knowingtheknown

It was excellent to be invited back to NanoDtc in the Maxwell building in Cambridge to run a workshop and give a talk for the PhD students around problem solving. It's always impressive to witness their lateral thinking problem solving skills and desire to solve problems with glee. The workshop was all about creating the connections between the known and unknown.

Back in Coventry the series of images based around the space the house I grew up in has been added to. There is a project here but I'm unsure which direction to take it in..........Whilst in Cambridge its always interesting to pop into the anthropology museum to see their open storage displays. meanwhile in the middle of the harrowing Top Boy  and basically a more violent, mob version of Widows, The Kitchen - was ok. recent podcasts include The memory Palace http://thememorypalace.us/ - you have to love Nate's voice - Here's the thing with Alec Baldwin is a little blokey but in general a good conversation to listen into.

breathingin

After Ron Athey's show at Norwich Arts Center I'm ready for a 'breathing in' day in London - time to check out a few spaces on the way to a night out in Peckham. 180 The Strand has United Visual Artists doing their thing with lights, lazers and smoke, which is good but in the same building is Transformer a rebirth of wonder - a huge sprawling, mixed show throughout the building, transforming a range of spaces but always giving the viewer a sense of discovering the bowels of the building. Doug Aitken’s room is a stand out piece, truly mesmerising - 3 projections in a room of mirrors play with the mobile phone and its associated imagery. Jenn Nkiru’s film Rebirth stunning - great music and editing - her presentation of a black experience is outstanding. Danh Vo at Marion Goodman looks straightforward enough but has many surprises, it’s simplicity belies many possible narratives and references so much - my school woodworking bench created in hard wood was a surprising 'time-travel' revelation. Frith street Gallery has some beautiful images of archives by Dayanita Singh within some interesting structures. Mark Lecky’s homage to youth culture continues under a bridge at Tate Britain - it’s important to see the whole cycle of the work so give yourself time - it’s worth it. Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe at Marlborough is a bit like a post apocalyptic, sci-art, psychedelic Mike Nelson - it fills and occupies the numerous rooms throughout the 4 floors of the building - unsure what it was about but it was most enjoyable. Damien Hirst at Whitecube was a little like expensive interior design - pretty but lacking in context or meaning - the sort of art the Roy family might buy - reference to Succession. 

Shobana Jeyasingh Dance's Staging Schiele at the dance house in Ipswich was a mixed bag - somewhat over staged with a range of visual languages that clashed and seemed to make little sense - but the dance itself was dark and thrilling - some superbly challenging movements and great costumes that seemed to bring to life the fluid and transparent nature of Egon Schiele's paintings.

thinkinganddoingandgoingout

after last weekend's excellent Sound City in Ipswich this weekend was The Suffolk short film Festival at Leiston Cinema - (built in 1914) https://www.suffolkshorts.co.uk/. The program was a little bleak - death, Alzheimer's, bullying and more death but/and/so Wonderland, seven and SYLVIA https://sylviafilm.com/ are worth seeking out. This week is busy - Ron Athey at Norwich Art Centre https://norwichartscentre.co.uk/events/acephalous-monster/ Premiere at the Dance House in Ipswich https://www.danceeast.co.uk/watch-a-performance/ and hopefully checking out some shows in London 180 The Strand is on the list along with Mark Lecky's bridge at the Tate. Succession finale was dark with all the players demonstrating why they are so twisted but the final scene was where we were always going so it felt weirdly cathartic. Deep into the brutal Unbelievable - episode one is hard to watch but by three you are into buddy cop dynamics which is an easier territory. Meanwhile working on more folding and articulated structures. Revisiting some of the work created with the robotics department at Kings for Parallel Practices. We had so many starting points that most were never explored so rethinking with new knowledge and after watching Austin's butterfly with students yesterday considering the value of iteration with rules. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqh1MRWZjms

teachingteachingteachingteachingandthinkingaboutholidays

teaching has been good this week so far and its only Tuesday - solid tutorials at Camberwell, supporting the thinking behind the research and a full-on mind warp drawing sound and reading images session at NUA. Tomorrow is Book-Art-Family-Tree-Symposium-1 so we get to hear book story starting points. Working on the presentations for the teaching I'm involved in - Dr Tadashi Tokieda has become my go-to person when thinking about making topology accessible and meanwhile still thinking about Keith Albarn's tessellation  http://patternandbelief.com/

Noel Gallagher on hot ones - it was interesting to see after all the Americans that Englishness was so evident.... dourness and irony to the fore, we really are a different race. Listening to The Rapture an episode of Melvyn Bragg - In Our Time explains a little more why America is like America https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008p2k. In the Shadow of the Moon https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8110640/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1 was a quirky time travel lesson about living in the now.

My experience of Sound City Ipswich had a bad start with Greater Anglia cancelling another train (this is now obviously some form of policy so going to the station has become a sad lottery) But an hour late I managed to see Peaness - soft indi guitar band, Plastic Mermaids - knob twiddling radiohead, Girls of the Internet - excellent samples and dance in the great venue that is the Smokehouse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qPU_pWK13o&list=PL0gmWNnsmaDchNuxIU4dcg_TOScpdI5Wg&index=1, Emma-Jane Thackray - a really interesting sound - tight Sun-Ra-afro-beat-reggae-2-tone-house- inspired mournful rock jazz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jle9v6JZzAE, Novelist - ok'ish' grime-lite. meanwhile all this terrible weather and the start of Autumn has got me 1- thinking about the Summer and 2 - planning for next year!!

everythingisfarce

one man two guvrnors is a farce - as a genre I really cannot stand farce - I went to see one man two guvrnors at the New Wolsey in Ipswich - I hated it....obviously - But I was surrounded by people really enjoying themselves - so it must be ok? Was the audience laughing with rather than at - the 'useless' old people and 'nice but dim sexually excessive' women ........maybe I lacked the irony recognition needed to get it.

went to see the Kara Walker at The Tate - unsure what I think so I will have to go back and spend more time. Dan Vo at South London Gallery had some positive moments - the sculptures for me were the most interesting work, especially the one in the Fire Station.  He had also chosen some intriguing pieces to show together, it is always a pleasure to see Serrano's Immersion (Piss Christ)...while looking at the work in the South London Gallery Fire Station in Gallery 4 by Felix Gonzalez Torres, Untitled (Portrait of Julie Ault) - I found myself thinking about the idea of important moments and the book art family tree concept we are presenting next week at Camberwell as part of Symposium 1.

http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/2016/11/felix-gonzalez-torres-untitled-portrait-of-julie-ault-1991/ meanwhile timetabling at Camberwell 'old skool' is complete.