stuffstuffandmorestuff

The opening party for Spill http://spillfestival.com/ saw machine spirits in the name of Siren, a night train through Ipswich, a man surrendering by staple gunning a white flag to his arm and clashing Asian and Britishness in the form of Bishi – most excellent – all with chips and sparkling wine. 20,000 days on earth http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2920540/ is a stunning film that explores the idea of creativity – its a joy to behold within today’s miss-guided skewed version of creativity – ploughing his own furrow Nick Cave is important – important that he exists to point out what we should be concerned with, or at least to provide a model, a route – the film will want to make you collaborate with the nearest sentient being after you have gone out and listed to the back catalogue. Baraka http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103767/ – is a stunning film – a Koyaanisqatsi http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085809/ for 2014 – its a wide ranging set of images that explore the world we live in/on – no narrative or voice-over to tell you what to think just stunning images - there is a particular shot of the Kuwaiti oil fields burning accompanied with bagpipes and drumming that is haunting. The shots of mass production of food juxtaposed with people on escalators going underground is something we’ve seen before but here there is a new spin with multiple images and incredibly speeded up film so that almost the souls of the people are filmed rather than their physical self 

excitedandlookingforward

Spill tickets have arrived with 6 days to go till the opening party – can’t wait. Meanwhile – with many references to Brazil, although without the humour and a nod to David Lynch the Double is worth a watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825157/  Work wise - after a day of assessing on the MA in Book Arts course on Monday it was straight into 3 days in a chalet with the new year 1 students in Hunstanton making, bonding, drawing and encouraging lateral thinking and problem solving – most excellent – some wonderful moments despite the driving wind coming straight off the sea – or maybe because of it! and then there are the issues of economics made visual in the buildings.

stringistheanswer

An excellent dance experience at The Dance House in Ipswich – Park by Jasmin Vardimon was somewhere between narrative and abstract, sometimes this was good and at other times quite annoying. There were a number of extraordinary moments and sequences where individuals became part of a larger group – moving in unison and then breaking off and becoming individuals again. A nice touch was covering the dance area in corrugated cardboard – their steps leaving a trace of what was........a form of mapping or documentation - uuuuummmh

I’ve spent the day in Colchester at the Minories with The Colne and Colchester Embroiders Guild – a really fascinating workshop with a group of thoughtful, individuals who come together as a really supportive group – the discussions were wide ranging and encompassed such issues as fame, authorship, the role of the artists in society, contexts for looking and displaying, technology as a driver of creativity and material understanding. This was all within a practical framework of the exchange of skills, although the day turned out to be really about thinking and developing starting points.

I spent some time in a pound shop buying goods for the year 1 students at NUA who are going on the trip to Hunstanton. One of the many fun exercises planned is to create work in a team from a pile of everyday stuff – so far one packet of rizlas, a ball of string, one paperclip, an envelope and a chain like the one you have on a plug for the sink – it will be fun.

makingarchivesdance

Looking forward to watching Play at the Dance House in Ipswich on Friday. It’s a 3D-imaging-dance-fest by the Jasmin Vardimon Company. Teaching at NUA and on the OCA so far this week has been all about audiences and the makers relationship(s) to making - http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/context-audience-understanding2014 why do we make the things we do and who are they for?

meanwhile – it’s nice to see that Glasgow School of Art are pointing out the work I undertook with archives as having some value  http://gsaarchivesandcollections.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/artists-using-archives-les-bicknell-unpicking-and-rebinding/

twitterKennethGoldsmithvKennethGoldsmithconversation

a mixed week, in terms of types of activity rather than quality! of interesting teaching, especially running a workshop around reflective thinking at nua http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/001-09-10-14-reflective-thinking-pdp - its quite a concept to ‘get your head round’ and it was a joy to watch individual students ‘get it’ in front of me. in the studio I spent most of the week folding for http://de-reform.blogspot.co.uk/

meanwhile over at twitter it’s been interesting to watch from the sidelines the collaborative meta conversation that is Kenneth Goldsmith - Kenneth Goldsmith https://twitter.com/OnBeingKennyG - its important to know that Kenneth Goldsmith is a founder of ubuweb http://www.ubuweb.com/ and a little background on his practice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Goldsmith to ‘get’ it.

bonkerschairarttalk

Secured tickets to see Here Lies Love at the new Dorfman Theatre http://herelieslove.com/ can hardly wait as it sounds a little bonkers. We now own a little piece of live art history – securing La Ribobs ‘chair’ http://www.laribot.com/home at a gala auction in the Vauxhall Tavern to support Live Art Development Agency. http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/ I really like Marcia Farquhar’s comment -  LADA is a place for people who don’t know their place.’  

Lawrence Weiner at South London Gallery is quite a statement! – the main gallery has one statement on the wall and a graphic response on the opposite wall whilst upstairs the domestic space battles interestingly with the scale of the text. http://www.southlondongallery.org/page/all-in-due-course

Some interesting teaching this week – presentations, seminars and tutorials – an interesting world of specific and particular language- a space of intention and discussion that really is quite wondrous – so much so that I often feel so elated that I feel some sort of sorrow for the rest of the world who aren’t part of it!! – check out https://twitter.com/OnBeingKennyG

creakingsoundsawaitingarole

I've been thinking about tension within textile activity for some research I'm involved with and I came across this video from Venice - I love the creaking of the rope as it works against itself.
A couple of days at the Flipside festival at Snape Maltings – http://www.flipsidefestival.co.uk/ the opening party was an interesting event – Giles Peterson providing Brazilian sounds, although unsure where Rod Stewart fitted into this concept.  I really enjoyed Lionel Shriver and Paulo Scott talking about their work – it provided a number of beautiful insights into the reasons for writing and specifics around particular pieces of their writing – went onto read Lionel Shriver’s  short story http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/01/kilifi-creek-lionel-shriver-bbc-short-story-2014-winner and loved the crafting of words – the until – and unless.
Looking forward to delivering year 3 briefings tomorrow at NUA – it’s their first day back – that means only 228 days till they leave.

cassetteboysenablesatruth

distracted by cassette boys latest - 

itsgoingtobeagoodone

having trouble getting this track out of my head today ..... while working on the session for year 1 textile students induction at NUA - its going to be a good one.