The function of dysfunction is to disrupt any given set of rules. I am interested in this state when it is used to critic existing trends in art and challenge its reification. Here an abnormal event, within a social situation, can drastically alter the codes necessary to forming a clear reading of an art object. Can annoyance disrupt and repel in this way? How does the use of annoyance coerce its audience into an unfamiliar set of terms they would not otherwise give their consent?

My investigation into annoyance and its properties will manifest in two parts, the studio-based practice and a written text. I shall record the performed experiences encountered through my journey in annoyance and set to irritate the reader. My practice-based research will be comprised of sculptural objects and performances that produce unbearable sounds, or objects which fail to perform in their expected function. I shall use modes of working that are new to me to keep a vulnerable tension. I am writing and performing a stand up comedy routine that is void of jokes. Here I intend to provoke the crowd's irritation but attempt to delay inevitable disappointment.

With the written section of my research into annoyance I shall look for a re-reading of contemporary art history as an effort by artists, who sought to change cultural operations and ways of translating art by disturbing market values and their audience. I have begun a series of interviews with various people working in the art industry, although I am already clear that the research will not merely be personal accounts or anecdotes of what people find most annoying. The writing will focus on how the subjects recognise the use of annoyance as a potential tool for change.

Another question I will ask is: what is the pleasure derived from transgressing annoyance that can deliver a sense of achievement? I want to take a closer look at pleasure, as defined by John Cage in his Lecture on Nothing, which immediately follows the curiosity produced from an annoyance. Is my use of annoyance an end in itself or is it to maintain a constantly unsettled state?