| Paul Evan Hughes
MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Goddard G4 End of Semester Evaluation. Goals: For my fourth semester at Goddard, it was my goal to step away from the rigid and somewhat limiting production of lengthy narrative digital videos and instead focus on advisor Pam Hall’s concept of “rigorous play.” Since I first began working in digital video, my artistic practice has always been fundamentally rooted in the production of end products. I intended to produce a series of shorter videos that instead of consciously dealing with a particular issue, as several of my previous projects explored loss, suicide, resignation, and surrender, returned to the playful exploration of the digital medium itself. I felt that “play” was a critical part of new media that I had never truly recognized or approached in much of my previous work. I was in essence deciding to take a creative step backwards to “play” with the medium so that I might incorporate what I found during that less-structured exploration of digital video into future projects. Another goal of my semester was to not only engage in the creation side of video art, but to begin a thorough exploration of the history of the medium so that I could better contextualize my own practice within the larger community of video artists. I intended to accomplish this not only by reading and viewing, but by reaching out to my fellow Goddard video artists and drawing from them the resources and inspiration that I would require to begin to see my own video art as but a small part of a thriving community. The history and theory of video art was an arena that I intended to explore in depth. This exploration would help me to not only to play with the medium, explore more depth in my own video work, become familiar with other artists, but also to learn the critical and historical vocabularies of video art. I intended to continue to build upon the resurrender.net online network, a virtual community I first built in 1996. Last semester, I began creating a series of interactive experimental web pages that incorporated text, audio, video, still images, and manipulated code into an audience-manipulated new media experience. One goal of this semester was to continue working on that series of pages and expand it into a lattice of experience which viewers could explore at their own paces and on their own paths. I was and continue to be intrigued with the idea of creating interactive sites that are viewer-specific experiences, never once being exactly the same for anyone. I intended to begin exploring the ethics of my artistic practice this semester. I wanted to engage in an intensely-intro- and retrospective analysis of the implications of the use of private exchange in a public domain and the ethical and legal ramifications of such use. While continuing my study and research of Samuel Delany, I also wanted
to broaden my reading of speculative fiction to many other acclaimed and
emerging authors in the field. At the same time, I would continue
to write the third and final book of my silver series of sf novels, Broken.
This semester I created a substantial body of experimental video work, ending up with nineteen finished videos, listed below. Twelve of the videos comprise the first season of a video series I’ve created called “The Lonely Bear.” In terms of web design, I focused my creative energies in four areas, the revision and expansion of paulevanhughes.com and the creation of thelonelybear.com, and two solely-online interactive projects, “folds” and “interpaul.” Links to these four projects are provided below. In terms of creative writing, I began the fourth chapter of my third science fiction novel, Broken, “heiligenschein.” The majority of my research this semester was an intense reading of video art history and the history of the internet/World Wide Web, tempered at times with several works of transgressive and speculative fiction. I was also able to obtain several videos from ILL to supplement my reading on video artists and the history of the medium. My resources are as follow: Resources:
Video:
As in all three previous semesters at Goddard, the seminar experience started out with a lot of promise, but ultimately failed because of lack of participation and seeming disinterest from the members of my advising group. It is my opinion that the online seminar is an unsuccessful and unnecessary addition to the Goddard experience. It sounds good on paper and in discussion at the residency, but until people become comfortable with the idea of engaging in meaningful communication online, the seminars just won’t work. I was of course disappointed that this semester, the program chose to replace the online bulletin board system I had created for the MFA-IA program last semester with a more-confusing and inferior system. I had hoped that people would be drawn to that board as a safe space within which to both engage in meaningful intellectual discourse and strengthen those bonds we all feel of friendship at the residencies, but as was the case with my own creation, fewer than a dozen students ever consistently used that resource. I can only hope that other seminars were more successful. My own seminar was good for check-ins, but beyond that, the discussion never took off. Not even everyone in our group would check in, and that’s pathetic. Learning Outcomes/ Degree Criteria: This semester, my personal knowledge of the histories of the video and digital media expanded exponentially. I feel that I have finally been successful in familiarizing myself with both histories (a problematic term in both cases, but nevertheless a part of the learning process) and contextualizing my own work within the communities that utilize each medium. Where once I felt like a confused, disconnected fish out of water, now I feel comfortable and confident when discussing both video and digital art, and I recognize that my own forays into those worlds are both valid and vital. I’ve ditched the imposter syndrome in favor of a self-awareness of the worth of my own creative processes. I think this contextualization and confident understanding is evidenced most in my level of production this semester. The nineteen videos and four digital projects I present here are not only examples of rigorous play, but also of intense personal growth both in my understanding of the medium and ability to use what I’ve learned from my studies to coherently and cohesively create projects that both honor those artists who have come before me and challenge previous creations with my own particular, sometimes peculiar style. I believe the work I’ve done this semester, particularly the video series I produced, is a quantum leap over what I’ve done in previous semesters and not only demonstrates my understanding of theory but also my ability to apply that theory in practice. I believe my “The Lonely Bear” series is the finest work I’ve done at Goddard and represents an essential step toward my completion of the degree criteria. Assessment: It was my pleasure and honor to work with advisor Pam Hall again this semester. I feel that she is the consummate example of a supportive, challenging, intelligent and inspiring advisor, and building upon our previous student/advisor relationship from last semester, I was able to achieve the goals I had set for this semester. I honestly believe that the work I’ve done this semester is the finest I’ve ever created, and given the sheer mental and physical exhaustion I’m experiencing right now, suffice it to say that I feel that I’ve been more productive this semester than any other, not only in my production of end products, but in the way I threw myself into familiarizing the histories of video and digital art. Pam was everything I could have hoped for in an advisor, and I owe much of my present accomplishment and confidence to her, for her role of inspiration and goad. Working with Pam is what Goddard is all about, and that’s not ass-kissing. That’s the confidence of someone who know considers himself a valid video artist instead of an imposter.
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