Anna Shankie (she/her)
My practice emphasises the playful and intuitive nature of the creative process, with a focus on providing space for individuals to engage in free-form experimentation and play. I aim to create a sense of accessibility and familiarity through using humour to engage an audience with a space. I use found and low-tech materials of a DIY aesthetic to do this, while also exploring the potential that these materials hold in evoking feelings of childhood memories or nostalgia. By using space as a collaborator, I seek to build immersive and interactive experiences for people; inviting them to reflect, engage, and explore their own creativity.
just tryna find my karaoke song
My degree show work “just tryna find my karaoke song” is an interactive karaoke installation documenting my journey to finding my karaoke song (I’ve still not found it). The aesthetic of the karaoke room is influenced by the familiar environment of Glasgow pub karaoke with elements of the dramatic silliness that are seen in these set-ups; a fake flame, disco light, disco tiles and a modest stage to perform on.
7 songs play in a loop on the lyric screen, and they are recordings of me singing along to 7 songs that were requested by fellow students in the Stow building. These request slips are shown on a noticeboard in the space, and there are blank request slips that you can add your own requests on and I will send you a recording of me singing the song. There are two microphones in the space so that people can sing-a-long! I welcome you to join me on my journey to finding my karaoke song!
Goofy
“Goofy” is a publication which I organised and curated that invited submissions that interpret goofiness from people with and without arts education. I designed a poster for the call-out in the style of a primary school tea towel, to reflect the freedom of making and reverting to childhood in the creative process. I held a publication launch event at Kiosk Gallery, where I curated a physical space to emulate the publication. I offered free tattoos at the entrance and encouraged visitors to mark themselves with a symbol of goofiness and had a “draw yourself” wall so that everyone could make a mark on the space which created a new kind of primary school tea towel of everyone who had visited. The event created an interactive and playful environment reminiscent of childhood experiences.
Follow @goofy.pub on instagram for future updates on how to submit to Issue No.2!
SPORE
SPORE was a club performance at “Creature” in Stereo, Glasgow. I wanted to make a performance that was a birthing of a creature at the first Creature event that could evolve with each club night. So, I birthed “Spore” out of an egg with lots of slime. I drew inspiration from Spore the PC game. The opening gameplay is tiny cells swimming around liquid trying to join to other cells to evolve their species, when you get to each new stage of evolution you can modify your species appearance (The stronger they are, the further you get in the game.) To scale this action to my body, I decided to make an egg structure and fill it with slime to reenact what it feels like to evolve from liquid, and so this would be the first stage of Spore’s evolution. The performance lasted 20 minutes (around 10 minutes inside the egg and 10 minutes on and around the stage). You can watch an edited film of the performance in the youtube video below, shot by Chloe Oliver.
