morebreathingin

I think the assembly at Stowuplands school was a success – introducing the students to a range of ideas, the work of artists and the very idea of art as a career – we shall see who wants to be part of the project. https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/assembly-revisedpptx A Day of breathing in - first up Gagosian - with Hirst playing with dead animals and then having fun with dioramas but maybe a little lost. The Science Museum - to check out mathematic models but the space has been sanitized and they have been sadly removed in favour of a cafe! The Serpentine gallery - has a VR experience by Dominique Gonzalez -Foerster and Aliens which was ok. Larry Bell at Hauser and Wirth had a sense of futuristic set design about it but the work was lost as the details were missed – cutting glass on angles is obviously a challenge. Frith Street gallery has some interesting yet slightly disturbing ceramic and glass heads by Thomas Schutte. Jeff Wall's hauntingly disturbing photos are at White Cube, Mason's Yard. The small works by Ettore Spalletti at Marian Goodman were just so beautiful, the book structures giving up nothing but timelessness. I loved the powder blue installation that was created by him at their old space, especially the inclusion of the white pencil. Somerset House had a community project and that along with the Radio Ballads, the work in The North space of The Serpentine Gallery were instructive, providing a way to move forward with a project I'm working on - not quite a solution more of a direction. Bond Street was as ever a space of otherness – the Louis Vuitton shop had an amazing window display – the kinetic sculptures by William Darrell were truly amazing. Onto screens - Chaos Walking has an interesting premise the visualisation of which is cleverly impressive. Welcome to Eden takes a while to get to its point.  

busylookingbusy

Work for the upcoming conference at Kings is going well with 3 workshops and a presentation it’s a lot to prepare for but it’s going to be an excellent day. A busy week - the workshop at artstation was successful with an exploration of personal narratives around symbols and objects through paper folding. NUA was a photoshoot for the promotional materials in May, supported by the wonderful Caroline https://www.newmuseworkshops.co.uk/caroline-felicity with photos by Emma - http://www.emmachapmanphotography.co.uk/ @emchapmanphoto then Thursday was all about Yarmouth – meeting at the truly extraordinary space that is PrimeYarc http://originalprojects.co.uk/ then listening to what Yarmouth Oilskins are up to with their honest garments rooted in tradition but not bound by it  https://yarmouthoilskins.com/ Onto screens – A Violent Man – truly brutal. Started watching the truly disturbing Severance a fascinating concept separating work from life! https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11280740/

speakinglisteninglooking

participating at Materials Research Exchange 2020 was an eye opener - as I walked through the stands promising materials that on first glance appeared to be closer to magic than reality I felt that my practice was one held together by string.... the talks around military and material research linked to concepts of strategic advantage were truly fascinating for so many reasons. The Biomimicry talk brought together by Ann Toomey was good - lots to reflect on all round.

For my talk brought together by MaDE through their connection to the Crafts Council I focused on work undertaken with NanoDTC in Cambridge and Kings robotics department at Kings with a little bit of bookness philosophy thrown in - lots of thoughts about the role of artists within so called non-art situations. In some ways it celebrated the lo-fi nature of the materials I use and concentrated on the creative process. I have in some ways already shifted the focus of what I do from galleries, although I have been invited to show work in the old sorting office in Saxmundham as part of The Art Station new space development https://theartstation.uk/. A further reframing of my practice from pure research and academia into industry is something to consider  

For the final final book art MA show at Camberwell college it looks like there will be an element of an archive show within the show - the students are working with Rosie of turn the page and Gustavo the man behind the special collection so it should be both thoughtful and through. There is also an element of celebrating the past - there is a proposal being created by a student for a call out to all previous Book Art Alumni - their responses will all be collated into a book. It will be intriguing to see how many can be found and how many will respond. The first 2 catalogues actually had physical addresses for the students so we shall see.  A weekend of films included Little women - charming and disturbingly precedent with a nice twist bringing together past and present, autobiographical and fiction. Jamanji: The Next Level was not as good as the last one but held its own and had some fun body swap moments with Danny Devito holding it all down. The Wolsey had The Ballad of Maria Marten a play about the Red Barn Murder cleverly spoken from the life and times of the dead women's perspective. Akram Khan at Dance East had Chotto Xenos a piece for families which was a little too illustrative for me but when the dancing connected to the projections it was very powerful and the child next to me was on the edge of his seat. looking forward to the next session of Synthetic Anatomy where I'll be reacquainted with anatomic models.

turnthepagetalkingandsomethinking

the nicest comment so far has been that my rambling pluralistic presentation contained nothing controversial but was inclusive and allowed people to realize that its okay - relax - play. this is a link to the presentation given at the Turn The Page Symposium in Norwich @ttpABF - https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/ttp-2019-les-b-with-links

finaldaysofworkandsomeplay

some images from the 2018 MA Book Art Degree show - it has one of the most interesting catalogues produced by the students in the courses long history. a link to the presentation I gave at Making Materials Matter conference for science teachers on friday. https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/presentation-for-making-materials-matter-with-video-links   I'm already looking forward to Spill Festival - https://spillfestival.com/spill-2016-brochure/ I have got the 2018 program in my hands and highlights have to be Shared Saliva, David Hoyle, Le Gateau Chocolat, Kernschmelze II, Jodee Mundy Collaborations and of course you cannot go without seeing Forced Entertainment - Complete Works: table top Shakespeare. I saw them last doing it at the Barbican and was mesmerised. Latitude was Latitude - a real highlight for me was John Hopkins whose sound and visuals always blow me away (how does he get from one set of sounds to another?) alongside a fantastic glitchy version of  open eye signal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q04ILDXe3QE he played the glorious new work I only know as trailer https://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=41150  Also came across Jimothy Lacoste which was fun. The program was a little thin and the heat and dust meant a lot of sitting around hanging out with people so a nice time was had by all.

textilegenerpolitics

a good week of teaching at NUA with year 3 tutorials underway I'm getting an understanding of what is a great bunch of people. Don't you just love the Pecha Kucha format - you can communicate a lot of stuff in a short amount of time - we did 40 peoples 5 slides with 20 seconds each with written feedback from everybody about everybody's presentations in a morning! Presentations from me this week include talking about storytelling for beginning, communication, the subconscious use of symbols, the power of design to change the world for good ......or evil.

The lecture by Mark Mann https://mannhouseofdesign.tumblr.com/ was excellent - talking about the value of research, the importance of passion and gender politics in textile design. On train to Leeds to see https://yorkshiredance.com/whats-on/event/bish-bash-bosh/ Clerk 37 https://soundcloud.com/clerk37 who has been doing some sounds for videos I've made as part of unfoldingthinking is performing and Light night https://whatson.leeds.gov.uk/lightnight/Documents/Light%20Night%20MAP.pdf

interiorsarego

it's been a busy week teaching on the Textile Design Course at NUA - year 1 arrived and their 1 day project was full of colour and surface - what is textiles? - what isn't it? without it you would be alone naked in a field.... to illustrate the overwhelming importance of textiles in the first day we covered fine art, illustration, fashion, architecture, interior design and fashion communication! the new instagram # is #nuatextiles year 3 had a whole day of year and project briefings, NSS briefing and Learning outcomes briefing but I tried to deliver it through work-shopping - the first project is interiors https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/003a-25-09-17-briefing-ba3a-project-2-interiors so am looking forward to some exciting work.

presentingpossibilitiesattheendofitall

A great day at Camberwell - today on the Book Art Course has seen the delivery of a part of the sequence of sessions set up within the course that explore the process of hanging the final show - thinking about the role of the exhibition in a practice - the meaning of the screw v the nail - looking at past exhibitions - health and safety calamities and working without restrictions in an ideal world. here is a link to the presentation https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/final-show-2017 It's going to be an excellent show - as diverse as ever, each student has been developing their own voice and the show will contain work that both celebrates and challenges notions of book - it will all make you think. come along - http://events.arts.ac.uk/event/2017/7/13/Camberwell-Postgraduate-Summer-Show-2017/?_ga=2.202896465.1912006096.1497984293-1873703396.1485343360 becoming obsessed with reply all https://gimletmedia.com/reply-all/ and their yes yes yes section - http://yesyesnos.tumblr.com/ hear the more esoteric areas of the internet explained.

whatisittolearn?

What is it to learn? 

In the nano project I had this idea that the articulated structures I have been creating in response to the choreography in the laboratory if miniaturised to a nano scale could in some way inform an understanding of the movement of electrons around atoms, thus bringing knowledge to ideas around dark matter and the gaps between things. The wonderful thing about the job is that I don't mind not knowing in fact I think I revel in it and when realising that things I have conceived of aren't even possible ideas or that my language is not just wrong but the hypothesis underpinning my idea/revelation isn't even a thing in the first place. The conversations that ensue are a joy. This was the experience on Friday.

I often expect a rigour of thought with the students I encounter and I have had that experience myself....I have had work and proposals I put forward shaped with a rigour I hope that I bring to my own students practice. Meaning has been brought into the thinking and a clarity of intention that was not there previously is now embedded within the work and the proposed exhibition. A busy week at NUA where I delivered and was part of a great peer review session with year 2 exploring what it is to assess and make sense of the work around us https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/ba2-peer-assessment-learning and with year 3 a workshop on recognising and developing a USP a Unique Selling Point. https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/pdp-what-makes-you-interesting-1-usp

dropshadow

looking forward to a day of peer assessment at NUA on Monday https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/ba2-peer-assessment-learning - should be a good one, although best not to project too much as we are designing for Christmas in April. This week I've been making new editioned work - they are the result of a strand of investigation from the residency in Cambridge - I've been looking at close packed structures within atoms, considering 'empty' space and thinking about reflection and its role within the process. It has resulted in the work drop shadow in an edition of 5 and costs £21:00 meanwhile prevenge  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5154288/ is a tricky 'horror' story - or is it just disturbing.

bondingforthefuture

as well as teaching at NUA and having a day out in London looking at exhibitions with the MA Book Art students at Camberwell its been a busy week of working a little on the many projects on the go - a sort of snowplough effect, moving along everything a bit at a time. It's become all about presentations at the moment - really pleased with the presentation and paper I'm giving at Futurescan in Glasgow - I've put back images of the 8 exhibitions that were part of the outcomes, the work for BAM at the Southbank will involve a sort of workshop/talk/demonstration and the presentation for the Nano project in Cambridge has a range of excellent questions which I hope will galvanize the audience. Meanwhile I've managed to play with the effects of bonding on the lazer cut materials I've been working on over the Summer with a view to creating an outfit - its moved on to the idea of a creative cape (with tassels). font - the Fiona Banner show at the Frith Street Gallery is quite intreguing with the layered dense intention behind its making. http://www.frithstreetgallery.com/shows/view/fiona_banner_font

workworkworkthink

A most excellent and full day at Camberwell working on the book art course. In the morning– a demonstration/workshop that explored holistic bookmaking including idea initiation, image and text generation in relation to each other, sequence as spaces in time, the concept of structure in relationship to the core of an idea and form as content. In the afternoon two presentations; 1 – http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/001-reflective-practice-38892095 looking the value of the reflective journal included building diagrammatic explanations of practice and its relationship to the connections in our lives. 2 http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/what-is-book-bookness exploring the idea of the book and our relationship to it. 

unabletosleepexcitedandlost

Its Wednesday but just getting round to this - a weekend of films – both with a focus in the middle east – Argo a Hollywood romp that sets you on a thrilling ride with final scenes that take your breathing away.  Ben Affleck does a wonderful directing job and acts a beard well, don’t leave the cinema as the credits add another layer. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/ Incendies blows up in your face – less easy to find but worthwhile as it has provided a restless night and the inability to sleep past 6.00 (hence writing this). A staggering journey of what it is to encounter the past, the film beautifully, brutally unfolds leaving a kind of open scar as it undoes itself. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1255953/

Looking forward to a week of work in Norwich both at nuca and then at the Costume and Textile study centre and also a day at MEAL. 

Starting the third stage of the rethink around the structure of year 3 on the textile course at nuca. Stage one was an open phase of finding your practice, then after a presentation there was a period of focused study – today I introduce the first of two group collaborative projects – its only a week but working together will be an interesting test and good practice for the future. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/005-briefing-for-unit-8 have started the countdown to the moment they leave in seconds - it makes it seem longer.

Next week - gets a little hardcore in terms of time left. Time to get on - http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/briefing-10th-dec

Continuing to work in stitch and the pleat – slightly obsessed – I don’t think that it will pass.

walkingandtalking

building a long walk from several short ones for an excellent day out on Sunday – the landscape around orford on the suffolk coast is really other - constantly shifting with sky becoming land becoming sea.

meanwhile tutorials at nuca with year 3 textiles reveal a range of exciting possibilities and the two presentations i'm giving on thursday will look at researching and developing a practice. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/researching-the-world
http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/course-seminar-1-defining-practice

pechakuchathis

spent the day on Thursday watching/listening to the MA students at nuca delivering PechaKucha’s around their practice – its a really dynamic and positive delivery structure that focuses their presentation skills, stopping waffle and always runs to time.

at lunch I bumped into Martin Rogers of the RGAP (Research Group for Artists Publications) http://www.rgap.co.uk/ who was giving a presentation later in the day which i managed to attend – there was some really interesting ideas about publishing and extending the idea of the book into events and building audiences in his presentation.

meanwhile I spent the week creating a bookwork in a small edition that explores the space and structure of the page within the idea or image of the book.