Stephen Fox

Born 1984, Western Sydney
Bachelor of Electronic Arts (Hons)
Graduation show: 2004, 2005 (Hons)
Graduation ceremony: 2006

The trace, born out of the erasure, still refers to that which once was, while there is an anticipation of something else slipping through. Like the phantom limb, the trace can be defined in the negative: it is not the past, not the present… or, perhaps as past and presence… either way, the trace is another unknowable outside our reason of everyday objects.

If anything, this task of erasing, importing, rendering, also kept me away from the Z block environment. I stayed in my friend’s room under their house and my days would become nights until I had to come in for theory sessions with Ann Finegan. Yeah no wonder I think I erased my memories in the process.

I feel for Peter Charuk who as my supervisor put up with my sporadic catch-ups where I would show him what I had recently achieved… 30 more seconds on this scene… He’d frown, Where is this going, Stephen?

Read the artwork exegesis here.

I had been making computer music for a few years using the supreme tracker software Buzz. I had dropped maths in my final year of high school and had a pirate copy of Photoshop (who didn’t?).

Electronic Arts had caught my eye in the UWS handbook – it was most definitely not Fine Arts, having access to studios in the School of Music, but being centered around Z block which I knew well from attending Grad shows with my Mum.

Also: enrolment based on interview and portfolio. I played some CDs I had made in my bedroom to Peter Charuk and I think Julian Knowles in a soundproof room. They turned it up to 11 and I couldn’t hear their questions.

In some ways Z block had very little that I needed, I never required studio space and my main interaction with the space was to paint rooms black to screen my grad show videos. But still, who needs studio space, when more important things happen…

Like sticking a sheep’s heart into an ugg boot for Creative Strategies (…this week’s theme is Inside Out now put your work on a 2m x 2m square in the car park).

TV Moore’s hats. Alex White getting in fights with him. About the hats? No, but they didn’t help.

Daniel Green is the only person I’ve actually witnessed breaking a ukulele at the end of a rock show. He bled.

How much earth does it take to cover a mountain made singlehandedly out of timber and chicken wire? Adam Costenoble would know. I remember the change of temperature as I climbed into it. It sat within Z block for weeks, the turf slowly turning brown.

Ben Denham floating mid-air writing ambidextrously against massive sheets of paper in Z block.

Why should a course like Electronic Arts exist - in Kingswood of all places? Nothing echoes along the plains, that's for sure. In my final year grad show I had the chance to make a statement in front of those attending. I was nervous, so I made a joke and slipped away. Since then I've regretted not taking that opportunity seriously. I'd like to thank Peter Charuk, Joyce Hinterding, Ann Finegan, David Haines, Julie Rrap. Also Daniel Green, Adam Costenoble, Alex White, William Noble, Emily Morandini, who all remain impressive and inspiring in my brain.

The video above is a copy of the work when shown by dLux MediaArts as part of SynCity in 2006. SynCity showcased 25 years of sampling-themed work.

It was curated by Mark Titmarsh who had been the independent assessor for our Honours year exegesis. I have a copy of it with his notes: I underline where you make a good point: I didn’t feel the need to underline anything on pages 18-20.

Soda_Jerk showed it as part of The Late Sessions at George St Cinema, also in 2006.  Someone bootlegged it and showed it as part of Jakarta Film Festival in 2009. Martijn Hendricks is a Dutch artist who apparently has erased the birds from the whole bloody film (2009).