booksandreading

Working on a new approach and using some new maths around the receptor pharmacology work. Recent reading on holiday included the gloriously disturbing Liarmouth: A feel-bad romance by John Waters, you will be repulsed in clever ways reading things you didn’t think possible. Exit Stage Left: The curious afterlife of pop stars by Nick Duerden details what happens next. PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin, Ann Shulgin is a record of psychedelic exploration, travelling in uncharted territory. Kinky Boots at The New Wolsey was, if you like a gritty glamour sing along was the epitome of a good night out. Meanwhile onto screens - I’m deep into Wecrashed a crazy ride into the depths of the dubious start-up.

printingparametersisallaboutcontrol

I am deep into the 3D printer. Still working with the 3D printing software; Google sketchUp, 3D Builder, PrusaSlicer – to work out what can be achieved, whilst also trying to figure out how to be in vague control of the activity. The parameters of printing possibilities seem endless, at one end an object can be formed solid like a block of non-material, it is all about the physical structure. At the other the delicate strands of PLA align with textile activity, weaving and basketry. I enjoy the feeling that the object seems to of been conceived in another universe, somehow they just arrive but the latter gives the work a deconstructed tone, not just in its physical making but also in that when viewing the mind can and does try to work out how the object was made. Onto screens - Rare Beasts – glorious storytelling https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8419594/ Cruella – glorious retelling yet overly long. Wrath of Man - Stath gloriously doing Stath.

workinginstudio

Spending time in the studio – working on the surfaces of some structural sculptural pieces. Their starting point was an agreement to be part of Firstlight Bird Box project but/and/so this input has taken the practice into interesting places.

doyoustartfromquestionsorfromanswers?

Do you start from questions or from answers? a day spent at a foundry exploring the potential of the activities peripheral yet integral to the actual casting of work. Working with the negative spaces within the sand casting of ingots was interesting - working inside out with negative space - a great day of rethinking. 

onto films - The Act of Killing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375605/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 if you want to watch it - you can on YouTube - your life will be altered - truly one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen and there is no actual violence, bad language or sexual oppression. But the casual way in which these things are talked about and then reenacted will change you and your thoughts on human nature - haunting.

makingmakingandwatching

making day on the Arts Fine Art MA for the Open College was a thoughtful experience - a moment of revelation during my making session - I think acknowledging one's learning is a possible route to actually moving forward - mine was totally random but all about recognising the possibilities within a seemingly throw away opportunity - when cutting down a structure I was left with a very thin version of the piece  - keeping the functional possibilities but adding rotational behavior to the connection- maybe I need to consider connected tubes.! stated the Testing Your Boundaries project with the OCA - its all about reconceptualising ones practice - see presentation here - https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/2019-initial-presentation-testing-boundaries meanwhile - I spend most of my time whilst watching Ad Astra in the mind of another person on a deep voyage - thinking about Martin Sheen's journey in Apocalypse Now - but this distraction or layering of meaning did not take me too far away from the often perilously life threatening set piece scenes in space and then there is The end of the fucking world - the soundtrack is truly awesome. https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2019/11/8710740/the-end-of-the-fucking-world-season-2-soundtrack-songs

learningfoldingincolour

working on some shibori - some interesting learning around dye has taken place - the chemistry is fascinating and I feel will become part of some new research - looking forward to exploring cross dying with devore sometime next week. back in the teaching flow(ish) mass tutorials all round as the new terms start and one attempts to support students on the last term of this yea. It's an interesting time to be in education as I am told repeatedly that my role as a tutor teaching on a creative course is worthless in the eyes of a government who appears to be unable to organise itself.  When everything is measured in terms of money maybe we will all go wanting - I'm reminded of Oscar Wilde and the thought of a man knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing. so a collection of really interesting films - for many different reasons - The Wife https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3750872/?ref_=nv_sr_1 has a great twisted reveal and Glen Close's face is stunning as she acts all the emotions at once.  Beautiful Boy https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1226837/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_5 is a guttingly tragic tale - The drugs are almost a side issue as the film peels back what is it to be a father?  Sorry to Bother You https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5688932/?ref_=nv_sr_1 is totally bonkers - as if a sketchbook of ideas have all, yes all, been made into one film. the hate you give https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580266/ is all about rethinking privilege.

gogogoitsallgo

Another full on week of teaching with the end of Spill and the making of work. At NUA one very successful workshop saw each student making an equation of their practice and a proposed project - this equation was then passed to another student who created a 3D sculpture that represented the equation - the sculpture was then returned to the student who then reinterpreted the work having had a revelatory moment. all good. OCA had a making day where I focused on creating some internal hidden structures within a bookwork, but also reflecting and building on the work created for Nano residency. During Spill I always like to document the end of a performance (see slides) but I also had some highlights over the second week - Clarion Call grew in intensity - which was a good thing, it's so ethereal and otherworldly. Went to see Winter's Tale by Forced entertainment - just so clever/beautiful. Inter_versal by Carter Tuti and Kernschmelze II were 2 all encompassing sound experiences that I would recommend if in the vicinity of them. Decasia by Bill Morrison and The Mirror by Vicki Bennett  were two film experiences.  Decasia is made of archive film that has decayed in many ways, often this decay takes on meaning and form when seen within the context of the film's original material, boxers battling a swirling mass of scratches or a merry go around where the rides emerge from an ectoplasmatic surge and Mirror is a mash up of overlaid footage, often creating alternative narratives and dialogue between the sequences.

theshadowandthevoid

the shadow and the void - continuing the work on the pieces for Goldlay in Chelmsford. The shadows and their relationship to the objects are really dynamic and have emerged even better than I had hoped.

peoplearewatching

The editioned work on the bookwork for the show of average sunlight for millimetre02 space is complete, I just need to send it off. The rules of the brief were restrictive in terms of size but the structure allows the piece to expand beyond the A6 size.  Using sunshine yellow and parts of the circle, the folding allows for multiple ways of viewing the work, all of them correct.

I had a really excellent, lively session with year 1 MA Fine Art OCA students this week - exploring the relationship between research and making - we were looking at ways of developing a holistic practice with research embedded at its core.

http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/initial-presentation-year-1-2017 I gave the presentation on Monday and it already has 165 views and there are only 12 in the cohort. 

controldirectmapandfeel

a day at Norwich Castle - working within the build your own exhibition (alongside Turner Prize winners Assemble!)- developing an 'alternative' way of engaging with the permanent museum displays. I have 'chosen' 3 objects and am attempting to unfold from a very cluttered brain (looking forward to Christmas) a range of connections and questions between and to them. Exploring the idea of creating a range of entry points to understanding an object within a collection and then being able to navigate through a collection are key concerns of the 'mini residency'.

Sword in the Stone - this year's 'rock and roll' panto at The Wolsey in Ipswich is a truly great night out - shed your inhabitations before you enter and it will be good - very good - men dressed as women, behind you, evil combated by good, fire, smoke, illusion, oh no it isn't, dancing - rude jokes - its all there - every year I marvel at the performers ability to sing, dance, act and play a wide range of musical instruments - fantastic, who needs irony?http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/the-sword-in-the-stone/

love and mercy - the Brian Wilson biopic is stunning in its portrayal of where songs come from - the moment it 'arrives' as the essence of a fragment, building its development, the combining of sounds and words, the weaving of layering towards a final piece. brilliant. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903657/