UoL Alumni weekend

photo by Kurt Ingamells

I was invited to the University of Lincoln Alumni weekend, so I went along to find out what that was about. 
My son, Brett, had been fortunate enough to have been to visit the University with his school, Lincoln Castle Academy, to have a go with the Oculus Rift virtual reality device, and I wanted to test it out.
This was unceremoniously demonstrated in the new library extension, and as I wear spectacles anyway, I had to remove mine to put on the Oculus Rift goggles, and I must point out that they're not configured to your prescription, so the images weren't as clear for me as they perhaps were for other alumni. 
The programme shown was a rollercoaster simulation, in which the carriage in which you were virtually travelling at one point goes completely off the rails and soars through the air. 
For those that could see clearly, this was disorientating, but as it was all a bit of a blur for me, it didn't quite work. 
I was shown a virtual gallery programme as well, however, this isn't how I would use the technology as an artist at all.
I was thinking of its potential to create virtual immersive environments as a simulacrum of reality - for instance, for the inevitable A-ha Museet in Oslo, if I had this technology when I did my degree, I'd have rotoscoped images or footage of Morten Harket and A-ha, and created the comic book world of A-ha in the software programme Unity, so that visitors could go into the installation space and literally go into the comic as in the video. If the Norwegians want an artist to work on this for the A-ha Museet, I'd be happy to collaborate with Steve Barron and Michael Patterson for an immersive visitor experience.

I'm also thinking of its possibility for Apparatjik, and a proposed installation at The Engine Shed next year.
We also had the opportunity to meet the School Of Computer Science emotional robot "Erwin" and the 3D printed robot, known as "Marc".
These are being designed by students with Dr. John Murray, along with the psychology department, as friendly robots for companionship for people with autism, adult social care, and the elderly.

"Marc" the UoL 3D printed robot

"Marc" likes to shake hands

 Meeting "Marc" - I asked if it was programmed with Isaac Asimov's Three Laws, and Dr. Murray said no! Next year it's expected that "Marc" will have 3D printed legs.

Jason Bradbury meeting "Marc"

 We were joined by Jason Bradbury from The Gadget Show, who was immediately as impressed as we were by "Marc", especially how appealing and non-threatening the face is, and its appearance.

checking out the mechanics with Dr. Murray

"Marc" with Jason Bradbury's specs on!

Never saw the owners of this van! Hmmmm....

Jason Bradbury lecture

Jason Bradbury gave a lecture, in which he showed his first Sinclair ZX80 Spectrum, and described how he built a hoverboard inspired by the film Back To The Future, in a house up the hill, along with sharing various world records he holds from Gadget Show exploits, including the rocket powered luge.
He said he was always this guy with loads of ideas that he constantly pitched enthusiastically to various people, but never had any luck until someone he knew recommended him for a new show coming to Channel 5, and now he has a budget to test out all kinds of technology. 
If BBCFour want to make a TV show about contemporary art, I have some experience with SkyArts...

Jason also showed his collection of 1980s synthesizers, one of which belonged to Vince Clarke of Erasure, and how he can replicate the synth riff from a Depeche Mode song, although all that was going through my head was "MOOG","I want a go with them", and "he should come and do something with us Apparatjiks". 

The above image is of Jason describing how the Gadget Show made a prosthetic head that was taken to Cannes Film Festival and caused quite a stir!

I SEE GADGET PEOPLE

Elliott Morris live  at Tower Bars

Live music was scheduled after Jason's lecture at Tower Bars, however, this was somewhat spoilt by the world cup being shown in the same venue - I hope next year that the screen in Tower Bars will be used for something far more worthwhile than mere football, as there are plenty of pubs in the city centre that show football, and no one in our group had any interest whatsoever in it.

I was disturbed by a fireworks display distressing nesting swans along the Brayford Pool, as if anyone has money to burn, and with absolutely no regard for the wildlife - I could've put that money to better use.

Although discounts were included in the wristband for world cup events at Tower Bars, we went somewhere else to socialise, where there were no screens, and no misappropriated mass worship of mere ball shepherding.
This was the first year for the faculty of AAD exhibiting Degree Shows in the new building, and the shows were running to coincide with a small festival that now replaces the Waterfront Festival. This means that more people are likely to come and see the shows, and it was refreshing that students from other faculties came to appreciate the work. I also took the opportunity to show alumni from other courses around after a lecture with Mike Poole about 3D printing.

I imagine the Oculus Rift in a white gallery space, with a Matrix - style chair (of which I have one currently riddled with woodworm!) to create more of an impact, make it more of an experience.

Add caption

In other news, a copy of an unsolicited and unwanted "news" paper dropped through my letterbox last week. So I decided to make it into something for an art activism and to support a-n's paying artists campaign, between writing various proposals. 

Wales trip

Avian anarchy

Bob And Roberta Smith LOCWS 2014

 Last weekend I went to Wales, as my brother and his fiance are getting married next year at a castle not far from Swansea, so we went to have a look at the wedding venue. 

I had hoped to use the opportunity to visit Swansea and go and see the art for LOCWS, but we only had a long weekend (plus travelling) and only passed Swansea on the way to Rhossili and the Gower. The only piece I saw was BobAndRobertaSmith's piece quickly papped from the car window!

Blue Banana shop window, Birmingham

Minecrafting

Minecraft Carreg Cennen Castle

I did spot some Jon Burgerman work in Birmingham on the way

Jon Burgerman Birmingham

An electric sheep pen somewhere in Shropshire

Hoping that next year to stay for longer to explore some of the Dylan Thomas haunts once the centenary has passed and there are less visitors ;-)

I'm very pleased to have signed up to a-n and AIR's Paying Artists campaign, and hoping that next year I will be able to afford to travel and stay for longer. 

The Angel Of The North / Paying Artists

#paying artists

Emily Speed posted a link regarding a well known supermarket chain whose name does not need promoting on my blog, because I'm currently boycotting them, that have mistakenly projected a baguette onto Antony Gormley's much loved Angel Of The North.

I tried to ignore the whole propaganda-esque hideousness of it, and decided it was a photoshopped fake, it'll go away.

However, many a time I've been buying food in supermarkets and not been paid, most recently I could've been one of those making use of foodbanks. I haven't yet needed to use a foodbank, because I'm not currently paying the gas or electricity bill, so the choice between heating and eating is currently set at "eat". 

So I therefore believe that the supermarket involved (or maybe even a rival supermarket) should GIVE us artists our daily bread.

Bill Drummond used a tin of his International Grey paint to paint over a billboard he found morally objectionable in Birmingham.
I do not have a tin of International Grey paint, so I therefore have instead photoshopped a billboard that I find morally objectionable.
I also decided, as a-n and AIR's Paying Artists campaign was being launched, to use this for a new Facebook avatar. I can't change my twitter picture, because my browser is so out of date that it no longer supports Flash.

A while ago I was invited to take part in Lincoln Inspired festival, which is currently on. I don't think Lincoln Inspired supports the careers of the University of Lincoln graduates, as none of the artists involved are University graduates as far as I can tell from picking up a brochure. I haven't been to have a look, as I don't know many of the artists involved. I know two of the artists, neither of them are graduates. Having just been to see the AA2A scheme exhibition at the University ProjectSpacePlus, none of the AA2A scheme artists are participating in this either, so they obviously haven't been invited, even though the standard of work by Tom and Nathan is obviously very good. And inspiring!

In Which Nothing Creative Happens At All

Pinchbeck stocks - Knight Street, Pinchbeck

I never made it to Jeremy Deller's talk at Nottingham Contemporary. 
Another funeral down in Spalding during the Easter holidays, caring for a depressed son with very little support, and a complaint to the gallery manager that resulted in a false promise that something would be done, but in fact, they couldn't identify the member of staff that must've been on CCTV that day, so nothing has actually been done about it.

Pinchbeck - where I grew up

My aim lately has been to meet with the curators of Ayscoughfee Hall to concoct some kind of new work in response to the taxidermied bird collection they have there. I went for a funeral at Spalding Parish Church next door, but obviously it was the last thing I had time to do. 

Lincolnshire fields near Pinchbeck

The trip to Spalding involved a very rickety long replacement bus journey via the B roads of Lincolnshire. And news that my baby nephew had arrived. 

The trains had all been cancelled for signalling updates, and there were, understandably, very few 

passengers.

My son and I were the only people on the bus from Sleaford to Spalding, which passed through my old home village of Pinchbeck on the way. 

Since Easter, I was invited to the private view for the AA2A Scheme exhibition at the University of Lincoln, where everyone was ridiculously pleased to see me,  and it was nice to see Thomas Cuthbertson's animation, along with Nathan Baxter's space helmet video installation.

I do think that the AA2A scheme would be better if artists were paid to participate. When I took part in it, I was University staff, but I didn't have the salary or pension to go with that.

I've also been strangely invited to attend the exhibition for Opem at The Collection as an "entrant". I never entered this year, as I had far too much going on to waste my time paying the £10 admin fees, for my work to be rejected, and when no one is paying MY admin fees.

At the time, I was barely even in Single Parent Survival Mode at the time, although in hindsight, if I'd have known I didn't need to pay admin fees again, I could've entered the LAN LSM.

There is an upcoming trip to Wales, so I'm hoping to get the chance to see Art Across The City

I am a degenerate

It's official, I am a degenerate. 

A tale of two exhibitions.

The first, Jeremy Deller's All That Is Solid Melts Into Air at Nottingham Castle. I entered the exhibition space, and there was a very friendly invigilator there, already chatting to some people. So when they'd gone, I asked if it was OK to take some photos - there was no sign to suggest not, but I thought it polite to ask anyway. She said it was fine, and told me a bit about the exhibition, recommended a couple of works, and told me what she thought was interesting about them - most notably photos of women that weren't posed, like most were in the era they were taken.

I then went to have a look around, taking a few pics for later recollection, some of which I uploaded on here as of interest to my own practice, or in general.

I still receive email invites to other shows in Nottingham, whether or not I can go to see them, I always feel welcome. 

On Thursday I had a dentists' appointment to have my wisdom tooth removed. As it was located at a surgery on The Strait, I left feeling very wobbly on my feet, so I took a short walk around to the Usher gallery, thinking I'd sit somewhere quiet for a while to calm my nerves. 
Many people had said how they'd been to see the Modern Masters exhibition, with works by Picasso, Matisse, Warhol and Dali on loan from the V&A. I've been to the V&A before, so I thought perhaps I'd already seen them, but anyway, I was numb, and my face felt like Guernica, so I went to have a look. 

I didn't notice any signs about photography, but I was getting random sales text messages that I had to get rid of, so I was distracted, and still feeling very Picasso. In this exhibition, the gallery staff flocked around looking like Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. The walls had been painted black, so it was rather like walking into a funeral. I didn't know why.

I saw one image that I decided to try and draw - it was black ink print of a portrait of a woman that I thought resembled a Klimowsky image.

My mouth was too numb to enter into a conversation with anyone, but luckily no one spoke to me.
Until I went into another gallery with work celebrating 150 years of the Lincoln School of Art & Design. I saw work by lecturers, and noticed one piece by a fellow illustration graduate of my own class, and for some reason (possibly pride) decided to take a photo of it. I was then pounced upon shortly after by a member of gallery staff that told me not to take any photos. I tried to apologise, but my mouth was still numb. I tried to explain that it was work by a colleague of mine, but she was just horrible. I didn't feel welcome there. A graduate of the Lincoln School of Art & Design, made to feel like a degenerate in the gallery that I'd once spent much of my degree involved in. 
Mostly, a polite "please can you not take photos" would suffice, but there was a full on rant. It wasn't as if I necessarily would've used them for anything, it was just nice to see someone's work that I recognised immediately exhibited.

I left and passed the offending woman on the way out. It was pointless trying to make my point, but I said that I'm a graduate of the School of Art & Design, and complained that I'm not allowed to take photos of a colleagues' work. She just started another rant, so I left, feeling more ill than I'd been when I went in. 
I just think that it was bad enough that I'm an artist, and a local graduate, but many of the visitors won't be, either artists themselves, or University of Lincoln graduates, so I waited until my mouth was less painful, and have complained. 

Teacher's Strike

EMVAN and Jeremy Deller exhibition

Today, I went to Nottingham to go for "Meet The Curators" EMVAN event, and then to see Jeremy Deller's touring exhibition "All That Is Solid Melts Into Air" at the castle. 

I did not have a day off. It cost me £5.50 to get in the castle, plus £11 train fare.

Hello, Today you have day off Jeremy Deller, 2013
Fabric banner made by Ed Hall

This phrase was recently sent as a text message to a zero hours worker telling him that his labour would not be required that day. Courtesy the artist.

The Happy Mondays Ian Tilton 1987

 Black-and-white photographic print

In 1987 Ian Tilton spent the day taking publicity shots of the Happy Mondays. During this he not only documented a new band in the making, but also a changing Salford, as it moved from an industrial economy to a leisure one.

Projected video, approx 16 minutes

In this film, various members of the public including those on zero hours contracts read accounts of life and work during the industrial revolution, a pop video is made for a Victorian Sci-fi broadside illustrated with home movie footage from 1973, and a new soundtrack accompanies some archive film from Oldham.