Collage - Hybrid Works : 2021
Collage has always taken a pivotal roll in my artistic practice as a way to explore my interests in working through concepts and ideas. I am attached to the blending qualities in such works. The way various unassociated element can be combined together from photography, textures, to painted surfaces in manipulations to form a coherent whole. This non Photoshop DIY Wabi-Sabi aesthetic appeals to me with its imperfection and process in their making revealed and sometimes on display.
Making collages is very contemporary it feels democratic in that anyone can have a go with materials commonly available such as Newspapers, Photographs, Magazines and whatever is to hand. This process reflects our present culture in how we use fusion, mash ups, sampling, mixing in most of our cultural activities from music to film where there is no need of explanation of the process as the language is so commonly used in our everyday life.
There is a long tradition of artists and art movements using collage as a medium going back in time from pre revolutionary Russian art, daDa, Surrealism to the present day. This selection of collage are taken from my ongoing Sketchbooks / Notebooks series
Collage has always taken a pivotal roll in my artistic practice as a way to explore my interests in working through concepts and ideas. I am attached to the blending qualities in such works. The way various unassociated element can be combined together from photography, textures, to painted surfaces in manipulations to form a coherent whole. This non Photoshop DIY Wabi-Sabi aesthetic appeals to me with its imperfection and process in their making revealed and sometimes on display.
Making collages is very contemporary it feels democratic in that anyone can have a go with materials commonly available such as Newspapers, Photographs, Magazines and whatever is to hand. This process reflects our present culture in how we use fusion, mash ups, sampling, mixing in most of our cultural activities from music to film where there is no need of explanation of the process as the language is so commonly used in our everyday life.
There is a long tradition of artists and art movements using collage as a medium going back in time from pre revolutionary Russian art, daDa, Surrealism to the present day. This selection of collage are taken from my ongoing Sketchbooks / Notebooks series
Changeling Series : Digital Prints : Various Dimensions.Hand cut collages.
A Changeling child was believed to be a fairy child that had been left in place of a human child stolen by the fairies.
The Changeling is a creature often found in folklore and folk religion.
1. Artichoke Man and Dogface. 2. Dolly's Pharma Farm. 3. Tomato Woman. 4. Horse of a Man. 5. Dog Dance. 6. Mallet Head. 7/8. Visuals for Praxis online publication.
9. Hoop it Target Man. 10/11. The General. 12/13. Suits. 14. Untitled 15. Soldier. 16. Fish out of Water.17. La Vie en Rose. 18. The General Study.
Images : Collages from the Fractured Realities : Artist Books.
FRACTURED REALITIES IN THE AGE OF THE SINGULARITY BOOK TWO DANIEL Mc KEON.
Fractured realities in the age of the Singularity book two is a continuation from my previous book which explored through a series of visuals, collages the idea of the Singularity.The collages were mainly hand cut paper collages of a DIY aesthetic and did not incorporate the use of any photoshop type software. Artificial intelligence AI and the theory of when we reach that debated stage of the Singularity. The Singularity is when machines and computers reach higher intelligence than humans and if they ever achieve self awareness and consciousness what will be the consequences for mankind because like all sentient beings they could work in unison for their own protection and survival perhaps causing the destruction of the world as we know it. Going by Moore’s Law which states the rapid advances in computing technology of silicon based microprocessors doubling in speed and capability every 18 months. Scientist already think that we are well down the road to reaching these maximum speeds and are already at the phase of “the internet of things”that is from our smartphones to fridges now contain microchips and can be operated remotely or from over the internet also to communicate to each other.The next advancement with microchips and faster speeds of processors and superconductors will not be silicon based at all but of a very different nature perhaps carbon /chemical /organic or a combination of the above, how to harvest the possibilities of these properties to create faster microchips in the near future is where the challenge remains for scientists.
As microchips are becoming ever smaller down to the atomic molecular level these nano particles could pose an even greater treat as to how could they be controlled as they take on properties almost like viruses, super intelligent ones which will try and protect themselves at any cost even at the destruction of its human creator. Some concerned individuals think we can program our machines according to Asimov’s law which would programs our Robots so they can not harm or kill humans but the question is how can this be done effectively in the new world order we create.
I am not a scientist but an artist and my response while making these collages was to try and not make rational representational images from my source materials which was taken mostly from magazines and newspapers but to focus on colour, texture, form etc, to see perhaps as our electronic devices might see or process the digital virtual environment.
The amount of data that machines are exposed to on the internet per second never mind the volume of material a main frame computer has to process or deal with per nanosecond would overload any humans brain, we would find it cognitively impossible to be able to function under such demands. Maybe this symbiosis could be another development in a types of computing of the future were humans have evolved into cyborgs to meet the needs and challenges that the future holds.
Not wishing to go into the realm of the science fiction writer as this is a visual art project and as an independent artist whose practice comes very much from a painting background and all the baggage and history that entails especially if that means seeing art from a linear western male dominated perspective.
As someone who favours the physicality of materials and the encounter of the artwork in time and space over the virtual which I feel is a totally different experience than seeing everything on a screen which is backlighted and unlike a face to face confrontation that a 3D object entails.This stance might seem like a contradiction when this book is realized as an online ebook format. I am not a luddite pessimist I can see how the internet and computers in general is very beneficial in all walks of life.
I just want for people to be aware of the road we are embarked on especially our young people the so called “nineteen seventy niners” the generation since 1979 that knows of no other time than when the Internet has been in existence and part of their life, were social media on all platforms is the norm.To be able to think of what are the consequences of this 24/7 instant edited uploaded life means for our mental wellbeing.
To be more optimistic that humanity is very resourceful and will overcome whatever adversity it encounters over time, awareness is of the upmost importance where we can enter this golden age using the Singularity for our human advantage. Not allowing all the aggressive market forces set the agenda for us like in our recent past we must try to overcome our human nature of greed and believe that the market will regulate everything to our advantage as this policy is surely by now been proven totally wrong.
The Fractured Realities Artist Books Project can be seen not as a negative experience but one which holds out hope for our shared future, that the images, visuals as I like to think of them can inspire people to think and find solutions as to how we should examine and critique this all invasive virtual world we inhabit without resorting to utopian models of philosophy.
The collages are handmade and to me have a form of beauty a dangerous word when it comes to contemporary art.They deliberately avoid the use of flash sophisticated editing programs and software in their making. I can see this series of work being exhibited virtually as ebooks but also as an immersive slide projection in a blackbox gallery space context.
Finally as the famous quote goes........DO MACHINES DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP.
Daniel Mc Keon © April 2015.
Fractured realities in the age of the Singularity book two is a continuation from my previous book which explored through a series of visuals, collages the idea of the Singularity.The collages were mainly hand cut paper collages of a DIY aesthetic and did not incorporate the use of any photoshop type software. Artificial intelligence AI and the theory of when we reach that debated stage of the Singularity. The Singularity is when machines and computers reach higher intelligence than humans and if they ever achieve self awareness and consciousness what will be the consequences for mankind because like all sentient beings they could work in unison for their own protection and survival perhaps causing the destruction of the world as we know it. Going by Moore’s Law which states the rapid advances in computing technology of silicon based microprocessors doubling in speed and capability every 18 months. Scientist already think that we are well down the road to reaching these maximum speeds and are already at the phase of “the internet of things”that is from our smartphones to fridges now contain microchips and can be operated remotely or from over the internet also to communicate to each other.The next advancement with microchips and faster speeds of processors and superconductors will not be silicon based at all but of a very different nature perhaps carbon /chemical /organic or a combination of the above, how to harvest the possibilities of these properties to create faster microchips in the near future is where the challenge remains for scientists.
As microchips are becoming ever smaller down to the atomic molecular level these nano particles could pose an even greater treat as to how could they be controlled as they take on properties almost like viruses, super intelligent ones which will try and protect themselves at any cost even at the destruction of its human creator. Some concerned individuals think we can program our machines according to Asimov’s law which would programs our Robots so they can not harm or kill humans but the question is how can this be done effectively in the new world order we create.
I am not a scientist but an artist and my response while making these collages was to try and not make rational representational images from my source materials which was taken mostly from magazines and newspapers but to focus on colour, texture, form etc, to see perhaps as our electronic devices might see or process the digital virtual environment.
The amount of data that machines are exposed to on the internet per second never mind the volume of material a main frame computer has to process or deal with per nanosecond would overload any humans brain, we would find it cognitively impossible to be able to function under such demands. Maybe this symbiosis could be another development in a types of computing of the future were humans have evolved into cyborgs to meet the needs and challenges that the future holds.
Not wishing to go into the realm of the science fiction writer as this is a visual art project and as an independent artist whose practice comes very much from a painting background and all the baggage and history that entails especially if that means seeing art from a linear western male dominated perspective.
As someone who favours the physicality of materials and the encounter of the artwork in time and space over the virtual which I feel is a totally different experience than seeing everything on a screen which is backlighted and unlike a face to face confrontation that a 3D object entails.This stance might seem like a contradiction when this book is realized as an online ebook format. I am not a luddite pessimist I can see how the internet and computers in general is very beneficial in all walks of life.
I just want for people to be aware of the road we are embarked on especially our young people the so called “nineteen seventy niners” the generation since 1979 that knows of no other time than when the Internet has been in existence and part of their life, were social media on all platforms is the norm.To be able to think of what are the consequences of this 24/7 instant edited uploaded life means for our mental wellbeing.
To be more optimistic that humanity is very resourceful and will overcome whatever adversity it encounters over time, awareness is of the upmost importance where we can enter this golden age using the Singularity for our human advantage. Not allowing all the aggressive market forces set the agenda for us like in our recent past we must try to overcome our human nature of greed and believe that the market will regulate everything to our advantage as this policy is surely by now been proven totally wrong.
The Fractured Realities Artist Books Project can be seen not as a negative experience but one which holds out hope for our shared future, that the images, visuals as I like to think of them can inspire people to think and find solutions as to how we should examine and critique this all invasive virtual world we inhabit without resorting to utopian models of philosophy.
The collages are handmade and to me have a form of beauty a dangerous word when it comes to contemporary art.They deliberately avoid the use of flash sophisticated editing programs and software in their making. I can see this series of work being exhibited virtually as ebooks but also as an immersive slide projection in a blackbox gallery space context.
Finally as the famous quote goes........DO MACHINES DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP.
Daniel Mc Keon © April 2015.