly through an examination of Gilles Deleuze and Henri Bergson's shared ontological depiction of the world as a matter-flow of images; secondly, through their collective veneration of art and artistic activity as a mode of becoming, and lastly through their respective critiques of representational images of thought. Ultimately, through an applied, comparative philosophical approach, it seeks to examine the significance of a Deleuzo-Bergsonian concept of the latent image from a pedagogical perspective, addressing the teaching of the visual arts in the context of the marketisation of education. As we shall see, Deleuze and Bergson's conception of the latent-image emphasises both its connective and transformative potentials. As such, it can illuminate questions of disciplinarity, authorship, and the ethics of image creation in interesting ways-suggesting strategies for operating smoothly in increasingly striated educational environments.

Stuart Blackton's (1906) Humorous Phases of Funny Faces and Emile Cohl's Fantasmagoria (1... more Stuart Blackton's (1906) Humorous Phases of Funny Faces and Emile Cohl's Fantasmagoria (1908) are each positioned in histories of animation as seminal examples of the animated film. However, despite a number of apparent similarities, Blackton and Cohl's animations would seem to express a radically divergent set of ontological commitments. Cohl offers the audience an experience of chaotic, mutable, relational complexity that revels in its incoherence, whilst Blackton presents a series of more straightforward set pieces, dwelling for the most part upon object-centric representational form - or on what Deleuze and Guattari (1987) term the faciality of a subject. Whilst it is well known that Deleuze devoted very little space to the discussion of animation, a number of attempts have been made - most noteably by Schaffer (2007) and Lamarre (2009, 2010) - to construct a Deleuzian position in animation theory. Schaffer's account is strongly Bergsonian, developing a form of p...

The debate concerning the legitimacy of artistic research that has taken place over the last two ... more The debate concerning the legitimacy of artistic research that has taken place over the last two decades is notable for the way in which it has drawn attention to rival 'representational' and 'performative' images of thought. Early critics of practice-led research such as Durling, Friedman, Elkins and Biggs employed broadly representational arguments in a quasi-legal context of judgment to suggest that processes of artistic research were in some sense unrecognisable when an attempt was made to see them through the conceptual lens of 'research'. In contrast to this, advocates of artistic research, such as Haseman, Bolt, Sullivan, Borgdorff and Slager have proposed that research arising out of artistic practice possesses distinctive qualities - conjoining interests in the experimental, the experiential, and the non-representational, with a set of predominantly transformative aims. For Deleuze (2001), any act of thinking is guided by a pre-conceptual, aesthetic/...

The debate concerning the legitimacy of artistic research that has taken place over the last two ... more The debate concerning the legitimacy of artistic research that has taken place over the last two decades is notable for the way in which it has drawn attention to rival 'representational' and 'performative' conceptions of thought. In the early stages of the debate, critics such as Durling, Friedman, Elkins and Biggs employed broadly representational arguments in a quasi-legal context of judgment to suggest that processes of artistic research were in some sense unrecognisable when attempts were made to see them through the conceptual lens of 'research'. In contrast to this, advocates of artistic research, such as Haseman, Bolt, Sullivan and Slager proposed that research arising out of artistic practice possessed distinctive qualities-conjoining interests in the experimental, the experiential, and the non-representational, with a set of predominantly transformative aims. Haseman et al have likewise suggested that the 1.70 Thesis Conclusions.

The digital graffiti artist has created work in a number of locations including a national palace... more The digital graffiti artist has created work in a number of locations including a national palace, a digital warehouse and a city alley. As part of her on going activity she will create new work somewhere on the Moors in the Transpennine region. Unlike the other pieces she has made (large-scale, interactive, high-end installation) this new work will be on a portable scale, allowing the graffiti artist the potential to roam more freely. It is intended that her co-protagonists will carry her onto the Moor along with laptop, small projector, power source and mini dv camera. As a result, she will use the landscape as her canvas, drawing her graffiti onto something small, like a boulder, and allowing the ‘light’ spray of her touch to mingle with the sounds of the night. It is the intention of the graffiti artist that only her associates witness the piece unfolding. The palimpsest she creates will unfold throughout the night and the graffiti artist will take on the appearance of a fairy l...

Pettican, A., Mojsiewicz, K. and Lewis, C. (2015) Brass Art: Shadow Worlds | Writers’ Rooms – Fre... more Pettican, A., Mojsiewicz, K. and Lewis, C. (2015) Brass Art: Shadow Worlds | Writers’ Rooms – Freud’s House, International 3, Manchester Solo Exhibition, Sept – Oct 2015 Brass Art’s new work forms the second chapter of an ongoing project which allows them to enter the domestic spaces that selected authors occupied. Having previously explored the Bronte Parsonage, their most recent project sees Brass Art investigating the Freud Museum, London. The work has been commissioned by University of Salford’s Commission to Collect Programme and has been acquired by University of Salford for their collection. During a period of residency, Brass Art inscribed themselves into the domestic space of Sigmund Freud’s former London home. Using Kinect laser-scanning to capture intimate-scaled performances throughout the rooms, staircase and hallway, the artists developed a visual response to the notion of the uncanny using strategies of repetition and simultaneous ‘doublings’. They remained open to th...

Animation

It is well known that despite his close engagement with cinema, Gilles Deleuze was less concerned... more It is well known that despite his close engagement with cinema, Gilles Deleuze was less concerned with animated film, being somewhat dismissive of its capabilities. In recent years, however, a number of attempts have been made-most notably by William Schaffer, Thomas Lamarre, and Dan Torre to construct Deleuzian positions in animation theory. This paper outlines some of these approaches, whilst engaging critically with Torre's writings. In particular, it foregrounds Torre's neglect of the post-structural, political dimension of Deleuzian thought, through an examination of the concepts of faciality, the close up, and relation as they occur in Deleuzian and Deleuzo-Guattarian philosophy. This is in part facilitated through a comparison of Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906)a work directly addressed by Torre, and Emile Cohl's Fantasmagorie (1908)a work which he largely passes by. It is claimed here, that despite a number of apparent similarities, the animations of Cohl and Blackton express a radically divergent series of ontological commitments. Cohl offers the audience an experience of chaotic, mutable, relational complexity that revels in its incoherence, whilst Blackton presents a series of more straightforward set pieces, dwelling for the most part upon object-centric representational form. The tension between representation and becoming that occurs between these works is employed to facilitate a critical engagement with Torre's process-cognitivism. It is suggested that Torre's work, though exceptional in its pedagogic value, is likewise expressive of this tension, and that in its effort firstly to combine a series of process philosophical and cognitivist ideas, and secondly to unpack the radical ideas of Deleuze through the more conservative philosophy of Nicholas Rescher, it runs the risk of falling back into a quasi-Kantian philosophy of generality and representation.

This paper considers the conference themes of practice, knowledge and vision in process-relationa... more This paper considers the conference themes of practice, knowledge and vision in process-relational terms. It emphasizes the need to apply these concepts to the activity of research adjudication as much as to the activity of research itself. In so doing, it questions a notion that ...

Digital Creativity, 2016

Following Massimo Banzi's comment that the Arduino development board might be seen as a means of ... more Following Massimo Banzi's comment that the Arduino development board might be seen as a means of 'scratching your own itch', this paper explores the concept of affect in relation to physical computing, and investigates the ways in which cybernetic and networked objects could be said to enact a series of process-philosophical and object-oriented tensions. In so doing it addresses the cultural saturation of Arduino and its employment in an array of institutional, artistic and activist contexts, and brings this to bear on the conflict between the process philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and the more directly object-oriented perspectives of Graham Harman, Ian Bogost and Bruno Latour. Framing the enquiry around the at once ethico-aesthetic and speculative realist questions of what it is to 'scratch' and what it is to 'itch', the paper examines micro-and macro-political agency in the context of physical computing-contrasting process philosophy's pronounced notion of affective, connective, creative differentiation with the black-boxed, withdrawn objects of object-oriented philosophy, and its quasi-causal mode of aesthetic interaction.

Deleuze'philosophy is strongly oriented by process philosophical themes. That is to say, it ... more Deleuze'philosophy is strongly oriented by process philosophical themes. That is to say, it expresses a concern with process, relation and the absolute ontological priority of the new. The neutrality of the concepts of process and relation confer upon Deleuzean philosophy ...

BankARTLifeIV: Dreams of East Asia, Aug 1, 2014

Is ez ak i-c ho ja m ac hi St a.

The debate concerning the legitimacy of artistic research that has taken place over the last two ... more The debate concerning the legitimacy of artistic research that has taken place over the last two decades is notable for the way in which it has drawn attention to rival 'representational' and 'performative' conceptions of thought. In the early stages of the debate, critics such as Durling, Friedman, Elkins and Biggs employed broadly representational arguments in a quasi-legal context of judgment to suggest that processes of artistic research were in some sense unrecognisable when attempts were made to see them through the conceptual lens of 'research'. In contrast to this, advocates of artistic research, such as Haseman, Bolt, Sullivan and Slager proposed that research arising out of artistic practice possessed distinctive qualities-conjoining interests in the experimental, the experiential, and the non-representational, with a set of predominantly transformative aims. Haseman et al have likewise suggested that the 1.70 Thesis Conclusions.

Animation

Digital Creativity, 2016