Octopus 15 22 May – 4 July 2015 – 4 July 22 May Gertrude Contemporary Daniel Mudie Cunningham By Curated Octopus 15 Octopus Giselle Stanborough James Hayes with Elvis Richardson Pound Patrick Sam Phillips Marynowsky Tara Maloney Peter Stevens Havelock Tina Lost and Profound Daniel Mudie Cunningham When you touch me you touch When picture the disappearing world I can only it used to be what isn’t Nostalgia — Sam Phillips, — Sam Phillips, 4 2001 1 writes, ‘how it is no longer simply light that is filtered but time itself. ’ time itself. but is filtered light that it is no longer simply ‘how writes, Grace Helen as reveal, pictures such Low-Fi, and Earlybird like names bearing filters retro in Dipped Instagram. like apps media social on follow will who anyone to lives our of minutia the proclaiming minute, every devices handheld digital on snapped are one this like just photographs the 1970s. from snap ‘happy’ it is a that of a timestamp indicating attire— cornerscolour with rounded her retro is a clue—along saturated in paper photo matte on printed is it That wave. a forms arm outstretched her and half-smile a is expression facial her mid-accident, Frozen unknown. photographer a for in standing viewer a towards out reaching and bike a from falling woman a of photograph vernacular found a is curiosities its of One curate. and order categorise, to impulse human the of exploration ongoing his of part forming ‘falling,’ of taxonomy the under come that photographs and objects found In of remediation. of remediation. instead they become subject to a process structure past technologies; that considerations formal the with break really never media Digital significant contributions to culture unless they dispense with the past. unless they dispense with the past. to culture significant contributions make cannot technologies new insists that rhetoric modernist on based are media new underpin that ‘newness’ of ideologies the that In their book of analogue forms. ‘remediation’ understanding of digital media is a our of much how shows past the as masquerade to present the The Museum of Falling Remediation Fast-forward some four decades and countless countless and decades four some Fast-forward The perpetuation of retro filters that enable enable that filters retro of perpetuation The , Patrick Pound unpacks a large selection of of selection large a unpacks Pound Patrick , , Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin argue argue Grusin Richard and Bolter David Jay , 5 2 3 very act of multiplying’ them. the in media its erase to wants it ideally, mediation: of traces all erase to and media its multiply to both wants culture ‘[o]ur whereby strategies, dual these by action into set is remediation’ of logic ‘double the Grusin, and Bolter to According medium). the of ‘presence’ the foreground representations (where hypermediacy and medium) the of ‘presence’ the efface representations (where immediacy transparent of strategies ‘Life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance you must keep moving.’ keep must you balance your keep to bicycle, a riding like is ‘Life aphorism, Einstein’s Albert from ripped truism a use to bike,’ a riding ‘Like unlearned. be can’t they learned, are things some Once repetition. through mnemonically imprinted forever tasks motor memory’: ‘muscle of suggestive is image, past’s the in things new making or past, the of relics curating or collecting through past the fetishise To culture. media visual contemporary of condition prevailing a is forms digital present in ’ under it. and disappears process earth that The feeds inventions. with the ruins of those and then covered human technologies planet unearthed by ‘A describes as: Jussi Parikka What crust. earth’s of the constituting layers of planned obsolescence now relics media: is the stuff of dead up or drilling digging down when is found what Certainly back. looking than rather down drilling by understood is time that suggesting linearity, than rather depth implies level lower to higher a from moving falling: of action The past. the from something on back forms,’ media prior refashion media The relentless persistence of the analogue past past analogue the of persistence relentless The ‘falling’ of is a process remediation In a sense, new ‘the formalwhich logic by Defined as 6 5 4 remediation relies on the contrasting contrasting the on relies remediation 6 forms a portrait of Tony, the photogenic figure who presumably owned owned presumably who figure photogenic the Tony, of portrait a forms artist the inscriptions, handwritten their and photos white and black of collection this studying In ago. years twenty-five market flea Sydney a at found she that album photo 1950s anonymous an from clues visual the the present. they might re-new something of the past so that in the works speaking, Broadly in and obsolescence triumphs. settles as time closes of amnesia that and Profound die is the terrain that forms future of nostalgia. for signposts or, memories for with uncertain devices origins, objects are those how illuminate material collecting and repurposing through them around culture to the material Artists respond who and music. sound photography, painting, collage, video, through reformatting and renewal subject them to profound world—and the material of fragments objects or old media formats—lost with found work Most of the artists inscription and nostalgia. pertaining to memory, themes exploring media technologies, obsolescent and new between ideas. secondhand things possessed with like-minded of ‘museum’ in a indexed meaning now ruptures with new image her Pound, artist-collector like an avid by Found an insect in amber. like Trapped and defying gravity. implying is mid-fall, image Pound’s suggests that memory is a fiction kept warm by the blanket blanket the by warm kept fiction a is memory that suggests Lost and Profound In to go images where world disappearing The Lost and Profound in woman the anonymous in time, Frozen Lost and Profound, Lost and Profound Lost and Profound navigates. The work in work The navigates. considers the interface Elvis Richardson scrutinises scrutinises Richardson Elvis 7 attempt to remember remember to attempt Lost Lost cine film camera. An edit of this personal archive is paired with a digital digital a with paired is archive personal this of edit An camera. film cine Standard-8 Howell and Bell a with footage shot father her plane, fighter Harvard his of cockpit the of perspective dizzying the From 1950s. the in Airforce Auxiliary Malayan the in pilot a father, her of memories around orbit they as particularly flight, of mythologies family personal In and the other. inexplicable the place, and site of frequencies the into tuning sonically and visually it inhabits but location, its by framed not is performance Drummer White A kits. drum roll n rock using actions percussive endurance-based site-specific, stages Stevens Havelock Drummer, White the moniker, under performing Often Stevens. Havelock Tina of work the in manifests in of the work or film. television for scored music theme of typical affect of manipulations the with truth of fragments intersecting history revisionist a through amplified Daddy Titled into the frames. headphones jacked through heard and images the into embedded is Hayes James by component sound a twist, unexpected an In notes. handwritten with collaged figure each of one portraits, blown-up two to down narrative the boils Richardson father. absent her to notes brief are photo each of back the On Panama. in lived who daughter his Betty, of pictures are conquest sexual of images these Contrasting all). them photographed (he women numerous of attentions the enjoyed who and boat by Sydney in arrived who migrant a is Tony that suggest photos Some album. the , the melodrama of Tony’s compartmentalised, ‘episodic’ life is is life ‘episodic’ compartmentalised, Tony’s of melodrama the , Lost and Profound Music is a strong thread connecting much much connecting thread strong a is Music 8 Up There Up . Its most performative expression expression performative most Its . , Havelock Stevens reflects on on reflects Stevens Havelock , Episode 1: Dear Dear 1: Episode found text and imagery associated with vintage song sheets with an an with sheets song vintage with associated imagery and text found imbues Marynowsky watercolour, and gouache of application gentle the Through times. past of culture visual the scavenges Marynowsky images, nostalgic found for eBay and websites archival Trawling Marynowsky. also informs graphics associated record store of the past. the than rather media streaming or social through presence online artist’s the by bolstered economy digital a of reality the obfuscates packaging ‘retrofuturistic’ lingering behind this the irony Yet audience. an artist a personal and her forges connection between gesture handmade The ’ past. the through future the at ‘looking of way head’—a her inside playing radio pop AM the of version impressionistic ‘an as in Button Any Push described has Phillips ink. and collage magazine vintage with surface the redacting by markets flea from sourced covers of her record release the for Made years. recent in seen vinyl of return the to respond and Profound Sam Phillips. Angeles–based singer-songwriter of Los the work realities. present grounding while there’ ‘up as mythologies personal suspends that inversion an to reference in artist the remarks ends,’ always it where earth flat on there up ‘I’m California. in Desert Mojave the of ‘boneyard’ aircraft plane in the of a retired in the carcass later some sixty years staged Drummer White by action drumming durational a documenting video features a selection of found long play album sleeves that that sleeves album play long found of selection a features Push Any Button Any Push A fascination with bygone music and its music with bygone A fascination in trope a also is device memory a as Music (2013), Phillips adapts orphaned album orphaned album Phillips adapts (2013), Mister Sandman 9 (2015) by Tara Tara (2015) by Lost Lost children calledAs theGiselle.