neoclassancients

A weekend in the bubble that is Stroud. Attended NeoAncients – lots of music and motivating talks that connected politically and galvanised my soul. In terms of sound shout out to Haress, Smote, Dawn Terry, The Last Sacrifice. The great talks - Staying Analogue in the Age of Distraction - Andrew Smith. Megalithic Portal x Megalithic Imperative - Andy Burnham + Neil Mortimer + Patricia Brien, check out the website – megalithic.co.uk Visions of the Occult - Victoria Jenkins. Common People - Stephen Ellcock + Leah Gordon with Maxine Peake. Don’t forget The Museum of Roadside Magic and The People’s Pyramid Mummification Van. Generally a time of making connections between the ideas in the books Common People, England on Fire and Trespass, the over 5000 government acts that make up the Enclosures Act, its relationship to the slave trade, working people, the landed gentry and Sizewell operations. Fave notes – meme magic, merky territory, ghosts in the liminal spaces. Onto screens – Hypnotic – great idea shame about the music, script, acting, camera work and editing.

cyclesreturn

A long week in France top and tailed in Nantes. This is an amazing city that has worked out that in a post-industrial world culture is the answer to having a thriving, successful city. There are wonderful, shared spaces full of art and possibilities. Most visible is Le Grand Éléphant https://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/en/discover/the-grand-elephant/ it is actually worth actually having a ride on it. The museums and galleries are excellent - top recommendation is le unique - a best kept local secret is the plait du jour. Over the week I ate endless moules et frits, oysters, and pastries to die for. In between got a train to Pornic then cycled to Noirmoutier-en-L'lle across a tidal causeway - I do not recommend this if the red lights are flashing. Cycling through water up to the bikes crank in the dark as the tide is making the road invisible is not fun but after the 3-mile ride you do feel alive. The landscape is brutal, controlled and organised by man to industrially farm molluscs. When cycling make sure you look at the wind direction as it will determine your level of pain. Noirmoutier-en-L'lle itself is dinky, very few cars, the area appears designed for cycling around, the most challenging part of the day is working out what to eat and what wine to match it with. Managed to get some reading in - Orbital - what a gem of a book, it reminded me of Moby Dick in that it's not a book about space travel in that Moby Dick isn't all about whales. It was good to make time for reading two books that bounced off each other - both self-help books disguised as novels - The Course of Love by Alain du Bolton about relationships and Midnight Library by Matt Haig about the choices we make. They were both a little too close to feel totally comfortable but on reflection they have a lot to offer.

walkingandreadingandsittingandwatching

a wonderful artifact that contains all the elements from the crucifixion story from Santa Maria de Cadaqués. Onto screens - I was drawn to This Town – a great 8-part drama series on BBC – it explores the culture and context of how the music we call 2tone was developed. It was particularly interesting to me as I literally grew up in the midst of this phenomena in 70s Coventry, my first gig was The Specials at Tiffanys, which is now the Central Library. The show was great fun which some nice performances. Dune 2 – sand, sand, sand.  On the walk in Spain I read Good Pop Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker – fun, with some insightfully, thoughtful comments that made one consider the stuff we surround ourselves with. The Big Midweek: Life Inside the Fall by Steve Hanley and Olivia Piekarski is a monster of a book with each tragic moment of madness captured in raw detail. A great insight into a great band.

thepatseemsalongtimeago

A time of sorting and ending – attempting to clear out studios and make way. Images of a past that seems a long time ago have resurfaced. And onto the future - slowly enjoying the cache of book presents – The hidden world of everyday design is the book of the great podcast. Atlas of improbable places is such a fascinating book, I’ve been to a couple of the places, but it would provide a fascinating list of destinations. London’s secret tubes makes you want to go one of the underground tube tours.12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson is a thought-provoking collection of thoughts collected and organised in such a beautifully clever way – excellent. Onto screens – Family Plan – basically it was Nobody lite. Dream Scenario - Nicholas Cage laying out what’s it’s like to be an old white man or maybe a comment on the vagaries of social media, either way it was fairly punishing. Maestro - Bradley Coper was beautiful, but the internet went down halfway, and I have little intention of going back, strangely underwhelmed. Chicken run 2 – maybe I’m not the target audience but the ‘making of’ film was mesmerising. Halfway through the second Reacher series – it does what it does, but it does it well. Killers of the Flower moon was relentlessly oppressive, in an appropriately way – what a story and the ending vaudeville act was chilling for what it says about the events.  

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!

booksandreading

Working on a new approach and using some new maths around the receptor pharmacology work. Recent reading on holiday included the gloriously disturbing Liarmouth: A feel-bad romance by John Waters, you will be repulsed in clever ways reading things you didn’t think possible. Exit Stage Left: The curious afterlife of pop stars by Nick Duerden details what happens next. PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story by Alexander Shulgin, Ann Shulgin is a record of psychedelic exploration, travelling in uncharted territory. Kinky Boots at The New Wolsey was, if you like a gritty glamour sing along was the epitome of a good night out. Meanwhile onto screens - I’m deep into Wecrashed a crazy ride into the depths of the dubious start-up.

megachippyfindfound

2 months late but made it to the Binley Mega Chippy on the way to my Auntie Marge's  funeral where I came across a great ‘found text’! - think Bob Cobbing……I recently spent the day at FLEXchange at Kings - so nice to be around like-minded people, although from different backgrounds and starting points. Creative thinking fueled all the conversations. I was there to facilitate an arts/science/well being workshop. We had to devise, develop, and present a proposal for an actual issue. My group focused on community building and the issue of stifling bureaucratic systems in academic life and the way in which fear governs our decisions, both as students and lecturers. How can you create a sense of ownership or have agency to build a community in such a structural bureaucratic stranglehold? We came up with the idea of using coloured paper and coloured pens to demonstrate the idea of a curriculum that fits nobody as the participants have not been considered in the delivery. You may have delivered content (pens) but did it land (paper)? A truly half full kind of day. Meanwhile onto screens – the glorious Good Luck to you Leo Grande was moving and open.  Books - just finished reading and found myself agreeing with much of Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century by John Higgs. It is full of great revelations and one of the many coincidences/revelations I had was reading about Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Laringhaven for the first time in the book whilst simultaneously seeing her work in Venice. The book is full of interesting facts and connections - recommended if you are unsure about the world we are living in, there are no answers but lots to think about - did you know the police force had a pagan society? Or that before the Americans celebrated and courted Werner von Braun and rushed him from Nazi Germany to build their space program, he was responsible for the death of 20 thousand slaves through forced labor whist building his underground factory that developed the V2 rockets. 

thereandback

Light and water - reading and thinking. sitting and talking. cooking and eating. After contributing to the vast newly manifested private wealth machine, and hacking through the forest of opaque ever changing rules we were thoroughly tested and armed with a handful of paperwork to finally find ourselves in beautiful Croatia. This holiday it appeared that reading took a back seat to sitting, swimming and boating but I did manage a few - There's no such thing as an easy job - kikuka Tsumura. truly odd is the best description, but in a good way. A short account of the destruction of the Indies - Bartolomeo de las Casas. just endlessly oppressive as the list of atrocities build up as the bodies pile up. You do have to question humanity. Broken Greek a story of chip songs and pop songs - Pete Paphides. a glorious time travel of a book, I laughed out loud continuously as I was reminded of the past in such an incisive way.  This is a must read for 45-60 year olds or for those of us transform by the music of the 70s and were there when the earth was moved by a man wearing dungarees!

spinspinspin

The National Youth Company at Dance East last night was glorious – the energy off the stage blew me away – young people are brilliant and have a lot to say, we need to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnrwFCxHX8o Getting deep into the brain thinking with David Eagleman - its full of extraordinary examples of the brains capacity. Recently my interest in and the work created with the 3D printer has led me to explore the various parameters used when printing objects - how thin can the perimeters be before the form becomes too fragile? Exploring the extremes of possibilities leads to thinking about process v outcome. Onto screens - A quiet place part 2 – more of the same, Hitman’s wife’s bodyguard – more of the same, The Tomorrow War – a long version of Interstellar meets Star ship Troopers is about right. Black Widow – oh dear. No sudden move – complicated and layered but I guess that is the point. Friendship’s Death meanwhile is amazing, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093050/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 In the middle of 6 feet under which is really well written with solid character development, but it is a little draining so offsetting that with episodes from the new series of Atypical. The team at Forensic Architecture have created an astonishing piece of work for MIF which is available online https://watch.mif.co.uk/productions/cloud-studies/ you will never think of clouds in the same way again.

fragmentedchange

fragments of thinking - anticipating a return to teaching - this week at NUA was induction week, social distancing, masks, visors, and cleaning is a challenging - the register is a wild ride of oddness.  continuing to fold as a way of making sense of the world - some of my Summer reading titles - the choices house a mixture of intentions and have demonstrated to me the real power of books to extend understanding and take us to places other than those we think we know. Ta-Nehisi Coats - Between the World and Me. A deeply moving and intense letter from a father to his son that is 'the conversation'. There are many lessons to be learnt here but mainly the catalogue of racism and violence opens eyes wide. Tracy Chevalier - Remarkable Creatures. A sad but intriguing tale of how women were undervalued in the history of fossil hunting. Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and the Light. If powerful people want to do as they wish, even kill, they will and nobody will stop them. Has anything changed? Murakami - After Dark. Describes a sc-fi fragmented separateness of one layered night. Derek owusu - That reminds me. A tale of a fragmented memory of a fractured life that will get you rethinking everything you thought you knew. Samantha Schweblin - Little Eyes. A disturbing extension of the Tamagotchi toy  with a twist that connects our desires within our dark souls. Brendon Taylor - Real Life. The casual racism within a bio science context creates a deep painful feeling of isolation and injustice. Anne Tyler - Redhead by the side of the road. A beautifully crafted moment and its aftermath. Robert Webb - How not to be a Boy. A catalogue of mistaken moments laid bare and offered up as a lesson to all.

readingreadingreading

7 days in Croatia - in between sun bathing, swimming, eating and drinking I managed some time to read - Catherine Lacey - The answers - a tale of girlfriend deconstruction. Ian Mcewan - people like us - a tale of how machines want to be treated and how we treat them. Everything you ever wanted - Luiza Sauma - a tale of madness loss and pain towards on the way to redemption. The Wall - John Lanchester - a Kafkaesque dystopian tale of separatism. Second life - SJ Watson - a dubious tale of unravelled women and oppressive men. Back to 'reality' with meetings about timetables, introduction to electronic registers and more timetables.

knowwherestartshere

I have a created a new space called knowwhere - it will be a place to show large scale work within a small space. the first show is of pieces that came out of a making day for the Open College of the Arts - OCA. Meanwhile I'm working on the talk for Turn the Page - its developing into 3 stages - 1 bookness explored, 2 the practice created as a result working within the concept, 3 specific deep dives using recent activity - Book as hand tool for thinking maker – object – audience, space of a book - the influence a book inhabits and rethinking the idea - the books influence. The images are sorted I just have to work out what words go with this.

meanwhile I have to recommend a couple of books - 4321 a stunning book by Paul Auster https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/27/4321-by-paul-auster-review it is a mind swivelling trip of possibilities that might just make you rethink your life - everything will be. Middle England by Jonathan Coe https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/25/middle-england-jonathan-coe-review  is a dark comedy commentating on our time. I sat through all 10 episodes of Homecoming https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7008682/?ref_=rvi_tt  in two sittings in a kind of moreish exercise where you are unable to stop watching. The show has some excellent acting in between the rather odd (in a good way) cinematography. Lunatics by Chris Lilley goes up to a mythical line of acceptable taste and sort of rubs it out - but again in an interesting way. The Orville by Seth MacFarlane is a great comedy nod to Star Trek - worth a watch but it doesn't stress the brain cells too much but again this may be a good thing. Serenity has had a tough ride with the critics, yes its wooden, yes the twist is signposted a mile away, yes everybody is a 2D trope but I really enjoyed the beautiful sadness. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6476140/?ref_=rvi_tt

booksbooksbooksandsometeachingwithsteel

after 7 days swimming, breathing and reading in Carry-le- Rouet just outside Marseille it's a brutal return. I managed to read some books which  I would recommend. In descending order - The Only Story by Julian Barnes is a tale of love, loss and regret beautifully written with passages that will stay with you, haunting your soul for what is and what could of been. In A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler the stillness and heart retching experience of one man's life as he exists in time, embedded in a place will move you. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North is a glorious rambling story where Ground Hog Day meets Momento with wonderful subterfuge thrown in. Kamila Shamrie's Home Fire is a searing indictment of how we choose to live with a truly wonderful pointless ending, (in a good way). Lullaby by Leila Slimani is a stunningly head slamming awful story well written, the reality of the first pages come to a terrible conclusion on the last page. The Helium Kids by D. J. Taylor is a rollicking ride of a pastiche documenting the rise and downfall of a mythical band running parallel to recent history, weaving truth and known events; clever and witty. The Adulterants by Joe Dunthorne charts a insular self important group of people where the central character was annoying. Returning to a day at NUA addressing the timetable, building spaces and creating the admin systems which will support the teaching and the initial session with OCA. I am now Year 1 Tutor and we had a wonderfully supportive session with the new cohort - really looking forward to the year ahead. I wrote a blog post about my practice for the OCA site - here is a link https://weareoca.com/education/oca-ma-fine-art-introducing-tutor-les-bicknell/ This week we are delivering the work created for Goldlay Square. The work has been 'developing' a wonderful patina in my garden over 3 months and gets to go tonight and delivered tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing it in the space over the following week.

whywearescrewed

well - into the first week of my annual leave and so far read two books that explain why and how we are screwed. Evolution of the learning brain by Paul Howard Jones sets out how we get to be here biologically, the nature version of the what, how and why. https://www.tes.com/news/book-review-evolution-learning-brain  The People Vs Tech by Jamie Bartlett lays out many of the issues on nurture side of the equation, but of course its fuelled by the pernicious nature of human behaviour. I have been banging on about the forthcoming civil war brought on by tech disparity for ages (early 'signs' are food distribution after a disruption) but Bartlett sets out the blueprint. The only hope is the 20 ideas set out in the last chapter. well worth a read, especially the bit where tech billionaires are stocking up on tinned goods and ammunition in faraway places. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1116305/the-people-vs-tech/

meanwhile some films - Lean on Pete https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5340300/ a thoughtful portrayal of how one gets to be homeless then there is Tomb Raider - the latest Lara Croft outing unfortunately you can actually see the tasks in the video game that it will become and was obviously a large part of the script meetings.

stuffcomminatyou

5 days away 3 books - Commonwealth by Ann Patchett deconstructs the idea of family, the details of everyday change bringing fresh hierarchy's and alliances is painfully picked over. A single defining moment revealing what was already there. The Underground Railway by Colson Whitehead is relentless cruelty, the truly and mostly matter of fact unfathomable depths of cruelty - a challenging and difficult but essential read if you want to begin to understand America. and onto the question I have often asked myself - when do you leave? with All For Nothing by Walter Kempowski the slow process of attrition is laid out. How do you judge that it's time to go? Why do you stay? Is it that it's impossible to conceive the levels of human wickedness that is about to engulf you? All 3 books are wonderful. Black Panther - what to say - I loved it - some of the best costumes ever deployed in conjunction with astute comments in the exploration of voices we don't often hear - it's also very funny .

The Cork Museum in Palafrugell was a highlight - Packed with cork facts you never knew alongside glorious images of smoking beret wearing workers, its next to the rather poorly curated, but with some interesting work The Museu Can Mario.

A day in London - great to pop into Chelsea and feel the atmosphere building as final shows are being constructed. Some interesting and some excellent shows to see - The Highlight is Ed Atkins at Cabinet - head stingingly mesmerising http://www.cabinet.uk.com/index.php?ed-atkins-olde-food . Jerwood Space has a great video by Maeve Brenna about bats! All Too Human at the Tate Britain has work by the gloriously fastidious Euan Uglow. There is some work by 3 students from the MA Book Arts Course at Camberwell in xhibit 2018. White Cube at Masons Yard has a Brazilian decorative comment on Capitalism by Beatriz Milhazez http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/beatriz_milhazes_bermondsey_2018/ Covering the Main Gallery at Tate Britian with tiles is the best element of the piece by Anthea Hamilton http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/squash

metafrenchnessandsomebooks

Kill All Normies - online culture wars from 4chan and tumblr to Trump and the Alt-right by Angela Nagle is a full on deconstruction of what has actually been going on with society online behind the instagram sheen of the selfie. It is importantly disturbing and a must read to understand how we got here. Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue is a hilarious time travelling fractured romp that uses real tennis as a spine to talk about so many glorious things including using Anne Boleyn's hair in the stuffing of tennis balls. Managed to read these books on a recent trip to Marseille. There is an interesting video exhibition at the Friche - which is an old tobacco factory http://www.marseille-tourisme.com/en/discover-marseille/the-essentials/la-friche-belle-de-mai/ with a great vibe. I always gravitate to the MuCEM a truly extraordinary building down by the docks. Meanwhile in a visit to French Markets in the countryside it felt like I had found myself in a kind of meta-Frenchness.

booksbooksbooksandsun

so a week away on a mountain outside Groux-les-Bains in S France has been about books books books, water colour landscape painting (yes!) good food and calmness - so Satin Island - Tom McCarthy I loved this conspiracy of ideas oozing from the pages. Great James Street - Don Delillo a glorious excessive verbal tide of drug fuelled rambling. Red Shirts - John Scalzi clever premise where nonfiction meets the future in fiction - maybe. Clothes Music Boys - Viv Albertine a window into a brutally honest version of events. Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami a tale of beautiful loss told beautifully - if you can't be bothered to read the book the film is a winner. The Illusion of Stillness - Simon Van Booy sweet, stilted but fractured attempt to be overtly clever. Purity - Jonathan Franzen an intelligent wide sweeping intergenerational novel which sucks you in with some extraordinary dialogue.

oneexhibitionandsomefilmsaabookandsomegoodnews

101 panels the exhibition at Halesworth Gallery looks good - it's a really nice idea created by Paul Cope working within given parameters to test and bring together 100 people.  http://www.paulcope.com/100_Sq_Ft/  Bastille Day http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2368619/ is an ok serviceable thriller which was all a little too trite in tone for the content it presented. Daniel Radcliffe conveys suitable vulnerability undercover in Imperium but it feels like there is a gap or emptiness at the films core that is trying to be something but not quite reaching - the endless multiple images of neo-Nazi, clan etc is part of the answer/solution. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4781612/ and then there is now you see me 2 - my excuse is that it was raining. Big Ideas by James Harkin from 2008 it's a little out of date - it's a way in to understand some fairly recent words created from 2 or more concepts which are combined to embody elements of each idea - something I love. my favourite is slacktivism (see it is a little dated). the good news is that a grant application to the Arts Council has been successful  - this matched with support from the Maxwell Centre NanoDTC and NUA means that I will be working with very very small things in a very big way over the next year.....really looking forward to it all, especially sitting in the great spaces in the building! check out http://unfoldingthinking.blogspot.co.uk/ in the coming months. 

coveringbooks

reviewing the photos from Berlin - here are a couple of architectural textiles for the collection covered buildings. meanwhile if you like your revenge sweet and twisted you have to watch Wild Tales http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3011894/ - 6 stories of people sort of getting it. George Clooney brings it home in Money Monster  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2241351/  as the film relentlessly moves towards its depressingly obvious conclusion.

I've been doing some reading at the moment which is informing my teaching for next year - both The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and other clinical tales - Oliver Sacks http://selfdefinition.org/science/25-greatest-science-books-of-all time/18.%20Oliver%20Sacks%20-%20The%20Man%20Who%20Mistook%20His%20Wife%20for%20a%20Hat%20and%20Other%20Clinical%20Tales%20(1985).pdf and Design as Art - Bruno Munari http://www.shawncalvert.com/images/uploads/munari_whatisdesign.pdf are informing the thinking behind a new set of workshops that I hope to run on the textiles design course at NUA. The idea of thinking about the object without context, lateral thinking around brain mapping, the idea of 'open sculptures' in relation to audience, involvement, iterations of organic 'growth' patterns and deconstructing an objects memory. This along with Joseph Beuys thoughts on art making....thinking forms - how we mould our thoughts. spoken forms - how we shape our thoughts into words. social sculpture - how we mould and share the world in which we live: sculpture as a social sculpture. Linking this thinking to an excellent video in the exhibition Das Kapital - it shows a great happening - We Have No Art, a 1967 documentary about Sister Corita Kent, directed by Baylis Glascock. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HtiQFQTFPM

readreadreadandlook

Staying in a house in S France for 7 days in Esparron-de-Varon - I managed to walk the 10 feet from kitchen to garden view overlooking the lake to read - there was an overall sense of connection between and within the books - we are all lost in some way but decisions can bring understanding. Some recommendations - the Goldfinch : Donna Tart, truly truly beautiful words - your fathers where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever : Dave Eggers, exploring the deceit surrounding unfulfillment - the Children Act : Ian McEwan, exploring the weight of decisions - Cloud Atlas : David Mitchell, exploring the dazzlingly interconnection of individuals - How to be both : Ali smith, wonderfully crafted words bestowing the opportunity to see alternative  worlds - Us : David Nicholls, I have never laughed uncontrollably and then cried uncontrollably so much whilst reading in my life. Stopped in Paris on the way down to see work at Palais du Tokoyo - it's an exciting playful space, always challenging. There's always a mixture of shows but a video piece by Tianzcho Chen  http://tianzhuochen.com/ was the most extraordinary work I have seen this year. https://vimeo.com/102807393 On the way back from Esparron I stopped in Paris and went to the Pompeii Centre to see the extensive show of Mona Hatoum's work, https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/cxABRMq/rMeBjj7 taken by her use of textiles, especially the Palestinian windows women's embroidery project, but the earnest integrity of the early performance pieces especially the raw walk through the Brixton of 1986 stays with you. Spent several days in France travelling great distances on clean trains that were on time only to find myself at Liverpool St Station to find delays and cancellations......nothing changes.