March 30, 2006
Gronk’s BrainFlame
Welcome to the inside of an artist’s mind–a 5,000 square-foot digitally animated depiction of what happens during epiphany.
I’ve yet to hunt out more information, but this looks like it’s an animation for one of those dome-shaped 3D immersive environment things.
update: Yes. It is.
update on the update: more info including some background on the residency.
observations of audiences
update: I haven’t seen it with any audience, but this might be a contender…
I’ve been thinking about 2 different shows I saw last weekend.
Different shows; different settings; and completely different ways that people were engaging with the work.
I went to the preview of The 18th Storey: 10 artists installed on the 18th floor of a soon-to-be-demolished tower block.
I really liked the idea (‘though I wonder how it compared to similar enterprises) and I loved the poster-sized, blue-print styled exhibition info, but somehow it was really difficult to engage with the work.
I think part of the problem was that the large, poster-sized, blue-print styled exhibition info was a bit to unweildy to refer to at the time so I didn’t really get much of a feel for what the work was supposed to be about (there was little or no information accompanying the work itself).
It was cold, it was busy, we just sort of scooted ’round.
By way of a contrast, the next day I was envigilating VASULKA LAB 1969 – 2005 at Vivid.
Also a cold space but…
…people we coming in (often for a second time, to finish up on what they missed at the preview), plugging themselves into the headphones and standing in front of the video screens for about 45-90 minutes at a time.
Wow. That’s some level of engagement for video peices in a gallery setting.
mailbox blur
I’m half thinking about submitting some work to a competition, so I went to the venue – Birmingham’s Mailbox development – to check out the feasibility of a sound piece installation.
It’s not looking particulary likely because the architecture is just too tight. However, on my way out I did get some interesting random photos just by pressing the shutter as I moved through the space with my camera swinging in my hand.
TFSR website launched
Here we go: the second large website to be launched this week…
Now weighing in at about 100 pages more than it used to, the new Tools for Self Reliance website is a lot more useable, not only in terms of the standard of the coding and construction, but also in that it has made a lot of resources available to its audience.
Yes, this site has to communicate the message of what TFSR does as a charity, but it also has to fulfil a lot of other functions too: Handbooks, policies and other publications have now been made available online; there are several methods for making donations to the charity; and there are Latest News and Stories from Africa sections that demonstrate things happening.
Leading on from this last point is the aspect of this website that I am most pleased with: the fact that the content of the site is now back in the hands of the TFSR staff. Using WordPress as a CMS enables them to manage and update the content of the site as and when they need to. They are in control.
quantum computer
A New Scientist article about a quantum computer program that has produced an answer…
…without actually running.
that drawing thing
I’ve written and spoken several different times about the exchange visit to Joshibi, but there’s one bit that always seems to get overlooked: the two mornings I spent in the painting department.
One of the problems about writing about it 7 months later is that I deliberately did not keep any of my work – once again I wanted the emphasis to be more on the way I was working rather than what I produced.
The only documentation I have of that time is a handful of photographs – most of them quite blurry.
Day 1: Looking
The first day was a really welcomed opportunity to just be in a new space and look. And then look some more.
It was great: everything from the paint splodges on the floor to the quick sketches of my hosts as they worked or chatted.
I taped one of my drawings of paint splodges to the floor next to the original. I wonder how long they both stayed there for?
Day 2: Collecting
On the second day I felt the need to gather things together a bit. I wasn’t sure, but I suspected this was going to be my last session in this space, so I wanted to collate stuff into a mini-project of sorts. So, that’s what I did: collate.
I spent a long time moving around the studio looking at the all the unfinished canvases on the easels. For each painting I found a line or a detail that I found interesting and I drew that out of context of the rest of the painting.
On returning to my own easel, I then collated these stolen fragments into a composition of my own. I didn’t talk to anyone about what I was doing. I wonder if anyone recognised any of their own work?
