FINSlilli kayes

preface + project statement!!! ! This PDF contains three explorations: Fishing As Art Practice, Functional Form, and Message & Materials. I wanted to use this final project as an opportunity to experiment, and release the way I think, speak, and write, in a free flowing format that does not restrict me. This book is a meditation regarding aesthetics and theories currently influencing my art practice. Each section includes a combinations of written accounts of recordings, images, sketches, mind maps, free writing, poetry, quotes, and facts. In essence it is a visual mind maps allowing me to work out muddles thoughts, holes, and concerns surrounding my thesis exhibition Silverfin. Warning it might require zooming in and out to navigate the content on the page.

fishing as art practice !explores fishing as art practice or the statement “my fishing practice is my art practice”. The beginnings, the holes, the loops, the confusion and an attempt at clarification for myself and others.!!!functional forms!explores form and function. This section serves as a way of working out my experimentations with form and function in response to “fishing as art practice” and my thesis project SIlverfin.!!!message & materials !explores message through materials. It examines thoughts on how specimens collection and experimentation with show not tell methods work to communicated heavily researched based works. !

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FISHING AS ART

PRACTICE

fishing as art practice !explores fishing as art practice or the statement “my fishing practice is my art practice”. The beginnings, the holes, the loops, the confusion and an attempt at clarification for myself and others.

before !subject matter!

!water!

ecological issues !non-point source pollution!

algae blooms !plastispheres !

invasive species

I was presenting ecological issues pertaining to water. Most were based on human effects on local bodies of water. The issues were over generalized and mostly held a negative tone.

1 - 1 Mimicking events and processes of the natural world. minor research into the issue itself with little investigation into specific examples or places where these issues were occurring.

blooming to death I !video sculpture!

projection of flowers blooming & dying, milk, water, fishing line!!

this early project illustrated how fertilizers get into the water and what once helped

crops to grow eventually leads to death further down in the system

plastisphere!sculpture!

3D scanned & printed fish, recycled plastics, water, plastic globe, fishing line!!this project illustrated plastispheres and

the ingestion of plastics by fish

disturbances!interactive sound sculpture!

keyboard circuit board, electric paint, wood table, water, metal pan,!!

people to run hands over images of invasive species, which triggers ripples in the basin, representing disturbances

invasive species have on water

melting!sound installation!photography, sound, performance!!these images were placed on computer screens in a class room while tracks of ice melting played in the background. Participants would read out statistics on global warming

blooming to death II!interactive sculpture !max msp, arduino, security camera, paint, chemicals, water, tubing, fishing line!!the second iteration in this series reacted to people moving within the space. the more the viewers moved and the closer they got to the piece, the more chemicals were pumped into a clean basin of water.

*** these projects were very literal interpretations of systems. they presented problems facing the water without offering a solution or commentary beyond “here’s the problem:

In spring 2015, I began a semester long book project, in the form of a fishing kit. It

contained three books : research, personal journal, and fishing how to guide.

I also create a workshop to teach people the basics of fishing. Over 6 months I went to several locations and had people assist me with documentation and experimental

tools to excavate the water with

shift !The Depressed Go Fishing!!started fishing in Chicago!field collections!heavy research!communication with experts !beginning of writing practice !montrose harbor meditations

fishing!

fishing !definition!

!the activity of catching fish!

search: typically by groping or feeling for something

concealed!subtly or deviously to elicit a

response or some information forms omeone!

!old english!

FISC!noun denoting any animal

living in water

realizations !I developed The Depressed Go Fishing project after being depressed because I was use to living in the woods and moved to Chicago. I wasn't getting out into nature or fishing. once I started fishing again, things started to click into place for me.

!The coalescence of my fishing practice and my art practice was the key to more successful and fulfilling artworks. !!

components of !fishing!

tools !rod, reel, fishing line, hooks, bait, traps, nets,

knots, tackle, etc… !

skills!knot tying, casting, reading water conditions,

handling fish humanely, filleting, !

outcomes!catching bait fish, fish, removing invasive

species, population control, first hand knowledge of environmental conditions, food,

fertilizer !

a person does research, uses tools, in order to reach an outcome. !!a person goes fishing, experiments with tools in a creative way in order to reach a successful outcome. !!fishing is a creative practice. !!using skills, knowledge and tools to create something. experiment until they are successful!

now !subject matter!

!water!

ecological issues !non-point source pollution!

algae blooms !plastispheres !

invasive species

participation in the system via fishing and translating into artistic practice!!investigating our relationships with individual species !!how we affect them, how they affect us, and how to coexist in a more mutually beneficial way!!stop seeing ourselves separated from nature !!creating understanding through revealing more positive possible futures.

participation in the system via fishing and translating into artistic

practice

!!

Learning to inhabit the world in a better way, instead of trying to construct it based on a preconceived idea of

historical evolution. !!

BOURRIAUD!!! !

silverfin !thesis project !

!asian carp!

water contamination !algae blooms !

cyclical relationships!fishing as art practice !

!

Silverfin is a sculptural video installation chronicling an elaborate plot, and the production of traps designed to catch invasive asian carp. This project presents the proposition that invasive Asian carp are now a part of the new wild, and harnessing them as a resource via fishing, results in a more mutually beneficial relationships. It consists of fabricating an eleven foot fyke trap net, underwater sound buoys, and several projection screens made from a collection of fish specimens. !

the aesthetics of !fishing as art practice !

!functional forms!

( tools created to function )!( created as an aesthetic object) !

!message in materials!

( specimen collection as message )!( specimen collection as aesthetic

object)

FUNCTIONAL FORMS

functional forms!explores form and function. This book serves as a way of working out my experimentations with form and function in response to “fishing as art practice” and my thesis project SIlverfin.

silverfin !components!

!10 ‘ fyke net fish trap !

3 sound /disturbance buoys!projection screens !

specimen collection !video footage !

!

Silverfin is a sculptural video installation chronicling an elaborate plot, and the production of traps designed to catch invasive asian carp. This project presents the proposition that invasive Asian carp are now a part of the new wild, and harnessing them as a resource via fishing, results in a more mutually beneficial relationships.!

the plan!!

to catch!invasive !

asian!carp!

species

“I wished to go completely outside and to make a symbolic start for my enterprise of

regenerating the life of humankind within the body of society and to prepare a

positive future in this context.” - Joseph Beuys !

fyke net !tool - to catch fish !sculpture - aesthetic object !!the fyke net is a functional sculpture that embodies the message of my thesis project. !!highlighting a solution or step forward in discussion of the utilization of invasive species as resources. !!fishing ( via this trap) is the answer I am suggesting to the invasion of asian carp. !!where the carp are apart of a new wild that we need to stop ignoring and begin navigating a more sustainable relationship with

the production of tools to fish as a means of investigating the water and excavating nature

experimentation !of form!!

  “The role of artworks is no longer to form imaginary and utopian realities, but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real, whatever the scale chosen by the artist. “!!BOURRIAUD!

When I began this project initially I was going to bow fish for them. Eventually after many experiments with form and how it related to the function of fishing I discovered, the fyke net trap. It is used by researchers and fishermen on the Illinois river to catch Asian Carp species.

Part of this project is making it relatable and easy for people to understand. the fyke net is a beautiful and interesting object that will grab attention and be recognizable to everyday peoples.

the public amateur - “artist inhabits the position of amateurs and hobbyists in order

to make visible our everyday relationships with techno scientific processes”!

Claire Pentecost

sound bouys!tool - to scare fish into nets!sculpture - aesthetic object !!These objects function purely on experimentation and research !!researchers are working on creating barriers to control the movement of these carp via sound frequencies. !!fish like the Silver Carp are extremely sensitive to water displacement and sound. !!These sculptures will function as !tools for !- scaring the fish underwater !- people can place them up to

their ears to hear stories accounts and sounds from the field. !

!

form follows function

fishing dates back to 40,000 years - upper

paleolithic period!

tools as extension of humanity !

!tools as representation of

the beginning of culture!

!!

“Aesthetics does not serve as some master vehicle of encounter with the

distribution of sensibility, participation, and truth telling about lifeworlds, but

because they are forms of design and designation that qualify the affect of our

post-Anthropocenic precipice by constituting it, rather than reflecting,

suggesting, mirroring, or metaphorizing it for us through some public congress.”!

MIRZOEFF!

the aesthetics of !fishing as art practice !

!functional forms!

( tools created to function )!( created as an aesthetic object) !

!message in materials!

( specimen collection as message )!( specimen collection as aesthetic

object)

MESSAGE IN

MATERIALS

message in medium !explores message through materials. It examines thoughts on how specimens collection and experimentation with show not tell methods work to communicated heavily researched based works.

fishing tools!fyke net as medium - directly representing fishing!sound bouys !!specimen collection!algae - represent algae blooms - message ? paper !fish skins - using the fish itself as a medium, making it a resource for artistic purposes ! calls in to question ethical use of fish and worth of species. representative of ! ! ! population control or in reference to food! taxidermy

The Medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social

consequences of any medium, that is, of any extension of ourselves, result from the new

scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any

technology. !!

MCLUHAN

I use to hid in the woods!But I was born in the water!I breathed the fluids for months!then burst into reality!Red faced beaten by the walls!Be a man but feel like a woman!Be violence and sweetness!I am the fish and I am the fisher!I am breathing and drowning!When I escape to the water!I am woman man fish fisher in a heart!The fish in me wants escape!The human in me wants hunt!There's a moment between the escape and the hunt!There's a ground and a fixed point!Affixed in peace and trapped by pain!!I am a fish trapped in a somebody!I am a spirit fixed to a skin!I hunt myself!I slay myself!I rinse and then repeat!!I run to the water!I escape from that skin!Matted with purposeless purpose!I feel the water in my mind!Always!Searching for water!For relief!For freedom from my skin

specimen !as medium !as message

Algae!collected 40lbs !!specimen collection!of algae turned into paper !!this is not a direct display of the algae but using it more as a material to be processed into paper or projecting onto it. Algae represents a connecting character between humanity and these fish because due to pollution with fertilizers and certain chemicals we cause algae to bloom

Algae!projection screen !!interesting and beautiful, the algae projection screen holds the image very well but as a medium carrying a message, the message is muddled. !!Silverfin has mostly fishing tool components and to use this as a representation of nature, of the fish is very symbolic but illegible to people who do not understand the significance of algae in our relationship with asian carp

!!

the conservation and reproduction of the organism, but on the contrary, an

openended scanning of possibilities through which the silhouette of the

organism is to be cast off like dead skin so that something irregular might arrive from within and without at once, over and over again, until through genetic and allogenetic iteration, the vestigial

trace of the human ancestor is absorbed!!

MIRZOEFF!

fish skin projection screen !

Experiment !!

skinned fish !plexi !

experimental materials !salt !

varnish !acrylic medium

Experimentation with fish as art materials !Research into Taxidermy artforms!Projecting images onto the skin

fish skin procedure: !skinning a whole tilapia !goal figure out a way to skin entire fish, preserving the fin, fix the skin , !!Method used this time:!remove skin !scrape excess flesh!(eat the fish) !wash in cold water !lay out to dry for 20min !coat inside with acrylic gel medium !place on plexiglass & add weight !when edges dry tape off plexiglass !spray light coat of varnish on skin of fish !hold fin up & spray to stabilize !apply heat from a blow dryer throughout procedure !

***the parts it’s translucent look much better!!TRY sandblasting back and projecting from underneath !!!

outcome!although interesting and aesthetically pleasing it is difficult to see the image projected onto the fish skin, even in person. !!small scale test !large scale might prove to be better !more experience with skinning and perfecting the translucency may be better !!the experience of looking above and under the fish is interesting and text could be added to the underside to provide more context

as message!the goal is to show my catch and present fish as a resource or material to be used by humans. !!!My initial thoughts on fish skin as a medium are:!!Reads as: or represents !!trophy!food!grotesque !taxidermy !natural history museum !relationship between !!looking @ artists working in specimen collection !!Mark Dion!Bradon Ballengee !Oron Catts and Ion Zurr!

“We have been told that the modern no longer has a single outcome. It turns out that maybe it does, ending with neither a bang nor a whimper but a gently rhythmic rising of the sea in some places and the end of the rain in others. Nature, so often used by humans to define perversity as unnatural, has itself become perverse, undoing all theologies, deisms, spinozisms, and other forms of transcendent.” MIRZOEFF

The act of turning life into an object !!what does this mean? !!this experiment is very recent and still requires more time and practice in order to understand what it is I am creating. Re-reading through Tactical Bioethics and The Paradoxical object !!how is this a paradoxical object?

!!!

“the current situation in which the human species finds itself can be most

adequately described with the phrase “we are fucked”.!

!MIRZOEFF!

Silverfin seeks to alleviate some of the “we are fucked” feeling by envisioning a relationship thats mutually

beneficial to the carp and the humans.!