sunandbrightness

A weekend in S France – Marseille is an astonishing place culturally and weather wise I have never been there when it’s not sunny, whatever the time of year. If you get the chance to go, after wandering around the fantastic Mucem building eat at Au Bout du Quai, everything there is most excellent – the soupe de poisson is a must. Got out to Crest despite the train strike – walking and the market and the design classics show at http://www.centredartdecrest.fr/home/ - one of those where you say – we had one of those and I remember that!!! gestetner printing machine anyone? Recently I’ve been to see some live theater – first the immersive – I was a Guidestar Volunteer at Saint Jude with Swap Motel theatre group where my job was to ‘speak’ to a coma patient (an AI) to wake them – not bad, although it did turn into an experience similar to an escape room. Meanwhile Gecko Theatre’s Kin was brutally beautiful (bruitifull). Gecko are an amazing company that always creates stunning work that makes you think both about the subject they are dealing with and the very concept of theatre itself. https://www.geckotheatre.com/  Onto screens – the latest series of F1 on Netflix was, as ever, madness on the highest level on every conceivable front….and……let’s not talk climate issues! 

lookingandlisteningandbeing

Recent trips to Seville and Turin – some great things were seen – some images. Onto screens – House of Gucci – not enough clothes for me. Marry Me – ‘person-out-of-place’ trope explored. The Souvenir – difficult to get past the dysfunctional unpleasant characters, but then maybe that’s the point.

dontworrynewstuffwillemerge

I've been engaging in a new walk that takes in both Walberswick and Southwold which means going past a fishmongers so after 1/2 dozen oysters in the harbour I'm yet again walking through the town so dropped into Southwold Museum for the first time ever  https://www.southwoldmuseum.org/ . It's full of fantastic stories - each one connected to a wonderfully odd object. Coffee sent by Haile Selassie after the great flood of 53 http://theconversation.com/1953-storm-surge-how-britains-worst-natural-disaster-kicked-off-the-debate-on-climate-change-71310  and spikes dropped from zeppelins based on designs created to deter Roman Chariots were two of my favourites. meanwhile Hotel Artemis is an amalgam of several films you have already seen, there are no surprises but it looks good and Jodie Foster shines. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834262/?ref_=nv_sr_1 and Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot - is beautifully shot by Gus Van Sant with some glorious acting by all - Jona Hill is superb. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6288124/?ref_=nv_sr_1 On the Music front enjoying Chet Faker and FKJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw-hw7rVOrA today working at Camberwell - running the last what is a book session where structural folding leads to building an individual relationship to bookness. After last week's Textile Design lecture I realised that I had left my keys in the theatre - really pleased this happened as KlangHaus were setting up for Fine Art - the performance/lecture was really engaging and informative - I last saw them in an immersive/performance/gig in an old factory in Norwich. If you get a chance go see them. https://klanghaus.co/

privilegedfolding

The folding and printing continues...with a view to thinking about editioning.

A day out in Newmarket to take part in garden of curious A'MUSE'ment - a project set up by http://www.unbosi.org/  - it was a kind of immersive interactive theatre piece - if you have young children I recommend getting to see one of their events - while there I dropped into The National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art.

https://www.palacehousenewmarket.co.uk/  which was really intriguing - alongside the really interesting objects connected to the sport of racing they have real horses which you can stroke, which was cool. The art collection does document the wealthy, privileged and questionable activity of the horse racing fraternity through the ages. Meanwhile a link to the Pattern and Chaos research page at Norwich University of the Arts  https://www.nuapatternandchaos.com/  - recently uploaded my answers to a set of questions -

Les describes his  practice and research as‘…searching for opportunities to be in a place of not knowing’ Les sees Pattern and Chaos as‘…finding the overwhelmingly extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary’ Les ‘s next big idea is‘…combining the experience of working in the crystallography department in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, Cambridge with what was learnt in synthetic anatomy at Kings, London to create public artwork for a housing estate in Chelmsford with Essex CC and inspire a series of handheld bookworks – it’s all about folding’ There is a symposium coming up and the line-up looks interesting and worth checking out.

so now to some films - do not watch the self indulgent possibly dubious (choose your ism) Lost in London - Woody Harrelson - the technical issue of one take is not interesting enough and apart from a 7 minute segment where Woody riffs with Owen Wilson which is funny it is bad. Meanwhile Orange is the New Black is just too oppressive, maybe it always was. I quite enjoyed The Giver - although a lot of the ideas are retreads from previous sci-fi tropes and actual films but it does look good.

busyteachingandplanning

a busy week of teaching with the deadline for planning on the Goldlay Sq commission mixed in. family history- book as performance- documentation as document - importance of text - private public spaces- representing the everyday - artist as detective - distorting language - learning from failure - concepts of collection - collection as material - using book to frame the world - slow reading - ciphers and codes - text/textile - making landscapes - landscape of identity - repurpose wellbeing - graphic inclusivity - notions of truths - book as architecture - material matters - systems to cope - knowing not knowing. these are my notes from the first symposium on the Book Art Course at Camberwell - it's always a great day of sharing where the room swirls with possibilities and the past is used as a starting point for new possibilities. This year at the symposium  it was particularly beautiful to see that the course had been so beneficial to the first years who also present their practice, their presentations were full of examples where they had taken opportunities and made the best of them - excellent the course is only as good as its students and this course is excellent. some talk of reflective thinking and lots of individual tutorials at NUA. managed to get year 1 out on a day trip which took in the broads and the excellent museum that is Time and Tide in Great Yarmouth. https://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/time-tide 

objectsspeakingfromthepast

 First stop Halesworth Museum, housed in the train station -  http://halesworthmuseum.org.uk/wpress/  drop in to speak with the helpful and generally nice people who work there amongst the objects - it's new display this season focuses on schools and has some excellent objects that speak of the experience called education that is the brutalisation of socialising young children into society - next onto the wonderful Lowestoft museum http://lowestoftmaritimemuseum.co.uk/ an extraordinary space crammed with objects embedded with experience. There is so much information and the people working there were so friendly. I spent time looking at the half models used to create the full size boats and the intriguing marks on the floor of a boat builders created whist forming the vast hulls.

you need to see the latest Jon Rafmam video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-AUav-zLeo working with second life and the dangers of everything youth orientated! personal shopper http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4714782/ unsure what it is - psychological horror via texting maybe?