Sunday 11 December 2011

A day full of inspiration and pants!



Pipolitta Rist @ Hayward
Up at 5am today to catch 7.15 train from leeds to London. A great day, I have to say, the negaitive is it went so quick! The morning was spent at the V&A where I attended 'The power of Making' interesting start...with the curators talk about how craft is settinga new landscape within creative industry...and then it died a little , the interiewee was rather annoying! I sat next to a lady form the design musuem and we talked briefly. I wonder what its like to have a job as a curator in such a wounderful place as the Design musuem, imagine all the interesting people you would meet and all the interesting work you would see and be involved in?? I remember seeing Martino Camper there a few years ago..he had produced 100 chairs in 100 days...the whole room was littered with chairs made from chairs. I mention him as he was one the designers due to speak at the event, but because of illness he could not make it...damn shame!!  see extract below...
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6 September 2011–2 January 2012

The Porter Gallery
Room 48
Admission free
The V&A and Crafts Council celebrate the role of making in our lives by presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects, ranging from a life-size crochet bear to a ceramic eye patch, a fine metal flute to dry stone walling. Power of Making is a cabinet of curiosities showing works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world to present a snapshot of making in our time.
The exhibition showcases works made using a diverse range of skills and explores how materials can be used in imaginative and spectacular ways, whether for medical innovation, entertainment, social networking or artistic endeavour.
Making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world. What and how we make defines who we are, and communicates who we want to be.
For many people, making is critical for survival. For others, it is a chosen vocation: a way of thinking, inventing and innovating. And for some it is simply a delight to be able to shape a material and say ‘I made that’. The power of making is that it fulfills each of these human needs and desires.
Those whose craft and ingenuity reach the very highest levels can create amazing things. But making is something everyone can do. The knowledge of how to make – both everyday objects and highly-skilled creations – is one of humanity’s most precious resources.
Guest Curator, Daniel Charny

Daniel Charmy taked passionatly about how it important Craft is in society in particular creative industry. Craft is running forward together with digital technology..this made me think that if the traditional elements of craft is so important then why in education are we losing our ceramics, darkrooms and printrooms to settle for digital..??? its a scray thought that in 10-20 yrs time all this will be lost to the future, students will have to look up how to process a film on wikipedia if they want to know the technique...and do it themselves at home, thats of course they can still buy the developer?? crazy. This notion was confirmed recently when a lecturer from the BA photography course at Hull could not believe that we still had a dark room, as far as he was concerned it was wasted space and we at Harrogate still lived in the dark ages...Of course we engage in digital technology..yes!! but what about the wounderful process of being able to actually make something, physically I mean...to feel the material your working with, to smell it, for it to evolve before your eyes I have to say is the best thing of all. So then why cant both craft and technology in education run pararel together, why I ask does the traditional have to be phased out if there is such an upsurge of craft in industry???    

http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/happenings/exhibitions_and_galleries/power_of_making/

Ok the afternoon was spent at the wounderful Hayward Gallery, on the southbank, I love this gallery and this part of town, the walk across the bridge from embankment to southbank is breathtaking. I always have to stop and take in the the city's skyline. Anyway back to the Hayward, currently showing is Pipilotti Rist. PR is a video/installation artist, sculptor who produces colourful themed projections on a large scale, underpants chandelier (see above image) to handbags and shells with little narrative projections staring out. wow i was and am so inspired. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uKR-QhjOz-o    

Video...Pipilotti Rist made her first experimental videos in the late 1980s. These were single-channel videos; works that involve a single tape, one playback device and one display mode, such as a TV screen. While music plays a large part in these, Rist’s main interest is in the perceived failings and shortcomings of video. "I’m interested in feedback and generation losses, like colour noise and bleeds. In my experiments with video it becomes clear to me how these supposedly, faulty, opportune images are like the pictures in my own subconscious."


Installation Soon after making her first experimental videos, Pipilotti Rist started creating environments that influenced the way in which her works were seen. Videos are projected in unexpected ways in order to manipulate scale, context and the position of the spectator. Works are projected at angles on the wall, or onto the floor so that visitors can move in and around them, and also become part of them. Over the years, Rist has progressively redefined this relationship between audience and art work, creating all-enveloping visual environments that place particular importance on the viewer’s physical presence. Rist comments: ’When I close my eyes, my imagination roams free. In the same way I want to create spaces for video art that rethink the very nature of the medium itself. I want to discover new ways of configuring the world, both the world outside and the world within.’ These immersive installations are, in effect, an invitation into a parallel world – into Pipilotti’s world


Sculpture Rist began to make sculptural works in order to escape the confines of the two-dimensional screen, and to open herself up to multiple possibilities. By combining videos with everyday objects, she changes their nature and imbues the most ordinary events or objects with a sense of wonder. Believing that the objects that surround us contain memories and have stories to tell, Rist integrates video projectors and screens in unexpected things and places: tiny monitors are hidden in handbags or displayed on a gigantic lettuce, projectors are placed in a watering-can and a hanging saucepan, and a book, a vase and a chair are all used as projection surfaces.




Thursday 8 December 2011

I try to think of what time is and all I can think is...''time is time was.'' Warhol

Working on the 'Creative Skills' module has got me thinking about what I have achieved this year...which if I think back is quite abit.
1. becoming Web 2.0 friendly or not (the negatives first) i.e. social networking, that is facebook, which I can proudly say I am no longer part of. I say this simply because Im not interested in other peoples buisness, or do I want them to know my personal activity...enough said. I also looked at twitter another waste of time a 140 something characters to put your voice across, where do people find the time..? I have 50 followers, why? where did they come from?? I haven't said anything, just joined up (that reminds me I must come off that too)!!. Ok so I have presented the negatives first thats because Im saving the best till last and that is blogging..!! yes dear 'blogger' friend you have motivated to write again, to express my thoughts in a quick, organised and clear manner which I cant do if writing in pen? writing a blog has also allowed me to ramble privately what ever comes to mind, reflect, problem-solve, post up new findings / research and develop...(until DDP is complete this is how I wish it to stay). who would want to read my blog anyway?

2. using a mac! which I have started to use lately on reqular bases, why was I ever frightened, seems crazy? anyway the reason being is working with film, which when I think about it im not sure how it came about...just had this sudden urge to make film.( will have to look back previous postings) As a result of this urge, Ive learnt how to create film, download onto imovie and edit (30.11.2011). Editing is going to be the hard bit, that is, knowing exactly what to cut. My theory is to edit every 2nd or 3rd frame and then from there assess and work on again...get it down to 8/10 mins (some films are an hr long) and speed up, the car jouney Im considering reversing the film so that I now following the car that was behind me, it will be like driving looking through the rear view mirror...not sure this make sense but i know what I am thinking about here. something that I have consider is that the films Ive made need to shorter, easier then to edit down. However the project I have in mind will not require editing, I want them to run, to think about what could happen..i discussed this in last posting..what i have thought about now is to set up 2 cameras one where there is nothing going on the other where there is, Im going on this theory of metaphysics, of time and space and that 'nothing' in context (is) relevant to someone/something, somewhere, sometime, somehow...I like this idea of watching 'nothing' in the hope that something will happen, and at the end of watching it was it relief that nothing happened or disappointing because it would have been good to have something to look forward too??? ummm.......

Im currently reading Andy Warhol: the philosophy of Andy Warhol..its great! really enjoying his writings, amusing too. I need this book at the moment, funny how things come into your life when you least expect them too. Serendipity i guess. furthermore this book only came about because my colleague had mentioned Warhol's 8 hr film of the Empire state building, which got me thinking about he's reasons for creating film..this book does illustrate this briefly in chapter called 'work', but it refers to his reflections on himself, which I can relate to and what encourages me to think about my own practice. Ive just thought that I need to list films made so far...November 2011. Letter box (1hr) car journey (1hr 20) cat flap (20 mins) radiant map (5-10mins) student films (1hr) 

3. writing a paper. (difficult at times) Im not sure Im a writer in the academic sense its gaining that experience, writing papers are all about presenting structure and being able to write in a particular way and importantly to demonstrate new knowledge..I like to write freely which means not having to worry that Im not doing it correctly... this attitude wont get me anywhere so I shall keep on with..the plus is I definatly think I have developed my writing skills over the past year. I like words, I wish blog you had a thesaurus??

Moving on..
This posting started as a reflection of what I have achieved this year...I needed to do that, not sure why but its there now and will no doubt contribute somewhere later on. As result of writing it down this years achievements, it has presented futher considerations to the outcome of pursuing such activities. For the purpose of the module I now want to think about the radiant map. I want to get it clear in my head what it is i want to discuss and how..illustrated below are areas I have had to consider when defining 'problem space' within my learning contract.. 

elements required to form  new knowledge




Development of radiant map


As applied in a game I have used cards to write down reflections, actions and evaulations created from links that is threads of thought, my ideas created using letra set onto acetate to move around the board. By means of raising the acetate I realised that the words formed shadows on the board, this interested me and what made me think about Plato's, The Allegory of the Cave, extract taken from Wikipedia:
In the dialogue, Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners...To consider the shadows created from my process of thoughts could be likened to universal concepts advancing to new knowledge.
The Allegory is related to Plato's Theory of Forms, according to which the "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. Only knowledge of the Forms constitutes real knowledge. In addition, the Allegory of the Cave is an attempt to explain the philosopher's place in society: to attempt to enlighten the "prisoners".