aweekendoforganisingtheweek

a weekend of planning and organising the week to come – catalogue conversations with the year 3 students at NUCA and presentation of the wallpaper history competition but there was also an evening at the dance house in ipswich to see Luca Silvestrini's Protein dance presents LOL (lots of love). http://www.lollotsoflove.net/ some interesting ideas around social networking and our relationship to and within it – the section about second life was particularly well observed - a world premiere which is now on a huge tour – i would recommend checking it out. while we are there i have to recommend tuning in to Radio 1xtra monday night (31 01 11) at 7pm to catch the Gentleman's Dub Club session http://www.myspace.com/gentlemansdubclub from Maida Vale. a most wonderful sound and if you are looking for a good night out - a great live experience - also fire is on repeat on my ipod.

blogastool

I have been promoting the idea of the blog with the students on the Textiles BA at NUCA – there is some interesting work and thinking out there.
http://lottybates.tumblr.com/
http://textilelou.blogspot.com/
http://cassiesecker.blogspot.com/
http://cassiesecker.tumblr.com/
http://lucywallis.tumblr.com
http://man-with-hat.blogspot.com/
http://thebaxterbrand.blogspot.com/
http://xlostintranslationx.blogspot.com/
http://scarlettsunday.tumblr.com/
http://lindasadler.blogspot.com/
redheadrach@tumblr.com
http://creative-nutshell.blogspot.com/
http://pilsook.blogspot.com/
http://emmacopetextiles.tumblr.com/
http://emmacopetextiles.blogspot.com/
http://meltingpot13.tumblr.com/
http://ninafalk.blogspot.com/
http://rachellobban.blogspot.com/
www.missfoster.tumblr.com
http://morabmusic.blogspot.com/
http://emilyrosebarnes.blogspot.com/
http://creative-threads.co.uk
http://rainbowtigerlily.tumblr.com/
http://electrictigerlily.blogspot.com/
www.itsthewooluf.blogspot.com

celebratingtheindividual

i have been at NUCA 3 days this week and have felt embedded – some really good teaching experiences happened – especially supporting individual students practice. we are also looking at rethinking the final show presenting a more visible/commercial experience which will mean a lot more work but will be good for the student’s professional outlook. i have been reminded this week of the TED talk by Barry Schwartz: Using our practical wisdom, in which he derides the current trend for rules and targets and talks about trusting your wisdom and celebrating the individual. http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_using_our_practical_wisdom.html

in-between i delivered the work for the exhibition at UCS and worked on rewind which is moving on.

expandedmulti-narrativestonebookwork

working on the layout for one of the pieces intended to be in the Suffolk New College exhibition in my corridor over the weekend ended up looking at bit like this - an expanded multi-narrative stone bookwork

teachingteachingteaching

teaching teaching teaching – and organising - i have been heavily into running seminars and workshops on PDP at NUCA – working mainly with year 2 on ideas such as professional practice http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/level-2-professional-practice audiences http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/012-relationships-with-audience and the idea of context http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/context-why-how-and-what-it-means. it is all an attempt to get the students to consider themselves as professionals - work on the application to rewind continues with inroads into the creation of giffs.

validatingintuitionasmethodology

a spectacularly good two days of teaching – Monday working with Surface Design at NUCA exploring the concept of assessment – which involved creating huge and unwieldy assessment criteria for fruit! – then in the afternoon looking at promotion of practice – from the practical –issues around visibility including the blog and business card to the more conceptual and ethereal questions such as what is your role on this earth?

today has been the second session around the MA Book Art students presenting their project proposals – joyous – a day of fantastically creative and thoughtful ideas – my favourite feedback question was - is the focus for the work to be around validating intuition as a methodology – the idea of transposing context for the found and evaluating chance? straight after I quickly got up to Holborn for a meeting at the Art Workers Guild to discuss the proposed wallpaper competition that The Wallpaer History Society and Sanderson are running and students at NUCA are taking part in. a really interesting exhibition of the finalists work from last year was on display as well as background support material, including the sketchbooks.

the exhibition at Suffolk New College University is on and they have picked the work they would like to show – so in theory there will be some sandblasted stone, printed silk and a bookwork on show.

emotionalcutting

straight into work after a good break was something to be anticipated with excitement – so a day at Camberwell looking at the students work within the context of their proposals had to be a good day – there were some exciting ideas around the table with the possibility of developing really exciting projects.

a full day at NUCA working with the surface design first years – a whole day of exploring cutting – tried to get the students to look at the cut as a conceptual concept - developing a visual language with the cut which would then enable you to ‘talk’ using a scalpel.
i had created an extensive powerpoint which presented a range of practitioners and their making but focused on the act of understanding cutting and then from that ‘products’ would come depending on materials and scale – lighting, seating accessories, clothes etc.

but of course it has to start with Lucio Fontana.

Irarelydothisendofyearlistthing

i rarely do this but thought that it would be interesting to consider the past year and compile a best of list for 2010. The items haven’t necessarily found the light of day in 2010 more that this was the year i encountered them or in the case of the music found itself on repeat play on the ipod.
Book, fiction – The Road by Cormac McCarthy or Zeitoun by Dave Eggers also this was the year i found Robert Harris so the Cicero trilogy is up there.
Book, nonfiction - Structure Systems by Heinrich Engel
Web site - http://www.probelog.com/
Blog – iamnotagun.blogspot.com/
Podcast - in our time – if I had to pick one it might be Daoism or maybe Logic
Music, track – women of the Ghetto by Marlena Shaw or reach you by Engine-EarZ Experiment ft Lena Cullen
Music, album – The Man Machine – Kraftwerk has been the sound track to 2010.
Music, video – ok go – this too shall pass but the audiobullys – only man has to be mentioned – don’t you want those trainers?
Film – a Single Man or Kick Ass for obviously different reasons
Gig – close call between Tom Jones or Gentleman’s Dub Club both at Latitude.
Dance – new art club at Ipswich Dance House.
Theatre – The Way to the Sea - at Aldeburgh Festival
Live art – Pregnant by Mamoru Iriguchi at Pulse Festival
Event – TEDx Aldeburgh at The Hoffman Building.
Exhibition, art - Isa Melsheimer at Carré d'art, Nimes or Lygia Clark at Alison Jacques Gallery, London. Also Serra at the Gagosian was a must see.
Exhibition, museum – I was drawn again this year to the Hunterian museum, although the museum of miniatures in Montpellier was glorious.
Television – The Trip or American Chopper
Radio, series – history of 100 objects, radio 4

Radio, one off program – How to get an A star, radio 4
Radio show – The Radcliffe and Maconie Show