muirhead tower

I was on the University of Birmingham campus yesterday for some stuff relating to Day Science/ Night Science. I’ve been onto campus quite a few times over the last month or two, but this time was in daylight and over in the North section.

Heading back to the station I had a good view of the Muirhead Tower one year into its massive refurbishment programme.

It took me a while to realise what was different (seriously – the building’s already been under scaffolding for at least the 10 years since I first arrived in Brum!)

muirhead tower - now

I remember being crammed into the staircases with hundreds of other students waiting to go into their exams: trying to disregard the signs everywhere insistently telling us that for our own safety we should keep moving.

There’s a small part of me that would like to give it a go now.

going up

In writing this post I had a look around and came across the Associated Architect’s blurb about the project.

muirhead tower - what they're aiming for

I’m not so sure about the text running up the side of the building (apparently named after the first philosophy professor of the University) but I’m really glad to see that the new designs feature the Allardyce Nicol(l?) studio theatre because up until now it’s been secretively hidden away in the bottom of the tower accessed from the outside by a dingy back door type affair.

I’ve basically been lurking around these parts for a decade and never so much as seen anything advertised for here. I don’t know if they put on performances that are open to the public… but I can’t help but feel it would be quite nice if they did.

large smoked vessel

Previous posts for your information

You’re going to smash your pots?! But why?!

OK, so when I did this test and posted this post I was thinking that I would build on the FMG‘s existing practice of using ceramic powders as a base for screen-printing inks.

Rather than alter the process, I was interested in using different raw materials: rather that using bought-in standardised powder of controlled composition, particle size and everything else, I wanted to use something with more of a human element about it. Something with a history.

The day science/night science text that was to be printed is discssed in more detail in this post.

Bearing in mind my recent crises centering around (amongst other things) what characterised my best/more interesting work and the gradual admission that it wasn’t my more craft-oriented stuff, I chose to use some of my old ceramic works as the source material.

During the course of researching the screen-printing process and investigating different binding materials, it looked like the other materials in the ink would obscure the presence of the crushed ceramics.

I’m no longer planning to use screen-printing, but will instead use the ceramic powder in a more sculptural way…

day science/night science

One of the buildings where I’m based as part of the ISP thing is the NetShape Centre. Basically where a load of industry-focused research is done into trying to make components as close to their final shape first-time ’round without having to do any further finishing or processing. The thing is though, its front wall is almost entirely windows and it looks absolutley stunning at night:

NetShape at night

At night the building is illuminated… and deserted. But there’s still a sense that things are happening. This is probably partly because it’s stuffed full of all sorts of recognisably scientific and technological equipment, however, I think that the main contributing factors are all the pipes and wires around the place. Maybe this gives a sense of movement and of processes churning away.

You can feel it.

pipes

Right from the start I’d harboured a desire to use this space somehow, but it wasn’t until about 5 months into my time here that the perfect project materialised.

Actually, it’s a project that’s been incubating for 4 years…

Francois Jacob

When I first started the BA course I read a book on creativity by Margaret Boden.

Within this was a quote from the autobiography of a Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist:

Day science employs reasoning that meshes like gears… One admires its majestic arrangement as that of a da Vinci painting or a Bach fugue. One walks about it as in a French formal garden… Night science, on the other hand, wanders blindly. It hesitates, stumbles, falls back, sweats, wakes with a start. Doubting everything… It is a workshop of the possible…where thought proceeds along sensuous paths, tortuous streets, most often blind alleys.
François Jacob
The statue within: An Autobiography, New York, 1988, p296

I have carried these words around with me for a long time and they resonate on all sorts of levels.

The NetShape Centre provides the perfect setting to use these words beyond the obvious link to the day and night thing.

If I remember correctly, Boden’s book was looking at the similarities and contrasts between creativity as seen from an artistic viewpoint and creativity as seen from a scientific viewpoint. I can very much see both aspects of the quoted passage within my own work. Firstly within the context of a (percieved!) art/science dichotmy and later as different stages I regularly go through within my art practice.

Do the people within the building experience the same thing?

I like the way the use of these words here hint at the infallible(?) scientists just blundering along like the rest of us.

In addition to this, I now learn that Jacob conducted work on feedback witin enzymes. This links in nicely with the idea of responding to your environment and, by extension, the whole notion of residencies.

So…
The words of Day Science and Night Science will be integrated with the architecture of the NetShape Centre.

Pauline’s mug

One day, at a time when various other projects had stalled somewhat, I found myself over in the other side of the building. Thinking I’d grab something to eat, I wandered into Pauline’s.

For want of a better term, Pauline was the Department’s resident tea-lady. Tea, coffeee, sandwiches and the usual assortment of crisps and chocolate bars.

Pauline 2

When I walked in though, she told me she was retiring at the end of the week.

I felt I needed to use the next few days to document the end of an era: having worked there for over 20 years, Pauline was an institution.

She told me the story of her time in the Department and we reminisced about “sunset tuna” sandwiches and Children in Need collections. She often talked about the students as being “her kids”. She’d even remembered me after 6 years!

However, in the the time since I had been there, the urn and the table bearing rows of food had all been stripped out and replaced with a couple of vending machines. Even the cash box had been replaced with an electronic till…

This was the result of catering being centralised and the ensuing rulings over Health and Safety. No more hand-made sandwiches. No more fresh(ish) tea. Apparently things had been pretty dire over the last couple of years, but Pauline stuck it out ’till she could retire.

I made some sound recordings and took a few photos, but it seemed the most appropriate way of marking the event was to make a commemorative mug.

Pauline 1

The design takes several references from the sort of thing you see to mark royal weddings and jubilees, but being hand-drawn in biro, it is kept fairly low key.

The final presentation of Pauline, includes the mug and a short text (written on a Catering Services feedback form).

Pauline 3

virtual mug

Remember this?

I finally managed to make a start on getting a virtual mug to manipulate.

locating thiggumy

scanning

ink 1

Carl’s bucket (according to Carl)

Damn!

I described the contents of Carl’s bucket, and then I recorded Carl describing everything as he put it back in.

Carl and the contents of his bucket

I was going to put the recording here, but the machine ate it. No recording.

Idea posted here for future reference…

Carl’s bucket (according to me)

Carl’s bucket

  • 6x latex gloves: all used
  • 3x boxes: labeled 267-1222, tool steel, 8mm sq x 100mm, made in Sweden, PE
    • Box 1: contains 1 piece of toolsteel, 8mm sq x 100mm
    • Box 2: contains 4 tools, various shapes, total length approximately 8mm
    • Box 3: contains 1 piece of toolsteel, 8mm sq x 100mm
  • 1x 30cm ruler: steel, metric on one side, imperial on the other
  • 1x double-ended spatula
  • 1x Stanley tool: name and shape unknown
  • 3x biros: black, stubby
  • 1x biro tube: black and white striped, cut to approximately the same length as the biros
  • 1x cylindrical stub of Milliput(?): in knotted transparent plastic bag (bag split, Milliput dirty)
  • 2x small plastic cases: labeled Industrial Tooling Corporation SE. 0769, cutting tools may shatter: eye protection should be worn
    • Box 1: empty
    • Box 2: contains a small drilling tool
  • 2x length of brass tube: different lengths
  • 1x countersink: HSS, 12.4mm, 90°
  • 1x small drilling tool: shattered
  • 2x bolts: 40mm long, allen key top
  • 2x bolts: 50mm long, allen key top
  • 1x set of allen keys: 10mm, 8mm, 6mm, 5.5mm, 5mm, 4mm, 3mm, 2.5mm, 2mm, 1.5mm, complete
  • 1x plastic disc: white, slightly sticky about 60mm in diameter
  • 1x metal ring: approximately the same size as the plastic disc
  • 1x plastic bag: small, transparent, self-seal
  • 3x plastic discs: white, about 20mm in diameter
  • 2x pennies: one minted in 1976, one minted in 1989
  • 1x square of metal gauze
  • 1x rubber band: large
  • 1x small plastic self-seal bag:contains thin, sticky, transparent plastic discs
  • 2x thin, sticky, transparent plastic discs
  • 1x roll of sellotape: small, nearly finished
  • 1x metal component: about 25mm in diameter, with shoulder, hole through centre
  • 1x metal component: about 35mm in diameter, without shoulder, hole through centre
  • 1x 35mm bolt: black
  • 2x 18mm bolts: black
  • 1x small metal block: cutting blade attached
  • 1x resin moulding: bullet-shaped with internal screw thread

the contents of Carl's bucket

18 mugs

(drawn very quickly with my other hand)

18 mugs



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