To showcase the artworks created by Matthew and the Associates, Matthew has worked with the artist and coder Rob Smith to interrupt the Open School East website with videos, animations, sound and text.

The interruptions include a video player on the homepage, with a slider that allows visitors to set the level of interruption they wish to experience from 0-100%; purple text inserts that randomly place a buzzword within the body text of every page; animated gifs that spin across visitors’ screens; digital collages and found images that replace all the images on a page; flashing text works and text that slowly fades up over the website; unexpected sound pieces; and combined interruptions of sound, text and animation in which you are booed, cheered, or laughed at.

These artworks relate to the themes of performativity, attention, interruption and emotion that have been explored in the seminars hosted by Matthew in spring 2020. And, having been made over the various stages of the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK, the works return again and again to ideas of crisis, social isolation, political performances and electronic communication.

Some of the works riff on sub-linguistic communication such as beeping, cheering and booing and hand gestures. Some respond to the symbolic potential of physical gestures of clapping, coughing and spinning, or activities that have gained a resonance in the pandemic: fiddling with objects while on a video call, or walking in a park. Other works seek to represent the visual details of the pandemic: gloves and masks, graffiti, memes and conspiracy theories on social media. A few works grapple with the wider political upheaval related to the Coronavirus, and political movements such as Black Lives Matter, that have gained momentum over this period.

Below is a full list of artworks. Some are artworks that could be displayed in a physical exhibition such as videos, sound pieces and collages. Some are more like digital instruction pieces in which multiple pieces of content are randomized and displayed, performing differently for each visitor to the website.

Works by OSE Associates (all 2020)

• Jeny Boat, Come on My Son, video, 1m 00s
• Hannan Jones, Untitled, text piece & …. . .-. .     ..     .- —, sound and text insert
• Molly Lester, Beep Beep, video, 0m 49s seconds
• Katarzyna Lukasik, There Really is/There is no Such Thing as Society, sound piece, 0m 50s
• Sid Smith, Red Dress Chicken Vine, video and drawing

Works by Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau (all 2020)

Videos

• The Performativity of Clapping, video, 2m 54s
• What can Spinning be?, video 4m 37s
• Things I Fiddle With on my Desk While on Video Calls, video, 7m 23s
• Things We’ve Seen in the Park, video, 17m 06s
• Strange Goings On: Man with a jiffy bag on his head with RELIABLE on it wandering round Peckham Rye!, video with performance, 3m 34s, performed by Daniel Oliver
• Chaturbate performativity clapping issue – any techy people out there give us a bit of a hand?, video with performance, 3m 55s, performed by Daniel Oliver
• Pandemic Poem lol, video with performance, 5m 17s, performed by Daniel Oliver

Works that replace images on the website

• Masks, digital collage
• Gloves, digital collage
• Make the Rich Pay for Covid-19, digital collage
• Clapping, digital collage
• Coughing, digital collage
• Wittgenstein Screengrabs, screenshots taken from Derek Jarman’s 1993 film Wittgenstein
• Rollerblade on Yellow, animated GIF
• Ice Skates Listen Here on Yellow, animated GIF
• Skateboard Let me Speak on Yellow, animated GIF
• Roller Skates Cursed/Blessed on Yellow, animated GIF
• Skateboard Pay Attention on Yellow, animated GIF Edward Colston
• Edward Colston Rolling Scrub, animated GIF

Works that appear as animated or still overlays on the website

• Broadcast diagrams, 7 x vector images with transparent backgrounds
• Roller Skates Blessed/Cursed Alpha, animated GIF
• Roller Skates Spinning Alpha, animated GIF
• Ice Skates Listen Here Alpha, animated GIF
• Rollerblades How can a Feeling Alpha, animated GIF
• Skateboard Let me Speak Alpha, animated GIF
• Skateboard Pay Attention Alpha, animated GIF
• Edward Colston Statue Toppling Alpha, animated GIF
• Edward Colston Statue Rolling Alpha, animated GIF
• Edward Colston Statue Submerging Alpha, animated GIF

Buzzwords, appearing as purple, italicised words in the text of the website

• ¯_(ツ)_/¯ , Undermining, Level up, Track and Trace, PPE, Antibodies, Epidemiology, Incidence, Toilet Plume, Distribution, Aerosols, Pathogens, Control, Viral Load, Longhauler, Suppression, Depression, Vaccine, Slump, Local Lockdown, Wet Market, Pangolin, 5G, Penne, Toilet Paper, Fragility, Paranoia, Anxiety, Resentment, Isolation, Keep Back, Aesthetics, Patriots, School meals, 20 points ahead, Redistribution, Insurrection, Progressive taxation, Surveillance, Guilt, Distancing, Current Mood, Disillusionism, Commission, Revolutionary, Restoration, Reaction, Reform, Attention, Blessing, Curse, Capitulation, Collaboration, text inserts

Animated text works, flashing as an overlay on the website

• Stop, animated text
• Clap, animated text
• Spin, animated text
• Muffling, animated text
• Ding Dong, animated text
• Doing and Saying, animated text
• Pay Attention, animated text

Audience Reaction – Randomly selected sounds, animated gifs and text inserts that appear at the same time.

• Big Clapper, animated GIF
• Medium Clapper, animated GIF
• Small Clapper, animated GIF
• Thumbs Down, animated GIF
• Thumbs Up, animated GIF
• Laughing, animated GIF
• Clapping Hands Pair, animated GIF
• Clapping Hands Sing, animated GIF
• Crowd noises, collection of audience sounds, including booing, cheering and laughter
• Comedy Stings, collection of comedy sound effects
• Hahahahahahahahaha, text insert
• Yaaaaaayyyyyyyyy, text insert
• Booooooooo!!!!!!!, text insert