neoclassancients

A weekend in the bubble that is Stroud. Attended NeoAncients – lots of music and motivating talks that connected politically and galvanised my soul. In terms of sound shout out to Haress, Smote, Dawn Terry, The Last Sacrifice. The great talks - Staying Analogue in the Age of Distraction - Andrew Smith. Megalithic Portal x Megalithic Imperative - Andy Burnham + Neil Mortimer + Patricia Brien, check out the website – megalithic.co.uk Visions of the Occult - Victoria Jenkins. Common People - Stephen Ellcock + Leah Gordon with Maxine Peake. Don’t forget The Museum of Roadside Magic and The People’s Pyramid Mummification Van. Generally a time of making connections between the ideas in the books Common People, England on Fire and Trespass, the over 5000 government acts that make up the Enclosures Act, its relationship to the slave trade, working people, the landed gentry and Sizewell operations. Fave notes – meme magic, merky territory, ghosts in the liminal spaces. Onto screens – Hypnotic – great idea shame about the music, script, acting, camera work and editing.

treepower

A really good day of teaching and learning at Kings – the first day of synthetic anatomy was high octane focused teaching. The team’s learning over the years has been honed and rather than every year throwing everything that has been learnt up in the air, as a team we are focused, we learn and grow, this enables us to deliver a positive experience to the students. Went to see Gecko’s the wedding at Sadlers Wells East – a stunningly tight show with some really fabulous ‘theatre moments’ highlights include – a man with ‘floating objects’ that he attempts to grasp, the men in the box, and the appearing monument as table were great stage craft moments, and the lighting as ever with Gecko was moodily appropriate. Meanwhile Fadoul was on the turntable at a friend’s house, the album Al Zman Saib is fabulous. Onto screens Empire with David Olusoga is another exercise in lifting the lid over the lies I was told as a child as to the greatness and fairness of Great Britian.

alwaysawinner

work with SZC continues, working with ideas of connectivity with the pylon as a starting point motif. First light festival was a winner, the curated show in the gardens was eclectic and fun, managed to see a couple of bands, Caswell, LFay and Sebbuku, all good. Ken Worploe was good on landscape and building, and of course Luke Wright was Luke Wright – always a winner. Created our own Snape Festival with a couple of £10:00 tickets alongside the art on display and an afternoon of new music by young people, which was excellent. Meanwhile onto screens, still chugging along with Alpha House which is very funny but Riefenstahl is another thing – did she know or was she innocent or an artist taking an opportunity? Watching her control the lighting when she was being interviewed at around 80 says a lot about her, and so many photographs documenting her existence – fascinating and all too easy to make connections with America at the moment, the rallies were terrifying.

progcomputerrockandsomeotherstuff

A weekend in London to see the Lambrini Girls. They were supporting Idles at Ally Pally. There was a couple of good tracks but mainly it became a little boring and communicated a sort of confusing message – fuck the police and the government and at the same time think about community building, simultaneously promoting piece and talking about mental health awareness and calling on people to love one another. The other support act, Battles - who's music was way too clever, but not interesting, all those extensive noodling samples and guitar/drum solos – prog computer rock. But the Lambrini Girls are quite marvellous and come highly recommended, the mosh pits are beautifully generated and controlled. Meanwhile dropped into South London Gallery to see some gloriously pointless things beautifully made by Nairy Baghramiam. Maybe this is the definition of art! On the way home - Mark Steel on desert island discs is a gem - great songs and great storytelling. Onto screens – Joker: Folie à Deux was stunning, a modern, dark, beautiful way of thinking about dance.

rememberremember

Completed work on remember, a piece for firstlight in Lowestoft this coming weekend. 2 weeks of assessments at Norwich are over, the final show, rebranded GradFest opened last night, now it’s onto the next stage – New Designers. Meanwhile a busy weekend. At Snape, the Aldeburgh Festival - a couple of visits. Violinist Daniel Pioro joined with pianist collaborator Simon Smith to perform Brahms’s Violin Sonatas, solid, physical and professional. Then Me without You, Emily Levy and Mella Faye led a troubling experience - kids from Fame ‘do’ death. Holy Other was a new live multidisciplinary work which was full of deep noise and inspirational visuals. Brighten the Corners in Ipswich was most excellent the highlight was the glorious Lambrini Girls - a force of nature. Also saw Man Woman Chainsaw, NEONE the Wonderer - great laid-back vibe. da Googie (Deb Googe) – mad moving noise. Sluice Expo in Colchester was a mixed bag but worth the visit. There was some interesting work in the Minories and some engaging films in an upstairs space above a good Korean restaurant. Firstsite had an intriguing show by S, a whole host of inspiring micro worlds. Onto screens – The Tattooist of Auschwitz – grey dark oppressive and grey with very small moments of light but could it be anything else. 2 tickets to Greece - was sweet.

colouristhething

So…. Heaven seventeen at UEA – what a lark – grown up old people having fun – Penthouse and Pavement has been on the turntable off and on since I bought it in 1981! But the highlight for me was Glen Gregory singing The Power of Love with ‘just’ a guitar and a full on version of Being Boiled, quite possible one of my top Human League tracks – it’s always best to leave the house! Moving into colour with the 3D printing is an interesting move. The layers are more visible and the whole object feels ethereal. Onto screens - The Creator – great sets and spaceships with an awesome soundtrack. The Crown is teeth clenching awful for the family – just sad. See you on Venus – quirky best friend material. Nyad – there is a lot of swimming, relentless amounts!

handmademachines

Continuing to work on 3D prints, pushing the printing to the edge of its parameters. By exploring the potential of the process, the unexpected happens. The outcomes are unlike those on the screen but are no less interesting. The latest works are at the far end of the settings - 0 fill, 0 support and its parameters are set at 1. Who knows what will happen as the work starts to gain some form of fragility in line with the human hand and in some way celebrates the unknown. This year’s Latitude was fun – highlights include the glorious Pulp, the hypnotic Tinariwen, dancing to the always fantastic disco shed and singing along to Beatles Dub Club – hilarious. Onto screens - Asteroid City was glorious and yet strangely tiring with the excessive details in the costumes, sets and the clever script – both the words themselves and the general story – a must see. Songwriter, the 2018 documentary about Ed Sheeran is stunningly beautiful – mesmerizing when songs are created from almost nothing it’s a little like magic. Next up the 2023 documentary Sum of it All.  Just getting into Champion – lots to think about all accompanied by a great soundtrack.

tattoosandanewproject

The next set of tattoos with the wonderful @jims_skins – really pleased with the way these lines work with the hand. Working on a great project with Stowupland Secondary School and Red Gables through Jubilant! Looking at the potential of an adjacent space to the school. We are asking lots of questions to map and measure what is there to determine what could be. The book that is being created as part of the project's legacy is developing and will be a great manual for future conversations. A night at Snape to watch Anna Lapwood playing an organ on the stage - a rare occurrence. I loved her talking about the idea of 'voicing the organ' to the space and her interpretation of Britten's Four Seasons Interludes was fascinating. Also had the chance to check out again Laurence Edward's work around the site which is always a pleasure. Meanwhile onto screens watched The Lazarus Project which was full of complicated time travel rules - back into Better Call Saul with season 6 which is both dark and complicated. Just finished Jarvis Cocker's book Good Pop Bad Pop - it's a gentle ramble through some easy going reminiscing. 

whatif

What if the joints were at an angle? This question has sent my research around the zebra plate work off in an interesting tangent. The angles make the form behave in a seemingly more random way, the tensions within the structures feel exaggerated.  The other day a friend was playing me an important but terrible punk track from their youth, and it reminded me of School Meals – a band my French teacher at the time (1979) was in. It was a double A side Headmaster and such a spiv My copy has been lost in the midst of time - just attempted to buy back my youth only to find it would cost me £43 plus shipping – seems a lot for something that must of cost me around a quid at the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaLjIjNMtXA&ab_channel=MusicWithoutBorders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlpw0l_wnHA&ab_channel=Feugwtwra onto screens – Vacation Friends – you will laugh, the ‘I’ve taken hallucinogenic mushrooms’ scene is glorious. West Side Story – why? Pirates – there is a good film in there with some tightening up.

joyfuldayatkings

Another joyful day at Kings working with Celia and the synthetic anatomy crew. Seeing the work in the lab brings more connections in my mind to the creative activity and thought  processes in a studio. We talked about flow during which I had my own revelatory moment aligning the ideas between two distinct workshops and making connections between a book: its sequence of pages and the limitations and constraints of a bag. Both contain the idea of revelation when engaged with. It will be interesting to think on this when preparing new workshops. A morning of drawing exercises working with Celia Pym using anatomy models sought to introduce the synthetic anatomy students to thinking through looking. Slowing down, speeding up and rethinking what it is to communicate were some of the creative routes explored in the session. There were some excellent drawings created in the session, as well as the development of their teamwork, problem solving skills, and general openness to possibilities. Links between the historical models and 3D printing were created through the activity of making observational drawings. There were some awesome drawings created during the process. After a thought provoking discussion over lunch it was good to have a meeting to see the final layout of the Garden of Emotions in the gallery space - looking forward to running workshops there. It was the first session of working with Double Elephant this week – a nice open workshop, introducing many many ways of starting the creative process. It will be great to see the ways in which the brief has been interpreted. Meanwhile onto screens - the end of season 3 part 1 of Ozarks was brutal, Mass with its twists and turns, although theatrical was truly devastating. Lamb was beautiful in its stillness and Ongaku Our Sound an interesting comment on media and music My latest obsession is Salvatore Ganacci - start with Step Grandma and work your way through his work from there - truly some of the oddest film I have ever seen, alongside some sweet Swedish house music

oldschoolartschoolthinking

A wonderful day working at Kings – reflective old-school art school thinking and values transposed into a science context led to some fantastic conversations and revelations for all parties. After the workshops we went onto talk about the possibilities of collaboration – I’m working on some structures that explore the forces within themselves and focus on the act of control. These fit with and in some way mimic the functionality found within the roof plate model and explore the stretching morphology of the structure. There is some interesting work ahead. The first session with Double Elephant was so positive and open and welcoming, sharing more lateral thinking and creative problem-solving ways of thinking. Onto screens – deep into season 3 of Ozarks – dark as ever, watching the impending doom of anyone who encounters the Byrde’s. The Nest had potential and yet was slow, maybe that was the point. My latest favourite YouTube music channel - My Analog Journal is a place that explores rare grooves from around the world on vinyl. It’s also an insight into DJs private spaces - https://www.youtube.com/c/MyAnalogJournal/videos a particular favourite is a House & Detroit Techno vinyl mix by the cute couple Sol Ortega & E110101 both the music and their set up. 

burningandtwiddling

Working on new films to project into spaces and onto things. Stills of burning books from the latest film. 2 truly great sessions at Snape as part of the Festival of the New. Highlights included Sonnen https://www.instagram.com/sonnenmusic/?hl=en with their great knob twiddling sounds and Thabo https://open.spotify.com/artist/0Xby6OpjBTxkbiGyhJU8RA a whole experience in a tent. They both created great vibes and were really nice people into the bargain. Onto screens - it took until the 5^th episode to work out the tone of The Chair – it’s a cartoon and when that’s established in the mind it moves from a what? to an ok? Our Ladies – I think I may have missed the point of this and found it not so good. Deep into Mr Corman and enjoying the male position on dealing with life and stuff!  

trainingtonotsee

Why is the history curriculum like it is? – Well who knew that our history lessons at school taught us to be white supremacists, reading Slave Empire: How slavery built modern Britain it becomes transparently clear. Was it on purpose? Who does it suit for us not to think? https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/padraic-x-scanlan/slave-empire/9781472142320/ Finally got round to buying a 3D printer, now reacquainting/relearning/learning 3 software packages and testing out the hardware, it’s my new magic after Photoshop. Started with a mini bird box as part of the Lowestoft Project. My favorite new radio station nts.live – some excellent wide ranging sounds. Assessment is ongoing.  

foundandaltered

I’ve been busy in the studio the past couple of weeks playing with a found birdbox and working on a new set of images looking at the large articulated structures in rape fields. It is the beginning of assessment time in Academia – looking forward to seeing the students work all brought together for their final submission. Onto screens - The Fuck it list – fun and unnecessary but definitely fun. Now deep into Mare of Easttown, series 3 of Master of None and The Underground Railway. All good dramas but I would recommend reading the excellent book by Colson Whitehead first. My new favorite radio station - https://www.nts.live/ has an extraordinary range of eclectic music.

unfoldingwalksandwatching

Work in terms of engaging with students on synthetic anatomy at Kings has started, online has made the work more focused and less ‘roaming’ we will see if the experience will be as rich – for both the participants and the teaching team – so far so good. The bookness course at Leicester Print Works continues. There is some exciting work created and even more, so the conversations are positive. after listening to Historian David Olusoga on Desert Island Discs (the most excellent tracks) Fela Kuti - Zombie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj5x6pbJMyU Bob Marley & The Wailers - You Can't Blame The Youth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3pi-6fInng Dr. Alimantado - Just The Other Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1c_oQUVUg I thought I would check out his work  - a house through time can be watched on iplayer - excellent - check out your history and privilege https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7829950/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_1. American utopia https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11874226/ if you love talking heads and David Byrne you will love this but even if you do not there is much to enjoy. One Night in Miami - icons meet to explore and discuss https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10612922/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 Nomadland – truly harrowing and dysfunctional but lots to learn here Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love – dubious unless you like Leonard Cohen but great landscapes Bridgerton – good frocks in between the sex if that’s your thinghttps://www.imdb.com/title/tt9770150/ finally a desolate portrayal of Oscar Wilde by Rupert Everett in The Happy Prince. Meanwhile in between walking I have become interested in the folding narratives encountered within packaging!

findingacornerinaroundearth

a walk out to Snape for an evening with English Touring Opera. Poems set to music - Shostakovich and Britten - the poems of John Donne were a revelation. I loved the spelling - onely, thinking about the idea of one coming from and within only which gets you to lonely - wondrous.

John Donne: Holy Sonnets

At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow

At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow

Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise

From death, you numberless infinities

Of souls, and to your scatter'd bodies go;

All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow,

All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,

Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes

Shall behold God and never taste death's woe.

But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space,

For if above all these my sins abound,

'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace

When we are there; here on this lowly ground

Teach me how to repent; for that's as good

As if thou'hadst seal'd my pardon with thy blood.

X

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not soe,

For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.

From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,

Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,

And better than thy stroake; why swell’st thou then?

One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die

foldingmusic

I've spent the week mainly working on a new suite of folded structures for the show at the station in Saxmundham. The pieces are based on a range of ideas but the focus is materiality and that the pieces look good as 3D sculptural structures. During all this folding I've been playing a lot of tracks as a result of listening to and then researching Lisa Tarbuck's playlist. She has a fantastically eclectic interest but her taste is always impeccable, especially Reggae and old school Soul and RnB. - some tracks to start with

Marie Laforêt - Et Si Je T'aime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFeoX4NNdJM

Nuyorican Soul - It's Alright, I Feel It (feat. Jocelyn Brown)

I DO - Pull It

The Box Tops - The Letter

Johnny Restivo - The Shape I'm In

Boozoo Bajou & Tony Joe White - Keep Going

Don Convay - Everything I Do Goin' Be Funky

Peaches & Herb - Shake Your Groove Thing

The Delfonics - Ready Or Not Here I Come

Resonators - Sweet Love Affair

meanwhile some films - American Pickle - the tonal shifts within the film are a challenge - unsure about where the humour is aimed at although I did laugh. Summerland - was very clean but had some interesting ideas and indeed acting within it. Project Power - oh dear, although maybe it wasn't that bad.....was it? The Puzzle - a calm yet surprisingly stirring film, the underlying currents are very powerful.

foldedspacesandatune

my new latest sound - check out the funk you will be unable to not move with this. an interesting session with the Columbian Embassy today - exploring and sharing creative possibilities around their orange economy. They were particularly interested in the work myself and Melissa https://melissapmurray.com/ have been engaged with at NanoDTC. I've been working on some new crushed folded structures - this has led to a number of mini gifs. meanwhile some films - The Sunlit Night - understanding the world and finding yourself through paintings How to build a girl - well written and acted with some nice animated touches but the characters are a little straightforward.

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

teachingteachingteachingteachingandthinkingaboutholidays

teaching has been good this week so far and its only Tuesday - solid tutorials at Camberwell, supporting the thinking behind the research and a full-on mind warp drawing sound and reading images session at NUA. Tomorrow is Book-Art-Family-Tree-Symposium-1 so we get to hear book story starting points. Working on the presentations for the teaching I'm involved in - Dr Tadashi Tokieda has become my go-to person when thinking about making topology accessible and meanwhile still thinking about Keith Albarn's tessellation  http://patternandbelief.com/

Noel Gallagher on hot ones - it was interesting to see after all the Americans that Englishness was so evident.... dourness and irony to the fore, we really are a different race. Listening to The Rapture an episode of Melvyn Bragg - In Our Time explains a little more why America is like America https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008p2k. In the Shadow of the Moon https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8110640/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1 was a quirky time travel lesson about living in the now.

My experience of Sound City Ipswich had a bad start with Greater Anglia cancelling another train (this is now obviously some form of policy so going to the station has become a sad lottery) But an hour late I managed to see Peaness - soft indi guitar band, Plastic Mermaids - knob twiddling radiohead, Girls of the Internet - excellent samples and dance in the great venue that is the Smokehouse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qPU_pWK13o&list=PL0gmWNnsmaDchNuxIU4dcg_TOScpdI5Wg&index=1, Emma-Jane Thackray - a really interesting sound - tight Sun-Ra-afro-beat-reggae-2-tone-house- inspired mournful rock jazz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jle9v6JZzAE, Novelist - ok'ish' grime-lite. meanwhile all this terrible weather and the start of Autumn has got me 1- thinking about the Summer and 2 - planning for next year!!