Unthought. Attention Capitalism. Boredom. Ecologies of imagination.
Never before have our minds been more connected, devouring digital feeds but never fed, or getting lost in delicious beauty. Because it is beautiful. Internet connected devices are designed to capture our attention and hold it. How often do we find ourselves falling through the rabbit hole of webs only to forget what we originally went looking for, and for a quick moment to become forty, sixty and counting?
The universality of internet-connection and social media has created an excessively animated and over-exploited collective imagination (Crary 2008). The smooth Instagram aesthetic of homogenous images feeds empty time (Benjamin 1974) and a machinic-imaginary (Manovich 2011): we are hyper-active individuals within cognitive capitalism’s constraints. Ironically, this hypertrophy of collective imagination stops us from re-imagining the conditions under which our hyperactivity is being fed. With our attention constantly stimulated and opportunity for the mind to wander lacking, what thoughts are never formed by the process of thinking, not imagined, not dreamed? What if instead of bathing in the syrupy glow, we listened?
Moth Soup explores this lure through an imaginative installation of hand cranked boxes, silver plated spoons, film and animated moths.
This project is an ongoing investigation and intervention of contemporary imagination’s hyperactivity. Today, digital devices have resulted in dramatic shifts in practices of imagining. The ‘Moth Soup Series’ considers Gregory Bateson’s ecologies of mind, Jane Bennett’s material agency and Johnathon Crary’s attention as commodity to investigate temporality, metamorphosis of matter and relations to perception and imagination.
When asked what the response to her work had been, Kate shared, “it’s been really moving to hear the connections and emotions the work stirs in people.” She shared further, “it seems initially that people are drawn in by the gentle, familiar, feminine aesthetic and nostalgic sounds but quickly realise the colours and music are a veil over something more uncomfortable and uncanny at play… something worth exploring a little deeper.”
The exhibition can be experienced at WASPS Creative Exchange, Stormont Street, Perth PH1 5NW until 30 October 2021. Entry is free. Opening times Wednesday to Friday 10am-1pm and 2-4pm. Saturday and Sunday 1-5pm.
The film and Malaise installation was installed at SSA Annual 2022, RSA on the Mound, Princes St, Edinburgh.
About the Artist
Kate is a contemporary arts practitioner predominantly working with film, stop-motion animation and puppetry. Since her BA(Hons) at Gray’s School of Art in 2012, her work has explored ecologies of imagination and objects in relation to ideas of re-enchantment and the animation of matter. After completing an MFA at Duncan of Jordanstone in 2019, cultural epidemics such as mental pollution and the nature of total positivity have become the backbone to her work. Surrealism, magical realism and ideas relating to temporality and philosophies of imagination continue to infuse her practice.
Follow @katesvignettes for more.
These projects have been supported by Visual Artist & Craft Maker’s Award: Fife and Perth & Kinross (Creative Scotland Lottery Fund and Fife Contemporary) 2024 & 2020, Wasps Studios, Fife Arts Society, McGlashan Trust, Society of Scottish Artists Mentoring.
Selected Achievements
'Little Malaise, Weary & the Dream Spider' installation at SSA Annual Exhibition, 130th Anniversary Edition at Royal Scottish Academy (2022), and at Gannochy Project Space at Perth Creative Exchange (2021); 'Little Other & the Unform' installation at Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival (2020); Contemporary Arts Residency at Duncan of Jordanstone, University of Dundee (2019-2020); Artist in Residence at Impact Arts Projects Ltd (2014-2018). Awarded Visual Artist & Craft Makers Award (2023, 2020); Young Artist Masters Award (2019); The Arts Society Fife (2019); and McGlashan Trust Award (2018).