becomingalecturer

Symposium 2 at Camberwell – within the MAs at Camberwell the concept of the symposium was something that the MA Book Art instigated and developed - it is now standard practice. it’s interesting to compare today’s experience with symposium 1 at the beginning of the year – effectively an introduction to the students previous work and MA Project proposal. the majority of the students have developed a confidence in their practice and an understanding of their subject – there were some exciting possibilities within the presentations in terms of projecting what they might do for the final show and their careers in general. i found the discussion around audience, ownership and authorship fascinating and as ever had to consider my own practice in the light of one student who was setting up systems for the creation of ‘collaborative’ work with the public. this was with the intention of making work but unbeknown to them, a really interesting political, philosophical and cultural set of questions arose.

bitsofpaperasawayforward

working on the Moulsham street project – trying to explain the layout of the proposal by printing out the texts and sticking them to large bits of paper. it is starting to look exciting – i think the pile of texts allude nicely to many possibilities – something the whole art area of the project attempts to embody - the ability of the individual to generate an infinite number of narratives – the opportunity to make up one’s own stories.

studentsareinteresting

an interesting day in London with level 2 MATC NUCA students – a visit to backstage at the national theatre to the dye room – “i never knew so much went into what happens on stage” then onto white cube “can’t stand the heat – couldn’t this be put to some use - plugged into the hospital to warm babies” and then the quilt show at the V&A – “quilts = madness”. students are interesting.

assessmentsareformative

a wonderful day at Camberwell working on the Book Art MA – mid-point formative assessment – work on a table - rigorous analytical discussion about art what more could one want? favourite phrase of the day - "a swiss army knife of a flag" - you had to be there.... later a meeting in the degree show spaces – some wonderful potential for site specific work.

somesketches

Le Vieux Village at Piégros La Clastre in France provides the most glorious views over the valley down to the river and one can’t help but get some sketching done – here are a few drawings completed in the early morning before everybody was up and eating a breakfast of local boudin noir with home-made sour dough bread. the last one shows the development of a potential bookwork.

visitingtheoldworld

Ecole des Beaux-Arts -Valence

the free paper store

universal bad parking

covered buildings

cloth in public

an interesting few days in France starting in Nimes – alongside visiting all the usual roman ruins i added to my collection of images – universal bad parking, cloth in public and covered buildings. the Carré d'art by Norman Foster had excellent shows by isa melsheimer and michael raedecker. later we stayed with Matthew Tyson and Isabella Oulton of imprints. http://www.imprints-editions.com/index.html and were invited to look around Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Valence, France by Melanie Kenyon the international studies coordinator (they are taught english as part of their art education) – fascinating to discuss the differences between two art education experiences. they have 120 people at the college a 1 to 8 student staff ratio with extensive facilities and space and appeared not to comprehend the concept of learning outcomes and assessment procedures but they can feel it’s chill coming like a tsunami and it was interesting to support their understanding alongside promises of documentation – it would be possible for 20 students to work in the store they keep for the students supply of free paper.

materialsandstructure

easter means spending some time in the studio - initially organising the materials in the studio which has led to working on a new series of bookworks that explore the structure of book and the idea of measurement and landscape. looking forward to being in france at the end of the week where i get to develop work on some landscape drawings.