excellent
day at Camberwell running two workshops one that attempts to explore the
impossible - the idea of creating an equation for finishedness in a piece of
work and another that looked at the relationship we have as makers of objects with
audiences through those very objects. Here are links to the presentations on
Slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/13-02-18-context-audience-understanding-2018https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/13-02-18-finishedness-2018
It's a full on day with equations and diagrams created, negotiated and shared. This has been developed through
the work on the OCA and at the Maxwell Centre in Cambridge through the
collaborations and workshops I ran with nano-technologists. The January edition
of CavMag is out and the work I was involved in during my residency is
featured. Really cool that I get to be in the same pages of incredibly intelligent, driven people who are working on important issues.
White
Cube in Bermondsey has a somewhat amateur looking collection of works on display (maybe that
was the point) - but it was a little like what you might do if you had your first stab
at a show on a foundation course if you wanted to 'do' installation - Eddie
Peake and display 'meaningful objects' - He Xiangyu. The
saving grace was that the dj was playing good 'old skool' jungle and there was
an extraordinary Gursky on display - looking forward to seeing the show at The
Hayward.
How small is nano? Was a question I was
constantly asked when working at The Maxwell Centre in Cambridge. The answer
was always contextualised with something from the real world as nano scale is
almost beyond comprehension. This was usually human hair which is approximately
100,000 nanometers wide. As
a reminder of this fact I grew my hair for the duration of the project. It is
now over and I am left with a giant hair ball which in some ways explores the
idea of scale. There were many outcomes from the project including a number of artists books. It was really great that Sarah Bodman chose using a
known to make an unknown to be in her top ten artist books of
the year - thank you. https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/artists-books-2017-10-best-noise-alphabet-rearranged-romance
The Synthetic anatomy project at Kings is
moving along - lots of thoughts around reflective thinking and how to support
individuals who don't supposedly engage in the process. The aim is to develop
the skills needed to create a reflective journal as part of a 'changing
classrooms' initiative. But most individuals engage in the act of reflection
when making choices based on experience so the challenge shouldn't be too
great.
Finally looking at the range of upcoming booked leisure
activities in the diary - The Berlin Art Biennale, tickets to flight of the conchords at the O2 and Titus Andronicus at The Barbican and then the glorious
pantomime at The Wolsey in Ipswich, this year Red riding hood....nothing but
eclectic.
I ran a lateral thinking,
problem solving workshop with a group of science students as part of encouraging
wide thinking skills at the Maxwell Centre today. It was a challenging one involving
touch, silence, instructions and sign language but as ever I was struck by the 'can
do' attitude in the room. There were some exciting outcomes of activity and
process which I will be taking back into my own practice...Meanwhile there is a
small but very intense and exquisite exhibition of samplers at the Fitzwilliam
in Cambridge http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/samplers/ the work is so
detailed and precise it's important to remember that it was undertaken by hand
and often by very young girls.
The film is an
introduction to some of the work I have been involved in at NanoDTC.
Within a very short period
of encountering NanoTechDTC one is quickly divested of the notion that science is a
fixed rigid occupation, I have found that within the world of nanotechnology thinking
is fast and fluid, creative connections are made which always lead to an
interesting conversation. It was this interdisciplinary, inclusive, outward
thinking approach that attracted me to working within the Maxwell, that and the
wonderful open seating spaces that provide creative nodal points and the futuristic
coffee machine that fuels them.
In the initial phase of
the residency I've been assimilating the wide range of processes and activities
first year students engage with. This was almost a full-time job, the progress
of which can be observed through a dedicated blog which occasionally drifts
into hyperbole as I engage with concepts beyond my world but that very much
underpin it.
I have become preoccupied
by a number of issues. Whilst attending a practical demonstration I can
remember slightly drifting in my mind as yet another truly extraordinary piece
of information was imparted but which I was unable to fully comprehend. In an attempt to grasp an understanding I
started to watch the hands of the demonstrator, there was an urgency as the
demonstrator used every facility they had to communicate. I have been creating films which explore how
scientific concepts and lab processes are communicated through subconscious
hand gestures whilst in the lab. I developed a number of structures that
mimicked or illustrated the movements made by the hand, these were then given to
the facilitator to recreate the movements. This was subsequently filmed and
juxtaposed with the objects or their initial movements. This small observation
and subsequent body of work has instigated conversation and debate and raised
consciousness amongst scientists about how we communicate.
The question of what
science looks like is a strand of my research, the machines including the electron
microscope and AFM in combination with the imaging software connected to them create
a science aesthetic which exudes trust. Working with software more familiar to
the art world I have developed a number of images and films that mine this
aesthetic creating a dialogue around what information looks like.
I have encountered a
number of machines that map surfaces but to enable this they are calibrated to
'fire' matter at surfaces they are investigating, the evidence of this activity
is mapped, the space between surface and probe providing answers. I am
currently following a line of enquiry that looks at this, making physical something
that cannot be seen by casting the negative space of the folding structures
that explored the hand gestures, fixing a moment in time. if you would like to read/see more https://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/
Wednesday, 2 November 2016
a great day out in London on Tuesday
- the discussions with MA Book Art students from Camberwell around the work in
the exhibition at the photographers gallery - radical feminism and then in the permanent
treasures Gallery at the British Library were superb - as ever the students
brought a range of new understandings to the work and some wonderful concepts/questions/thoughts-
the role of fundamentalist typography, tyrannical layout, books that have one
purpose - the performance of the book, how display informs understanding -
subversive labels - labels as the work -
the list goes on. The exhibition of feminist work is worth a visit and contains
a range of work that underpins a lot of the performances that I saw as part of
Spill at the weekend - a post moment rethink and the upcoming exhibition around
maps at the British Museum is sure to be wonderful and a recommendation. In the
evening the talk I gave for the Norfolk Contemporary Craft Society went well, I
would like to think, with lots of ideas thrown out and a number given back
which will be followed up when I get a moment . As I cycled back to the station
(to be subjected to another example of poor service from Abellio) the lights
and reflection of the St George building at NUA lifted the spirits. a mention
for adultswim - http://www.adultswim.com/music/singles-2016/
a beautiful web portal. Meanwhile another day at the Maxwell Centre brought
fresh revelations - http://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/chemicallogicofthemicrobialcommunity.html
in around 1989ish I worked with the poet Gary Boswell http://www.poetrysoc.com/content/archives/places/recycle/ in an Assessment Centre for young offenders in Lincolnshire creating words and/in books - I learnt so much in that residency - in the car on our journey to the facility we talked about many things - one being that in the very far future there would be a layer of material within the earth created from plastic very much akin to how coal was created - we were just thinking about this within the context of creative writing not really from an ecological standpoint - this idea appears to be all the rage as a topic - generation anthropocene is now on the agenda. this is a stunning read - http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/01/generation-anthropocene-altered-planet-for-ever - truly apocalyptical doom ridden - a must
- well not really - more of a sideline of entertainment to the wonderful Gustav
Metzer, Fischli/Weiss and Hito Steyerl. I have on display some of the vast archive of objects along with one of the films I made as part of the Nano^Art project .
lots of teaching this week from
briefings about the final show with year 3 textile students at NUA (yes its already
that time of year) to a wonderfully intense midterm collaborative session
looking at finished work at Camberwell on the Book Art course. As ever it was
full of exciting, thoughtful and insightful comments - it's a session where the
maker takes notes but does not speak, the work standing on its own without
contextual background to support it - a positive experience for the students
and one that supports and informs my own practice. Then a session on lateral
thinking with year 1 students at NUA it's an attempt to induce a recognition
within students that they are creative powerful people.......creative thinking
within the visual - we control the world - or at least how it looks.
some films - kill or be killed
- a psychological cowbody thriller - odd, dark and gritty. midnight man
- is there a twist there somewhere? just bad on so many levels. The Reunion
- Atertraffen is worth a watch - an 'art film' in the guise of a 'mainstream'
one maybe. After all this okayishness decided to re-watched the game - still
good even after repeated viewing and even knowing where it will take you - a
taught thriller twisting and turning till the end (almost).
still moving
through girls- it gets darker as it moves on - just as everything seems to be
resolved and working and generally okay for the case of characters the
situation is destroyed by the need for a well chosen chunk of 'truth'! - a
break from the 'reality' of New York life is the night manager a 6 part twisting
thriller from John le Carrévia
the BBC with all its values intact.
finally - working on which pieces
will be on display as part of the Maxwell Building Inaugural Event, which will take place
on the 7-9 of April. I'm showing the film nanocapesarego which demonstrates some of the capes and the
materials filmed that were used to make the them. Hopefully alongside this I'll
show a couple of the experimental bookwork hand sculptures - I have so many to choose from, as ever I got excited and
just kept making.
