dis
the power of information
dis was conceived in 1992 when working with a group of artists in the former Yugoslavia. Predictions of ethnic cleansing, atrocities, genocide and human rights violations were common bar-room themes. These forecasts appeared to be at stark odds with international opinion at the time. Their prophesies unfolded with unerring accuracy.
As a commodity information is invaluable, as a tool it is indispensable. Data is obtained by all and any means. Information is employed to acquiesce or to empower, subjugate or exonerate. Disinformation is the deliberate distortion of information in order to deceive, manipulate and control. Fiction is turned to fact- this observation was the basis for dis.
Quantel Paintbox
For dis I created 10 images comprising multiple photographs. These traditional (photomechanical) stills were scanned then manipulated (their meaning changed) by way of digital technology- the then preserve of the adverting and high-end design businesses. Quantel Paintbox was the pre-Photoshop tool of choice. In 1992 digital art was in its infancy and my suggestion that digital cameras could one day supersede film was met at the time with great derision.
Throughout dis an attempt was made to anticipate future digital techniques and trends; the ways in which technology would be used to change imperceptibly what and how we see- what we believed.
The images were faxed (pre email) to 10 writers and poets who responded with prose; their words becoming an integral component of the images. The combination of media; visual and the written word, challenges the viewer to consider how presentation can be used to inform, persuade or manipulate.
2023 and dis has come full circle. New terms such as ‘weaponisation of information’, ‘info and cyber wars’ and ‘deep fake and fake news’ and underscore the prevalence of disinformation and relevance of dis today. Technology has exponentially improved since my use back then of the Quantel Paintbox. The dawning of AI heralds in a new chapter of unimagined means of manipulation.
dis was commissioned by the Art Museum, Kelvingrove, to feature in their ‘New Arts’ season 1993. dis toured in the first Fotofeis Festival of digital photography.
Mommy, what are you giving me?
It’s neither hot chocolate nor tea.
It’s not milk of magnesia, it’s not honey.
It’s not Pepsi-Cola and costs no money.
It’s not cod liver oil, for it doesn’t smell.
It’s not orange juice, though it goes down well.
It doesn’t taste bad and you shouldn’t cry.
It’s a lie.
Joseph Brodsky
Comprehension teach us to think
Love teach us to feel
But we love the truth at our free will
Durda Otrzan
There is a cure for every ill
A nation knows.
A loose tongue is the greatest ill
The tyrant fears.
The river has long dried,
The corpse of yester year
Flaunts its naked grin
Bleached on the river bed
But the state must guard
Its bankrupt secrets.
A loose tongue soon discovers
Where the shoe pinches.
Wole Soyinka
Deaf-mute: your anxiety is guaranteed. Not like death.
Pop art told the hollow dreams wrongly. Moments, short as nails.
I, a servant, last shaman of undignified lords.
The penultimate whore, flying like a dying thistle in outer space.
Sex-eye is looking into the camera. Everything begins again without virtue.
Get it: distances are not recycled by putrefaction.
Claudio Lange
beyond a shadow of a doubt
written by anonymous
took four prongs
of some research
to skip the usual stuff
of devils like me
and saints like Poirot
who never had to be payed
cause he had enough
back in those days
(which days? shut-up?)
cause we never said a word now
were meeting quite frequently
in Ladbroke Grove
hear she went down for his son
thats no daughter of mine
but then his son goes down for her
all of the time
now you see me
and this fellow on my left
who has a slippery moustache
and a hidden Chevrolet
have great great granddaughters
and some great great grandsons
some of them are terrible
but then, so are some of your own
I suppose we better be friends
so they will be free
or Enoch Powell might be
shaking hands with Marcus Garvey
now I know from a view
think thats not a bad idea
but what about the rest of us
with a powerful sense of humour
Jean “Binta” Breeze
History is his story.
Her story is the greatest story never told
A woman’s head is under her husband’s feet-
Indian proverb
The body of a woman is filthy,
and not a vessel for the law -
Buddha
Three things are insatiable,
the desert, the grave and a woman’s cunt -
Arab proverb
Man is the image and glory of God
but the woman is the glory of man
and the man is the head of the woman -
St Paul
Rosalind Miles
The sense - producing human machine works on the basis of a very simple law:
We cannot see all the phenomena we can think of,
and we cannot think about certain images we can see.
The power of the sense, which cannot be reproduced in words or images,
belongs to the world of human feelings, as inner side of every image or word.
The sense we live in - the sense behind the one we believe in - is a vehicle which can be used for our journey or abused for the journey of someone else.
Eda Cufer- NSK
See enough?
Four-eyes!
Do you see enough?
Glasses always were a curse
for boys as blind as bats
and worse, not fit for football.
Couldn't see their fingers
in front of their faces -
sent on wild goose chases for a ball they'd never find -
Specky Mc Gaughey (pronounced Mc Gecky) -
a cruel and imperfect rhyme
reduced a boy to ballocks and made him cry.
See enough ?
Goggle eyes !
Do you see enough ?
One specky four eyed bastard
got brave, took off his glasses
and squared up for a row.
Gone was the gape,
the permanent surprise -
there was something wise - serene about the eyes.
He saw far more than he let on -
like where we got our power from.
Do you hear what I'm saying?
Do you see what I'm saying?
I'm telling you.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Are you talking to me
or chewing a brick ?
John Kelly
Two silences; the first is silence toward the world. The second is the silence toward one's self.
One prison inside another. Nothing's left but the moon's imagined hum.
The inner silence learns its craft from the other, from the world and its grand delinquents and their murders, their medals and their eyes.
And at the same time we are secretly amazed that after all, we have not forgotten how to speak, and out of the depths we hear.
Arthur Miller
We have lived for seventy years in the society where disinformation was the main part of our life.
For the whole time the media of this country have deceived not only their own people but the whole world.
The victims of these lies were the political activities of the whole world, as well as the outstanding intellectuals of East and West.
The result of this disinformation was not only that some persons, but whole peoples perished.
The most discouraging result of all these lies was for the child, as the lies poisoned their conscience and soul, and ruined all their life.
Action has to relive the purity of the purity of the world community and to make the world society free of lies.
Yevgeniy and Nadia Rein
Kelvingrove ‘New Arts’
Exhibition Program
By reading this text you have actively involved yourself in a complex relationship combining author, audience and arena.
As an exhibition publication you expect this piece of paper to inform you - to relay basic ‘truths’ about the art which is being presented to you. There exists an implied acceptance that the curator, or artist, can inform you of the legitimate meaning of the work. This information will supplement your own experience of the work, and indeed may openly contradict your personal reactions to it, but it will, nevertheless, have an air of authority conferred upon it by its origin and the format in which it is presented.
It is with the assistance of information that the individual conforms with, or adapts into society; choosing between lines of thought, psychology and conduct which are promoted by the state.
Our everyday existence revolves around the assimilation of information. The sources of this information are as varied and as complex as the ways in which it is communicated. Public institutions, the media, the education system, the family; are all instrumental in the establishment of common levels of behaviour, morality and judgement. We equate the acquisition of knowledge with both power and an insight into ‘truth’. As whole societies attain political emancipation, total control of information has given way to unprecedented access. New histories are being pieced together as revelations of the past are coming to the fore. The result is a confusion of signals, as the parameters of ‘truth’ continue to shift.
Significantly, photography has proved to be the artistic medium through which an association with the objective presentation of truth has developed.
The old adage that the ‘camera never lies’ is a deep seated belief, despite the fact that since its invention photographers have distorted their projected realities through both the technical processes they employ, such as composite negatives, and the selectivity of their viewfinders. As a result of being photographed, subjects become part of a system of information. The implications of this fact are increasing as in today’s age of computer technology, photography moves steadily into the realm of electronics, and hence becomes susceptible to the infinite possibilities of manipulation and data transmission. Images can now be electronically generated, digitally manipulated and accessed instantly across the globe by means of telecommunication networks. The once accepted maxims of representation, specificity and objectivity are being systematically devalued and replaced by a sense of unlimited multiplicity. Thus the unbounded possibilities of computer generated photography can be seen to reflect the ways in which the constantly changing pool of public information determines our perceptions of reality; the ways in which we see.
Gavin employs the Quantel Paintbox to restate the parallels between these levels of visual and cognitive information. The technology enables him to present a new type of photographing reality through the distortion and manipulation of electronic information. Throughout dis the distortion is directed in such a way as to communicate the social implications of the act of ‘change’ itself.
Whilst addressing the icon of the nude, technology literally removes the means through which personal identity may be claimed. As a result of technology the individual undergoes a process of dehumanisation to become little more than a vessel; in this example, de-sensualised, non-erotic.
The analogy with society as a whole is obvious. It is this sense of the subtlety and pervasiveness of the manipulation which provides an element of subversion to the work. At first glance, we can discern nothing about these images which seems to be ‘unreal’ and hence they remain within our realms of acceptance and comprehension. Only when we begin to focus our attention do we realise the levels on which information is being controlled.
The success of cultural symbols is linked to the representation of collective knowledge and awareness. We identify an image and make a range of ostensibly inherited associations, cultural, political or historical. The imagery which Gavin employs capitalises on our range of programmed responses, yet also encourages a re-assessment through the ways in which images are juxtaposed. The nude, the child, the cross; we come to realise that even in the realm of the symbol there is no definitive truth. Meaning is predetermined by the cultural background, disposition and experience of the viewer.
The format in which dis is presented provides another link to the concept of information and its presentation. The physical dominance of the image/text within the gallery implies the scale of image saturation in the media, the billboard format, the public health warning; through which we are informed, instructed or entertained. The power of the media advertising cannot be underestimated.
Todays images are high impact, immediate. Information is coded through a form of visual shorthand. As audiences become more sophisticated in their interpretations and understanding, so advertisers have been forced to find alternative ways in which to grab and retain the attention of their audience.
What we now see is the posing of visual puzzles, the meanings of which must be consciously unravelled. dis offers comparable layers of meaning to be investigated, invested with truth and held up as an interpretation of reality.
The success of dis derives from the action of the individual.
Lorraine Grant,
Curator. Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow
Gavin Evans gratefully acknowledges the participation and support of all who joined in the making of dis -
Writers: Jean ‘Binta’Breeze, Joseph Brodsky, Eda Cufer, John Kelly, Claudio Lange, Rosalind Miles, Arthur Miller, Durda Otrzan, Yevgenij and Nadia Reine and Wole Soyinka
Curator/commentator: Lorraine Grant
Paintbox operator: Richard Scott.
Scanner operator: Chris Bennett
Co-producer: Peter Ross
Robin Bernard, Mark Borkowski, Murray Buchan, Lars Christian, Donna Croall, Ashley Crompton, Margaret Drysdale, Danny Earl, Sulaima Elmi, Cal Elmi Evans, Pierre de Fresue, Lorraine Grant, Martin Galloway, Mike Heudiberg, Karen Lamond, Irena Luksic, Joe MacKechnie, David Metcalfe, Michael Morris, Adrian Ross, Danny Sapani, Chloe Shoniwa, Raymond Stern, Ben Thomas