foldedenlightenment

an evening that was both entertaining and educational – well actually more inspirational – the Boulez show at Snape https://tickets.aldeburgh.co.uk/Online/2015-festival-boulez-improvisations was quite excellent - a great idea for a way of exploring a life – moving screens, translation of sound and image, music and words projected, voices, live footage, - it was all there – I’ve always thought that performances of music and words might benefit from visuals and there it was …….Boulez explained the idea of creating systems to explore and play music – I loved the phrase – random and obliged in terms of playing choice.

Returning to folding – looking at the idea of developing systems to create large sheets of folded material. This is using both a modular approach – many similar individual elements interconnected and also working within the purity of one sheet - starting with a very large sheet and ending with a substantial smaller piece.

musicalcarpark

Got to see multi-story orchestra in Ipswich at the weekend – http://katewhitley.net/projects/  the one nice ‘extra’ moment was police sirens from the street adding into the mix – I would of liked more of the ambient sounds infiltrating what was great playing to make it worthwhile sitting in a drafty space on hard benches – otherwise I struggled to see the point of using a private car park – it would have been more interesting in a public car park so that when I next visited I could of re-invented the space in my mind – or a more random seating plan so that maybe we wandered around, or the kids could of danced - oh well a missed opportunity.

Meanwhile the final show at NUA of textiles BA students at Norwich is looking good – here’s their site http://nua15degreeshow.wix.com/nua-textiles

trustgreatyoungpeopleaswedestroytheenvironment

Well some imaginative house building is going on locally – maybe destined for the owners of such considerately parked cars. Meanwhile I’m surrounded by diagrams of room layouts with notes over it them. It’s planning exhibition time and for me that means an extended time of flexible negotiation. I try to enable the individual work to shine, finding the space that works for it within mass group show. Last night I was at a great event at Wensum Lodge in Norwich at the private view of the foundation Course. The show an eclectic mix of fantastic, intense work from young people at the beginning of their creative careers - it lasts until Friday - go see. Bob had a body of work exploring the idea of embedding emotions within objects, including 4 bookworks and around 30 sculptures for the hand, as well as 4 sited pieces over Norfolk and Suffolk. http://www.bobbicknell-knight.com/

movingmomentsmoved

Invited to participate in Focal point Gallery’s 25th Anniversary, to produce one or more animated GIFs for the multi-screen exhibition Graphics Interchange Format: 25 Years of Focal Point Gallery. Here’s the GIF.

Mad Max – I've got a great idea for a film – let’s chase each other......until we turn around and chase back.........oh yes and we we’ll get somebody with a guitar that shoots fire!

It’s been an intense week of assessing final work on the Textile Design Course at NUA. An interesting experience – the emotions range from weary sadness where you have projected wondrous possibilities onto a student and their work but they have just not attained their potential for a number of reasons; dullness, lack of engagement or just an innate inability. To that of warm excited surprise when a portfolio is opened and glorious intense work spills out from a student whom you have not really engaged with but they have gained in some way from the experience of the course.  I asked about the criteria to be used when judging the suitcase prize as part of the pulse festival and the response after the blank stare was that they would choose the best!

Meanwhile Lost Dog’s Paradise Lost http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/pulse15-paradise-lost-lies-unopened-beside-me/ at the dance house in Ipswich was a glorious shambolic romp through Paradise Lost blending God with parenthood – quite brilliant – I’m still thinking about it a week later.

The day at Camberwell led to another wonderful series of cross-cultural exchanges around the idea of finish and a workshop I run around finishedness!!! http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/finishedness-2014

brainwhiskeyisthebest

After leaving my brain aside for the wonderfully unnecessary and increasingly ridiculous Fast and furious 7 and the absurdly odd sponge bob square pants (although the tv show is better) I reattached my brain and watched some interesting, intelligent and sometimes challenging theatre. Watch out for Pulse winners this theatre’s police cops – very knowingly funny, taking the audience with them but how will it be developed?  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1677467423/police-cops Also some fabulous first 5 minutes – Eden by displace yourself theatre http://displaceyourselftheatre.co.uk/ and 1.9 by Jackagbritton http://jackagbritton.tumblr.com/ it will be great to see what happens next. The deaf and hearing ensemble’s People of the eye http://www.thedeafandhearingensemble.com/projects/ , shit theatre’s woman’s hour,  http://www.shittheatre.co.uk/sht-reviews.html the man from fukushima by kazuko hohki http://www.kazukohohki.com/kazuko/performance.html and annie siddon’s how (not) to live in suburbia were really enjoyable 20 minutes. But the brutalising 70 minutes that was Christopher Brett Bailey http://christopherbrettbailey.com/ was the highlight – how does he do that? – a dark truly alternative to the mundane life around us and yet in some way timeless – channelling so much of beat-poet-80s-anger – this is a good thing – I felt at home. He really is a must see – this is how we die is near the end of its tour but go see if you can your brain will be given a through workout.   

thebestofitall

Another wonderful day of teaching at Camberwell – Symposium 2 is always a transitional moment within the students time on the Book Art Course – a time of reflection – to explore where they have come from, where they are going – their presentation is a bookmark - demonstrating the gap between symposium 1 it exposes the teaching and learning that has taken place and where they are now. Within the group the work and thinking behind the work (the research) is wide ranging and formed from rich thinking – I’m looking forward to the final show – there will be some good work.

The weekend starts on Friday – I’m spending the weekend at Pulse festival in Ipswich http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/pulse-festival/ the suitcase day – where performers perform with a stage set that can only be encompassed within a suitcase. It’ll hopefully be a number of short and sharp performances that pull you cleverly in a number of ways. I’m also looking forward to attending a discussion about world factory in the afternoon – an idea I saw both in its initial research phase and as a show at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich where I ran a clothes factory with 3 strangers!

Working on the PALs course at Norwich – it’s a supportive structure where year 2 students volunteer to help new students get through their first year. It’s an attempt to create a sense of community within the University - the students are the best of young people giving of their time willingly to support others.

Meanwhile some more images from the trip to New York of the Serra show – it really was an extraordinary experience communing with the giant blocks of steel.

winnersallround

Two shows in London close together -  speaking parts at Raven Row http://www.ravenrow.org/ explores Bob Cobbing's legacy of exploring visual sound, Untitled (you fuck) the work of Michael Dean is a stunner and then there’s this is because the internet http://thisisbecausetheinternet.tumblr.com/  at the Rag Factory which has a piece by Jim and Sid which celebrates the presence of dysfunctional online tools using the tools themselves. http://jimandsid.tumblr.com/

Meanwhile ‘we’ have won an award – well our house has – well the architects Kirkham Sheidow have won the RIBA Suffolk Design Award. - https://vimeo.com/127948977 a film of the winning house – everyone should have a film made of their house!