JAM# 1 Report

The first RZjam produced some rubbings and two blocks to get things started. The two blocks are below.
The stopBLOCK is the first of 11 commands. This one has been cut using the router and very basic form plywood using text created in the router’s native software. A starting point for further play!

The engravedBLOCK was made from an Adobe Illustrator vector file supplied by Mal Enright & Barbara Heath. The file was created for another purpose and the strategy used to ‘translate’ it here was to use a V cutter to follow the paths in the file.
Interestingly, at A3, this took the router just over an hour to cut – actually 1 hr 11 mins. It was decided to use MDF board but should it be repeated it will probably be cut into aluminium.

NOTE: All the files still exist and can be repeated in various material or using differing cutting commands etc.

Rubbed images from these blocks are now in the GALLERY Click here to go there

Sample Rubbings [ 1 ] • [ 2 ] • [ 3 ]

A representation of the file supplied by by Mal Enright & Barbara Heath.

Click here to go to the project that vector file relates too
Sample Rubbing Out of Context [ 1 ] • [ 2 ]

INTRODUCING RICHARD TIPPING

Richard Tipping works as a poet and visual artist. As a part of his practice he has made rubbings from his work albeit that this aspect of his practice is somewhat unknown.

To see a more extensive range of Richard’s work CLICK HERE and as he says “click on one of the links to go places.” You may also wish to go to his CV Online

RUBBINGzone JAM #1

DATE: Monday August 11

TIME: 6pm till whenever

LOCATION: School of Architecture Inveresk – The workshop ... PH: 63244085 if you get lost

MENUE:
• Testing the parameters and opportunities provided by the CNC router
• Exploring some of the project options
• Some RUBBINGplay and documentation

INTRODUCING DAVID-BAPTISTE CHIROT

David-Baptiste Chirot is a member of OPENfluxus and has been making what he calls RubBEings and visual poetry for some time. If you GOOGLE his name you will find a great deal about his activities as a ‘rubber’. Here are a couple of random links: 1 • 2 • 3 and here is a link to his BLOG. Click on an image to see a larger version.

LOADED QUESTION #1

If you have a ‘machine’– here a comuterised router – it is relatively easy to imagine it as a robot. Some may argue about the extent to which it is but let’s just imagine it that way.

If we take the question, “can a robot make art", and ask it of a pencil, paint brush, or any tool, we can answer yes but probably with the rider that it is the person driving it who is doing all the artmaking. Almost immediately you come up against that question that never really goes away. The “what is art" question!

However, we can be sure of one thing, the outcome of an interaction between material, tools (even robots) and a human is ever likely to be cultural production. The extent that any of this tells a story, carries/invokes emotion, a history(ies) is unveiled then perhaps something’s artness is more or less an open question. Yet it’s one that might be answered in many ways – and has been.

If we take another leap into the unknown and ask if we can make, or teach, a robot smile, or cry perhaps, we might enter a somewhat different headspace. Where we go from there is dependant perhaps upon the extent to which a robot is allowed to be seen/imagined as an extension of one’s body, or even one’s self.

Whatever, there will probably need to be some collaboration or cooperation involved for there to be any artfulness.

CHANCE RUBBING

SCORE: 1 _07/08

Click on the image to enlarge

Please use the comments section below to submit other scores

PROJECT Tshirt #1

SOME PARAMETRES

Given that, as a starting point, the architecture studio at the University of Tasmania, and its CNC router, is the jumping off point for the RUBBINGzone project, some boundaries need to be defined.

Projecting some way forward and anticipating some potential outcomes the paper size A4 (About Paper Sizes) has been selected as a jumping off point.

NB: This decision is entirely arbitrary and has been made for no other reason than it seemed such a decision would need to be made at sometime.

TAKING A RUBBING

On the face of it taking a rubbing from something is a relatively innocuous thing to do. But if we take this statement and look for ambiguity, and double entendre, it is less so.

It might be argued that ‘taking’ carries connotations that are somewhat ambiguous – and to various degrees with negative narratives. Do we mean the stealing of, the theft of, the appropriation of, the purloining of, the pilfering of, the filching of, the pinching of, the flogging of, the lifting of (and off?) or the simple removal and carrying away of, something?

Well in the taking of a rubbing, all of the above may well apply – albeit sometimes behind a mask of respectability and propriety. And furthermore, all the layers of meaning, and innuendo, at the same time, and to various degrees, may kick in. Taking something is never simple. There are always consequences!

Arguably, taking a rubbing is ever likely to be to some extent transgressive (taboo?) within some cultural contexts where property and ownerships are asserted. But they’ll still be ‘taken’ – one way or another, but only if they are of ‘value’.

As for ‘rubbing’, well a different set of implications are suggested. Here ‘rubbing’ is being invoked as an ‘impression’ but can it be stopped there?

If we go one way there are interconnected implications to do with evidence, imagery, beliefs, understandings, patterns, marks, mimicry, copying and so on. If we go another innuendos to do with sexuality, permissiveness, sexualisation, touch, and so on. All emotive stuff!

As this project evolves, and as words, and imagery, are played with the players may enter perhaps, new zones of understanding – perhaps zones where the ordinary becomes extraordinary. Elbows may even be rubbed!

WATCH THIS SPACE

As the project progresses information will be posted here as will links to other sites relevant to the project.