https://wattslaurence.com Laurence Watts Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:43:55 +0000 https://wattslaurence.com en https://wattslaurence.com/Supervision-Materials Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:43:55 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/Supervision-Materials Supervision Materials Please click on the links below to access materials for our meeting. Data Visualisation Tool Bushfire Exhibition Installation Mock Up https://wattslaurence.com/Lookglass Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:36:46 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/Lookglass Data Visualisation Tool - ‘Lookglass’ At the bottom of this page you will find a link to the data sisualisation tool i’ve been developing, called ‘Lookglass’. I’ve made a brief intro video below, just to show you how to use it and to clarify a few points.&nbsp;(click to play) :)https://lookglass.net/ https://wattslaurence.com/Bushfire-Installation-Mock-Up Thu, 12 Dec 2024 20:20:16 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/Bushfire-Installation-Mock-Up Installation Mock-Up&nbsp; Below are mock ups of my vision for the exhibition installation of my work exploring how disinformation spread during the 2019/2020 Australian Bushfires. These are still WIPs, naturally.&nbsp; As I have done previously, the ‘photographs’ in these mock-ups have been AI generated for the storyboard. I will shoot these images next year - at this stage they provide a scaffold for the trajectory of the work. The videos and layout need much development, but I hope this provides a good insight into my thinking and planning at this stage.&nbsp; I will provide brief notes below the section mock ups, to outline my ideas and some critical insights i’ve developed whilst making these. ---------------------------------------------- <img width="3591" height="2022" width_o="3591" height_o="2022" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4f30bf9c81e75f212eaa1b42152807f65efea21381e8eb708dc9c6aca83fc205/affectiveopener-copy.jpg" data-mid="223287579" border="0" data-scale="56" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4f30bf9c81e75f212eaa1b42152807f65efea21381e8eb708dc9c6aca83fc205/affectiveopener-copy.jpg" />&nbsp;(click on video to see playback)I want to begin the exhibition with an ‘affective opener’ - something that sparks visceral engagement with the subject matter. Here I have mocked up a sequence that presents material related to those who passed away during the Bushfires, serving as a reminder of the serious consequences underlying this issue. I have used a survivor testimony pulled from an ABC interview here, but I plan on travelling and making this video myself. The photo on the left (fridge with photos on it) is a mock up of a more ‘straight forward’ documentary image -&gt; something made in a survivors house picturing memories of someone who had passed away. Whilst the rest of the install has ‘interpretive images’, I have plans for a thread of ‘straight forward’ documentary images, similar to my interior shot of the think tank office shown in previous meetings and WIP presentations. These would provide more direct documentation of my subject matter. Important here also is the image visible in the next room - I want to use ‘lines of sight’ in the exhibition layout to encourage visitors to move gradually through the exhibition space, engaging with the content at their own pace. The ‘affective opener’ approch and ‘lines of sight’ are two ways I am experimenting with addressing the issue of ‘cognitive load’ in this work, where too much text or ‘information’ could make the viewer disengage.---------------------------------------------- <img width="5583" height="3178" width_o="5583" height_o="3178" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/350bc972241dac132c1caf467612dbe4d7efa84fa345c5d14c10ee93a9d3e1b0/introsectionmockupcopy-copy-2.jpg" data-mid="223287851" border="0" data-scale="62" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/350bc972241dac132c1caf467612dbe4d7efa84fa345c5d14c10ee93a9d3e1b0/introsectionmockupcopy-copy-2.jpg" /> &nbsp; (click to play) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; This section continues from the last, presenting an introduction to the work and the visualisation tool. The video needs work - right now it is more of a ‘video essay’. I want to develop a more distinct ‘operative model’, similar to Forensic Architecture, where the data visualisation is animated to demonstrate my exploration of the subject matter. The narration sets up a couple things - what I want the focus of the work to be (how the arson narrative spread), and embedding a reflexive narration of the necessity to produce new visual tools to unpack the subject matter. The wall text aims to connect with an historic aspect that relates to the subject matter -&gt; the flood of news in ‘the zone’ requires new tools to unpack it. The lead in image on the left is an ‘interpretive image’, which aims to connect with conceptual aspects of the work. Here, I seek to invisage this false idea of ‘arson’, hoping to create a throughline in the work where the literal act of ‘arson’ is analogised to the spreading of disinformation. There are also two images in the line of sight into the next room. They aim to analogise to the idea of a fog or cloud of content that ‘obscures fact’, whilst also aiming to connect with the smoke and arson throughline. The hands aim to speak to the idea of providing a ‘helping hand’ through uncertainty -&gt; news media creates uncertainty then posits a way through - a simple, inaccurate explanation -&gt; climate change is a hoax and ‘arsonists’ caused the bushfires. Interpretive images are another way that I seek to manage ‘cognitive load’, by providing breaks between works in the installation that have a lot of information (e.g. the videos) and by visually encapsulating core concepts or suggesting connections between the materials shown. <img width="629" height="780" width_o="629" height_o="780" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e25780ce0bcf7dc261aeedba0186de4517e9143800af6c05782d24e34f1846b/arsonspark-copy.jpg" data-mid="223288112" border="0" data-scale="29" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/629/i/4e25780ce0bcf7dc261aeedba0186de4517e9143800af6c05782d24e34f1846b/arsonspark-copy.jpg" />&nbsp; <img width="2048" height="2048" width_o="2048" height_o="2048" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d24dbef9e4b612b3f5e3a19a56f7716772d7e4013f242c396079ac211531e5e3/laurence0019_Analog_colour_film_photo_of_a_large_cloud_of_fog_d_0e2ed0ca-c36f-4840-92ff-0a4ad45ba19c.png" data-mid="223287919" border="0" data-scale="35" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d24dbef9e4b612b3f5e3a19a56f7716772d7e4013f242c396079ac211531e5e3/laurence0019_Analog_colour_film_photo_of_a_large_cloud_of_fog_d_0e2ed0ca-c36f-4840-92ff-0a4ad45ba19c.png" />&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<img width="1749" height="2104" width_o="1749" height_o="2104" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/76fef3b49eb6e6f4b13b93ff152407f242b289234235cbe46dd42fda140034b1/laurence0019_Analog_film_photo_of_a_hand_reaching_out_to_anothe_4e50a11f-1db0-47c2-b30b-aa4fd8c88001.png" data-mid="223287932" border="0" data-scale="29" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/76fef3b49eb6e6f4b13b93ff152407f242b289234235cbe46dd42fda140034b1/laurence0019_Analog_film_photo_of_a_hand_reaching_out_to_anothe_4e50a11f-1db0-47c2-b30b-aa4fd8c88001.png" /> ---------------------------------------------- <img width="2582" height="1128" width_o="2582" height_o="1128" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/df3ea140bde6434223465a82deab49f74a9ae626ea3f0250d149ed38e3c490ff/reportedspeechinstall1-copy.jpg" data-mid="223288561" border="0" data-scale="80" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/df3ea140bde6434223465a82deab49f74a9ae626ea3f0250d149ed38e3c490ff/reportedspeechinstall1-copy.jpg" />&nbsp;(click to play) This section shows an experimentation in reflexively narrating my own process of making the work.&nbsp; This is an approach I am particular interested in, as I see it connecting subject, methodology and history. In this case, I describe the issue of training our Large Language Model to classify ‘reported speech’ in news articles.&nbsp; This issue arose organically, where the prevalence of ‘neutral reporting’ and ‘false balance’ created an impediment to developing methodologies to analyse denialist rhetoric. This impediment itself reflects the very nature of the subject I am trying to unpack, where uncertainty is engendered through ‘bothsideism’ in climate reporting.&nbsp; I have also placed a large wall text here - an excerpt from the American Petroleum Institute’s ‘Climate Communications Action Plan’ which explains that: Victory Will be Achieved When... Media coverage reflects balance on climate science and recognition of the validity of viewpoints that challenge the current ‘conventional wisdom’ Thus, I aim to connect both my methodological developments and the spread of disinformation during the bushfires to documented deliberate strategies of ‘dark epistemology’. ---------------------------------------------- <img width="6000" height="4000" width_o="6000" height_o="4000" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4fccfbe7b75e289ab65a418e0e8bde59720a1b30cfff53e5fc8a8ccf0edc23bf/corridorfinal.jpg" data-mid="223288678" border="0" data-scale="57" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4fccfbe7b75e289ab65a418e0e8bde59720a1b30cfff53e5fc8a8ccf0edc23bf/corridorfinal.jpg" /> This corridor shows computers on the left where viewers can interact with ‘Lookglass’, exploring semantic strategies within articles on the bushfires. On the right are archival public communications materials from fossil fuel companies. My aim here is to juxtapose how strategies of spreading denialism have changed over time, from more overt strategies to more insidious ones, reflecting also the shift from physical to online media. See below for close up images of these materials (note: I currently own original copies of all of these except the Exxon newspaper editorial).&nbsp; Again, ‘line of sight’ is important here. The API document remains in view in the distance, allowing viewers to make on-going connections between materials throughout the installation. I would like to develop a layered exhibition design where multiple lines of sight are possible at different stages. <img width="600" height="940" width_o="600" height_o="940" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f2c7538ef05073d0826e75827c26270c765e9aa0dff72b36a1e1b35bd466eb35/1190-copy.jpg" data-mid="223288858" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/600/i/f2c7538ef05073d0826e75827c26270c765e9aa0dff72b36a1e1b35bd466eb35/1190-copy.jpg" /> <img width="3104" height="2336" width_o="3104" height_o="2336" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4831a2cc50f2f8b03de13f9ef4a1ceccb5b497b306cbc24f16b86e133aa63690/folio3copy-copy-2.jpg" data-mid="223288933" border="0" data-scale="30" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4831a2cc50f2f8b03de13f9ef4a1ceccb5b497b306cbc24f16b86e133aa63690/folio3copy-copy-2.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;<img width="3280" height="2462" width_o="3280" height_o="2462" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4a27858859bea2865bb2ca163b3d8b8d5b11cd1aa5213dcc0fa2eba48c8bf305/folio2.jpg" data-mid="223288997" border="0" data-scale="30" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4a27858859bea2865bb2ca163b3d8b8d5b11cd1aa5213dcc0fa2eba48c8bf305/folio2.jpg" /> &nbsp;&nbsp;<img width="3276" height="2635" width_o="3276" height_o="2635" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/370a11284f680a720e6d89a409855a5308ff4585f597d536c35094c5bcc58dab/folio1-copy.jpg" data-mid="223289012" border="0" data-scale="28" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/370a11284f680a720e6d89a409855a5308ff4585f597d536c35094c5bcc58dab/folio1-copy.jpg" /> <img width="2523" height="1749" width_o="2523" height_o="1749" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b192cc5da568fd851ed705dc6b2788201c3aaa7ded7e1aa87acd58758d8f8ff3/exxonad.jpg" data-mid="223289013" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b192cc5da568fd851ed705dc6b2788201c3aaa7ded7e1aa87acd58758d8f8ff3/exxonad.jpg" />---------------------------------------------- <img width="2943" height="2069" width_o="2943" height_o="2069" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2bd670c7fded5857ad1de7b3a7599eb7d083b9d3f645a6fbd39c039f5a66f5cf/projectionmapinstall1.jpg" data-mid="223293009" border="0" data-scale="34" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2bd670c7fded5857ad1de7b3a7599eb7d083b9d3f645a6fbd39c039f5a66f5cf/projectionmapinstall1.jpg" />&nbsp; &nbsp;<img width="1364" height="1039" width_o="1364" height_o="1039" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eb92040149002bc50a65e24d5f7f6e039903226569237cd21399477e6ac4cb7f/projectionmapinstall2.jpg" data-mid="223293010" border="0" data-scale="31" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eb92040149002bc50a65e24d5f7f6e039903226569237cd21399477e6ac4cb7f/projectionmapinstall2.jpg" /> Projection mapped room installation.&nbsp; This would be similar to my ACMI installation, but it would be a long form video that charts the chronology of news articles published during the bushfires. As the visualisation progresses, individual nodes would ‘fisheye’ to display the articles image or an excerpt of text that has&nbsp; been categorised as expressing a denialist claim. ----------------------------------------------I have many more ideas for this installation, including different rooms exploring topics such as Think Tanks. I also would like to experiment with situating works made to date within the exhibition,&nbsp; https://wattslaurence.com/Ballarat-Foto-Biennale-2023-Speech Mon, 07 Oct 2024 02:33:42 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/Ballarat-Foto-Biennale-2023-Speech On the Challenges of Documentary Practice in the Face of Climate Change and ‘Post-Truth’ - Talk Presented at ‘The Real Thing Public Forum’, Ballarat&nbsp;International Foto Biennale, 2023 [Transcript w/ section headings and images from Powerpoint presentation] Good Afternoon.&nbsp; I wanted to start my talk today with a question: How do you take a photo of climate change? Perhaps you would travel to a dried-up riverbed and take a photo. But what would this photograph show you?&nbsp; I mean, it would capture an outcome of climate change. But this feels somewhat incomplete, right? If we’re talking about photographing climate change as a phenomenon, it’s not an occasional event that happens in sporadic, discrete moments. It’s happening continuously, all around us, often going unnoticed in the present moment. It’s an event that is temporally and spatially spread in a way that often escapes our senses, and in this it challenges the very limits of photographic documentation. The kinds of representations we rely on to make climate change sensible to the human mind include heat maps, data visualizations, complex computer models trained on vast datasets, and material indexes such as ice-core samples. It is through these visual forms that we can see across great stretches of time and space, and through which the true nature of climate change comes into view. [Post-Truth Moment] To another key issue in the present moment:&nbsp; How can we photograph a social landscape where spreading uncertainty and misinformation have become key tactics in service of corporate and political interests, such as the stoking of climate denialism by fossil fuel-aligned news outlets and think tanks? What kinds of images can we create to document the increasing adoption of beliefs that reject facts and evidence, and the growing rates of political polarization along lines of belief? Well, similar to the question of documenting climate change, one might suggest that we could capture photos of the outcomes of these circumstances — circumstances which have been referred to as the ‘post-truth moment’. For instance, one could take photos of the January 6 Capitol Hill Riots in the United States, which were fueled by false claims of a stolen election. But, would these show us ‘post-truth’? They would show us an outcome of the circumstances described by this term, but it feels incomplete, doesn’t it? Like trying to explain how a gun works by showing a bullet hole. The true nature of the ‘post-truth moment’ moves through globally spread online networks, across which bonds of belief are forged through curated algorithms, filter bubbles, and echo chambers. It is driven by language that fosters distrust in institutions, spreads uncertainty, and fuels tribal paranoia. Thus, the kinds of representations we rely on to make sense of the ‘post-truth moment’ include data visualizations, graphs of social network activity, and media and linguistic analysis. [Challenges to Documentary Practice] So, as we see, these phenomena — which pose some of the most pressing threats to human life and democratic society — are incredibly difficult to capture through straightforward, traditional documentary images made by a single creator, in the place where the event happened, at the time it happened. And so, my proposition is that with issues such as these, the future of documentary practice will be increasingly expansive in its materials and approach. This is to say, documentary practice will increasingly embrace materials beyond still images, and it will also increasingly expand beyond the traditional documentary commitments of the invisible author, non-intervention, and non-reflexivity. [The Future of Documentary] So, what could this future of expanded documentary look like? Well, people are already working towards this end.&nbsp; Perhaps it will openly embrace subjectivity, uncertainty, and artifice to create images that mimic how reality feels in the ‘post-truth moment’ — hyper-individualized and unreliable.&nbsp; Or perhaps it will involve open-source collaborative investigations using 3D modeling, shaped by vast and widely distributed data and media sources, to produce poly-perspectival texts that speak truth to power. Or perhaps it will combine official documents and memos with original photographs, vernacular, and archival material, taking up Allan Sekula's call that a ‘truly critical social documentary will frame not just the crime and the trial, but the system of justice and its official myths’. Expanded documentary practice expands the faculties with which the form can make sense of the world. As we face issues like climate change that increasingly challenge our sensory comprehension, and as our social and political life increasingly takes place in non-physical spaces, expanded documentary practice becomes ever more vital.&nbsp; It extends documentary’s field of view, enabling it to bring new spaces and phenomena into focus. It helps us to push back against attempts to exploit uncertainty and obscure truth and evidence by those with cynical aims. And perhaps, in this way, it can become a tool to bridge polarized lines of belief and ideology. Thank you <img width="1200" height="900" width_o="1200" height_o="900" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8cd56f2913a243880bc021df466fad1d04ae0194724af406f12cf5e9947b981b/4000-copy.jpg" data-mid="219439026" border="0" data-scale="47" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8cd56f2913a243880bc021df466fad1d04ae0194724af406f12cf5e9947b981b/4000-copy.jpg" /> The Murray Darling Basin. Source: Dean Lewis <img width="468" height="263" width_o="468" height_o="263" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/19d2a4d31a519e98c7cbde69f07d21720aa534f19340990c5713caa111ca26a1/Picture-1.jpg" data-mid="219304421" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/468/i/19d2a4d31a519e98c7cbde69f07d21720aa534f19340990c5713caa111ca26a1/Picture-1.jpg" />Visualisation of atmospheric CO2. Source: NASA, Carbon Observatorv-2 satellite. <img width="1200" height="693" width_o="1200" height_o="693" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7881bb13b5626001a453cc013908d0aff733e20264aae39071bc2492c78f8f14/global-mean-temperature-preview.jpg" data-mid="219699740" border="0" data-scale="56" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7881bb13b5626001a453cc013908d0aff733e20264aae39071bc2492c78f8f14/global-mean-temperature-preview.jpg" /> Mean Global Termperature, 1851 - 2020. Source: Neil Kaye. <img width="2400" height="1602" width_o="2400" height_o="1602" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0c8f44225d8a1dccc2a416862b9ecbd7871e7cd94c3ba71e6909a9ae0027b1aa/GettyImages_1230450967-copy-2.jpg" data-mid="219699905" border="0" data-scale="54" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0c8f44225d8a1dccc2a416862b9ecbd7871e7cd94c3ba71e6909a9ae0027b1aa/GettyImages_1230450967-copy-2.jpg" /> A crowd prepares for Donald Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021. Source: Bill Clark, Getty Images. <img width="468" height="412" width_o="468" height_o="412" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/97b26ae39a3fd5328920fd66073a10b9579f180c6c0b3bdfb39cd691a18afdc7/5.jpg" data-mid="219304417" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/468/i/97b26ae39a3fd5328920fd66073a10b9579f180c6c0b3bdfb39cd691a18afdc7/5.jpg" />Data visualisation of hashtags on Instagram during the Brexit Referendum, 2016. Source:&nbsp;Vyacheslav W. Polonski, Oxford Internet Institute.&nbsp; <img width="624" height="512" width_o="624" height_o="512" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a210a532e98518788908f9bb46c2822f8046154d9b0f9f9e88b079bbf03335e4/7.jpg" data-mid="219304415" border="0" data-scale="55" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/624/i/a210a532e98518788908f9bb46c2822f8046154d9b0f9f9e88b079bbf03335e4/7.jpg" /> From Margins of Excess, Max Pinckers. <img width="468" height="263" width_o="468" height_o="263" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/bf1c53d142bf355ca25bd509d545bb463da7e5ff067018ac03521b2c88b548ba/9.jpg" data-mid="219304413" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/468/i/bf1c53d142bf355ca25bd509d545bb463da7e5ff067018ac03521b2c88b548ba/9.jpg" />. &nbsp; <img width="468" height="312" width_o="468" height_o="312" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f20d056ee844a985ae23891b89c8a23f96df216faf13a42476a6fbc483404d8/8.jpg" data-mid="219304414" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/468/i/2f20d056ee844a985ae23891b89c8a23f96df216faf13a42476a6fbc483404d8/8.jpg" /> Installation views from Forensic Architecture.&nbsp; Source: Forensic Architecture. <img width="1109" height="736" width_o="1109" height_o="736" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6b98f1891ce84584ed119d66a0a5f38fbce398500fbcf07d4232c6aba8d8e977/03_monsanto_exhibition_2018_tobe-gallery.jpg" data-mid="219439008" border="0" data-scale="60" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6b98f1891ce84584ed119d66a0a5f38fbce398500fbcf07d4232c6aba8d8e977/03_monsanto_exhibition_2018_tobe-gallery.jpg" />Installation view, Monsanto, Matthieu Asselin. Source: Matthieu Asselin. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; https://wattslaurence.com/ACMI-RMIT-Audience-Lab-Visual-Material Sun, 16 Jun 2024 02:59:47 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/ACMI-RMIT-Audience-Lab-Visual-Material &nbsp; <img width="3914" height="2936" width_o="3914" height_o="2936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/054fee6168647f464ed91c609fcd7e7b17e75c32e11c2b47f615cf679ffa9928/thezonedocumentation-13.jpg" data-mid="212994599" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/054fee6168647f464ed91c609fcd7e7b17e75c32e11c2b47f615cf679ffa9928/thezonedocumentation-13.jpg" /> <img width="3676" height="2757" width_o="3676" height_o="2757" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d2b5b3f457ce31eb4755ff98c50d675adcb5dc66cf7cb7a045d68fd3f95917c0/thezonedocumentation-2.jpg" data-mid="212994600" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d2b5b3f457ce31eb4755ff98c50d675adcb5dc66cf7cb7a045d68fd3f95917c0/thezonedocumentation-2.jpg" /> https://wattslaurence.com/The-Zone-Images-and-Video-of-Test-Projection Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:44:13 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/The-Zone-Images-and-Video-of-Test-Projection &nbsp; <img width="3914" height="2936" width_o="3914" height_o="2936" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/054fee6168647f464ed91c609fcd7e7b17e75c32e11c2b47f615cf679ffa9928/thezonedocumentation-13.jpg" data-mid="213701148" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/054fee6168647f464ed91c609fcd7e7b17e75c32e11c2b47f615cf679ffa9928/thezonedocumentation-13.jpg" /> <img width="3676" height="2757" width_o="3676" height_o="2757" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d2b5b3f457ce31eb4755ff98c50d675adcb5dc66cf7cb7a045d68fd3f95917c0/thezonedocumentation-2.jpg" data-mid="213701149" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d2b5b3f457ce31eb4755ff98c50d675adcb5dc66cf7cb7a045d68fd3f95917c0/thezonedocumentation-2.jpg" /> https://wattslaurence.com/Hillvale-Project-Support-Proposal Sun, 01 Oct 2023 22:19:06 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/Hillvale-Project-Support-Proposal Hillvale Project Support Proposal Through a Glass Darkly by Laurence Watts Please use the arrows to navigate through the proposal ︎︎︎ https://wattslaurence.com/First-Work Mon, 02 Oct 2023 02:30:45 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/First-Work <img width="2274" height="2787" width_o="2274" height_o="2787" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0a3646e1b3999ad42cb6ffceaadb9692ee8b09210b0931af453558ba5c05967b/Officephoto.jpg" data-mid="192415557" border="0" data-scale="39" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0a3646e1b3999ad42cb6ffceaadb9692ee8b09210b0931af453558ba5c05967b/Officephoto.jpg" /> ‘Untitled’, Laurence Watts, 2023&nbsp; ︎︎︎&nbsp; ︎︎︎ https://wattslaurence.com/No-Knit-Pullovers-Allowed-Cameron-Hurst Thu, 20 Aug 2020 07:38:57 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/No-Knit-Pullovers-Allowed-Cameron-Hurst No Knit Pullovers Allowed • Cameron Hurst, 2018 In accordance with the Australian Professional Rodeo Association’s By-Laws &amp; Competition Rules, ‘failure to wear a Western hat, long sleeved, cut and sewn shirt (no knit pullovers allowed) and Western boots in the arena at all times’ will incur financial penalty and verbal discipline. This stipulation is not, of course, because elaborately embroidered boots and hats with upturned brims make the practice of tying knots and riding bulls for competition any safer or more efficient. It’s because you don’t become a Cowboy by wearing an old knit pullover and some Blunnies. The garments of the rodeo are a key conduit through which looking like a Cowboy transmits to being a Cowboy. Laurence Watts’ Looking West captures rodeo culture as a performance of masculine aesthetics, a complex intersection between real men and the exaggerated figure they embody. Watts demonstrates both the complex process of assuming the Cowboy identity whilst revelling in the enduringly appealing archetype. If a film titled Once Upon a Time in the Bush (dir. Judith Butler) existed, these could be the stills. Watts’ project in Looking West is to capture an aestheticised version of masculinity that is rarely acknowledged in gendered culture wars. The dominant conversation about gender in our culture currently is the #MeToo dismantling of ‘toxic’ masculinities and reductive femininities, conversations that strike back at almost omnipresent gendered violence and trauma. This is a critical, long-overdue and unfinished conversation. Yet perhaps one excess is that gender is seen primarily as a producer of corrosive results. Andrea Long Chu writes only half-jokingly that for SCUM queen Valerie Solanas: ‘male and female are essentially styles… rival aesthetic schools distinguishable by their respective adjectival palettes.’ Masculinity as a sensibility and source of pleasure - that’s how I see Looking West. Creative communities have always understood the transgressive allure of gender performativity. Drag performers and artists perform heightened versions of femininity through visual language speaks to artifice: makeup that emphasizes sensuous lips and big eyes, curvaceous bodies, physicality that invites erotic appraisal. We have a cultural fluency in high femininity that underpins our visual pleasure watching Paris is Burning, or viewing a Cindy Sherman image, or experiencing a Victoria Sin performance, or even enduring a poor Snatch Game. Can traditional masculine identities be exaggerated in similar modes? Watts’ Cowboys put on and take off their hats as a means of assuming their identities. I highly doubt these blokes would enjoy being categorized as drag artists, but the Artist is Dead and functionally, the mechanisms and effects of getting ready for the Rodeo and for Drag Race are the same. Through heavily stylized clothing and physicality, an exaggerated Boy is achieved. The strength of Looking West is the dual commitment Watts makes to showing his subjects in the liminal stages of rodeo life, as ‘normal’ rural Aussie men, and in the almost mythological status they affect in full rodeo gear. In one image from the series, a Cowboy ensemble is laid carefully out on a dresser beside a perfectly made bed. Two-tone boots aligned on the carpet with loving precision. There is an anthropomorphic quality to the image, the stark flat lighting placing the rugged Cowboy accoutrements as a disembodied living entity in a completely different space-time continuum to the cheery paisley bed cover and beige carpeting. Later, the half-dressed Cowboys in their living room appear as particularly charming as their sombre poses take on a certain comic absurdity amidst DVD shelves stacked with blockbusters and a bubblegum pink exercise ball. These banal domestic items preclude the existence of wild, solitary life on the colonial prairies here. The men hover in a visual limbo, Bed, Bath &amp; Beyond linens and the Fast &amp; the Furious box set competing with the ghost of Clint Eastwood and an Ennio Morricone theme song echoing in the distance. But any condescending conclusions about fake Cowboys in Australia are made redundant by the most compelling images in Looking West: the men shot outside in full Cowboy attire. One holds an enormous deer head whilst dripping in fringing, another is poised with perfect posture on horseback in Baroque leather chaps. These Cowboys show none of the gawkiness of their predecessors in the series. The parched ground and washed out blue of the harsh Australian landscape are bestowed with legendary figures. They are not trying to be Cowboys: they are Cowboys. Watts’ prior explorations of the constructed nature of the Cowboy aesthetic identity do not render the final result any less impressive. Through some combination of garments and panache, the blokes have metamorphosed from Aussie farm boys into embodiments of lone arbitrators of law and order in a wild dry dust, men of few words but with unassailable, stoic honour. It’s uncanny to see this profoundly American figure materialize in the recognizably Australian landscape, but it works. The photos exude a cinematic logic. One is not born, but rather becomes, a Cowboy. Looking Westexamines both the process of becoming and the post-transformation affect with a critical appreciation for masculine aesthetic labour. A Western hat, long sleeved, cut and sown shirt (no knit pullovers allowed) and Western boots have the power to turn a bloke into a bonafide Cowboy. Who wants to green-light Once Upon a Time in the Bush? Cameron Hurst is a Writer and Researcher based in Narrm/Melbourne https://wattslaurence.com/Laurence-Watts Fri, 10 Jul 2020 09:49:16 +0000 Laurence Watts https://wattslaurence.com/Laurence-Watts &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img width="5537" height="6922" width_o="5537" height_o="6922" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2507470c85a65de01f86ae11c49d0a0d6c81730bec763854c817af8d7011ffcd/2020edit-copy.jpg" data-mid="77013372" border="0" data-scale="61" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2507470c85a65de01f86ae11c49d0a0d6c81730bec763854c817af8d7011ffcd/2020edit-copy.jpg" /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Penn Station, NYC, 2019