Day Eight – 22:04

Klimt: a public commodity

Image 8

When: 25/09/08 – 23:44

Where: Ladies toilets at The Famous Lion, Stoke town centre

Urban Canoeing

The Thames river, London September 2007

Public Tendancies

Give the public a whiteboard and they will speak their mind – topical as ever

IKEA store, Warrington – Summer 2007

Day Seven – 00:07

Image 7

When: 19/09/08 – 09:37

Where:  Parked on Ashford St, Stoke-On-Trent

Day Six – 23:58

Urban geranium

Image 6

When: 12/09/08 – approx. 18:55

Where: Crewe Station (Platform 4) awaiting the 19:07 Derby train

…a continuation

So I’ve been wading through what is ted.com and have discovered some amazing things. But the one that speaks to me most, is linked below. His website is also now on my blogroll as it really is quite astounding.

And I thought categorising newspapers was challenging. This guy has managed to categorise the Internet:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_harris_tells_the_web_s_secret_stories.html

Astonishing.

Third Year, Week One: Day 3

Okay, so I’m sitting back with a glass of Sainsburys own Brandy Alexander ready-mixed cocktail, watching what has recently become one of the most addictive websites in my bookmarks ( http://upl8.tv/ – if you’re interested) and I come across a talk about how we’re not always right to medicate people when we discover they’re restless, or that they have a short attention span – what’s wrong with finding out what makes them concentrate and help them to train and enhance their lives?

Obviously, a very interesting argument. So I go to the original source of this video, and find this website: http://www.ted.com/ which houses an array of different talks, a new one uploaded each week. In an attempt to find the talk I was only half watching before, I discovered something far more interesting in terms of my work for the coming year…

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/a_j_jacobs_year_of_living_biblically.html

Sadly I dont seem to be able to embed the video here, but I really do recommend you watch this 17 minute talk. It may not be hilarious, but it is something I am considering as part of my work this year. Perhaps not in biblical terms, though… Enjoy.

Was it useful?

Well, this trip down Memory Lane has actually been quite insightful. I think I have actually managed to pinpoint where my interest in information and data has stemmed from.

The constant need to know which train, which destination, what time I had be in a certain location, has drummed into me the need to know pretty much any small detail that I come across. Having started with newspapers on trains, I think I just continued with something familiar and readily available, that also contained an unimaginable amount of data that could be analysed. I could easily spend at least a fortnight analysing one newspaper. It sounds ridiculous but it’s true.

Breaking down masses of information into easy to consume categories and measurements is of great interest to me. Keeping a record of routine events is also something thats on the cards, I think. My discovery of On Kawara’s work this Summer now becomes clear – definitely a major player in my influences this year to come.

Influences of the time

I have just realised I havent mentioned any artists I looked at over this period. There is a definite Sophie Calle influence, particularly in my (not uploaded) photographs. I actually took it upon myself to follow a woman around the streets of Liverpool, eventually getting onto a bus and sitting behind her, whilst transcribing the conversation between her and a friend. Perhaps I went a little further than you would normally consider for a few photographs, but what can I say? It’s a great anecdote.

David Salle’s work was rather influencial in the sketches and charcoal drawings I did throughout the year, nearly all of which were based on photographs. The overlapping of images is something that I’ve always found interesting to look at, since first seeing Picabia’s Hera (1929).

I’m sure there was more to my year’s work then, but names evade me. Below is one of my final exhibition pieces, taking into account the themes of not only transience, but of items that tend to live in the Present being ‘frozen in time’ as it were.

The pane in the window was made out of resin-coated newspaper clippings, taken from newspapers and magazines abandoned on the trains I travelled on. The window pane was an interesting way of presenting this frozen point in time, this glimpse of news found by chance, taking the same journey I was taking. I really liked this piece – it is a shame that the window frame had to be given back. Now the pane sits frameless in my spare room.

Approaching some sort of resolution

After studying my many MANY photographs and life drawings – which, by the way, are somehow less intrusive than taking a photo – why is that? Why are we more comfortable with someone analysing our every detail over a period of time, rather than the quick and painless flash of a camera in our faces? My tutor once refused to have his photograph taken incase I stole his soul, but would happily sit for me. Sketches draw interest from the public, whereas a camera is the quickest way to clear a space in public.

Where was I? Oh yeh, so I’ve studied my images and came up with a painting of sorts for my painting module. Now, I liked this, very much, but there was nothing to it. Nothing to grab onto, in my eyes. It was empty and lacking anything real or tangible. Disappointment was setting in when I looked around the studio, but then I realised, my theme is/was Transience, that feeling of displacement, the area between A and B – the journey. Knowing this, the painting makes much more sense.

My painting in the studio, charcoal still setting – it took me about 8 hours to complete start to finish (not including canvas prep). I enjoy the mess of it all! Compared to my later work, you can see how… clean I have become. Perhaps in an effort to be different? New? I don’t know. I think it’s time to get messy again.