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Parallel Practices - the project with the crafts council and Kings College is featured in Aprils Crafts Magazine - it captures the shift in thinking that occurred during the project -  

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A great day in London with the MA Book Art Students – a road trip – well more like a walking tour taking in 5 galleries and Bond Street. The day was full of wonderfully insightful comments and engaging conversations as ever, with the added layering/reading of the work through a range of cultural lenses and youth. The day was about the lead up to the final shows – looking at display, the use of text and spaces engagement with the work (the viewing experience). But at the same time it’s important to see actual work and for this work to have a diverse range of international voices - The trip took in the American Susan Sze at Victoria Miro – http://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/current/ although still as playful as her work for the Biennale in Venice this show appeared more focused but still playful. motinternational was showing work by the French artist Nil Yalter that she has undertaken whilst working with Kurdish women in Turkey. Tiwani Contemporary had Ruby Onyinyechi’s large scale hybrid drawings, a Nigerian artist who grew up in the UK and now living in the USA. White rainbow was showing Chu Enoki. This Japanese artist has a range of working practices – his head shaving performance piece is still shockingly odd. The ICA has a range of work but we focused on the ‘archive’ shows of Adrian Henri and Dor Guez. One a ‘straight’ archive show the other more nuanced with layers of storytelling and meaning(s). Fig 2 is also on – 50 shows in 50 weeks – exciting, experimental – a wonderfully dynamic way of working.

Bond Street is an interesting location to consider in relation to the idea of display – with London Fashion week in action the windows were quite spectacular. London - another country. 

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3 days of interviews at Norwich University of the Arts – I really enjoy the process of interviewing and feel that I personally work hard at making it a positive experience for the candidates. This is due to the many terrible experiences I have had where the interviewers see it as a combat zone rather than a space to explore opportunities (especially the student who often sees it as a point scoring contest, not the way to get the best from a candidate). This is on top of a really interesting ‘carousel’ process that NUA have instigated. The system includes time for everybody; candidates, interviewer, student and support staff to talk, find their best and reflect - really excellent.  I’m already looking forward to working with the individuals we have offered places to next year.

I’ve been following Casey Neistat http://casey.nyc/ for a while but wanted to share his thoughts on education - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWaQM38Pzf0 2:49  mins in Casey’s advice to students is excellent - 

And then there’s the music – an eclectic mixed bag - a little scary - but isn’t that the point - girlpool blah blah blah blah - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWqzp3JGrRY enjoying the fractured cut up of barney khan - https://soundcloud.com/futuregarage/barney-khan-apakon-edmcom-premiere  old school knob twiddling from CLAP RULES - "123 cantyousee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFEJ97rP588

back to the brutality of mumdance logos with hall of mirrors -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8e4Zg3c1oE so slow its almost pulled over- dirty and bad - unlock the swag rae sremmurd- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM7IprQO82U A slow burn from Levon Vincent - Woman is The Devil- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1AjHY93Sbg

Finally the film made by the crafts council for parallel practices is on line - http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/articles/parallel-practices-1?utm_source=Crafts+Council+Newsletter+%28via+craftscouncil.org.uk%29&utm_campaign=945fe31d5c-Crafts_Council_News_February_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_04051a3fb3-945fe31d5c-85097149

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The architects Kirkham Sheidow have got our house up on their web site – they did a fantastic job on the design and it looks great on their site - all the turmoil of the build is but a shadow - http://www.kirkhamsheidow.co.uk/live/evas-place/

Meanwhile the final episode of Boardwalk Empire has left me feeling bereft. The last series cleverly revealed more of the characters with the use of a fractured narrative and the flashback. The gaps between the now and then getting shorter till they flow in and out towards the end which is wonderfully circular and felt right http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0979432/episodes Strange Love - quite a beautiful slice of life - what you think is going to happen does but just not when you think! Worth a watch and enjoy the light. There is an intriguing show at the South London Gallery.  http://www.southlondongallery.org/ By Isabelle Cornaro it’s a study of order and hierarchy which deconstructs the idea of display – the vistas and framing that takes place as one walks around the pieces is the most interesting element of the experience.

An interesting day at Camberwell – two seminars around becoming visible – one about bookfairs  - we are attending three this year – Bristol, Leeds and Norwich http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/004-bookfair and the other was about creating a catalogue – it’s interesting to consider why one would want one in today’s digital age – the materiality of the object is an important factor.

http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/003-catalogue-what-2015

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Wanted to point to a wonderfully uba-meta show a Book Art student at Camberwell has in New York. ONE AND THREE TWEETS is a collaboration between Fox Irving and Kenneth Goldsmith through the wonders of twitter – http://freddygallery.biz/  taken from the press release - Last fall, Irving started a Twitter account (@OnBeingKennyG) posting images of her hand-drawn renderings of every tweet that Goldsmith posted from his own twitter account(@kg_ubu). Goldsmith, known for his ideas of uncreative writing, is an advocate for plagiarism and identity-theft in the digital age. By hand-rendering every tweet Goldsmith made, Irving celebrated, critiqued, and perpetuated Goldsmith’s stream of provocations.
The show takes its title from Joseph Kosuth’s seminal 1965 work, One and Three Chairs, in which three representations of a chair are presented side-by-side: a real chair, a photograph of a chair, and a dictionary definition of a chair. Similarly, for their exhibition, Goldsmith and Irving will present three representations of a tweet: Goldsmith’s original tweet, Irving’s original drawing of Goldsmith’s tweet, and Irving’s tweet of her drawing. Taking Kosuth’s provocation into the digital age, their collaboration questions ideas of visual representation in the twenty-first century.

It was interesting to watch it unfold at speed from one side - its acknowledgment - the knowingness - connections to involvement – all fascinating.

Meanwhile – the latest iteration of the work in the show in Russia.

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Year 1 Norwich textile students have a show at Craft Co in Southwold http://www.craftco.co.uk/exhibitions1.html - it’s based on the idea of the decorative ribbon – the show works really well as a whole with some individual pieces that really stand out – it’s on till the end of February. Today has been all about the year 3 interim textile show at NUA – Semiotic presentations around the possible meaning of using pegs whilst hanging work, alongside more the practical issues of budgets, social media and deadlines – all good.

Meanwhile - two ‘slight’ films- the wandering around of Witherspoon’s fractured but fairly obvious narrative in Wild http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2305051/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_5  and Woody Allens latest – Magic in the Moonlight http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2870756/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_3 Colin Fith’s thoughts on spiritualism whilst strolling in exotic gardens in the South of France. Both ‘nice’ but they won’t worry you too much. And one unpleasant one - Vice http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3480796/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 this appears to be an excuse to show repetitive graphic abuse of women all wrapped up within a layer of science fiction – what was Bruce Willis thinking?

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So two war films in a row the 'gloriously-grime-blood-soaked and muddy Fury http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2713180/ – the inside of a tank with Brad Pitt – the sound is remarkable - wonderful but alongside the usual madness and futility of war it’s a little wearing. American Sniper http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 - feels on reflection initially like an advert for military action - anywhere - just let me at em! – very Gung Ho with shot after shot of heads and bodies exploding under the waving American flag but I think it’s more nuanced – leaving you with many questions and lots of grey area.

Meanwhile http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/jan/29/aphex-twin-soundcloud-dump-shock-and-delight a little late but I’m busy wading through the 100 or so tracks that Aphex Twin has downloaded to soundcloud – most excellent https://soundcloud.com/user48736353001 so far vocoder disco has caught my ear?