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Writer's pictureAshton Blyth

The selfish collaborator

Make lots of things

Practice based research

Noticing lots of things


Apocalyptic - what do you think of when you hear this word?

  • The demise of something

  • Out of control

  • The unknown

  • Pull back the curtain

  • Chaos and demise

  • The colour red

  • Judgement

  • Uncover

  • Restart

  • Zombies

  • Lift the veil


What do we see now, that was previously hidden?

  • Architecture designed to stop people sleeping on benches

  • Bench where you have to pay for the spikes to go down for a minute - a noise lets you know the spikes are coming back up - not very deaf friendly!

  • Ruha Benjamin - Race After Technology book

  • AI becoming racist and sexist on its own - soap dispenser not working for an individual with darker skin due to infrared absorption

  • Hope - things can change, but they will be hard won


2 question - noticing the times we live in...

  1. What is the worst you have seen?

  2. What have you seen or done, that generates hope?


In a group with George and Joanne:

Ashton:

  1. Verbally abused by a woman for using female toilets - took place after I'd cut my hair off, but had yet to start medically transitioning, so would have appeared as a butch lesbian

  2. My artwork and practice as a whole... I hope

George:

  1. Working with a big company where they lighten Asian and black skin tones - using dark skinned Italian man as a black model

  2. Tries to make these companies feel uncomfortable about their choices, and actively not do that and talk about not doing that to others to spread awareness

Joanne:

  1. "I am not Chinese, I am..." t-shirts stating they are Asian, but not Chinese because of the pandemic


What can artists do?

  • Reflect - slow-see-understand

  • Power of making - our (plural) ability to create

  • Listen - take time to really hear


We are not the sole authors of our story, we must share credit with our circumstances (a difficult and selfish collaborator).

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