So much dust.

The show build begins...

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Lorem Ipsum

john frum

Edward Said proposed in his seminal book Orientalism, that the west (Europe) embarked on a campaign, from colonial times onwards, where the native of the colonies was Othered, through their representation in literature and art, both in the view of the colonist and the founding empire's citizens as well as in the mind of the native, the idea of the Orient is a construct devised to create a division in our mind between us and them, the civilised and the barbarian; me and the Other

Our fantasies of the geography of the Other conjures up anything from idyllic desert island beaches where we dream of returning to our natural state of nudity to the thrill of savages hunting and killing. We expect to see this when we visit exotic locations and due to the projected pressure the indigenous populations have engaged in providing this hyperreality.

However, the native to certain pacific islands have fantasised about the West's geography: “The airstrip had a bamboo control tower with 'air traffic controllers' wearing dummy headphones made of wood. There were dummy planes on the 'runway' to act as decoys, designed to lure down John Frum's plane.” Known as Cargo Cults, several had “...sprang up independently on islands that were widely separated both geographically and culturally.”; the natives to the Pacific Islands fell under the spell of “...the wondrous possessions of the white immigrants...”. When the soldiers that were stationed on these islands left, the natives tried to reproduce complex technology by emulating the form, without understanding it, to attract the 'cargo'. (The God Delusion Dawkins, R. pg 202-204)

In both cases the construct of the Other's exotic, unknown geography, is built up in the mind, and the slippage that has occurred as a result thereof, has resulted in a distorted version of reality that has become self fulfilling prophecy; perpetuated by a feedback loop.

In the final scenes of the film Mondo Cane, Gualtiero Jacopetti’s original “shockumentary,” we see eager Papua New Guinea islanders clustered around a huge, roughly-made model of an airplane. They are high up in the mountains, sitting on a new airstrip they carved out of the forest. Their eyes search the skies, so the film tells us, for airplanes full of wonderful “cargo” that they expect will soon arrive. But they are destined to be disappointed. No planes will land. These islanders are the misguided followers of a cargo cult... http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/rvw/022/022smpl1.htm

mal·e·dic·tion

Standing on the world's summit we launch once again our insolent challenge to the stars!

Images from Mars 500 Project http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars500/
Blog title: futurist manifesto http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html

Jo Reynolds

It's growing.

I'm going to need help untangling these. 

pain itself

In, approximately, 45(BC) Cicero wrote De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Goods and Evils). At some point during the 16th century, following the commercial introduction of the printing press, an extract from Cicero's text was abstracted and used as a placeholder for the design and layout of a publication. The text used starts Lorem Ipsum (Pain Itself, loosely translated). 

a book about books. on Friday

OSCAR TUAZON
Making Books: The Social Life Of The Book
2011, English
Softcover (saddle-stitch binding), 16 pages, 205 x 150 mm
Published by Paraguay Press / Paris
$8 - IN STOCK -

Degree show fundraising cycle event hits first hurdle

Jo Reynolds

Still in the prep stages - lines and lines and lines.

Gillian Rose (feminist geographer) (1981) argues that the isolation of women as housewives in suburban locations emerged from the combined influence of working-class households, strategies, governmental policy and male power within families and trade unions.  Since Rose first argued this huge strides have been made in the name of feminism; but this is not demonstrated in Middle Eastern countries - especially in Saudi Arabia where women are not allowed to drive a car.  Saudi Arabia's belief system is deeply embedded in strict Islamic Sharia Law.  We have to ask the question "despite its wealth and power can Saudi Arabia be taken seriously in the 21st century when it imposes 7th century living conditions upon its citizens and visitors.

signifier/ sign/ signified

Pre Structuralist: a word denotes the object, literary. This view relates to the Kantian theory of a priory, having knowledge of something before even knowing it.

Structuralist: a word (signifier) signifies a concept (signified).

The Structuralists perceived art is a primitive language

The sign mediates as a visual representation between the signifier and signified.

There is thus a fixed connection between a word its meaning and the representing sign in Pre Structuralism and Structuralism.

Post Structuralism: no difference between the signifier and the signified. Words only refer to other words, concepts are nothing but words. The nearest one can get to the meaning of a word is to look at how it differs from others, Jacques Derrida: différance. The true meaning of a word keeps alluding us. 

The poststructuralist draws the following conclusions:

1. Meaning is never fully present in any one signifier, but is infinitely deferred or suspended
2.  Meaning is contextual, i.e. affected by related words
3. There is always an excess of meaning.

We don't speak a language, Language speaks us

Reality is a by-product of Language

The sign is disrupted, slippage occurs: Art is born

The first stage of my piece, many page markers!

Tuesday's Meet

 THE CHAIR

 PAY NO ATTENTION

 THE PRODIGAL SON

 "BECAUSE I'M WORKING OFF SITE..." 

 STILL PLUGGING AWAY

 PUT YOUR FEET UP

SUCCESS

binary opposition

‘It is a striking fact that in the development of embroidery ... there are no changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later, more refined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early works a technical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanship rarely attained in later times’

Marie Schuette and Sigrid Muller-Christensen, The Art of Embroidery translated by Donald King (London: Thames and Hudson, 1964), p.2.

CWP

pangaea liminia (cont'd)

As an experiential piece I immersed my subjects into a liminal state, the chosen venue was a self storage facility; recognisable as a "Non-Place" (Auge'). Once inside the space, one moves around in a homogenised environment with only numbers on doors as a guide, the contents and the environment lend themselves further to the analogy as they are in transitory state, temporarily being stored in boxes. This environment can be interchanged with any around the world without the viewer noticing: strip lights, a repetitive use of a limited palette of colours, informative signs, prohibitive signs, cheap construction materials, grid layout, etc.

In this state of liminality the subject surrenders their identity and move through space in ambiguity. Marc Auge’ describes how one leaves ones identity at the check-in desk at the airport, only existing as a number on a boarding card whilst in transit, only to retrieve it at passport control at the other end. 

The viewer becomes participant as moving from between locations within the building but the artwork, installed in a manner as to take on the profile of the walls, in itself become part of the fabric of the environment. The viewer is trapped in a double-bind as he himself is now immersed in this environment, the corridors and stairs only lead to more corridors and stairs. The corridors and stairs in the artwork are no more helpful as they are, in fact, only illusions of escape routes. In moving around in this space, the viewer activates the artwork allowing it to then be removed; part documentation, part witness.

The process in forming the art pieces added to their value as they were manipulated and folded on site. In rubbing the folds on the ground the pieces pick up the texture of the floor; this method can be likened to the surrealists’ technique of “frottage”. Multiple folds and tears becomes common place in the process as the pieces were born. Reminiscent of Walead Beshty’s x-ray photographs and FedEx sculptures that collect information in transit.

Arab Spring Network - Lesley Peat

My artistic practice has derived from my interest in historical artefacts, situations and objects that have accidentally survived into the modern era and which provide a memory stimulus to form the basis of our ‘knowledge’ of an event or person. 

The Arab Spring Network is my latest piece and was inspired by a journey I undertook from Carthage to Cairo through Tunisia, Libya and Egypt coinciding with Mohamed Bouaziz’s self-immolation in 2010. This act of protest may be regarded as the start of the ongoing Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East. I wanted to use the psychogeography implicit in this journey as the starting point for my final BA Art & Design piece.

The Arab Spring riots came about as a result of various and varied actions by many disparate people, expressing their dissatisfaction with their governments and political systems.  I found this to have a significant parallel to the many historical mosaics I photographed on my journey.  Mosaics are a traditional method of using numerous small tesserae to produce a coherent and harmonious picture.  When researching methods of portraying this change from fragmentation into the whole, I realised that traditional quilt production (the earliest quilt in the world survives from 980BC in Egypt) also echoed this process. 

The Arab Spring Network consists of an artwork reflects both the great number of participants to the revolutionary process and its historical antecedents.  The fabric mosaic pieces are mounted on a fragile net background reflecting the network of communication which enabled the Arab Spring to flourish.

meanwhile in the dungeon next door

Yeah...but does your uni have a dungeon?

annotation

/anəˈteɪʃ(ə)n/ 







noun

• a note by way of explanation or comment added to a text or diagram 
  
  

  underline

  /ʌndəˈlʌɪn/ 

  verb

  • draw a line under (a word or phrase) to give emphasis or indicate special type

what do you call someone who panics... Claire..

Where has she gone?

Getting down to business....

Would you look at all this.....

 ANITA KAUR MANN

CHARLIE SMITH

 ATHENA XOUFARIDES

 CHERRY WALLIS

 CLAIRE POLLARD

 DAVID SWAN

 ELIZABETH COX

 GEMMA MARSH

 JAMIE BARKER

 JO REYNOLDS

 JOHNNY MANTLE

 LEANNE WEARE

 LESLEY PEAT

 LUCI MIDDLETON

 LUCJA MARKOWSKA

 LUKA BLUE

 MICHELLE BARKER

 PHILLIP APPLEYARD

 UTTSAV PATEL

 WENDY TITMUS