Thursday 17 October 2019

Carer's UK AGM


I was awarded a bursary to attend the Carer's UK AGM and Carer's Summit in Canary Wharf, without which, I would not have been able to travel down to London at the current time due to austerity.




Located at Clifford Chance, at the heart of London's financial capital.

The tea game here is strong, with teaspoons contained in a holster!

Professor David Grayson CBE chairs the Carers UK AGM


#sharethatyoucare

Energy bills are the biggest source of stress for me. They are always far higher than my income (which is far too low) and whenever I ask for help for them, it seems obligatory to punish us with even higher bills, not any reduction.
My son complains that the heating is not on when he is awake in the night.
He is pretty lucky it's on at all and hasn't been cut off, because I often contemplate cancelling the direct debit, and am convinced there is an open portal to hell in the meter box.


A proper lunch spread


Carers UK seems to require a lot more funding than it currently receives.
I did not get the opportunity to speak to any of the financial representatives about how to address the problem of carers not being properly paid. 
This is because of the random nature of such events. By the time it's lunch, you need the toilet and food as a priority, then instead of the people you were aiming to speak to, you get distracted by the sort of people that you really do not need to talk to at all.



Carers UK are still aiming for carers to stay in work. I've been economically exiled from the arts, due to people replacing my job with volunteers at every opportunity, the lack of tick boxes for carers on Equal opps forms, and always losing out on job opportunities to people with more experience - normally people that can do the voluntary opportunities that I cannot do, or have not had to take time out for caring.
I'm still challenging this at every opportunity, and I should remind arts organisers that paying me a proper wage is the best thing for my wellbeing as an artist. 
Not lying about how fantastic volunteers are - those lies actively HARM my wellbeing, as my work IS fantastic, especially when the bills are paid!!



I'm lucky to receive some respite funds so I can travel to visit family. And I will be taking a respite break at the beginning of November for the first time since March!! The funding was rather late coming through, so I've had a pretty stressful summer, all my birthday plans were postponed, and I ended up doing too much, not getting enough of a break, which I regret.

But stories of carers in London not getting breaks at all, and the importance for us to not only have these breaks, considering we are often working 50 hour weeks looking after relatives with considerable health needs, but also for paid leave from work, and actual holidays.
Carers often use any respite breaks to look after their own health issues.
And with increased funds for respite, carers can take part in more therapeutic arts activity, which again increases my wellbeing. 



Here's one carer who probably would commission some work if she had the time and funds available. But she said she sources these shoes cheaply elsewhere.




Sunday 13 October 2019

The Wellcome Collection - Being Human & Misbehaving Bodies exhibs, London

Gormers - it's 10 years since I was a plinther!

I was awarded a bursary via Carers UK to attend the Carers UK AGM and Summit in Canary Wharf, London, which also coincided with #WorldMentalHealthDay



I took the opportunity whilst visiting, to go to the Wellcome Collection to see the exhibitions Being Human and Misbehaving Bodies.



This sound piece about the impact of austerity and welfare reforms that are affecting disabled people and their carers is accurate. 



This was my favourite piece, a jukebox with a glass sculpted turning component, which played 10 songs on the theme of infectious diseases.


The laser shines through the glass part to play the songs.
This one was Jimmy Somerville representing HIV.


Misbehaving Bodies is an exhibition by Jo Spence and Oreet Ashery.



I didn't have time to watch through all of the video pieces, even though they looked really interesting. 


The use of phototherapy here is something that I'm interested in for Arts in Health workshops.



Friday 13 September 2019

New Sound Art Experiments

So impoverished by austerity, fighting for my son to get an income / battling Universal Credit, back in March, I took part in an experiment.


Self Portrait in the Sleep Lab

This was in the Sleep Lab at the University, where I had wires glued to my head to measure the electrical signals of my brain whilst sleeping.
Below are some of the readings of my sleeping brain activity:








These look like sound waves, so I had the obvious question of what they would sound like. As far as I know, no one else has investigated this.
The Beatles' I'm Only Sleeping

What I liked particularly was that I was paid in £50 Amazon vouchers, so I could buy my nephews birthday presents without going into my overdraft.
Being paid to sleep is also a very good idea for artists, and carers, not being starved to death. 
It's obviously a lucrative concept, or Jacob Rees Mogg wouldn't be doing it in the House Of Commons...
It's subversive. People hate it, because they buy into the notion that leisure has no value, that work has value, but in fact, work has no value, so it needs subverting. 
Culture is a lounge. 
Culture is a not gate.








Here is the first track "Dreamfall" from the new album Lost Dreams, by Blackbird
This video probably doesn't even work.

Lost Dreams - the new album by Blackbird
Album artwork is a colourised Inktober 2018 illustration to reflect the very sci-fi sound created by my brain.
The reverse is of an odyssey to Europa, with a sonic aurora taken from running the sound sample through an online spectrograph.
Track listing:

1. Dreamfall
2. The Europan Ambassador
3. Dreamwalker
4. The Crystal Cathedral
5. Starlit Quorus
6. Hlör U Fang Axaxaxas Mlö

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Thursday 18 April 2019

Elizabeth Price @ Nottingham Contemporary


I love Elizabeth Price's work, so I was curious to see two new pieces at Nottingham Contemporary whilst in Nottingham for Nottingham Does Comics.






The combination of retro 1980's advertising style imagery, with music and text combines to form a narrative, like so many other video installations, of a dystopian or utopian future for FELT TIP.


This history of mining in KOHL


Images segue as KOHL switches over to FELT TIP





The way the images work in a way that reminds you of old technology and imagined future utopias, fashion and wearable technology that is maybe subverted somehow, has a strangely hypnotic effect.