The Future of Personal Research, and a Bit More

 Having spent the past few months completing Fragments of a Punk Opera, working on my PhD upgrade 'exam' and with the odd dash of awkward reality (just for kicks), I've finally found some time to reflect on what I've accomplished so far - made possible by my upgrade process - and also where it'll all be going in the next couple of years, now that I seem to be firmly on course. 

Hardwired was featured in the recent art school research expo, and as such was able to reach a wider, and more general, audience - thanks perhaps also to my presentation on the subject and its themes at the expo opening: 'Digital Media as Means and Method of Individuation': DJCAD Research Expo '23 Talk and Presentation

The inclusion of the head as a faux 'surveillance device' which also reflects the gaze of the viewer (in a complete reversal of the Medusa myth of Perseus' shield) was an interesting choice, and suggests that works are ever rarely as complete as we think they are - when installation in a new environment can kick off exciting and additional ways of presentation and interaction. Having given four talks about this film in as many months to various audiences has also allowed me to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the film (made almost exactly a year ago now) and how I can move forwards with similar, bigger, better works. A Punk Opera is certainly ambitious but needs equally thoughtful curating, something I'll begin thinking about soon.

The cyborg theme was also presented at the University 'Nietzsche, Science, Life & Art' symposium at the end of 2022, featuring an iteration of a drawing which features in Hardwired:

The graphic comix work made for last year's BRAW bursary is now on show at Generator Projects' Members' Show:

I recently also contributed to this article:

Inside the Wild and Highly Lucrative Erotic Art Industry

 written for Vice magazine, where I had much to say on the subject of kink and fetishization in art (most specifically on the pornographic 'shemale' form), but only a little of it was used - still, nice to be namechecked, and be out there in the media!

Having now pinned down the themes at stake and subject matter of what will be the second chapter of the thesis - the erotic art of John Howard and 'shemale'/futanari in general - I'm now able to consider how this leads into the proposed third chapter, which discusses webcam porn performance and the personal, and wider, issues therein. 

It'll be good to return to the thesis chapters with new, well-informed eyes and with any luck a coherent structure will soon begin to emerge. And with the confidence boost that I'm now a fully-fledged researcher, things ought to gain traction as the writing becomes more coherent, and goes on to inform further practice.

Lo-fi thoughts and Shonky Reflections on 'Fragments of a Punk Opera'

 Working intensely on recording, writing, producing and filming more instalments of the 'Fragments of a Punk Opera', I've been reminded of the DCA exhibition 'Shonky: The Aesthetics of Awkwardness' which I attended in 2018, between 2nd and 3rd years of my BA. I recall the show making no impression at all upon me at the time, but it obviously stayed with me as I immediately thought back to it in terms of the form and methodology of that which is loosely-formed, rough, somewhat klunky - yet nonetheless still engaging or, I hope (with regards to my own work), at least entertaining. 

I routinely refer to my music adventures as 'lo-fi' and this is an accurate description, but it is also in keeping with the DIY aesthetic which is a signatory on the original punk manifesto. My method is basic, not by choice but by virtue simply of how it is: with no training in music production, I use basic means to create pretty basic music: the drumkit requires several hundred pounds worth of new skins and cymbals, and the main crash has a 2-inch split in it. Punk did everything it could with the rock 'n roll basics of bass, drums, guitars and vocals - one or two groups even incorporated keys, as I do too, albeit in a faux-jazz idiom which is still, I would claim, of punk heritage, as I have no formal or any other understanding of jazz and associated music theory (if it qualifies as jazz at all then it is genuinely 'shonky jazz', no?).

These jazz-ish moments may owe their inspiration to the classy sophistication of pop-musical geniuses Sparks via the smart-ass lyrics, but the production and attitude is more suggestive of the quirkiness found in early Adam Ant or the Stranglers. The works also reinterpret aspects of two previous (if not in fact still ongoing) bodies of work, 'Weimar' and 'A Punk Trilogy in 4 Parts': decadence, cabaret, dark humour and occasional historical and social references which all bounce around between the other recurring interests and obsessions - narrative, character, relationships, betrayal, heartbreak...and occasionally art, as in this track:

Herein, musical professionals will note missed beats, fluffed notes, flat vocals, hammy performances all round - none of which is done on purpose to simulate crude or raw aesthetics as a shallow raison d'étre, but is simply the results of "doing what I do". Sometimes the fluffs aren't noticed until well into the mixing process, and digital music editing can only fix so much. The Band Aid-patched results are therefore in full concert with the 'shonky' concept: I make music because I love it: it's an affair of the heart, not of the intellect. I do not try to polish the results too much: too-slick production would only highlight the fluffs and clangers even more, and make them sound much worse. A rough, hissy punk demo track can get away with a lot more than an HD production of 'Moonlight Sonata', in which instrumental perfection is expected.  

A recently-recorded track with a Sham 69 vibe, 'I Swear', humorously bleeps out the occasional swear words until the ad lib rant at the end, in which the f-bombs slip past the completely out-of-time censoring devices, thus not only calling into question the authority of the censor (which was wielded as hamfistedly during the original punk era as much as any guitar in the hands of countless young would-be upstarts), but also celebrating the subversive punk voice itself: despite all attempts to shut us up, we are still shouting:

For we know three chords, and we therefore are a band. 

As a working-class phenomenon, punk highlighted the élitism of the music world of its day, and levelled the playing field of musicianship (going on to inform various subsequent waves, and Grunge, in later decades). My body of work does not shun the economic divisions of society. The two main characters start off penniless, and possibly end that way, too (assuming they even survive). And does the millionaire gangster sit beneath a portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth II for reasons other than mere affection? Economic concerns are writ large across the 'Fragments' project, starting out from the reality of my need to replenish an entire drumkit and invest in a recording microphone (rather than merely yelling at the laptop), to the desperate situation of the two main characters, Steff and Jen. However, the levelling and liberating tendencies of technology, which originally allowed punk to flourish at street-level, have permitted this artist to realise their creative endeavours in a tangible form, in the same way that cheap Xeroxing technologies of the 1970s allowed fans and writers to publish and distribute their own 'zines, and no longer had to rely upon the stuffy music papers of the day for opinion and information.

'Hardwired' Public Screening and 'Bad Money' Continues...

 As expected, my presentation of 'Hardwired' at DJCAD last Wednesday (26th) went splendidly well. Working with only a couple of sketchy notes, I managed to speak for 45 minutes around the 20-minute screening, thanks to a very engaged and talkative audience. As my first ever solo presentation/exhibition, I found it a very rewarding and exciting experience, and hope to do more of the same soon. 

Here is the full presentation, plus Q & A:

The layout of the event was exactly as I had first imagined it back in the Springtime - incorporating the sculptural Medusa work, printed flyers, and me presenting in character as Em in a snake print dress, which reflects the serpentine aspect of Medusa's myth. The feedback and discussion points surrounding the characters inspired me to push on with the nascent 'punk opera' concept ('Bad Money'), and a few days later I had a good demo song 'Madame Melodie Melody' recorded, from which grew a big musical production number and some semi-improvised narrative working around the slim storyline to date:

"I am the one, I am the law and the word. I am the beginning and the end. I take what I want and I get what I need At a profitable, comfortable dividend... You got a problem with that? You better go speak to the Lord, honey. He's the only one who's gonna save your godamn sorry ass now... 'Cos I am only a dame (But what a helluva dame) And while this world's my oyster, I will eat pearls and I'll poop caviar... We were put on this earth to do the best we can, and London town's my cloister And if you want a share, then you better beware 'Cos I'm (she's) a mean mutilator like Robespierre You said it boy, I'm the fellah's biggest fan I'm (she's) gonna get you any way I (she) can... So don't mess around with the Big Bad Melodie Ma'am... That's what I am."

Spot the Harry S Truman reference above...

This clip, filmed in part of the family house, involves me portraying 4 characters, stretching the concept of multiplicity of persona, and may be the most ambitious indoor musical video work to date, as a result. Synchronicity, a recurring theme within much of my creative work going back three decades now, resurfaces when reflecting upon the retro aspect of the Madame's interior decor and style (antique, Royalist, jazz) versus the younger, brasher youthful protagonists (contemporary, poor, punk). The flip.comes when we discover that Melodie is a furious atheist, as a result of Jen's blabbing about her devotion to prayer to resolve their economic situation. Intentional deadpan comedy now also infuses the work, as a means of propping up the stock/cliché character types (musical theatre, after all, isn't renowned for its depth of characterization), and one of the redeeming qualities of original punk was its cheeky and subversive sense of humour and occasional lapses into the elder generation's sphere of music hall and other popular forms (e.g. the piano singalong interlude in the Cockney Rejects' single 'The Greatest Cockney Rip-Off'). The movie musical has therefore some features in common with the porn film: neither can possess narratives or characters that are too deep or layered, due to the need to pack in sufficient 'crowd pleasing' scenes - both genres, too, tend to assume some level of 'audience participation' to be considered truly engaging. 

The whole artifice itself is attractive to me, in terms of my growing methodology with increased exposure - even celebration - of the limitations inherent in making works like this alone with no assistance. I would be interested in presenting some of the musical material live one day, perhaps as part of a multi-media exhibition of the punk cycle. Might the 'book' of such an opera be traditional, or radically rethought - whether in a Brechtian mode or some other alternative or subversive means? The libretti displayed as works in themselves which stand alongside, rather than being subservient to, the musical aspects?

Rather than constructing an entire genuine musical film out of these interludes, this body of material is now being dubbed 'Fragments from a Punk Opera', with fragmentation itself a recurring theme and methodology in my recent work (cf. 'Fragments of Amazonia' (2018), 'Fragments, Intermediaries', my MFAAH final exhibition in 2021, and as a subtext in the 2022 film 'Hardwired') wherein what is included is as relevant as the idea of what is not, or what is shown versus what is not shown. Which sections, stories, characters, from the over-arching narrative are deserving of having a song and dance made about them, and which ones not? Furthermore, the concept of connectedness itself can become the responsibility of the viewer, the audience, if the 'book' - i.e., the over-arching storyline, is left deliberately ambiguous, or even non-existent, providing only the libretti of each individual song. The old punk methodology of DIY - from printing and distribution (photocopied cut 'n pasted fanzines) to the music itself ('learn 3 chords, form your own band') - can therefore be applied not only to me as creator, actor, composer, musician, but to the audience who are invited to create their own beginning, middle and end from the selection of musical and other materials on offer. A 'random access' musical. Who are the villains and who the heroes? Why? True anarchy - make up the story that you want to see, not the one that is fed to you... (perhaps for this concept to fully work, some more ambiguity of character and motivation may need to be applied. But, as it stands - are Steff and Jen truly blameless? Is Melodie really irredeemable, if she regularly decapitates other gangsters, and furthermore, respects the Queen? Who's to say that Mr. Hookz won't let Steff & Jen 'off the hook' out of personal sympathy?) Furthermore, are there any links to my previous works - such as the similarity between the Melodie persona, and my work of a year ago, 'A/Object' and 'Untitled Sculptural Objects'?

There is potential for the humour to get blacker, and the art to become more artistic, in reference to one of my favourite films of all time: Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover', which also deals with themes of crime, betrayal, and revenge, concepts which have already begun to swirl around some of the newly developed lyrical ideas.  

'Bad Money' and Good Vibes

So much of my art practice seems to revolve around recurring 'meta' narratives that I've long since assumed that my subconscious sense of creativity really does have some sort of master plan for a seemingly disparate collection of works produced over a number of years (or else, I'm really just lacking in originality...)

Reworking and recording an old punk number written as part of a 'rock opera' which had been written some years ago (and then promptly forgotten about), and now given new visual life in the form of a music video, made me realise - though only after watching the video back a few times - that it seems to represent a stage in the 'further adventures' of Em and Jay, the main characters from my film 'Hardwired'.

The concept of bringing my interest in music-making (albeit of a crummy, lo-fi form) into the forefront of my practice is probably long overdue. Original scores did feature in all three of my 'major' (i.e., over 10 minutes' length) films of the last few years - 'The Wanderer and the Wish-maid', 'Solstice' and 'Hardwired'. But making music into a main focus, for all its roughness (which itself could be a personal methodology, and is indeed a deliberate aesthetic used in various genres) is something I will be exploring in more depth - featuring, as it does in this case, character and narrative, which have always been my main driving forces. 

My enthusiasm for punk as a social, cultural and musical movement has already been documented in my 4-part performance poetry cycle, which can hardly be called nostalgia as I was barely a conscious entity when the first wave began to fizzle*, but I do have a long history of living and breathing various aspects of the ethos, especially the 'DIY' concept of making (comix, zines - including my forthcoming 'A/Object' zine, which includes a few punk-inspired images among the other X-rated material), production (especially music - I play all instruments, to varying standards), and distribution. 

A few other tracks with narrative (or at least artistic potential) include pieces which exist, at present, only as titles, like 'Acne Empire', 'What a Load of Crap', 'So I'm Married to a Drag Queen' and 'I ****ing Swear'. How might this body of work develop? With my public exhibition of 'Hardwired' only a week away, I'm expecting to channel some feedback from that experience in this new direction. Perhaps Em and Jay will become a pair of recurring universal heroes in a whole series of works, popping up in multiple genres and/or places. 

Keeping with the musical theme, I also had the following cartoon published in a recent zine by Coin Operated Press:

(Whilst writing this, I've just been reminded of another commission illustration - for a book by David Kerekes - which I made some years ago, entitled 'Gob' - featuring a spotty punk vocalist doing just that, the very antisocial activity (namely, spitting, in British slang) which became a trademark activity for the UK press to accuse all punks of being guilty of as yet another signifier that The End of Civilization was night. Except that, at that time, many people spat in public. To the extent that I can still remember as a tiny kid, on the old Dundee buses with my mother, seeing signs which read 'No Spitting'.)

*I usually refer to it as a 'celebration', covering as it does the 6 year period of British history from 1976 to the Falklands War of 1982.