Alan Bell (He/Him)
I work primarily with analogue photography and time-based media. I create signs, focusing on semiotics and space. I document the signs and signals around us that tell us how to live. In doing so, I aim to understand how they affect our behaviour. Especially signs that control space, such as no parking signs and signs that tell us we are being watched/surveilled and industrial areas within cities, which give us a glimpse into the life of people who inhabit these areas. I am also interested in who puts signs up, both private and public, and their aims. Do they want to control space to have some form of control, or are they there to make us behave in a certain way and conform to a particular way of being? It leads me to question the purpose of those signs, why they have been put there, and by whom. Were they put there by public (governmental) or private individuals? I feel that the answers to these questions tell us a lot about the society we live in and who we are as both individuals and as a whole.
CCTV Interventions
My video interventions/public performances aim to make people question the nature of surveillance and behaviour modification. The signs are inspired by the signs around us on a daily basis and may be out of place in the surrounding of the performance. This is intentionally done to make people think about what they mean and how they interact with them. The performances are done through publicly accessible webcams that people can watch live while I interact with them—making the viewer the watcher rather than the watched. They fit into a larger ongoing body of work on surveillance and control.
Degree Show 2023
My Images aim to understand how the signs and semiotics around us affect our behaviour. Questioning who puts the signs up, both private and public, and their aims. Do they want to control space or to have some form of control in their lives, or are they there to make us behave in a certain way and conform to a particular way of being? I feel that the answers to these questions tell us a lot about the society we live in and who we are as both individuals and as a whole.
