straightintosymposium1

first day at Camberwell and straight into Symposium 1 for the MA Book Arts – its educational purpose is to create a space for the students to present their history and share their aspirations for their time on the course - its also the starting point for me in terms of getting to know the students.
below are extracts from the notes i made during their presentations – they outline some of their intentions for the year as well as explaining their route to book - the wide ranging cultural reference points within the group will be exciting for everybody – it promises to be a diverse and truly global experience.

So I started using the office resources......
De-evolution of communication
Society of certainties
In-between space
Exploring the activity of the book
Typography as image
Giving letters a timescale
Information transfer through divergence
When does a book stop being a book?
Undermining the library space
Expectations of the book
Importance of the shelf
Use of book as tool
How to describe the universe to somebody else
I want to build a utopia
To make a book without content
What is a person to a place?
Authorial control
Identity of the book
Relationship between audience and maker
Accidental book
Translation of journey
Interaction between people and people
Building a physical internet
Finding a voice through book

artificialworlds

hoptonexperience

a busy two weeks which has centred around my work at NUCA on the BA Textiles course at NUCA – we spent a week with the first years residing at Hopton Holiday Park as a bonding/drawing exercise. an experience which i am sure has furnished the students with a number of lasting memories.

http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/hopton at Hopton an exercise that worked really well culminated in the students creating a motto or creed with which to hold onto and work towards.

Braving the elements pays off
Too many drawing not enough partying
Work hard play hard
Just do something and try not to worry about it going wrong
Take what you know, learn what you don’t and make something creative
Look twice draw once
Try everything quit nothing
Live with eyes wide
Finding thoughts to think nothing
Surroundings with restrictions
Do what you want to do and enjoy
Think wider use more make better
Make the most of everything
In the right mind you can open your thoughts if you approach it with what you’ve got
There are no boundaries
When drawing loosen up and have fun
Be open to new ideas and ways of thinking
Capture and embrace every moment and opportunity
More makes a difference
Keep looking at the small detail
Live for today not tomorrow
Do what works for you
The key is to always work
Live in the colour
4D thinking
The positives always outweigh the negatives
Experiment with / into your hearts content
Think different and look further
Have more than one idea to go further
Don’t be afraid just do it
Challenge and explore all concepts
Time is precious
There is no right and wrong
Don’t give up
Indecision is a tool use it
Analyse restrictions to become perceptions

working with Norfolk Museum Service in the castle museum in the decorative arts section has been a real pleasure – looking at the idea of context – the bibliography of an object .

fungiandfolk

a weekend of folk and fungi - friday night saw me at snape watching a country and jazz folk cabaret - know as the results of a Gwyneth Herbert residency at Snape – an exploration of the sea but really a gig which was good http://www.gwynethherbert.com/ and then a lot of stuff in the second half with the Rubber Wellies folk band and Heidi James (without the promised film element of the performance) and if anybody else comes to Aldburgh for a residency and records themselves walking on shingle I might implode with frustration – it’s not interesting and we have heard it all before. the fungi foraging course at Minsmere was most excellent and could become my new obsession - free beautiful food.

foldingprintingandpainting

the new term at NUCA has started - i have the timetable for camberwell and the weekend saw me at snape watching the latest faster than sound - most excellent the evening was an exploration of the brain and sound with composers Mira Calix, Anna Meredith, design research studio Loop.ph and neuroscientist Professor Vincent Walsh- the installation by Loop ph was stunning - meanwhile I have spent a couple of days working on the diptych photographs of woods - this has resulted in some experiments with digital printing and water along with folding. the work is becoming a mixture of work that needs to be in the hand and on the wall.

alloverbartheshouting

well the final Textile Culture show at NUCA is up and running - check out the link to the online catalogue

http://www.nuca.ac.uk/ma-degree-show/show-gallery/view/57

my forward to their handout -

MA Textile Culture 2010

I couldnt understand it
For I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love
My momma sewed in every stitch
And I told em all the story
Momma told me while she sewed
And how my coat of many colors
Was worth more than all their cloth

Coat of many colours – Dolly Parton

I have great pleasure in celebrating the achievements of the students work in what is the last MA Textile Culture Graduate Exhibition. You will see a wide ranging approach to the idea of textile activity but at the core of the work is a meticulous examination of the individual’s relationship to making and thinking.

The individual student is at the centre of their learning, identifying their interests, defining their research and developing strategies to critically examine their ideas. All this is undertaken with the support of the experienced staff working on the course; enabling the students to develop their own vision of what textile culture is, for them.
When we are unsure of something we often attempt to define it in the negative; by what it is not. The MA Textile Culture course at Norwich University College Arts holds a position both politically and conceptually of positive inclusivity. It recognises the interconnected world it exists within whilst positioning a critical examination of the function, meaning and experience of textiles at its centre.
The students were encouraged to seek out links, forge connections between ideas and to thread, yes thread, ideas together to form a matrix which gave the course the feeling of constant renewal. The ubiquitous nature of textiles can make it demanding – identifying research routes can be a challenge. I am very proud that each student has succeeded and is producing exciting, unique work.
Norwich University College of the Arts remains committed to the study of textiles, within the context of the needs of the cultural and creative industries, through the development of a new MA in Textile Design which is launched in September 2010.

Les Bicknell - Acting Course Leader MA Textile Culture.

moreassessingatNUCA

one of the real pleasures of being employed in higher education is working with other creative professionals. i have spent the past week assessing the MAs for Drawing, Writing the Visual and Textile Culture at NUCA. alongside the responsibility it is a privilege to spent time with the students work, this experience is enhanced by doing it with people such as Ashley Stokes http://ashleystokes.wordpress.com/ and Andrea Holland http://www.poetrybusiness.co.uk/index.php/borrowed for MAWTV, Caroline Wright http://www.carolinewright.com/ and Colin Nicholas http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=12259 for MAD and Victoria Mitchell http://www.nuca.ac.uk/research/victoria-mitchell-profile and Sue Maton http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=36099&sos=0 for MATC