ongoingprojects

the week has seen me on the train up and down to london - the final day of the teaching element of the PgClt was all about corralling us to a finished state - a little disappointing - meanwhile a day at camberwell - a group crit around generating text and its role in the book was informative with impressive, professional results and assessing pt unit 1 saw some exciting possibilities for final projects - there is an interesting rigour to this group which rubs off - managed to see the MA Photojournalism course at LCC - recommended http://www.28stories.co.uk/

looknohands

i’ve been on trains a lot this week and after reading the essays by the pt MA Book Art students and finishing off psychogeography by Will Self i have been working on a bookwork started in the mountains around piegros le clastre and le puy last summer. i was thinking about line scale capture observation audience landscape reading and presence. taking away the audience/reader for the book seemed important for the idea of awe isolation and this absence with the book leaves one with the space for the reader of the landscape in the book of the book.

multiplechoice

the mixed/multiple existence that is my life is in full swing – as ever it has been a busy time recently – the moulsham st project with essex CC in chelmsford is progressing with project group meetings and yesterday a day ‘hanging out’/ observing in the street. it was interesting to spend 5 hours in 100 yards of space the issues become obvious and then magnified. I am looking at the various approaches to working with a creative intervention – the whole street is a book where you can move through space and time and also imagined time – the buildings tell the story of change and possibility, hopes and dreams of individuals and a community. on looking at my files i appear to of taken many images of block work in the pedestrian area – having to consider ‘everything’ when working in the public domain can sometimes be
i come from coventry and every house, school, street and area i played in has either totally gone (and has become either a car park or retail space or just flat) or has altered so much that it ceases to exist as it once was. the place i come from only exists in my head and i can’t go back – this was a theme that came up in a seminar about finish (finishedness) that i gave to the MA photojournalism course at LCC when we talked about our jobs as creative people – the theme of testimony was an interesting one in relation to audience. it was a very lively, positive session with many questions to consider and also for me to think about the links between my practice and photojournalism - and again odd to be back at LCC a building formally known as LCP and where i was a student – i could navigate the canteen and remember a former self and there was a shiver as i turned a corner and found myself in a room previously full of printers, now empty, that i spent enough time printing to put my back into the state it is now!
dying string a summer day cloud ethereal sweeping multiple rich layered blue was an exciting interlude on monday i am looking forward to when i can get some time to work with the 2m prints of digital skies that came off the printer on monday – bringing the two together to make a number of bookworks. The work is a continuum of the large scale piece that i made for the corn exchange in Ipswich.
finally a link to the powerpoint http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/professional-practice-09 around professional practice that i prepared for the 3rd year textile course at NUCA i say prepared as it was never given as they failed to turn up as they had not looked at our VLE as i sat waiting for nonexistent students it was odd to think that 50 people had already looked at it through slideshare – the irony of the content for the session was not lost on friends in the retelling of this anecdote about students and their general lacking........

energywork

i have been working on a body of work over the past year that explores the energy connected with some of the places i walk. the line, here a thread connects, pierces and reveals this idea. this idea of energy relates to both large philosophy ideas that attempt to understand the world, holistic world vision’s such as Gaia hypothesis, ‘formal’ spiritualism and Holism in science as well as a way of making sense of physical aspects of being outside. the work has manifest itself as a series of bookworks

someprojects

spent the day working between developing a powerpoint for a meeting in Chelmsford developing Moulsham St - looking at surfaces and creating a space that works for everybody and creating images for a series of bookworks around the sky and movement

bookjacketcomment4shing

Shing created a wonderful book about his time on the Book Arts MA at Camberwell and has published an interesting book that serves as a document of him time in London - i was pleased to add a comment to the book jacket

busytime

its been a full and busy time recently – visited the Venice Biennial – which was as ever wonderful - 4 days of art from 11.00 – 6.00 in astonishing spaces accompanied by excellent food and blue skies. my work at NUCA continues with my involvement with the BA Textiles in reflective thinking and virtual learning recent seminars include problem solving http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/09-005-problem-solving-lateral-thinking and audiences http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/012-relationships-with-audience my work on the MA’s has a focus on running seminars around the work of students from Drawing, Fine Art and Textile Culture. camberwell is ongoing with a recent seminar looking at the catalogue as a form to interrogate. i have started an interesting job working for/with Essex County Council on the development of a road in Chelmsford and finally there is the continuation of the smoking architecture series.