The Land Where Content is Made

'The Land Where Content is Made' is a sculptural series of small toys based on the Teletubbies.

(blog originally published on the 'Over Time Blog' March 19th 2021)

Over the last year my research has lead me to look at content creation, and how I can mix the commercial aspects of that with the conceptual fine art that I'm so passionate about... Somewhere into this research my three year old daughter showed me scary Teletubbies, as she called it, but was actually a bootleg video game called slendytubbies a mix of slender man and Teletubbies, later finding out that those games were based on conspiracy theories that went relatively viral on the Internet a few years ago. This peaked my interest... And I started looking at these conspiracy theories. Admittedly I went way too deep down the rabbit hole.. It was Snow piercer being the sequel to Charlie and the chocolate factory all over again.. But the conspiracies got really interesting to me when they started to add in real world evidence. The Teletubby helmets being so big that there was Co2 build up, so the actors could only do 20 minutes in the suites at a time. That mixed with the conspiracy theories of a dystopian land where the Teletubbies are being controlled by nunu.. And mixed with my own research into the show itself, and how it was actually based on this idea of kids starting to grow up with TV at the time of the show first being aired, it was supposed to be the land where TV comes from.. And the show was supposed to represent the time and develop with new technologies.. Which got me thinking about how that fictional land would look now.. In an age of YouTube... The self produced content, and with all the research I'd been doing into being a content creator myself, it all sort of fell into place. So this is the land where Content is made... And its a commentary on the death of the TV age and the beginning of the new Internet content age.

Each character has it's own concept... Tinky Winkies piece is called 'Skip Ad'... My daughters 3 and she watches a lot of YouTube, she's learned where the skip ad button is and so whenever we do watch actual TV and an advert comes on she's tamping! Kicks right off... That's a massive difference from the days of the Teletubbies. My parents tell me that when I was a kid I used to sit in front of the TV playing with plasticine when the shows were on, then when the adverts came on I'd stop playing and watch all the adverts... Maybe that's where the sort of commercial side of my work comes from, I find that shift really interesting.

'Po' is pant-less. This piece is called 'Bedroom Artist' and it comes from the idea of traditional media being a place you'd generally you know, wear a suit... Or at least look quite smart. In the Internet age you could literally be naked underneath the camera... And also it stems from traditional idea of art.. I'm currently in the third year of my degree and art school is interesting in they encourage looking to the future, you research artists who have created new places to exhibit work etc.. Yet, when I first pitched this idea of the sculpt factory... Adapting elements of content creation.. And working from home... I was told. Well see that's what we call bedroom art.. And though it wasn't directly said.. The tone was.. Its a lower form of art.. I don't buy that at all.. I believe the future is within the realm of audience interaction and collaboration... The artist becoming just as much part of the art as the art itself... So it's kind of a statement.. Create art... Don't wear pants!

I will continue this conversation and give and explanation for these characters in the next post;

Thanks for clocking in for some over time today! This place really couldn't run without you! See you on your next shift, Adam