spillmemories

so Spill – https://www.spillfestival.com/whatson a long weekend of thoughtful work. It was great to feel held by the curatorial hand of the director Robert Pacitti – links and connections were all around, strands flowing and fleeting creating - on memory was an opportunity to reflect on the past 10 years and at the same time make new memories. Highlights include the glorious Naked Life by Olja Grubic’s which has given me PTSD flashbacks when I grate carrots, 60 acts by Wendy Huston was on the right side of hopeless cynicism, Charlie Barlow’s Alone Together was a moment of contemplation, Robin Deacon’s thoughtfully rigorous Screen Memories was a joy, and John Bowers Memorygrinderresonancemachine in an abandoned silo was a great rounding up, the ideas behind the work resonating with thoughts of my own psychographic relationship to Coventry. But there was also Albesila Luminarium with its light and Instagramable possibilities, The gentle throbbing of Chorus, a big earth of Gaia in a dark room, growing vegetables in Eden, the thoughtful films Daughters and I want to be traditional, TheThe’s Comback Special and in conversation was a little mainstream angst with prog jazz thrown in, the hypnotic immersive Gone, Gone Beyond, Jenny created a cyborg space while exploring the gender reveal wars, Atari Punk Girls was serious techno fun, and Shabnam Shabazi’s silent stillness was all encompassing.

gogogoitsallgo

Another full on week of teaching with the end of Spill and the making of work. At NUA one very successful workshop saw each student making an equation of their practice and a proposed project - this equation was then passed to another student who created a 3D sculpture that represented the equation - the sculpture was then returned to the student who then reinterpreted the work having had a revelatory moment. all good. OCA had a making day where I focused on creating some internal hidden structures within a bookwork, but also reflecting and building on the work created for Nano residency. During Spill I always like to document the end of a performance (see slides) but I also had some highlights over the second week - Clarion Call grew in intensity - which was a good thing, it's so ethereal and otherworldly. Went to see Winter's Tale by Forced entertainment - just so clever/beautiful. Inter_versal by Carter Tuti and Kernschmelze II were 2 all encompassing sound experiences that I would recommend if in the vicinity of them. Decasia by Bill Morrison and The Mirror by Vicki Bennett  were two film experiences.  Decasia is made of archive film that has decayed in many ways, often this decay takes on meaning and form when seen within the context of the film's original material, boxers battling a swirling mass of scratches or a merry go around where the rides emerge from an ectoplasmatic surge and Mirror is a mash up of overlaid footage, often creating alternative narratives and dialogue between the sequences.

spillisover

so a woman leaves the space via a giant vagina after performing labiaplasty on herself with bacon, a man uses rubber gloves to talk about care and loneliness, I stand in a room but through technology am in a wood the first time and then on the beach the second - surrounded by birds, watch the question chicken or egg performed by a woman 'black faced' with electrical tape, understand our culture through repetitive action, a flower emerges, a doll emerges both from within body orifices, people in costumes created from the DIY store explore alienation, mirrors are used to present ideas and a vagina, a whisper takes my breath away and so much more - yes I have emerged from Spill a little bit wiser and a little more open. I was struck by the respect spill audiences have for the space of performing especially as I walked late through Ipswich. check out tweets - @BicknellLes  some photographs of the aftermath from the performances.

stuffcoveredandspilled

just going through the photographs from Marseille - here are some that will be added to the folder 'covered stuff in the street'. Last night at Spill saw the museum opening till 11:00 with interesting interventions but for me the activity that was most engaging was using your phone as a torch and bringing the stuffed birds to life (Johnnie Morris voices optional - think 70s Animal Magic) - also saw 3 performances - all linked by the idea of exploring the fragility of existence. Jade Montserrat's piece Showing Josephine was relentless in its repetition - Breathe by Alicia Jane Turner had some beautiful films accompanied by violin and the UK premier of Of Leonardo Da Vinci had some extraordinary moments where moving image, sound and movement created new worlds in the mind.  I managed to just touch on the durational works and will see more later but as ever the Art School felt energised by the activity - can't wait to be immersed later! https://spillfestival.com/all-events/ if you feel like you want to be changed. 

questionsquestionsquestionsquestionsquestionsandsomeanswers

a great day of presentations at the Nano event for the Cambridge festival of imagination. our team decided to have questions within the presentation which led to us reading out a set of questions - it went very well and the questions led to more questions which was the point of the whole issue for me. enabling a rethinking of my practice. here's a link to the presentation - http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/what-if-its-true-after-all?related=1 and here's the script.

1             When discussing nano does understanding falter because it's smaller than I can represent with my own body?

1 - Does having to conceive of something as an idea in my mind limit my understanding of it?

2 - Do we need to train our brains to become better at discussing and understanding things that we can’t see?

3 - are really small things just very frightening?

2             what is the purpose of the experiment?

1 - Do we create knowledge or is it all out there waiting to be discovered?

2 - Does the concept of a failed experiment actually exist?  How can I use this idea with the students I teach?

3 - Is there is such a thing as a stupid experiment where no knowledge is created?

3             How are artists and scientists bound by givens in their perception of the world?

1 - Are scientists trying to work with physical things that exist but can't be seen and artist's trying to make physical things based on concepts that can't be seen?

2 - On the whole, do givens help or hinder progress in science?

3 - Is it true to say givens are more common place in science than in art?

4             what is the relationship between perception and belief?

1 - To build a foundation to work on do scientists have to believe in the existence of phenomena they cannot see to develop a practice? what is the role of belief?

2 - What is the role of perception?

3 - If there is strong evidence for a phenomena can it still be considered ‘beliefs’?

5             What is the role of intention?

1 - What is the role of trust in the creative process?

2 - Can chance encounters occur in both cases?

3 - Can science or art be done without the intention to do so? Does this make them different?

6             can babies do science?

1 - can one just start doing science without knowledge?

2 - can one just start doing art without knowledge?

3 - what is the role of post rational thought within progress?

7             Is there a personal language of science?

1 - art is concerned with creating an individual, personal language  - does science need to have a shared language to progress? - or is it all a universal language?

2 - Mathematics is often described as the language of the universe, how does this differ to a personal language in science?

3 - when we share words do we really understand each other?

8             Do we have a certain perception convention within particular fields?

1 - Coming into contact with the language of science and thinking has introduced new phrases to my own practice and enabled me to rethink ones I thought I understood - how will I use this?

2 - to what extent does this shared language within fields help or hinder progress?

3 - Does all the science within a particular field have the same language?

9             what makes an outcome an outcome?

1 - How do we perceive an outcome?

2 - when do we know when to stop?

3 - is reflective thinking just post rational cover up?

10           how can something that is so wrong be so right?

1 - what is the importance of closed minds?

2 - Is it really true that if you don't know how it works it's not science?

3 - What has bad science got to teach good art?

11           Does science need to start with the knowledge of many?

1 - where does art begin and science end?

2 - does 'the community' endorse which knowledge is valued?

3 - Can new science or art be achieved without the knowledge of many? 

12           There is a wider audience for the outcomes of what can be made from science but do scientists have an audience other than themselves to enable them to think and deduct?

1 - is science too closed to be understood by the general public?

2 - Are we just selfish beings who want to feel like we have a meaning or purpose?

3 - is art too easy to dismiss? is art too closed to be understood by the general public?

13           Are there parallels between the craft skills of art and those of science?

1– Does the knowledge of how to do things - the skill and craft of making enable scientists to make?  2 - Can art be created without the acquisition of skills?

3 - is there a craft to thinking?

14           How do the clothes we work in support thinking?

1 - can ritual and uniform create a heightened awareness of one's activity?

2 - does uniform constrict creativity and result in increased conformity to established ideas?

3 - How do the spaces we work in support thinking?

15           Everything we see may not be there or at least not as we think it is - where is our starting point?

1 - Bottom-up or top-down? When is either more appropriate and how do we know?

2 - where do we go for the answers?

3 - how do the tools we use to see alter our perspective on what we see?

16           Is there a shelf-life on what is true?

1 - How do we work with truths?

2 - truth is an expensive word, can we use it with any certainty

3 - how do we know?

17           What is the role of ‘external forces’ on creativity?

1 –Does the engagement of art and science with business support or mold what the work becomes and where it goes.

2 - Does this then start to define what is researched or made and eventually defines what art or science is?

3 - has the learning outcome destroyed creativity in education?

18           What makes something meaningful?

1 - Is art a way of making sense of the world?  

2 - Is science a way of making sense of the world?

3 - are we all just making tools for thinking?

19           What should I work on next?

1 - How do I know what to do next? How do I know what is right?

2- Is the process of deciding what to do next on the whole more regimented in science than in art?

3 - Does it all depend on what everyone else is doing?

20           This needs a question here

the evening was about the intense experience of watching FK Alexander: NO WHERE // NOW HERE' 90 minutes exploring excess, loss, and change - brutally forceful. Teaching this week at NUA has seen the briefing of body - a project - we will see what happens.  http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/briefing-ba3a-project-4-body Already looking forward to Deborah Pearson at battersea arts centre https://www.bac.org.uk/content/39774/whats_on/whats_on/shows/time_pieces_like_you_were_before before going on to spill - there's also a list of visual art that needs to be seen - starting with the Curve at the Barbican.

wearehereandwehavehadenough

Reflecting on Spill – considering the position of creativity in society.

The edge is recognised, acknowledged, subsumed, mopped up and assimilated by a kind of Borg-like-conventionalism within a capitalist paradigm that atomises individuality then reconstructs and regurgitates it as a commodity for the individual.  The main-stream is veracious in its overwhelming consumption of the ‘other’. Initially spurning what it does not understand, then consuming but never acknowledging or validating the deep roots that initiated the creative thinking that underpinned its watered-down presence in our everyday. This is repeatedly the case – be it the role of the arts in the gentrification of derelict and disregarded areas of the city or the alternative death celebrations that have arisen, initially created by a generation questioning coming to terms with early death. This lack of recognition and respect is on-going thanks to ignorance and fear. Thoughts collated from the last 35 years whilst sitting within a like-minded group of people waiting.

The MA Book Art students have an exhibition for three weeks in the library at Camberwell of altered books – the results of a short set project. The crit yesterday focused on discussing the creative strategies the students had employed to develop work from the books they had been given, finding and developing texts or alternative narratives embedded within the initial books. How much to leave, remove, alter, add or possibly use the book as a starting point to other work. Onto the Polar Institute in Cambridge where I gave a paper for SHARE on the work I have undertaken with The Costume and Textile Study Centre at Norwich Castle.  All went well – myself and Ruth were a wonderfully unscripted double act – it’s all about trust - in the other parties involved, knowing what you do and finally believing in and understanding your role.

Managed to see The Polar Muse at the Polar Institute Museum. http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/ It’s a number of texts specially commissioned as responses to objects from the collection. The textual interventions were vinyl cut onto the glass of the cases that hold the collection – it was an interesting experience to see the objects through a veil of words. They also have the wonderful Caroline Wright working in residence there de-constructing de-accessioned objects – powerful stuff.

The current show at the Whitechapel is most excellent – the work by Richard Tuttle explores his use of textiles; everything from single threads that protrude from the wall and play with the real and imagined, cut canvas sheets through to complicated constructed pieces. http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/richard-tuttle-i-dont-know-the-weave-of-textile-language The current children’s commission by Fraser Muggeridge: Mimeographica Alphabetica - work using stencils and old technology of the rotastat machine – the Proustian rush! (I can still smell the chemicals) is very playful and explores an interesting intersecting place between Graphics, Typography and Fine Art practice. http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/fraser-muggeridge-mimeographica-alphabetica

allencompassingthinking

Four days immersed in the world of live art.... Spill Festival Ipswich. http://spillfestival.com/all-events/ Starting with the sounds of fleeing souls of Siren at the opening party – and ending with INCORRUPTIBLE FLESH: MESSIANIC REMAINS with Ron Athey - with 42 events in between. I could just list everything on the programme that I saw – it’s crept into my though process, providing images to stimulate and contemplate. Some people to look out for in future - standout moments - which in turn become recommendations have to be - the graphic simplicity of Jamie Lewis Hadley, Kris Canavan’s procession through Ipswich, the full on frontal assault by Swagga with Project O, Keijaun Thomas’s seductive complicity, the joyous deconstruction of Peter McMaste’s all male Withering Heights and Get in the back of the van’s The best little whorehouse in Texas, the intensity of Jon John and Adam Electric’s endurance. Then there was the experience of an almost continual dialogue throughout the 4 days, these were focused by the more formal Spill Salon conversations -the idea of the/a safe world with Ron Athey, John Bowers and Domenic Johnson was inspirational.   

stuffstuffandmorestuff

The opening party for Spill http://spillfestival.com/ saw machine spirits in the name of Siren, a night train through Ipswich, a man surrendering by staple gunning a white flag to his arm and clashing Asian and Britishness in the form of Bishi – most excellent – all with chips and sparkling wine. 20,000 days on earth http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2920540/ is a stunning film that explores the idea of creativity – its a joy to behold within today’s miss-guided skewed version of creativity – ploughing his own furrow Nick Cave is important – important that he exists to point out what we should be concerned with, or at least to provide a model, a route – the film will want to make you collaborate with the nearest sentient being after you have gone out and listed to the back catalogue. Baraka http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103767/ – is a stunning film – a Koyaanisqatsi http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085809/ for 2014 – its a wide ranging set of images that explore the world we live in/on – no narrative or voice-over to tell you what to think just stunning images - there is a particular shot of the Kuwaiti oil fields burning accompanied with bagpipes and drumming that is haunting. The shots of mass production of food juxtaposed with people on escalators going underground is something we’ve seen before but here there is a new spin with multiple images and incredibly speeded up film so that almost the souls of the people are filmed rather than their physical self