Japan07

Back in J again – this time for the Dislocate07 symposium/exhibitions and extra layers on the SoPG Yamanote and Invigilator projects.

Expect things to be documented over on the journal.

Project supported by Arts Council England and VIVID.

the invisible hand

Shop now open.

T-shirts, postcards, badges (coming soon) etc. All profits go towards funding further art activities.

Tunnel Vision

Tunnel Vision (Luke Jerram and Dan Jones as part of Architecture Week) had it’s strong and weak points for me.

I like the fact that it happened at all enormously, but I felt that it was really two separate things. I’d have liked to have seen either no sculptural stuff or a whole lot more that spilled out and around the different niches in the walls.

Guess there’d have been a Health and Safety officer with something to say about that…

I felt the end section where we were walking down the darkened tunnel with the sound and light was the most powerful element. Givien the choice I wouldn’t have shared the experience with 30 other people at the same time, although it did make for an interesting snippet of video (here slowed down to half speed)

invigilator

Being watchful alongside Paul Conneally and Kevin Ryan.

Invigilator is part of the Walk to Work series.

the watchers

On the way back from invigilating a small section of the New Forest, we encountered Copythorne Carnival.

I was interested in the resonances with what I had just done and the presence of the stewards and the bystanders.

dog walkers

Curious as to how people navigate themselves around what might superficially seem like an open, empty space, yesterday I set myself up at a carpark on Canada Common and chatted to dog walkers as they returned from their walks and asked them if they could describe where they’d just been.

I spoke to about a dozen sets of two-leggeds and four-leggeds with a range of results from which two different methods of navigating seem to be forming.

The first is by landmark: fixed things in the landscape to aim for. The bench on the hill; the pond; the white chimney; third pylon to the left from the big tree…

The second is by rule: look for water so the dogs can cool down; avoid water so the dogs don’t get too muddy; keep away from men; keep away from dogs that are bigger/scarier; avoid all that poo over there…

How might I re-draw a map of this area?

invigilator: new forest

Following on from this post, yesterday I transposed my usual walk to work in Birmingham to the area around my family home in the New Forest.

Rather than taking 20 minutes, we were walking for over 2 hours.

Many thanks to Lizzy and Russ for tailing me at a discreet distance with the telephoto lens.

Walk to Work – a proposal

I set Kevin the task of mapping out his normal route to work in terms of lefts and rights etc and asked him to set off one day from where he was staying in China and Walk to Work following his normal route and ‘do some work’ when he got there where ever that was. The definition of work is blurred here so do something – take photos write sweep the street – whatever.
Paul Conneally

An interesting proposition has come through to work with Paul Conneally and Kevin Ryan on the challenge of transposing people’s usual journeys to work onto different locations, and then performing some sort of work function at the new location.

Kevin’s walk in Chongqing resulted in some really nice images which you can now see on his photo gallery.

Meanwhile, I recorded my journey to work for Paul to do what he will with:

1. Right
2. Right
3. Left
4. Left
5. Right
6. Straight over
7. Straight over
8. Straight over
9. Right
10. Delay of 32 minutes
11. Right
12. Left
13. Left
14. Right
15. Left
16. Right
17. Straight over
18. Straight over
19. Straight over
20. Straight over
21. Left
22. Left

After some discussion, we seem to have a distilled version of my typical day’s work invigilating at a local gallery that Paul will reproduce somewhere else:

• Arrive at your location and set up.
• Perform a general tidy up of the area.
• Settle into your seat and become absorbed in your book/music whilst at the same time being attentive to the needs of others around you.
• Answer any queries in a polite and professional manner, asking any visitors if they wouldn’t mind adding their name to the visitors book.
• At about 4 o’clock ask if anyone wants some chocolate and then go to the nearest newsagents.
• Return to your seat as before.
• Start packing up 5 minutes early if you think you can get away with it.

That’s the starting point anyway – I’m really interested to see what conversations Paul’s presence might catalyse. We’ve been strict withourselves and dismissed the temptation of too many bells and whistles: Paul’s mission is essentially to sit, to be, and to watch.

Yamanote Stories

Checking the feasibility of telling the SoPG: Yamanote stories whilst travelling in between stations on the Yamanote line.

to suggest… there is the dream

Nommer un objet c’est supprimer les trois quarts de la jouissance du poème, qui est faite du bonheur de deviner peu a peu: le suggérer… voilà le rêve.

Mallarmé