Well it's been a funny old week. Been the first week of term at work and things are pretty hectic. I can almost feel the mechanisms of the degree show clunking into action. This will be my third degree show on the other side of the fence and it's funny how things work in cycles. When your at art school your going through all the different stages, from the wide eyed nievete of first year through to having to put together the first big show of your career. It's amazing how much you change as a person and as an artist over four years in art school. You arrive wishing to cast aside and destroy all these stuffy conventions of conceptualism, context, and chin scratching only to find yourself at the other side as the sort of person you hated at the beginning, but with a deeper understanding of why things are the way you are.
But now I went back to the school to work it is a completelly different situation. You get to understand the workings of an art school. The trends and the patterns that exist through the student body. Each year a new bunch of 'crazy' young first years flood in ready to begin thier journey and each year the looming cloud of the logistical nightmare that is the degree show. This year the graduating class are those who were in first year when I was doing my honours, and things feel as they are coming full circle.
The thought of facing Grays without people there who were there when I was a student is a bit odd really, means I'll have finally 'properly' cross over into the realms of staff and all memory of my art school days will be gone from the student body. It's just a reality I'll have to face I suppose.
Also this week I've been getting more into the world of blogging. I know I've been sporadically waffling on this for a long time, I pulled out the twitter account and got it up and running on the old iPhone. I've been getting quite into it but I've only got six followers and I'm pretty sure they aren't interested in what I have to say. I almost posted from the toilet earlier nut I didn't think the Internet was ready for news of my turf. Although obviously I've changed my mind now I'm writing this. Ive managed to get a feed from my twitter running on this blog, and I'm currently trying to find a way to get my tumble to update through here and this blog update through tumblr. Although I'm not sure if that'll just create some sort if horrible feedback blog loop.
Cake is running through a number of last minute snags and hitches. Hopefully get them sorted out at the beginning of the week to try and avoid slippage. Marks issue should be in in a couple of weeks so looking forwards to that. Also been in couple of meetings about the June issue, which looks as though it's going to to be something quite special. Martins issue seems to be coming along quite nicelly as well, although I don't want to see it until it's finished. Just need to chase up a couple of the other issues to see how they're getting g on. Also need to investigate funding options for the magazine.
Well an exciting weekend of proposal writing, magazine posting and hopefully cake fixing ahead. Updates on my twitter no doubt.
Mobile Blogging from here.
Friday 30 January 2009
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Creative Scotland?
Just found a blog that details all the partlimentary debate and that around the proposed merger of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen into 'Creative Scotland', a Ill-concieved plan which seems to have been put into motion by those kindly folks who know nothing about the workings of the artistic community but who have spreadsheets that kindly inform them that this would be a hood idea for all involved.
The worst part of it all is that the whole thing is being pushed ahead without any consultation from the Scottish Artist Union or any arts organizations and seemingly unsympathetic to the Scottish arts community at all.
Consolidating the Arts Council and scottish screen means consolidating thier funding pots and means artists, designers and filmmakers are all going for the same grants. As well as therlse grants they are proposing to offer investment opportunities and repayable loans to fund projects.
I may be being completelly silly here, but the nature of the artistic world is that there is no product to sell and the last thing we want is unneccessary debt that will be nigh on impossible to pay back given the nature of most contemporary work. This being the reason that the artist grant system was set up in the first place.
There appears to also be a seven million pound price tag on the administstive costs in bringing this about which will most likelly cut into the capital available for use. SAC isn't perfect but at least it manages to provide funds for loads of organizations and projects, and the same for Scottish screen, so why should we need to waste seven million quid merging them?
After initial excitement about an SNP led Scottish Government, my confidence is beginning to wane. With Alec Salmond sticking his oar in with Ian Wood's selfish unfounded ludicrousity and now this, just seems to me highly ironic calling this thing Creative Scotland when chances are it'll force those creative folks in Scotland to look elsewhere. Creative industies like visual art, craft, film and music are some of the country's biggest exports and it doesn't seem like our Government is willing to support us.
The worst part of it all is that the whole thing is being pushed ahead without any consultation from the Scottish Artist Union or any arts organizations and seemingly unsympathetic to the Scottish arts community at all.
Consolidating the Arts Council and scottish screen means consolidating thier funding pots and means artists, designers and filmmakers are all going for the same grants. As well as therlse grants they are proposing to offer investment opportunities and repayable loans to fund projects.
I may be being completelly silly here, but the nature of the artistic world is that there is no product to sell and the last thing we want is unneccessary debt that will be nigh on impossible to pay back given the nature of most contemporary work. This being the reason that the artist grant system was set up in the first place.
There appears to also be a seven million pound price tag on the administstive costs in bringing this about which will most likelly cut into the capital available for use. SAC isn't perfect but at least it manages to provide funds for loads of organizations and projects, and the same for Scottish screen, so why should we need to waste seven million quid merging them?
After initial excitement about an SNP led Scottish Government, my confidence is beginning to wane. With Alec Salmond sticking his oar in with Ian Wood's selfish unfounded ludicrousity and now this, just seems to me highly ironic calling this thing Creative Scotland when chances are it'll force those creative folks in Scotland to look elsewhere. Creative industies like visual art, craft, film and music are some of the country's biggest exports and it doesn't seem like our Government is willing to support us.
Tuesday 20 January 2009
Sunday 18 January 2009
2009: In Blogs
Well here goes, first blog of 2009, and I'm actually writing this from my new iPhone Internet toy device. I'm still gettingused to it so that should explain any weird spelling mistakes.
Not had the best start to the year all in all. The shingles were swiftly followed by insane toothache from a bit of turkey, extreme frustrating disappointment, then had the tooth out and got dry socket. Fortunately it seems to all be gone now, so I can eat a d shave and laugh and stuff so I can finally think about getting into 2009.
Hopefully there'll be a lot of good things this year, got plans for lots of video work, vjing and the like. A bit more travel hopefully and I might actually get round to sorting my life out. Possibly.
Got an email form a guy I know who is film officer for aberdeen and he's looking into setting up a film festival for the city which aounxs like a pretty good idea all in all. There seems like big scope fpr collaboration so I popped along the proposal I outlined for the av festival from last year and he seemed quite up for incorporating that into the scheme. Hopefully it'll all come together and get something good going on.
(Just to note, I've now switched to my laptop because typing on the iPhone was too damn slow for all I have to write)
I've also noticed how many times I;ve written hopefully, so I'm going to try not to use that word again.
Preparations for Cake are going well, get the next issue back from the printer on monday and we're in talks about some sort of offbeat launch event in a field or something. Might be a bit disastrous in february, but we'll see what happens. Martin's issue seems to be coming along quite nicely, good list of artists, he had a photoshoot for the cover the other day with the big block logo he made all by himself, Mark's one is to come in soon which, knowing him and his updated website being anything to go by it will be nothing short of spectacular. So no pressure on Brady.
Inviting more people to curate at the moment to take the list into next year. A few interested parties and waiting for replies for others.
I had the idea before Christmas of trying to update this regularly, starting on new years day. This has, obviously not happened but I will try and update this a bit more regularly in the coming months. I've got a proposal in for a small residency thing and should be using this to document that, through vimeo and twitter and stuff as well.
Also, should mention something quite sad which happened today which was the sad passing of Tony Hart, he may be a butt of many jokes among artists but that joke mostly comes from a warm hearted admiration of the man. Many were inspired by Tony's shows, which were innovative at the time and provided an interesting outlet for educating children in the basics of art.
He also provided a platform for kids watching his show to have their work shown through the Gallery section of his programmes, providing much needed encouragement and inspiration to young budding artists. He was also responsible for Morph, the little orange plasticine man who lived among art materials which injected the show with light hearted humour and an inspired approach to expressing the imagination and possibilities that lie amongst the artists pallete.
It was deeply saddening to hear, back in September that he had been forced to give up painting and drawing after two strokes, it was a hard thing to hear that someone who had made his entire life about art and encouraging and teaching generations of young people about art wasn't able to do this anymore. It led me to think about my own vocation and how important all aspects of art are to me and how I could cope with not being able to do that any more, which is why I found it so upsetting.
I think Tony Hart's passing not long after being deprived of what was most important to him highlights how important artistic expression is to those of us who follow that path and how lost we would be if forced to stop. This aside the death of Tony Hart was a shock and he will be sorely missed by those generations of artists inspired by his programmes, but in those generations of artists, and in the other programmes inspired by the likes of Hart Beat, his legacy will live on and continue.
After that, well I'l up the tempo a bit with things that have been amusing me recently;
1. iPhone (It may already have been implied)
2. The Mighty Boosh live on friday.
3. The British Government's attempts at solving the financial crisis (ooh Political)(But they really are just stupid)
Not had the best start to the year all in all. The shingles were swiftly followed by insane toothache from a bit of turkey, extreme frustrating disappointment, then had the tooth out and got dry socket. Fortunately it seems to all be gone now, so I can eat a d shave and laugh and stuff so I can finally think about getting into 2009.
Hopefully there'll be a lot of good things this year, got plans for lots of video work, vjing and the like. A bit more travel hopefully and I might actually get round to sorting my life out. Possibly.
Got an email form a guy I know who is film officer for aberdeen and he's looking into setting up a film festival for the city which aounxs like a pretty good idea all in all. There seems like big scope fpr collaboration so I popped along the proposal I outlined for the av festival from last year and he seemed quite up for incorporating that into the scheme. Hopefully it'll all come together and get something good going on.
(Just to note, I've now switched to my laptop because typing on the iPhone was too damn slow for all I have to write)
I've also noticed how many times I;ve written hopefully, so I'm going to try not to use that word again.
Preparations for Cake are going well, get the next issue back from the printer on monday and we're in talks about some sort of offbeat launch event in a field or something. Might be a bit disastrous in february, but we'll see what happens. Martin's issue seems to be coming along quite nicely, good list of artists, he had a photoshoot for the cover the other day with the big block logo he made all by himself, Mark's one is to come in soon which, knowing him and his updated website being anything to go by it will be nothing short of spectacular. So no pressure on Brady.
Inviting more people to curate at the moment to take the list into next year. A few interested parties and waiting for replies for others.
I had the idea before Christmas of trying to update this regularly, starting on new years day. This has, obviously not happened but I will try and update this a bit more regularly in the coming months. I've got a proposal in for a small residency thing and should be using this to document that, through vimeo and twitter and stuff as well.
Also, should mention something quite sad which happened today which was the sad passing of Tony Hart, he may be a butt of many jokes among artists but that joke mostly comes from a warm hearted admiration of the man. Many were inspired by Tony's shows, which were innovative at the time and provided an interesting outlet for educating children in the basics of art.
He also provided a platform for kids watching his show to have their work shown through the Gallery section of his programmes, providing much needed encouragement and inspiration to young budding artists. He was also responsible for Morph, the little orange plasticine man who lived among art materials which injected the show with light hearted humour and an inspired approach to expressing the imagination and possibilities that lie amongst the artists pallete.
It was deeply saddening to hear, back in September that he had been forced to give up painting and drawing after two strokes, it was a hard thing to hear that someone who had made his entire life about art and encouraging and teaching generations of young people about art wasn't able to do this anymore. It led me to think about my own vocation and how important all aspects of art are to me and how I could cope with not being able to do that any more, which is why I found it so upsetting.
I think Tony Hart's passing not long after being deprived of what was most important to him highlights how important artistic expression is to those of us who follow that path and how lost we would be if forced to stop. This aside the death of Tony Hart was a shock and he will be sorely missed by those generations of artists inspired by his programmes, but in those generations of artists, and in the other programmes inspired by the likes of Hart Beat, his legacy will live on and continue.
After that, well I'l up the tempo a bit with things that have been amusing me recently;
1. iPhone (It may already have been implied)
2. The Mighty Boosh live on friday.
3. The British Government's attempts at solving the financial crisis (ooh Political)(But they really are just stupid)
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