Interview with a Chainsaw.

An Object Oriented Exploitation Manual.

 

 

 

A critical reflection framed within the construct of the ‘interview’ the text seeks to understand how the subject shifts position under non-anthropocentric models such as those proposed by Speculative Realism. It questions the extent to which issues of causation can be adequately articulated when not informed by practice-based research. While non-correlational models suggest a significant shift in the role of the artist/interviewer, this is framed as an extension of the process and media-driven practices of the 60/70 dematerialized conceptual practices in that the authorship of the work is co-constituted in the dynamic interplay between object and subject. Citing Joseph Beuys’ How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare, 1965, and Jim Allen’s Poetry for Chainsaws, 1976, the spoken word or ‘interview’ is explored as a modernist construct that being fundamentally anthropocentric in nature, problematises causation and practice-based research. As such artistic practice is shown to be in conflict with Object Oriented Ontologies flat ontological stance. Full paper in http://onjournal.org/index.html