Brief:An open call for artists to continue their research in a critically engaged shared space on view to the general public as both working ‘laboratory’ and exhibition
PREFAB-Lab (Practice, Research, Exhibition) is an exploratory trial and interim analysis exhibition offering a view of artistic research through the lens of a Scientific Laboratory. Using the familiar language and visual references of the lab we want to ask ‘What does artistic research look like?’ ‘How and where does it function?’ ‘What are the results?’
PREFAB-Lab aims to explore the potential ‘lack of fit’ between artistic research and its publication at exhibition. How does the site of the exhibition define an artist’s work? What is the relationship between studio practice and exhibited work? What possibilities does the exhibition offer to research interests?
We are asking for artists to participate in the lab (minimum requirement of 3 days) during the FAB16 festival (Fringe Arts Bath Festival 2016) with two in-takes starting on either Saturday 28th May or Wednesday 1st June and culminating in an interim analysis exhibition which will end on Sunday 12th June.
Research concerns need not be tied to the site of the Lab, however, participants must undertake some Lab-work each day of their trial. We will be asking you to share and debate your research with your peers and undertake routine lab protocols aimed at offering the viewing public an opportunity to consider the work behind an artist’s work.
Proposal:OUTLINE: The word, artefact, by its very nature indicates tangibility, a solidity that is defied by calling the nebularities of light and sound an artefact. What I wish to investigate through experimentation, is that by using sound and light as momentary structures, we can construct an ephemeral sculptural object which has a placial identity as solid as the artefact as object but that promotes a fluid creative process whereby ideas are generated that can transcend the stuckness of the conventional artefact.
PROCEDURE: Recording outside the studio base to locate sounds that can be transferred to the laboratory, that are then investigated as to how their nature implies a sculptural shape. Light is captured within the space using different time frames and also made using other light sources. Detailed logs kept.
RESULT: A multi-sensory but ephemeral experiment that may imply artefact, tested within the parameters of the media in a situation involving the general public.
