ps...I know there are typo's galore. It's going to be sorted.

Essay 2
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Alexandra P. Spaulding
Internal Essay
23 July 2007

Whilst the previous essay argued against utilising the internal space, the primary aim of this essay is to argue for the internal space.

The focal point of this research is the ineffable, that which can’t be uttered or spoken about, and in a fitting sort of fashion it makes sense to create work where the context is for the ‘internal space’ one which is hard to both see but define.

To better enable my argument, it’s useful to identify what the fuck I am talk about in the first place. When I spoke of external space(s) in the previous essay, I was very much talking about physical spaces-either ones that exist already or one I create, but more or less four walls, a ceiling and a floor. My argument was such: that external space gave me greater control of context, and that the internal space was a direct relationship to headphones. Problematically I never really defined ‘internal space’. I sort of think of it as being potentially two different things, the actually physical space of the inside of your head (the bit where the brain is), and the space that exists inside of your brain-lets call that mental headspace.

Now that we’re all caught up and I have to live within slightly daft parameters from previous arguments, I’ll continue. When I was asked to write these two essays-the argument was clear, one on why you wouldn’t use headphones, one why you would (internal/external—duh). But to prematurely argue the validity of modes of delivery is like saying this is my cart and this is my horse, and cart shall pull horse. At this stage I can only say it depends on the work. I am not sure what the physical context of things are at this stage, but instinctually I feel more inclined to say the work is more successful in the building of ineffable experiences as speakers in a space.

Blah, we’ll come back to it as there is something important to the argument, but what is more interesting is to think of the nature of the experience and where it’s supposed to happen. Am I aiming to create experiences which talk to the brain, or the space inside the brain-the mental headspace which is more than softy grey matter?

It’s complicated because the dilemma is more than just a simple ‘four speakers and a subwoofer playing this vs. a set of headphones and an iPod’, it sort of asks: where does the ineffable happen, where am I dealing with it? The answer, well the glib response is in my head. At the end of the day James’ Turrell’s Meeting at Ps1 is just a very well cut hole in the ceiling of a former school building in Long Island City, it becomes ineffable when I am there, I am the catalyst to the ineffable, my mental headspace is the fabric that allows me to either get it (the ineffable) or not. The way it’s delivered to me is highly important but at the end of the day merely another factor, not a contributing element.

To argue for headphones, it has nothing to do with internal or external, the use of headphones has more to do with feelings of safety and isolation, to understand the mechanism ensures the creation of work that plays to all aspects of it’s (the work’s) context. If I am choosing to use headphones as a way to ‘exhibit’ the work, I am doing so because in some way I believe that the experience I want to create is indelibly tied to the way I feel about my headphones. I can’t speak for anyone but myself but the whole iPod/Walkman thing is integral to who I am, since I was a child I have been choosing to engage with that which exists outside of myself through a lens, by lens I mean filtering out the world with music and using headphones as a security blanket of sorts. Yes, of course part it has to do with wanting to hear my favourite song or artist whenever I want, but more importantly when I have them on I feel safe, almost as if I was one step removed from what is happening in front of me, I can see things unfold because whilst being involved in them, I am not present in my involvement.

Some aspect of me believes that on a fundamental level even if it’s unconscious most people feel this way about putting on headphones, and work can be created specifically with this relationship in mind, the engagement of a certain kind of secrecy and isolation as a concept has enormous potential when creating the work.

What has been most important about the writing of these essays is the way in which context has been called into question, whilst it’s not a factor to be casual about, the mode of delivery is almost secondary to the inherent specificity that must be put into the context of the creation both conceptually and creatively. I mean all the same stuff applies regardless of the speakers vs. headphones debate; you still need to catch yourself perceiving in order to realize that perception took place (Merleau-Ponty).

For the PhD, I have been writing essays asking questions and attempting to answer them, I am going to post the two most recent and in the next few days post section of the others with links to PDF's.

The two most recent look at the idea of internal and external experiences. More to the point do you use headphones or speakers? I think that the first essay which will be below, is kind of stiff and I am not sure I actually asked any relevant questions, the second one is more useful to me because it made an effort to look at the idea holistically....

Anyway below essay 1
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Alexandra P. Spaulding
Essay for External
20 July 2007

Internal or external, sound or vision. It’s kind of a baseless argument to make because I couching the argument from an extremely biased point of view: my research. For the sake of argument though argue against the use of headphones (internal) in one essay, and argue for them in another.

Within the context of my own research I believe that the work I am trying to do fits into a certain kind of ineffability, that which exists out with our ability to speak about it in any language, English, French, German, or Martian for example. Part of the conundrum in writing about the nature of these experiences is I feel I should have a definitive idea of what they are, or what they mean. Well if I knew that, I would already have the PhD, no? Besides knowing that alludes to a definitive knowledge, and as LaCan said ‘There is nothing known which can’t be articulated’. We must not know then, because the Oxford English Reference Dictionary defines the ineffable as the ‘the unutterable, the thing of which we can not speak’. What the fuck is that, what does it mean, and why should it matter if you hear it through headphones or speakers?

Maybe it’s best to take it back to the beginning and briefly lay out what it is I think I am doing. My research is interested in the experiential relationship that the viewer/listener has to the work. As an example when I was eighteen I saw James Turrell’s piece Meeting at PS1 for the first time, sitting there in that room watching the sky turn darker through the hole in the ceiling I had a lot of reactions, one being it was a bit dumb, but secondly and far more importantly that something was happening and I had no facility to explain it. It was cool, and that’s what I told my friends when I came out but I couldn’t tell them anything else, I could explain it to them or myself and that’s when the work started to become ‘ineffable’. Merleau-Ponty stated ‘the moment we catch ourselves perceiving, we have stopped perceiving’, yes that’s true but the moment we stopped being immersed, or swimming in the work is when we begin to disseminate it, we struggle for the things to say to clarify what just happened to no avail. In order to experience we must perceive our own perception.

So back to headphones or not, this essay is taking the stance against them for one very particular reason-they aren’t special anymore. Everywhere you go for the most part in the western world people are plugged in and removed from the world around them. The iPod like the Walkman before us creates and introverted anti-social sphere limiting not just what you can hear but your interaction with those around you. If you are listening to something and it occupies not just your ears, but your brain, and the actually physicality of your head your gaze is focused inwards towards your own thoughts, or thoughts which may not necessarily concern themselves with the present in front of you.

The act of wearing headphones is pedestrian as well, the last thing I want to do when I go to a gallery is stand a half a foot away from the way with my head at a funny angle listening to a pair of crap headphones, might as well be standing on the bus listening to Depeche Mode with my own headphones which tend to be of better quality sound wise.

Part of this research has been to champion the very nature of immersive ineffable experiences¬- this is of course doesn’t mean wearing robes and purple Nikes, but rather the idea of considered contexts. The word experience tends to allude to something out-with the norm, and my hope is not to disappoint, and in a way it’s absolutely crucial then that the element of control favours myself. Headphones for the very most part have limited ability when it comes to certain high and low frequencies, which handicaps creation before you even begin. More importantly though it’s their very inclusive nature, which is constrictive, in some way what was most informative in experiential installations was the reactions of others. Not the daft ones but if you are lucky a collective unspoken resonance can be created.

From a purely practical point of view, as a creator I only have control over the things I create, I just feel like iPod art has the danger of not asserting itself strongly enough to overcome it’s technology and as such would be perceived in a very particular way, practically deciding the nature of the experience before it’s been had, and truncating the possiblility for anything beyond it’s restrictive context.

Right, it's been a really long time since I posted anything to this....like a year and 12 days or so. It's not that I haven't been thinking the big thoughts or anything, I just sort of wanted to figure some stuff out. Anyway I promise to be more on top of keeping it up to date etc.