End of (another) era..

Well, another year (academic) draws to a close, students we have nurtured and (in most cases!!) cherished are at the point of leaving for pastures new. I feel. as ever, sad to see them go. They feel like family in many ways, and it is impossible not to become attached to them. We finished the year off in style, with a final show, followed by refreshments at the beloved Dove. In fact, a good deal of us became very refreshed indeed, leading to good honest banter and a few chosen photographic opportunities (see above).
I have to say, it has been a real pleasure and honour to work with both the staff and students of ND2 and Foundation. Although it can be a roller-coaster ride throughout the year, the overall vibe of the place is still untouched by anything! Good luck to you all, and keep in touch.
One last mission - the Cambridge trip...........oh yes!

Eating an Elephant

Continuing on the long path of creating content for Quiet Voices at the Big Chill. I am trying to aim to create around 5 minutes of animation a day until July - hence the title! Some days, when it all goes tits-up, it seems an impossible task, but I reckon I'm on target. I have to say, it is not always easy to envisage 5 screens all running at once and, in reality, folks will probably only be able to see, at most, 3 of them at one time. The prospect of lighting such a big space with video, however, drives me on, and I have now seen the content tha Tim Hetherington and Kate Flurrie are working on, and this promises to be really beautiful, and very different from my own work.

When Information becomes a distraction.

I received an email from somebody today saying that my hotmail email account had been spamming her. I don't use it much, so wandered over to it and had a look. Sure enough, things were going tonto, so I decided to close it completely. Guess what? It proved to be harder than I envisaged, and I still don't know if I have succeeded. This, naturally got me thinking about all of these things we sign up for, never fully knowing if we can ever fully leave them. So I decided to quit my Myspace account next (I rarely use this now). Guess what? You see a pattern emerging here? The thing that concerns me most, is the trepidation I feel when hovering my cursor over the "close account" button. This, in itself makes me want to do it, yet the drug is obviously still coursing through my cyber-veins, and quite clearly, these need purging. Facebook is the biggie, the class A, the opiate. Part of me feels connected by using it, and part feels slightly inadequate in feeling the "need" to use it. I have found it a good way to squirt useful, individual information to students, in the absence of them being at college 5 days a week, but I have Twitter, and this blog, so this should all still be possible. And if it isn't, I suspect that the earth will somehow continue to revolve. As for my friends, well, I have their emails, their phone numbers and hey, if I'm feeling really wild, I can always talk to them face to face. I simply feel that I am experiencing information overload, and a big part of me would like to shed a load of it. My work as a lecturer is, by its very nature, highly sociable, so its not like I am in need of the "company" - and I use this word with a pinch of salt the size of a small planet! I'm talking myself into this, what do you think? The irony of me posting a link to this on FB is, by the way, not lost on me!

New York

Just got back from our trip with the students, to New York. We had a short stay there, in the heart of Chelsea, taking in the sights and galleries of this extraordinary place. Feeling - as predicted - really odd being back in Suffolk, but I am enjoying the quiet.....More pictures to follow.

Quiet Voices at The Big Chill

I can now confirm that The Big Chill has asked me to programme the Igloo Stage for Sunday's ambient night at this year's festival at Eastnor Castle!

Following the success of “Quiet Voices” at TATE Britain in January, I am proposing to bring that experience to The Big Chill.

Using 360 degree projection in the Igloo (the blue bit in the image above is the screen), the space will be submerged in down-tempo and ambient sounds, and bathed in lush, cinematic visuals shot around the world. Music from Enrico Coniglio, Alucidnation, Another Fine Day, Ben Mynott, Mr Tom & Input Junkie; Video installations from: Simon Wild, Muffled Visions, Francesca Coniglio, Phoebe Rixon and Tim Hetherington. I will be presenting audio-visual collaborations with Tom Green (Another Fine Day) and my visual piece set to “The 4th State” by Jon Hopkins.

The festival runs from 5th. - 8th. August 2010. More info here: www.bigchill.net

I am now officially excited!

Spring??

Really hope that this long, dark winter is behind us. I have the sun streaming in through my studio window, still struggling to warm the place but hey, at least it is trying! One good thing about it though, is the light - and I've been looking through my photographs from various dog walks and found these two.



Beginning to clear my memory cards out, ready for New York...!

Hanging in there...

I cannot explain why, at this time of great weariness (Sarah, my beloved, has a new job in London - this involves us setting the alarm for really silly hours in the morning) I am enjoying (!) a really prolific spell. I am SO TIRED. There, I've said it. Yet out of this daftness seems to come films, images and lots of folio watching....
College work is tough but wonderful, if that doesn't sound a contradiction. Students are buzzing away, getting places at universities and generally keeping me real and happy.
Jess brought me back the catalogue / book from the Van Doesbur exhibition at Tate Modern, this is giving me a lot of pleasure at the moment, and I am looking forward to seeing it for myself - perhaps once this term is out of the way.
And, to cap it all, as I type this, there is a blackbird singing in my garden - it is dark and 6.00pm - this is a sure sign that spring is on her way.....thank fuck for that.