breathingoutandinandout

The 1-minute films are slowly getting edited. Meanwhile - working at Kings - Synthetic Anatomy Day 1 - I think there is some interesting research to be undertaken about iteration around teaching. I think this year’s 1st day was possibility one of our best - clarity of intention was key, we are getting very good at working with students to develop learning criteria. The session was excellent, building a shared understand whilst simultaneously surprising ourselves. There were some interesting conversations which I brought back into my world, both as anecdotes and also into my own practice as a maker. I particularly liked the idea of the wildcard criteria that could be a driver of one’s own iterative process. Interested that what we value is what we decide to measure or is it what we measure is what we decide to value. I loved the idea of a 'good version' of a 'bad' bridge being 'better' than a 'bad version' of a 'good bridge' and the structures themselves were fascinating – on the way home I continued to read 12 bytes - Jeanette Winterson. It's a collection of thoughts whose focus is ai - it was fascinating finding out the way quantum computers (the next generation) work - that quantum bits exist in many places but when observed (measured) they take on a defined form and can be observed only in one! Unsure how that relates but in some way it seems relevant to the conversations that came out of the crits. Onto Screens - The Painter – just...odd. Role Play – I think we’ve been here before.

somestuffffutsemos

looking forward to receiving my anniversary tea towel from Focal point - https://www.fpg.org.uk/printed-matter/30th-anniversary-tea-towel/ - if I had any older relatives left alive it would be on my list of presents! But maybe my children will be getting something in their stockings! The first online session, structures 1. Experimental non adhesive binding structures, for Leicester Print works went well, I think. They are now working on their set task developing a 'family tree' of book forms, exploring their inherent qualities. LPW are thinking of creating a short course so if you are interested in making books, but not as you know them.....(apologies to Turn the Page) check out their site. The assessments went smoothly at NUA. Looking at work online is both sad in that the work has touch and feel at its core and also so much smoother and direct as students target their submissions to the Learning Outcomes and assessment criteria.  meanwhile  Hillbilly Elegy - no, The Undoing - yes but the ending - bad people are just bad, Tenet - yes, my head is still wonderfully spinning. The series Small Axe is totally glorious, the sensual and focused camera work at the dance in episode 2 was beautiful, I could of walked into a gallery and watched the 11 minute sequence of Silly Games on a loop all day. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08vxt33 thank you.

assessmentsarego

This week at NUA it's all about assessments - two days of presentations and then 3 days of looking through work - lots of work. So far there has been some really exciting potential on display in the presentations. Talking about your work and how it's made is a key skill and something that the course and year 3 specifically have lots of practice and support with, storytelling will get you through most things. OCA was all about exploring the structure that we work within - the screen - the internet. The three hours were all about working with rules and thinking about instructions, learning and teaching. meanwhile films - swimming with men - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6532374/ - quirky and sweet. night school - just so bad - I lasted 10 minutes and that was generous.

lifeworklifeanda#proundparentmoment

well a busy couple of weeks and we are still in it - assessments on the Textile Design at nua was smooth with some wonderful work -  the show at nua is almost up - we have built an extraordinary series of structures, creating an environment  to show off the work to its best - I've been north working on the assessment for OCA on the MA Fine Art Course and staying in the Premier Inn in Barnsley, there was some really excellent thinking underpinning great work. The next two years graduation shows could potentially be wondrous. The Degree Show Private View at Chelsea was gloriously old school - a packed space of randomly dressed individuals all enjoying being there - some excellent textiles and of course fine art - highlight was a #proundparent moment - Bob Bicknell-Knight. meanwhile A very English Scandal https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p065sk93 was tragically funny but I spent most of the time marvelling over Hugh Grants stunning performance. I got to see Solo - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/ wonderfully geeky - with something for everyone - great back story infilling alongside swashbuckling set pieces. Christopher Brett Bailey https://christopherbrettbailey.com/  was the standout session at Pulse 18 last weekend - I cannot recommend him enough - I think this was my 5th outing and he just gets better. Meanwhile Snape Festival had a new opera - a kind of brutalist Jacques Tati set in a Kafkaesque modern space with a nod to the Truman show aesthetics. The Appalachian Spring session by the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Huw Watkins on the piano and conducted by Oliver Knussen was viseral. Playing Coplands Music for a Great City, The world premiere of The Book of Ingenious Devices by Philip Cashian, Feldman Structures and Coplands joyous Appalachian Spring one was swept away. On the way to see the Pavillion next to the Serpentine Gallery ..............I bumped into Christon next to the Christo in the Serpentine which was and which is fantastic and worth seeing offline.

itsallgoingon

it's been a busy few days but full of really interesting moments - Book Art Symposium 2 at Camberwell was so extraordinarily profession, the students truly owned their practice and presented a fully engaging morning of ideas and work, so much so that my timing was almost a full 45 minutes off and as students had only 7 mins to present and 3 minutes for questions you can see how interesting it was. In the afternoon we went to Kingsland Projects http://www.kingsgateworkshops.org.uk/43-billboard to see the work of and talk with Fox Irving & Katarina Kelsey. They have been collaborating and evidence of this can be seen in the thoughtful billboard that can be viewed from the surrounding street and park.

Turn the page - https://www.turnthepage.org.uk/  the wonderful Book Art Fair organised by equally wonderful Rosie Sherwood, Alumni of The Book Art MA at Camberwell at The Form Norwich was really interesting, full of excellent work and committed makers. I missed the symposium, assessments and marking had overtaken my life. But the work at NUA is some of the most professional I have seen in my years of teaching. The students practice submitted for assessment leads me to believe that this year could be one of the most exciting final shows I have been involved in.

movingmomentsmoved

Invited to participate in Focal point Gallery’s 25th Anniversary, to produce one or more animated GIFs for the multi-screen exhibition Graphics Interchange Format: 25 Years of Focal Point Gallery. Here’s the GIF.

Mad Max – I've got a great idea for a film – let’s chase each other......until we turn around and chase back.........oh yes and we we’ll get somebody with a guitar that shoots fire!

It’s been an intense week of assessing final work on the Textile Design Course at NUA. An interesting experience – the emotions range from weary sadness where you have projected wondrous possibilities onto a student and their work but they have just not attained their potential for a number of reasons; dullness, lack of engagement or just an innate inability. To that of warm excited surprise when a portfolio is opened and glorious intense work spills out from a student whom you have not really engaged with but they have gained in some way from the experience of the course.  I asked about the criteria to be used when judging the suitcase prize as part of the pulse festival and the response after the blank stare was that they would choose the best!

Meanwhile Lost Dog’s Paradise Lost http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/pulse15-paradise-lost-lies-unopened-beside-me/ at the dance house in Ipswich was a glorious shambolic romp through Paradise Lost blending God with parenthood – quite brilliant – I’m still thinking about it a week later.

The day at Camberwell led to another wonderful series of cross-cultural exchanges around the idea of finish and a workshop I run around finishedness!!! http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/finishedness-2014

gradingthebestandmakingwork

LO7 - LO12 - Learning outcomes - assessment grading matrix  - black folders and assessment forms - after 2 weeks of assessments at NUA where I have looked at some of the best practice’s I have ever been in the presence of I am spending the day working on my upcoming show in France – its in the imprints gallery at Piegros La Clastre. http://www.imprints-galerie.com/galerie

thecentreofuniversalcoolnesswearealldoomed

An excellent day at Camberwell with all the students who are graduating this summer presenting work at symposium 2. The work was of a high standard with some really interesting research strategies on display.  I went to the degree show at Central St Martin – the ‘new’ space really is quite a corporate monster of hipness– the centre of universal coolness. There was some excellent work – my key moments were the interventions into the space by Marijam Did and the response from the organisation says something about the nature of the place. The truly beautiful domestic dance/movement piece Ritournelle by Dorthe Slej Pedersen was very moving http://dortheslejpedersen.com/

The work of Dan Gardner a video of a word for word transcript from a ‘porn’ film spoken in a matter of face way had me in stitches, especially the boredom etched on the face of the male as the woman said yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes YES.

Meanwhile at Norwich we are deep in the middle of assessments – which are going well – each year the standard improves with the level of teaching. The work we are doing around professional practice is giving the students a great grounding for getting them ready for the ‘real’ world – it’s becoming more focused and this is evidenced in the presentations the year 3 students  have been giving as part of their assessments.  

Last night the start of Pulse festival was marked by the thoughtful Credible Likeable Superstart Role Model by Bryony Kimmings. The piece explores the world through a nine year old girls eyes – or in one instant a lack of them!  - thoughtful and thought provoking – see it while you can – Taylor can only be nine for a short time! http://www.bryonykimmings.com/tourdates.html

foldingsound

A busy week - 3 days at nua including unit briefings, a session on how to run interviews, which are starting next week and individual tutorials. Tuesday was a solid day of assessments at Camberwell - interesting, as ever to see a wide range of approaches to the idea of the book within the submissions. It was a pleasure to spend the day looking at good work and engaging with the creative thinking embedded within the practices which will culminate in the part-time element of what should be an interesting show come the end of the year.
Popped into the National Gallery to check out depictions of cloth within paintings - looking specifically for the fold got me to Veronese and Van Dyck esp portrait of a Flemish Lady
Another faster than sound - in brittens footsteps - a sound piece by chris watson with accompanying cello by oliver coats - based on walks taken by Britten. It was at its most interesting when accompanied but the clarity of sound was excellent.
I think that I may be the only person left who has attended every one of the faster than sound events as my partner is away and up till today she had also seen them all. 

assessmentassessmentassessmentandabogman

The end of unit 7 on the textile course at nuca sees sessions of hardcore assessment - interesting to see the exciting possibilities within the work and to project on them the potential outcomes for the final show and collections.
A day in London with Book Art students saw visits to two spaces. First the British Library where we connected the students research strands to objects in the permanent treasures collection - ending up with a tour of the show curated by the students - I had fantastic conversations around the work and came away with many notes and ideas to follow up myself. The afternoon was spent at the Poetry Library where we looked at the Printed in Norfolk exhibition by Coracle http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/literature-spoken-word/tickets/printed-in-norfolk-1000302 Wonderful to visit the work again but also to be given a talk about the Poetry Library by Chris who was really knowledgeable and made everybody feel that they had access to the space, the objects within it and the ideas behind it 
The guard announces on the train 'welcome to Later Anglia' most appropriate.
I managed to slip in a quick visit to the British Museum to see a 3D digital autopsy http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/virtual_autopsy.aspx - effectively the 'bog man' had been CAT scanned and you were able to manipulate him on a huge touch screen 'ipad like' - taking away layers of skin, soft tissue, zooming in and rotating - quite marvellous - I managed to speak to the curator who happened to be standing behind me as I interacted - a must see.

alteredtimeandspace

battling through the snow this week has been tricky but worth it for the interesting work i have been involved with – NUCA has seen 2 days of assessments – some very exciting year 3 work on the BA textiles illustrating real potential for innovation with process and skill to the fore.
meanwhile at Camberwell the first crit of the year - for me it was wonderful to see some good solid thinking with ideas embedded within. in the afternoon we visited the flat time house – the base for the john latham foundation http://www.flattimeho.org.uk/ – a truly thrilling space full of rigorous thinking and possibilities. the 'conversation pieces are a joy and something familiar in terms of my understanding of the potential and space of the book but i was particularly taken with a table of ‘off cuts’– altered books, or pieces of books found after johns death laid out on a wooden table – somehow they had the quality of ancient objects – known but unknown, something to be deciphered.