Katie Paterson

Just came across a very intriguing artist (courtesy, the Guardian). Katie Paterson explores an 'atmosphere of almost naive wonder' exploring ideas about time and space and works with scientists and astronomers around the globe

She has 'pursued projects that have seen her engage a variety of scientific specialisms -notably astronomy and astrophysics- and broad subjects at the edges of scientific knowledge'. She has been an artist-in-residence at UCL and regular contact with academic departments and observatories around ze globe (link- makes me think....Lauren Bowker and her chemistry buddies).

Interesting projects - ongoing project involving collecting discrete photographic images of darkness and and disparate points in the universe and turning them into slides... creating the tiniest grain of sand-experts in nano-technology carved an infinitely smaller fragment from an already miniscule grain of sand, and place it into the desert accompanied by a photo-postcard and a description... Vatnajokull (the sound of) was a piece of work exhibiting a neon sign of a phone number, that if rung would put you directly through to a microphone submerged into a lagoon where the rush of water and trickles of water could be heard...

Lately I have been having troubling thoughts, about this new age of design, technology and trying to find a place, but Katie Patersons work really has a sort of calming influence and has given me inspiration to think about the more sciency-experimental side... 

There is an interactive element in her work, but at the same time it seems quite passive,and its about her experience first. I have read the artist focus' a lot on research and writing and thinking, showing that time and space are a method of working as well as a theme...

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.