A Title? I am Sure it will Emerge

I am at a point – a time space that exists just after finishing work before going on holiday. It is a point of reflection, a thought of blog posts that were never made, guilty that time has not being there, brain energy depleted – a hangover from the blog piece describing my brain being dragged from one space to another.

I notice no video or pictures in that blog which is not like me and I have nothing prepared this time. My flickr stream has remained static – things have got to change. I hastled another artist to blog about what she was doing – advise post pictures etc. But here I am – wordy – the opposite of arty but I am sticking with it as this place I can sound off if I want. The beauty of a blog. (I’ve heard that before!)

I’ve done a lot of writing in the last couple of weeks. Got a great crowd together for the making of the Oz Recycle & Mend – to Trend fashion show (that reminds me I have got an image!). Got a Shropshire art grant. Ran an artists exhibition blog (lied above as she emailed me stuff and I blogged and twittered it). A service I can run for all technophobic artists wanting to join the web revolution! Printed more Pathways books. Produced second version of the Telford Celebrating Cultures DVD and agreed finishing plan. Actually stayed awake long enough to remember to go to a VAN meeting and saw the amazing achievement of Gallery Live come alive. Time for light picture (hard sell) relief!

Then there was social media blogging website community bla bla – asked to talk about my blogging experience at the Shirehall council chamber in front of 100 council staff with the rest of the Shift Time team. Then invited to a community blogging / website meeting at Castlefields Cyber Cafe. During the presentation I text twittered things like social networking flavour of our time! Do we really need people from London Stoke and Brum showing us how to start a wordpress blog. Surely there is enough skills in Shrop to help start community blogs. Maybe its harder than I think but my experience is its not and talkaboutlocal.org said its not hard too. Time will tell. You can have your say at the ning social networking site that was set up.

Dragged from one Brain Space to Another

I thought (I didn’t really) – I hoped, as I finished the bulk load of the pressing projects on Friday night, my workload would ease on Monday. I was mistaken and still feel exhauasted by being dragged from one brain space to an opposite one.

The weeks before I was dealing with the steamroller that was Pathways, a video documenting the art project Celebrating Cultures and the video documenting  Ellesmere Sculpture Initiative’s Symposium. These projects were interupted by the oasis that was the Quantum Leap public art conference.

At the conference I was able to sit and listen to public art organisers experiences. All including the organiser of the Angel of the North reported on a similar train of events, starting from suspicion and anger to acceptance and ownership. Three cheers for public art as the afternoon seession was taken over by the charcters involved in the Quantum Leap delivery. There was no time for questions so there was no chance to find out why the colour wasn’t white as in the published illustrations and what caused the completion delay?

The Quantum Leap sculpture was officially opened by a decendent of Darwin and the small demonstration by three people holding a cryptic banner didn’t stop everyone going home feeling better about themselves and their art attrocities!.

I  have mentioned the three main projects I was working on before and all singularly were fun to do.

Pathways my project – trust the artists – get it done to the quality I demand. Workshops, evaluation book publishing, 2 exhibitions and an opening. Everyone including the 4 artists very happy. The exhibition is even selling strongly.

Celebrating Cultures is a video arts documentary about the arts projects and performance for and with people with learning difficulties. The video is edited and posted on the web for the clients to comment on. Comments coming on Thursday.

Ellesmere Sculpture Initiative Symposium was a dual documentation project involving producing a multimedia blog and a DVD.

Somehow the imposed deadline forboth video projects was a week ago last Friday. I originally planned one video to be completed but the ESI video was suddenly asked for.

When you say DVD or video it doesn’t describe the level of concentration and time in takes to put together. I was also designing and producing a book about the pathways exhibition. The week of putting up the Pathways exhibition full on and all consuming.

So DVD’s with the clients hopefully not too much left to do. Pathways exhibition up, books delivered, a complete success.  Friday over.

Monday brings the nightmare survey and report and ACE application meeting and I realise just how unprepared I am – completely dragged from one brain space to another. Tomorrow I have a chance to move my brain completely to it – if I fail to move it , Friday will be a lot of trouble.

Pathways open up

The Pathways workshops ended this week with a room full of creatively exhausted artists looking at a mass of exciting inspiring work. The collaborative buz of making art pushed people through the day and now we are looking forward to see the work displayed in the Qube gallery.

The second workshop was very different from the first in that it encountered a very different landscape, we spent a full day exploring the route and then waited a week for the studio part of the workshop. Some participants did some work in the week, many revisited the site.

We met at the foot of a forest track near Rhydycroesau. We were each given a bag of art materials and began walking up the track into the pine forest. Every now and then we were called to stop and given 2, 3 or 5 minutes to creatively respond to what we saw, heard, smelt or felt. Sounds were interesting as gunfire came from shooting ranges near by. The light coming through the trees is what inspired me.

We  eventually turned off the pine forest track and entered a very special (what I would imagine to be)  indigenous woodland growing amongst rocks and boulders. A great Yew tree had seeded hundreds of years ago in a crack of a great rock. Its roots had now fractured the rock and the great Yew towered above it.

We were choosing our own spots to stop and draw now and I settled on a bench observing  another mighty tree framing beautiful upward shooting yellow leaves in the distance.

When we emerged from the woods we came across expansive views along a valley one side and the Shropshire plains the other. The sun fleetingly lighting up fields below intrigued me one side and sheep lying under bushes and trees held my attention the other side of the hill top.


Everyone left the hillside with lots of sketches, photographs and thoughts. We were asked to do some preparation for the studio workshop in a weeks time. A few days later I revisited the pathway but the light was very different and it reinforced my feeling that my sketchbook had all that was needed for the second workshop.

The studio workshop started with a colour excercise. What was the color that most impacted on you? Imagine it – mix up the colour and paint a large block of it. Use another colour against it if you wish to achieve the effect you want. We were then encouraged to work with what we had started to create our first artwork of the day. Turning to our sketchbooks we continued working on paper building up ideas.

The day continued with us all building a body of work which led on to tackling two canvasses.

The results of which will be on show at Qube from 6th October until 13th October and then selected work alongside the ARTedge Pathways exhibition 19th October until 28thNovember.

Pathways – thoughts about the first workshop.

The Pathways journey has truly begun. It has been an emotional path so far as main organiser but participation as an artist in the first workshop was a powerful insight to the creative impact the projects idea has on an artists practice.

The workshop began by exploring a physical path, focussing in on parts of it and making records of your sights and thoughts.

I settled on the edge of a pond. I had seen a heron flying – circling moments before and I had set off through woodland to see if I could see it fishing. My view was blocked by trees and bushes and I had come to the edge of the water. I tried to settle focussing on the ebb and flow and sun glistening on the water. A loud splash/crash flapping sounded close by but my view was blocked and it went quiet again as quickly as the noise came.

Frustrated I retraced my steps and found a different – more open path and eventually settled again looking through branches at the water lapping onto the mud bank.

Two things side by side – layers of branches, light and lapping water next to rocks and stones on a bed of mud.

These are the ideas I took back to the studio.

The afternoon studio session consisted of a series of exercises intended to develop ideas and concepts. The first was called ‘Taking your pencil for a walk’. We sat in front of a white piece of paper with a graphite pencil in our hand. We were asked to shut our eyes, think about the pathway we journeyed and draw our thoughts and feelings as we travelled.

I found this excercise very meditative, letting your thoughts filter your journey and really focus on what I found important. The drawing was uncontrolled and gestural, with an energy and dynamism I wouldn’t have been able to consciously contrive. The drawing became the basis of my inspiration during the next excercise ‘Getting to know your work’.

The last excercise was a drawn ‘Chinese whispers’. I chose a drawing of the stone shapes – copied it quickly – turned the original over – copied the copy then repeated. After a while I copied with different mediums and colours.

The first day had been inspiring and everyone was there eager to start on the second day. It was a gentle start with a preparation demonstration on the fluid use of oil pastels. Janie McLeod talked us through the subtleties of using Sennelier oil pastels.

This led us in to a truly creative conversation. The aim of the workshops included the output of producing a coherent Pathways mural made up of 12″x12″ squares. We were presented with 12×12 paper and a limited range of  oil pastels. We were given 5 minutes to start  a drawing. After 5 minutes we were asked to pick up our drawing equipment and move to our neighbours drawing. Consider it and then add to it sensitively as you felt necessary. After 5 minutes you were asked to move on again. At one point we were told to leave our drawing implements behind so we were stuck with what we came across on the next table. Eventually we arrive back at our own drawings and were given time to reclaim them, making them our own again.

The process produced a coherent set of drawings that were surprisingly powerful. Workshop leaders Judy Gough and Janie McLeod decided they were strong enough to be included in the final mural which was not intended.

For the rest of the day we were all given the task of producing 2 canvasses. A limited pallet of acrylic paint was supplied which made me pine after my favoured primaries but proved a restriction worth while.

Because of the quality of the work produced I decided that all the work produced during the workshop would be displayed during the preceding week before the Pathways exhibition at Qube Gallery.

Pathways

After a tireing inspiring first day of the Pathways project thoughts are overwelming but just enough energy to sort a few pictures….

News from Ars Electronica Human Nature Festival

On Saturday 5th September I flew to Linz via Birmingham and Frankfurt with 5 West Midland Art professionals on the request of ACE to visit Ars Electronica. We have had a great time exploring the exhibitions and at the end of the second full day here I want to post a few of the initial web clips to start the blog off.

A glimpse of the second day. we visited the Human Nature Exhibition at the Brucknerhaus and saw some more amazing things. Again a glimpse – Shrink.

and then there was day 3 with a visit to the Royal Interface Culture Masquerade Ball – a title that made no sense of the works in the exhibition. None the less it was a strong show made up of students projects which included Andreas Zingeries’ Wearable Interfaces for Spy Pigeons which featured a birds eye view.

Litz is a lovely city to visit with cultural buildings overlooking the Danube. Ars Electronica was an interesting mix of technology for technology’s sake and what was artistically inspiring, technology invisible, a tool in the creative process.

It was most interesting discussing what people found the most engaging. I have never been a fan of art videos. I have to throw all my art school training about looking at an exhibition away because you can’t scan this type of exhibition and get a sense that allows you to focus fully on a few works. Everything is time based – you have to plug yourselves in – I’d much rather sit in a cinema! But the first comment I heard from the most digi art addicted man – his favorite work of the day? was a video of a 16 month ish baby attached to a bunch of helium balloons. If the baby jumped slightly he would take of and float high in the room. Video of a baby giggling enough to make grown men and old art hacks coo – yep I agree – - engaging. Balloons are certainly in – balloons and a camera obscura – a man blowing up and floating on a balloon multiplied by morrors-  and of course my famous Shrewsbury Quarry balloon shot http://www.flickr.com/photos/marttn/3686099067/.

Other favourites were the rocket man. All video pieces. Table and chair outside. A rocket is st up pointing upwards. Man sets rocket off. Man jumps under the table – rocket crashes down – near miss! Man lights fuse on rocket pointing horizontally – man runs away from rocket – rocket chases man – near miss!! You get it – engaging.

There were some lovely machines that made scraps of paper look like a flock od seagulls. A chair bouncing around a cat. A music machine that replicated a tune played on a laptop keyboard by running fingers around the rim of many glasses and spitting balls up into the air  to land on a glockenspiel like instrument. My favourite though was Shrink – shrink wrapped Austrians – just cool…

Bobby Britnall Open Studio

Coming soon ……..

No its not soon – in fact some weeks later – the pleasant visit into the south Shropshire Hills now blurred from nearer art experiences.

For starters….and probably the last.

The multimedia beauty of a blog

Since volunteering as a shift time blogger http://www.shift-time.org.uk/blog/ I have been engaged by the multimedia beauty that can be used in a blog to illuminate information. Not just a blog though – social network sites and twitter play their parts in broadcasting information in a creative format.

Working with the shift time team and the training and support that was provided me opportunity to develop skills, use new services and test new technology. This has led me to develop an art project #is_happening and use these new skills to creatively document the Ellesmere Sculpture Syposium in a new way.

I am sure its not new but just enlightening to me in that I can easily use my skills with cameras showing short clips that together with writing impart the feeling and essence of the project in an exciting way.

At the shift time debriefing meeting this week there was a lack of understanding of the creative potential of blogs and social networking and twitter sites. Also the marketing potential that it delivers. The discussion though cemented my ideas and now I see the multimedia beauty of a blog.

ESI Telford Pathways

What is ESI? go to http://www.ellesmeresculpture.co.uk for the answer. From my perspective it all started with Extramuros http://qube-oca.org.uk/arts/extramuros.htm a major public art sculpture touring exhibition that came to Ellesmere in 2007. Added to that British Waterways commissioned 3 sculptures that are place along the canal in Ellesmere http://benchart.org.uk/ellesmere.aspx I was involved in managing all of these projects.

On the back of these projects a lot of expertise was built up at Qube in Oswestry and community members of Ellesmere. From that ESI was formed and over the next two weeks 6 sculptors will be working in stone at the TEG Quarry in Ellesmere. The work they do will be displayed at Castlefields in a stone sculpture cluster. Added to this are 3 scholarship artists who will display work alongside this work and show smaller work at Qube Gallery. My role in this appart from organising the exhibition at Qube is to document and through that market the project. So follow #ellesmeresculpture on twitter and check out the blog http://ellesmeresculpture.wordpress.com

Luis, Tom and Trevor inspecting their work stations on the first day.

I am also spending a lot of time in Telford. There is an arts project there delivering arts activities to people with learning difficulties and I am making a DVD about it. So far I’ve seen Chinese Arts – lantern making and dragon puppets followed by dancing and Tai Chi. Natalie and Sarah were making artwork around the jungle theme and next I will video African drumming and the final event at Oakengates.

Pathways is another project you will hear more about. I have worked with ARTedge – Judy Gough, Janie McLeod, Gill Crozier and Judith Harrison to develop this project. It is about discovering pathways through landscape that inspires a pathway into creativity – a journey through an artwork where the end is only known when you find it.

There will be 4 workshops in September the results of which will be displayed alongside ARTedge’s response to the theme at the Pathways exhibition at Qube in October.

#is_happening

What was #is_happening? it happened on twitter over 7 days 22nd – 28th July 2009. Why twitter? Why 7 days? Why #is_happening?

As an artist I collect images, moments in time, thoughts. Some of these collections are structured and I am happy to turn them into films. Others will become a painting. There has been a thought that has made me collect things that didn’t fit into these normal routes. Being introduced to Twitter gave me ideas how I could release a multimedia mix of words, sound, pictures and video over a period of human defined time. The use of the hash in the land of Twitter provides a link to all twitters using that reference so hence #is_happening.

The first line of #is_happening was written when I was feeling very low, thinking how low my brother was feeling before he died and what moves me away from following the same course. I stood facing a bridge which stood symbolic. I took a photograph with my mobile phone.

I wish I knew what to do – what #is_happening ? don’t worry x http://bit.ly/19TX3k

The second line questions whether humans are truly free. Life certainly is an ebb and flow.

#is_happening free…not free free…not free free…not free http://bit.ly/kE1S2

Our ancestry certainly dictates who we are. Things happen in threes. Humans have created expressions of time – a concept that is expressionless, being infinite.

#is_happening repetition programmed history three http://bit.ly/RwlIO

When I think of my brothers death this recorded memory echo’s how I picture him being found.

#is_happening society class relationships http://bit.ly/125nqi

He died on New Years Day my 3rd child was born on the 3rd day of that year 1992.

#is_happening life death remembering http://bit.ly/F7usE

How sometimes I feel very close to my brother and certain moments spark that closeness.

#is_happening genetic repetition imprint http://bit.ly/liAZA

Life starts with a seed…..

#is_happening happened remembrance inevitable http://bit.ly/9mBXI end