everythingyouthoughtwasatruthwasalie

Spending 7 days in what was East Germany was an eye opener in so many ways. There is something about the history of East Germany that results in two modes of what feels opposing behaviour – walking the streets holding bottles of beer feels de-rigour. As does waiting endlessly at pedestrian crossings for the walking man to turn green even if there is no traffic. Something about control and release! A full 7 days of art, museums, cycling and walking - first up was Dresden – there was a Biennale that centred on the Robotron Kantine a space occupied by artists promoting it as an art space with other work in the OSTRALE – Center for Contemporary Art, which itself is a statement of intention, a place just outside the city where artists have created a collective vibe. Every piece in the show was underpinned by political positioning. Old Dresden is spectacularly excessive, the architecture category is fairy tale on acid, great use of gold leaf and Baroque doesn’t cover it. The Zwinger a totally over the top excessive experience of a building in the center of old Dresden has a beautiful display of old technical instruments including globes, maps, telescopes and tools for measuring space, stars and even melting metal. Another highlight was The German Hygiene Museum, especially the excellent cafe. There were some extraordinary objects, including a see-through woman, sculptures of defecated baby’s nappies and lots of unusual cross sections of bodies. The revelation that hygiene in this context has its roots in cultural cleansing rather than cleaning was a little shocking. The formal parks are stunning and endless, cycling through them joyous. On the way to the station, I popped into see the Folk Art collection at the Museum for Saxon Puppet Theatre Collection. It houses some of the most bizarre objects which have echoes in my childhood tv watching. The train to Leipzig was with all European trains exemplary. Leipzig has Forum Leipzig Contemporary History, a museum that starts with a newspaper detailing the death of Hitler. What we know of this part of the world is shockingly slim. The shifting politics and contextual existence are mind blowing. The contents of the museum should have been shown to every potential voter thinking about Brexit. There is a huge out of town space called Spinnerei. It was once a cotton spinning mill but is now home to Contemporary art spaces and galleries. Again, the politics of the artists were to the fore, and again another great space to eat. The Monument to the Battle of the Nations is so big. It’s difficult to document the immensity of the thing itself. A monument to the defeat of Napoleon against Germany who were supported by Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden built 100 years after the event and 2 years before Germany went to war against the world. To say there is a real complexity to the history of this area of Europe is an understatement. A Museum of printing is housed in an old printing works and has so many machines. Its collection has some very old examples but focuses mainly on ones that I have worked on as a student at LCP! Ones own lived experience becomes history. There is so much to see – other highlights include Panometer GmbH is a huge gasometer that has a 360 experience, this one focused on 911 but was really an antiwar protest piece, widening its focus to all acts of terrorism. GRASSI Museum for Applied Arts is huge, and I only managed to spend time in the musical instrument rooms, truly excellent. G 2 K U N S T H A L L E: has a fantastic contemporary collection alongside temporary shows. Finally, I highly recommend cycling everywhere, German cities enable and seem to celebrate easy movement on two wheels, again lessons to learn.

itsallaboutrethinkingthesystemwelivewithin

A day at Primadonna festival in Stowmarket was illuminating as ever - I spent most of my time at the World As It Should Be stage. Jane Dyball chaired a great discussion with Selina Flavius of Black Girl Finance and Bank of England’s Jack Meaning, co-author of Can’t We Just Print More Money? Lots to think about and I learnt about Pigouvian tax. Jenni Nuttall, academic and author of Mother Tongue was fascinating – the book, all about words, their control and meaning is already on the bookshelf. Sawad Hussain and Dr Sofia Rehman created a conversation that talked about how language retracts and expands, allowing movement through time. The quiz about our digital relationships was excellent – some surprising new knowledge. Elaine Kasket’s Reboot: Reclaiming Your Life in a Tech-Obsessed World used a great platform to share her knowledge – another book that will be on the shelves when it’s out. Other highlights include Preeti Dhillon, The Shoulders We Stand On which details non-white collective movements that have attempted change. The conversation led to how government repeatedly used community liaison positions to slow the momentum of change through division. A highlight of any festival or talk is Winnie M Li. I have heard her speak before about sexual violence and her life as an activist. She is such an amazing woman, her knowledge and strength give content and argument to the voices and thoughts I have, especially around understanding our world built with a particular set of rules which in turn mean that we can only work within those parameters. What we measure is what we value, consider the concept of teaching to the test. Thinking outside this paradigm is a challenge, especially if those rules are created by men unlikely to give those powers away and who use the very systems, they have created to enforce them. All in all, a great day which leaves one energised to get back in the fight!

takingapartandputtingbacktogether

I thought that taking apart my 3D printer and cleaning it would be a daunting task, but the whole process including replacing the nozzle was not so bad – I’m up and running and a couple of successful test prints later means that I’m back to exploring what is possible at the edge of the machine’s constraints. Onto screens - Ed Sheeran’s 4-part documentary Sum of it All was moving and beautiful. First Daughter was quite sweet and not quite as obvious as it could have been. Happiness for Beginners was just sweet. Dragged across Concrete was oddly dull.

handmademachines

Continuing to work on 3D prints, pushing the printing to the edge of its parameters. By exploring the potential of the process, the unexpected happens. The outcomes are unlike those on the screen but are no less interesting. The latest works are at the far end of the settings - 0 fill, 0 support and its parameters are set at 1. Who knows what will happen as the work starts to gain some form of fragility in line with the human hand and in some way celebrates the unknown. This year’s Latitude was fun – highlights include the glorious Pulp, the hypnotic Tinariwen, dancing to the always fantastic disco shed and singing along to Beatles Dub Club – hilarious. Onto screens - Asteroid City was glorious and yet strangely tiring with the excessive details in the costumes, sets and the clever script – both the words themselves and the general story – a must see. Songwriter, the 2018 documentary about Ed Sheeran is stunningly beautiful – mesmerizing when songs are created from almost nothing it’s a little like magic. Next up the 2023 documentary Sum of it All.  Just getting into Champion – lots to think about all accompanied by a great soundtrack.

stuffallpiledupbutfordifferentreasons

Working on a new approach to creating 3D prints. Looking at the structural opportunities available when exploring fill without creating surfaces. I was struck by the intriguing imagery created when working with the software that you use to create the structures, ready to be printed. I use a combination of SketchUp, 3D printer and PrusaSlicer, this is then worked on in Photoshop. Using PrusaSlicer, as an image generator rather than just the software to make 3D prints. The images created explore the liminal space of the 3D experience – the image, the object, and the image of the object. It’s both there and not there. An afternoon of breathing in – 3 shows in London full of stuff all piled up but for different reasons – Keifer at White cube – piles of so much stuff piled very high and culled from a gigantic archive seemingly without much editing, Ibon Aranberri at Raven Row – piles of stuff, carefully organised after being shown in a different configuration elsewhere. RESOLVE Collective at the Curve Barbican – piles of stuff, piled up after the artist’s felt disparaged by the systems the work sat within. 3 piles of stuff all piled up but for different reasons.  Onto screens - Master gardener – theatrical slightly all-over the place. Beau is afraid – a terrifying insight into a terrified mind. Was about to give up on Barry around the beginning of season 2 when the blood and brutality was getting all too much but so glad to of worked through that as season 4 was gloriously excellent – the tonal shift from dark humour to almost cartoon was genius and the culmination in episode 8 was so clever, the writing had me unsure of everything as the story spun off into several realities, often at once.

tellmeaboutgreatness

Back from a short and yet somehow extended trip out of this sad Brexit filed country over to France and then Finland. Spending time with 'foreigners' is challenging. They ask questions like What is going wrong in Britain? Don't you like us anymore? With a bemused air of confusion. I find it best to start any conversation with an apology for being English. Johnson is seen as a fool child and we implicated along with him for encouraging and supporting him, there is little understanding of why we, the public put up with the constant obvious lying. Best to keep a distance from all of the nonsense but it's difficult when our very existence somehow represents all this. Meanwhile, as ever Marseille was glorious, bright blue skies and wondrous food. Dropped into the Frac which had some interesting work by Hamish Fulton but I felt was poorly hung. An old friend 60th birthday party was the focus of the break - great wine and food and dancing to music - live and recorded late into the morning. It all made for a fantastic experience - it's a reason for living. The setting up and taking down felt communal with a chance to catch up with friends from the past. Helsinki was all about the Biennale - we had tickets 2 years ago, but Government rules around Covid put a stop to that. Helsinki itself was extraordinary - clean, spacious, and full of great design, large and expansive second-hand shops, clean, wide streets, cheap efficient public transport with swimming and saunas all around. They have a truly amazing library, that felt like a utopian ideal with recording studios to hire, booths with gaming devices, a huge area that was a maker space, superb seating and full of light. Well designed, expansive tube stations transported you at speed, cleanly and on time to yet another museum or art gallery where the focus was always on celebrating Finland's rich heritage. The Biennale took place on an island, with every artist addressing the environmental impact of humans on this planet in a way that was rich and open. Why wouldn't you when you have such stunning landscape all around. Ham has a giant seagull on its entrance, a warning sign of the vicious birds beadily eyeing your food around the docks and port. Inside I saw thoughtful commissioning work, again around environmental issues. Out on a 20-minute tube ride to Esposito was the glorious EMMA which has a collection of glassware, crafts, and textiles, displayed so cleverly. The temporary show by Pierre Huyghe was equal parts distressing and all consuming. In the accompanying video interview, he talks about queerness in a way that, is at the true root of its meaning. He is making important, unsettling work that truly makes you think. A visit to Helsinki's modern fully equipped art school, which has dedicated studios for the lectures - now there's an idea, was again eye opening, again it felt like somehow England has been left behind. It was located just down the road from a partially repurposed meat market where the easy-going bars nestle with the existing meat wholesalers. Reindeer sausages and tinned bear meat anybody? I would recommend Helsinki to anyone, although there was a lot of impressive stairs so I'm unsure about access. 

And finally, did I mention that it didn't get dark! Strangely disorienting at first but you get used to it walking around at 1 in the morning with a very slight orange dusk in the air. I'm sure I will be back as I only touched the surface on what is on offer.  

winningai

The Synthetic Anatomy Module at Kings has won an Education innovation Award from the Anatomical Society for an Integrated Innovative Anatomy Teaching Module. We are good – congratulations to Dr Mandeep Gill Sagoo (Team Lead, King's College London), Professor Richard Wingate, Professor Kawal Rhode and Dr Leigh Wilson. I’m deep into Chat GPT and its wondrous possibilities. Working with it to create work for Moon to Moon, in Lowestoft for the firstlight festival. Asked to develop a response to a poem written by George Szirtes It was an interesting exercise to submit the text into ChatGPT - I was fascinated that it deconstructed the poetry, taking out the poetic and making it fairly numbing. Meanwhile in my teaching capacity its assessment assessment assessment time – judging people is a thing. Onto screens - Paint – the discussion after when trying to work out why this doesn’t work is probably more interesting than the film itself – misjudged. John Wick 4 – 1000 more ways to creatively kill people. And then there was Succession – the gloriously devastating ending for all.