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a shout out to the most excellent show - Bit Rot by Bob Bicknell-Knight  (yes a relative). Its weaving of narratives in the digital and handmade, the real and imagined, on and off line are worth the trip to the Broadway Gallery in Letchworth.

https://www.broadway-letchworth.com/studio-gallery/whats-on/bit-rot-bob-bicknell-knight . Working at Kings in synthetic anatomy with the wonderful Celia Pym - it was a great workshop around the idea of narratives held within textiles. A day out in London with MA Book Art students to look at real examples of display, to talk about hanging work. It was interesting to check out a few things - the meaning of the screw, the role of text on the wall, what is available to take away, how we are treated by the staff. There was also some exciting work along the way Pi artworks had some beautiful clothes that incorporated text https://www.piartworks.com/exhibitions/location/2/ James Turrel at Pace was very James Turrel https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/james-turrell-9/ Fischli and Weiss was fun at Sprueth Magers  http://spruethmagers.com/exhibitions/511

Sadie Cole had work from the gloriously disturbing Jordan Wolfson if you get the opportunity see his piece Real Violence it is challenging in so many ways  https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/sickest-artwork-of-all-time-allows-viewers-to-watch-man-beaten-to-death/news-story/9492c9f143535d7aa69694f9c95ff736 - here he uses 3D holographic fans to good effect https://www.sadiecoles.com/exhibitions/774/installation_shots/ The Science Gallery had an intriguing show about Gender https://london.sciencegallery.com/genders An interesting  space I have not been to before, the Celia Brunson Project, had a group show of Latin American artists which had a reading space that might be something to work with https://www.ceciliabrunsonprojects.com/exhibitions/58/overview/ and finally Cerith Wyn Evans No realm of thought… No field of vision at White Cube was an instagram opportunity with all the nice lighting and reflective surfaces.  https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/cerith_wyn_evans_bermondsey_2020 Stopping off along the way at the Materials Lab is always good for the soul. https://www.material-lab.co.uk/ Martin Creed performing at Toynbee Hall was superb - a blend of freeform, absurdist oddball, stand-up comedy - Tommy Cooper meets John Cooper Clark talking about not making decisions. If you get the chance go see his thoughts and observations on stuff you didn't know needed thinking about. The Steve McQueen show at Tate Modern is magnificent - for me there are a couple of gaps but there is a good spread of his work. The presentation of his work has been really considered - each space has a different set up - for the long films you have actual start points at the beginning and everywhere there is information about the start times and when films are ending - excellent.

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participating at Materials Research Exchange 2020 was an eye opener - as I walked through the stands promising materials that on first glance appeared to be closer to magic than reality I felt that my practice was one held together by string.... the talks around military and material research linked to concepts of strategic advantage were truly fascinating for so many reasons. The Biomimicry talk brought together by Ann Toomey was good - lots to reflect on all round.

For my talk brought together by MaDE through their connection to the Crafts Council I focused on work undertaken with NanoDTC in Cambridge and Kings robotics department at Kings with a little bit of bookness philosophy thrown in - lots of thoughts about the role of artists within so called non-art situations. In some ways it celebrated the lo-fi nature of the materials I use and concentrated on the creative process. I have in some ways already shifted the focus of what I do from galleries, although I have been invited to show work in the old sorting office in Saxmundham as part of The Art Station new space development https://theartstation.uk/. A further reframing of my practice from pure research and academia into industry is something to consider  

For the final final book art MA show at Camberwell college it looks like there will be an element of an archive show within the show - the students are working with Rosie of turn the page and Gustavo the man behind the special collection so it should be both thoughtful and through. There is also an element of celebrating the past - there is a proposal being created by a student for a call out to all previous Book Art Alumni - their responses will all be collated into a book. It will be intriguing to see how many can be found and how many will respond. The first 2 catalogues actually had physical addresses for the students so we shall see.  A weekend of films included Little women - charming and disturbingly precedent with a nice twist bringing together past and present, autobiographical and fiction. Jamanji: The Next Level was not as good as the last one but held its own and had some fun body swap moments with Danny Devito holding it all down. The Wolsey had The Ballad of Maria Marten a play about the Red Barn Murder cleverly spoken from the life and times of the dead women's perspective. Akram Khan at Dance East had Chotto Xenos a piece for families which was a little too illustrative for me but when the dancing connected to the projections it was very powerful and the child next to me was on the edge of his seat. looking forward to the next session of Synthetic Anatomy where I'll be reacquainted with anatomic models.

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speaking at Materials Research Exchange 2020 has meant that I've had to create a number of gifs created from films I made as part of residencies at Kings Robotics department and NanoDTC and a show in Cambridge with Art Language Location. It was interesting to revisit the work, choosing clips to make into endless cycles offers a moment of reflection, a strange lingering or stillness gives the chance to rethink them.

meanwhile - I've made a list of a number of non-English speaking series on Netflix and at present working through episodes of Nobody's Looking, which is fun, it's a typical 'person out of place' narrative with a twist. Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory was a gloriously layered film with the last scene bringing another layer of meaning to the work. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8291806/

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I have been working on a number of new shapes that explore the book form within the structures. They use different qualities of paper to exploit bending, squash, deform and friction. Continuing the work with Kings within the synthetic anatomy project. It really is a glorious experience. The situation has so many positive aspects - to be valued for the creativity brought into the room and celebrated by the students who are focused and alert to new possibilities. Working in the laboratories presents an interesting number of issues but mainly one is aware of the tech support, each bench having a monitor and using a microphone means that one can talk clearly and also use it to offer each student the opportunity to talk to the whole class. They did great work, revelations all around using 'art school thinking' to explore lateral thinking and problem solving. The act of reflection was flagged up and explored - scientists using sketch books. Working with the glorious Celia Pym is such a pleasure and I'm looking forward to this week where she is leading a session using drawing as a vehicle for thinking.

managed to get back to Kara Walker at the Tate - it was good to go back and look at the work again - it's quite a monument with an impressive use of the space.

meanwhile Parasite is a glorious film of shifting genres and meanings, Never Look Away is a stunning film about art, and creativity in adversity - a real winner - don't be put off by the 3 hour subtitles, it will feel like 3 minutes https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5311542/?ref_=rvi_tt and you get to see a lecture by Joseph Beuys - most excellent. finally worked through Sex Education which continues to do good work, demonstrating some excellent lessons - if you have children watch it with them.