Radio Silence

4′33″ - mr_hopkinson's computer ( John Cage Cover Version )

Sorry about the radio silence, after the excitement (?!) of getting my log book handed in for the deadline, I have slumped into a bit of a decline in terms of using the internet. At the moment i'm back in Somerset, trapped in my house by snow and desperate to  have contact with some human beings. My cats are both lovely (and seem to have readjusted to being back together) but I am missing my fellow course mates and the seminars at Uni.
Next up is getting our proposals for the exhibition at Newlyn gallery in May all sorted out ready to present them when we start back in January- it's been hard in a way to come up with the minimum of three proposals required as we all seem to be operating on a very similar wavelength, so lots of the ideas we have merge into each other, and so far there haven't been any violent disagreements about any of the artists we are looking at. Some may need to be discounted because of finance, others because of location, but in general I think we have found some fantastic artists and I look forward to sharing more with you soon.

In the meantime enjoy Mr_Hopkinson's computer singing his version of John Cage's 4'33"

Craft Unbound

I just got this excellent book out the library- Craft Unbound: make the common precious by Kevin Murray. I'm adding it to my wish list right away (or rather i'm emailing my friend in Australia to see if she can lay her hands on a copy of it for me). I don't know much about contemporary art and craft in Australia and this book is a real eye opener to me, pretty much every page I turned to had something that made me coo.

It's made me realise the strangeness of Australia, I don't mean to offend you strange Australians, but I hadn't really thought much about what it must mean to be Australian- living in a country that is incredibly old and yet incredibly young at the same time. I have spent a bit of time getting my head round New Zealand, thanks to having several 'New Zealish' friends who have given me some insight into life in Aotearoa, but I have yet to be educated in Australian. My knowledge of Australia pretty much stops with Bush Tucker Man (which I was addicted to when I was younger) and Rolf Harris. 

This excellent book looks at 'poor craft' people making contemporary work with whatever is available to them.  It includes work from Kantjupayi Benson woven from grasses (above is her biplane).

Sally Marsland who makes work using resin and powdered pigments

Anna Phillips who makes work using solidified shampoo and bath water!

Whilst I can't seem to get hold of a copy of the book in the UK (outside the Uni library) I can access the fascinating website and suggest you take a look too: Craft Unbound

Pick'n Mix from Curating.info

I love the Pick'n'Mix emails from Michelle Kasprzak's Curating.info- well worth signing up for and this weeks seem particularly relevant to me. Curating.info is also great for hearing about new jobs in the world of curating- most of them feel too 'big' for me at the moment, but maybe one day...

Pick 'N Mix #41

Posted: 29 Nov 2010 03:42 PM PST

- Karen Love (Manager of Curatorial Affairs at Vancouver Art Gallery) has written this excellent primer for emerging curators, the Curatorial Toolkit. (PDF download). It's very interesting to look over the bones of our profession, see what the essential, common sense information that we should be imparting to younger generations is. Especially since, with the proliferation of curatorial studies in academia, there may be an emphasis on theory rather than what I would call craft.

- But, lest you think I am anti-theory, I recently was delighted to see (and blogged a quick announcement about) the launch of the Journal for Curatorial Studies, which will be edited by Jim Drobnick and Jennifer Fisher. The first issue of this journal is forthcoming, but I am certain it is one to watch.

- Last but not least, a little personal note. I was recently being interviewed by some university students who wanted opinions from a curator for an imaginary smartphone app they were developing that would allow curators to "shop" for work, and much more. I daydreamed out loud with them about looking at artist profiles and work, and then being able to organise it like a mind-map, developing my own categories and tags. I have such a ragtag collection of notes (both digital and analogue) on art and artists that I want to file away for later, that some kind of application like this seemed like a wonderful dream. Quite suddenly in the middle of the conversation I realised this was a terrible idea -- if it was all public. "I wouldn't want to share that information," I said, to their mild dismay. I realised that if I added a tag such as "dark" or "poetic" or "layered" to an artist or work, (terms that might be a shorthand for so many other things in my own mind) to the artist, or to others, it might not seem merely simplistic, but actually offensive. It might ruin some of the mystery involved in curatorial choices as well (which was a lesser concern). I ended up blurting out to the students, "you wouldn't want to know how sausage is made, either", but that isn't quite what I meant. I meant something nicer, like you wouldn't want to know how much work it was to erect the Eiffel Tower, or something similar. Maybe that is food for thought for you. What would be your dream digital tool? How much sharing would be involved in this tool -- some, none, a little bit? Do you feel like you are making sausage, or building the Eiffel Tower? All I know is that I would love an app that would intelligently record my mind maps of art and artists as I see them or otherwise encounter them -- if it's totally private, and with a self-destruct button too, perhaps.

This might be the last post of the evening- possibly. Sorry for the sudden rash of posts, i'd got a lot stored up and when I realised that my deadline for my log book was tomorrow I thought I should probably post some more of them! This post shows some of my thinking towards what my MA project might be- from out of the chaos comes...something? At the moment i'm very conflicted and confused still about  where i'm heading with this. My  curatorial  roots are in DIY and underground art, but I think I secretly yearn, not for the white cube, but for the clean gallery space.
I'm not sure I want to squat an empty building, make a gallery in a basement, not make any money any more. I think perhaps what I want is to be able to make a living doing this, rather than using my money to support other people. That was what I did before, and it's one (amongst many) reasons I have big debts now- I thought it was important to give people a voice and somewhere to show their work, without thinking that maybe it was important for me to be able to survive too.
It's all about longevity, legacy, sustainability- what good is a project if we all burn out after 3 weeks/3months/ 3 years? Is there a problem with a project that only runs for a short time? Is there a way to keep my punk rock credentials and make money? Do I want to sell out? To be honest I was never that punk rock anyway...

Textile Forum South West Conference

My friend Kirsty left a comment mentioning this conference that the Textiles Forum South West are holding next year- I knew she had attended their events in the past, turns out she's now speaking at them...

Maps Define The Future - Where are you now? Conference

Date:26/03/2011

More than just a conference, Textile Forum South West is hosting a whole day exploring textile territories - looking, listening and participating in mapping the future together.

We will survey ideas from traditional geographical and textile maps to virtual mapping now; view current personal textile practice using journey as both inspiration and process; demonstrate new routes to networking with like-minded makers and have the chance to participate in making fabric markers for mapping further textile journeys.

Speakers include, Peter Merrett, land surveyor,  Dr Hilary Turner, historian specialising in tapestry maps; Kirsty Hall, expert blogger and navigator of the internet; the key -note speaker is Dail Behennah, celebrated maker who is both a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts and the Royal Geographical Society.

Delegate Fee (including lunch and refreshments)

TFSW members: £50

Non members:    £60

Students:           £40

To book a ticket please email: contact@tfsw.org

forum

Here's an idea

My friend tried to leave a comment on the blog, but it vanished into thin air. Here's what she wanted to say- it makes me realise that actually with the addition of a few small words I do have the ability to say what i'm thinking.

 I was impressed by your mind map, acknowledging that my own insatiable itch always to verbalise (hence why I'm unnecessarily verbose at times) does have a downside: It can draw me away dangerously far from my initial concept, especially if I get mired in wordiness. Also: That if you could turn each relationship between one pair of connected thoughts into a sentence (or more, if needed), that's your whole thing verbalised! I might mind map next time I want to describe a thought process. :)

I also discovered this group on Flickr: MindMapperz. 

I've struggled for years with note taking, I write copious notes, but what actually goes in- once I started to use these kind of maps and diagrams things start to make a lot more sense. I love maps and diagrams so that shouldn't be much of a surprise- maybe I can submit my entire MA in map form? Last year I joked that I would submit my essay on 2000 post it notes- and let my tutor compile it, didn't go through with that, but it's the thought that counts!

Visual Stress

A week or so ago I went and had some tests done for visual stress. I didn't know I was visually stressed, but when i'd been having my disabled student assessment it was suggested that I come back and have my eyes tested to see if there was a problem. I'm really short sighted and find it hard reading from a screen, and it's been a struggle reading all the texts for the MA- i'd put that down to the fact that doing an MA is bound to be hard and it wasn't surprising that reading big blocks of text was giving me headaches or sending me to sleep.

I  knew that some people with dyslexia find coloured lenses helpful, but I really had no idea that it would work on me too. I had a variety of tests done- starting off with just reading nonsense words to see what my words per minute rate was, then trying again with coloured films over the text. Once we'd worked out what colour worked best for me it turned out that my reading rate went up from 109words a minute to 160words a minute. I can't explain how it happened, it made no sense to me, but even as I was reading it I felt that it was less of a strain to take the words in, I read faster and easier, just with the addition of a sheet of orange plastic.

After some more tests in the magic machine the hue and saturation were narrowed down and I tried the reading again- this time with lenses in a frame- my reading speed went up to 190 words a minute! So simply by having a certain hue and saturation I was able to almost (sort of) double my reading speed. It was a really weird sensation and I can't wait to get the proper glasses back from the place in America where they are made- looks like i'm going to have to wait over 2 months for my orange lenses with purple frames (chosen on the basis that nothing will make orange look good, might as well look horrible)

And this ties in with my research how? Well it might go part way to explaining why I'm finding it so hard to take in the reading, and also it fits in nicely with my fascination for science and collections of things- I was very taken with the collection of lenses in a box, all neatly arranged by colour, just like crayons or felt pens.