An interview with Glyph Graves
Glyph Gravespurpose of questions..
Bryn Oh: Where are you from?
And who are the most renowned artists from your country in your opinion?
 |
| Euen MacLeod |
Ok, now the traditional ockerism is out of the way .. "renown" and best aren’t exactly
the same thing though there is often overlap the most renown probably has its
own Wikipedia entry. There are many
Australian artists whose work would fit “renown” that I enjoy; Euen MacLeod and
Arthur Boyd are two, particularly Boyds later work.
 |
| Arthur Boyd |
Bryn Oh: Often the average person outside SL is perplexed with virtual worlds in
general. When people unfamiliar with
the virtual ask you what you do how do
you explain it?
Glyph Graves: I find the problem is not so much that they are
unfamiliar with SL rather the problem seems to be more that they have a
distorted idea of virtual spaces with little idea of the actuality or possibilities
of SL. Certainly Linden Labs marketing strategy <http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2014/03/second-life-advertising.html#more>
is totally puzzling making that issue
worse.. they seem to want it to have average person appeal like Face Book but
they also seem to forget that face book gained the following it has by
presenting itself as the cool alternative to Myspace. One simple way would be that instead of
always presenting SL as an escape they could cheaply fund a few small projects
to show how SL can be integrated with peoples
lives in the physical world. At
least it would attract a different niche that is currently alienated by the
popular view of SL. The overwhelming feeling I have is the marketing people
have no idea of what you can do in virtual spaces and the idea of niche
marketing escapes them. More and more I feel Douglas Adams gem referencing
marketers is appropriate. http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation
>
Bryn Oh: Who are a few of your favorite artists and why?
Glyph Graves: There are many who’s work I both really
enjoy and admire, some from SL (e.g. that Bryn person and Jo Ellesmere and many
others)
 |
| Caleb Larsen |
One of current favorite pieces is
a black cube. Its called "a tool
to deceive and slaughter" by Cabel Larsen "http://caleblarsen.com/a-tool-to-deceive-and-slaughter/
(again link into pieces name) .
It is in the same conceptual area as “Merde de Artist” by Piero Manzoni. My feeling is
they were both not fully realized as art until the first commercial transaction
was made.
Bryn Oh: Whose artwork do you personally dislike the most and why?
Glyph Graves: Dislike is a bit strong ..hmm not interested in is more
accurate ... well, except for that person that seems to do all the art you find in picture, frame and art supplies
shops . Those pieces I truly dislike. What is it with the paintings in those shops anyway and
why are they all uniformly so awful? As
for others what I find incomprehensible is formula art, that is, art that is a
generic cut and paste with minor modifications of other works.
Bryn Oh: Which of your own works are you most proud of? Do you feel any failed and if so do you now
know why?
Older works that I still like
full sim pieces:- Strangers also dance http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/UWA%20Winthrop/192/69/22
(read the sign touch it for the notecard and then walk to the big pink crystal
on the water and touch it to get to the installation)
Liquidity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIOjNOZmgrU
, and
Reflections in Diversity < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phgom8fcBGE > (A mixed
virtual / physical world piece that maps the avatars spoken language
(e.g.French) to colour ( LEDs in the physical world and to a “painting” in the
virtual world as well as the main virtual piece, you can think of this as a triptych or sorts) and
their rotation to sound creating a movement/location soundscape)
Reflections in diversity
 |
| Reflections in diversity |
Glyph Graves: The
middle is the main piece in SL. Either side is the physical representation and
to the right the ground level reflection.
As the avatar walks though the main the their language (ie French,
Spanish etc) is shown by the colour of the closest prims which changes
depending on who is there (and what language they have on their computer) In
the middle of the main you can see where I streamed the physical part back into
SL so visitors could see how it changed.
If you going to try different things you going to have many
that don’t quite convey what you want them to.
Hopefully I’ve managed to keep most of those in my inventory. I don’t really consider those as failures,
more elements on the path to achieving something I want.
I have a greater sense of something has failed when I
have an idea that needs to be realized and for one reason or another it hasn’t
happened, usually because of terminal procrastination.
Bryn Oh: Do you have a method when creating? If so how does it often progress? For example do you sketch or write out ideas first for weeks or do you perhaps just jump directly into the project with little planning and adapt as you go?
Glyph Graves: Sketching out a project is excellent advice ... I do it
but not on paper, I try to hold the sketch in my head where its usually
composed / added to/rearranged when I go for walks in the local park. As a
result the sketches are a bit wobbly but I like that, it makes them organic. The downside is that when you’re working any interruption
is pretty painful.
In answer to your question I start out with the overall
idea but I’m not afraid to modify it if enhances what I was trying for in the
first place. Different projects seem to
have their own life though, some sit and evolve as ideas and others just come
and are done in a relatively short period of time.
Bryn Oh: What are you currently reading, listening to or looking at to inspire your work?
Glyph Graves: I try and avoid being inspired by others work though of
course that doesn’t mean I’m not influenced or find inspiration in things I see
or come across, just that I don’t go actively look to be inspired by others
work.
Possibly I’m still
in mourning at the loss of my favorite author, Ian Banks so I am rereading a
few of those. What I’ve actually been looking at is lots of code, (I totally re
wrote the Ghosts < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hjoKvjAevI
> project about 3 time even though it worked the first time ...and its much
better for it)., also have been spending time working with/looking at the
effects of different materials to get the sort of effects I’m after etc
ect. Inspiration is not so much the
problem as the finding the time to sit down and do them. I have about five good projects that are
works in progress. I’m actually very methodical and efficient in the ways I
find to procrastinate but was running out of ideas in that area. You can imagine that being asked to do this
interview was a real godsend.
Bryn Oh: Does your work have an overall theme and if so what might
that be? If not please describe how you
tend to pick your topics.
Glyph Graves: I think probably best described as have several
interwoven threads. A lot of it you
could call transformational, one thing being turned into another, a sort of
visual and aural synaesthesia. There’s
obviously a strong element of play around the idea of and boundaries of
identity. The idea of avatars as
shadows, of fragments of ourselves we cast into the virtual space and also what
limits that we can consider as an avatar. For example there’s the Kinect
mediated work :- faceted existence < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YkABYq4OsA
>
and disembodiment< http://lindenarts.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/disembodiment-interview-with-glyph.html
> both alternate avatars of myself. Then there are non personal extensions
such as where the real time aspects of a
continent is extracted and presented as its avatar in virtual space as in Antarctica:- An Individual Existence.
Ghosts creates
avatars of avatars from another grid (Inworldz) and visa versa. It is a sort of performance artwork where the
performers are the visitors to each of the sim.
In Enfolded, each minute it access satellite data on the
earths magnetic field and rotates the its prims
and stretches its texture accordingly so you get a sculpture that takes
its form from the blanket that encircles us.
In forest of water http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Port/40/213/26
(a small subset of the original piece) each tree was the avatar of an
individual river its real time physical characteristics transformed into notes
and colour which then interact with SL avatars distance (changed the tempo
depending on the distance to each tree(tree avatar). Or "I thought I hated him" where
each dancer is the avatar of a stock exchange ( New York
and Shanghai Exchanges) and more. The behavior of each exchange depends on the behavior of
millions of individuals so in effect each dancer was a composite avatar of
those individuals that bought and sold on those exchanges.
Currently here< http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/UWA/198/195/248
> or machinima here < https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPeJMtdDLIlOBNDfgpY1h5g
>
Bryn Oh: Have you ever had to deal with negative publicity or a disappointing rejection of your artwork? How do you deal with it?
Glyph Graves: To be honest I don’t notice it
much.. I’m probably a worse critic and where I have noticed criticism it was to
note that it seemed based on little time spent trying to understand the piece
or even read the note card. What really
annoys me is when people confuse the technical aspects of the work for the art
and don’t bother to look deeper.
Puzzlement is a more common
response. Part of that is my issue of
being too poetic/vague about the descriptions. I am spending a little more time
spelling things out so perhaps that has concerned me more than I like to think.
Would you like to take a stab at explaining what defines
virtual art?
No, I won’t, or rather, I see as all art as being virtual
art. If it has a physical world aspect or not is not an issue for me, what is
important is what’s happening in the mind of the artist and the viewer, the
actual media is immaterial to art ..
here take literature as an example:-
what is important is the visualization when writer creates it and what happens
in the imagination of the reader. The actual physical bits, the ink and paper,
is only physical representation is neither here nor there. The same applies to
which media used in the visual arts.
Consider what most
writers use to create their art these days.
A simulation of paper and ink on a computer and the works are also
commonly read on simulations of a paper and ink e.g. on a Kindle. This as virtual as anything that happens in
SL but you don’t hear people discussing virtual literature. Categories and their use by people can often
obscure as much as they assist understanding.
Bryn Oh: What would you say makes virtual creations unique over
other art forms?
Glyph Graves: See above, but using the media of computer based
simulations does allows a greater amount of flexibility in expression than a
lot of other media .. say.... acrylic paint for example, thank god you have the
sense to use oils in your quite exquisite paintings.
Bryn Oh: Centuries ago
there was no such thing as an "artist" just craftsmen, as time
progressed superior technical ability and creativity created the elite
"Master" artist whose work stood recognized above all others. In 1917 Marcel Duchamp submitted a work entitled
"Fountain" to the Society of Independent artists. He stated "... He (the artist) CHOSE
it. He took an article of life, placed
it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of
view – created a new thought for that
object" He wanted to shift the
focus away from technical craft to more of an
aesthetic intellectual interpretation.
Some say that because of him almost everything is considered art
today. From an elephant painting with
its trunk, a Banksy, a child's drawing to someone vomiting paint onto a
canvas. What is your perspective on
this?
Glyph Graves: Hmm, this question about art vs craft always makes me
think of the 5 blind men and the elephant parable for some reason. What I will say is when Dechamp put the
urinal in the gallery it was art, a creative act .. the next time someone did
it was just a urinal.
 |
| Marcel Duchamp |
For me the beauty was conceptual, the way in the
placement of the piece interacted with the social constructs both around art at
the time and in society in general. Again, the physical part of the art is the
least of it (further the virtual art/physical art thing). In the end for me the distinction is in
creativity and its relative originality within the social milieu of the
time. I’m actually kinda amused by the way “Fountain" has
attained a sort of quasi religious significance in the art world ..an icon if
you like, when it was meant to be iconoclastic. I strongly suspect that if
Dechamps was alive today he would resubmit the original piece and this time use
it as a urinal and in so doing would be saying exactly the same thing as he did
the first time he submitted it. I was under the impression art was breaking away from its
craft origins a long before, though the dadist movement which Dechamps flirted
with, certainly played its role.
Comments
Just wanted to say thanks for doing this series on artists you like. Its fun seeing the views of artists of this calibre. As an aside the location of "I thought I hated him" has changed to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coppelia/186/95/1042
P.S. It's "Ellsmere", not Ellesmere. ;)