I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m trying very hard
- Submitting institution
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University of Edinburgh
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 143701883
- Type
- Q - Digital or visual media
- Publisher
- Matt’s Gallery
- Month
- September
- Year
- 2018
- URL
-
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m trying very hard (IDKWIDBITVH) is the title of an ongoing series of short videos, between 30 seconds and 5 minutes in length, and commencing in June 2018.
The videos are shot on the front-facing camera of an iPhone and each records a monologue spoken by the artist following the exertions of a run. The videos, which appear inverted and focus on the chest and neck area, are characterised by the breathlessness of the voice and the image of sweat-soaked t-shirts. There are to date approximately 100 videos in the series and they are designed to be exhibited as well as as to be made available through a digital repository.
The work extends Cruz’s longstanding interest in the use of text within the context of visual art. It brings together an investigation of the place of the autobiographical and confessional within contemporary culture with inquiry into the existence of works of art within the digital realm, as digital files with a contingent set of possibilities
for their manifestation and exhibition.
The videos reference a number of characteristics and approaches towards performance developed since the late 1960s, specifically by male artists (Acconci, Nauman, Jan Ader). The videos filter these approaches through the contemporary device of the front-facing smart phone camera, the construct of the selfie and attitudes towards physical fitness and self-improvement.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -