HOW TO HOW TO HOW TO by Gretchen Andrew

HOW TO HOW TO HOW TO is an attempt to question the claims of technology-enabled change as well as to investigate what, beyond effort and access to information, limits our capacity for change. The work deals with associated questions of genetic, social, family, and class privilege. The work has been developed by using YouTube “how To” searches to investigate the link between discrete, learnable actions and notions of identity. The works take the form of recorded performance of YouTube-learned actions, each associated with learning how to do or become something unfamiliar. The resulting performative experiences have been translated into digital .gif file. The .gif with its repetitive loop is used medium to suggest and question the notion of “practice makes perfect.” The gif versions of myself endlessly attempt to do splits, walk in high heels, and prepare a body for burial even as my physical body is distracted or exhausted. My .gif selves exist in a world where time, energy, and motivation appear to be only limitations to success. The complete work comprises 70 .gif files from which themes develop, each dealing with the questions what you can and cannot learn, and by way of learning become, through time + persistence + YouTube “How to” searches.

HOW TO HOW TO HOW TO: LIFE CYCLE

One theme that emerged was Life Cycle where I look at How To questions that span a lifetime: How to give birth, grow up, mature, age, die, prepare a body for burial, be reborn. I recorded these .gifs in succession in a single day. It was an odd experience, especially preparing my own body for burial. These .gif files are displayed in there ways: in life cycle order, around a circle on a single screen, and each seperately.

How To...

Be reborn

Conceive

Prepare for birth

Give birth

Be mature

Look mature

Age gracefully

Prepare for death

Prepare a body for burial

Be reborn

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