excited to be invited to give the keynote at Turn the Page Book
Art Conference in Norwich in May 2019. I'm thinking about talking about taxonomy
and definitions of book and how this has informed my practice and the work I
have made over the past 30ish years. This will/might also touch on the
educational work, residencies within the world of science and the wider place of book thinking as a tool in making sense of the
world.
The morning at NUA was Pecha Kucha's - some excellent communication
skills were evidenced and the improved confidence was there to be seen and
commented on. Next up a wonderful crit. The first of the year and some of the work
was really exciting - lots of innovative outcomes around material manipulation
and design solutions, all supported by great research and contextual
understanding. The lateral thinking and problem solving workshops seem to be
paying off.
Year 3 OCA were set the task of presenting the work of other
students. Having lived with another person's work for a week the participants
job was to present that work. This saw a wide range of approaches and readings
leading to delivering many revelations and entry points to thinking about the
work of others
At Camberwell on the Book Art Course it was also the first crit of
the new students - set the task of going to a place in London and responding to
it structurally after exposure to the previous weeks workshop around the fold
and experimental bookmaking. The diverse approaches led to a number of truly
glorious conversations which has had my head spinning all the way home.
Meanwhile quite possibly my all-time favourite response by a
student after being introduced to the concept of the gantt chart - the action/questioning is a challenge to the very root of what we do and why we do it - its why I
teach.
