invisiblethinkingmadevisible

I’ve hung a display of some starting points, samples, and paths of investigation within my recent material development research in the foyer at NUA. Its inception derives from ‘we work everywhere’, part of a new iteration of initiatives. The plan is to demonstrate that tutors have a practice that informs the teaching we engage in with the students, one could argue that without a public facing personal practice that includes research and reflection we do our students a disservice, that what we do outside of the institutions we work in enables us to work within them. Onto screens – the wonderful yet totally stupid nonsense that is Moonfall, the slow yet focused Coda. Just started the painful and disturbing series Anatomy of a scandal.

cleaningandorganising

After repainting and cleaning the studio, it was time to use it to set up a photo studio to document the recent work. They are all about initially creating a space, thinking about volume, whilst also looking a surface. Painting, repainting the shapes with a variety of materials from paint and varnish to gorilla glue and plaster and then sanding to reveal the layers. Textile students had a photo shoot last week, documenting work for this year’s on-line degree show. I took along a folded structure to have a bit of fun…….Some screens – I blame society – no. we are who we are – no. Ammonite – yes https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7983894/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 Black Bear – the wonderfully clever meta narratives will make you think https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9601220/. After watching Babylon Berlin a series centred on the post WW1 Berlin scene it’s interesting to think about the many parallels with today. The rise of nationalism, corrupt politics, runaway capitalism, add in Covid, and the post Brexit vote/landscape - are we heading into the cycle that is roaring 20s and everything that follows? Searching for a series – so far it’s a no to Salvation and Big Sky.

cromacolour

week 1 at NUA and this year's year 1 students have been wonderful - a great sense of energy is in the room - we have spent the week getting to know each other in and out of the building - A day in Cromer was glorious - the weather helped but the thinking was good and a day with colour yesterday demonstrated a strong sense of intuitive thinking - It's looking like they will be a good year.

meanwhile Season 2 of big little lies is all about will they get found out? after who did it? - and as everybody is fairly obnoxious or at best unlikable its odd that you care about whether they do. Sometimes, always, never - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5068162/?ref_=rvi_tt  - a lovely Bill Nighy experience of a film, written by the wonderful Edwyn Collins. Late Night - tries hard but is just ok, the end shot in the writers room is almost ridiculous. Dead in a weak - a moving English dark comedy but the ending is not Richard Curtis.  Fast and Furious presents Hobbs and Shaw - best to hold on to anything fixed down as I don't think this film slows down to 70mph at any point - a winner (but utterly preposterous obviously - it is Fast and Furious).

drawdrawdrawandyouwillsee

Fridays are all about Synthetic Anatomy, although learning and working with new software to be able to create 3D pieces has been my obsession this week in between the gaps of general teaching, running a smocking and pleating workshop for BA students, a folding workshop for MA students, interviewing prospective students for Textile Design BA, briefing the last unit for the current year 3 on the Textile Course at Norwich, tutorials for year 2 OCA Fine Art students, seeing The Comforter by the wonderful (you will laugh you will cry) Stacy Makishi https://www.artsadmin.co.uk/artists/stacy-makishi at the glorious Norwich Arts Centre which was really fantastic and then finally tweaking designs for planning committee for the Goldlay Square commission.

This Friday at Kings the afternoon session was run by Celia Pym.  http://celiapym.com/  Life drawing. If you ever need a drawing workshop I cannot recommend her more highly. The level of serious fun and energy in the room (for 2 hours) was awesome. The medical students went from 'this is a laugh', which it was, to taking the whole thing very seriously as they became focused and realised that drawing is not so easy and needs practice and a way of thinking to develop your skills. The drawing techniques and rules that engaged in by the students were so relevant to thinking about anatomy and 3D printing. 

somefilmsandsomeviolencewithsomebonding

a mixed bag of films - looking for narratives where women's stories are told, or at least they are close to the centre (ish) - Marjory Prime asked questions about memory, its value and explored why and how we tell stories http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4978710/?ref_=nv_sr_6

Holiday joy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5990458/?ref_=rvi_tt another film to add to the what if - playing with the timeline can ruin your life but lessons are learnt genre. Queen of the desert a strangely stilted film, but maybe that's the point, different times etc  with Nicole Kidman strutting endlessly even when on a camel http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837636/?ref_=rvi_tt

isthisitisthisit http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/ held the launch for the third edition of the magazine the platform runs. It doesn't take long to find new targets focuses on violence in video games the magazine is suitably unpleasant, in a good way. Managed to get the last copy in the edition http://www.isthisitisthisit.com/issue-03 The work in the exhibition was really interesting - highlights include Eva and Franco Mattes Freedom http://0100101110101101.org/freedom/ and the wonderfully thoughtful and disturbing Fair Game (Run like a girl) by Georgie Roxby Smith http://www.georgieroxbysmith.com/work/ . The work is really important and the concerns within the practice is something that the gaming industry has to fully engage in.

A great afternoon running a heat press, bonding workshop at NUA - no PowerPoint, no testing, no Learning Outcomes - a session exploring the potential of materials with students who have enquiring minds. Excellent learning and innovation all round.

observingmappingattendingandlooking

It's been a busy 6 days of student exhibitions and teaching. After assessing on the MA Book Art Course at Camberwell, lots of mapping of practice with post-it notes, I went to see the final Year Fine Art midterm exhibition at Chelsea which was full of ideas and on the moment thinking around critiquing all things social media. The NUA Textile Design final year midterm exhibition in St Margaret's church was a hugely eclectic success, the work looked good and lots of learning took place and with 6 months to go the tone felt about right.

I also managed to drop into Laurence Edwards studio to see the wonderful madness that is a 25ft man - it is going to be truly extraordinary - well it is already. http://www.laurenceedwardssculpture.com/

interiorsarego

it's been a busy week teaching on the Textile Design Course at NUA - year 1 arrived and their 1 day project was full of colour and surface - what is textiles? - what isn't it? without it you would be alone naked in a field.... to illustrate the overwhelming importance of textiles in the first day we covered fine art, illustration, fashion, architecture, interior design and fashion communication! the new instagram # is #nuatextiles year 3 had a whole day of year and project briefings, NSS briefing and Learning outcomes briefing but I tried to deliver it through work-shopping - the first project is interiors https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/003a-25-09-17-briefing-ba3a-project-2-interiors so am looking forward to some exciting work.