Transcript of Interview with Zoe Stonyk for The Cable Project, November 18 2004

Conducted by Louis Marrone for The Cable Project

Okay so um start with your name

Okay, I'm Zoe Stonyk

...and a little bit of your your artistic background.

Yeah um I'm primarily a performance artist.I also work in sort of video installation. Um I've graduated a couple years ago from OCAD in the integrated media department working in film and video and focusing on performance art.

And so what type of uh in terms of recent works have you been involved in?

Well, do you want what, a description ...

... an idea of what your work all about?

Uh like do you want a vague description or something more specific?

How about you describe your last ...

Okay. I did uh a piece as part of uh TAFI, the Toronto Alternative Arts Fair, in which I was dressed as kind of a Catherine Hepburn-asque sort of world traveler in a sort of a suit in a fur stole with a big hat, and I was sitting in alone in a room that was roped off as though it was like a museum exhibit. And I had a large projection behind me of intercut scenes between The Shining and Last Year At Marienbad, so it was all these scenes of these long tracking shots down hallways of opulent hotels, and I just sat silently in this chair and read No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre to myself over and over again, and the nice thing about that is the setting was actually in the yoga studio of the Drake Hotel. So it was sort of commenting on this ... the almost sinister potential of these transient spaces of of like a hotel or something like that. So yeah, so I've often incorporated things from films and popular culture and television pop music into into my work.

So how would you rate your popular culture knowledge?

Pretty high. I try to sort of stay on the ball. I find the attitude of sort of, oh, I don't watch television or whatever, to be a to be a bit narrow minded, actually. Some people think that they're sort of not polluting their minds with the garbage on television, but end up kind of being out of touch, I think, in a cultural way. And I think that it is important to at least know what the values and mores of our society are, whether or not you choose to agree with those is up to your own decisions. But if the rest of society thinks that shows like The Bachelor are a good idea, you're still operating within the society that has that attitude. So it's kind of a 'know your enemy' sort of scenario in a lot of ways.

So how much TV would you say you watched before you ever met Timothy?

A fair amount. I'm, you know, I ... my television had uh suffered a trauma of sorts so that it only received two channels. But it's amazing how much I was able to suck out of those two channels. I got the CBC and I got CTV. And so CTV shows all of the the great sort of hottest crap. And the CBC, I like a lot of the the CanCon stuff that it has and I like getting my news from a Canadian perspective and stuff. So I haven't rejected those as media sources, even though now I have a whole rainbow of choices.

And what would you say are your 'must sees'?

I'm definitely The Daily Show with John Stewart ...

Oh sorry, I mean ... oh is that on CTV?

It's on CTV, oh yeah, yeah oh, it's at uh 12:05 right after the news. Yeah, um a friend of mine got me hooked on The OC, which is a guilty pleasure. Um the uh oh, what else um the uh the next generation of DeGrassi I got to say being an original DeGrassi fan and seeing repeats of the characters in the new show. That was a favorite and I'm blushing now. I'm all like embarrassed talking about. Like it's such such a guilty secret because it seems so declasé to be, you know, into television. But uh yeah ... then I watched the news generally on a daily basis.

Why did you ... [recording interupted]. Well okay why don't we start there; so why did you describe The OC ..

Back to that... Um gee, I guess because I don't really associate myself with that target audience. I mean, since it is a show geared towards teenagers and ... and it is a something that's not considered, I guess ... oh, I don't know how to word what I'm trying to say. [long pause] I guess it's trying to appeal to a mass audience and that I like to think of myself as somewhat more of a cultural elitist that that I'm you know I want to think that I'm too good for ... for that which is targeted towards the the masses in general and especially the sort of 16 year-old girl masses. But but heck, I mean, it's it is a well-written show and it's amusing and I guess I shouldn't feel guilty about that. But but yeah, I think that there is an element of cultural snobbery in that that I want. I and I also think it's a product of sort of growing up at the interest in kind of the alternative culture, whatever, that I don't want to like things that are popular, that I I fight against that, that I I don't want to have any any real dealings with the mainstream, but, you know, it's that's a bullshit, really.

Well, in your in your opinion, would you say that art is specifically not popular?

That's I mean, that's a tricky thing that I think that we've moved from thinking that art isn't a popular thing into thinking that art can be, but that generally, there there is still, I think, an element of elitism there, that even though we like to think, oh, well, this can appeal to it to everybody. Like everybody isn't interested. And as much as it attempts to not be elitist, it still is, I think. I think that there's there's only a select part of the population that that cares about art. And often it's people that are that are also cultural producers that are educated people that that I think that it does still have a sort of an a niche market.

So can you explain to me the process by which you became involved in this project?

The process by which I became involved, how I project in this cable project? That I I don't really know that, as I was saying earlier, I was coming out of a coffee shop one day and Timothy was sitting outside and uh and he stopped me and said hello and I didn't know who he was. I sort of doubled back and said, like, I don't think we've met before and he said that we hadn't, but he gotten my name through someone else and that he was trying to get me cable television. So just kind of out it really happened out of the blue.

And you had no reservations about getting the cable?

Oh, well, actually I did. I've had cable before and I had quite an addiction to it. My worst addiction was to professional wrestling. I got really badly into that and as a result I had to I had to cut myself off from cable. I was getting all of the pay-per-view events. I started getting magazines and going to live events. And it got really out of hand and I was spending I was spending a lot of money on it and at one point I actually came home from work exhausted, ordered up a pay-per-view, fell asleep on the couch and realized that I just slept through a $30 TV show and after that I cut off the cable.

What was it about wrestling that you liked?

Oh, it's the storyline. It's the total melodrama. It's like a like a a soap opera, but with physical confrontations of such a magnitude. It's yeah, it definitely like I still get together with some friends and watch like like the pay-view events, but uh but I try to, you know, one a time I I flip past it. I don't want to fall back in the old habits.

So how long have you had cable now?

Oh, how long has it been? It's been about a month.

And what package do you have?

I don't know. I have 70 channels, so I don't know what that it's it's not as many as my parents have, but you know, it's it's still it's more than enough.

And are you watching more TV now?

Oh, I totally am, definitely. But I think that that's also in part to the fact that I since I've injured myself, I'm pretty much housebound. And so I I now know things that I never knew before. I now know that SpongeBob is on at six o'clock. And yeah, I can say I've been watching a lot of television.

Are you able to give me your viewing schedule?

Oh, um Well, I don't see that's it. I don't really remember my schedule at all because yesterday I remember I was flipping channels sort of halfway through a show and realized that there was another better show that was on and that I should have been watching that and um yeah, I uh I don't know. I I try to hit as many of the uh the kind of the the the hour long crime dramas, the CSI and the law and orders and stuff. I really enjoy those. So I try to keep a keep a grasp on when those are on and uh oh, and they're showing all the episodes of uh of My So Called Life again. I think that's on at eleven that's try to try to make that ...

Which one was that?

... with Claire Danes, then like the totally nineties, um I don't know, like I guess it was like a like a kind of a soap opera drama kind of thing.

[unintelligible]...younger kid?

No, it was teenagers. It was teenagers and there was this sort of the nerdy boy next door and there was the dream boat that she was in love with. And it was the, you know, it was so nineties. The dialogue in the show is just riddled with "like, you know", "so, whatever", and a lot of slouchy big plaid shirts and oh, just it's yeah, it definitely.

So I guess I guess saying that I'm I'm into The OC now and that I'm all embarrassed about that. I mean, having been into My So Called Life in the nineties, I guess I've always been secretly, really into bad teen dramas.

So you're stuck at home basically?

Pretty much, yeah.

You think that you're watching more TV than you would have if you just had your two channels?

Oh yeah, definitely.

Are you watching TV instead of what you watching TV instead of doing?

Well, I don't think that it's really instead of doing anything because I don't just really sit and watch TV. I've never been that kind of person who just sort of zones out in front of the television that I'm always doing something else while I'm watching television. Like I I made all of my Christmas cards a couple of days ago. I've been doing sewing and knitting projects that I'll I'll draw on my my sketchbook or whatever. I'm always doing something else while I'm I've got that like I'll just have the television on while I'm cooking or while I'm doing other things. So I'm not just sort of sitting and zoning out in front of the television.

In terms of your artistic outlook, do you think it's having any any effect at this point on your this point?

At this point I'm still trying to wrap my head around a lot of stuff. Um generally the way that I that I'll work in all of my products is there'll be something in that I'll that I'll find either through a movie or through television or whatever that will get stuck in my head, that'll become like like a broken record the way a song would get stuck in your head, but it'll be a concept and idea. 'How come people really seem to gravitate towards this idea?' Like the motif of in a high school cafeteria that the popular kids always sit at the one table and that you really want to be invited to that table? And I'll try to think about what that means and that a piece may come from that idea. It may not, but but that it'll be an idea that starts really haunting me and then I'll realize that I want to explore that within an artistic context. So nothing's really jumped out at me yet as an idea that I want to pursue, but I'm I'm pretty much sure that something will because that's usually the my modus operandi for coming up with artistic ideas.

So overall then how would you rake the effect of cable TV on your life thus far?

As a double-edged sword, I think in some ways, it it's it's good in in that I know that a wealth of inspiration will come from that, whether it's immediately apparent or whether it takes some time to gestate. But but also, I mean, I like I could be reading a book. I could be doing other stuff and and that uh that it's it may be really distracting me from things that that I could be doing otherwise. I don't feel quite so bad about it since since I've got this injury and, you know, I can justify it that way. But uh but that it it always does seem like kind of it's it's sort of an anti-ocial activity that sitting and watching television doesn't you know, you're not you're not out there being part of the the real world and you.

So at this point, keep it in mind that you have this foot injury. How many hours a day are you watching?

Gee, with this injury, I'll honestly say about five, which is way more than I normally would. Normally I'd sort of watch maybe two on a big TV day. So, yeah, I'm definitely watching watching more.

Okay ... [unintelligble]

No, I don't think so. ... Okay. I have a friend who opted out of doing the project. I think that she'd been approached as if she wanted to be one of the artists to have the television and said that you know she thought about it and thought that it would be too much of an intrusion on her life and that she would just become too focused on that. She's done some really brilliant pieces that have used actual footage from television, sort of manipulated to make some really interesting comments on the values in our society and stuff. And so I just thought that was interesting that even though she's used television as actual material in her artwork, that she didn't want to be part of the project because she felt that it would really consume too much of her time and that I guess that she has a different relationship towards television than I do, as I was saying before, how I when I'm watching television, I like to do other things while I'm watching. She's the kind of person who definitely just sits and watches television. And I can understand that being something that you wouldn't necessarily want to have around, that it can really, being inundated with that much stuff. I mean, if you've just got sort of whatever your antenna can pick up, then that's what you're getting and you can kind of process that much stuff. But sometimes it is really difficult to process how much stuff is coming through 70 channels of television that, you know, you that you can flip from watching like an infomercial for some slimming girdle device to watching CNN and then to watching kids shows and rock videos and what. Like it's it's such a barrage and that sometimes it really does make your brain do backflips.

And actually in terms of I have you on, in terms of news, do you like the CBC News you have different news sources

It's funny like on the election night in the states, I was just flipping like crazy through every channel like that I would mostly out of frustration that I would sort of I sticked with CNN for for a long time and then I sticked - I stuck with this with CNN for a while and then like eventually it would just become too frustrating. It would really ... So the commentary was just getting really frustrating and trying to I think it was a desperate hope that if I flipped enough channels that I would somehow get the result that I wanted to hear, which was just obviously futile, but that if you start to realize the subtleties in the spin and that even if you can't get the result that you want, maybe you can hear a more sympathetic angle on things that's more aligned with what your viewpoint is. I thought that it was really interesting just this morning on the radio hearing that uh the CRTC is trying to figure out whether or not the Fox Network, the Fox News Network should be allowed in Canada. And there's a lot of debate over whether or not like a right-wing American news station should be allowed on in Canada. And the debates on both sides of that well, 'it should be up to us to decide whether, you know, whether or not we agree with this'. But then also, as Canadians, we have bodies like the CRTC in place to to decide what what is appropriate to be on Canadian television. So that's an interesting debate. And uh and it's it's amazing the the difference in in slant of of news stories out there that that it's not just a presentation of information that it's so much more than that. And it's really interesting to be able to to see that that subtle variance in having so many voices to choose from.