120 x 120

An t

Alvarez on

120 × 120

The 120x120 project was developed by Anton Alvarez during his master at the Royal College of Art. Published for the final show at the Royal College of Art 2012.

Preface by C

Mette Kjaergaard Praest Curator

Anton Alvarez 2012 info@antonalvarez.com, www.antonalvarez.com London 2012 Graphic design: Fredrik Bohman

The 120x120 project was developed by Anton Alvarez during his master at the Royal College of Art. Published for the final show at the Royal College of Art 2012.

Preface by C

Mette Kjaergaard Praest Curator

Anton Alvarez 2012 info@antonalvarez.com, www.antonalvarez.com London 2012 Graphic design: Fredrik Bohman

1:

The following is a reflection of the 120 x 120 project. This will be a reflection on the process and attitude towards production that are embedded in the project. This writing will also take shape as a thinking process, produced within the same parameters that characterise 120 x 120. A new paragraph will be written every day over four days. Each paragraph will be the outcome of ‘what comes to mind’ when reflecting on this project. It will build on a process of thinking, free association, what appears, and where the chain of thinking leads. There will be no research, no thesis or antithesis and no final conclusion. No goal. These four paragraphs may or may not be useful as a tool to grasp the 120 x 120 project. Usefulness is subordinate, as is beginning and ending. In principle both the project and the writing could go on forever, producing something everyday. However, both began at some point, and it started from nothing.

1

May 2012

1:

The following is a reflection of the 120 x 120 project. This will be a reflection on the process and attitude towards production that are embedded in the project. This writing will also take shape as a thinking process, produced within the same parameters that characterise 120 x 120. A new paragraph will be written every day over four days. Each paragraph will be the outcome of ‘what comes to mind’ when reflecting on this project. It will build on a process of thinking, free association, what appears, and where the chain of thinking leads. There will be no research, no thesis or antithesis and no final conclusion. No goal. These four paragraphs may or may not be useful as a tool to grasp the 120 x 120 project. Usefulness is subordinate, as is beginning and ending. In principle both the project and the writing could go on forever, producing something everyday. However, both began at some point, and it started from nothing.

1

May 2012

2:

Starting from nothing. And building from what is around you.

Taking one thing, looking at it. It has got form, colour, texture, character and maybe a function, or maybe no function at all.

In the terms of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, there is a thingness to the thing. Then taking another thing. It also has a form, colour, texture, character, and maybe a function or no function at all, a thingness. Combining the two things into a new thing, a new object. Now there is something else. There is a combination of colours, forms, characteristics and maybe a new function, or the functions that were in the things before has now changed into no function at all. From building out of nothing, something has happened. What has happened is not only the making of an object, but also the changing of two objects, that each used to have a certain function or character, which, by the act of being put together, has opened up a new set of meanings.

2

May 2012

The thingness of the one thing and the thingness of the other thing push and dislocate one another. A new thing has been made. The new thing is now present in its immediate surroundings, and something has changed.

2:

Starting from nothing. And building from what is around you.

Taking one thing, looking at it. It has got form, colour, texture, character and maybe a function, or maybe no function at all.

In the terms of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, there is a thingness to the thing. Then taking another thing. It also has a form, colour, texture, character, and maybe a function or no function at all, a thingness. Combining the two things into a new thing, a new object. Now there is something else. There is a combination of colours, forms, characteristics and maybe a new function, or the functions that were in the things before has now changed into no function at all. From building out of nothing, something has happened. What has happened is not only the making of an object, but also the changing of two objects, that each used to have a certain function or character, which, by the act of being put together, has opened up a new set of meanings.

2

May 2012

The thingness of the one thing and the thingness of the other thing push and dislocate one another. A new thing has been made. The new thing is now present in its immediate surroundings, and something has changed.

3:

Starting from nothing became something. What happens after something makes something more? As free association, a technique originally used in psychoanalysis devised by Sigmund Freud, as an instrument for the scientific examination of the human mind. And more recently a term used, when applying a free and rhizomatic process of thinking, letting one thought influence the next, unfolding in different directions, as in the pattern of plant roots. In this case free association is used as a method of production. A method that is not the outcome of a process of thinking, consideration and planning, but simply a production that comes out of doing. Producing one thing everyday with no goal in mind other than to see where it takes you. In some way this is producing without a cause. Producing useless objects, which serve nothing else than functioning as one thought leading to the next thought. Producing instead of thinking, or pro-

3

May 2012

ducing as thinking.

3:

Starting from nothing became something. What happens after something makes something more? As free association, a technique originally used in psychoanalysis devised by Sigmund Freud, as an instrument for the scientific examination of the human mind. And more recently a term used, when applying a free and rhizomatic process of thinking, letting one thought influence the next, unfolding in different directions, as in the pattern of plant roots. In this case free association is used as a method of production. A method that is not the outcome of a process of thinking, consideration and planning, but simply a production that comes out of doing. Producing one thing everyday with no goal in mind other than to see where it takes you. In some way this is producing without a cause. Producing useless objects, which serve nothing else than functioning as one thought leading to the next thought. Producing instead of thinking, or pro-

3

May 2012

ducing as thinking.

4:

Starting from nothing and building from what you see around you, this almost accidental way of seeing is also connected to the idea of the flaneur. The term comes from the French verb flâner, which means ’to stroll’. The French poet Charles Baudelaire altered the meaning of the word flaneur to someone who walks the city simply in order to experience it. Drifting: a pleasure limited to the male bourgeoisie. Later, a German philosopher associated with the Marxist Frankfurt School, Walter Benjamin, adopted the notion of the flanuer as a product of modern life, and as a form of protest against modern society; a form of protest against production. In the 120 x 120 project, flaneuring is used as an attitude towards production. Producing as a form of non-functional production. Making something out of nothing or making nothing out of something. The project started out with nothing and in some way ended with nothing, but it is the

4

May 2012

steps in between that are interesting. All the twists, turns and changes that happened a long the way. The production of ideas.

The production of a process. Or the production of nothing.

Mette Kjaergaard Praest Curator

4:

Starting from nothing and building from what you see around you, this almost accidental way of seeing is also connected to the idea of the flaneur. The term comes from the French verb flâner, which means ’to stroll’. The French poet Charles Baudelaire altered the meaning of the word flaneur to someone who walks the city simply in order to experience it. Drifting: a pleasure limited to the male bourgeoisie. Later, a German philosopher associated with the Marxist Frankfurt School, Walter Benjamin, adopted the notion of the flanuer as a product of modern life, and as a form of protest against modern society; a form of protest against production. In the 120 x 120 project, flaneuring is used as an attitude towards production. Producing as a form of non-functional production. Making something out of nothing or making nothing out of something. The project started out with nothing and in some way ended with nothing, but it is the

4

May 2012

steps in between that are interesting. All the twists, turns and changes that happened a long the way. The production of ideas.

The production of a process. Or the production of nothing.

Mette Kjaergaard Praest Curator

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