abandonedibiza

After a short break in Ibiza getting back feels decidedly chilly. Spent some time wandering around abandoned developments in stunningly beautiful spaces in the North of the island. Off season Portinatx was extraordinarily easygoing, I always love the feel of an area as it wakes up after it's off season. Back - watching meanwhile Affleck in Manchester by the Sea http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4034228/ is crippling, carrying the weight of inconceivable pain. ghost in the shell http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/?ref_=nv_sr_1 has some extraordinary special effects and connects to many 'sci-fi' tropes and there is the large issue of gender, culture assignment and nipples!

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

thegoodstuffinaparalleluniverse

 

Some excellent exhibitions on Saturday - starting off at the Imperial War Museum with War of Terror by Edmund Clark an examination of how we spend our tax controlling those who would do us evil. The banality of it all is quite astounding. Matt Collinshaw at Blain Southern is very clever. http://www.blainsouthern.com/exhibitions/2017/the-centrifugal-soul The highlight of the day was Ryoli Ikeda at Almia Rech.  data as art as sound as data - mesmerising and truly mystical, a kind of electronic folk art for the present. http://www.alminerech.com/exhibitions/4014-ryoji-ikeda The other shows were less interesting and number around 4 or 5 but what I love about the art world is that as a consumer one gains access to the most wonderful spaces, a kind of parallel universe that only those in the know get access to. If you are in the area around Carlos Place, Massimo de Carlo and The Timothy Taylor are stunning spaces and near a really nice water feature which is outside The Connaught Hotel.

Watched Logan - the 'X men film for people who don't like X men' - a road movie of sorts and with some really brutal violence specialising in the sound effects of blade into flesh....but if that's your thing Get Out the horror comedy thriller that comments on where we are in this 'so called gliberal post-race world' ....I spent most of the film either cringing or in fear, sometimes weirdly simultaneously and just how disturbing was that bingo...

New to me but found through listening to Adam Buxton talking with Brian Eno (episode 1) on the Adam Buxton podcast which led me to a TED talk featuring the extraordinary drummer Jojo Mayer who plays like a computer outputting drum and bass https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KExLCJAuTXA

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.

recyclework

how have I not come across the wonderful recycle radio on radio 4? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04f23qy just chilling - I started off with magic and have been working my way through the series, class, blood, money - it's all there..... if you enjoy this but maybe want something with beats try cassette boy https://www.youtube.com/user/cassetteboy for the project in Cambridge I've been working on a collection of double page spreads that have become a form of visual note book. The spreads are full of ideas, possible starting points and contain many elements of the finished works, in effect a sort 'look book' or 'mood board' of the project so far. https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/

paperfoldingpaper

a day of paper folding - going through the folders of structures initially created in the unpicking and rebinding project connecting ideas - exploring how the patterns are affected by being printed and then folded within the 3D structures. some films - The Great Wall http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800/?ref_=nv_sr_1 oh that's what the wall is for! madness but I loved the styling of the whole thing, especially the manga references of the Female Commander. Elvis and Anabelle http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787462/?ref_=nv_sr_1 a beautiful love story 'against all odds', even death.  Krisha http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4266638/?ref_=nv_sr_1 billed as a comedy - it is so not - but it is an interesting take on portraying dysfunction and confusion. Toni Erdmann http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4048272/?ref_=nv_sr_7 it's important to stay with it as the glacial pace is a key element of exploring the spaces between us.

aworldofthinkingrethinking

Spent the last 2 days working on a body of work that brings together the past 6 months of thinking. Over the past 5 days Radio 4 Book of the week has provided a series of profound moments throughout the week - John Berger - And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08l78gf#play Whilst listening I've been mainly in a heightened emotional state but today it was tears throughout the last episode and from 9:03 onwards it was so truly heart wrenching that I felt turned inside out - with you I can imagine a place where phosphate of calcium is enough....................  I have now started what will be my Berger obsession - starting points were https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLwmv-1AZDg Berger will help you rethink your thinking 20:00 onwards provides answers to a key question...and moved onto the very delicate and thoughtful conversation - what books can teach us is a wonderfully intense passage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLivFgw_i-8 and there is the ever important ways of seeing -   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk 

quite apt that spellcheck offers up and points out our failure to conform by attempting to change Berger to Burger...onto films - catfight -http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5294198/?ref_=nv_sr_2 a kind of sliding doors madness, but interspersed with violent obsessive insanity. upside down http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1374992/?ref_=nv_sr_1 an interesting idea but the 'CGIness' gets in the way.

Tommy at The Wolsey https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/tommy/ in Ipswich provided a jaunting rethink of what you thought you knew of the jaunty 'sing along' musical. It really was a wonderfully demanding, eye opening, dazzling evening at the theatre - 'he's a deaf, dumb and blind kid!' - think about it, what more could it be than challenging and then there is the addition of the fiddler!