whenisitfinished?

Tuesday saw me involved in a wonderful afternoon of teaching on the MA Book Art Course at Camberwell - the session set out to explore our relationship to the idea of finish and what makes something finished - see the PowerPoint for the range of individual and collaborative responses to the concept. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/finishedness-2017-all-equations-72186645 Starting as one then in pairs, fours and eventually as eight finishedness was negotiated and deliberated, ending with a reflective moment on the whole day's journey, interspersed with moments for comment and thought.....a truly enlightening education experience. onto some recent films Jackie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1619029/ don't expect a standard biopic it's a film that presents a physical emotional state - it's a film about shock - using filmic devices and metaphor we experience a woman cope. 20th century women http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4385888/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 is actually a film about men, how we bring them up and nurture them from boys - some great lines and set pieces make one reflect on past and present and future conversations. Passengers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 is about guilt but maybe not enough - the film sets up a premise that if explored enables us to reflect on the choices we make. Some podcasts that I'm becoming obsessed with at the moment. Invisibilia http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia looks at the issues and systems behind human behaviour Song Exploder http://songexploder.net/ this deconstructs songs and tracks from movies, check out Ghost face Killer and Bjork oh and Iggy Pop  The Allusionist http://www.theallusionist.org/ is all about words and their meaning

freethinkingmustbeenabled

Another full on day in London at Camberwell - the Project Proposal Crits for the MA have thrown up a number of beautiful and interesting phrases / starting points - looking at my notes and yet again Art College is a wonderful, glorious place where conversations like this take place...... Thinking about how 'page turning' can be used to explore ideas of time and revelation. create a vocabulary where you can use materials to talk for you. How do we forget ourselves? is an interesting question - continue to work with this. How do graphic scores represent sound and connect with ideas around calligraphy? What is the role of translation in your work? The idea that your work is haunted by the book is important - is reference enough or do you have to make books? How important is touch in your work? What came first time or narrative? Does light represent knowledge and learning within and from the book? Daily life celebrated...a moment of gloriousness. Science and Ureka! - how does that work? Rational scientific methodology and intuition? memories are what we have inside that we want to show to others. The idea of cycle relates in some way to the existence of numbers and patterns in nature. Are you setting out to be a deity, a God like creature, either for yourself or for an audience to develop for themselves? The idea of abstract comics needs to be explored.
After this it was off to the Tate to see A Bigger Splash - painting after performance - great to check out the intensity of Stuart Brisley and revisit the Pollack film which everybody loves. The William Klein and Daido Moriyama was a real full-on display, lashings of excessive massive printing and monstrous oppressive display structures! The photo books were stunning but the highlight was watching a selection of films by William Klein. Every piece was 'before its time' be it Who are you Polly Maggoo? A satire on the fashion industry that The Devil Wears Prada could of learnt from or Mr Freedom which appeared to pre-date everything!!!! Documentaries on Little Richard and Muhammad Ali were stunning, raw and exciting - all a must see.

art galleries are truly the most fantastic places and must be secured from the mob!
And then the train - and as ever a most useless service -  cancellation and then a-slow-stop-start-grinding-missed-connections-no-information-resigned-to-being-badly-treated-experience - for a change - started at London Liverpool St 6:30 - Darsham at 10:15

blogblogblog

a full day in London saw the assessment of part-time year 2 MA Book Art students at Camberwell – some exciting work with many possibilities for a wonderful final show – the Camberwell Book Arts course has an interesting blog - http://camberwellbookarts.blogspot.com/
some personal blogs to follow
work which looks at the creation and meaning of burning books http://www.blog.egidija.com/ work which celebrates the visual qualities of typography http://georgecullen.tumblr.com/
work which investigates text in relation to performance http://commonthingstotalkabout.blogspot.com/
after i had a positive meeting with caroline about the rewind proposal we are putting together and as ever the train provided a spotlessly clean, punctual service with enough seating and working to an efficient and customer led timetable just like the morning when it was again 20 minutes late made up of only one carriage!