Something out of Nothing

Chris Clarke
www.chris-clarke.co.uk

Project: Something out of Nothing

Something out of nothing is effectively a printed archive, expressive of an appreciation for the overlooked, in hope that even today; perhaps you can get something for nothing. Based on a collection of observations within a local environment, the work seeks to extend the significance of these chance visual encounters beyond their fleeting nature. The book is divided into two halves (something and nothing) and can be read from either side.
Something
In a culture of visual competition where only the outspoken are heard above the cacophony of invitations, our opportunities for chance encounters with the silent are few. Forced to negotiate the myriad signs, messages and visual statements we are surrounded with, navigating our visual environment becomes an editorial process of selection and rejection for which the majority of our vision must be muted. Culturally inoculated against the trivial, our appreciation for unspoken voices and hidden stories has steadily deteriorated. Receptive only to that which can justify its relevance to us, we are now largely immune to the banal and have no time to discover meaning where it is unexpected. In documenting the quiet daily observations, chance arrangements and surprise perspectives that usually go unnoticed; our eyes are afforded a refreshing relief from the crowded glut of visual communication. These under-whelming insights into the value of coincidence can be met subjectively and hold a pragmatic honesty free of authorship and ideology.
Nothing
In a society of signs and cultural connotation, the distinction between visual and verbal communication is ambiguous. With text and image so awkward to disentangle, we are encouraged to surrender our deconstruction and allow cultural messages to wash over us as giddy indissoluble cocktails. The ability of language to undergo coding through particular aesthetic treatment has spawned a wealth of words which exist almost solely as support to visual messages. Extracted from their cultural context, the slogans and buzz words of consumer culture become curiously bald and their meanings quickly disintegrate. In society’s acceptance to skim read itself, the meaning of language and appreciation for its full potential has become a neglected area. We seem to have little or no expectation of language to provide value outside of conventional communication. Nothing comes for free. ‘Nothing’ is based on a collection of fragmented language appropriated from the dialect of consumer culture and public address. Stripped of their visual embellishment, found excerpts from our daily environment shed their cultural connotations and stand bare for our reassessment in isolation.