This podcast resonated with the themes of Maze quite closely, in that Kelly is also interested in mapping the precariousness of marginalised individuals – particularly artists in this case. Through a series of interviews with artists, she demonstrates how they cope with the material challenges of surviving as a creative person. This podcast has greatly informed my writing for Maze Part 2.
Walking in the City: A Reflection Essay by Michel de Certeau
Published in Certeau's book, The Practice of Everyday Life (translated by Steven Rendall, 1984), the key concepts of this essay forms the foundation of Maze. Through the metaphor of walking in New York City, Certeau's idea of individuals exercising agency to navigate systemic landscapes is the basic design of Maze. It is through this text that I have often made sense of my lived experience.
Quilla Constance
Quilla Constance's work has inspired many of the ways in which I think about navigating patriarchal capitalist systems. – particularly, her performance work trying to subvert her own practice in a culture that is constantly trying to commodify creative work. Quilla's work introduced me to the Situationist International which has also informed how I present the world of Maze in my works.
She Keeps Me Damn Alive Artwork by Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley
She Keeps Me Damn Alive is everything that I had wanted my project Cerebral Circus to be. For me, this work is the perfect work of art – drawing you into a darkly-humorous world where through your interaction you consider the deeply troubling lived experiences of others who may not share your privilege. This is the standard that I try to work towards so I can build work that is similarly profound and impactful.
You Are Jeff Bezos Game by Kris Lorischild
This indie game by Kris Lorischild is a simple text based multiple-choice narrative where the player simply has to make choices to spend all of Jeff Bezos' money. The game demonstrates that it is practically impossible to do so, even if you do out of the world things like shoot yourself into space. I am very drawn to the simplicity of the interaction in this work and how impactful it is still. This is something I try to emulate.
The Big Short (2015) Film by Adam McKay
Through this film about the Wall Street crash I began to understand how the infuriatingly intricate financial system works. As far as I can tell from this film and subsequent research, the stock market is a place where the 1% gamble on collective human behaviour. To me, this is no less absurd than looking for your future in tarot cards. This understanding has directly shaped Maze Part 2
The Spider's Web – Britain's Second Empire (2018) Documentary by Michael Oswald
This film investigates the power relationships that underly the functioning of the global markets. In no uncertain terms, it concludes that the financial system we have inherited today has been built throughout the colonial period to ensure that the wealth generated by the erstwhile colonies gets channelled back to their former colonisers and the United States. This directly impacts individuals and their lives in the global south.
Extended Research
I have been interacting with the Wellcome Collection over the last few months, in the hope of finding personal narratives of people with mental health conditions. Though I have not found exactly this yet, I have come across a very rich visual collection showing how mental "illness" has been represented historically, and also, how the people with mental health conditions were represented. This research and some of the visual material will feature in the next instalment of Maze.
This archive supplements my research at the Wellcome Collection. Mainly, the works I have encountered in this archive help me to contextualise disabled bodies in an inherently ableist and neurotypical system.
This archive is very important for the production of Maze as most of the backgrounds on Maze are drawn from here. I explain more about how I use this archive in my process page.