MY CATHARSIS

My most recent work, basically anything I have produced for uni [Unit 1 & Unit 2] so far is inspired by the ethos of "waste not, want not" and recycling. As a nation we seem to be very wasteful, and although I am against being so wasteful in most aspects of living - the one focus I seem to be drawn to is the continual tossing out of electrical goods that seem to be fully functioning - but just not "cool" enough, or in fashion.

Today [22/01/10] I was driving around, having a bit of a "think" and I came across a television tossed outside on the pavement - nowhere near any houses, I guess it was what you can call a "fly tip" or whatever - and so I "salvaged" the TV set, brought it home and proceeded in dismantling it and salvaging the inner circuitry and cables in order to produce some photograms. In doing so I nearly had a heart attack when I broke the glass component which resulted in gas being leaked and so I ran as fas as my short stumpy legs could carry me away from the potential hazard. it was a false alarm, and I managed to take a few shots of what I was going and what I was interested in.

Once I had taken the back off the set I found that unfortunately it was not an old enough set to have the "cylinders" and "valves" that I had expected, and instead it was amass with circuitry and everything else you'd expect.. I guess..


I had a lot of fun choosing which parts of this discarded set I would use for making something, I like the idea of re using something that is regarded as trash and giving it a new lease of life, either on film, by use of 3d sculpture or whatever.

It does seem that the most grotesque of things could look interesting if captured correctly, i know it's hardly worth tearing apart your old TV set for but there is something interesting about old electrical bits and bobs and all the information hidden inside - such as where the set was imported from and made, and the years worth of dust collected on the part behind the screen.

So yeah, today I had fun dismantling a TV set - getting lost and proudly repeating the story of how I nearly shat myself in my own garage cause I thought it was gona blow up... good times, I wonder how the photograms will turn out [if i can get colour darkroom time on Monday!] otherwise I am screwed. Oh well, at least i've had fun.