Futureland Now

Liz Wells conversation with John Kippen and Chris Wainwright regarding Futurenow.

LW - role of art in social investigation and commentary on today's issues?

JK - artists don't expect their work to have an immediate effect. They would choose another job if they wanted that.... More likely to be erosive that impactful (FAIR ENOUGH).
Art has no purpose if if it doesn't embody values (WHO'S VALUES? THE ARTIST? SOCIETY? THE ISSUE? WHAT?)

CW - broadly agree (CLEARLY HAS SIGNIFICANT OTHER VIEWS AS WELL).
Art and the artsist grow apart over time - the art can gain independent intentionality and and its reception can change and be different from the artist original intention (THIS MEANS THAT DESPITE WHAT THE ARTIST INTENDED, IT CAN COME TO MEAN SOMETHING ELSE - SO WHAT MAKES THIS ART IN THE FIRST PLACE IF THE INTENTION CHANGES WITH THE VIEWER - THIS MAKE ART SO SUBJECTIVE IT APPEARS ACCIDENTAL AND NOT PURPOSEFUL....).
The work appears different now because we think differently today. Artists have a responsibility to be a concerned witness but not necessarily illustrate social or concerns but that they significantly inform it..... Don't want the work to be overly illustrative of the issue. (I THINK HE IS SAYING THAT THE WORK SHOULDN'T BE TOO OBVIOUSLY ABOUT THE ISSUE; MORE COME AT IN A MORE OBLIQUE WAY)

LW - a criteria for art evaluation is the degree to which it makes you think about an issue.

JK - Yes and something that effects you in some way so that it changes some aspect of your life experientially in some way (FUTURELAND HASN'T EFFECTED, IN ANY WAY, ANY ASPECT OF MY LIFE EXPERIENTIALLY. SO DOES THIS REDUCE ITS ARTIST VALUE ONLY FOR ME? DOES IT REMAIN ART BECAUSE IT HAS EFFECTED OTHERS?)

JK - accepts that the art isn't going to change lives overnight or only very exceptionally.

CW - art can reaffirm or strengthen a view you already have. If its something that is unexplored the art can improve the understanding. It might not make you think differently but may affirm you are on the right track.

JK - It may just open up questions or ask how feel about something.

CW - we work working in the Thatcher era when the government were saying they were doing good changing the post industrial landscape and communities. "Of course we all knew it wasn't......". Look at how our scepticism turned out to be right. High levels of unemployment, social division, lack of sustainable investment. The work we did them allowed people to develop critical positional views "this ideological rhetoric about the future post industrial society is questionable" "The region will turn into consumer and leisure focussed society as a replacement for work...." (DID THE THATCHER GOVERNMENT PROMISE THIS? THIS IS A DELIBERATE MISINTERPRETATION OF THE EFFECT OF THE FREE MARKET CHANGES THAT WERE NECESSARY TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BRITISH INDUSTRY"

I HAVE TO STOP HERE FOR THE MOMENT WHILE I TRY TO WORK OUT HOW MUCH OF THE INTERVIEW RESPONSES ARE POST RATIONALISATION OF FACTS IN THE 25 YEARS THAT HAVE PASSED. WHEN I LOOK AT THE FASCINATING IMAGES IN THE COLLECTION I AM IMPRESSED BY WHAT THEY SHOW BUT I CAN IN NO WAY SEE A COMMENT ON THE FUTURE OF THE NORTH EAST AS A POST INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY.