Work journal, artist and exhibition research

June 3rd

Yet again I discover, through the power of the internet that an idea that I had has been done :(  I came up with the idea of some shoes with drawing materials on the bottom, probably graphites or something, this is way cooler though... I wish I was one of those kids!!
Crayon helmets!

June 2nd

I haven't been researching artists and works or journalling a great deal recently as I have been more focussed on building my outcomes and testing them, that said I did start having a look at a few bits and pieces and have checked into a few recomendations from friends and so forth and came accross these fantastic works here by Echo Yang. I love the idea of repurposing old machinery, it is something I would like to do in general, take a thing and use it for another purose entirely. these are genius and make some nice marks. The more I look the more wonderful drawing machines I find and more things I want to automate for this purpose.





 May 10th
I have been looking at a lot of drawing bots, mechanical critters cruising around making marks and they are wonderful fascinating things. Not just bots but mechanised drawing machines... it is truly a rabbit hole I am happy to go down.
I would like to make some and do some work with these but for this brief it is all about the hand operated pieces, but here are a couple of favorites

/http://technabob.com/blog/2011/10/19/senseless-drawing-bot-truth-in-advertising/ 

The elegance of this one here is just so simple... The output is beautiful

http://www.designboom.com/design/eske-rex-drawing-machine/

 there's video on both of these, give it a watch it is quite mesmerising.





May 3rd

I have recently come accross Jean Tinguley and I am very glad I have, his work is very much along the lines of what I want to do with drawing machines, kinetic sculptures and "useless machines". He does wonderful sketches as well and was a prolific producer of work. I like the lighthearted look of some of the machines and the sense of fun, especially impressive are the gigantic outdoor sculptures he made.

April 28th
Rosemary Lee is someone whos work is absolutely fascinating, she combines philosophy, art, science and literature, any and everything in between. An intelligent and inquisitive person who creates work that compells and comands attention. Mine anyway. I came across her whilst researching drawing machines and her Misuse of Media work is utterly mesmerising and this piece is well worth the watch,

Misuse of Media: The Sublime in the Machine, Drawing Machine II from Rosemary Lee on Vimeo.

More on Rosemary's work later.


April 22nd

This morning I discovered this guy Robert Howsare's work which instantly madde me wake right up and start thinking about possible applications for the idea, He has two turntables giong at variable speeds to create the images.

 So today I'd like to play around with a similar idea using cogs and handles, maybe different sized cogs. Shall I do upright or flat, pen, or carving, I could use the idea to carve into a soft material perhaps.
I'll get busy and tests and results will be over on the main page once I am done.

I then came across this other idea  above which is fantastic because, well I love a crazy contraption but especially when it does something, plus the bike is in there.

.... half an hour after I wrote the above I found this...  

 http://leafpdx.bigcartel.com/product/primograf-drawing-machine  

 

Which is pretty much exactly what I had in mind... gutted! How dare anyone invent my invention before me! It is lovely though, well.... where to now.

An artist whos work has been extremely inspirtional is Aurthur Ganson. He builds incredibly complex and intelligently thought out but whimsical machines that sometimes do something, sometimes not. I admire his designs and technique for bending wire into cogs, this man has done some amazing stuff and given me a lot to mull over, I have at least one design in the works somewhat based on his tower of cogs piece here  

Hear him explain his work and see some more marvelous pieces here

April 7th

So as I have been feeling a bit stuck I thought just trying to clear my head and see what happens was a good idea, this led me to, well back to Marcel Duchamp

and through him some other interesting people and lots of work that has made me think. I thought perhaps taking the brief back to a more organic place rather than thinking of the digital side would help and it certainly has, I have had loads of ideas for work that is purely tactile and not digital in any way, a bit unfortunate as I really have wanted to combine the two but that is not to say that I won't be able to, just not right this minute. Kinetic sculpture has been an interesting avenue of research, I would like to build something in this vein but hand operated of course rather than with its own power source. So it takes me back to the idea of people interacting with the work, operating it and this being done in a very organic intuitive way. I want it to be fun and lighthearted, nothing complex. This is about the basic tactile responses we have to things, our nature to touch and play with stuff.
I also had a quick look at  Giacomo Balla and I really like his lines and a great deal about his work, in particular this one here, I love the curves and general feel of it, it has some potential as a 3d interactive piece and has me mulling over some fresh ideas.

 

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/giacomo-balla/plastic-ensemble-1915

March 31st -----------------------

Micah Purnell is a local artist doing cool stuff, I was in the pub and came across the beer mats which, of course, I nicked.. as you do.

His Dear Progress stuff is fantastic, right along thie lines I am thinking for this project as well, and he echoes my thoughts exactly.. "Purnell says the idea of addressing the letters to “Progress” came from thinking about a favourite Aldous Huxley quote: “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” For instance, he says “smartphones have brought with them the problem of not being present with people. These things aren‘t bad in themselves, but I want to be the one with the power.”
Of course as a poor art student the scope of what he is doing is exciting but unaffordable, I want to use technology as well as old school communication, this balance is my goal, maybe nbot for this project but in general and certainly when resources allow.
I suppose what I am really asking is, what will it take to get people off the phone and back in touch with one another? Why are we so addicted to it?
I like his way of delivering this even if the irony is that I photographed it with a smartphone... well... yeah.

 yeah, he made beer mats as well, I like beer mats, I nicked a few from the pub, as you do!

           
Maurice Carlin is a guy doing really interesting work, he was inthe Bluecoat last week doing this funky piece

 

http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/content/the-negligent-eye-exhibition-pack

and today I went to see his enormous instillation in the warehouse behind Islington Mill, he's essentially "scanned" the floor, like a rubbing but using a screen printing squeegee and printing ink so the result is a

lovely mottled array of different pieces of texture. The whole process was live streamed and here

you can see the different parts, the pink area was outside the camera view so what you'd see on screen was the centre part and it would come up looking square.. you put on these little painters shoe covers and walk around the whole thing, there's a lot of beautiful texture and thought to it, it is going to be managed in a way where people will become caretakers of sections of the work. This could be a really nice way to keep work living and interactive in the way that it created dialogue and community, possibly.

                                               a little video I took to show the size of the work.

March 29th
This article was in the Guardian today, a very interesting idea and certainly along the lines of what I would like to play with, sensors, LED lights, participatory art, the combining of art and science etc... I would however challenge the statement in the article that it is the world's first work of art to respond to your presence, there have been other examples such as the musical sensor pieces I remember in the

http://www.furnacepark.org/projects/neurone/

 NYC subway in the 90s, not sure if they are still there but you'd wave your hand in front of a sensor on one side of the platform and it would trigger music on the other, loved that and often detoured through 34th st just to play with it, Orlando library has a similar one outside and I used to enjoy it a lot. While these are not stricly reactionary in the same way it must be noted that they are, by definition, reactionary. Interestingly, these are both by the same artist, Christopher Janney.. hmmm.. wonder what he is doing now..

March 23

my effort

This image has got to be one of the coolest things I have seen in a while, i have a thing for QR code anyway as I think it still has a lot of potential in art and interactive designs, despite the great stuff that has already been done but this... 

and I thought cutting one out of cardboard

was painstaking, my hat is off to you fellas, this is all win. It is just one piece that shows how hi tech and low tech work can so beautifully be combined.

This is the sort of thing that I find exciting, a globally interactive project that relies on technology and it does not matter where anyone is, so being unable to leave China does not have an impact on Ai Wei Wei's ability to work with the artists of the world.

I also really like the thought that every mark matters, every person's input is as valid as another, this is the way things must be in all facets of life if we are going to get better as a species.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, yes.. this is the way forward, let things become other things..

Martin Parr/pop up restaurant... this takes the interactive idea to a whole new level and I just love it.

http://www.theartofdining.co.uk/next-pop-up/

The thing is there is no limit but imagination, anything can be done! There are so many ways for audiences and artists to have a different level of contact and interaction.

March 16th

Joana Vasconcelos at Manchester Art gallery


I have been to see this one a few times and will no doubt see it a few more, I watched in awe as they installed it and just love the way it makes the entire gallery feel so alive and connected.  It affects the people visiting in that they all talk to one another about the work and interact, I am sure this was a part of the design for the installation, how could it not be. This is the sort of thing I would like to be able to achieve with an installation, something that not only makes people take notice and look up from their phones but that brings them together, whether they like the work or do not it will be a talking point.
This exhibit is like a giant meteor of colour and happiness exploded and all this wonderful stuff came spilling out. What an acheivement.

March 16th

Antony Gormley, Another Place

I went to see this for the first time a couple of weeks ago and was blown away by it, it's such a peaceful contemplative work and one I plan on spending a significant amount of time with in the near future. One is faced with the concept of the temporary nature of human life and the sense that nature will always prevail, I find it comforting.

Quite a beastly installation really and one that elicits as wide a range of emotions and reactions as there are people who view it. This is what an installation, rather any art should do and this one has quickly become a serious favourite of mine.

Manuba Hagga  First Cut exhibition, Manchester Art Gallery 2013

 

photographer unknown, source: pinterest.

   I just loved the peaceful dreamy feeling this installation gave, the branches gently swaying and, while standing among them, you sway too! This is a lovely and elegant piece of installation work, so simple yet so striking. I would be very happy to achieve something like this in my artistic life.

More at the Manchester Art gallery, this time from DO IT, part of MIF13 July 2013

As a volunteer during this festival I got to experience a great deal of the DO IT exhibitions and it gave me a great deal of food for thought in terms of the questions, What is installation art? What is interactive art?

I made tropical fish from the shirts in the room filled with clothes to play with.

Yoko Ono's tree

       Volunteers making Thai green curry paste in the gallery

A vending machine selling cans of beer for £1 encouraged people to throw the cans in a heap next to the machine.