Cameron Jarvie - On‘Run'
a few reflections after the first showing of the work
(This essay is awaiting editing and subject to updates)
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LITERAL DESCRIPTION
In the space, there is a treadmill and some technological apparatus. Text is appearing on the treadmill belt as though it were printed on, however it is clear that the text is not repeating.
There is something formally about the work that is immediately foreboding.
The presence of running shoes and a water bottle in the scene presumably allude to some kind of runner using the treadmill at some point.
On closer inspection one figures the mechanics- there is a video playing from the phone that is being fed to the projector which projects onto the belt, and the video is synchronised perfectly to give the illusion that the letters are physically on the belt itself. But what is the text?
The text is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) definition of ‘run’ in its verb, noun and adjective forms (2011 edition). The full OED definition of the word ‘run’ in the 2011 edition has 371 meanings- not including phrasal verbs, compounds and derivations, the second highest number of meanings after ‘set’.
The next edition of the OED will be released 2037, but the authors have revealed already that the updated definition for run will have a total of 645 potential meanings, overtaking ‘set’ to become the word with the most definitions in the English language.
The full video that projects onto the treadmill is just short of 13 hours long, and with the mapping to the belt, covers a distance of around 30 kilometres. Full printouts of the text were present in the space, condensed onto A3 paper in size 4pt font.
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CRITICAL ANALYSIS
/QUALITIES OF THE TEXT
That any word could have so many meanings seems absurd straight off the bat, and seems like some evidence of something in abundance, so that the word in question is ‘run’, with its immediate associations with motion, exercise, work and being working/operative, leads to questions as to whether this quirk of our language might offer reflections of the culture that produces it.
This question is put to us in yet more stark terms when reading the point that it is the word ‘set’ that it is due to overtake, with ‘set’ being a word typically associated with stopping, stasis, and being the root of the term ‘settledness’.
Could this be evidence of a world that is increasingly defined by a state of motion? Is this tale of two definitions a microcosm of the phenomenon of global acceleration, late capitalism and the pursuit of limitless growth? Have our movements changed? Has our level of agency? How?
One of the amazing things about this definition for ‘run’, is that it can operate as chronicling of the anthropological history of movement through how the speakers of the language have observed it over time-
Looking at it breadthways, There is at least one (often more) citable point in the definition for each of the following things:
The movement of water, of rivers and seas, the mass migration patterns of animals, the movement of bodies- animal and human, the taming of horses, agriculture, early materials, clay, iron, thread, dye, milk, sickness, hunting, jousting, boats, gambling, hospitality, mining, debt, flags, combat, industrialisation, heavy machinery, mass production, business operations, oil, currency, mass media, law, politics, sports, music, the arts, families and households, espionage, bombs, illegal trade, cars, the school run, household appliances, computing, delivery to your door.
and equally, it also encompasses many of the less tangible things, equally ostensibly human, relating to expression of emotions, of thoughts, of conversations, of arguments, madness, expectations, conformity, exhaustion, of chaos and of order, of freedom, of memories, of time, of life and of death, and the way things flow.
But we can take a different angle and look at it lengthways, as a different history contained within the definition is the history of how the word has evolved through time, particularly in the manner of the actions it describes.
Although nowadays our first thought when we picture running is of a person moving quickly on either foot, the etymological roots of run primarily meant to flow, and were typically describing the way a river’s water moves, flows, runs.
Evolving from there, when I ride my horse quickly across the land, I would run through it like a river does. Perhaps whenever an animal or human does this it runs.
Gradually it came to incorporate smaller motions, like running thread through a loop, or dye running across a textile. And it came to incorporate bigger abstract ideas such as the flow of time.
Then it came to incorporate more operations, like running a business or a factory, or like trains; running on tracks, running on steam and (if not running late) running on time- if you make things run (move, flow, tick) you run things.
Latterly, it came to refer to things being running, like machinery, but particularly appliances and computer technology, like how the code on my computer is running, my computer itself is running, my fridge is running- a kind of ‘on-state’. If it is working, it runs.
This idea of the ‘on-state’ is particularly interesting, because the extra 250+ definitions we’re getting in the 26 years between 2011-37 are likely to be of this sort, and when paired with previous notion of a chronicling of human activity, the definition comes to embody an idea of the transition from human activity being informed by motion from A to B towards merely either being or caused to be in motion.
A story of human progress- from a flowing river to treading water.
This also runs in parallel to the first conversation about run vs set- That we might be in a world ever more defined as frenetic, hyper-active and in flux, and yet the manner of this increasing activity is perhaps not an increasing agency but a tending towards a permanent on-state. Constantly in motion yet going nowhere, less ‘A Life’ and more ‘alive’.
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FORMAL QUALITIES
With this in mind, it’s a little easier to unpack those foreboding undertones present in the works formal qualities:
The treadmill (an under-desk model) naturally speaks to exercise, repetition, work, and containment, the individual and the quest for self improvement, but when on a slow constant speed without anyone on it, it invokes bigger things than some kind of sprint- perhaps the slow march of progress.
It speaks to global mass production like any conveyor belt, but particularly with this unbelievably massive text being produced upon it.
Indeed, with this text being produced on the surface with such an illusion, it is possible to imagine the text covering a physical distance, playing with the notions of scale, ideas that cover great distance, and what it means to both be sprawling and be fixed in place.
The text itself materially speaks to this too, with the manner in which it appears ‘printed on’ speaking equally to the advent of printing techniques as a means of mass distribution of mass information. Particularly with the mono-spaced typeface, which through evenly spacing the individual letters impress as units, and given the slow speed and limited capacity to read what has just come before or will come after, the text gives an immediate reading as being raw information, encoded somehow.
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This encoded aspect is also imbued by the font in a different way, with mono-space typefaces also being typical of coding and programming, the language of computing and by extending the language of the on state. This is all the more amped up by the text being white on a dark background. Being projected and therefore digital and holographic carries this same notion too.
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Indeed even the way the text is structured carries a sense of a kind of legal jargon, a different angle on the notion of containment/constraint that is present in the fixed position and fixed speed of the treadmill, and given the absurd length for something which is presupposed to be agreed upon, the idea of ‘terms and conditions’ springs to mind.
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And this idea of law and thereby control is present even in the manner in which the projector is installed which, similar in appearance to a camera (lens, tripod et al), takes on connotations of surveillance technology, particularly with its positioning above the piece pointing down on the treadmill, and on whoever might run on it.
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And the phone, also a proponent of surveillance technology, acts as an automated prompting device. Prompting a wonderful tie-in to the previous conversations of the increasing role of technology and causality, as well as more general conversations around cognitive service automation, with the mass rollout and integration of generative ai into our lives. It is notable that generative ai has its roots in predictive text modelling and autocorrect, like we’re accustomed to seeing on our phone keyboards.
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And the scrolling text on a phone, reinforced with the belt, could also contain a subtle nod to notions of doomscrolling, as, although the text is not random, by containing no repetitions in it’s 13 hour viewtime it plays with ideas of the content feed, attention economies, and states of anticipation, The hypnotic illusion from the perfectly synchronised projection onto the belt certainly falls under the category of ‘the satisfying’.
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PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
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There are also accompanying performances with the work. I view the work as activating a performer, not the other way around. There were seven performances taking place across the duration of this exhibition.
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The treadmill is sped up to 10km/h and the text is sped up 4x, and a performer runs on the treadmill whilst reading the text aloud as it scrolls past. The work was produced with a consolidated effort to ensure that it would operate such that the text was at the limit of reading speed whilst syncing accurately to a belt that was at a running speed.
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It is a performance perhaps more interested in the idea of being ‘high-performing’ as opposed to performativity; performance as one would use it to refer to a computer processor or a stocks and shares portfolio, rather than say a musical virtuoso. The resulting reading is quite robotic sounding, owing to the constant pace of the text, and owing to words appearing on the screen only one or two at a time.
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The performances were scheduled to last 50 minutes, as that was the maximum time the treadmill used would run without shutting off for a cooldown. As such, the performances lasted until either the runner or the treadmill gave up. In the event, all the performances were completed, with a few even running over 50m.
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In the initial plan, the idea was to complete the entire definition over the course of the show, however I later altered this to its final form where, since the text was running continuously, the reading would start at the point in the text that the video was up to at the performances start time. This was in a bid to de-emphasise the achievement aspect of the work, and make it less about some kind of completion, instead speaking more to ideas of work, exercise, ritual, constancy, and so on.
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I wanted it to be a run and, crucially, not a race. Racing is what dreams do through the mind, or what the heart does when excited. Running as we now know is many things, but it is not these
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My hope in de-emphasising the achievement factor was to allow the durational aspect to bring focus for its consistency, building into this notion of the on state. The management of stamina, of breath, and of attention all form confines for the performing body, and relate to the aforementioned points on labour, entrapment, and attention economies (of a different kind).
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The focus that the demands of the work place on the performer it activates are such that it accentuates a key theme that is yet to really come up beyond this idea of containment, which is the inescapable isolation from the conditions of the near constant need to be attending to something amidst self-imposed pressures to accomplish in a landscape saturated with information that cannot be processed into anything meaningful when consumed in bite-sized chunks.
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There was still a certain drama found in the difference between the way the performances would begin, and how things changed as I became more exhausted- in the exhibiting of fight against inevitable deterioration, which whilst not the whole point, served to accentuate the works ideas around constancy, and situated the tensions found in going with this unrelenting flow. It was important that the interest was in the different states of condition towards the beginning and end, rather than the starting and the finishing itself, as I feel it’s important to maintain an idea of a continuum. By giving the piece as indiscernible beginning and end as possible, the question remains to the viewer as to where the work begins and ends, where work generally begins and ends, and what possible ways of moving meaningfully from A to B might exist outside the work, a question that is perhaps challenging, exhausting, and big to the extent that one might figuratively prefer staying on the treadmill.
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We know the word run means many many things, but running as a hobby and form of exercise means many things to many people. Ubiquitous in urban green spaces, one of the fastest growing past-times, running is there for people who want to socialise or be alone, for people looking to condition themselves- to smash a personal best, or for people recommended activity on medical advice- for those suffering from physical or mental health issues simply looking for some kind of positive change.
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Actively empty, arbitrary in its goal, and often with no particular direction, yet equally its own kind of ritual, deeply personal and tailored to one’s own capabilities, and also something almost everyone has done in some capacity at some point in their life- It’s fitting that there might be as much to say about our contemporary landscape present in the growth trend of running as an activity as there is about the trend of the word.
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All of this ties together to give what I believe to be a very rich piece of work, and I should say that for all its ominous undertones and efforts to de-emphasise the elements of triumph, I still can’t help be feel that there is a level of joy and wonder to be found- in the quality of its illusion, the neatness of its composition, the astounding-ness of the information it draws upon, and the pathos of its narrative.
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REFERENCES AND RESEARCH
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Whether the definition of run in the O.E.D. is an art material or just reference material is not for me to decide, but I can shed light on some of the other research and reference material that informed my thinking behind this work.
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I drew from the sculptural work of Harrison Pearce, who’s organic silicon forms being compelled into action by pneumatic pumps function similarly to my work but in a more abstract fashion, focusing in on the dynamic between organic bodies and rigid technological surrounding structures, the silicon forms particularly calling to body in texture but to the mind in form, and asking questions about the way we come to physically and mentally embody our environments. There are also elements here of the tension that is latent in a kinetic system that is satisfying to observe, yet carrying unsettling undertones. The works are also a lesson in the values of ruthless efficiency in execution, with the cleanliness and tightness of the outcome underpinning the works success in all the areas listed above.
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I was heavily informed by Byun Chul Han’s writing. The Burnout Society was a natural entry point for me, and the work I produced largely emerged from my personal experiences of burnout and attempting to resist burnout this year. The conditions of mass information, ‘limitless possibility’ and convenience culture, and the ensuing habits of auto-exploitation resonated with me, particularly the idea of a ‘Vita Activa’ (active life) being considered a virtue, without much focus given to what is lost when this becomes dominant. The loss of value placed on contemplation and pause for thought is a sticking point, amongst which sits ideas of atomised society in which the individual is championed to the point of engendering near-chronic isolation.
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Scent of Time and Hyperculture, amongst others, were key in informing this work, particularly the notion of the constant need to stake out life as a series of ‘important moments’, and how this erases the space in between, turning life itself into a linear series of dots that pass by almost instantly in the memory, emptying life of its sense of nuance and the individual of their sense of connection and fulfilment, as well as this idea of culture being stripped down to the point where we have access to everything in overwhelming amounts, but struggle to identify with any of it.
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I researched how linguistic traits can be an indicator for how a society’s structure influences its language, and the language influences how its speakers think, operate and live. There are about as many examples of this as there are languages, and perhaps I could expand during the question section, but the most pertinent ones to this project are the Australian Aboriginal languages of the North East Cape which have no words for left and right, favouring instead cardinal directions (e.g my south-west hand). The result is quite literally a less ego-centric and more land-oriented worldview. A typical greeting in these languages is ‘Where are you going?’.
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Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running was a good recommendation, as what he presents was less like the anecdotal or journalistic accounts of the activity that I was accustomed to, and instead a deeper set of reflections and musings on a ritual that has been part of his life for multiple decades. I was particularly drawn to the ideas of running as attempting to “acquire a void”, and of pain as inevitable but suffering as a choice.
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I could talk about Nina Davies work on the implications of cognitive services automation, Graeber’s writing on ‘Bullshit Jobs’ and modes of employment which are conceptually empty, not requiring skills but instead only the employees attention. And I could talk about Joseph Kosuth, simply as the first example that comes to mind when discussing art that deals directly with meaning, and including a definition within the work.
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But I’d most want to give focus to Marcus Coates, particularly for a talk I went to in April with him in conversation with Rosy Head at Kate McGarry Gallery. Amongst many other things, an idea emerged from two things that were said. Firstly him talking about what it’s like photographing birds of prey, and trying to imagine and empathise with how it might feel to be them, but being struck by their general indifference, and secondly on the importance of being silly and of failing, because ‘when we laugh we are all the same’. It made me think about how jokes, like many observations, are observations of differences when we expect similarities, or vice-versa; of the way we might draw things together, or draw lines between things, and share those observations with others.
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It had me thinking about the state of utter indifference towards us present in the sweeping forces of late capitalism, political systems, macroeconomics, and big data, but how equally there is a massive indifference too on the other side, the natural world towards which we might typically run when fearing the forces of an accelerating world. Nature is also indifferent, and often we are only reminded of this harsh truth when we do go running towards it.
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It’s important to remember, because for all my earlier musings on the movement of the word run from being a flowing river to treading water, a river is perhaps in just as much of an ‘on-state’ as a computer is. What counts though is the collection of carefully arranged components, contextual information, and narrative ideas in the work, as although the work itself perhaps carries an elements of the coldness of technology and automation, it might hopefully give pause for thought, for in those moments of contemplation, whether we feel a sense of difference or a sense of sameness within the world, we are definitely not indifferent.
—PRESENTATIoN END—
SUCCESSES
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It’s good to step back a little and reflect on a few of the successes of the work from a more practical position too.
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I feel quite accomplished with the way that, as observed in our professional practice crits, it has a range of jumping off points that make it an incredibly accessible piece of work for a variety of audiences. It’s pretty agreeable that the illusion on the belt is, put simply, really cool, and the materials of the work all being readymades one could find available online means they have immediate readings. The inclusion of a runner gives the work an entry point from a sports angle which operates often in a different cultural sphere to art, and the backbone of the work being a piece of very interesting information is also very easily digestible. At the same time, there’s enough there for more critically engaged audiences who enjoy meta-conceptual art to sink their teeth into.
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Also useful is the highly iterative nature of the work, not just in how many ideas it gives me for different projects, but how the basic ingredients here could be easily iterated. In fact this segues well into some of the challenges I found with showing the work for Degree Show.
ISSUES/LESSONS
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Firstly the conditions of the degree show- the quantity of other exhibitors relative to a small and challenging space. I had considered that this would be the case, and tried to select work which I thought would be effective in this setting, choosing just one piece that has immediate readings and a strong initial impact,
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but I was still surprised by how few people would actually question just what exactly the text appearing on the belt was, even though the information wasn’t hard to find. In hindsight, it makes sense that in such an overwhelming environment titles and descriptions are of little interest, but it was a shame given that it was a very accessible work that ultimately does require the extra context of the text being the definition ‘run’ to become fully legible.
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Its normally a bad idea, but in this case making the exhibition text bigger might have been a good idea. I also think that the A3 printouts of the script that I was using as business cards could’ve perhaps been a framed piece on the wall, making the same information clear but engaging the audience in a different way.
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A positive of this show setting with so many works competing for attention was in how the surrounding performances, which were often loud and overwhelming, interplayed with my own, where my voice was present in the gaps, came to highlight both the elements futility and consistency in the performance and ended up giving the work what I felt was a strength in its relative unceremonious understatedness.
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I feel like the performances would’ve been improved had I had different runners on the treadmill as opposed to just myself throughout, however it was flagged as a health and safety issue. The other health and safety issue I had to navigate was that in my proposal the treadmill and text were set to be at 10km/h at all times. This was deemed a risk of injury, and the suggestion of a physical barrier was put forward. I thought this would look terrible, so instead proposed that the treadmill operate at a slower speed when not being performed on. This was accepted by Mike, but threw up a slew of other issues. I had to re-edit the video, which when slowed down started appearing to wobble on the belt due to an aliasing issue with the frame rate. I did research on signal theory (which was interesting but not helpful) and tried all kinds of different frame rates in the render with no solutions. In the end, a better and more powerful projector proved to be the answer. I used a different video player on my phone which also allowed me to speed up the video in real time meaning I could have continuity between the object and the performance. This did need to be rendered in full however, and slowing down the video meant that what was a 3.5 hour film was now a 13 hours film and it needed to be rendered at 60fps, which even on the Alienware pcs in the CAT zone gave render times of 32hours+. All this had to be resolved in the week before the show, and it was tense, given that the renders kept crashing. I took a safe option and rendered the file in chunks, first so I had a fallback should things not work out for the full file. In the end everything worked out, and a benefit of this heuristic approach is twofold- the slower speed and more powerful projector makes the illusion in the work far stronger, and the research on how to fix the issues I was having made it very clear to me that no one has tried the things I was trying.
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certain decisions, font, materials being all e-commerce and as ‘not made’ as possible, duration and speed, but things like outfit is a big one. Going for typical jogger-wear, but preferably unbranded and again leaning more towards training. I wouldn't want something that says ‘i ran ___ marathon’ or anything like that
FUTURES
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It’s clear to me in future showings of this work that I would like to have multiple performers, and ideally multiple treadmills too. I think the image of a small fleet of them spot-lit in a dark space, spread across the space, with different runners with different bodies, accents, etc. hopping on from time to time, would really accentuate the ideas of scale and collective isolation, shifting the focus from an individual pursuit to wider ideas of the individual.
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I did some recording work in the Photo-studios to in part hint towards how this might operate, although perhaps this could be edited into a standalone film. I also think a recording of the full script being completed in a single session has merit.
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I also think the idea of the script as a print needs to happen. I can picture a version for the definition of ‘set’ laser engraved on flat stones too, and I’ve been having other thoughts relating to this work, one around the idea of ‘skytyping’ and one around automated ‘player pianos’ and the music of Steve Reich, but we don’t have time to go into those.
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