Trip to Kinker - Gordon Watt

Today, I head to see Gordon Watt, to finalise some plans for the Leith Hall show. Gordon is worried that the idea to make a radiator, to supply warmed water to the roots of more "delicate" plants (more suited to warmer climes) will not work. I've encountered quite a few pessimistic stances to several of the ideas for the collaborative show (since semester one). I'd put it down to me not being able to communicate my ideas very well, a lack of confidence in the possibilities, as I don't describe the "realisation" to clearly....but, the more I think about it, the more I think that Gordon isn't too up for "being a technician". It's a fair stance to have, he does have creative needs, perhaps he doesn't know that quite as much as I see it? It's still great working with him, as we discuss possibilities, perhaps, again, it's my lack of understanding of the use of glass, what it can do, what it can't do...It seems that I come up with sugestions that don't quite cut the mustard in glassworld. "how about this?" ("too acute an angle"), "how about that" ("take too long to make") etc... still, after bashing around some more thoughts, we do work out some experiments that will satisfy us both.

We ARE going to try and make a radiator (far stripped down from the originlal glass version of an old cast iron radiator I'd proposed), I understand the time / cost / difficulty factors, but I do still feel dissapointed that this idea won't be realised for the Leith Hall show. (perhaps Gordon and I could put in the idea for competitions / funding?...that would be exciting!). We aim to test several approaches to making the releif in the glass, Gordon routs out varying widths of hole in 3 slabs of plywood. The Idea is that the track for the water to flow through will first be routed out of play, then plaster is poured into the "mold", once dry, an impression of the plaster is copied with wax (for further reproductions of moulds) and then Glass can be "slumped" over the plaster, the glass is then "tacked" (slow melting of two bits of glass to each other) to a flat piece of glass, creating a sandwich, with a (hopefully) clear path for water to trickle through. (simple!). So, we've created three tests, and left the plaster to dry. Gordon and I head to Kinkardine O'neill for a snadwich (I have no money, Gordon kindly buys me one) and we eat it on the banks fo the Dee, watching salmon jump and fishermen get angry.

When we head back, the plaster is still wet (obviously!). So I head back. First, we devise a plan of what we'll be doing over the next few days / weeks. I need to "design" some flow patterns for the water to run through, I need to look at making some screen printed leaves / trees (for back up work, to accompany Gordon's "back up work")...

As a "simple" and eye catching work, I'd thought of making sandwiched glass, with screenprinted chrry blossom trees. 3 layers of glass, one with a pink blossom screen printed, the next with a black / dark brown tree, and the third, an "overprint" of white blossom. I can imagine this will look nice, people will Oo- and Ah...but it wouldn't cut the mustard in the scrutiny of the MfA. (theory, Concept, validity...nope, it's "just craft"....ooh, what a critiscism!). It'd be nice if these "follies" sell!

anyway...I'll upload some photos of the morning...and some drawings. watch this space.

Listening to - tom waits : blood money - Tomahawk : epy

charlie hackett

Seminar day (Thursday) always a brain strain...
we start to day with Jonathan's crit of his white space. Again, eloquent as ever, Jonathan tells us about the work in a fluent, ambiguous, but understanding fashion. The work comprises of 4 walls, all written in a scrawled, near illegible text, the words don't always read well, sentences mashed up, repeated words. Like a documentation of a cathartic outpouring. When I'd first seen the work (on Tuesday)his "voice", but one positive outcome he'd talked of, was his confidence of finding a new (exciting) direction for his work to manifest. He's unshackled himself from his familiar artistic vocabulary, and produced something HE feels excited about. Perhaps this work was ultimately a cathartic release for his need for a new way of working. It's still "very Jonathan", but I am so glad to hear him talk positively about his new direction.

We then head (after dinner) to Scott Sutherland's, for our Seminar with Charlie Hackett. He looks nervous, he's intimidated by "the MA classes" (? we're not that bad!!). He's a lovely guy, quite open and willing for the "class" to be informal. "stop me if it's boring" (is that a good or a bad thing to say?)

He shows us his work, he videos himself interviewing gallery goers, with very intimate, probing questions, to get people think about themselves. Some rather awkward people dodge questions, obfuscate and bumble through, what appear to be simple, direct but very revealing questions. It's hard to get people to say what they are truly thinking. Hard to tie down what simple pleasures are, what people want from life. We are then shown a sample of videos from interviews with people 2 days after 9/11. It's amazing how profound, thoughtful, complex thoughts can arise from people in times of great shock, how people can empathise with victims who they never met, yet in comparison to the "personal questions", seem to clam people up. Asking personal questions is like prising open a door that should always be locked. It gets Freudian, the complexities of human pathognomy held under lock and key, only the true "self" is known to the individual, no matter how amiable, transparent the character is. Quite a fascinating area to research, but what an area!

We're tasked with asking ourselves more questions, 20 in all, we sit round a coffee table and ask each other questions, that "might" get to the real "me". We've been asked to prepare a work of art, a self portrait, generated from these answers....and we're also being assessed (not for the mfa) on our ability to be creative with the response (visually, not in the answering of the questions!). I am thinking about making something interesting...I'll have to use something personal...who am I, how do I define myself? (I think my humour is my biggest "giveaway"...

I also went to my first Limousine Bull opening, in delightful Tory. ‘Carbon Natural?' by Matthew and Deborah Wickham, is an installation, created to highlight(?) our impact upon the globe. Two data projectors, showing waves lapping (one in real time, one slightly slowed, backwards), two large concrete slabs, with rusted over sized foot prints dented into them, with protruding metal rods / tubes (one set had tubes, one set had rods (male & female in engineering terms) significant? I'd like to think so). I start to assess the orientation of the feet, why are they not facing the projections? is it considered? We also have some pretty dull metal sheets on the wall, with crudely cut foot prints from them...I pick up the statement, and instantly go into "MfA mode". I am disappointed, Matthew starts the statement, with a reference to the things that inspired him ("lumps of concrete with twisted, rusty reinforcement bars protruding from ...") It's too obvious for me (having my small Steve Hollingsworth sitting on my shoulder.) I start to question his statement, he refers to rusting as : "...whereby Iron is broken down releases oxygen into the atmosphere". This isn't true! Iron takes oxygen from the water, and binds it to become Fe2O3, (Iron Oxide)...There are rusty holes appearing in my thoughts. He's also got some questions in the statement "how obdurate are the structures we build?" - obvious, not long (on a geological / earth time scale!) - we're insignificant, but pompous enough to think that the only important factor for reversing / slowing global warming, is to preserve us, the "problem" !). On the whole, I like half of it, and hate the other...cheesy visual vocabularies let it down (warning tape, eroding sandcastles) on the other hand, the detail within the feet (the rust, the male / female rods) keep my interest.

I'd stayed and met up with Lois, Tracey & Amy. We have an interesting talk about religion, mankind, the spread of animals, thanks to man and the "dream recorder" I was reading about in the new scientist...all from standing in front of some large rusty footprints. I guess they did take us on a journey.

listening to : tool - salival : ice - under the skin

Epiphany

Just a quick visit to Gray's today with Susie. We head to the room to see if Jonathan needed help preparing for his time in the whitespace, only to find that he's prepared the walls, and finished the visual aspect of his work (we've been told by Iain that Jonathan is trying to apply two soundtracks too). The space looks fantastic...I look forward to hearing what he has to say about it.

No one else is in, so Susie and I check out the Baltic pod cast I'd watched last night (Joseph Havel). It's great, after seeing the show, I could understand what Havel was talking about...but more interestingly, after my crits with Jo & Tom & Steve, I could start to "hear the language" he used, when talking about the work. I'd noticed that he never talked "directly" about the work (physicality, materials etc). He talked about feelings (he even struggled to "describe" what the work really was "about" (I had the feeling that the art spoke for itself, it's beyond "aural language", otherwise, he would be a writer!). He also talked about the space the sculptures inhabited, their relationship to each other, and the people within the gallery space. He'd used words like "quiet", "discrete", "songcycle". Quite ethereal and non specific. It's like a conversation that gives you cues to agree, but still have enough space so you can make up your own ideas too. I am learning all the time, about how to present work, talk about work, get work etc...but this pod cast + crit(s) have been epiphanies.

listening to : silver mount zion - born into trouble as the spaks fly upward : sutekh - born again (remixes)

Newcastle "culture"

Well, I've survived a 2 night - 3 day stag weekend in Newcastle.
Headed down on Friday morning (7am pick up...). Meet up with everyone at the train station. I am the only one not to bring alcohol...and get called a poof etc for my troubles. I see I am in for a fun weekend.
Friday night is Frank Butcher night, we all get togged up in Butcher-esque gear and "head oot for the toon man". It's surprising, how much fun we get, we were all worried about dressing as a cockney in Newcastle...this place seems pretty friendly!
I manage to keep to a minimum of drink (and not get sucked into the booze vortex of round buying, with some seriously heavy drinkers!) It all works out to be a good night, from one pub to the next, all the way to "smokin' joe's" on the riverside...a cowboy/girl themed pub, where nice ladies dance on the bar, far all to see, but not touch. It's a great opportunity to watch how men can easily be distracted, and pick pocketed... he he.Being happily married, I just enjoyed the ambiance...obviously!
Being fresh as a partially stood on daisy, I got up at 8am, and for the first time ever on any stagger, I had breakfast. I wished I'd stayed in bed. Grease with some fat, a great way to start the day. We (Mur, Sandy and I) head to the Baltic to catch the latest exhibitions. Brian Eno, Subodh Gupta, Vik Muniz and Joesph Havel.
I'll have to write a wee report and link it later. Needless to say, I thought all the shows were impressive in their own ways. Eno's work was impressive for it's scale (size and duration) but lite on the old conceptual hooks. Perhaps I should send him an email and discuss my live feed with him?
Anyway, back to the stagger. Again, I'm a poof for going to see art and not drinking. That's fine, I am a poof (with a liver that's not going to pack in, in 5 years time). I did actually have a brilliant conversation with Dennis about modern art, he was easily converted to a more "thoughtful" stance, when presented with some discussion about "the value of object / place etc". I gave the best minimal account of the formation of "modern art" (Duchamp onwards). And sited an imaginary work of "sticks piled up against the wall" to talk about what it IS and what it REPRESENTS and what the concept behind such a work could be conveying. I'd basically ended, just because you don't understand it, it doesn't make it automatically shit. And Dennis and I vowed to continue the discussion....more on that, I'd love to talk all night about art with him. He's a great guy.

Gabi sends me a photo of her and Poppy, and this cheers me up no end.
Saturday night "the busy night". boy oh boy, if ever there was a night to not get dressed up in bad Hawaiian shirts, silly hats and ties, with a fake ginger painted on beard, this was the night. So, once in my bad Hawaiian shirt, silly hat and tie, with a fake ginger beard painted on, I join the rest of the guys, and we have a brilliant night on the town, women flee from the sight of us (much to Gabi's happiness... not that I'd do anything if a nice lady propositioned me, of course!). We just have a brilliant night dancing, drinking and laughing.


We're back at the delightful "Henson hotel"(1 brown star) at 5 am. We need to be up and out at 11am...not good. Needless to say, the two large meals I had yesterday help me stay human for the whole day.
I have to say, it's been a brilliant weekend, despite the worry of my prowess int he drinking department, in the midst of such heavyweights. I guess it's my natural ability to dance like a drunken ass and have fun without having to down 15 pints that helped me survive.

listening to : people shouting : my own frazzled vocal chords : bad impressions of the Geordie accent (etc)

Susie's Whitespace

Today, we have a seminar with Steve Hollingsworth...well, he's double booked, so we get an 11 minute video on Jannis Kunellis to watch (twice, as we enjoyed it so much). And we did the "self directed study" really well, we discussed the video once we'd watched it...I've written notes on it, I'll upload and link them later.

It was also Susie's group crit in the whitespace today. She froze when confronted with all the bodies in the space (she's claustrophobic)...It was hard to get her to calm down, and talk (like she'd done so well, over the last 4 days!). We did get going in the end, discussing mostly the physical aspects of the work, as I'd said, from my learnings yesterday, dwelling on the practicalities and process, doesn't leave us with the IDEAS (Steve had said "it's all about the Idea").
Steve started to explore the concepts of windows, spaces to be seen from / into, perceptions of barriers, clean / dirty vision, tradition (framing) and perspectives. He'd said that Susie was "scratching the surface" with the work, it's good to know there is a seam to be mined!...Editing and condensing the display was essential. It's still interesting that Steve's "taste" can affect the outcome of all our work. It's not good enough to produce a considered, aesthetically pleasing drawing, it needs to have the weight of concept behind it...I guess that's what the MFA is about, and we're slowly (too slow?) learning that.

listenig to : new flesh - universaly dirty : nick cave - abattoir blues

half a fiver

Today, I found half a fiver. It turned out to be a metaphor for my day.
It's a Steve week, and Susie and I head in for 10am. We hook up with Lois and Mary, who have been in since before 10am. No Steve...
Susie's space (it's her week for the whitespace) has been vandalised over night, some clever student has written "pretentious" on the wall. I'd have gone ballistic, Susie Laughs it off, for now...

we go grab a coffee..and along the way, I find half a five pound note. It's an interesting find, seductive ("yas! I've found money!..damn, it's worthless). I think of the other half, and how I'd like to give it back to its rightful owner. (I can't buy 2.50 worth of chips!).

We get back to the room, and still no Steve. We wait for half an hour, and Lois phones Iain. "Is Steve in?" "yeah, he went to the room, saw no one was there, and came back here (the office)". Typical. We must learn to leave notes.

When Steve does come in he's his usual self, hard to tell if he's glad to see us, hates the sight of us...whatever. He presents us with a poker face that's so hard to read, and this is what gets me headed in the general direction of a bad mood. We're not sure what's been arranged (nothing? is that our fault? is it a new "lets see what happens" approach to tutoring?...) Mary goes first, as she needs to leave in the afternoon, I'm told "I'll see you after dinner (when is that?) "1.30". Cool, something is forming, some plan. I can go with that.

1.30, "end of dinner". no Steve. I wait till 1.50, so I go looking for him, and bump into him on the ground floor. "Hi Steve, I was looking for you!"..."Blimey, you are keen" (no, 20 mins late, that's not keen, that's wanting to get a show on the road).

When I do get my time with him, it's fantastic. My bad mood is dissipating fast, it's amazing what a talk with a tutor can do!

We talk about my past week's experience in the whitespace. Steve asks some interesting questions, aimed at getting me to understand people's perspectives and take on the work. I do struggle to remember all the points raised in the group crit, is that because I have assimilated them into my own discourse / dialogue / understanding of the work? I'd explained that the Friday "open day" was great, the many different perspectives / points raised, how I was quite happy to engage these perspectives, in a sense that I'd somehow considered them beforehand, without realising it. I truly had thought of many aspects of the work / use of space. Many of the questions (thinking about it, when talking to Steve) were about the process, or build, or technicality of the work, and here lies my problem, highlighted by talking to Steve about the work. I haven't contextualised the work in a conceptual realm. I know fully HOW this works, WHY this works, but I've not really considered the WHY IS IT HERE, WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Steve is exceedingly helpful today, I ask him to simplify some points he raises, so I do make sure I understand fully. Again, I am missing some of the points he's putting to me, I have a tendency to talk about process, build, communication, but forget about the conceptual theme(s) / ideas behind the work. Tom had asked last week "is this a satirical view of technology?", which struck me as nothing to do with the work (again, thinking of the physical aspect of the work), but in essence was trying to get out of me the what the idea behind the work was, not what the work was (if that makes sense).

So, the missing part of my fiver (my art) I am starting to see now. I understand where contextual analysis helps, it's not a search for methods of how to make work, it's a search for where the idea fits into the art world. It's not about simply abstracting objects, it's why abstraction is used (for example).

Steve concurs with J&T about my "needing to find a language in which to discuss the work". I didn't fully understand that point last Thursday (melted brain after 5 hours of intense debate?). But now, "language" is referring to realm of meaning, sphere of research, context.

As Stewart McDonald, head of Gray's said so deftly last Friday :
"this is good, but it needs context".

I might just have a whole fiver at the end of semester two.

Listening to : mark van hoen - your selfish ways : murcof - remembranza

getting into gear

Last night I experimented with the webcam colour abstraction program i'd shown last week in the white space. I was experimenting with mirrors, to see how it affected the output, of course, it didn't at all (bar "flipping it", which can be compensated for with the projector), but I did change the "feed", as I'd used the TV. Presenting bright, bold (already "pixilated") images for the webcam to interpret. I had noticed that the output on the ceeling was so disjointed, very chaotic and jumpy, as opposed to the "lively" yet easily settled squares generated by the live webcam feed. This was due to the nature of television, the editing, quick cuts and camera angles making sure that the feed was always changing, instead of a static, room shot from the webcam. One satisfying aspect of the tv feed was the brightness and "true colour representation" (but in reality, a false representation of "real" colours, as it is another step of "interpretation" via RGB pixels withing the TV.). This has certainly given me more avenues to explore. I'd even shown Susie Hunt the array of still images that are taken during the life of the webCam experiment, and she could see that these in themselves could be presented. There are many facets to the work that are hidden, contorted, obvious, interpretative...a holistic presentation would be a great output of the work.

I spoke to Iain today (Monday) too, about Friday's "presentation" to Gray's as a whole. We'd also discussed possible further applications of the work, situations, places etc. Iain had talked (and had obviously been thinking about it over the weekend) about placing a webcam on a busy road, to document rushours etc. We'd talked about the chaotic feeds, perhaps a way of communication the pace and speed of life, perhaps a more obvious way of saying "slow down" to people?

I'd also spoken to Iain about Joanne & Tom's crit the other day, how I feel completely inferior and simple in front of them. I'd also talked about how their (and Steve Hollingsworth's) taste actually creeps into the crits, perhaps we are not all destined to make the sort of work they are hoping we will? and that's not so good when it comes to critiquing people's work. The crits are invaluable, and they do raise our game, but they also are imposing, cold perhaps...sometimes they don't get the best from me, as I do feel lowly and inferior which is counter productive to creating art and new Ideas...I need to feel stronger in arguing "my case" to people who are "above" me, as well as "below" me on an intellectual and artistic platform.

I'd also started to compile and assess the fallout / reactions to the work last week. Questions, statement, observations and reactions to the work. I've also been re-thinking about the non-textual representation of the thought process to document and convey how the work arose, I'd really like to produce a computer based display (web based too), for it's professional look and also simple (?) conveyance of information... that's my next project for the MFA.

Listening to : johnny cash - cash : jimmy Hendrix - live at the Albert hall