Thursday 31 December 2015

filmcapefilmgamefilm

a break but also a busy time finishing off the capes and photographing them in a number of photoshoots - am in the middle of learning new software to make a film comprised of the stills created - also managed to see some films - Star Wars - most excellent - it felt at times like a supercharged remake of the first (which isn't such a bad thing, or is it? It's at its best when the camera is observing space, following flying machines, watching stuff get blown up, shot and also looking at landscapes. Lobster - a straining tragic portrayal of the disconnective connectedness of society - a beautiful parable for this internet age- like! Big Short - a dark film about how the banks created a virtue out of greed whose style feels like something new - a hybrid - a docu-mocku-post-meta - informed by our experience of using the internet and how we engage with it including a montage found footage, infomercials and complex ideas delivered to camera by celebrities - wondrous. Anomalisa the 'puppet film' by Charlie Kaufman - just plain astoundingly odd, in a good way. Finally if you haven't already you have to get into the gut wrenching embarrassing train wreck that is Nathan for you - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2297757/ after binge watching some (every episode) I would recommend starting with smokers allowed http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5199634/?ref_=ttep_ep5 this episode twists and turns so that the 'joke' or focus eventually questions every aspect of an idea, nobody and nothing is safe, especially your own brain - all through Nathan's layered deadpan delivery. You have to see it to really get it! Played beginners guide - a great game - essentially it is a deconstruction of the very idea of gaming - exploring the relationship the gamer has with the game maker through the act of playing - existential crisis all round....

Friday 25 December 2015

Monday 21 December 2015

holeswithintheargument



busy working on two strands of work today - first lazer cutting more fabric for the cape photo shoot next week - this time cutting with the pattern in mind - scaling up and also leaving the designs 'holey' - taking into consideration and thinking about the light and shadows I've been working with over the past weeks at the Castle Museum.  second - developing the raw filming into 'something'.  not quite sure what they are or what they are for but excited to be playing with ideas around multiple dialogues through duality - old and new, light and shadow, heavy and light, Islam and Christianity even. 
two tales from and of America - two really excellent films - but for very different reasons - Brooklyn - the emergence of something wonderful, of a burgeoning beautiful possibility http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381111/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 and Sicario - of bloated madness, a country seemingly at war with everything, even itself. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3397884/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Saturday 19 December 2015

ayarnwithinandbetween

well another day at the castle museum in Norwich in the build your own exhibition - this time it was knit-natter-publish - a really lovely session - the conversation flowed whilst fingers moved - subjects included feminism, the position of 'women's work', education, undervalued activity, tradition, learning, The prison service, Norfolk demographics, the value of small-talk and well-being through textiles. the text is a work in progress and the session was more of a pilot testing ground as to how we could explore the connections in the future. there was talk of doing something in the Forum.
its my first time
but I have always been here
there
in the moment - a memory of the muscle
my mother
my gran my nan my grandmother
lineage
a line
a conversation between
a yarn
within and between
fingers
wound up
women's small talk
then onto Cambridge for a follow-up session as part of the Nano project including a tour of The Maxwell Building - stunning- slightly envious of its thoughtful design - spaces which are dynamic and yet leave freedom for the individual to really reflect/think - meeting casually is where the real work and creativity happens. The amount of communal space is extraordinary - its almost as if it was designed with discussion and collaboration in mind - the science world does seem to of taken the best of what we used to do - buying sofas to sit - they are on the ball with this issue - okay - the most bizarre disconnected random eclectic surreal in the real Surrealist sense of juxtaposition and did I mention bizarre film ever - The Holy Mountain - unsure how I missed this gem but it really is fantastical - the tiny hand-crocheted capes for the 'battling lizards' is the lease odd moment in the whole thing! drugs are not necessary. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/ finally - tickets for Star Wars booked - tick - the experience anticipated - tick - most excellent

Thursday 17 December 2015

anotherdaybehindinagoodway


another day at the castle in Norwich - I'm really enjoying being a part of the build your own exhibition. being in the space before and after the museum opens is like entering another world - like you've been given the keys to a parallel world. I presented the work I'd undertaken with Cambridge University Nano technology department which was liberating in that I had previously only shown it to a knowing audience so its presentation to the general public initiated new strands of research through wonderful conversations. I also created a number of finished segments of films that I had to started work on during the Summer. These explore the role of light, of seeing, scale, pattern and shadow. Whilst playing with the range of pre-prepared materials that I had lazer cut with Penrose tessellations and combining them with an app on the iphone I made a discovery that led to a site specific digital work that I am really pleased with.

meanwhile my final session with year 3 students at NUA utilised the glorious oblique strategies cards by the brain that is eno - one of the best sessions this year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblique_Strategies  - - they were a great filter to explore work - excellent. two film recommendations -  the wonderful and quite beautiful Carol, it's such a still film with most of the acting taking place behind the eyes and then there's the use of textiles, colour and pattern which are gorgeous and symbolically meaningful. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2402927/?ref_=nv_sr_1 and then if you think you're having trouble getting stuff done with the odd few stumbling blocks as well as being very very funny The Martian is the Don of problem solving movies - everything is possible and it will be okay. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/

Thursday 10 December 2015

controldirectmapandfeel

a day at Norwich Castle - working within the build your own exhibition (alongside Turner Prize winners Assemble!)- developing an 'alternative' way of engaging with the permanent museum displays. I have 'chosen' 3 objects and am attempting to unfold from a very cluttered brain (looking forward to Christmas) a range of connections and questions between and to them. Exploring the idea of creating a range of entry points to understanding an object within a collection and then being able to navigate through a collection are key concerns of the 'mini residency'.
Sword in the Stone - this year's 'rock and roll' panto at The Wolsey in Ipswich is a truly great night out - shed your inhabitations before you enter and it will be good - very good - men dressed as women, behind you, evil combated by good, fire, smoke, illusion, oh no it isn't, dancing - rude jokes - its all there - every year I marvel at the performers ability to sing, dance, act and play a wide range of musical instruments - fantastic, who needs irony?http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/the-sword-in-the-stone/
love and mercy - the Brian Wilson biopic is stunning in its portrayal of where songs come from - the moment it 'arrives' as the essence of a fragment, building its development, the combining of sounds and words, the weaving of layering towards a final piece. brilliant. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903657/

Sunday 6 December 2015

controlwithart

Back from a trip to London centred around seeing The Book of Mormon - uuuuuuummmh I felt that I was part of the very meta experience - meanwhile I checked out a few shows - Losing the Compass curated by Scott Cameron Weaver and Mathieu Paris at White Cube was beautifully put together - nothing new but it had some really good examples and its always interesting to find oneself wandering through the area around Bond Street at this time of the year, an artwork in itself. Jon Rafman at the Zabludowicz collection is truly the most extraordinary exhibition I have seen in a while - I haven't felt so wonderfully assaulted in a long time http://www.zabludowiczcollection.com/visit/london. The Kibbo Kift show at the Whitechapel will inform the collection of capes I am in the middle of making with their quite odd clothing/costume/uniform. If you're a fan of data, both its exploitation by artists and explanation by designers and scientists you might not learn anything new from Big Bang Data at Somerset house but it is a show full of information! The initial work by Ryoji Ikeda was a smaller but perfectly formed version of the installation I saw at Brewer st Car park - it's disturbingly wondrous. Elsewhere in the cavernous labyrinthine space there is also the beautifully contemplative One And All - an exhibition about the coast and the sea. The Calder at Tate Modern is quite beautiful and just about elevates him from maker of jaunty mobiles (just). At Tate Britain the haunting work by Susan Philipsz: War Damaged Musical Instruments is truly moving and Auerbach - well he did use an awful lot of paint painting the same subjects over and over and over again - but I guess that's the point. I also popped into the National to spend an hour with a few of my favourite paintings - Swabian's portrait of a woman of the Hofer Family being one  -  the glorious detail of the cloth gives a flavour of what and how people wore clothes, right down to the threads used to gather the cloth in a headdress or the knot in a ribbon. London - the most exciting city in the world?

just finishing off the last presentations of the year (but not the first term as we are working within a new (another) structure) for the BA Textiles course at NUA - its all about professional practice and they are delivered through workshops (so you had to be there) but you get a flavour of what goes on there. It's an important element of becoming professional, I wish somebody had of considered it professional or just appropriate to of taught me it at College, although most of it has been created in the years since.

Saturday 28 November 2015

theenergywaselectric

spent a couple of hours draping the lazer cut bonded fabric over and on a mannequin - pinning it onto a 'body' really gives the idea of what it could be - it has started to look good and the cape is defiantly all go with a hood, just need to start cutting the pattern.
There's a very considered body of work that connects two libraries either side of the Thames - the work by Rick Myers links Somerset House and The Poetry library via the old Waterloo bridge, an experiment that Faraday was involved in is also thrown into the mix - worth a look/listen.

The yellowbluepink mist by Ann Veronica  Janssens at The Welcome Trust is quite disorienting - but  it also feels like a sort of comforting/fluffy white-out on top of a mountain in the Lake District.  After working at BAM I spent the evening at Central St Martin's 3D and XD open studios. I so love Art College, as both an idea and in reality. it was full of superb challenging work and the energy in the building was electric - so friendly conversations - so supportive of the work and the performances - it was excellent to be in a room with a beer in my hand with so many truly wonderfully bad haircuts and people looking gloriously fabulous. my people.

Thursday 26 November 2015

listentoakalahemakessense

really honoured to be invited to talk at being a man - BAM - the festival at the Southbank over the weekend which addresses the challenges and pressures of masculine identity in the 21st century. http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/being-a-man I am deep in the programme which also covers gangs, jihad, fatherhood, sex, pornography, and war. Anyway just to be on the same bill as the ultra cool and wonderful Akala has to be a good thing. I've seen him talk a TED day - he is breathtaking - listen to him. here's a link to my 'talk' for those who can't make it to London.  http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/talk-for-bam

Friday 20 November 2015

busybsuybusyandsomedance

The Toshiba lecture at the Cathedral in Norwich last night was awesome with possibilities and yet also informed by the terror of every post apocalyptic film I have seen where the world is taken over by robots. There was a moment when the extraordinary machine being demonstrated very cutely clapped its 'hands' and the audience laughed at it and I thought - this is where after lulling us into a false sense of security a lazer beam extends from its 'head' and destroys us, thus starting its progression to world domination! But it didn't happen and I am mow on the train to Ipswich working on the presentation and workshop for Being A Man, on the way to see a dance/food/sound piece by Protein called May contain food - at the Dance House. This is after a day at NUA running a master class on bookness! I'm really looking forward to BAM next week at the Southbank - trying to work out a way to cram in 30 years of bookmaking and thinking into 2 hours with an added workshop is proving tricky! Ann Veronica Janssens, yellowbluepink at The Welcome trust is on the list of things to see on Friday after the session and I'll also get to attend a private view at CSM of the XD Fine Art Course.

Tuesday 17 November 2015

projecting2Donto3andfindinga4th

just undertaken the first of two days - working in public -  at the castle museum - within their build your own exhibition. I'm looking at bringing together various strands of my recent practice - the smocking / book structures / robotics /nano technology around folding within the idea of creating spaces that move. The work begins to explore the virtual and physical interfacing through film and structure. It's an opportunity to play whilst talking to members of the public - so far really interesting conversations with a vet, an architect, a builder of yurts and a planner. Oh yes and a man who explained that a 4 year old could of done that (the rest of the exhibition) - he was disturbingly complimentary about my work!

Friday 13 November 2015

travellingthroughspaceandtime

in the air there is no internet! - on a flight back from Glasgow after attending and giving a paper at Futurescan3 - my first time in the city - my experience of Glasgow was a real mixture of civic pride and really really friendly people. The Civic Chambers are quite extraordinary and worth checking out - how much marble can one place contain and what wonderful ceilings. And then the food - recommend two fat ladies and The Hanoi Bike Shop  - two extremes of dining but both wonderful in their own way.
During Futurescan I was privileged to listen to a wide range of presentations - some links here to ones that were really excellent and will require more thinking - The quietly determined Reiko Sudo talking about the role of saying yes, Julie Ripley on the subculture of surfing as a role for growing both a multimillion industry and a way of life seeded with the Australian Government selling us 'australianess' a by-product being the hideous phrase 'going to uni! - ironically an indication of the downfall of education. Alison Mayne looking at the online world of isolated knitters and the issue of wellbeing - she also had the most excellent title 'Does anyone have a pattern for a sombrero to fit a crochet monkey?' and finally a 20 minute talk by Helen Burbridge about the join in a pattern between a sleeve and a body within a post war dress was captivating.

I got out to Tramway to see the Turner Prize - I really enjoyed the playfulness of Nicole Wermers with her the ceramic advertising stubs and chairs wearing fur were excellent - but I really loved the work of Bonnie Camplin - the work was a number of videos of people who have conspiracy theory at their core - often they had engaged with alternative ways of thinking including training to become super soldiers by the illuminate. The room was also full of printed matter and these books in some way substantiated these claims or at least explored and presented the opportunity to consider the 'truth' of their claims - you could photocopy anything and take it away with you - my favourite publication was The Psychic Energy Workbook where I could work on my psychic self defence skills.

Wednesday 4 November 2015

questionsquestionsquestionsquestionsquestionsandsomeanswers

a great day of presentations at the Nano event for the Cambridge festival of imagination. our team decided to have questions within the presentation which led to us reading out a set of questions - it went very well and the questions led to more questions which was the point of the whole issue for me. enabling a rethinking of my practice. here's a link to the presentation - http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/what-if-its-true-after-all?related=1 and here's the script.
1             When discussing nano does understanding falter because it's smaller than I can represent with my own body?
1 - Does having to conceive of something as an idea in my mind limit my understanding of it?
2 - Do we need to train our brains to become better at discussing and understanding things that we can’t see?
3 - are really small things just very frightening?
2             what is the purpose of the experiment?
1 - Do we create knowledge or is it all out there waiting to be discovered?
2 - Does the concept of a failed experiment actually exist?  How can I use this idea with the students I teach?
3 - Is there is such a thing as a stupid experiment where no knowledge is created?
3             How are artists and scientists bound by givens in their perception of the world?
1 - Are scientists trying to work with physical things that exist but can't be seen and artist's trying to make physical things based on concepts that can't be seen?
2 - On the whole, do givens help or hinder progress in science?
3 - Is it true to say givens are more common place in science than in art?
4             what is the relationship between perception and belief?
1 - To build a foundation to work on do scientists have to believe in the existence of phenomena they cannot see to develop a practice? what is the role of belief?
2 - What is the role of perception?
3 - If there is strong evidence for a phenomena can it still be considered ‘beliefs’?
5             What is the role of intention?
1 - What is the role of trust in the creative process?
2 - Can chance encounters occur in both cases?
3 - Can science or art be done without the intention to do so? Does this make them different?
6             can babies do science?
1 - can one just start doing science without knowledge?
2 - can one just start doing art without knowledge?
3 - what is the role of post rational thought within progress?
7             Is there a personal language of science?
1 - art is concerned with creating an individual, personal language  - does science need to have a shared language to progress? - or is it all a universal language?
2 - Mathematics is often described as the language of the universe, how does this differ to a personal language in science?
3 - when we share words do we really understand each other?
8             Do we have a certain perception convention within particular fields?
1 - Coming into contact with the language of science and thinking has introduced new phrases to my own practice and enabled me to rethink ones I thought I understood - how will I use this?
2 - to what extent does this shared language within fields help or hinder progress?
3 - Does all the science within a particular field have the same language?
9             what makes an outcome an outcome?
1 - How do we perceive an outcome?
2 - when do we know when to stop?
3 - is reflective thinking just post rational cover up?
10           how can something that is so wrong be so right?
1 - what is the importance of closed minds?
2 - Is it really true that if you don't know how it works it's not science?
3 - What has bad science got to teach good art?
11           Does science need to start with the knowledge of many?
1 - where does art begin and science end?
2 - does 'the community' endorse which knowledge is valued?
3 - Can new science or art be achieved without the knowledge of many? 
12           There is a wider audience for the outcomes of what can be made from science but do scientists have an audience other than themselves to enable them to think and deduct?
1 - is science too closed to be understood by the general public?
2 - Are we just selfish beings who want to feel like we have a meaning or purpose?
3 - is art too easy to dismiss? is art too closed to be understood by the general public?
13           Are there parallels between the craft skills of art and those of science?
1– Does the knowledge of how to do things - the skill and craft of making enable scientists to make?  2 - Can art be created without the acquisition of skills?
3 - is there a craft to thinking?
14           How do the clothes we work in support thinking?
1 - can ritual and uniform create a heightened awareness of one's activity?
2 - does uniform constrict creativity and result in increased conformity to established ideas?
3 - How do the spaces we work in support thinking?
15           Everything we see may not be there or at least not as we think it is - where is our starting point?
1 - Bottom-up or top-down? When is either more appropriate and how do we know?
2 - where do we go for the answers?
3 - how do the tools we use to see alter our perspective on what we see?
16           Is there a shelf-life on what is true?
1 - How do we work with truths?
2 - truth is an expensive word, can we use it with any certainty
3 - how do we know?
17           What is the role of ‘external forces’ on creativity?
1 –Does the engagement of art and science with business support or mold what the work becomes and where it goes.
2 - Does this then start to define what is researched or made and eventually defines what art or science is?
3 - has the learning outcome destroyed creativity in education?
18           What makes something meaningful?
1 - Is art a way of making sense of the world?  
2 - Is science a way of making sense of the world?
3 - are we all just making tools for thinking?
19           What should I work on next?
1 - How do I know what to do next? How do I know what is right?
2- Is the process of deciding what to do next on the whole more regimented in science than in art?
3 - Does it all depend on what everyone else is doing?
20           This needs a question here
the evening was about the intense experience of watching FK Alexander: NO WHERE // NOW HERE' 90 minutes exploring excess, loss, and change - brutally forceful. Teaching this week at NUA has seen the briefing of body - a project - we will see what happens.  http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/briefing-ba3a-project-4-body Already looking forward to Deborah Pearson at battersea arts centre https://www.bac.org.uk/content/39774/whats_on/whats_on/shows/time_pieces_like_you_were_before before going on to spill - there's also a list of visual art that needs to be seen - starting with the Curve at the Barbican.

Wednesday 28 October 2015

anythingicandoisnotartbecausei'mnotanartist



enjoying the deconstruction within this video and its addition to the what is/can be art discussion. the extensive conversations in the year 1 proposal presentations at Camberwell this week were wide ranging, leading to many many creative thoughts and the titles of the year 2 dissertations illustrate the wonderfulness of the course and its coverage -
what are the different aspects of interactive arts, and is it still possible for artworks to be interactive without the use of technology? RESPECT TO NATURE A brief analysis of land artists' Natural consciouness - take Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long as example. Haptic Communication of Imagination and Reality. Nothing Matters: Situating the Audiences' Experience of Katrina Palmer's 2015 Artangel Commission on Portland. Behind the Line. Comparing and contrasting approaches to mathematics applied in the aork of Agnes Martin and Cam Wong  

Sunday 25 October 2015

ideasofbondedopposites


The bonding experiments continue - there are so many possibilities - here I'm working with a felted material and foils - the final fabric has opposites at its core cold/warm, dense/light, anarchy/order. The cape is coming along with a fashion shoot around the corner. meanwhile some films this week - Superbob - what if a superhero lived in Peckham and just wanted  to meet someone because he was a bit lonely? a great premise and funny in a melancholic way - I loved the people of Peckham defending him - "he's doing something important and its none of your concern". 71 - a slice of bloody, brutal divided Ireland - excellent acting but not for the squeamish. Suffragette - well I felt a little like asking where is Dick Van Dyke? it alludes to many issues but....but I get it that it's an important film but it only just makers it because of the narrative arc Carey Mulligan brings to the idea of loneliness. A highlight has to be Dope - it's a coming of age film with many many twists that take you to exciting places - the 'speech' given by the main character about not fitting in was wondrous. And then there is the great music! Our teams proposed presentation to be given at the festival of ideas this Saturday is coming along - there are some incisive questions happening which we hope will spark others. http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/nanoart-perceiving-smallest-scales

Thursday 22 October 2015

bondinginblood

I've spent the week in Hunstanton with the year 1 Textile Design students from Norwich NUA. It's an opportunity to meet 'off campus' and all that that gives to the relationships. A glorious Tuesday saw a day of drawing on the beach and around town meanwhile Wednesday was visual games, getting thinking, challenging received wisdom and skill share - what a really nice group of students - I look forward to spending time with them over the next 3 years.
a night of boxing and milk - a pointless fighting - the fight we are all involved in - I have language on my side - don't cry over spilt milk - Franco B cuts a forlorn figure in glorious garb, he is reminiscent of boxers past their prime or saturday afternoon wresters on TV from the 70s - he is fighting for us and for himself - we watch and it's an illusion, it's all in the mind. A wonderful night at Norwich Arts Centre - if you get a chance see Franco B: Milk and Blood somewhere I would recommend it to you. http://www.franko-b.com/milk_and_blood.html

Sunday 18 October 2015

bondingforthefuture

as well as teaching at NUA and having a day out in London looking at exhibitions with the MA Book Art students at Camberwell its been a busy week of working a little on the many projects on the go - a sort of snowplough effect, moving along everything a bit at a time. It's become all about presentations at the moment - really pleased with the presentation and paper I'm giving at Futurescan in Glasgow - I've put back images of the 8 exhibitions that were part of the outcomes, the work for BAM at the Southbank will involve a sort of workshop/talk/demonstration and the presentation for the Nano project in Cambridge has a range of excellent questions which I hope will galvanize the audience. Meanwhile I've managed to play with the effects of bonding on the lazer cut materials I've been working on over the Summer with a view to creating an outfit - its moved on to the idea of a creative cape (with tassels). font - the Fiona Banner show at the Frith Street Gallery is quite intreguing with the layered dense intention behind its making. http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/shows/view/fiona_banner_font

Saturday 10 October 2015

consciousmakinghatwearing

My experience of Nano Technology has led me to clean rooms - How does the oppressive otherness of the clean room enable free thought? I thought that maybe I could explore this with creative capes! - but have started off smaller - how can ritual and uniform make one hyper conscious of one's actions and thoughts within an art education context? 
ok another reason why both studying an art subject is so wonderfully expansive and that my job is so great - my favourite conversation this week......  discussing the role and position of British folk customs, the characters and their costumes, for a Research Report led to talking about English traditional music, thinking about folk music and its roots in notions of tradition. Now consider ....if there were a group of individuals who thought that the ideas behind the BMP, NF, EDL, UKIP etc were a good thing and these individuals wanted to explore and celebrate their version of what it is to be English - Englishness etc but they also liked folk music. What would they be called? What would be the name of their band? - yes we came up with the answer - Fascist Folk -  this could be both a group and a genre. A bit like Minimal Gothic - an architectural genre for the guilty who like to think they want a sparse, functional space but harbour a rapt obsession about Cath Kitson. And then... a quick Google search of my new idea - Fascist Folk takes you to straight to Neo-folk....oh well.

Saturday 3 October 2015

notthatkindofweek

a good week on the teaching front - the learning agreement presentations with year 3 at NUA were excellent - fantastic energy, potentially there is a really wide range of work that challenges the idea of textile design and ambitious all encompassing projects.  it promises to be an exciting year. camberwell was all about deconstruction, book structures and reflective thinking - a link to the bookness presentation here.
CONCEAL | REVEAL at the dance house in Ipswich was a marvel of restraint precision - the Russel Maliphant Company presented Broken Fall, a piece I've seen with the BalletBoyz - it really is such a fractured, clipped piece with trust and weight at the centre. The other pieces were a lighting joy by Michael Hulls with serious collaborative thought going into the relationship between movement and light - I thought about book relationships and an element of a workshop I run that I now realise is really about dance.

working on a presentation for NUA about home and came across some devastating gifs of buildings falling down, well being blown up - it's going to be fun!

Friday 25 September 2015

backfromthepast

after the break from teaching and a summer focusing on nano technology, rethinking my role in education and family it was strangely warming to be back. A hectic week of dealing with the nervous and the strong-willed - NUA is all about learning agreements and the close future of leaving for the 'real world' - the what next. Camberwell saw a great day with symposium 1 where the students share their past and consider the future while we project our roles and consider how we think they will engage with the course we have built. As ever I am struck by the wonderful place that art school is and the wide ranging conversations that can happen if we let the systems that are put in place fade to the background and we focus on the role of serious play.  
meanwhile the date is set and the invitation is out – the Nano Art collaboration I’ve been involved in will be presented at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas - Saturday 31 October: 2:00pm - 4:30pm at the Wolfson Lecture Theatre, Department of Chemistry, Lensfield Road, Cambridge. http://www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk/events/nanoart-perceiving-smallest-scales come along - if anything else it will be a journey into the unknown with some extraordinary pictures! and finally - I know that I'm a little late but managed to catch up with Boyhood - a truly heart moving story - somehow about getting through it, this life, in some way......whatever that means  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073/ 

Saturday 19 September 2015

headexplodinginveniceasever

So on the plane back from Venice - the Biennale was wondrous as ever with the Arsenale a more focused experience. I have a new set of images that will furnish new presentations at NUA and Camberwell. My head is full of images and moments that will keep me thinking for some time - the pavilion covered in tyres, the rebuilding of a familiar space as an interventionist minimal architectural event, Canada's 'shop', the sci-fi image of future space possibilities, being held hostage in a virtual reality studio, the violence of the South African pavilion leading to the idea of Goya making work from edited found CCTV footage of fighting and sexual activity in clubs, the many themes of oppression explored including the lost hope of the environment and private homosexual acts made public, a giant Russian fighter pilots head, terrorist breast feeding, hope in Latvian garages, a choir of engine noises in a novelty fun ride, a sad fair ride, Dellar's 'factory records' jukebox, the idea of flowers silently witnessing massive socio-political events, a room of staircases, windows of rain, a factory workers 'opera' in Beijing, a room of corn, the negative space of an imaginary building, an anchor the size of a car embedded in broken sheet glass, a room of shredded money, a room of blue sand, the loss of people and their languages, a room of dirt, flags their meaning obscured, crafts used to say 'something', a room of broken glass, games without rules, a book of photographic memories I tore open, the Olympic torch running in a Brazilian prison, a naked red woman dancing in an office, a bullet caught, a room of knives, mapping connections, documenting hope, Umberto Eco seeking out a book from a book lined labyrinth and getting me to think about memory - what is a list?

But my highlights have to be 5 film pieces all embedded within installations. Martyr construction by Theaster Gates https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OaIp3-n58tY destruction, desecration and hope, the silence of existing systems watching helplessly while new beginnings from the past are reenacted. Factory of the Sun by Hito Steyerl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyqqiELBDZM set within a 'virtual motion capture studio' itself shown in a motion capture studio it stunningly explores notions of truth that supports and surrounds our understanding of the world. Ashes by Steve McQueen https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DFIn5d69VXE just tragically sad - reading about its conception helps a little, NoNoseKnows by Mika Rottenberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M9CFHk8P-Q my WTF moment - work undertaken by women, natural order undermined by capitalist pointlessness, truly odd and finally the haunting Never Say Goodbye by WuTien-Chang https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1arIe9iKlAs beautiful, magic, the presentation of a nostalgic future.

Sunday 13 September 2015

fractalfoldstruthandlies



a cracking evening at the New Wolsey on thursday night - I must recommend Antarctica by Chris Dobrowolski http://www.cdobo.com/  the live art piece deconstructs the idea of an art school lecture which focuses on a trip to Antarctic - and explores areas of truth and the real  - thoughts after the show swirl around whether the whole piece was an elaborate hoax. If you get a chance I would recommend delving into the meta world of the ladybird book - its a wonderful sequence in the piece.

just finished collaborating/directing the latest film around the folding pieces I'm developing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XCkhpjg8Ms the work uses more sophisticated software to explore layers and time within the pieces. The sound comes from some work I did with for an interactive commission published as a CD-ROM it is part of INSITE, it was a collection of digital artworks commissioned by Suffolk County Council. A link to a film still from the project http://artistbooks.ning.com/profiles/blogs/second-edition-virtual-books.

Tuesday 8 September 2015

lookingforwardtoitall


really excited to have spent the afternoon buying tickets after getting hold of the Spill festival booklet - http://spillfestival.com/ my highlight has to be Heather Cassils http://heathercassils.com/ although the performance will be a world premier of Inextinguishable fire - I think the images created during the performance of becoming an image are truly magnificent. It looks like I might be giving a talk as part of Being a Man at the South Bank in London http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/being-a-man

Meanwhile the new Textile Design Course technical workshop spaces at Norwich University of the Arts look excellent - looking forward to working in them with the students in a couple of weeks.

Thursday 3 September 2015

nothingtodowithme

working on a range of laser cut textile pieces - these are one of the strands of work that have become outcomes whilst working on the nano technology project in Cambridge. meanwhile experiencing something change around you can be a very raw experience - it feels as if there are stages of grief to move through - the Kübler-Ross model lays it out as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. It's been insightful to watch the overwhelming series The Newsroom. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1870479/ although the program has its problems it presents the experience of change and the how the various characters deal with it - watching Sam Winston playing Charlie Skinner move through the deconstruction of what news is or could/should be was informing but painful - it was a shame he had to die but then maybe that just has to happen. 

Monday 31 August 2015

rethinkbeforeitgoes



the films are growing as I work with the software! - the sound nods towards sci-fi and dislocation meanwhile before they are gone a chance to think about the deep rooted value of art schools in the culture of our society.... if you have a moment (2 hours) I recommend that you to take time to listen to Jeremy Deller on 6 music talking knowledgeably about the relationships between art and music - listen on or near a computer so you can follow up all the links from the thoughtful and intelligent talk as you go along  - (maybe leave 4 hours)!  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0675mld

Friday 28 August 2015

obsessiveeverything

I'm sure that enjoying Danger 5 is incredibly dubious but it really is quite wonderfully bizarre -  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1807165/ check out the clips on YouTube or binge on Netflix for a truly knowing experience and finally the deeply disturbing and superbly paranoid mr robot is a must for all conspiracy theorists. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4158110/  
meanwhile working on sound for the videos - picking up on some previous work - sound enables rethinking the visuals - bringing a mechanical 'something' to the work that I feel will be part of possible futures - some links to videos with the sound attached.....

Thursday 27 August 2015

filmsmakingandwatchingthem



working on a number of films for the nano project - some short tests exploring shadows, layers and reflections that are created by letting the wind move the lazer cut fabric in what sun we have had. 
meanwhile the good weather (!) has meant a rash of film watching - the Falling - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3294200/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 an otherworldly tale but unsure about the acting. Avengers Age of Ultron - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/ Robert Downey has all the best lines and you have to wait for the extraordinary balletic slow motion defence of the 'key' sequence but leave your brains at the door. Slow West - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3205376/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 a beautifully sad story, the stillness is mesmerising as is Fassbender.   

Thursday 20 August 2015

sparklythings

spent the day wading through 5 lectures from MIT on Godel Escher and Bach at part of the nano project so needed some light surfing - whilst checking out some interesting new links came across new jewelry by Sarah Angold  https://instagram.com/p/6m-GzJi3UL/?taken-by=sarah_angold - just great colour and form - they'll be on a list - her website has some great product - http://www.sarahangold.com/

Wednesday 19 August 2015

movingnanomoving


working on a series of new moving images - the nano project is turning into a film project at the moment - both from the creation of gifs in Photoshop and also animation through sketch-up.

Monday 17 August 2015

readreadreadandlook

Staying in a house in S France for 7 days in Esparron-de-Varon - I managed to walk the 10 feet from kitchen to garden view overlooking the lake to read - there was an overall sense of connection between and within the books - we are all lost in some way but decisions can bring understanding. Some recommendations - the Goldfinch : Donna Tart, truly truly beautiful words - your fathers where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever : Dave Eggers, exploring the deceit surrounding unfulfillment - the Children Act : Ian McEwan, exploring the weight of decisions - Cloud Atlas : David Mitchell, exploring the dazzlingly interconnection of individuals - How to be both : Ali smith, wonderfully crafted words bestowing the opportunity to see alternative  worlds - Us : David Nicholls, I have never laughed uncontrollably and then cried uncontrollably so much whilst reading in my life. Stopped in Paris on the way down to see work at Palais du Tokoyo - it's an exciting playful space, always challenging. There's always a mixture of shows but a video piece by Tianzcho Chen  http://tianzhuochen.com/ was the most extraordinary work I have seen this year. https://vimeo.com/102807393 On the way back from Esparron I stopped in Paris and went to the Pompeii Centre to see the extensive show of Mona Hatoum's work, https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cxABRMq/rMeBjj7 taken by her use of textiles, especially the Palestinian windows women's embroidery project, but the earnest integrity of the early performance pieces especially the raw walk through the Brixton of 1986 stays with you. Spent several days in France travelling great distances on clean trains that were on time only to find myself at Liverpool St Station to find delays and cancellations......nothing changes.