IntegrationoftheArtsandBiomedicalEngineeringinInnovativeInterdisciplinaryAnatomyEducationTheSyntheticAnatomyModule

I’m co-authored in a published paper with the wonderful team at Kings. Titled Integration of the Arts and Biomedical Engineering in Innovative Interdisciplinary Anatomy Education: The Synthetic Anatomy Module it celebrates the great work undertaken on the module.  Shout out to Mandeep for driving this. Asked to contribute to the latest First light 24-hour free festival – moon to moon I went straight to the image of the Sizewell dome and its workers plus the idea of the man in the moon. Work on developing the childrens pieces for the STEAM Day has been challenging – mainly gaining permission to hang the work in SZC space. Arthur the opera continues with dye testing. Onto screens – The Lost Bus – another real life procedural/docu/drama hybrid thing from Paul Greengrass that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Rooster – a series that will have you cringing in maybe a good way. Selfie – a slightly unhinged comedy series. The Visitor – just oppressive and a little sad. The Age of Adaline – sweet and charming. Hijack – some interesting twists and it’s difficult to take your eyes off Idris. Just finished Your Friends and Neighbours – darkly entertaining. Sundays at Tiffany's - sweet, sweet sweet.

mindblowinganatomy

wow - another table day at Kings as part of synthetic anatomy – I can’t express how wonderful the day is – seeing the students excited about the work they have created and the work itself surpasses the previous years every time. The team I work with and the systems they use are super-efficient, marking the work and deciding prizes within the morning. The crit is always fun, this year a 2 hander both on the mic!! I think for the first time science informed art, the mind-blowing idea behind creating anatomically correct bodies from the artworld. Onto screens – Sirat – one thing leads to another, oh dear. How to Make a Killing – witty and yet procedural. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die – so many pop culture references.

learningthroughthinkingandtalking

I had a fabulous 2 days in Copenhagen at the medical museum speaking at a conference titled new methods for collorative engagement in museums with the team at Kings and the fabulous people from India, Copenhagen  and Scotland. That is apart from passport control (I so want people who voted Brexit to be identified as the stamps in my passport were counted up to determine that my days in Europe were below the allowance). More images to follow -Lots of learning through sharing good practice- can't wait to meet again soon - notes from the 2 days 

- Interested in whats next but we dont know.

- After fun is betrayal 

- If i work harder do i believe that people are going to give in?

- I'm going out on several limbs which I don't have.  

Science and its relationship to culture

Measure and control 

Object based learning and teaching 

How to engage with objects - 

Knowing nothing 

Knowledge making

Questions rather than answers

Questioning leaning to new directions

Enabling ways of engagement 

Àrt is an entry point to science (drawing)

Victims of what we know

The building design defined by what is being explored - 

Sizewell experience 

Honoring the object of enquiry 

Conflating lab and studio

Lab is less flexible - bunsen burner - gas

art space is flexible

Both spaces are other - places of alchemy 

Where does knowledge happen?

What are the similarities............

Valuing enquiry and enquiring minds

Framing the intention

Working with people/communities 

Storytelling is everything 

What is new that you will try..........

Interested in whats next but its best if we dont know.

Honoring the object of enquiry.

Stakeholders - what is at stake?

What next - inspirational disruption 

Saw some good art whilst there - liquid robots at Copenhagen Contemporary had some some interesting work, Hokasi at the design museum, Isa Genzken at Den Frie was strangely appropriatly odd and the collection at SMK – Statens Museum for Kunst is worth it 

Onto screens .... Harold and the purple crayon - so utterly charming. F1 netflix- insane as ever

moremoremore

A busy week – working with year 1 bioengineers at Kings introducing lateral thinking and problem solving via creative workshops. The end of the week saw Pecha kucchas from all teams on the synthetic anatomy module. As ever some wonderful projects are on the table, lots of hybrid animals, legends, humans transformed by climate catastrophe and sci fi starting points. In the middle of the whole thing there is assessment time at Norwich – hours of pouring over work and writing comments and handing out numbers. It was also interesting to meet people to escort them around the show at Snape. It is as ever informative showing people work, the conversations always lead to me finding out about what I have made and help me to make sense of what I’ve made. Managed to see a few exhibitions – Klara Hosnedlova at White cube, Monster Chetwynd and Petrit Halilaj at the Tate. Onto screens – Small Prophets is truly wonderful, Waiting for the out – stunningly oppressive with the right ending!

snapeandkingscontinue

Work at Kings continues - the students value the inclusive way the module sets out to engage with teaching and learning. An understanding of the underlying processes around learning is invaluable to understand how we grow. The latest engagement in what was another thoughtful and foundational session was excellent. It helped connect the group and started to get us thinking about what everyone wants from their involvement on the module. We used six thinking hats as a way of exploring engagement, I was interested in the different languages students chose to present their ideas, visual, textual and diagrammatical - all the sessions deliver tools that can be used to move studies on, I always ask students to consider how they can use them, to think about their role, what they want to explore and what hat they found comfortable wearing. Recent observations include - If your group talks to each other, they get better results. Writing and sketching ideas means that you can revisit your thoughts when reflecting to move the project forward.

Meanwhile some notes for the people working with POWER, the show at Snape.

1, 2 - 3D printed rings that form part of proposed archaeology to be found in the year 3000. The rings were created in 3D software after PowerStation shaped pieces of metal were found in the dig in the year 3000.

The bronze PowerStation shaped pieces of metal are part of this idea – ritual objects

5 – photos of archaeologist’s bags – each bag of tools is unique to each individual archaeologist.

13 – this is a text that is said at the start of all public meetings by the chair.

14 – what happens when the public don’t wait at the traffic lights at Darsham roundabout. Taking short cuts through rural lanes.

All wire pieces in the brown room – ideas about communication referencing lines, conduits, pylons and construction

Leather pieces – the spaces of land controlled by SZC cut out of a cow hide.

17 – alludes to garment that could be worn

27 – both the negative and positive pieces

28 – a gift

Black 3D prints reference earth moving happening on site – systems and holes

Bookwork – allows multiple readings of the prints through juxtaposition

Folded prints – are about communication, connection and – systems. the starting point was the idea that there is so much data generated to enable the workforce to be constructed. The titles are from the abbreviations in 49.

41 – a piece of wood left after the trees were cut down along Willow Marsh Lane.

43 – conversations with art history and the cultural connections that are made whilst wearing PPE

49 abbreviations in SZC documents 

powerandkings

its here - today is the private view of the work ctreated over the past year - POWER - meanwhile another great day at Kings yesterday - day 2 of Synthetic Anatomy - building collaborative teams from the foundation up. As ever I was astounded by the students focused engagement with the content of the session. There were some excellent positions articulated and creative collaborative methodology enacted. It bodes well for the rest of the module and the potential final outcomes.

treepower

A really good day of teaching and learning at Kings – the first day of synthetic anatomy was high octane focused teaching. The team’s learning over the years has been honed and rather than every year throwing everything that has been learnt up in the air, as a team we are focused, we learn and grow, this enables us to deliver a positive experience to the students. Went to see Gecko’s the wedding at Sadlers Wells East – a stunningly tight show with some really fabulous ‘theatre moments’ highlights include – a man with ‘floating objects’ that he attempts to grasp, the men in the box, and the appearing monument as table were great stage craft moments, and the lighting as ever with Gecko was moodily appropriate. Meanwhile Fadoul was on the turntable at a friend’s house, the album Al Zman Saib is fabulous. Onto screens Empire with David Olusoga is another exercise in lifting the lid over the lies I was told as a child as to the greatness and fairness of Great Britian.

benchbenchbenchbenchbenchwiththelovelypeople

a research day at Kings working on bench with the bench team! – it was a joy. I approached the day with a very loose idea of intention, way of working or a perceived outcome. I enjoy the idea of turning up in a space and making work with limited materials. The challenge is like a tradesman, a jobbing artist if you will. I had simplified the materials and activity from previous ideas. The very broad intention was to create a system or structure that would enable individuals to create a narrative. They would do this by choosing a rubber-stamp, printing it onto a piece of paper, attaching it to a wire and then continuing on the same wire, repeating the actions until they felt they had finished, creating a linear narrative. I have several revisions after watching participants operating the structure and discussing how they worked with the materials.

The work could be structurally less complex –

Instructions – there is a need to add these – they could take the form of a lab protocol.

Example - Pick 3 stamps, consider how together they could create a narrative that is of interest to you. Print onto the paper and attach them to the wire.

For clarity there could be different coloured wires, making it easier to follow the lines.

A way of attaching the prints needs to be considered. This could take the form of small clips to enable ease and flexibility. The prints could be attached anywhere on the wire.

Rethinking the work -

there could be a 2D scroll-like version made simultaneously with the 3D piece, almost creating a record of activity. 

The piece could be a large sheet of paper, a rubber-stamp is printed, a line drawn and another stamp is added until you have a complex set of interconnected lines and visual nodal points. Each participant could work on their own diagram, but it would interlink with each other’s stamps.

It would be possible to work directly onto a bench, drawing and stamping directly onto the surface or wrapping the bench in paper. The shelves would bring height and a range of levels.

whenisdeath

some notes made over the past 2 weeks…..

Bernard Stiegler – technology writer philosopher

technics - pharmakon – Greek word meaning both 'poison' and 'cure

Obvious – artists groups

Antonio Damasio – the strange order of things

Turk – man in a box fooling people

Data colonialism

Ai Alzheimer’s - data starts to relate to data rather than new information

Baroque grotesque

Territory – chaos - philosophy science art – on the margins

Disposable madness of the internet

Waler Benjamin – art in the world of mechanical reproduction

Origin and destination

Performance of ordinariness

Metatacratic legitimacy

Walking through life based on their origins

Marketing of ordinariness

Inability to function as a whole human being

When is death?

The trowel doesn’t talk

Evidence of human touch – fingerprints and manufacturing process

How is authority defined – how so you build it in the artworld

Opinions positions knowledge

Phase drawings = 3D renders of spaces

The idea of ritual = repetitive actions repetitive spaces

Bending down – genuflect.

The idea of negative archaeology

The science of architecture

Logistics of soil movement

Ministry of presence

This time includes meeting with Bench project, a day on site with the Chaplin at SZC and an open day with archaeological people – some amazing conversations and lots to think about 

wearekneecapwhatareyougpingtodoaboutit

What a week - Invited to attend a day out at Trinity Park with SZC people - a corporate event themed around the idea of a Spring Fete. I can see why working within a giant community would have it's advantages. I think everyone went home with a positive feeling of connection from the experience. I was quite surprised how many people knew of my existence and I had some interesting conversations with them and new people who were genuinely friendly. There is a real sense of engagement with their workers and a desire to build a sense of community within the company. 

A day at Kings working with 3 other artists 2 'science' people and a post doc whose specialism is hacking. It was such a joy to be with such intelligent and inspiring people. We are working together within a small research grant around the role of the bench. We explored a number of themes and I came away buzzing from the conversations and playing with light and shadows. 

Then back on a train back to London to see kneecap in Brockwell Park. Such a fantastic experience - watching people who are really having fun and don't appear to care about the consequences - most excellent - leaning into their position as poster Daily Mail bad boys of everything that we are supposed to be against they started with clips of people talking about them on daytime TV and went onto decry capitalism, The Israeli Government, Amazon, the British Government, celebrate drug taking and calling Jeff Bezos a bald c++t along the way. Other bands we managed to see was the very odd Cobrah, CMAT essentially Fleetwood Mac, Mannequin Pussy- angry wordy rock, Psychedelic porn crumpets - clashing guitar rock goth, Puzzle who were too cluttered almost hip hop, fuckers - driving house rock, and Spirits essentially Patti Smith. The whole experience was a little soulless, I felt like my only job was to consume and be controlled. Odd to be in a contained small space in park opposite where I lived 40 years ago where I watched rock against racism gigs for free. Managed to check out the Pennone show at the Serpentine - beautiful and calm and worth the visit, the Welcome has a great show 1880 That, by Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader, illustrating/demonstrating issues around being deaf with designed artworks, It's a highly controlled show with a large design budget! Interestingly the use of sign language ties in with kneecap asking the signer how to perform what would be known as rude words. On the way home went to The Place to see Ham:beth by Modern Table which was part of the Festival of Korean Dance - truly awesome from the start with dynamic movement alongside an epic soundtrack supported by SeokJong Baek. Fantastic.

controldocuments

SZC work continues, the ideas continue to flow alongside the conversations. It’s been an excellent week all round - We have got R&D money for the bench project at Kings with the possibility to extend it in so many ways, this is really exciting as I get to work with a wonderous group of people. I’ve been offered a show at imprints in Crest, France and I’ve been making more work around the theme of data, the show will be called control documents. Sarah B at Bristol has invited me to show work in an exhibition in Japan, the 3D printed work was chosen, and I think it will look good and hopefully go down well. I have been awarded research money to work on the project exploring Catenary. On Thursday I got to see some of the Norwich pattern books with Ruth Battersby-Tooke, the Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles at Norfolk Museums Service at the Bridewell in Norwich. It was, as ever a real pleasure to be in the presence of such extraordinary objects in the fantastically knowledgeable hands of Ruth. The books give a hint at what the past might have looked like in a similar way that the textile ‘swatches’ held by The Foundling Museum in London. Onto screens – almost finished White Lotus, the whole experience is just distasteful! Started Zero Day, unsure where its going to go yet. Life List was difficult to watch through the tears!

anamazingdayatkings

An amazing day at Kings College working with the great team that is synthetic anatomy. I think we ran the best workshop so far ever. This led us to ask what are the factors in play in the large general classroom. The lighting has changed and the ceiling has been lowered by a good foot easily. So the question is did the lowering of the ceiling and the change of lighting in the room make the students more focused and creative or did the students bring a more focused approach to the room? Or are we just getting better through experience, both of the actual work and of each other - there is almost a sense of mind-reading happening. As ever transplanting art school - or should I say creative lateral thinking and problem solving into a science context throws up many clashing moments but the friction that is created is the starting point to new understanding. I love it when the workshop participants move from the very practical moving their thinking to start to think philosophically via aesthetics and reflective questioning of the very nature of the set work. Onto SZC - a few books that have informed the work I’ve been doing around diagrams and ways of presenting content in diagrammatic formats. Onto films – Gladiator 2 – great costumes and sets. Breathe in – middle-aged men angst, a man boychild trying to relive their youth! We Live in Time – OMG, if you are looking for a laugh do not go here!

wewinagain

Being part of the team working on the Dev Neuro Academy Summer school @kings last week was amazing, so much learning in such a brilliant space with thoughtful, creative people, including the highly motivated students. A real pleasure but also an opportunity for continued professional development, observing alternative ways of teaching. So much learning, it was wonderful to be valued as an educator and to learn from students, experiences that are rare. Meanwhile Synthetic Anatomy has won another award. It’s great that what we do has been recognised. Onto screens – Roadhouse – slick and strangely funny throughout the endless fighting scenes. Kin – season 2 dealing in drugs will end badly!

scienceisamazing

Wow - 3 days working at Kings on the Development Neuro Academy Summer school. I ran a couple of workshops on day 1, exploring how to navigate the tricky issue of team building through DNA, and developing ways of communicating abstract concepts through anatomical models. It's a true pleasure working with such fantastic, thoughtful people. Day 2 was awesome, I was part of two workshops - one looking at data analysis of brain cells and thinking about how we read information and the other, exploring how cells in the brain come to exist and change by hypothetically building one in a dish! Really enjoyed the mental gymnastics. It allowed me to reflect on and rethink some current work and led to revelations on how to develop my own practice. I was able to bring to the table ideas of ethics and practical concerns about bias and prejudice. Superb discussions ensued. It was wonderful to be valued as an educator and to learn from students, experiences that are rare. I wasn't able to attend the whole week due to having to attend graduation and working on timetables for next year at Norwich. But I was straight back for the celebration and sharing on Friday after a day of admin on Thursday. The whole day was an extraordinary experience. The focused energy of the enquiring students was so infectious and a real pleasure and privilege to be part of. The film is made up of one of the outcomes from day one. The brightly coloured models come from my DNA workshop, building self-similar sets. Saturday was all about exhibitions - dropped into South London gallery to see Firelei Báez’s Sueño de la Madrugada (A Midnight’s Dream) - there is some interesting works on 'found' papers and a large installation. Sid and Jim had a couple of great works in Hot in Here at The Bomb Factory. I particularly loved we're still everything we always were. The work was both funny and poignant - a sculpture of a melted ice sculpture, in theory created by their childhood selves imagining what they would look like as adults - a great idea. 

headingnorth

I have a few interesting workshops coming up – getting ready to head North for a workshop at The Feral Art School, an independent co-operative art school in Hull. It should be fascinating.. Busy assessing in my role at Norwich, interesting to see how the students have progressed in BA2b since BA2a! Onto screens – One Life – sentimental story but I think that it’s allowed in this instance. Hitman – a romantic, action, comedy! bizarre storytelling. Managed to get to see the fabulous Richard Wingate giving a talk at Kings – fabulous storytelling, and it was an honour to get a couple of name checks!

tablesandvinyl

The table displays for synthetic anatomy at Kings were amazing – some fantastically imaginative contexts created for the 3D prints. A great haul in the Salvation Army shop over lunch. Onto screens – Poor Things – an excellent remake of the Pinocchio tale almost take for take.

itsallgogogo

A morning of Pecha Kucha’s at Kings on the synthetic anatomy course. There were some excellent presentations covering a huge range of topics underpinned by specific anatomy and biology in plants, animals and humans. The projects are going to be most excellent. Listening to Nile Rodgers speaking with Louis Theroux on his podcast - loved the idea that the concept behind Chic that it was thought of by themselves as a support band for a hugely famous band. This meant that they had to come out and be full on. Most excellent. Went to Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at the Barbican. A good show with some excellent examples displayed in an interesting space. Most of who you would expect are all there with some interesting work from other parts of the world. Onto screens – One Day – how can you not get emotional at all that loss? F1 - how can you not get emotional at all that excess?

translationasawayofbeing

A full day at Kings - What is gained through the process of translation? An initial idea, manifest in words focused into an equation and then made 3D in response. Following the process led to fantastical outcomes. I'm so excited to see how the projects develop and what the students eventually end up with. The afternoon was all about death and bodies - more drawing in the dissecting room. Being in the presence of so much emptiness is so odd yet strangely I seem drawn to the room and its otherness. The stacks of body parts can be disconcerting but when one part is laid out on the metal table, I feel able to focus my looking, making initial tentative marks, wanting to do 'right' in some way. Seager gallery https://www.seagergallery.com/matchmaking  has a great show of work that brings together 8 artists making work about video games, investigating the architecture of game spaces. It’s part of an ongoing series, the first of 4 shows. Onto screens - Upgraded – the usual strangers meeting on a plane etc Anyone but you – the usual strangers meet in a café etc – just finished Mr and Mrs Smith – what an ending!