research presentation

The Paradigm Of Collecting

G. Bleem

October 13, 2009

Pippa Everard-West

Research Presentation Statement

For my presentation on an aspect of collecting, I am focusing on he idea of “Collection as Documentation.” I am in the process of researching artists who collect and organize personal narratives. I am interested in developing a deeper understanding of the techniques of organizing and displaying photographic, filmed, text and audio narrated documentation.

The artists who I am focusing on are new media artist Jonathan Harris, Bay Area artist Robin Kandel, and David Lynch’s new Interview Project. Harris considers himself a “collector of stories”. He uses new media (websites and programs) to organize fragments of personal narratives. David Lynch’s Interview Project is a series of short impromptu interviews of randomly selected people in small towns across the U.S. “A roadtrip where people have been found, and interviewed.” Reconstructing Memories, Robin Kandel uses the personal narratives of her parents to create video installations, using reenactment and abstracted video.