My deliverables for the term...

trading card games (Where my project might be going)

I FEAR NO MANE (my humor based art publication) [+rough draft of zine+statement]

VVhording (revised, my first project, site map, etc.

- David Clark

heres my statement:

Originally I FEAR NO MANE started out as an idea for a zine, which was supposed to be about web art but has since evolved.  I FEAR NO MANE (a phrase coined by Andrew Power) is now a humour based art publication. The original list of contributors consists of Lucas Gordon, Andrew Power,  Manden Murphy, Theo Gordon, Corey Clark, Mitch Mcgoey, Daniel McNamara, Iain Mcphee, Al-Murray Lawson, Doug Back, Bijan Ramezani, Renee Dykeman and Myself. I have been in charge of pretty much everything since the beginning however I have recently passed on some responsibilities to Lucas Gordon Renee Dykeman and Daniel McNamara. Originally this first group of contributors were contacted because they all participated in the production of online art. As time went on we realized what we truly liked about their work was humour and thus came the shift in focus.

Jason Musson’s artist talk at the drake hotel was an extremely polarizing and revealing moment in the editorial process. We have adapted Musson’s theories and are using them as the framework for the publication. In short, he basically stated that “art doesn’t understand humour”, “simple ideas”, or “one liners”. He talked about how originally his Hennessy Youngman alter ego was created simply because he was “pissed about being in school”. We thought this was great because we were “pissed about being in school” also. The language people use in critiques and uber complexity  people approach art making with is what we are attempting to subvert with our humour.

We then thought that everything we were making seemed to have a sort of “political cartoon” or “meme aesthetic”. We were more about commenting on art then making art and so the next hurdle in our process was presented. We also were dissatisfied with the disorganization or work all being in one random pool. A model which we have decided on (in order to solve these problems) for this publication is a series of collaborative (and humorous) “projects” or “issues” which all address one idea . The first example of this is I FEAR NO MANE #1: Trading Card Games. (please see webspace.ocad.ca/~dc09fg/tradingcardgames.html for a sneak peek) the Trading Card Games issue deals with the concept of the commodity item and the dismal, yet intriguing Youtube trend of unboxings. Basically, the first component will be a site which contains a series of videos featuring various “collectors items” which eventually be lit on fire, hopefully enraging unsuspecting viewers. The second component will be a printed zine which features all of the best comments,  printed on the richest most deliciously textured archival paper which will hopefully become collectable  and contain some sort of stupid paradoxyl meaning. This is pretty much stolen from Luke Painters “K-Town” project so please see www.ktownart.com .

I’m thinking that the next issue might be a compilation of all the stupidest Facebook statuses we can find in between now and then and call the project Nobody likes this.

Sources:

Musson, Jason. Hennessy Youngman @ The Drake Hotel. Lecture. January 31, 2012.