buildingfaster

i have mainly been working on the Moulsham street project this week – there have been some interesting developments around material use and creative possibilities. i spent a really interesting morning meeting with some past pupils from Moulsham School. they had many wonderful stories that i am sure will in some way find themselves into the project. in general i also found out about British restaurants – set up during the war to provide a meal – i will follow this up after the project. meanwhile we on the BA Textile Course at NUCA are working on migrating the course to another framework, building systems for learning, i had a day of feedback sessions for the MATC students and on Saturday went to faster than sound at Snape Maltings and watched FM Einheit ex of Einsturzender Neubauten (who I saw set fire to a curtain at North London Poly in 1983ish) smash breeze blocks on a metal tray miked up while being accompanied by Susan Stenger on lap top and Steve Tyler on Hurdy Gurdy – all accompanied by a film from Iain Sinclair – fantastic.

somephotosfromthefiles

a wonderful and brutally functional smoking space

'healthandsafetygonemad' sign on lowestoft seawall pointing out the possible dangers

assessingothers

a solid week of assessments at NUCA at both BA and MA level means that saturday brings a welcome relief to looking at the work of students, reading feedback forms and making judgements on others but not rest as i'm working on the proposals for Moulsham street in Chelmsford – the ideas are very contained by the structures, restrictions and positions within and around the project but there are some interesting possibilities emerging.

noagendaasagenda

writing this at a meeting at Snape Maltings of the arts futures the arts community strand of Alde and Ore futures project http://www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/yourdistrict/coast/aldeore/default.htm . it is a collection of artists who have come together in an attempt to respond to the future environmental issues in line for the area where we live. i am unsure if this group is aware of what it is attempting to be part of – what is its intention? – if it has one – the conversation has turned to the value of the landscape – the emotional attachment and connection to landscape humans have – i am interested in exploring questions like what is the role of the artist? what do we as creative people bring to the issues?
the meeting appears to have no agenda – or maybe that is the agenda. the question of a conference galvanised Laurence Edwards http://www.globo.org.uk/laurence/bio.html and helped formulate a focus – what is the best way to relate to ‘conference’ – it was fascinating to see people concerned about upsetting people and how the creative voice feels marginalised in that we fear using our own language to communicate – but the idea that artists have mediated our understanding of landscape and issues of the sublime made me think – we look and ask questions – why not do that with the language of the consultant and environment agency? – so we have homework which looks like finding text(s) with a view to deconstruction – looking at the system itself – sounds interesting – we shall see.

endofalongweek

its the end of a long week of organising the timetables and assessing - the Textile Culture, Drawing and Creative Writing MAs at NUCA, Midpoint review at Camberwell. finishing off on friday with a meeting in Chelsmford about the Moulsham St development. in between there was some making art/creative thinking for the redevelopment as well as some exciting research around the properties in the street over the years - favourite occupation so far Samuel Turner - basket maker and osier merchant in 1851 along with Thomas Joseph Austins 'fancy repository' in 1914.

dictionaryoftouchanditspossiblenon-uses

a busy day at Camberwell – the midpoint review on the MA Book Art is a labyrinthine exercise of Kafkaesque qualities (this is for all courses) with students having their work looked at and spoken about without responding, notes are made by a chosen scribe, tutors chair but try not to lead the discussion and because of all this actual learning takes place. this is a more rigorous, enriching process for the students with a focus on their work rather than the endless explanations that often support poor work and the dragging down of the average crit – the books have to stand on their own. there was a number of exciting starting points for discussion - an interesting idea about books finding their role – often falling between specific genres, strong performative possibilities present within the work, looking at the reader becoming performer - performing the work, the book as an instrument or tool to unlock or have a purpose, building a personal (individual) dictionary of touch and its possible non-uses. again some excellent work has created and it all looks good for the future– i am looking forward to the answers to whats next?

aplacetodosomething

another walk - a place to do something - the trees in the next valley are growing into quite a disturbing wood - it would be interesting to do something there, possibly moving image and thread and fabric or maybe the photographs of bare trees are enough – Checkhov and performances of the Cherry Orchard come to mind.

documentingchange

over the break i realised that one of my favourite walks is to be changed - the trees on the walk are to be cut down so i set about documenting the wood. walking amongst the trees i realised that i will never see the landscape like this again so the action of photographing became something of a proto-wake.