This is not art, I would much rather use the term activism. It is however in an art context; that is it is located in an exhibition of work by people who would consider themselves, to be or to be becoming, artists.
Throughout my time at this university I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the word art being used in relation to what I produce and me in general.
I take this stance because of the current context of this word and the concept it signifies.
I am far more inclined to describe my intellectual activity and output as communication; it is an objective term with a more democratic usage.
So apart from my dissatisfaction with the term art, my work is not art because it is much more important to consider it as just communication and therefore actively in a much wider context than a room in an art school.
The work is contrived to be an uncomfortable experience, both in content and form. Form and content are utterly inseparable in this case; they combine to produce a total message or memory of the work as being a warning.
The content of the work is centered around oil and other hydrocarbons being the only reason that the human race is where it is today, rather than at a lower technological level. Subsequent to this position the work warns against the imminent emergence of a contradiction between capitalism (profit system) and our finite earth (resources).
The work warns against inaction in the face of the certainty of what is commonly known as 'peak oil', which is even today encroaching upon our energy intensive lifestyle (oil at $130 per barrel).
I feel that the work will succeed in raising a persons sense of danger or anxiety concerning their lifestyle and its fragility. After that point, it is all about the memory of the work and that initial discomfort at being confronted with ones own potential paradigm of decline. To facilitate a stronger recollection, triggers are present throughout the structure of the work. The voice is American because that particular accent will stand out in Britain, it is also calm and clear in order give the sense of authority. The information given is split up into phrases, which should make it easier to recall. The material is charcoal, or carbon. All the elements point towards an awareness of the physical nature of the energy we use, the precarious relationship we have with the substances we burn and the out come of such actions.
The outer aesthetic is intended to be in contradiction with the overall genre of the white space associated with this and other art shows. This has the affect upon the viewer of a reset button; the mind is momentarily interrupted from its flow of input before new information and a new context is delivered. So you enter the room to discover what looks like an unfinished space, then you experience the sound and eventually the text. Finally you leave with the freshly suggested choice between 'research and prepare' and 'ignore and perish'.
Overall I think the work will have an effect upon those who actually experience it fully; those who make the effort (either through being intrigued about the content or just passively inquisitive) will leave with something to think about.
I don't know if the information within my space will help people or just evoke a depressed feeling within them but my hope for the work is that it instigates independent research on the topic in question. Essentially the work is an arrow pointing toward not only the future but also a vast body of literature and data concerned with the fraught nature of that future.
Ashley Thomas
2008