KAH residencies: My soul knows my meat is doing bad things
A collaborative curatorial project between Paulina Drėgvaitė and Nick Wood
Sunday 13 May, 5 pm
(as part of Gallery Weekend Kaunas)
What a waste of internet, i make a whole hour long stream just for no one to show up.
– busykitty
The final event will draw on inspiration from what’s left behind. In a sense, both boredom and failure are manifestations of waste, and vice versa. YouTube’s algorithm draws us in, perpetually trying to manoeuvre our attention to capture our time within its vortex of images. It may mask itself as a source of productivity, instructing us in everything from soup recipes and fitness tips to university lectures and swimming tutorials. But how can we learn to feel comfortable around the pleasures of waste? How do we explore trajectories that do not succumb to the rhetoric of success and productivity?
This event turns its attention to pastiche, encapsulating both archive and loving imitation which can offer an insight into the ideas around repurposing original creativity through the hands of the faceless collective. From testshots to accidental uploads, through to a seemingly misinterpretation of the public realm; YouTube holds examples of the detritus of the everyday. Through these can we access a divergent timeline of the ‘Anti-Archive’, a representation of everything that we don’t want to see, but is unshakable from the very fabric of our existence.
“Leave a comment and tell me what I should do for my birthday party. Thank you.”
In May 2018 Kaunas Artists’ House will continue its artistic residency series by hosting artists and curators PaulinaDrėgvaitė (UK/LT) and Nick Wood (UK). During their residency the artists will establish an open studio within KAH in which they will be developing My soul knows my meat is doing bad things, a new artisticcollaboration exploring the notions of failure,boredom and waste. Combining differingbackgrounds from both
film curation and contemporary art this new project hopes to explore interests within counter cultures, defining anti-productivity and alternative modes of archiving. Viewing YouTube as an archive of everyday micro-histories, this project aims to locate alternatives to the notions of success and productivity that dominate societal discourse.
By exploring the underbelly of YouTube we discover the people sharing their individual knowledge and experiences to an audience that is indefinable yet omnipresent to them. These videos explore everything from shopping trips to family birthdays, hair dying to local ferries; and they seemingly sit perfectly alongside music videos, archivefootage and live streams from the UN. By positioning these videos on a horizontalplateau YouTube allows us to effortlesslyjump between a multiplicity of moments, experiences and ideas. This enables
us to extract new meaning from the familiar and safely experience the unfamiliar, offering an intersection between the public and the private. This platform is an enchanting archive of secret wishes, confessions and failures both public and private.
‘My soul knows my meat is doing bad things’ invites you to a YouTube party like no other. Abandon watching those tutorials and never-ending cat videos in private – curate, explore and join Paulina and Nick.
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All events are free of charge.
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