whatdoeselectricitylooklike

A day at Suffolk Show on the SZC stand.  It was quite a surprise to turn up and find a large picture of me on the stand. In amongst the incredibly professionally printed display and children’s colouring in activity I decided to ask the public What does electricity look like? I spent the day finding answers from young people through drawing. I noticed that there was a point (around 4/5 years old) when drawings that attempted to capture what is quite an almost impossible act, that of drawing something that we cannot see, where the actual feeling or experience of electricity turns to drawings of circuit boards and other examples of what we use it for. education…... don’t you love how it changes the mind. I had some extraordinary conversations with the public – about creating sculpture in the brain, realigning neurons in the brain as an artwork and how design works when attempting to provide solutions within restricted spaces – fascinating. Suffolk Show throws up lots of questions and a few answers.

wearekneecapwhatareyougpingtodoaboutit

What a week - Invited to attend a day out at Trinity Park with SZC people - a corporate event themed around the idea of a Spring Fete. I can see why working within a giant community would have it's advantages. I think everyone went home with a positive feeling of connection from the experience. I was quite surprised how many people knew of my existence and I had some interesting conversations with them and new people who were genuinely friendly. There is a real sense of engagement with their workers and a desire to build a sense of community within the company. 

A day at Kings working with 3 other artists 2 'science' people and a post doc whose specialism is hacking. It was such a joy to be with such intelligent and inspiring people. We are working together within a small research grant around the role of the bench. We explored a number of themes and I came away buzzing from the conversations and playing with light and shadows. 

Then back on a train back to London to see kneecap in Brockwell Park. Such a fantastic experience - watching people who are really having fun and don't appear to care about the consequences - most excellent - leaning into their position as poster Daily Mail bad boys of everything that we are supposed to be against they started with clips of people talking about them on daytime TV and went onto decry capitalism, The Israeli Government, Amazon, the British Government, celebrate drug taking and calling Jeff Bezos a bald c++t along the way. Other bands we managed to see was the very odd Cobrah, CMAT essentially Fleetwood Mac, Mannequin Pussy- angry wordy rock, Psychedelic porn crumpets - clashing guitar rock goth, Puzzle who were too cluttered almost hip hop, fuckers - driving house rock, and Spirits essentially Patti Smith. The whole experience was a little soulless, I felt like my only job was to consume and be controlled. Odd to be in a contained small space in park opposite where I lived 40 years ago where I watched rock against racism gigs for free. Managed to check out the Pennone show at the Serpentine - beautiful and calm and worth the visit, the Welcome has a great show 1880 That, by Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader, illustrating/demonstrating issues around being deaf with designed artworks, It's a highly controlled show with a large design budget! Interestingly the use of sign language ties in with kneecap asking the signer how to perform what would be known as rude words. On the way home went to The Place to see Ham:beth by Modern Table which was part of the Festival of Korean Dance - truly awesome from the start with dynamic movement alongside an epic soundtrack supported by SeokJong Baek. Fantastic.

itsnicetobetoldyouareokay

It’s been a busy couple of days - the weekend workshop at Leicester Printworks was special – the space is an oasis of activity in the cultural quarter which was oddly calm – huge post-industrial buildings away from the city centre but just close enough. The people who work there were helpful and understanding, all creative people in their own right. The workshop participants were great company and made some interesting bookwork’s. I developed a new hybrid fold, whilst responding to a person’s investigation of experimental book structures, if I lived locally, I would be a part of this. The journey to Inverness from Suffolk by train is a mammoth undertaking….but remarkably everything went well – connections and wi-fi (no complaints, (in-joke with my parents). Scotland really is another country, especially so far north, and yet there is even more of it further ‘up’. The place feels ‘other’, every single person I met was friendly and super helpful. I can understand the call for devolution and annoyance at the control held by Westminster, a place literally in another country. I was invited to talk at the Scottish Artist Network summit, the theme being around power and energy, my residency at Sizewell seems to sum that up. I am not an activist, or even an artist/activist in what might be considered a ‘traditional’ sense, but I think my activism if I have any is positioned in a broader, more socially engaged way. I guess the point or intention of what I do is to enable or encourage thought, creating a space to consider, or reconsider an issue. A moment to contemplate. It was a great opportunity and interesting to be in Inverness talking about the SZC residency - meeting a lot of artist/activists - seeing how people use their creativity to attempt to create change, social and political change and challenge corporations, capitalism and those in power. This is not my position but maybe it is something I am actively involved in, in a much wider way. Prompting people to just ask themselves questions - about how they choose to live their lives. I have always said that as long as people have full awareness of all positions on a subject and have access to truthful arguments on all sides, they were at liberty to believe in what they believed - I ‘didn't mind’ the choices they made! Don’t not know. Arrogant but as a lecturer there are worst ways to use the position of privilege and power that I find myself in and have observed. I think my talk went down well– my honesty enabled connections to be made – there were some excellent questions and reflections - lots of positive comments and conversations afterwards that I'm in the process of reflecting on. As ever the comments from others inform my thinking about my practice and in many ways explain to me what the work is actually about. It was fascinating to hear about issues I had never thought about. The effect of the transition from oil and gas to wind power on workers involved in generating power and the knock-on effect on their communities. The devastation brought by a lack of investment in the area, places having huge changes imposed on them, without consultation or true community engagement, as ever the money going out to private firms, investors and shareholders. The fact that this happened once with oil and is happening again with wind. This was compounded by the issue of the enclosures, and the slave trade, which in turn paid for more land. And of course, the reparations paid to former slave owners was used to buy even more land on which today windfarms are being built on, with which more money is made. Landlords, don’t you love them. Follow the money! I had many devastating conversations about the environmental damage we are inflicting and the global apocalypse we are living in….I left unsure of a future, but I did have a great time! thanks to all at SCAN. An interesting opportunity whilst being in Inverness talking about the SZC residency was  meeting a lot of artist/activists - seeing how people use their creativity to attempt to create change and challenge corporations, capitalism and those in power. This is not my position but maybe it is something I am actively involved in, in a much broader way. Making objects that prompt people to just ask themselves questions - about how they choose to be. I have always thought and said that as long as people have access to information, full awareness of all positions and have access to truthful arguments on all sides, I ‘didn't mind’ the choices they made.  

nodyreflectedinpage

Reorganising the landscape around Leiston is continuing, when going to Sizewell it can be quite a shock, this along with the increase in traffic reminds me of the changes in Coventry, especially the area I lived in. Photo of my child standing on what was left of  the house I grew up in. Back into the school in Leiston as part of SZC residency – it was my final session, although I am keen to go back as it felt like just the start of what is potentially possible. Last week we looked at superheroes and patron saints – considering our skills and building on them. Loved the image one person drew of an invisible person, patron saint of invisibility…. This week was all about future archaeology – we talked about waste and what would remain in the year 3000 – the children then created drawings of future archaeology, the ‘whole objects’ created from metal, plastic and then the tiny parts that would be found in the future. Meanwhile I had to photograph a piece for a show in Japan, organised by wonderful Sarah Bodman at UWE Bristol. onto screens –The Order, as with all these things anything about the downfall of American feels like a documentary. Just started Patriot – this time the absurdist approach gives light relief but……