Funding, R&D
2010 - 2019
Joseph Cutts has spent the last 11 (to date) years working in moving image and installation with a particular focus on the visual. In addition to the central subjects matters of his artworks or curated programmes, there has long been an obsession in the power of the image and the focal points of the designed composition, testing the attention span of its audiences, and in return receiving their hypnotic and direct gaze.
Within his artworks, techniques have been employed such as:
- framed distant shots of industrial and idyllic landscapes of harbours, ships, building sites and city scapes, where life is organically exaggerated to such a slow pace to barely resemble movement. Moving image impersonates a still image until the odd transition or flicker of light appears;
- the flow of both mechanical structures and formation of water up close to highlight both contrasting automated and semi-automated processes and movements;
- the choreography of a constructed set, where the focal point isn't just dictated by the centre point or size of it, but all components involved and where background detail is key and not necessarily in a supporting role;
- timing, where the length of a frame/scene is brought into question to test the limits of the users attention.
The common denominators throughout the above points are that:
- the camera never moves and the stage must do all the talking;
- human behaviour is absent (on screen) but carries out the role in initially configuring what we see move;
- sound never plays a role as it isn't yet justified in the narratives.
While on screen content is a centre point, it's not the only focus as his works have a physicality to them and encompassed a wider installation set of materials that only slightly surround the av. Part of Cutts' setup is to utilise materials (glass, steel etc..), materials that hold a physical relation to the on screen content, if not a historical relation. It is here where the meticulous display of the screening mechanism/format is not under-represented as just a support, but is largely regarded as primary as the moving image.
The same principles of set design, timing and display are transferred over to Cutts' style of curating, when considering an audiences attention span, it's not a question of getting visitors to an exhibition or online platform, it's keeping them there engaged, hopefully with intrigue, parting with time.
2020
Fast forward to April 2020 and the immediate closure of organisations and physical exhibition cancellations, now as audience members we contend with screen fatigue and online saturation as an increased number of organisations transfer their programme online, but assume the audience is both the same and willing to engage with content in the same manner.
Results had shown that visitor figures (clicks) were low in public 'attendance' worldwide. Within Cutts' artistic and curatorial practice it felt very natural to temporarily abandon working in moving image during Covid-19 and not force content that would be misrepresented, making ethics to play the primary role in this decision. From here he curated two online programme Ghosts & Apparitions for Sheffield Doc/Fest & The Sound Intervention Service for the Instytut Adama Mickiewicza's Digital Cultures festival.
Both programmes took the same fundamentals as his artistic practice's approach towards overcoming barriers to engagement and playing on levels of intimacy. The solution wasn't how to have the most expensive website, greatest marketing campaign or the most content, but how to have a user friendly platform that both was simple and clear in its direction and contained moments of required investigation from the user, coupled with moments of interaction.
Pushing moving image to one side and highlighting performance and sound/audio artworks allowed for a new level of intimacy to appear, even during a time of solitude. Cutts' programmes acted as research and case studies that contributed towards his practice, as he curated artworks that both allowed for audiences at home to play a role either collectively/individually, through dialogue in futuristic CGI performances or simply through being told to wear strong headphones, "get into the cupboard under the sink and make yourself comfortable, smell your favourite spice or oil", Zorka Wollny.
2021
Supported by Arts Council England, this 'develop your creative practice' grant now offers Cutts the opportunity to add a new direction and welcome sound into his practice, either as an isolated discipline or building up to composing scores that accompany future moving image and installation works, after ten+ years of primarily focusing on the visual. Working with multi disciplinary artist Rebekah Ubuntu (The Sound Intervention Service) and Forma, over the next six months Cutts will develop new compositions, creating site specific narratives through archived material, field recordings and dialogue overlays, whilst studying levels of quality in production and value of depth/volume and further discussing ethics in hearing and language. This series of samples will allow him to develop new works with the inclusion of creating future sound scores.
