teachingfoldingtime

A busy week ending with a great day of science on Friday with the unfolding thinking project https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/afmtaptaptap.html Teaching has a new twist - in an effort to improve the experience for all I have decided to send students the presentation I intend to give in the timetabled session with them before the actual time we meet. It's my intention that enabling access to the presentation in this way will allow the student to work through the material in their own time and at their own pace - hopefully there will be less time talking at the front for me - less passive listening from the students - there will be more student interaction - which will all leave more time within the session to discuss work. Of course this works if the students read emails. I had some of my best recent teaching with year 3 at NUA on Monday. It was empowering watching students being empowered.  At Camberwell this was a real triumph where the actual ideas behind the work were deconstructed - fantastic. This is something I will continue. 

Its less than a week to ALL https://artlanguagelocation.org/all2016-showtime/ I cycled past my piece at Land Economy and it's still going strong - Looking forward to seeing all the work.  Yes I have succumbed to a folding bike which was a great choice as the clowns Abellio in their ceaseless quest for 'customer' satisfaction chose to have a train consisting of only 2 carriages - this out of Cambridge on a Friday night at 5.44 - the same day there was racing at Newmarket - thank you for your care and attention we loved standing for the entire journey pressed up against each other - oh yes it was also late so another case of missed connections again. Although transparent,  I watched the supposedly very dark the good neighbour from start to finish we all knew where it was going. Using all the standard tropes Triple 9 wasn't that bad but wasn't that much - lots of stars acting almost in their own films. 

busybusybusyallgood

after a week attending the NanoDTC Autumn school I'm back  - for more information on this follow https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/ which is the blog that will document the project with NanoDTC at the Maxwell Centre. meanwhile Its been a busy week of opportunities - The Crafts Council have invited me to present my work in Manchester as part of Crafts Council's Make:Shift conference - already looking forward to it as it's an opportunity to share the advances my practice has had as a result of working within a science context. Nicola Naismith has contacted me to be part of her interesting project Postures of Making - exploring what happens beneath the surface of the skin when engaged in art practice and how we work with the idea of repetitive acts. I have several art related body malfunctions!!! as a result of creative making over the years and have been interested in the ergonomics of art practice for some time, especially when considering the of concept of the space of reading and idea of page turning as a performance. Confirmation of the upcoming work for Open College of the Arts has come through - I'm running an interesting project which focuses on creating an online exhibition. meanwhile managed to read  I love Dick by Chis Kraus it's a wonderfully incisive book. I loved the descriptions and general critique of a number of art pieces, films and artists I am familiar with - it really is very funning, I now want to go back and check out the work I was unfamiliar with - this book should be read by all artists. I've been invited to Unfold a show at The Roundhouse on October 8. The Catalogue for ALL is out and the work looks good - can't wait to see a physical copy in my hands - the events on the 13th October if you are in Cambridge https://artlanguagelocation.org/ Dan Tsu of Lyrix Organix very kindly mentioned that this is the project I inspired them to develop last year! but I think that is really down to all the hard work they do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SQ_K_WQl0A

inthewindowrunning

the work is hung for Art Language Location (ALL) in the window of the Land Economy building in Silver Street in Cambridge.

decidingwhattowatch

The Art Language Location website is up and running - the whole project is extensive and bright with lots of individual work going on in lots of different places around Cambridge. https://artlanguagelocation.org/

my page

https://artlanguagelocation.org/les-bicknell/

at the end of the break last week I had a couple of days in Marseille - I love this slightly dysfunctional city, it feels so quintessentially French with a huge range of fantastic 'outside' influences - sited on the sea with great food it always appears to be sort of writhing. Went to see the collection at Musée d'Art Contemporain - some good but eclectic pieces hung without any practical care or seemingly curatorial skill or interest. They did have a disturbing yet excellent Annette Messager piece which was a dark joy squishing nature and its cartoon image together. The Cathedral had huge flags which looked like a form of medieval clip art and the redeveloped area around the port is extra-ordinary - especially the Museum of Old Marseille which is one of the oddest-brutally-beautiful clever spaces ever - a must see.  Got back to see Jason Bourne - a rollicking rush of a JB experience, set pieces were a blast. I Am Not a Serial Killer is a 'not-bad' twisted dark 'indi-thriller'. 

lookingforwardtospace

finally secured the space for ALL - a window onto the street in the Land Economies building - it will be great to have so many people see the work. a mixed bag of films this week Son of Saul - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3808342/  a brutal portrayal of cruel madness that leaves you wretched and empty, extraordinary. Me before You - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2674426/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1  despite all the controversy I was in tears for the whole film and I loved the perky Emilia Clarke. Keanu - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4139124/ unsure if it was very clever or just dubious.  Looking forward to Berlin at the end of the week - going to the Biennale http://bb9.berlinbiennale.de/ there are some 'old favourites' that I'm looking forward to - John Rafman's installation looks excellent and hopefully while I'm there I hope to check out the Jewish Museum, it's been on my 'to see' list since it was opened.

thepastisablur

iterations of the film for ALL have emerged from the studio this week.

songs from the second floor - a film by Roy Andersson made in 2000 that somehow is about Brexit and the place we are now. The final solution to the problems of the people is devastating. Those in charge, the business people and politicians  (because they have read many books) are lost - the whole film is a marvel. invited to participate in BOOKMARE project 2 - the title of average sunlight the strange thing was that I just found myself somehow drawn to looking at a web site of my old school (the school was closed down then knocked down and a huge tribute site has been created) something melancholic about the phrase of average sunlight! the photos of past students ........we shall see.

listeningandwatchingthefuture

I may of found a new space to show work for Art Language Location in Cambridge - in

the Land Economies building  - as a result I've been working on a new film adding and then stripping away backgrounds to create dialogues within the work. I so loved sing street http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3544112/ a tender beautiful film that will make you laugh and cry sometimes at the same time - it's a 'must see' that captures something wonderful about the importance of music in a young person's life and you have to adore the big brother and his wonderful words of wisdom. high rise - great style but all the actors looked like they were asking the question - what happened? please no more films of so called unfilmable books that I love (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a high/low point) - The everything store by Brad Stone is a disturbing insight into how Amazon became Amazon. It's a brutal read that explains why and where we are now as a society that is underpinned by Amazon's founder Jeff Bozos' belief in a quote by Alan Kay 'It's easier to invent the future than to predict it.' 

itsthattimeofyear

In academic life it's that time of year - submissions, assessments, final show planning and

some tense but excitable students full of expectation and some looking for the time machine to go back and do work that they didn't manage the first time around (due to planning issues) - it's going to be a good one.

meanwhile - making for ALL in Cambridge progresses - with new objects made and filmed.
Looking at ideas of text and pattern generation.

As well as consuming the final episodes of Girls - harrowing but redemptive and Better
Call Saul - just so sad I've been checking out a few films that I'd missed the
first time around - the all consuming Margaret being the most moving http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466893/ - there are many commenting on the thing that is youtube but maybe the most astute/disturbing/angry is h3h3 https://www.youtube.com/user/h3h3Productions

finally check out the film about the sculptor Lawrence Edwards - beautiful

disturbingdislocatingfolds

The leaflet for fashion 360 is attractive and makes my work look good - the image of the work and the text work well together.

I've just had a long and mostly frustrating time battling with the Norwich and Norfolk Festival web site buying tickets - but anyway - some of the list..... particularly looking forward to The James Plays - a full day of 3 linked performances from the wonderful National Theatre of Scotland, responsible for Black Watch, a previous highlight of a past festival. The Tempest in Great Yarmouth is on the list and there is some great spoken word stuff with Francesca Beard and Hollie McNish alongside live art at The Arts Centre with Martin Figura directed by the most excellent Ross Sutherland http://www.nnfestival.org.uk/festival/performance/martin-figura

Shane Carruth's follow up to the unsettlingly disturbing Primer is the fantastically oppressive Upstream Colour - the imagery is out-of-soft-focused and leads you down a range of dark fractured beautiful slight narratives which you have to build and then after it has finished discuss it for as long as the film ran....just what is the role of the sampler? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084989/

Unfolding - my proposal for ALL (Art Language Location) in Cambridge has been accepted - it will be fascinating to see the videos of the folded structures in the hand that explore both the possibility of architecture alongside that of multiple reading of language on the welcome screens in the entrances to  The Department of Architecture and The Faculty of Law. These would give the opportunity for a half imagined moment of possibility.