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.

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speaking at Materials Research Exchange 2020 has meant that I've had to create a number of gifs created from films I made as part of residencies at Kings Robotics department and NanoDTC and a show in Cambridge with Art Language Location. It was interesting to revisit the work, choosing clips to make into endless cycles offers a moment of reflection, a strange lingering or stillness gives the chance to rethink them.

meanwhile - I've made a list of a number of non-English speaking series on Netflix and at present working through episodes of Nobody's Looking, which is fun, it's a typical 'person out of place' narrative with a twist. Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory was a gloriously layered film with the last scene bringing another layer of meaning to the work. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8291806/

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I have been working on a number of new shapes that explore the book form within the structures. They use different qualities of paper to exploit bending, squash, deform and friction. Continuing the work with Kings within the synthetic anatomy project. It really is a glorious experience. The situation has so many positive aspects - to be valued for the creativity brought into the room and celebrated by the students who are focused and alert to new possibilities. Working in the laboratories presents an interesting number of issues but mainly one is aware of the tech support, each bench having a monitor and using a microphone means that one can talk clearly and also use it to offer each student the opportunity to talk to the whole class. They did great work, revelations all around using 'art school thinking' to explore lateral thinking and problem solving. The act of reflection was flagged up and explored - scientists using sketch books. Working with the glorious Celia Pym is such a pleasure and I'm looking forward to this week where she is leading a session using drawing as a vehicle for thinking.

managed to get back to Kara Walker at the Tate - it was good to go back and look at the work again - it's quite a monument with an impressive use of the space.

meanwhile Parasite is a glorious film of shifting genres and meanings, Never Look Away is a stunning film about art, and creativity in adversity - a real winner - don't be put off by the 3 hour subtitles, it will feel like 3 minutes https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5311542/?ref_=rvi_tt and you get to see a lecture by Joseph Beuys - most excellent. finally worked through Sex Education which continues to do good work, demonstrating some excellent lessons - if you have children watch it with them.

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totally traumatised by watching 1917 - it truly is an extraordinary film - in part due to the glorious cinematography you are with them the whole way watching and feeling each and every tragic decision they have to make - a must see film. 2 Popes was a little dry but solid acting from Hopkins and Price elevated it. I've been invited to speak at Materials Research Exchange 2020 - the line-up and content for the two days is fairly awesome, luckily my job is to talk about how a maker makes sense of working within a 'science' context - something that I do know about. http://www.materialsresearchexchange.co.uk/speakers/  a day at Camberwell discussing how the final final show can in some way connect to the history of the course, the students are planning something with the Camberwell Book Art collection, working with Rosie Sherwood of Turn The Page. Making connections between their own individual practice and items from both The Camberwell and Chelsea Collection with a view to demonstrating the breadth of opportunity and possibility afforded by the format and concept of the book. the ending of the Book Art course has brought a degree of reflection enabling me to think about what we have been doing on the course alongside the value of the book as a creative tool.  the text for the last catalogue is swirling around my mind - The almost invisible reflective element of teaching enables reinvention, a constant rethinking, the experience of which inevitably feeds back into teaching. The process of creating presentations for seminars is a gathering of current transitory information and weaving it with established historical knowledge to form arguments, new 'truths'. When delivering presentations one cannot anticipate the students input and the subsequent discussion due to their wide ranging subject and cultural reference points. In that moment new hypothesis are born and new thinking established. This is what we did. This is the legacy of the course and the people who came, because it was their time to explore the book. This is the legacy that we created which they took with them...... meanwhile - popped into The British Library to see the new display of Artists Books within the treasures exhibition - really good to see books with Camberwell connections in the case.

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a busy week included the last catalogue conversation seminar at Camberwell for the MA Book Art Course - https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/21-01-20-catalogue-conversation it was a little odd seeing 26 years of catalogues on a table - so many memories and stories - running a storytelling workshop at NUA as part of developing so called soft skills with the students - confidence is growing as they recognise their inherent skills deeply embedded within their internal file labelled transferable skills  - I have been invited to give a talk at Materials and Design Exchange 2020 by  MaDE  this has involved trying to find a headshot as I don't possess such a thing - see 70 images of me - odd I never realised that I looked so much like my mum - meanwhile in 1965 Joseph Beuys held a performance attempted to explain pictures to a dead Hare 'coincidentally' a year before the event in a street in Coventry that no longer exists young parents held a small child and filmed him stroking a dead rabbit so he could experience the feeling of fur before it was made into stew - can I claim copyright from the Beuys estate?  finally as part of my general 'get rid of it all' clear out I came across my notes from the first ever book arts conference - feel free to take a peek at the past here https://www.slideshare.net/secret/z5E5tJGV4wlC1A

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There is a great show at Messums in Cork St of one of the current strands of Laurence Edwards body of work. It focuses on an interesting public art project where the heads of former miners are being modelled and cast in bronze for a proposed piece in the centre of Doncaster. I love the original waxes they are full of movement and energy and genuinely seem to be alive. I'm clearing shelves in my studio, getting rid of stuff that no longer makes sense to have in my life, mainly materials and expired technology no longer needed but I found the notes from the first book makers conference organised by Stefan Szczelkum which was a moment of odd time travel for me. click to go to a powerpoint link to see what we were doing in 1993. https://www.slideshare.net/secret/z5E5tJGV4wlC1A

on a short weekend break to Sète in the South of France in between eating some extraordinary food I slotted in a visit to see apres a multi-part exhibition by Eric Baudelaire at CRAC. It was a mixed show that included some interesting work of other artists to build context for a long community project - it was good to see the work of The Gorilla Art Action Group and some early video work including  John Akomafrah's Handsworth songs with dub cinema and Partially Buried by Renee Green which explored ideas around loss and nostalgia. back to the food Sète  like most of France has specific speciality - this area has Tielle - an octopus pie - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tielle  truly wonderful.   

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The break has given some time to reflect on the recent structural pieces I've been working on. Documenting them through filming enables another kind of understanding away from the haptic. 

The Lighthouse was all look at how odd we can make something and don't we know it but worth it for the soundtrack. Adam Driver was worth watching in The Report, a depressing indictment that people and whole governments can get away with bad things. Driver appeared to be acting when doing nothing in the procedural elements of the film. Uncut Gems is one long shouting experience. Long Shot is  okay-ish but just not quite funny enough and I know complaining about gross out issues in a Seth Rogan film is to miss the point but.....