Arteles Catalogue 2023-2020

Write & Create program / OCTOBER 2022
Zoe Mars
Australia
www.zoemars.com
About
I’m an interdisciplinary artist who explores themes of
obsolescence and disappointment, and I’m obsessed with
the outdated, forgotten and failed. My previous projects have
included an audio tour of an abandoned aerospace museum,
a performance as the Ghost of Computers Past, and an
algorithmically-generated animation of an endless subway
escalator.
What ghosts and traces of the past lurk around us? What
happens to our hopes and aspirations—both collective and
individual—when they fail to pass? I like to articulate these
ideas through references and homages to classic sci-fi,
technology and design.
Cassettes, conversations
I arrived at Arteles with eight hours of digitised early-90s
self-help cassette tapes and the beginnings of an idea. With
time to dive deeply into this material, space to experiment,
and an interdisciplinary group of peers with whom to share
and discuss work, I was able to develop the outline, first draft
and prototype recordings for a new audio piece in which a
(de)motivational speaker guides the listener along a shared
descent into blissful, metaphysical failure.
My process: feeding strange and diverse raw material into
my brain, patiently letting it percolate, and grabbing what
eventually bubbled up to the surface. I especially appreciated
the collaboration and cross-pollination that naturally took
place through close proximity to others’ practices and
explorations.
While nothing in the audio script directly references Arteles
or the people I met there, its narrative, topics and sensory
details were shaped by the conversations and experiences we
shared: success and responsibility, what lurks underground
in the forest, body awareness in the sauna, and manipulating
the signals and frequencies of an ancient TV.