art books work
The General Theory of Skipping (2013)
The act of skipping is our primary method of abbreviation. I began making art projects about skipping in 2010, but as the concepts emerged, I found it necessary to write a book about skipping.
The process of skipping epitomizes a philosophy of movement. These days, most folks are feeling a bit overwhelmed from the speed of change, the unpredictability of events, and the pace of life.
I consider skipping to be a "singularity"; a distinct millieu of rhythm and behavior that manifests in humans, machines and nature. It is a reductive process that implies the removal of planned instants. When a skip occurs, it draws attention to the gestal-forming habit in (Western culture) to spatialize time.
My skipping projects were inspired by the concept of "interval" put forward by philosopher Henri Bergson, and subsequently reworked by the infamous thinking of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri. Along these lines, present day philosopher Manual DeLanda's "virtual intensive philosophy" has clarified, validated and contuided the traditon of process philosophy.
As a video and performance artist, and teacher of Digital Media; I have used "skipping" as a way to explore this mode of thinking via a process that I call: Transmedia Inquiry. Although I recognize that artistic practice is primarily "outside" of thought, following the freebom of aesthetic vectors; I also beleive that artists should activley engage in a dialog of interpretation regarding their inquiries.
The impotence of conceptual power of artist in no more evident than when their works are appropriated by curators and intellectualls for the sake of ideology. I touched on this, humourously in one of my first video essays Creative Feedback. So with the notion of blending together subversive tactical media projects, with conventional web videos, installations, performancs and my own writing; I hope to encircle the concepts that I love, that like "skipping", manage to be both: obvious and elusive; perhaps because they exist in the gap space of mind and matter.
Skippisox consist of fiberglass disks that attach to the soles of shoes. People put them on, and skip—physically embodying the concepts of the project; a larger-scale interdisciplinary inquiry into skipping that includes a video installation and a multimedia lecture called Skipping Slides.
Skips (in humans, nature and machines) are unpredictable and dis-continuous movements. Contemplating skipping we expose the limitations of our spatial/continuous, gestalt-forming perceptions.
This project is a probe into the problem of movement; the ancient paradox that capturing movement, stops it. Inspired by the notion of the “interval” put forward by Bergson and later remixed by Deleuze, it models the difference between continuous and discrete phenomenon.
Skipping occurs in humans, nature and machines.
(1)
Skipping is a reductive process that implies the missing of an anticipated beat, period, interval or meeting. Skipping is singular—a distinct quality of rhythm and behavior.
To grasp a philosophy of movement requires intuition and embodiment. Skipping is a moving method of contemplation that reveals itself in the gap space between the frames.