Loeschung

2018

Photographs in digital format, if not archived and sorted, have an expiry date. The abstract process of visually capturing and archiving memories is currently an essential point in our image-oriented society that influences the handling of memories. A photograph as an archived memory of a person, situation or place. Photos that are neither published nor archived are lost - the memories are erased.

In an image-creating age, in which thousands of photos are published every day and even more are produced, I wanted to deal with a photograph in this work that was already taken and would probably have been lost without intervention. The image is from an analog camera that I acquired through estate hopping. Photographs produced of people who have already died can not only be morbid, but also give me a very intimate insight into a life that has already died out. Photographs continue to have an effect after the death of the deceased and leave behind an intangible trace that will soon fade without intervention.

Similar to illustrations, substances can preserve this trace for a short time. A perfume on a scarf, the feel of a pullover, a cap still hanging on a coat hook. The impressions and memories fade, what remains are photographs that can no longer reveal any sensual experiences.

The selected photo eludes this dissolving and, through the blurred motif itself, becomes the representative object of a fading, repetitive process and is preserved through the lamination of external influences.

CHAN CEN

Presentation of Diploma

Kunstuniversität, Linz

19th July, 2019

For many people an incentive to improvise and progress, for even more people a reason to give up. The phenomenon of failure gives the impression of simultaneously separating and merging the most diverse areas of art and science. The failure itself is a tightrope walk between motivation and frustration, a symbiosis of future and past, an apparent ultimatum of a diffuse unsuccessful process that finds a successful end neither through options nor through renewed chances. Failure polarizes, it seems to end a phase and is an integral part of both public and private life.

During my art studies Art-Education and Textile-Art, failure was and is the essential driving force behind my progress. Not only failed artistic projects, but also unsuccessful social contacts, unsuccessful teaching practices, the failure of students at a task in class or the failure of semester fees gave me the breeding ground and the motivation to analyze this phenomenon more closely.

The imagination of immaterial phenomena often appears to be difficult. The attempt to analyze these insubstantial peculiarities theoretically and to desperately legitimize the resulting theories with the help of already scientifically founded theses is therefore often perceived as to grab into the air. What remains in many cases is the fading haze of theoretical justifications and approaches, printed on chlorine-free paper qualities.

In which extent has the development and meaning of the term changed over the centuries and how can failure itself be essential for success, I would like to use this written work to discuss in the diverse areas of sociology, psychology, art and education. Based on an literature research, it is a partial goal to analyze the etymological development of the term and the process "failure" in the sociological field and to open an interface to subject- and competence-oriented art classes. And how to create a synopsis between failure and success within school and university systems.

The thesis 'CHAN CEN' is a scientific and artistic examination of the phenomenon of failure. It is the synchronous questioning and trivialization of the meaning and purpose of scientific publications. Printed on the former carrier of world information, the conventional channels of reception of knowledge close and try to locate them anew. Keeping distance from the one-dimensional treatment of the topic, failure itself becomes failure and forms itself as an autonomous paradox.

Failure, the origin and end of which can be found in human action, in order to change the constant perspective of society as a dynamic desideratum and to reflect the combination of chains of decisions of creative processes.

An observation and analysis of failure in the context of art within school and university systems. Between distortions of proportion, archetypes, self-critical reflections and loops of eternal failure.

The following pictures are a capture of the setting during presentation. Photocredits by Dimitrios Vellis.