#dhmis real key to the city

[sillyvampir3]

my fav key siblings eva...

ref ^_^

[itsthevioletqueen]

Do I have to frickin’ tag The Key to the City as “Mean Steve” or some shit in order to get recognition.

[creative-time]

Rank the dhmis cast!

Dhmis Ranking: Creative-Time Edition!

(This is gonna be a long one, thanks for the question anon!!!)

(Edit: I forgot the lamp in the first time 😅 sorry.)

Okay so I’m not sure exactly what kind of ranking system you want me to go by so I’m gonna just rank them all in separate categories and the combine them all at the end.

Traffic Light Trio:

Yellow Guy: Of course he’s number one. He’s been through enough he deserves some recognition for his pain and suffering.

Red Guy: He is literally just a guy, not good but not bad either. He’s just a guy.

Duck Guy: Bottom of this list, he yells at Yellow too much, but do feel really bad for him in dhmis 5 that was awful. I also feel like he has the least going for him right now, like he has a negative amount of brain cells while everyone else only has zero. Hopefully in the show he gets more character to him but we can only wait and see

Teachers:

Sketchbook: they are the first and therefore the best, although they do remind me of the art teacher that made me drop out of all my art classes in high school because she didn’t believe Purple was a real color. But they are great none the less

Colin: Literally they best design ever, song instrumental scratches my brain just right, has a great voice, and I think the digital world is a fun concept!

Spinach Can: Yet again, another great design! They got a funky lil voice and a funky lil attitude, I like how they say “RUDE” I also like dhmis 5’s instrumental as well!

Bread: He’s a boi

Refrigerator: … I don’t like the implications that you take out his organs everytime you want an ice cold soda.

Lamp: I literally forgot this guy when writing this the first time he’s THAT forgettable, I like his design but he literally has nothing going for him other than the fact that he sounds hammered.

All of up to here are pretty okay with me, I like all the characters but I mostly dislike the dhmis 5 teachers because of… well you know.

Characters I simp for:

Tony: Everyone’s favorite Tumblr Sexyman and he’s my favorite too!

Steak Guy: I don’t how to explain myself in a PG way, so I’m not going to. (No I will be taking any questions about this)

Bottom of the fucking barrel:

(characters that I just don’t like at all, like there are no positives I can think of)

Shrignold: I would kill him if I could. Along with everyone in the cult.

Money Guy: I will steal his Or-Gans and sell them on the black market.

Roy: No.

So the list goes like this: (from favorite to least favorite)

Yellow Guy

Tony

Sketchbook

Red Guy

Colin

Steak Guy

Duck Guy

Spinach Can

Bread

Refrigerator

Lamp

—Good characters end here—

Shrignold

Money Man

Roy

I might wait to see if we will get an HD full version of “Key to The City” before I decide to rank all the characters from that.

[spaces--explorer]

Artists & Artworks

Below are the artists and artworks I have viewed as key informants for my work this year. 

(Note: The NightMind link(s) is/are included with several of the works as he has created explanation videos for those works that are interactive, online and hold mystery within them. I have included these as they are often what introduced me to the works or have helped me understand the works in a different perspective. If the work interests you I suggest viewing it and then the NightMind video.)

It is upon compiling the artists and works I have looked at over this year that I have found the correlation of the uncanny and a representation of real, public life within all of the works and how this influenced my own work.

Please click ‘keep reading’ to view all of the information.

Alan Resnick (and Wham City Comedy) (This House Has People In It + Sculptor’s Clayground, Unedited Footage Of A Bear, AlanTutorial, Live Forever As You Are Now, Children Of The Mirror) Links: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NightMind 1 2 3 4

Alan Resnick and Wham City Comedy create complete alternate universes within their works. Resnick started with AlanTutorial, a youtube and twitter based immersive art work that left viewers questioning whether Alan and his problems were real. This invasion of the suspended disbelief a viewer enters is present in all of the works listed above, and bar AlanTutorial, use this and the innate curiosity of a person to created a twisted narrative that comments upon society and its controlling aspects on the viewer.

It is the aspects of discovery that I have brought into my work, with the websites for UFOAB, THHPII and COTM all have between 20 minutes and 2 hours worth of extra footage and hidden text that does not leave the narrative it is creating or reverts to the “artist’s voice”.

UFOAB is film and website that follows a mother as she goes insane and pushes the fake medicine of Claridryl and can see to be commenting upon Big Pharma and our reliance on medications that cause more problems than what we are medicating for.

THHPII is a huge mass of information behind the initial video. Using security camera footage and logs we view the family, the newly connected family with the children being one of each parents and the baby being both of the parents’ child. After digging into all of the information with Sculptor’s Clayground it can be suggested that the work could be commenting on society and advertising pressures. The family are concerned about the contraction of a fake disease which is put into their brains by the media they consume and may be finally represented by Madison and the non-family members sinking into the ground.

The expanding sense of discomfort and confusion upon viewing just the videos is heightened when viewed in their original time slot (again bar AlanTutorial) at 3am on the American channel Adult Swim as part of their infomercial series (see below). However there is an understanding that all of these works do not have a definitive and absolute explanation and reasoning behind and within them and it is the viewer’s interpretation that creates the narrative also.

Also discussed in my dissertation.

Joe Pelling & Rebecca Sloan (Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared) Links 1 2 3 4 5 6 NightMind

Another video works that comments upon society, becomes chaotic and has many easter eggs within each video. DHMIS is the first work I viewed that informs my vein of work this year. First seen online July 2015 and also viewed at the cinema screening at Dismaland, we as a viewer are transported to a set like a children’s television show, and in each ‘episode’ we are given a barely graspable idea - Time, Creativity, Love, Internet, Health - that is introduced to children early in life and then something goes awry and we are greeted with a horror version of the show.

Nostalgia lulls the view into a false sense of security in the first video, the bright colours, puppets that are reminiscent of the Muppets or the Tweenies and the bright colours and simple set falls into the tpye cast of children’s TV show. The obnoxious lies that are then presented with these visuals jar against each other.

There are any interpretations of what DHMIS means, such as a comment on society and its use of control through advertising, the brainwashing of children through television and brand influence on presentation of individuals. It is the multiplicity of meaning that I have aimed to use in my work and the false sense of security and nostalgia of the child like appearance that is used in parts of all the installation-intervention works I have created.

Jeffrey Cranor & Joseph Fink (Welcome To Night Vale, Alice Isn’t Dead) Links 1 2 3 NightMind

WTNV is a podcast which developed into a touring show and several books that then lead to other podcasts such as AID. A fictional town described as “if Stephen King and Neil Gaiman created a town in The Sims and left it running”, Night Vale is a faux radio show hosted by Cecil Palmer giving out community information and news, which can be both ordinary and extraordinary for the viewer but treated as normal by Cecil and the townspeople.

WTNV’s use of just audio to create such a vivid mental image for the viewer is incredibly inspiring. Disparition and the voices selected for the characters create a perfect combination that created a universe that the viewer can easily fall into until the odd happenings question the ease in which you enter the town.

This has influenced some of the creepier comments and aspects in my work, loosely created the basis for the eye logo. Night Vale is one of the overarching background influences for my work as well as a piece I thoroughly enjoy itself. 

EverymanHYBRID Links 1 2 NightMind Playlist

EverymanHYBRID is a ARG work, part of the lore that has created Slenderman. Filmed and presented in a documentary/real life style drawing the viewer into the narrative it weaves. Multiple inputs and links from around the web as well as real life events that can be found on the web (the trials).

Aspicio Omniam Links 1 NightMind

An audio-visual piece that uses sound well to create an atmosphere, visit the apartments from hell, with ‘educational videos’ that explore the apartment in relation to the sound track with it.

Spectacular Organic Links 1 2 3 4 NightMind

A faux company that offers you a product that you never truly know what it is or recieve. This work holds the chipper and over exaggerated ‘happiness’ that I have emulated in the audio piece for Artist (i)nformation and in several of the posters in ETB.

The Modular Body Links 1 2 NightMind

A website and advert that shows the latest creation in biology. A creature that you can build.

The production value of the video is high and the technical aspects of creating a machine that can emulate the idea of a biological creature is interesting to be but the suspended disbelief is broken on the website however.

Abstractions Links 1 NightMind

I did not view this work much/for long, but the use of images and layering (the subtitles, the contrast and such) is intriguing and the act of having to search for meaning in an image or work is something I have used within my work just to a different degree.

Infochammel Links 1 NightMind

An over-exaggerated mockery of infomercials and advertising. A channel that can actually be streamed to television which on the surface seems like it can make sense but viewing the individual videos gives the sensation of your brain being fried but no knowledge being contained within them.

Adult Swim’s Informercials Links 1 2 3 4 5 6

Adult Swim has commissioned a variety of artists to create 11 minute long videos to be shown at 3am. Many of these videos parody a form of popular entertainment and showings typical of the 3am time slot - Too Many Cooks parodies the 80′s television themes and casting, Icelandic Blue and Miracle Man parody the style and content of infomercials, religious or consumer (Alan Resnick’s work was shown as part of this section as well) - and imply that these infomercials are not fake and are truly part of our universe and society.

The15Experience Links 1 2 NightMind

The15Experience plays with what is true and what is not and what is live and what is prerecorded and created. The viewer is given access to 15 cameras in an abandoned house, told by the creator/installer to be viewing a haunting. We are then privy to a group breaking in to the house and a demonic possession occurs.

The blending of true and fiction is important to me and my work and the horror aspect interests me.

Darren Cullen Links 1

Cullen’s key work for myself is Pocket Money Loans. It is a faux shop from that displays loans for children in return for their pocket money, mocking the loan shark culture of the work and the destruction of Romantic childhood ideals. His play in the space between real life and art is interesting to myself and the realisation of my work. The outcry he had in response to PML as people found the work either too realistic (therefore believing it) or too hard on the point it is putting across is something I wish to emulate in the future with my own work.

Also discussed/Discussed further in my dissertation.

Dismaland

Dismaland is a key exhibition/art work that has influenced my works this year. Showing several of the works on this list (Wasted Rita, Darren Cullen, DHMIS) Dismaland creates/reflects the overbearing ‘Big Brother’ state that I have emulated as the corporation of ‘(i)nformation H(eye)ghway’ . The merchandise and atmosphere is recreated and influential on the stickers and business cards in Elder Tour(i)sm Board. 

Yet another work that asks the viewer to suspend disbelief and enter the world it creates, Dismaland uses images we recognise and ones we don’t and manipulates them into a realistic but uncanny valley portrayal of theme parks, advertising and consumerism.

Also discussed/Discussed further in my dissertation.

Janice Kerbel

Kerbel uses language, wording, typography and staging to create art pieces. Nominated for the 2015 Turner Prize for DOUG, Kerbel subverts the tradition presentation of storytelling.

Her works comprise of audio, print and performance which as elements I have used within my own work.

Joëlle Tuerlinckx Links 1 2 3

While last year Tuerlinckx’s work was incredibly important to the creation of my own, this year her influence has lessened.

Her use of language and manipulation of language has influenced the duality I have created in my work, whether explicitly through the language - Expens(iv)es being a combination of expensive and expenses and how the reading and pronunciation of the word effects how the written piece is read - and the manipulation of thoughts and interpretations of the viewer themselves.

He combination of gallery and studio spaces in the exhibiting of her works has also helped with my realisation of the presentation of ETB. 

Also discussed/Discussed further in my dissertation.

Johan Deckmann Links 1 2 

Deckmann paints short statements onto book covers which hold somewhat private thoughts or information. The covers are then framed and photographed and aired to the world.

Katrina Palmer

It was Palmer’s work that cemented for me that writing and longer form writings can be art. Statement artists such as Wasted Rita, Lawrence Weiner, Johan Deckmann and Seamus Gallagher all told me that short but precisely focused statements can be presented as art outside of the literary sense of words, but Palmer’s works such as Geraldine The Goat  presented ‘story-telling’ as an art form outside of the traditional view of the narrative. 

Lars Laumann Berlinmuren Links 1

With Berlinmuren being a mockumentary of sorts following the true stories of two women in love with the Berlin wall.

The oddity of real events is something I want to replicate within my work while combining it with mundanity and ‘true’ extraordinary ideas.

Lauren Wolcott Some of The Lied I Have Told Links 1

The use of own thoughts and hidden feelings helped in creating the graffiti in all of my installation-intervention works.

Lawrence Weiner

Weiner has been a heavy influence upon myself, many through his discussion of what is art and how it is created or perceived or situated with Siegelaub and the others (see notes on the Siegelaub interview and the Lawrence Weiner book).

However I did not come to his work until late into this year, but his use of text as art to create a dynamic between thought and space is incredibly interesting to myself, and with a quick google search is apparently so with a mass of artists worldwide.

Mark Wallinger Link 1

Richard Littler Links 1 2 3 

Littler is the creator of Scarfolk, the blog, youtube channel and book that shows the town of Scarfolk that is stuck in the decade of the 1970s.

Scarfolk is a major influence for me: ‘for more information’, the use of posters to imply information without actually giving any, the over arching power of the town council and how they control the output of the town. 

With the book it is presented as a found document of writings by a father who is searching for his missing sons in Scarfolk. The legitimacy of Scarfolk is pushed by the printed document and its layout of the book makes it feel like a real guide to Scarfolk and his history as well as a documented search.

Littler makes the works look relevant to the time they are supposedly from while referencing current events as well (such as the election of Trump). The posters and audio-visual works on the youtube are convincing enough some people state that they remember them from their childhood in the 1970s, even though they were not created until 2009-now.

Also discussed/Discussed further in my dissertation.

Richard Prince Links 1 2 

Prince’s ideas on appropriate in art/as art have always been a point of contention for me. The copying exactly of a piece (in his sense redeveloping an image) does not create a new art piece, or an art piece you can apply your own name to, but using ‘found’ images to create different works in a major part of my work. Such as using the idea of bubblegum broccoli from McDonalds or the image of Apple’s Macbook.

Samuel Beckett Links 1

The performance an execution of Not I aided the production of the script and performance of (I)nformation H(eye)ghway. Beckett demanded perfect speech of the script but a continuous babble of words becoming unable to be understood, while the actress is strapped into a harness and suspended above the ground for the entire performance. Her endurance is part of the performance and the only object the viewer is given is the gaping mouth.

Seamus Gallagher Links 1 2

I discovered Gallagher’s work on instagram mid-November, and the worry became that the work I was producing at the time was too similar to his (the classifieds).

However both of us have developed down different avenues from a similar starting point over he same span of time.

His work has shown me how the ideas I have can work through a different aesthetic and process and has influenced some of the book covers made for A(I) and ETB.

Wasted Rita Links 1

Her fly-posters were the most interesting to me at Dismaland. The miminalistic images she creates through the use of private-made-public statements on faded papers are incredibly pleasing to me.

Also discussed/Discussed further in my dissertation.

[sillyvampir3]

they're so silly i love drawing their dynamic its so much fun :3

[sillyvampir3]

my favorite siblings ever ALSO the real key to the city's name is lucy grins!

[itsthevioletqueen]

What do you think about fandom dhmis names like "Harry", "Robin", "Manny" or "Paige"?

I used to be okay with them, but I don’t use them anymore. Even for the teachers that don’t have names, I don’t use whatever fan names people give them (such as Larry for the Lamp), I just call them whatever object they are.

The name I hate the most is “Manny” for Yellow Guy. Roy’s overalls have a big “R” on them for the first letter of his name, so it would make sense for the “D” Yellow Guy’s overalls to clue that his name starts with a “D.” This along with I think a few posts of Becky mentioning the word with Yellow Guy made the name “Doi” basically stick with me for the idea of Yellow Guy’s real name to be that. “Doi” and “Roy” also rhyme so there’s that.

I guess the only fan name I can really tolerate is “Mean Steve” for the Key to the City, more or less being like a nickname like “Small Metal Stick” and “Rude Metal Child.”

The only original name I’ve given a character is “Craig” for the Duck, but that’s because of evidence between Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared 2 and Craig’s Big Day instead of being completely random like “Robin”. (the duck isn’t even a robin it’s a duck wtf)