Fences Make Senses and Basement Pool
- Submitting institution
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University for the Creative Arts
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Barber, G. 2015. FMS
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2015
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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2 - Fine Art and Photography Research Centre
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘Fences Make Senses’ and ‘Basement Pool’ is an output comprising two, related, artist’s films. The films have been shown together as a twin installation in two of Barber’s solo exhibitions, as well as being exhibited and screened separately.
The output is part of Barber’s ‘The Mindset Suite’ series of films. However, unlike other works in the series, it is only shown in installations or gallery exhibitions of ‘The Mindset Suite’, and not as a single screen piece or as part of the ‘Mindset’ feature film. The work resulted from research at the Centre for Blast Studies at Imperial College, London. The films collectively propose that poetry can be as effective as documentary in communicating the tragedy of war, politics, and environmental crisis. The series investigates the hidden ubiquity of military thinking and the state of constant war in the modern world, despite Western governments’ insistence that we live in a period of peace. This output develops the research by investigating the refugee crisis, a problem that arises directly from conflict. ‘Fences Make Senses’ depicts the plight of refugees who cross the Mediterranean in frail vessels only to face bureaucratic contempt on arrival. ‘Basement Pool’ deals with consumerist alienation, a superficial problem in contrast, but tellingly juxtaposed with the refugee crisis in news coverage in 2015 which saw footage of drowning migrants alongside media stories of rich Londoners objecting to their neighbours’ basements extensions. As with Barber’s other films in ‘The Mindset Suite’, ‘Fences Make Senses and Basement Pool’ blurs film-making boundaries, hybridising the video art tradition with techniques of mainstream narrative film-making for cinema or television.
Supporting information presented here includes evidence of the research aims, context, processes and insights, illustrated with images from the films and their dissemination. The films are submitted and should be viewed alongside the portfolio.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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