Wednesday.

See the full gallery on Posterous

So I have started to think about how I can represent these spaces and places and feelings and whatnot... I have started thinking about how spaces hold down memories 

 

-Maybe in terms of drawing, I could run around a huge piece of paper making lines, thinking about 'communication' ( the silly 999 calling situations...Set up scenes?..films, objects?) .Look at my immeadiate surroundings, for (possibly obvious..) inspiration for ideas about place-hotspur! I am also looking at maps and mapping dead spaces and places around manchester-telephone exchanges

 

-Casts moulds of spaces/objects...I think negative space holds the 'feelings'  of that space or place, as the feeling is almost in the air. Also want to draw negative, or use stitch as an illustrative tool...

 

-Telephone exchange loosing function...thinking about functions of spaces, what happens/happened,functions of dead and non places...

I have done a few starting drawings and ideas, and I think that strangely, they look quite spacey, considering the sciency-spacey research I have been doing...Map drawings looking like little nebulas and black holes...hmmm...

 

Spaces hold down memory...

A little direction for the project, and after talking with Nigel and the group, I have decided to think about a few key themes...

I have been thinking about non spaces/ dead places, and something in particular I have been interested in are the abandoned telephone exchanges around Manchester- dead empty/unused spaces (some still with equipment). They have lost function, and in one sense the jobs of people who worked there unthinkable, probably very silly, in todays digital age; if a 999 call was put in, someone would have to run around the exchange to trace the number to find where it was coming from, something that happened at least until 1985...

The main things to consider from this were...How to tease out the memories, how can I represent things that happened in spaces/places that give it that history or feeling?! Re-stage it? Spaces hold down memory, so how can we let that speak...And so the talk with Nigel really did help, as I guess this is what I am trying to explore and present.

Now, how to do this!

 

 

 

Home is where the Art is.

I went to get some dvds out the other day, 'House' by RW, and I came across and interesting one, bbc 2's 1999 art series, an episode by the name of 'Home is where the Art is' where a group of artists (Anish Kaapor, Richard Wentworth, Tony Cragg, Anthony Gormley and others...) were asked to create a series of pieces, working together with 'Homebase' inspired by homes of families they went to see.

Interesting points

-Artists were concerned with the mass produced aspect of their pieces

-Anish Kaapors work considers spatial awareness and so his piece had to be perfect (a lamp) to set the right feeling.

-Richard Wentworth thought about traces..

-Anthony Gormley commented he wanted his 'coat pegs' to support life rather than confront life, unlike a lot of his sculptures. Coat pegs are to be seen as an image of ourselves, he responded to the environment 

'What happens in that place?' I question to my surroundings...

Slides...

I really like the slides. Lovely little artefacts, and very interesting ways of recording.

After going to the cornerhouse and seeing Mineriva Cuevas's exhibition I felt the two linked quite nicely, as her work was a comment on 'mens instinct to explore and acquire knowledge', she used lots of old recording and optical equipment, slides, films etc...Made me think about the sciency investigative elements to my findings...

See the full gallery on Posterous

To the Airport;

Number one place to go on a friday afternoon without the expectance of flying off anywhere pleasant.

Which was part of the reason.

I wanted to have a think about non-places, an airport being one of these. The main thing that I found interesting was the feeling of being in a non place, being in an airport without going anywhere gives completely different experience...displacement? It was just quite odd. 

Got me thinking about changing what you do in a place- Thinking back to Gregor Schieder... 

So Instead of changing the place/space, changing what you do...

I did a bit of stitching while I was out, as oppose to photographs, thinking back to  that 'profound limitations of the visual' so stitching instead of photographs...Also wanted to play around with the idea of locating what we do and what we remember to where we are spatially..

See the full gallery on Posterous

 

I read something about 'waiting' the other day on Art Angel, which I think quite applies to the idea of being in non places...

We wait. We think.

Caught between one place and another. Railways, airports, lifts, motorways, roads.

Thinking about dead spaces, non places, altering characteristics, by objects? what sort of changes?

Round in circles- Space, place, unheimlich...

Jodrell Bank...

Little trip to Jodrell Bank...I was thinking about structures and a feeling of space, and thought what better place than here.

I dont think it fits in quite exactly, but it was great to see. In fact in was pretty awe-some. It was huge and lovely when it whirred up ready to move all of 5mm...

I love the mathematical structure, the geometry of it all, and especially the little huts on the side! Twas very interesting to see and may inspire some future ideas.

Science.

I have been thinking where I may want to go for more research (been a bit of a bookworm, need to get out.). And I'm thinking science museum (for the top floor science-bots) and Jodrell Bank ?!

As I was thinking about photos, being limited to edges, this led on to thinking no edges, no boundaries, no limits, memories blurred, also applying this to Madchester club-scene (Dave H's talk in mind). I started thinking about how (and I have posted about this) in the 14th/15th centuries where a 'sense of belonging' and place was a bit airy fairy and it was all about space, maths, science, wanted to go beyond boudaries and venturing into the limitless infinity; a bit new exciting scary experimental idea-wise as, people weren't having it at first...

So it could be nice to look into this change, and bring a bit of Manchester into it, directly/indirectly.

Could be nice for visual research about objects, as I have briefly looked round and there were some strange instruments and whatnot...


I also want to go to the slide library, might have some interesting photos, and also just because I really liked the slides!!! They were such lovely artefacts, i would quite like to display them empty, or take them out and photo spaces through them. Also ordinance survey maps, as I used maps a bit in ze last project, and they make pretty drawings.

Gregor Scheider

I think it's fitting I want to learn German for the amount of German artists that feature on my blog.
Gregor is another excellent germanic export, playing with ideas around Freuds uncanny or unheimlich. I knew I hadn't seen the last of this word...
Gregor  features in the Tacita Dean 'Place' book (this book is a fave'), under subheading: fantastic. Agreed!
His work is an 'architectural reminder that Freuds uncanny, or unheimlich, is closely related to the homely, or heimlich'.
In Totes Haus (Dead House) walls are built in front of other identical walls, so changes are perceptible but unrecognisable; floors lined with sound insulating materials altering room characteristics invisibly...the 'increasingly oppressive atmosphere palpable nonetheless' ' a building of intense spatial and temporal dislocation'.
Most interestingly relevant, it is commented on how this could be considered a form of exploration of a greater collective memory and communities lost.
I'm thinking about this in conjunction with 'profound limitations of the the visual', Actaully altering places, creating a strange feeling of place... Buildings in Manchester are built over with completely different things, but what if it was to be replicating, place-ing elsewhere? Making multiples, identical and place-ing together?
Maybe I could visit dead places and spaces and houses around Manchester, and leave multiples of strangeness, for fun?

A few artists...

I mentioned Cornelia Parker before to Hannah, and I think she is quite an interesting artist, especially as [in a book] it says she

'transforms destructive energy into poetic moments'

Which could be quite an interesting thought when/if thinking about events in Manchester...

I think the suggestion of turning energy into a poetic moment is quite a nice idea as I have been reading the 'Poetics of Space' (which to be honest was very confusing at the beginning, especially when it was talking about poetics and the poet) as its about transforming a feeling, or 'energy' or something into a poetic moment of some sort...

Bernd and Hilla Becher are also a duo I that came to mind...


They look into the history of the landscape in regards to technology and change, they take photos that are primarly visualy about the sculptural value, and are said to

'Focus on processes of production in an age that is increasingly dominated by images of consumption'

However, I also think from the images (whether intended) they create a sense of place, that being an empty place, dead space, showing 'spectres of the past'. It's possibly a more literal take on things, but I think the photographs are beautiful.

The way of photographing is something I want to think about/steal. And I also like the idea of transforming energy into poetic moments (I think a number of words and ideas can be substituted to make a fitting phrase for everyone!)

Think.

Continuing on the very general theme of 'place' I have been also been thinking about photos;

Photos as a thing that may be a 'profound visual limitation', and I am not saying it is, but I am just thinking about playing around with a few ideas about this for drawing or (even applying it to making) and getting started.

Photos have edges; boundaries!  Limiting that sense of memory or feeling....

We seem to remember limits to our tales, the middle, no beginning or end, blurs, 'club scene'? 

So thinking about drawing with no edges, long rolls of paper, continuous lines, and stains, to think about creating a sense of place and memory, there will be no edges (so there is no limitation) and things will not being temporary (stained). This could also be applied to the idea of change, time, continuation of change and journeys...

To create place is.. to think about the environment your in, so maybe create drawings about the feeling of that place, busy drawings, quiet drawings; if I am in Hotspur, are my drawings crumbly, bit empty, mis-matched? Damp, dark?...

To think about non-space, or dead spaces, what is a non drawing, or and empty drawing- minimal marks?...

To think about old and new, what about drawing with hand, and mechanically? Like making tools that make multiple marks like a machine. 

I want to really think about that feeling, and intangible nature of place and connect to manchester, or my sense of place... I think this could be the beginning to some drawing and making/experimenting...

Place.

Yesterday I was:

Thinking about Place. Sense of place, temporality, experimenting with materials, time, recording, raw, original, dead spaces, non spaces.

Today, I had a lecture about materials, and read a pretty amazing book, called, 'Place'.

The book is by Tacita Dean and Jeremy Millar, and has reinforced my ideas and feelings about a sense of place!

I have always had a strong interest with place, I always feel a connection or a sense of place, I realised to SPACES and PLACES where I have been etc...

But can we ever relay that sense of place, of that feeling we get when we are in a place? E.g. a photo of somewhere that was beautiful or a huge expanse of space, when I look back at my photos I see a photo with edges and its small and evokes a memory of that feeling, and im sure if I was to show it to anybody, they wouldnt feel it, they may think 'I would like to go there, it looks pretty' but they would not know that feeling and may possibly think back to their own memories. The essay of the book concluded with the artists Marine Huggonier, who ended her filming of the Afghan landscape, because she realised:

'the profound limitations of the visual.'

And so

'a more profound engagement must depend upon more than the visual, upon those things that remain invisible.'

'How can artists begin to deal with Place?' questions the book. We can use media and techniques that can describe a place tangibley, or through history and intervention. But how can we explore 'something that is so personal and intangible, but at the same time universally understood'?  is this my quest?

And so

Thinking about materials (with help from Tim Ingold):

properties: are objective and measurable; and also, not just attributes, but histories...

qualities: are subjective, reveal our own personal preferences.

What is a materials and what is not?

 

I still want to think about making things, and what materials I can use. And I want to walk around town, and 'word it up' collecting words of what I feel to put into drawings. As a start?

I'm going to have another think and come back soon. 

 

New Space.

A space! At last! To call my own. Well a table. And a damp wall.

Today we moved in to Hotspur House; a fantastically rundown, but happening little building, and a little bit spidery.

As we moved in, photographed and looked around, I reflected on what we have just been told, I started thinking about spaces and places and temporality of things but as a positive thing. The temporality of not just the places, but that nothing is set-in-stone, ideas could become temporary, can change, really that everything is a big 'pop-up'...

Its like, things will be constantly happening and changing; in and out, here and there. Exciting and scary.

See the full gallery on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

I think the building itself will be inspiring to my project; its crumbling, its pretty much dead but very alive, it has a network and buzz,

it has a good feeling.

 

Posty post; Dave Haslam.

For starters, Dave made me want to get out more and go to cooler places. 


He is about 30 years old and definitely beats me in the cool-factor (crack gallery;hacienda;fanzines;roadhouse-I have been to the roadhouse, thats one cool-point for me).


He was there in the 'Madchester' scene, and talked about how its whats in the margins, in the grotty and grimey parts, its the fragmentedmusic scene, it's not being the norm, its about what's raw, what's different and being a 24 Hour Party Person that counts.


The points I really picked up on...
-in the 80s, people worked in empty spaces: mills, warehouses, 'dead spaces' ; what if we made use of dead spaces now, or non-spaces?
-raw. things that are raw. does this mean not being contrived? just original, not planned, but new.
-small, small scale, small venues, spur of the moment?!


It was a really interesting and engaging 40 minutes, a great start of hopefully great things to come.