http://www.shonareppepuppets.co.uk/shonareppepuppets/Cinderella.html
http://www.shonareppepuppets.co.uk/shonareppepuppets/Olga_Volt_Family_Tree.html
I saw Cinderella - it was absolutely lovely! I love it when childrens shows are actually good and the adults aren't squirming and wanting to leave. What's the difference? I'd be tempted to say that it may be as simple as not belitteling children. Children are very clever. They pick up on subtle emotional shifts. they know what's going on, understanding much more that they're able to express.
Shonas puppets used inventive scene setting and reduced some classic parts of the story - for example the pumpkin became just the name of the radio show cinderella was listening too. The ugly sisters were gloves. I liked this inventive treatment of the source material.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
pre-modernist sisterhood
http://www.stuckism.com/Hirst/ReactionaryCritics.html
stuckism, remodernism - a more serious reaction to modernism and post-modernism probably quite interesting. Similar values but I absolutely don't hate white wall galleries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood
http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/ http://www.lizziesiddal.com/ fan pages.
stuckism, remodernism - a more serious reaction to modernism and post-modernism probably quite interesting. Similar values but I absolutely don't hate white wall galleries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood
http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/ http://www.lizziesiddal.com/ fan pages.
Monday, December 20, 2010
its all about the audience - artist relationship - ways of subverting it, ways of making/allowing the audience to be the artist.
it's all about the medium chosen - 2d art is dead. If it's on the internet it's mainstream. If it's live or analogue then that's what its all about. keeping it exclusive.
it's all about mashing it up even further - removing barriers. Blends of cultures. blends of times, blends of status. blends of role. soup. When we're all equal then there'll be so much fun disecting everything and setting up new tribes. It'll be carnage.
it's all about the medium chosen - 2d art is dead. If it's on the internet it's mainstream. If it's live or analogue then that's what its all about. keeping it exclusive.
it's all about mashing it up even further - removing barriers. Blends of cultures. blends of times, blends of status. blends of role. soup. When we're all equal then there'll be so much fun disecting everything and setting up new tribes. It'll be carnage.
a collaboration
Just got a text from Jon: "Would you object to members of the public being encouraged to throw giant foam rubber jellied eels at you on your slackrope as you attempt the 'Lambeth Walk' to banjolele accompaniment from a Pearly King?"
I fed him the mockney musichall theme - spoons, saw, potentially slackrope.
imogen's first slackrope cabaret performance
this may or may not be a working video of my first slackrope performance. it's pretty crap. which would be ok if it was deliberate - it's not deliberatedly crap but it IS enthusiastically un-finished and un-rehearsed. it's live, it's interactive and became dangerously more so later in the evening.
'popular entertainment' would have to be way more slick than this. Will trying to use circus skills in any other way always just look shit?
Thursday, December 16, 2010
facebook art movement
Imogen Pettitt is starting a new art movement called the pre-modernist sisterhood. Anyone wanna join the PMS?
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
creative industries: modern ... postmodern...
modernism. damn and blast it. Maybe i should be a pre-modernist... maybe that's why i'm planning on going off with a horsedrawn circus.
so science - enlightenment. 'improving'. modernism - evidencing progression.
40's - WAR - nationalism seen a s source of conflict. art became a-political. avant garde, abstract. art for arts sake. no sociallist realism (or whatever it's called) there then.
bauhaus 'form follows function' (is that like Wabi-Sabi? with it's lack of ostentatious decoration? but prob not with it's imperfect, flawed element i guess.) 40's were minimal, no surface pattern, laws insisting. fewer pockets. i guess the only detail was stitching... like my suit which is prob fake. (just had to stop myself bidding far too much money on a pair of womens land army breeches...)
I guess for it to be 'post-modern' it'd have to be contrasted with something - lux fabrics i guess.
mao suit is the ultimate modrnist. form follows function.
sky scrapers - arrived coz of post war bombing. utilitarian/funciton doesn't take people into consideration. - social problems arose.
art became ultra abstract. elitist. alienating.
postmodern contraditcts modernist style. rejecting straight lines and function with out decoration.
postmodernism is highly decorative, frivoulous, playful. e.g. dancing buildings in Praha, death to the straight line!
(what is post-post-modern? Maybe it will be pre-modern, is that why 'representational' is rumoured to have returned? If so, how is it different this time? What was before anyhow? The idea of being able to go back in time. re-dress the wrongs.)
fashion - postmodern references the past. picking styles from different ages and mixing. in art/theatre/music. So a bit like me taking the gramaphone into the street and playing the saw/spoons along with it while wearing, well, anything really, womens land army breeches for example. I flit from thing to thing so quickly, 5 minutes ago it was gypsy style, then classic hollywood, now back to 40's... that's probably a fairly post-modern affliction.
history now goes backwards too. no longer linear. I want to go back in time but keep my mobile.
the unheard histories (i guess that's a similar comment to how whenever people know about their 'past lives' they were always kings, queens, servants of such etc, not non-entities.)
distrust of theories and ideologies. All is equal in Art/PM
where next? scrappy enthusiasm? Non 'professionalised' like spartacus? I'd say that's a go-er. Like the bike carnival - diy, getting on with it. a riot of colour and celebration, function over form (as in the function is to celebrate and we dont care if the 'form' is scrappy)
if i am a post modernist then nothing is more important than anything else - so why do we select some things over others?
almost impossible to judge as what do you measure it against? we are rejecting all values
thinkers:
boudrillard - the gulf war essays - the gulf war never happened - images on a screen (like computer games) almost no contact. not 'war' but an 'atrocity' us fighting people who expected a 'modernist war' where people could see their enemy. this is much more 1984 something. We are playing god with our technology. a mediated reality.
Derrida - the way we understand through language. if there's no word for it then it doesn't exist.
Foucault - prison - panopticon - guard watching... maybe - people behaved better if they thought being watched. power - beginners guide available. To Foucault that is...
alexander maqueen - references styles from the past and makes new things with them. so very postmodern designer.
post modern's not new anymore. all this mixing. referencing last season already...
identity is nothing more than a series of signs or symbols. it tells us nothing of the person. see the front cover of art review.
i construct an identity that means something to me? old/classic/trad as in before this modern/post-modern scourge (er, i think i like it really) eco/ethical, caring/social, spiritual, creative, serious/irreverent, modern, adventurous, diy/rebel/avant garde. what else do i think i am? can i construct one image to show everything i think i am? how many images would i need?
christina anguilara - speakeasy video. modern dancing, music, lingery etc. prohibition, jass ,black culture, debauchery. early film, race segregation. would have been highly illegal at the time.
so why do we think it's cool now? It's always the criminal element (the rebels? those who break rules?) who are cool - be they at the top of the pile or the bottom. If this is the case then that's why we have to move on from post-modernism coz we need rule breakers or ... or ... or what? Maybe if we have no rule breakers we live a nice settled life in the country where everyone's gainfully employed and fulfilled with their whittling and morris dancing.
Task: find an intertextual artefact. identify the text it references. how they function to give the work added meaning. Is there enough in Les Velobici?
can a post modern practitioners work ever be truly 'original'? maybe. We are all post modern now whether we choose to 'reference' stuff or not. But even by making stuff that's not like anything that's gone before, maybe we're referencing the last time that happenend?! Oh lordy.
bring example and texts it references to next sesson and be prepard to talk to the group about it.
is there enough in the crochet jacket? old form - crochet - craft, skill, . old medium - cassette. music diy culture, even the cassettes are 80's in the style of 70's...leather jacket - 80's punk referencing original - easy rider? rebel without a cause? where's it from?
so science - enlightenment. 'improving'. modernism - evidencing progression.
40's - WAR - nationalism seen a s source of conflict. art became a-political. avant garde, abstract. art for arts sake. no sociallist realism (or whatever it's called) there then.
bauhaus 'form follows function' (is that like Wabi-Sabi? with it's lack of ostentatious decoration? but prob not with it's imperfect, flawed element i guess.) 40's were minimal, no surface pattern, laws insisting. fewer pockets. i guess the only detail was stitching... like my suit which is prob fake. (just had to stop myself bidding far too much money on a pair of womens land army breeches...)
I guess for it to be 'post-modern' it'd have to be contrasted with something - lux fabrics i guess.
mao suit is the ultimate modrnist. form follows function.
sky scrapers - arrived coz of post war bombing. utilitarian/funciton doesn't take people into consideration. - social problems arose.
art became ultra abstract. elitist. alienating.
postmodern contraditcts modernist style. rejecting straight lines and function with out decoration.
postmodernism is highly decorative, frivoulous, playful. e.g. dancing buildings in Praha, death to the straight line!
(what is post-post-modern? Maybe it will be pre-modern, is that why 'representational' is rumoured to have returned? If so, how is it different this time? What was before anyhow? The idea of being able to go back in time. re-dress the wrongs.)
fashion - postmodern references the past. picking styles from different ages and mixing. in art/theatre/music. So a bit like me taking the gramaphone into the street and playing the saw/spoons along with it while wearing, well, anything really, womens land army breeches for example. I flit from thing to thing so quickly, 5 minutes ago it was gypsy style, then classic hollywood, now back to 40's... that's probably a fairly post-modern affliction.
history now goes backwards too. no longer linear. I want to go back in time but keep my mobile.
the unheard histories (i guess that's a similar comment to how whenever people know about their 'past lives' they were always kings, queens, servants of such etc, not non-entities.)
distrust of theories and ideologies. All is equal in Art/PM
where next? scrappy enthusiasm? Non 'professionalised' like spartacus? I'd say that's a go-er. Like the bike carnival - diy, getting on with it. a riot of colour and celebration, function over form (as in the function is to celebrate and we dont care if the 'form' is scrappy)
if i am a post modernist then nothing is more important than anything else - so why do we select some things over others?
almost impossible to judge as what do you measure it against? we are rejecting all values
thinkers:
boudrillard - the gulf war essays - the gulf war never happened - images on a screen (like computer games) almost no contact. not 'war' but an 'atrocity' us fighting people who expected a 'modernist war' where people could see their enemy. this is much more 1984 something. We are playing god with our technology. a mediated reality.
Derrida - the way we understand through language. if there's no word for it then it doesn't exist.
Foucault - prison - panopticon - guard watching... maybe - people behaved better if they thought being watched. power - beginners guide available. To Foucault that is...
alexander maqueen - references styles from the past and makes new things with them. so very postmodern designer.
post modern's not new anymore. all this mixing. referencing last season already...
identity is nothing more than a series of signs or symbols. it tells us nothing of the person. see the front cover of art review.
i construct an identity that means something to me? old/classic/trad as in before this modern/post-modern scourge (er, i think i like it really) eco/ethical, caring/social, spiritual, creative, serious/irreverent, modern, adventurous, diy/rebel/avant garde. what else do i think i am? can i construct one image to show everything i think i am? how many images would i need?
christina anguilara - speakeasy video. modern dancing, music, lingery etc. prohibition, jass ,black culture, debauchery. early film, race segregation. would have been highly illegal at the time.
so why do we think it's cool now? It's always the criminal element (the rebels? those who break rules?) who are cool - be they at the top of the pile or the bottom. If this is the case then that's why we have to move on from post-modernism coz we need rule breakers or ... or ... or what? Maybe if we have no rule breakers we live a nice settled life in the country where everyone's gainfully employed and fulfilled with their whittling and morris dancing.
Task: find an intertextual artefact. identify the text it references. how they function to give the work added meaning. Is there enough in Les Velobici?
can a post modern practitioners work ever be truly 'original'? maybe. We are all post modern now whether we choose to 'reference' stuff or not. But even by making stuff that's not like anything that's gone before, maybe we're referencing the last time that happenend?! Oh lordy.
bring example and texts it references to next sesson and be prepard to talk to the group about it.
is there enough in the crochet jacket? old form - crochet - craft, skill, . old medium - cassette. music diy culture, even the cassettes are 80's in the style of 70's...leather jacket - 80's punk referencing original - easy rider? rebel without a cause? where's it from?
Monday, December 13, 2010
throw out some ideas relating to colour
prettywheels bike mapping - keys to the city. colourwheels. paint on tyre and off you go! where we meet our environment. How bikes interact on the road, street, where they meet, where their paths cross. get others to do it. lots of us! photograph the trails.
bike dance - as above but tracing velobici's routine.
organic city - they flow and change and grow. urban colours in organic forms
light. so many ways of using light. make materials fuse together? like the plastic bag ironing thing with light through? Like that big tower of panes of glass/boxes of glass. like the 'fed-ex'd glass boxes. any found objects sealed and light shone through.
light and sound - pressing - like the arch of insanity - all the stimulus of the city street pressing in on you. beggers, buskers, jesus preachers, charity muggers, traffic, crossings etc plus all the neon and adverts and muchness, flashing, lumpy, moving? noisy. tunnel sculpture, video, tarmac, bike bells, mimicing a packed tube or street crossing.
mini-models of organic places. map with raised up bits eg. the
bike dance - as above but tracing velobici's routine.
organic city - they flow and change and grow. urban colours in organic forms
light. so many ways of using light. make materials fuse together? like the plastic bag ironing thing with light through? Like that big tower of panes of glass/boxes of glass. like the 'fed-ex'd glass boxes. any found objects sealed and light shone through.
light and sound - pressing - like the arch of insanity - all the stimulus of the city street pressing in on you. beggers, buskers, jesus preachers, charity muggers, traffic, crossings etc plus all the neon and adverts and muchness, flashing, lumpy, moving? noisy. tunnel sculpture, video, tarmac, bike bells, mimicing a packed tube or street crossing.
mini-models of organic places. map with raised up bits eg. the
Urban colour session
Are cities rigid and angular or organic?
i was shocked how black the bark of the trees by the motorway has become.
light - represent urban colour. paper, plastic, every material. surround someone with lights - colour, shapes, noise. a little arch of luminous, pulsating noisy urbanity.having to pass really close to it, so it's surrounding you.
Other students are happy to help with pretty wheels mapping if i get it together. I could do this for 60 second pitch but i've done it on the tipping point proposal.
mini-greenhouse on roof - lots of other little bits of deliberate green - window boxes on christmas steps.
care - things made with 'no care' now use 'with care' mass production etc. take a load of tat and make something beautiful with them. Yesterday I saw a lampshade made out of the cheapest flimsyest dispenser cups. the same person had painted lots of them to use as christmas decorations.
supermarket. a painting of something i hate. It isn't necessarily painted from my point of view but i think it is.
Rachel Philipz - but it's susan isn't it? singing in unusual locations.
Moss painting - like grass spray. like copper sulphate house (kinda... easier!) mix of two. say what? people? bikes? ghosts of trees? what was there before? houses? horses? miners? Organic/urban forms.
i was shocked how black the bark of the trees by the motorway has become.
light - represent urban colour. paper, plastic, every material. surround someone with lights - colour, shapes, noise. a little arch of luminous, pulsating noisy urbanity.having to pass really close to it, so it's surrounding you.
Other students are happy to help with pretty wheels mapping if i get it together. I could do this for 60 second pitch but i've done it on the tipping point proposal.
mini-greenhouse on roof - lots of other little bits of deliberate green - window boxes on christmas steps.
care - things made with 'no care' now use 'with care' mass production etc. take a load of tat and make something beautiful with them. Yesterday I saw a lampshade made out of the cheapest flimsyest dispenser cups. the same person had painted lots of them to use as christmas decorations.
supermarket. a painting of something i hate. It isn't necessarily painted from my point of view but i think it is.
Rachel Philipz - but it's susan isn't it? singing in unusual locations.
Moss painting - like grass spray. like copper sulphate house (kinda... easier!) mix of two. say what? people? bikes? ghosts of trees? what was there before? houses? horses? miners? Organic/urban forms.
storyboarding
watched a film made of stills - it was great. could do something with that. used a lot of images.
what's the story?
what's the drama?
show angles etc so easyer to set up shoot.
thumbnails for quick planning.
then full scale storyboard.
show time and thought. location. angle. frame. show Movement. distance.
show points of view.
close ups
wide shots
eyes - where's the gaze? where are they looking?
out of shot? then in shot?
sequences of images each crating a question.
knowing or not knowing they're being photographed.
suspension of disbelief or brechtian removal
manyimages of same scene from different PoV and angles etc.
(film: living in oblivion)
Locations - Purton . cathedral. island. carpark. (it has by now become looking for green space and the urban. - green breaking through, taking over but still able to see the city. Just the city, just the green. Places filmed in round 2 of filming are leigh woods, the motorway, easton bridge waste land, allotment path, st werbs bridge. It's my artistic response to a year of living in Bristol. The Pro-cathedral should feature too really.)
what's the story?
what's the drama?
show angles etc so easyer to set up shoot.
thumbnails for quick planning.
then full scale storyboard.
show time and thought. location. angle. frame. show Movement. distance.
show points of view.
close ups
wide shots
eyes - where's the gaze? where are they looking?
out of shot? then in shot?
sequences of images each crating a question.
knowing or not knowing they're being photographed.
suspension of disbelief or brechtian removal
manyimages of same scene from different PoV and angles etc.
(film: living in oblivion)
Locations - Purton . cathedral. island. carpark. (it has by now become looking for green space and the urban. - green breaking through, taking over but still able to see the city. Just the city, just the green. Places filmed in round 2 of filming are leigh woods, the motorway, easton bridge waste land, allotment path, st werbs bridge. It's my artistic response to a year of living in Bristol. The Pro-cathedral should feature too really.)
creative industries; fashion
vivienne westwood
semiotics - a system of signs that communicate meaning.
the juxtaposition of fetish clothing in the laundrette with a shopping trolley. To me it says drunken students. Unconventional because i know what the 'convention' is.
what is fashion design? What is fashion design NOT? What is clothers v fashion? More than function - product design? Fashion says something. Massively challenged by breaking convention - changing the languare. e.g. turning hems inside out (a wave of japanese designers turned everything on it's head - wabi-sabi, a peice of cloth, de-constructed)
fashion - the visual zeitgheist - in art, music, politics, theatre.... who leads who? who's most influntial? which crosses over most successfully?
Charles Fredrick Worth 1826-1895, the first 'fashion designer'. tapped into advances in printing - drawings, printed, marketed.
Very much centred on the figure of the monarch. When fashion moved out from the royal court it was only to women.
It was hollywood that expanded fashion from just toffs - it became artists too.* this is the time that seems to linger as 'classic'. must be because that's where it gets harder to trace things back, hollywood firsts are sill relatively easily available. At this time the pace started to change. (could go to the old pictures for inspiration - search for hand tinted photos: http://goldenagepaintings.blogspot.com/2009/08/victorian-romance.html)
charls fredrick worth, classic artist with beret, cravat and tash :o)
His work was very decorative, lots of embellishment. the colours were probaby bright but the colours have degraded.
social & gender issues - needing someone to dress you. functional clothing.
orientalism. paul poiret.
fashion & american money returning to Paris after the war.
the origin of species - we're not decended from god! Charles Darwin + travel. time of massive change.
unisex - new concept
1900 - women in mens clothing - scandal. Not really so new as there have always been women dressing up as men, to get into the army for example.
Lady Gaga's 'meat dress' - shocking as it's acutally degrading as she wears it - new ideas.
Orientalism - different perspecdtives on perspective. we mostly mimic a scientific view - linear perspective. in Australian art it's looking down, mapping. In the orient it's scrolls - if it's further away, it's higher up. travel changed our ways of thinking. I like it.
paul poiret is known as the picasso of fashion. - stunning, bold, oriental. fashion and surface pattern. 1911 evening cape, working with artist Raoul Duffy
fashion and photography and music and celebrity. all working together.
comme de garcon - fine art or fashion design? which is higher status? and to who? branding.
hussain charlean?
Vodka advert with puff daddy - It was hard to see what it was advertising - i thought it was perfume but it could have been clothes or other... not the usual conventions. a man. a black man. not a posh white woman. vodka not perfume.
lovely wide leg trouser advert from the 50's. fashion illustration was big business then til the 60's when photos became easyer to print.
WW1 - exuberant fashion was seen as distateful. meterials were harder to get. 20s sillhouette, less talilored, straight up and down. shorter hem.
ww2 - war cutting - tweed - supporting war effort. no embellishment.
frech revolution - after that they said - 'we shall all wear the same!' never gonna happen as people like to express their individuality;
Ford - industrial revolution - 1930;s/40's - mechanisation, production line.
fashion plates from 50's but only haute couture.
nazi's tried t move fashion to berlin coz it's powerful. that prompted a mass exodus to the US. From then onwards the US has been more dominant.
1957 ' teenage' appears. girls only department.
th who fear death or the parents who fear for their young? I don't see any youngsters being especially fearful of the war's we've been part of these days. The only reaction i've seen amongst the youth (because of the circles i mix with) is one of disenchantment with politics and even a dissilusionment with activism as the politicians do what they want anyway. And so they turn to booze or they give up on their morals - which i predict leads to depression and then booze.
war creates a lot of space in which social change can take place. A lot of fashion becomes about the youth finding their tribe. Teddy boys, mods, rockers. Emo, plastics, anarchists. Goth, crusty, townie.
1970's flowers, guns. long hair, contrast with uniforms of hippy/civilian/squaddie.
Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status. A very similar but more colloquial term is "keeping up with the Joneses". (from wikipedia page 'conspicuous consumption' 12/12/10) Thorstein Veblen published the 'theory of the leisure classes' in 1899. In it he criticises capitalism, business and the needless production of waste purely for ostentation.
x roads. virgina.edu/HYPER/VEBLEN/veb_toc.html - or something similar!
fashion as a barometer of cultural changes - I'll say! Tribe... belonging...
circus - sport/20's/classic eccentric.
thorstein veblen
semiotics - a system of signs that communicate meaning.
the juxtaposition of fetish clothing in the laundrette with a shopping trolley. To me it says drunken students. Unconventional because i know what the 'convention' is.
what is fashion design? What is fashion design NOT? What is clothers v fashion? More than function - product design? Fashion says something. Massively challenged by breaking convention - changing the languare. e.g. turning hems inside out (a wave of japanese designers turned everything on it's head - wabi-sabi, a peice of cloth, de-constructed)
fashion - the visual zeitgheist - in art, music, politics, theatre.... who leads who? who's most influntial? which crosses over most successfully?
Charles Fredrick Worth 1826-1895, the first 'fashion designer'. tapped into advances in printing - drawings, printed, marketed.
Very much centred on the figure of the monarch. When fashion moved out from the royal court it was only to women.
It was hollywood that expanded fashion from just toffs - it became artists too.* this is the time that seems to linger as 'classic'. must be because that's where it gets harder to trace things back, hollywood firsts are sill relatively easily available. At this time the pace started to change. (could go to the old pictures for inspiration - search for hand tinted photos: http://goldenagepaintings.blogspot.com/2009/08/victorian-romance.html)
charls fredrick worth, classic artist with beret, cravat and tash :o)
His work was very decorative, lots of embellishment. the colours were probaby bright but the colours have degraded.
social & gender issues - needing someone to dress you. functional clothing.
orientalism. paul poiret.
fashion & american money returning to Paris after the war.
the origin of species - we're not decended from god! Charles Darwin + travel. time of massive change.
unisex - new concept
1900 - women in mens clothing - scandal. Not really so new as there have always been women dressing up as men, to get into the army for example.
Lady Gaga's 'meat dress' - shocking as it's acutally degrading as she wears it - new ideas.
Orientalism - different perspecdtives on perspective. we mostly mimic a scientific view - linear perspective. in Australian art it's looking down, mapping. In the orient it's scrolls - if it's further away, it's higher up. travel changed our ways of thinking. I like it.
paul poiret is known as the picasso of fashion. - stunning, bold, oriental. fashion and surface pattern. 1911 evening cape, working with artist Raoul Duffy
fashion and photography and music and celebrity. all working together.
comme de garcon - fine art or fashion design? which is higher status? and to who? branding.
hussain charlean?
Vodka advert with puff daddy - It was hard to see what it was advertising - i thought it was perfume but it could have been clothes or other... not the usual conventions. a man. a black man. not a posh white woman. vodka not perfume.
lovely wide leg trouser advert from the 50's. fashion illustration was big business then til the 60's when photos became easyer to print.
WW1 - exuberant fashion was seen as distateful. meterials were harder to get. 20s sillhouette, less talilored, straight up and down. shorter hem.
ww2 - war cutting - tweed - supporting war effort. no embellishment.
frech revolution - after that they said - 'we shall all wear the same!' never gonna happen as people like to express their individuality;
Ford - industrial revolution - 1930;s/40's - mechanisation, production line.
fashion plates from 50's but only haute couture.
nazi's tried t move fashion to berlin coz it's powerful. that prompted a mass exodus to the US. From then onwards the US has been more dominant.
1957 ' teenage' appears. girls only department.
th who fear death or the parents who fear for their young? I don't see any youngsters being especially fearful of the war's we've been part of these days. The only reaction i've seen amongst the youth (because of the circles i mix with) is one of disenchantment with politics and even a dissilusionment with activism as the politicians do what they want anyway. And so they turn to booze or they give up on their morals - which i predict leads to depression and then booze.
war creates a lot of space in which social change can take place. A lot of fashion becomes about the youth finding their tribe. Teddy boys, mods, rockers. Emo, plastics, anarchists. Goth, crusty, townie.
1970's flowers, guns. long hair, contrast with uniforms of hippy/civilian/squaddie.
Conspicuous consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status. A very similar but more colloquial term is "keeping up with the Joneses". (from wikipedia page 'conspicuous consumption' 12/12/10) Thorstein Veblen published the 'theory of the leisure classes' in 1899. In it he criticises capitalism, business and the needless production of waste purely for ostentation.
x roads. virgina.edu/HYPER/VEBLEN/veb_toc.html - or something similar!
fashion as a barometer of cultural changes - I'll say! Tribe... belonging...
circus - sport/20's/classic eccentric.
thorstein veblen
Sunday, December 12, 2010
creative industries: recent art history
the past 100 years.
work with writers who write the text
window dresser/theatre design
artists 'our own class' part of upper/middle or 'noble poor' shabby ruffians in ragged tail coat.
photoraphy 0 100 yrs
graphic design - art and graphics the same til recently. i guess computers changed it all. 1000s of years from cave painting until now.
fashion 100yrs suddenly 'fashion designer' not seastress/colthes maker
all the same till 100 years ago
'how do i define my chosen specialism'
multi-diciplinary artist
fine art means (i can do what i want - sew, paint, perform, instruct, write...what ever rocks my boat) pick any creative elements and use all stimulus to create a response in any form that seems appropriate to elicit a reaction from the audience.
its all the same but some focus more closely on one element, e.g. 2d/3d/live
fashion takes references from current and older social movements.
photography - a moment? a day? 6 months? video?
fashion - communicates ideas about global issues/events/cultural
social and hisgtorical contet that defines what people wear an dhow they portray themselves
artists producing work to explore
whats different is tha tFA is about the audience - the 'why'. communication an dexression and visualisation (+sound?) of ideas through an unlimited variety of media.
social /economic/personal influences
pick op on any creative/social etc stimulus
permanent - not live. aide-memoire
previously theatre/art captured the live moment + re-interpreted it. distilled it.
a thechnical process but using many elements - fashion/sculpture etc
eye catcing/meaningful/obvious * whats yr motivation?
e.g. a beautiful dress - (doesn't need a degree) - or a coment on feminist issues (does have degree level thinking behind it). same picture...
design around campus: 'round and rounds' on ceiling. EXIT. floor. texture of walls. photos to inspire aviation 'awe'. war - excitement/pressure. marketing. flowers. clothers. tv screen and welcome area. curved leather chairs. modern design of furniture. Logos - graphic and arty. 'industrial' style design of bins. FIRE. Evening post. fabric pattern. how cakes are layed out. bullying poster. student union poster in the style of russian revolutionary prints. design of counters, how the coffee machine shows the beans.
work with writers who write the text
window dresser/theatre design
artists 'our own class' part of upper/middle or 'noble poor' shabby ruffians in ragged tail coat.
photoraphy 0 100 yrs
graphic design - art and graphics the same til recently. i guess computers changed it all. 1000s of years from cave painting until now.
fashion 100yrs suddenly 'fashion designer' not seastress/colthes maker
all the same till 100 years ago
'how do i define my chosen specialism'
multi-diciplinary artist
fine art means (i can do what i want - sew, paint, perform, instruct, write...what ever rocks my boat) pick any creative elements and use all stimulus to create a response in any form that seems appropriate to elicit a reaction from the audience.
its all the same but some focus more closely on one element, e.g. 2d/3d/live
fashion takes references from current and older social movements.
photography - a moment? a day? 6 months? video?
fashion - communicates ideas about global issues/events/cultural
social and hisgtorical contet that defines what people wear an dhow they portray themselves
artists producing work to explore
whats different is tha tFA is about the audience - the 'why'. communication an dexression and visualisation (+sound?) of ideas through an unlimited variety of media.
social /economic/personal influences
pick op on any creative/social etc stimulus
permanent - not live. aide-memoire
previously theatre/art captured the live moment + re-interpreted it. distilled it.
a thechnical process but using many elements - fashion/sculpture etc
eye catcing/meaningful/obvious * whats yr motivation?
e.g. a beautiful dress - (doesn't need a degree) - or a coment on feminist issues (does have degree level thinking behind it). same picture...
design around campus: 'round and rounds' on ceiling. EXIT. floor. texture of walls. photos to inspire aviation 'awe'. war - excitement/pressure. marketing. flowers. clothers. tv screen and welcome area. curved leather chairs. modern design of furniture. Logos - graphic and arty. 'industrial' style design of bins. FIRE. Evening post. fabric pattern. how cakes are layed out. bullying poster. student union poster in the style of russian revolutionary prints. design of counters, how the coffee machine shows the beans.
iwan bala
http://www.iwanbala.com/english.html It's scrappy pictures, cartoon like sketches. For this I like it. But it's still flat.
writing for the public
we looked at two different articles, in different papers and about different events. It would have been good to have got articles about the same event, one from a low-brow paper, one from a high-brow. The banksy exhibitiohn would have funished plenty to choose from i'd imagine.
there were masibe differences in the intentions and language behind the articles. The low-brow focused on celebrity. The high focussed more on the work and used more descriptive language.
there were masibe differences in the intentions and language behind the articles. The low-brow focused on celebrity. The high focussed more on the work and used more descriptive language.
creative industries
I have here a scrap of paper with notes from the first session. It reads as follows:
Bristol Uni? Drama Dept? Library?
Specialist audience, public... street...
site specific
avant garde
consumption of tourism
fashion of communication
art and its discontents
modern art i common culture
art and its messages
the culture of craft
art of the maker : skill and it'smeaning
text reader: natural readers.com 'Dragon' speach recognition to upload my thoughst. bursaries etc christian scott.
sign up to tate... (circus?)... performance... textiles...
interview people on their view of performance as an art form. ask profesionals (e.g. circus and dance) and public. ask if they would go to see live art
read the papers
popular performance vs art!
who are groundbreaking? (who cares?!)
what is classic?
is it art?
'creative industries' the book this unit's based on.
'study skills' uwe
Bristol Uni? Drama Dept? Library?
Specialist audience, public... street...
site specific
avant garde
consumption of tourism
fashion of communication
art and its discontents
modern art i common culture
art and its messages
the culture of craft
art of the maker : skill and it'smeaning
text reader: natural readers.com 'Dragon' speach recognition to upload my thoughst. bursaries etc christian scott.
sign up to tate... (circus?)... performance... textiles...
interview people on their view of performance as an art form. ask profesionals (e.g. circus and dance) and public. ask if they would go to see live art
read the papers
popular performance vs art!
who are groundbreaking? (who cares?!)
what is classic?
is it art?
'creative industries' the book this unit's based on.
'study skills' uwe
my new favourite artist! Spartacus Chetwynd
“Enthusiasm makes sense to me,” Chetwynd reveals. “My work is more like comedy or carnival rather than something that is professionalised; it has a fun rebellious energy. Humour is often marginalised, it’s underestimated how hard you have to work to get or keep your ground. My performances are really gestural and are not meant to exist afterward. I wanted to burn the costumes after, but really had to change my attitude. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/spartacus_chetwynd.html
what a great comment. such a releife to hear someone talking about something i feel about my own work. I've been saying 'i'm all about process' and worrying at people that 'i'm not really about a quality finished product'. When I read '...rather than something that is professionalised; it has a fun rebellious energy' I thought, "That's what I meant!"
so my attitude is maybe like hers. I must find more of her stuff.
what a great comment. such a releife to hear someone talking about something i feel about my own work. I've been saying 'i'm all about process' and worrying at people that 'i'm not really about a quality finished product'. When I read '...rather than something that is professionalised; it has a fun rebellious energy' I thought, "That's what I meant!"
so my attitude is maybe like hers. I must find more of her stuff.
ruth jones
http://www.ruthjonesart.co.uk/
I met Ruth when she was working on Ianue, one of her public art pieces. It was a performance using horses, as she says. There was also a butoh dancer working on the project and I was working with her. Moving very slowly and intently. I'm not 100% pleased with our piece in the performance and it would appear that Ruth wasn't either as it's not shown in the photos.
I find her work interesting and it's also interesting to see that there's a place for essay writting on her website. I feel like i might be interested in what she has to say but may not read the essays yet. I shall have to return when i've more time.
It's interesting to think of someone from the next village working successfully at a creative industry (that doesn't involve watercolours of boats or pots to put things in) and a little understood one at that. My little brother joined in with Ruth's performance in Oswestry. It was a treat to see him try to explain to my (deliberately) ignorant father that the work was metaphorical and emotional rather than a didactic explaination of the locations history.
I met Ruth when she was working on Ianue, one of her public art pieces. It was a performance using horses, as she says. There was also a butoh dancer working on the project and I was working with her. Moving very slowly and intently. I'm not 100% pleased with our piece in the performance and it would appear that Ruth wasn't either as it's not shown in the photos.
I find her work interesting and it's also interesting to see that there's a place for essay writting on her website. I feel like i might be interested in what she has to say but may not read the essays yet. I shall have to return when i've more time.
It's interesting to think of someone from the next village working successfully at a creative industry (that doesn't involve watercolours of boats or pots to put things in) and a little understood one at that. My little brother joined in with Ruth's performance in Oswestry. It was a treat to see him try to explain to my (deliberately) ignorant father that the work was metaphorical and emotional rather than a didactic explaination of the locations history.
http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/permanent/-permanent.php
Magdalena abakanowicz - big! big big sculptures. There's something about scale.
I haven't seen much, barely looked at the website. I think i prefered her work in my imagination. now i have to remember what i imagined and make it my self. It's well dramatic though, it's probably as perfect as massive sculptures to populate and dramatize landscapes are able to be. But just not alive enough for me. I don't think i think well in terms of permanent objects. Too flighty!http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/permanent/-permanent.php
I haven't seen much, barely looked at the website. I think i prefered her work in my imagination. now i have to remember what i imagined and make it my self. It's well dramatic though, it's probably as perfect as massive sculptures to populate and dramatize landscapes are able to be. But just not alive enough for me. I don't think i think well in terms of permanent objects. Too flighty!http://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/permanent/-permanent.php
things i've learnt about busking. plus pictures
Things I've learnt about busking recently:
1, if you take a look at the photos below then you'll see that i'm facing the back. a simple and obvious point perhaps but i got it wrong that time... best not do that again. they want to see my face.
2, a better background would be good.
3, carrying kit around is a pain.
4, there aren't many places to put a rope
5, the numbers of the people to contact for millenium square and cabot circus. cabot want to see proof of public liablility.
6, never sound like you're begging
7, take time to pose
8, paraffine is gross and expensive and smelly and ethically dubious.
9, gonna need better costumes, put time into make-up and sort out transport and insurance. all possibly costing money.
10, it takes a long time to get stuff together to get out there. have to start early.
cinderaiden busking routine plan
Cinderaidan - gentle, apologetic, bullied
Evil Imo - the bully, primadonna
enter the space
set up in character with Evil Imo constantly telling Cinderaidan off about doing it wrong etc etc. frequent questions of 'are you ready to start yet?' etc.
Imo winds the gramaphone up and puts the record on then sits and plays the saw as aidan juggles.
record ends and imo orders aiden to change music for her beautiful show which they are all there to see.
music starts and Imo gets on slack rope, aiden goes off to do something important (what?) but half-way through the routine the music winds down - furious she shouts about how they can't see her beautiful show or her amazing tricks.
aiden apologises but is told to apologise to audience. he's not sorry enough so imo hammers nails into his head. then chases him with bear traps.
in distress she finally fetches a rope as she can't undo the damage, can't make it better for them, the show is ruined. 'how difficult it is to work in these conditions when you're so beautiful!' i give up! pulls rope through neck - but fails to kill herself!
Imo - i can't even do this right, cannot even commit hari-kiri! you must all hate me! Dispair, woe is me!
aidan to the rescue - we still love you, look we all love you - see they're clapping for you!
imo and aiden, you love us, we love you! we thank you! - we hat the audience!
Evil Imo - the bully, primadonna
enter the space
set up in character with Evil Imo constantly telling Cinderaidan off about doing it wrong etc etc. frequent questions of 'are you ready to start yet?' etc.
Imo winds the gramaphone up and puts the record on then sits and plays the saw as aidan juggles.
record ends and imo orders aiden to change music for her beautiful show which they are all there to see.
music starts and Imo gets on slack rope, aiden goes off to do something important (what?) but half-way through the routine the music winds down - furious she shouts about how they can't see her beautiful show or her amazing tricks.
aiden apologises but is told to apologise to audience. he's not sorry enough so imo hammers nails into his head. then chases him with bear traps.
in distress she finally fetches a rope as she can't undo the damage, can't make it better for them, the show is ruined. 'how difficult it is to work in these conditions when you're so beautiful!' i give up! pulls rope through neck - but fails to kill herself!
Imo - i can't even do this right, cannot even commit hari-kiri! you must all hate me! Dispair, woe is me!
aidan to the rescue - we still love you, look we all love you - see they're clapping for you!
imo and aiden, you love us, we love you! we thank you! - we hat the audience!
Serruchito - dance film idea
ingredients:
Saw + player
flamenco guitar + player
two dancers
film camera
location.
the plan is for the musicians to play while the dancers do a flamenco inspired game of grandmothers footsteps. quite jerky, creeping round eachother. The music works quite well together - possibly because flamenco is of arabic roots and the saw sounds like wailing singing?!
so sally can play the guitar, i can play the saw, miranda's up for dancing... maybe if rosie is also... or if she can lend us some flamenco dresses... and of course mini-saw corsages... can film it in the catherdral.
why? because it'll be atmospheric and interesting! the dialogues are between the instruments and the music and dancers. between the dancers themselves and the whole with the space.
Saw + player
flamenco guitar + player
two dancers
film camera
location.
the plan is for the musicians to play while the dancers do a flamenco inspired game of grandmothers footsteps. quite jerky, creeping round eachother. The music works quite well together - possibly because flamenco is of arabic roots and the saw sounds like wailing singing?!
so sally can play the guitar, i can play the saw, miranda's up for dancing... maybe if rosie is also... or if she can lend us some flamenco dresses... and of course mini-saw corsages... can film it in the catherdral.
why? because it'll be atmospheric and interesting! the dialogues are between the instruments and the music and dancers. between the dancers themselves and the whole with the space.
What, who and where is inspiring me at the moment.
Well Bristol’s certainly a creative hub. Who’d have thought there would be a city who’s main export seems to be circus performers! I find it absolutely amazing, really enlivening, moving here has completely re-generated my creative output for the better. There are many amazing ethically sound grassroots creative projects out there, supported by a great neibourhood arts team at the council, take the cycle festival for instance, the whole thing was brilliant, the carnival was one of the best days of the year. The Invisible Circus produce/host such a variety of events, these people just can’t stop creating it seems, they seem to be a major hub, there’s obviously a creative community who are determined to just get on with being artists, whatever it takes. I recently came across Antler as well, another group of artists who are using underused spaces, ones to watch I think! And of course, there’s the peoples republic of stokes croft and Hamilton House across the road. So much going on! It’s absolutely amazing, every last brick of it.
Turner Prize 2010 exhibition at Tate Britain: Susan Philipsz
Turner Prize 2010 exhibition at Tate Britain: Susan Philipsz
susan philipsz - i haven't experienced any of her work but I love the ideas. I heard about it quite a while ago and it stuck in my mind. I probably heard about it because she had been nominated for the turner prize but I didn't catch that bit at the time. I just scanned the other artists, I read that the painter who's nominated is ground breaking and all that but I'm just not that interested, I took a peek but it still looks like painting to me. It just didn't strike me in the way that, i hope, the first viewing of a cubist painting might have struck me were I around at the time. Maybe it would be different face to face. I suppose you could say, and i'm sure plenty of people are saying, that susan's work is just singing. This is true but it speaks to me! It's not about creating a musically beautiful sound, its about creating emotional responses to a place and hopefully inciting a response from the audience too. It's using voice in art. Its using sound in an almost non-musical way or at least in a non music establishment way. That works for me. Its almost the equivalent of an artist looking at, for example, the paintings nominated for the turner prize this year and seeing the complexity and quality within them but a lay person looks at them and just sees them as paintings. Susan is using music in that way in that it's a tool in her art, the art of site-specific installation. A musician might listen to it and hear that she's no musical professional, that she's not treating the music itself in any new or ground breaking way. In the same way I might use, for example, slackrope walking in a piece. I'm no great circus performer, just as Susan is not a trained musician. Its what we do with it that counts.
susan philipsz - i haven't experienced any of her work but I love the ideas. I heard about it quite a while ago and it stuck in my mind. I probably heard about it because she had been nominated for the turner prize but I didn't catch that bit at the time. I just scanned the other artists, I read that the painter who's nominated is ground breaking and all that but I'm just not that interested, I took a peek but it still looks like painting to me. It just didn't strike me in the way that, i hope, the first viewing of a cubist painting might have struck me were I around at the time. Maybe it would be different face to face. I suppose you could say, and i'm sure plenty of people are saying, that susan's work is just singing. This is true but it speaks to me! It's not about creating a musically beautiful sound, its about creating emotional responses to a place and hopefully inciting a response from the audience too. It's using voice in art. Its using sound in an almost non-musical way or at least in a non music establishment way. That works for me. Its almost the equivalent of an artist looking at, for example, the paintings nominated for the turner prize this year and seeing the complexity and quality within them but a lay person looks at them and just sees them as paintings. Susan is using music in that way in that it's a tool in her art, the art of site-specific installation. A musician might listen to it and hear that she's no musical professional, that she's not treating the music itself in any new or ground breaking way. In the same way I might use, for example, slackrope walking in a piece. I'm no great circus performer, just as Susan is not a trained musician. Its what we do with it that counts.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Tack tack tacky
I am a snob. I hold my hands up, I've been caught red-handed sneering at the stuff they sell in galleries. It's it's tacky, un-inspired, expensive and mass produced. Sometimes the exhibitions are no better...
I am, of course, talking about the obligatory shop. There's a certain gallery, which will remain nameless - for now - which seems, in my eyes, to position itself as the pillar of art society. I walk through it frequently, i sometimes look at the exhibitions and occasionally like what I see but in the shop, by the entrance, there is a vast amount of 'tack'! Gift shop fodder, not even art related... To me it suggests that this behemoth and it's patrons are not really thinking about what they are seeing. It may not wish to be cutting edge but I'd still expect a gallery to stake its reputation on quality.
Lets think about other galleries - how about the Arnolfini - large shop, small amount of 'tack' but lots of books and other items relevant to its exhibits. How about Antler, the nomadic gallery? Well they have a shop but it's selling small, affordable art works.
I am, of course, talking about the obligatory shop. There's a certain gallery, which will remain nameless - for now - which seems, in my eyes, to position itself as the pillar of art society. I walk through it frequently, i sometimes look at the exhibitions and occasionally like what I see but in the shop, by the entrance, there is a vast amount of 'tack'! Gift shop fodder, not even art related... To me it suggests that this behemoth and it's patrons are not really thinking about what they are seeing. It may not wish to be cutting edge but I'd still expect a gallery to stake its reputation on quality.
Lets think about other galleries - how about the Arnolfini - large shop, small amount of 'tack' but lots of books and other items relevant to its exhibits. How about Antler, the nomadic gallery? Well they have a shop but it's selling small, affordable art works.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
storyboarding
so the technicians help me make a contact sheet. now it's stuck on the wise computers. can't upload it to blogger. it all seems fairly pointless.
i wasn't told that being able to use a mac was a pre-course requisite. neither are we being taught how to use one. there's something missing from the structure.
i wasn't told that being able to use a mac was a pre-course requisite. neither are we being taught how to use one. there's something missing from the structure.
storyboarding
http://dsnake1.blogspot.com/2010/03/gods-are-watching-over-us-in-morning.html
i could easily put a storyboard together if i was using a PC but i just don't know how to use Mac's efficiently and there's no one teaching us.
storyboarding is easy. computers aren't.
i'd rather draw it and scan it.
i'd rather use a pc.
i'd rather not have to cycle all the way to wise in the snow because i wasn't able to finish it during class time as i don't know how to use a mac and i have to get back in time for nursery.
i like storyboarding. this course isn't doing it justice.
i could easily put a storyboard together if i was using a PC but i just don't know how to use Mac's efficiently and there's no one teaching us.
storyboarding is easy. computers aren't.
i'd rather draw it and scan it.
i'd rather use a pc.
i'd rather not have to cycle all the way to wise in the snow because i wasn't able to finish it during class time as i don't know how to use a mac and i have to get back in time for nursery.
i like storyboarding. this course isn't doing it justice.
bike trip journal/research?
ok so here's where the journey went
obsessed by bikes (agreed?), lots of background but right now wanting to ride a mini-bike on a slackrope, juggle wheel rims, the colour wheels project, the white bike (a la white horses on the hillside - it's an iron horse after all) and the automata bike band.
so i heard of martin who sells bikes, rang him up, asked about mini-bikes, told him what i wanted it for, he say's I've got a mini-bike but i also have a clown bike, do you want it? 'Oh yes' i say as you can probably imagine. So i took away a mini-bike in poor condition and a bike with off-set wheels so the axles are not central meaning you kinda 'lollop' along in a genteel fashion. Not perfect nick but not bad. no idea what to do with it. The mini-bike turns out to be not worth saving so I took the tyres off and will be de-spoking them for juggling. The mini-bike frame was a joyful learning experience, i took it apart piece by piece, breaks, head set and handlebars, pedals, cranks and cassette - the whole lot. While I was doing this I thought about making a normal automata thing but making it out of bike bits. Could chop a frame up and mount a box over it, use the pedals like normal - i have a sketch of what i mean to put on top.
so automata. i visited Machinations in Llanbrynmair the other day. it's a home of automata, including the gorgeous stuff that i saw at an eisteddfod a year or two ago. crazy automata by Charles Byrd. He trained in aircraft stuff at filton i beleive. http://www.artinwales.250x.com/ArtistsBy.htm I asked them about work experience, they're looking for someone to take over who's ready to just run with it. i'm not quite there yet... they weren't sure about having a work experience person but say'd it'b be worth approaching the boss.
I'm going to order the cabaret mechanical whatsit book and also remembered the paper automata that you can make. I'm going to try my idea with stiff paper I think. see if it might work like that. Thinking make a bike running down a hill into a pond.
So i have lots of bike ideas. all good ideas but i'm not getting round to making them. if i listed them there'd be too many to think about
obsessed by bikes (agreed?), lots of background but right now wanting to ride a mini-bike on a slackrope, juggle wheel rims, the colour wheels project, the white bike (a la white horses on the hillside - it's an iron horse after all) and the automata bike band.
so i heard of martin who sells bikes, rang him up, asked about mini-bikes, told him what i wanted it for, he say's I've got a mini-bike but i also have a clown bike, do you want it? 'Oh yes' i say as you can probably imagine. So i took away a mini-bike in poor condition and a bike with off-set wheels so the axles are not central meaning you kinda 'lollop' along in a genteel fashion. Not perfect nick but not bad. no idea what to do with it. The mini-bike turns out to be not worth saving so I took the tyres off and will be de-spoking them for juggling. The mini-bike frame was a joyful learning experience, i took it apart piece by piece, breaks, head set and handlebars, pedals, cranks and cassette - the whole lot. While I was doing this I thought about making a normal automata thing but making it out of bike bits. Could chop a frame up and mount a box over it, use the pedals like normal - i have a sketch of what i mean to put on top.
so automata. i visited Machinations in Llanbrynmair the other day. it's a home of automata, including the gorgeous stuff that i saw at an eisteddfod a year or two ago. crazy automata by Charles Byrd. He trained in aircraft stuff at filton i beleive. http://www.artinwales.250x.com/ArtistsBy.htm I asked them about work experience, they're looking for someone to take over who's ready to just run with it. i'm not quite there yet... they weren't sure about having a work experience person but say'd it'b be worth approaching the boss.
I'm going to order the cabaret mechanical whatsit book and also remembered the paper automata that you can make. I'm going to try my idea with stiff paper I think. see if it might work like that. Thinking make a bike running down a hill into a pond.
So i have lots of bike ideas. all good ideas but i'm not getting round to making them. if i listed them there'd be too many to think about
Friday, December 3, 2010
tipping point
it's been amazing doing this commission proposal. Horrible too but amazing in that it makes you think about your idea much more than before. a more rounded idea of what i intend to do. It also takes a very long time to get it all together and really doesn't play to my strengths. I needed help with structuring the text (my ideas, my words), i let myself down by not having good evidence of previous work. organisation basically - it's the primary feature of my dyslexia. oops, out of time!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
connectivity problems.
Still not connected to the internet. I keep waiting, thinking it'll be sorted by next week, I can catch up then... but so far it hasn't been.
I've been busking. twice with slack rope, once singing nursery rhymes. I'm putting together a funding proposal. I've booked myself on additional courses. I found the theatre library. I've nearly learnt handstands. good bit's bad bits to everything. I'd have done a lot better busking if i'd just taken the flute but I want to do more than that.
I'm gonna take the gramaphone busking soon.
is it all about busking? it's a harder audience to crack.
what have i seen/thought recently. amazed by the light. and reflections. accidentally offended someone by criticising something i saw in the arnolfini. a digital representation of dance, looked like a screensaver. didn't do anything for me.
i loved printing. i loved embossing. i loved layering embossing. printing bike bits. doing a future portrait of me on a mini-bike on a slack rope.
think i need to make a mini-set and lots of costume models. I need to work in my studio. when? I need a good space with a rolling to-do list.
I've been busking. twice with slack rope, once singing nursery rhymes. I'm putting together a funding proposal. I've booked myself on additional courses. I found the theatre library. I've nearly learnt handstands. good bit's bad bits to everything. I'd have done a lot better busking if i'd just taken the flute but I want to do more than that.
I'm gonna take the gramaphone busking soon.
is it all about busking? it's a harder audience to crack.
what have i seen/thought recently. amazed by the light. and reflections. accidentally offended someone by criticising something i saw in the arnolfini. a digital representation of dance, looked like a screensaver. didn't do anything for me.
i loved printing. i loved embossing. i loved layering embossing. printing bike bits. doing a future portrait of me on a mini-bike on a slack rope.
think i need to make a mini-set and lots of costume models. I need to work in my studio. when? I need a good space with a rolling to-do list.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
lecture notes
i just spent about an hour typing up my lecture notes and tried to upload it to blogger which said it was too long. when i clicked 'back' to try and copy and paste it into a word document it told me i had to contact the system supervisor - this is because i'm trying to use the college computers which have many sites blocked - how can i comment and show current project if facebook's blocked? How can i talk about contraversial issues if mild-taboo words are blocked? this is insane and no way to run a degree course. I am not a child, i don't need an internet babysitter. I've spent a lot of money on this course the administration and appaling access are blocking me at every turn. I feel like many bits of this course are shoddy. Other bits assume greater knowledge than we have. Show me how to use a Mac and i can do what we're expected to do. Ask me to start a blog and i can do it, i don't need to be shown how to access a website. If this is the expected level of a degree then I don't need to do one. I hope it's less patronising in future but what we can do about the infantilising and overly complicated computer set up I don't know. So. I could spend an hour re-typing notes on Graphic Design but i'd rather do some real work.
RWA exhibition
I love open exhibitions. The variety is thrilling, I can enjoy an exhibition of one artists work or of complementing (or contrasting) artists but a good variety in an open exhibition to excites me. A dictaphone would have been handy for 'making notes' whilst looking around. Some of the pieces which stay in my memory are a large, heavily textured piece on canvas. some landscapes done with large brushstrokes, almost no detail. Vera's 'drawings' which look like paintings to me. A canvas primed and then painted with something (pva?) which gave it a glossy, white marble like surface which was then drawn into with what looked like a gel pen. Also a 'hyper real' cityscape which i liked for it's intensity of 'cityness' rather than enjoying the painting particularly. There were mesh human forms also. I find that I have more of a 'language' for describing paintings than I do for sculpture. There were a few sculptures that made me think 'hmm, that's the sort of thing that gets commissioned' though I found them rather boring to look at.
my poem
Celebration Street
Bunting-streaming,
adults-eating,
children squeeling,
sodium-lighting,
music-playing,
apples-bobbing,
fancy-dressing,
chocolate-melting,
everyone-laughing,
talking, dancing!
it's a 'kenning', the vikings wrote them, never mentioning the subject. like a riddle almost. 'back-biter' is a viking name for a sword for example.
Celebration Street is written for children and aims to convey the atmosphere of a halloween street party.
Bunting-streaming,
adults-eating,
children squeeling,
sodium-lighting,
music-playing,
apples-bobbing,
fancy-dressing,
chocolate-melting,
everyone-laughing,
talking, dancing!
it's a 'kenning', the vikings wrote them, never mentioning the subject. like a riddle almost. 'back-biter' is a viking name for a sword for example.
Celebration Street is written for children and aims to convey the atmosphere of a halloween street party.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
printmaking
Bristol School of Art – FdA 2010-2011
SP1 –– The transferred image 4 x 3hrs
Friday, 1.30 – 4.30 in Room 06
Lecturer: Abi Nicol
Dates: 11/11, 19/11, 26/11, 3/12
The aim of these sessions is to introduce you to a range of approaches and techniques in printmaking. We will be looking at a variety of approaches in the studio; monoprinting/monotype, drypoint/poormans etching and Xerox transfer. We will be looking at what happens to the image (whether a drawing or photograph) when we transfer it into another process; looking at layering, mark making, surface transference and material manipulation.
Before 11th November
What is printmaking?
Please research monoprint, monotype, drypoint, etching and Xerox transfer. Please bring at least 4 examples of each. Try and explore how it has been made. I would like you to look through recent issues of Printmaking today and bring a photocopy of 2 pieces you are drawn to.
We have a good selection of printmaking books in the library, covering everything from the old masters to cutting edge mixed media prints.
Ross, J. Ed. (1990) The complete printmaker: techniques, traditions, innovations NEW YORK: Roundtable Press
is a bible of techniques
Materials
You will need to bring all work to do with your Urban project to every class – drawings, photos, ephemera, research etc and the experimental drawings you made with Vera. We will be using this work as your starting point, the aim to extract exciting areas out of this work and manipulate it through the printmaking processes.
11th November: 1.30-4.30pm 06
· PowerPoint intro to printmaking: demonstration: monoprinting
You will need to bring textures e.g. textured papers, wall papers, sand paper, thin metal, packaging, fabric, lace, ribbon, threads etc that could be used as collage for your urban project. The Scrap Store in St Werburghs is brilliant for getting a multitude of cheap materials (its above Better Food – you pay by volume e.g. £10 for a shopping trolley full of stuff!) BSA is a member – you will need to get our membership number from reception.
19th November: 1.30-4.30pm 06
· Demonstration: Xerox transfer and poor man’s etching
You will need both prepared photographs and drawing examples. Good contrast photographs and drawings photocopied/printed out to 15 x 15 cm in black and white.
26th November: 1.30-4.30pm 06
· Recap on print processes and outcomes. Demonstration: monoprinting II Personal investigation and experimentation into printing. Keep work to the dimension 15 x 15cm.
3rd December: 1.30-4.30pm 06
· Recap on previous sessions. Personal aims for session. Complete a selection of experimental print processes and combinations of possibilities. Group critique looking at outcomes.
References
Robert Rauschenberg, Picasso, A Tomato Project, Frank Stella, Antonio Tapies, Jim Dine, Howard Hodgekin, David Salle, Georg Baselitz, Helen Frankenthaler, Angela Hayson, Henry Moore, Michelle Thompson, Hammer Press, Spike Island Print Studio.
AIMS
- To extend and develop the work you have done in your sketchbooks.
- To extend and develop your photographs.
- To experiment with print processes.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the 4th session you will have:
- Made at least 2 prints of each introduced process.
- Explored what happens to an image when transfered into another process..
- Extended and/or developed ideas from your city walk/urban project.
creative practices - eh?
Aims
To encourage an experimental approach to drawing as a flexible way of thinking across media, with an emphasis on drawing in time.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the day students will have:
- Considered drawing as a process that can encompass a range of media;
- Synthesised their researches and ideas through and into the making of temporal drawings.
Research, Planning and Content
Assessment
Assessment of this work will take place at the end of the module. It will include:
- A range of works in digital and other media
week 4 tasks
CHI Tasks Week 4:
1. Identify at least 4 exhibitions, events or screenings relevant to your Creative Practice that you will attend before Xmas. Post details of these & then post your notes about these on your blog/website when you have attended them.
2. Read: Exhibition notes & press release from Controversies: A Legal and Ethical HIstory of Photography, Musee de l'Elysee, 2008 and post your comments about it on your blog/website.
current affairs etc
Sources of information about current debates, events and exhibitions in your subject area
Some Ideas
- Journals – library and web-based. All list events likely to be of interest to the readership and exhibitions, talks, seminars etc, alongside articles.
Most journals now also have an online presence and mailing lists, which you can join to be kept up to date.
- Local venues – for example the Arnolfini, Watershed, Cube Cinema, Royal West of England Academy, Spike Island, ICIA Bath, Knowle West Media Centre, Picture This, Fashion Museum – Bath, Holbourne Museum of Art – Bath, Royal Photographic Society – Bath
You can join their mailing lists to be kept up to date with events and exhibitions.
- In addition to the websites for specific local venues, you can also
find information on websites including:
Bristol City Council Arts Development http://www.bristol.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/leisure-and-culture/arts-and-entertainment/arts---information-and-advice/
And
And in local listings magazines including:
Venue magazine, published weekly (available in the library and in local newsagents)
Evening Post – Arts Listings Pages, published weekly (available in the library and in local newsagents)
- Nationally, there are specialist museums, galleries, organisations etc that you might want to join the mailing lists for. Also, some offer an RSS service which you can link to your blogs (the Victoria and Albert Museum does this, so does the Design Museum).
- For national events, shows and exhibitions etc – read the Saturday and Sunday papers and their supplements – all available in the library. These list details of lots of events, talks etc and often review specific exhibitions, alongside interviewing practitioners.
The Guardian/Observer, The Times/Sunday Times and The Independent/Independent on Sunday are my preferred papers – but have a look at them all & see which you like.
- Time Out Magazine is the London Listings magazine. Published fortnightly – it is a fantastic resource for what’s on in art, design and photography in the major spaces and in the smaller and artist-led spaces. The library always has the most recent copy of it & for reference – take a photocopy of the pages relevant to your subject to have a browse through so you know what sort of things are detailed.
- New Exhibitions is a good website for exhibitions and talks and events. It is Fine Art biased, but does include other subject information and is always worth a look. See: www.newexhibitions.com
- Professional bodies and associations exist in all areas of professional creative practice. Some examples include the Association of Illustrators, D&AD, BIMA etc
All will have links pages from websites to events and exhibitions etc that they deem to be interesting to their members.
graphic design tasks 2
Session 3 – Additional Task
‘London 2012’s Logo’ – What is good graphic design?
Have a look at these websites which contain information about the logo that has been designed to represent the London 2012 Olympics. It has been contentious......
Q: What do you think?
Web sources:
Official Website – ‘Our Brand’
London 2012 – Can you do better? – Triumph or Trash? (Click through the opinions pages as well as the front page etc)
BBC Story with comments
Creative Review Article
David Airey – Designer’s comments
London Metro
Do a search on the web for further articles about this logo – it has provoked a strong reaction!
graphic design tasks
is it possible to assess the quality, and/or fully understand a piece of graphic design work outside of the specific communication system it is made in relation to? e.g. social marketing to a specific group?
is it possible to do this for a piece of work which would be considered to be a work of fine art?
quality in Graphic Design is measured by the changes it produces in the audience? discuss
tasks: post notes on lectures
read Blanchard, T(2004) vivienne westwood in Fashion and graphics.
read Traub, C (2006`) The artist in the market place in The education of a photographer
is it possible to do this for a piece of work which would be considered to be a work of fine art?
quality in Graphic Design is measured by the changes it produces in the audience? discuss
tasks: post notes on lectures
read Blanchard, T(2004) vivienne westwood in Fashion and graphics.
read Traub, C (2006`) The artist in the market place in The education of a photographer
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
crochet in the cathedral & illuminate
I put my punk cassette jacket (work in progress) up in the cathedral. Got the train down there, borrowed a mannequin, arranged the cassettes like droppings underneath it... It was the only 'conceptual' 'installation' piece amongst many pictures, some masks, painted cups, candles, stained glass and other oddments. The pictures range from very fine watercolours to garish and heavily textured oils with a wide range in between. I admire the former but lean more towards the latter as I'm keen on the texture and the more 'painterly' approach. I must stretch a canvas and try a textured picture, I'm scared of working with paint though!
The jacket is still not finished, it needs lapels and a collar. I'd like to do the badges out of inlay covers and studs out of the cases, then it might be finished.
I popped in at the talk on Cezanne's use of colour, it might have been interesting but I had to take my son with me and he wouldn't let me concentrate and I had to leave. oh well. I remember a little bit about how blue and orange, opposites, don't look good together and often have a neutral colour like a dark brown or mixed black between them. I also was duly amazed at how, when shown a picture in greyscale, he had used almost the same tones throughout. The vibrancy is all in the colour, not tone. I noted also the bit about how he used the reflected colour as shading, managing to create a reddish green and other seemingly impossible colours.
The Illuminate festival went ahead, we sang... processing around with masks on. I held an apple (it is mentioned in the song) and I think it was a good look as often asymmetric figures are more interesting. Rob had his drum, Ian a pumpkin lantern, me an apple, Cat her recorder and I don't think Samantha had a prop. Luckily I was able to keep my phone and purse on me as a grey pocket wasn't out of keeping with our black costumes. I should have made the cloaks though, Cat's mother didn't do a very good job, i turned mine into an apron. There were loads of 'issues' I hadn't been clear about the times which made childcare difficult. The band didn't stick to their times and we'd be told not to clash with them which meant we were scurrying around the edge and it felt as though we were hiding from the public. Rob, who was leading kept going much too fast in my humble opininon - i thought that it would have much more sonorous import if we'd kept to a slow pace. Cat's more concerned with whether we're in tune or not and was not keen on working with the situation as it presented itself, she had been given her times and she wanted to stick to them! But without her rigidity and organisation it wouldn't have happened at all. So that's it for my performances this year. Need to find some money from somewhere this december...
I was really impressed by people at the York Road halloween street party, the houses that had volunteered to be trick or treat locations went to town with setting up scenarios. I particularly liked the 'interview with a vampire' house and the old lady who got Ianto to drink bright blue 'poison' after fishing sweets out of a large bowl of cold spagetti. The eyeball full of jelly was good too! It's good to see people being so creative and so pro-active. Some of the kids were really scared.
The jacket is still not finished, it needs lapels and a collar. I'd like to do the badges out of inlay covers and studs out of the cases, then it might be finished.
I popped in at the talk on Cezanne's use of colour, it might have been interesting but I had to take my son with me and he wouldn't let me concentrate and I had to leave. oh well. I remember a little bit about how blue and orange, opposites, don't look good together and often have a neutral colour like a dark brown or mixed black between them. I also was duly amazed at how, when shown a picture in greyscale, he had used almost the same tones throughout. The vibrancy is all in the colour, not tone. I noted also the bit about how he used the reflected colour as shading, managing to create a reddish green and other seemingly impossible colours.
The Illuminate festival went ahead, we sang... processing around with masks on. I held an apple (it is mentioned in the song) and I think it was a good look as often asymmetric figures are more interesting. Rob had his drum, Ian a pumpkin lantern, me an apple, Cat her recorder and I don't think Samantha had a prop. Luckily I was able to keep my phone and purse on me as a grey pocket wasn't out of keeping with our black costumes. I should have made the cloaks though, Cat's mother didn't do a very good job, i turned mine into an apron. There were loads of 'issues' I hadn't been clear about the times which made childcare difficult. The band didn't stick to their times and we'd be told not to clash with them which meant we were scurrying around the edge and it felt as though we were hiding from the public. Rob, who was leading kept going much too fast in my humble opininon - i thought that it would have much more sonorous import if we'd kept to a slow pace. Cat's more concerned with whether we're in tune or not and was not keen on working with the situation as it presented itself, she had been given her times and she wanted to stick to them! But without her rigidity and organisation it wouldn't have happened at all. So that's it for my performances this year. Need to find some money from somewhere this december...
I was really impressed by people at the York Road halloween street party, the houses that had volunteered to be trick or treat locations went to town with setting up scenarios. I particularly liked the 'interview with a vampire' house and the old lady who got Ianto to drink bright blue 'poison' after fishing sweets out of a large bowl of cold spagetti. The eyeball full of jelly was good too! It's good to see people being so creative and so pro-active. Some of the kids were really scared.
slack film
slack film. I've been talking to Aaron, I always like the way he puts things. He asked me what slack rope's about, what it's essence is, that kind of thing. I told him it's about 'breath' but it's also about intense focus and minute balance. It's also about thinking from the sternum. Breath we thought... how do we represent that visually? I could attach sensors to my ribcage, they could link to a projector which could show colours, expansion and contraction, different air/lungs images, other images which represent focus or balance? Or I could use the footage i've taken, and indeed, take footage with the camera strapped to my sternum. Each breath could change the footage. Or use the different intensities of breath somehow - short rapid breaths being a different colour or just that the quicker I breath the faster the images will change. It could be projected on to me (think me in white with the slack rope infront of a white sheet... Hmm. While i'm into exploring this idea it's deffinitely going more into a gallery space, not street. How can i make this 'popular entertainment' at the same time?
places to film, that bridge near the docks - at night. the railway bridge, easton. In the fountains (any fountains). Leigh Woods. I've already done castle park, montpelier park, the island, feeder road.
I need to keep this as simple as possible but I don't even know how to do that.
places to film, that bridge near the docks - at night. the railway bridge, easton. In the fountains (any fountains). Leigh Woods. I've already done castle park, montpelier park, the island, feeder road.
I need to keep this as simple as possible but I don't even know how to do that.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
the desperate velobici
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgreen/5108490260/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgreen/5087471320/in/faves-53917370@N08/
les velobici at the festival of desperation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgreen/5087471320/in/faves-53917370@N08/
les velobici at the festival of desperation
paul green photography
http://www.paulgreenphotography.com/
lovely colours!!!! he must be really observant to spot the opportunities. I think i like abstract photography. I'd use him if i needed character shots i think. It's hard to get the balance between glossy and too clean. dont' want to stray into the territory of desktop backgrounds.
lovely colours!!!! he must be really observant to spot the opportunities. I think i like abstract photography. I'd use him if i needed character shots i think. It's hard to get the balance between glossy and too clean. dont' want to stray into the territory of desktop backgrounds.
male instrumenty, russian pole, crochet etc
so much.
It's taking a while to take the tandemonium apart and tidy up, been up there several times and makeing progress. I have to be sensibly ruthless about binning stuff. then i need to get the rest down to the cellar.
the crochet jacket is also taking a while, gonna do a bit more on it tonight. in some ways i don't want to finish it, i'd like to be at the gallery now, crocheting as 'performative art'. why tho? Because i know it facinates people. Because people aren't usually invited to watch. coz it takes so long and it's very linked to time (four fold time)... because i'd like to play the punk music in the gallery at the same time for the contradiction of crochet and punk... it's in west wales though, they may not appreciate it. so, if the car's fixed i might head down there tomorrow.
managed two turns on the slack rope - one a bit of a fluke, the second much more controlled. also have taken a few short videos while slack roping - from the palm, not 'of me'. interesting shots, you wouldn't really be able to fake it, it;s a bit like when someone has accidentally phoned you from their pocket. took a few in the park, a few down 'the island' and a few in the pro-cathedral. there's a spot near stapleton road station that looks good. four locations should be enough. I also want to strap the camera to my sternum, see how that affects the shot and maybe my ankle. chop it all up, put it to music. but which music? and black and white or color? Better maybe to view this as a practice - i'd rather do a more controlled thing in grainy sepia and do somethink in super8 in colour.
I think it'd be good if I made all the music for one version - junk instruments, the saw, the flute (the fiddle?), singing etc could even use the feral choir. Also there's the gramaphone songs. Also there's clogs. also there's Male Instrumenty.
Male Instrumenty - saw them at the arnolfini and oh my god i loved them. such a fantastic sound. it's funny how if you have an idea and then look around, then you'll find people doing the same. I wanted to be a one woman band using kids toy instruments as a big reaction to being a mum and thus unable to attend rehearsals/otherwise make work with other people. This was blended with the automata on bikes idea, no longer sure in which order. The double bill at the arnolfini was musicians with kids instruments and someone making automata music. the only thing missing is the bikes! They were fab tho, absolutely amazing. wow. such diverse musicians, tight as anything,, all using lots of different instruments. a gorgeous slightly out of tune sound, all clashing and with unusual tones. I found it really easy to listen to and enjoy, lots of different moods within the set. just amazing. the automata was fantastic and interesting and different but a bit dull. easily the most exciting thing i've seen this week, or even in ages. so glad i went and that they let me take my son in!
http://smallinstruments.com/media.php
And the visit to the arnolfini. well i was expecting more really, i suppose i didn't realise it was only 1 hour. and for an hour it was good. I guess it had to be broad as it was for students who although on a creative degree course, might not actually think the arnolfini's relevant to them. But surely for fine art students there should be a longer more indepth tour? I don't feel like i know any more about it now than i did through being an engaged individual and that's not the educational facilitators (or whatever Nic's job title is) fault. In an hour you can't really find much out about anything, an hour wasn't even enough time to experience the exhibits. I found some things interesting, i liked the copper tape/noise installation, reminded me of the graphite/noise project that was described to me recently. I 'liked' the expanding lungs or found them facinating and was saddened by the photos of the strikes, also thought about the role of arts to explore and disseminate 'messages'. Coal's a subject i'm concerned with but i'd not heard about the particular rescourse being mined in Nigera (?). I heard about it first in the arnolfini. I would have cared had i come accross it elsewhere, will it stick in my mind more for the artistic interpretation? Probably. It may even have linked it more to myself and my phone and my secondhand guilt. I enjoyed the computer generated love letters but as a general rule, i'm not a technology lover and don't enjoy gadget heavy exhibits. a little dissapointed to hear that the arnolfini likes programming that sort of thing. I liked the concept of the digital dance peice but frankly it was dull to watch and that matters. it just looked like a screen saver. The maps were interesting, i could have spent longer in there. there was such a lot of info collated! amazing/disgusting. I returned to the reading room after the group had left. I looked through a history of performance art, good to have done so. Still not sure what the reading rooms function is, maybe it's just to distract the research assisstants...
Also today we tried to tie my slack rope between two bikes but that didn't work as it required to much strength to hold the bikes apart. So then we got a scaffold tower bar and hooked that between two bikes and that was great! Not entirely successful but you wouldn't expect it to be, first time. It seemed more successful cycling in circles, we all were differently successful with the bar - i stood still, sylvie walked forwards, Lois walked sideways. Cycling straight ahead didnt work so well as if you fell you had to try'n catch up and you run out of room. silly silly. what a nice contrast to thinking about what makes 'art'. I wish i didn't drift into 'serious' territory, being a popular entertainer sounds much easyer or at least less pretentious but it's just how my mind works.
I painted the town as part of my specialist path way this week. orange paint all over the roads. comes off as soon as a car goes over it. need it to be much stronger for it to be effective. but not so strong that it causes trouble. Next time I'm in i'll have to do it stronger still.I wonder how it'll be when it's dry outside. I'm glad my mum got to see the silly stuff i get up to. Loved the drawing to film as well, especially the dance. I might take that idea out into the world. I like the strength of my non-representational (is that an accurate description?) drawings, it's hard to break away from 'seeing' but i do love it when i do.
I am getting really, really hacked off with the library being shut everytime I try to use it - like at lunch time. surely they could have their lunch at a different time to the students so we can actually use it as a resource instead of just seeing a locked door time and time again. So i saw some Lousie Bourgeois obituaries, one in selvedge or some other fabric based journal and one in art news or something. I might compare them. they at least are of the same event... i find i want to read many of the articles but that they don't relate to the others.
It's taking a while to take the tandemonium apart and tidy up, been up there several times and makeing progress. I have to be sensibly ruthless about binning stuff. then i need to get the rest down to the cellar.
the crochet jacket is also taking a while, gonna do a bit more on it tonight. in some ways i don't want to finish it, i'd like to be at the gallery now, crocheting as 'performative art'. why tho? Because i know it facinates people. Because people aren't usually invited to watch. coz it takes so long and it's very linked to time (four fold time)... because i'd like to play the punk music in the gallery at the same time for the contradiction of crochet and punk... it's in west wales though, they may not appreciate it. so, if the car's fixed i might head down there tomorrow.
managed two turns on the slack rope - one a bit of a fluke, the second much more controlled. also have taken a few short videos while slack roping - from the palm, not 'of me'. interesting shots, you wouldn't really be able to fake it, it;s a bit like when someone has accidentally phoned you from their pocket. took a few in the park, a few down 'the island' and a few in the pro-cathedral. there's a spot near stapleton road station that looks good. four locations should be enough. I also want to strap the camera to my sternum, see how that affects the shot and maybe my ankle. chop it all up, put it to music. but which music? and black and white or color? Better maybe to view this as a practice - i'd rather do a more controlled thing in grainy sepia and do somethink in super8 in colour.
I think it'd be good if I made all the music for one version - junk instruments, the saw, the flute (the fiddle?), singing etc could even use the feral choir. Also there's the gramaphone songs. Also there's clogs. also there's Male Instrumenty.
Male Instrumenty - saw them at the arnolfini and oh my god i loved them. such a fantastic sound. it's funny how if you have an idea and then look around, then you'll find people doing the same. I wanted to be a one woman band using kids toy instruments as a big reaction to being a mum and thus unable to attend rehearsals/otherwise make work with other people. This was blended with the automata on bikes idea, no longer sure in which order. The double bill at the arnolfini was musicians with kids instruments and someone making automata music. the only thing missing is the bikes! They were fab tho, absolutely amazing. wow. such diverse musicians, tight as anything,, all using lots of different instruments. a gorgeous slightly out of tune sound, all clashing and with unusual tones. I found it really easy to listen to and enjoy, lots of different moods within the set. just amazing. the automata was fantastic and interesting and different but a bit dull. easily the most exciting thing i've seen this week, or even in ages. so glad i went and that they let me take my son in!
http://smallinstruments.com/media.php
And the visit to the arnolfini. well i was expecting more really, i suppose i didn't realise it was only 1 hour. and for an hour it was good. I guess it had to be broad as it was for students who although on a creative degree course, might not actually think the arnolfini's relevant to them. But surely for fine art students there should be a longer more indepth tour? I don't feel like i know any more about it now than i did through being an engaged individual and that's not the educational facilitators (or whatever Nic's job title is) fault. In an hour you can't really find much out about anything, an hour wasn't even enough time to experience the exhibits. I found some things interesting, i liked the copper tape/noise installation, reminded me of the graphite/noise project that was described to me recently. I 'liked' the expanding lungs or found them facinating and was saddened by the photos of the strikes, also thought about the role of arts to explore and disseminate 'messages'. Coal's a subject i'm concerned with but i'd not heard about the particular rescourse being mined in Nigera (?). I heard about it first in the arnolfini. I would have cared had i come accross it elsewhere, will it stick in my mind more for the artistic interpretation? Probably. It may even have linked it more to myself and my phone and my secondhand guilt. I enjoyed the computer generated love letters but as a general rule, i'm not a technology lover and don't enjoy gadget heavy exhibits. a little dissapointed to hear that the arnolfini likes programming that sort of thing. I liked the concept of the digital dance peice but frankly it was dull to watch and that matters. it just looked like a screen saver. The maps were interesting, i could have spent longer in there. there was such a lot of info collated! amazing/disgusting. I returned to the reading room after the group had left. I looked through a history of performance art, good to have done so. Still not sure what the reading rooms function is, maybe it's just to distract the research assisstants...
Also today we tried to tie my slack rope between two bikes but that didn't work as it required to much strength to hold the bikes apart. So then we got a scaffold tower bar and hooked that between two bikes and that was great! Not entirely successful but you wouldn't expect it to be, first time. It seemed more successful cycling in circles, we all were differently successful with the bar - i stood still, sylvie walked forwards, Lois walked sideways. Cycling straight ahead didnt work so well as if you fell you had to try'n catch up and you run out of room. silly silly. what a nice contrast to thinking about what makes 'art'. I wish i didn't drift into 'serious' territory, being a popular entertainer sounds much easyer or at least less pretentious but it's just how my mind works.
I painted the town as part of my specialist path way this week. orange paint all over the roads. comes off as soon as a car goes over it. need it to be much stronger for it to be effective. but not so strong that it causes trouble. Next time I'm in i'll have to do it stronger still.I wonder how it'll be when it's dry outside. I'm glad my mum got to see the silly stuff i get up to. Loved the drawing to film as well, especially the dance. I might take that idea out into the world. I like the strength of my non-representational (is that an accurate description?) drawings, it's hard to break away from 'seeing' but i do love it when i do.
I am getting really, really hacked off with the library being shut everytime I try to use it - like at lunch time. surely they could have their lunch at a different time to the students so we can actually use it as a resource instead of just seeing a locked door time and time again. So i saw some Lousie Bourgeois obituaries, one in selvedge or some other fabric based journal and one in art news or something. I might compare them. they at least are of the same event... i find i want to read many of the articles but that they don't relate to the others.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
24 hours of creativity spotting.
Creative practitioners.
They are everywhere. From the table I sit at to the road outside my house. From the style of the plant beds outside to the seats on the train, from the carpet to my hair cut. The sound of my phone alerting me to a message or call, they were chosen by someone, even my accent shows choices made over generations. Every choice made shows thought processes, be it communication, ergonomics or aesthetics.
Only that which is untouched by human is free from our artistic choices and in Britain you could argue that there is nothing which hasn't been influenced in some way. Our landscapes are all human made, maybe the remotest areas of wales or scotland have less but even the wilds of wales, which to an untrained eye may look 'natural', they have had years of bracken and gorse being burnt or walls built or sheep grazing. It's all shaped our landscape. Even the plants which we have allowed to grow, or which we have imported for their looks and let loose(e.g. japanese knotweed, famously invasive), even these show our influence. We grow plants which suit our sense of aesthetics, we breed vegetable varieties until they suit supermarket marketing.
You ask me for 24 hours of spotting evidence of creative practitioners at work. I look around me and even the weeds have been chosen.
They are everywhere. From the table I sit at to the road outside my house. From the style of the plant beds outside to the seats on the train, from the carpet to my hair cut. The sound of my phone alerting me to a message or call, they were chosen by someone, even my accent shows choices made over generations. Every choice made shows thought processes, be it communication, ergonomics or aesthetics.
Only that which is untouched by human is free from our artistic choices and in Britain you could argue that there is nothing which hasn't been influenced in some way. Our landscapes are all human made, maybe the remotest areas of wales or scotland have less but even the wilds of wales, which to an untrained eye may look 'natural', they have had years of bracken and gorse being burnt or walls built or sheep grazing. It's all shaped our landscape. Even the plants which we have allowed to grow, or which we have imported for their looks and let loose(e.g. japanese knotweed, famously invasive), even these show our influence. We grow plants which suit our sense of aesthetics, we breed vegetable varieties until they suit supermarket marketing.
You ask me for 24 hours of spotting evidence of creative practitioners at work. I look around me and even the weeds have been chosen.
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We are gonna use everything that modernism and post-modernism has given us in order to travel as far back in time as possible whilst still engaging with the current society.
Suggested way of doing this include:
...Running away with a horsedrawn circus but using yr mobile to call mum.
Eating raw food but preparing it with a blender.
Curing yourself using herbal medicine but taking painkillers in the meantime.
Studying and imitating pre-industrial lifestyle but using a computer for research.
Please add to this list! This is important! It's a Secret Society, tell your friends! Lets get this show on the road!