why be a lecturer? – one of the answers is that I have access to creative voices. I have spent part of the day at nuca in the lecture theatre listening to two voices full of ideas and possibilities – the afternoon session was a chillingly provocative presentation by russel davies http://russelldavies.typepad.com/ where I learnt that to survive in the future you need to be either the best or really like engaging in change – it was not as bad as this duality may seem but it did chime with what we as creative people do at our core. thinking about some of the issues raised – building situations that enable others to do stuff, creating platforms for expression, making new things not new ways to sell things, led me to considering how to utilise skills and the idea of the bespoke which in turn lead me back to craft and well made things for individuals – maybe there is a future.
my second visit to the lecture theatre was for an illustrated talk by Simon Cutts of Coracle http://www.coracle.ie/ which was truly bliss. seeing live projected turning pages of books from coracle press and in turn my past – reconnecting me to days in special collections at LCP and Chelsea and the Tate and the V&A was wonderful – the book/catalogue lines of thin pale blue and red – where the book stands for an equivalent for the room the work was made for was one of the pieces that informed some of my thinking around the book which turned into the fully formed holistic whole book philosophy. listening to the story behind the making and thinking was .....good. there was much referencing of the physicality of text and the book whilst holding/stroking the physical thing and always evoking the language of book – spine head tail gatefold amidst talk of times gone – of working men’s clubs and the quality of raffle tickets. I spent a lot of time trying not to be nostalgic! but it was more than that much more.
there are many things still to be done with folded paper and twine. Simon Cutts - 22 03 12
