down by the water front

Culture, Heritage, Art and car boot sales for the wealthy.

Ok ..I'm on a bit of a soapbox here, and I would like to be a hell of a lot more postive..

 

Not happy on reading about Europe's crisis (and pretty damn well the whole world's). Governments and councils are so desperate for cash, whatever they can sell it seems is up for grabs..

The problem is this deep ? - everything that has a price it seems, including public heritage buildings and sites are being sold off all over, if not sold, then kept in a state of moth-balled disrepair until they can. It isn't just heritage and art, all public concerns have the potential to be - and are being sold, from parking meters to street lights - if it isn't nailed down etc etc 

But... Greece and Italy are extremely visual examples of this because of their massive cultural history, public buildings, and museums...
Rome's ruins are crumbling (sited because of this disrepair rather than pure age). Pompei is another. Venice has for a while now been staving off massive billboard/advertisement projections onto its buildings as desperately needed public revenue for the city. Art has been burned (in protest). Art has been stolen for lack of protection. 

Spain is careering along the same path and it is not just its Government and main banks in trouble but the local Cajas - the ones who borrowed heavily in the development *boom* years that ex-pats and Spaniards bought so heavily into. The local bank's problems are set to topple the whole crisis in Spain.

There was a piece in The Observer this week about a private investment fund buying up Barceloneta port to render it exclusively for super yachts. Cutting off the locals from their bit of sea and port area, and most likely pricing them out. Law of the jungle, winner takes all.

Culture, and a whole lot more it seems, is being sold car-boot style to a few who obviously made enough out of the boom years to own even more.
Hundreds of years of culture and art are seen as assets and so valued purely in money terms.

It seems the world is no more than a playground for the very wealthy, and is being treated as such with naive? or just plain irresponsible bare faced arrogance.

 

 

Space, Creativity and Relationships

 

 

 

This Sunday’s report in the NYT Review on creativity, and the current shift toward group thinking has, I think, got some wider social connotations.

Taking the office space “brain storming”  ethic to its logical openplan-inclusive conclusion :

A video gaming company found their game thinkers unhappy…

“..It was one big warehouse space, with just tables, no walls, and everyone could see each other,” recalled Mike Mika, the former creative director. “We switched over to cubicles and were worried about it — you’d think in a creative environment that people would hate that. But it turns out they prefer having nooks and crannies they can hide away in and just be away from everybody.”

And Apple’s other man… 

“…The story of Apple’s origin speaks to the power of collaboration. Mr. Wozniak wouldn’t have been catalyzed by the Altair but for the kindred spirits of Homebrew. And he’d never have started Apple without Mr. Jobs.

But it’s also a story of solo spirit. If you look at how Mr. Wozniak got the work done — the sheer hard work of creating something from nothing — he did it alone. Late at night, all by himself.”

“ ..Mr. Wozniak offers this guidance to aspiring inventors:

Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me ... they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone .... I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone... Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

Artists and their strange bohemian approach to relationships also reached an almost mythical and clichéd status at one point. I don't believe by any means this was ever the norm, but space needed to create does seem to be just as relevant today.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16500768

In this short news clip on changing attitudes within youth in Japan, there also seems a similarity; a move toward a more general acceptance of a desire for personal head space.

And although the emphasis in this piece is about a shift in attitudes with Japanese youth toward forming relationships. Apparently they are not committing to having children and/or being in a permanent relationship by “turning their backs on it”.

The term lack of interest in sex may have also been glibly used here to describe this shift; “….a third of young men are admitting they have no interest in sex - a figure that has doubled in the last two years”, may sound shocking especially from a male perspective. But the topic covered is actually about a decline in birth rates and a disinterest in forming relationships.

Not sure either, about the accentuation on "men not feeling able to catch up with the women".

But the crux is probably best found in two young people’s replies when asked how they felt about gender and relationships :

Her : "..People tell me I am too bubbly, maybe women are getting too strong, but I think that is a shame as I am only living my life in the way I like."

Him : "..Building a relationship seems like too much effort, to get her to like me, and me to like her, I'd have to give up everything I do at the weekend for her."

 

The idea that women and men don't necessarily want to "give up" their personal space on a permanent basis, unless they specifically want to have children - that and the fact gender attraction and birth rates are certainly far more complex than this report touches on. The essence of it does seem to be hinting at a similar thing.

And ok, sure, statistics are statistics and reporting is reporting. And the women are coming across as not wanting to sacrifice a career or their hard earned embodiments of freedom, (in sharp contrast to what many of their mothers did). For example by renting/owing their own place. And the men subsequently come across as being apathetic or disinterested.

Whereas, if looked at, from the point of the stereotypical relationships of the last generation, the move toward having a re-think of this kind of commitment seems entirely logical. Especially when looked at in the light of previous generation's divorce rates and emotional health issues that resulted.

Mutual-space relationships or non at all does seem to be a logical generational progression. Less emphasis on the biological and stereotypical mechanics of relationships and more on general personal emotional growth.

Note, the boy interviewed talked about his idea toward commitment in an a way that seemed almost the antithesis of many unhealthy aspects that can form in relationships, like co-dependence, lack of personal confidence etc etc.,.

So, not so much of an apathetic or selfish disinterest in relationships by the young, but maybe a move toward a collective breathing space with an interest in the future of human relationships in general, including their future offspring.
 

Sounds like the healthiest pre-approach to forming relationships that I’ve heard in years.

Showroom Dummies : Women's Bodies, Representation and Conflicting Taboo's

 

 

Oh the irony…… I am taking a few moments to reflect on the recently opened exhibition by Jennifer Dalton “Cool Guys Like You”…..an exhibition that shows through drawings, graphs and photographic image a startling, and in these troubled times, seemingly irrelevant conclusion that most of the guests invited onto critical cultural and political tv daily's are in fact male.

In an open letter to the hosts Jennifer askes :

“….I assume you like to see yourselves as critical thinkers. Might it be possible to get a bit more critical about the internal and external forces that encourage all of us to think that men produce the best ideas and cultural products out there? I think it might…..”

“…..In 2010, the most lopsided show among you featured only 17.5% female guests. The most balanced among you still only featured 34% female guests. The rest of you are in between, but mostly huddled around the more lopsided end of that spectrum.

If I may be so bold, WTF?…”

 

Indeed.

I am in Spain, I am on a roof terrace taking some sun… so far so good you might say.  I am reclining on the roof of an apartment building that is barely occupied, apart from a few ex-pat retiree, saga-ready-sun-bathers.

I ponder Jennifer Daltons letter.

It is peaceful, no noise other than the gurgling of the pool. I have no bikini top on, I notice a few tuts…wondering the cause I look up, and as one lady leaves and walks past, she utters “appropriate clothing”. Given the baking poolside circumstances I then begin to ponder the meaning of the word appropriate. And, while her male friend passes by, who, if I’m not mistaken gives me a sideways leer which leaves me feeling decidedly uncomfortable, I ponder some more.

And, setting aside the fact that I had not suddenly developed a weird case of clothing tourette's. Nor indeed had donned a pair of hobnail boots for a poolside splash. I assumed the comment to be directed at my shameful inappropriate state of bikini bottoms only…. And hoped that they, and not I, had lost a few marbles in the heat.

I am in Spain, nothing surprises me, least of all an oxymoron of attitudes…so I took both with a huge pinch of salt.

 

So suitably distracted I began to address… sigh!… this obsession with women's bodies.

Specifically a cultural thing this was not. I was not on a remote beach in rural Africa or transgressing some obvious cultural opine. Nor out of *the usual context* of beach/poolside, distractingly flashing in the office or on the bus.

The scene was set in a country, for good or bad, who’s beach culture.. ahem …embraces the female form in all its glory. And a media that never fails to pass up a newsworthy moment to show a well formed pair of tits just to liven things up.

But taboo it seemingly still is.

 

Why is it women and their bodies are deemed justifiably to be co-owned by everyone else?.

Either simultaneously being ignored, objectified, or repulsed.

This goes deep into history. And deep into the female psyche.

 

And...Ok.. I’m going to leave breasts out of it for now, but, cop a feel of this ….

 

Not since the likes of the Emily Pankhurst protests, or Germaine Greer and Susan Sontag has the female mind and her body been talked about so much in the media and yet is still is not represented. Only misrepresented.

She is either over achieving in school by beating all the boys. Or over achieving in the home by still doing a juggling act with family and career… errrm… job (..was this ever only in the domain of the 80’s ?). Or failing her kids by not sending them 3 times a week to after school Nuclear Physics club.

I think a suitable term was coined way back in the 20’s… “nurse, cook and bottle washer”. Only now you can add a few helpful electrical appliances, offset by stressed out school runs and high achieve low pay day jobs, like teaching for example. And of course a good dollop of societal guilt.

 

Things have changed; we’ve come a long way from the sentiments of Some Like It Hot and even ‘80’s Tootsie. When a man gets inside the female form and mind by cross-dressing and confiding …..her metaphorically, into bed.

 

 

But when we still have Rhianna prancing about in her latest vid offering all the female gumption of a modern day Whitney in Body Guard…..errrm? …here comes that sigh.. again.

It seems the current nature of any general discussion about female value is not about taboo particularly anymore… but a free for all female bully fest. And that, as always, includes women's opinion on women.

 

This furore along with the quagmire status quo of media institutions, including film, with its actors, directors and writers. Hides the fact that women's presence, is seriously worrying ( count em! - Jennifer is right …).

 

So in this current media scape with its constant image stream. Another skewed projection is feeding the collective female psyche, already bolstered by previous generations and history.

 

The subject of women is a whole vast and sweeping category. And all gender has a whole host of intricacies'….

 

Judges and Politicians are at the legislative and policy coal face. But our perception of regularly represented women in media (and therefore society as a whole) is deceptively weak and wrong for such a large populous.

The back room boys and their elders are still, it seems, stultifying efforts of *achieving* women to front of house window dressing.

Apart from a few... people like Kirsty Walk who battles away weekly with a more often than not, male panel, and Stephanie Flanders wrestling with financial debate. Along with people like the retired Joan Bakewell (who had a run-in with the BBC contesting institutionalised chauvinism in the hiring process....).

This, along with put your feet up main stream film rarities like Julie Delpy’s directorial debut 2 days in Paris which was a pretty neat achievement given the romantic label…rather than a war. 

 

Informed media, whether online, on paper or big screen is still the main shaper of how we discuss, react and perceive ourselves.

The balance of women included in this area is still thin on the ground. And with this imbalance, are slow to be generally encouraged, hired….or educated.

A catch 22… A riddled endemic state.

A responsible? image-factory with a glass ceiling that could just as well read why bother.  Female presence in a media that shapes us is still usually first and foremost preened, smiley and fit, by default.…

30 something's, staving off their sell-by-date. A mixed message, voyeuristic projection.

 

The knock-on political tone and, in effect reality, is that cuts and policy are now also reflected in that disadvantaged imbalance.

What kind of example for a healthy, indeed I stress, a mentally healthy society is that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

Clone Me!.....Again

 

Original photograph copyright of Glenn E Friedman

 

Public Relations, Plagiarism, and Self Promotion

 

 

This is how the World Assembly of Public Relations defined PR in August 1978 :

"The art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organizational leaders, and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest".

 

So..... In a world now where it’s OK to use PR to maintain and promote any image and in turn fight for that image when the image is perceived to be threatened or damaged by a plagiarizer.

 

Is shameless self-promotion …the only way to go ?

 

I have taken a couple of examples of recent, contested or problematic image/ownership rights in the arts. 

 

Photographer / Artist : Glen E. Friedman’s Run DMC photograph being re-worked by Mr Brainwash, street artist ; with the ruling that the original had been plagiarised and the re-works to be *removed* (possibility of being destroyed)

Photographer / Photographer ; with Janine Gordon contesting Ryan McGinley’s re-works ; thrown out of court as vagaries of specific body imagery could not be *owned*

Art / ownership ; Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty land lease for this site specific land art and its continuing curation.

 

 

But first a little backdrop history:

 

The Music Industry set a precedent years ago having seen a mix of technological opportunity which enabled copying and sampling.

The realisation of the argument; to say that anything not left in its pure state is therefore plagiarised, on the surface, seems to have been rendered un-navigable with the rapid flux of internet connectivity today. Unless, of course (as always) you have enough time, money and clout to throw at it.

And true, knock-off pirated copying is still very much on the no-no agenda in all the arts. Artists need to get paid. End of.

Although I wish I could be more positive about this simplistic sentiment. There are so many middle men and Mr 20% involved in the promotion of artists, designers, photographers and their work, that altruism is probably only half the story in protecting the original work.

With artists also being protective of their intellectual property or brand from commercial sharks. And legislation leaning heavily toward an overall semblance of control in these *share it* times.

Couple this with social diversity; communities being so poor, having no infrastructure with any wider connective say-so. Or those who are so switched–on they find themselves in a democratic minefield of who is allowed to say what and when. Some fall foul of their on-line presence. Others manage to free-up and share information that otherwise would have been inaccessible to most.

No Doubt the internet, as a popular tool, has power. And so in the hands of so many, so relatively quickly, also makes it a moral, social and political soup.

 

 

This is an art blog so I am not drawing on wider (and deeper) issues like phone hacking or wiki-leaks and all that has churned up.

I have tried to bring together different aspect within the arts here:

A simple concept really; artist/designer/musician/photographer/writer/journalist has/makes an idea of something out of something and so *captures* it, puts some creative value on it, it can be accepted, rejected or copied!.

 

The arts having different nuances ; all having very different histories and with that subtleties in legislation over the years.

Different mediums of expression but I will use the word captured to refer to the finished piece. Whether it is fashion, photography film, art, music or writing.

 

 

And, I am using writing here purposely as the idea of the written word is possibly far more readily understood as a standard tool for capturing and furthering expression of an idea.

 

As with rip-offs, subsequent similar close-to-the-mark expressions can be seen as a blatant regurgitation or expression of a new idea.

PR uses journalism/writing as one medium to further promote an idea or object. Straight word- for– word regurgitation is now being abhorred (whether paid PR or not…)

But still using the same word format and possibly similar words differently to form another view or opinion, is accepted difference.

 

The difference of the captured expression is what marks it out as different.

So with that in mind….

 

The Music Industry >>

Considering the longevity of sampling and mixing within the music business (as opposed to art and even fashion with its rip-off culture now coming full circle sometimes throwing things up much more interesting than the original….)

The mix/music industry is now far more accepting of *sampling* as opposed to *stealing*.

>>The music industry initially resolved the copying issue mostly by making it acceptable to copy as long as a reference was given to the originator and so suing was curtailed to out and out rip-offs. In so the music industry became far more hypothetically in favour of unlimited free use as a means to an end.

An example of Music Industry PR in the 80’s- 90’s. The White Label (usually 12 inch dance music) was already put into clubs 3-6 months before the official artist was named with a release date.

An acceptable form of hype or PR which created demand and interest. The Buzz style of which has been embraced in fashion, film and art.

 

Fashion >>

Fashion has also had a long history of rip-off culture and subsequent suing. I could name not only high end brands (Asian sports shops emulating actual shop brand design is a current problem for original brands). Friends too with smaller outlets having their own designs copied and done differently (damage can be seen to be done to the original design's worth, if it is copied badly).

I know of at least one person who eventually gave up on this as the court cases began to take over and lasted years and cost too much. I think “sod him” was the ultimate term he used. He went on to make different designs (some of which …ahem… possibly had a similar nod to the rip-off merchants own…).

High end dress designer Roland Mouret, mentioned here before, while during a talk for Fashioning an Ethical Industry at the Fashion and Textile Museum London. Also expressed exasperation at his designs being ripped off literally as they hit his internet PR machine, way back in 2005. Battened-down secrecy was the only option, as he saw it then.

All was fair in love and war it seemed. But then things moved on in fashion….

Style Bubble’s recent article about Prada brogues and their ASOS counterparts points out that maybe the plagiarism issue in this case is much more about the lower end of High Fashion brands being affected by this done-differently and (slightly) cheaper design than any blatant damage to reputation rip-off issue. ASOS having used a different style and mood of colour mix (gold and silver).

 

Photography >>

Photography has a long history of *intellectual property rights just as in the film industry. The photograph technically belongs to the originator.

 

The case last week when a judge threw out a copyright infringement lawsuit against the artist Ryan McGinley. The lawsuit, brought by artist Janine Gordon, was about images that allegedly copied Ms. Gordon’s own photographs :

The judges conclusion…

“ The plaintiff’s apparent theory of infringement would assert copyright interests in virtually any figure with outstretched arms, an interracial kiss, or any nude female torso.”

 

 

Two practices converging :

Photography and Art >>

One example recently of two creative disciplines having met like this, is the recent photographer- suing- artist debacle over an original piece of photographic art work.

The original art-work-photograph of Glen E. Friedman’s Run DMC was upheld by a US judge as having been plagiarised by Thierry Guetta (Mr Brainwash) street artist.

It was seen as not being different enough from the original piece to warrant its own status as *art* coupled with possible value-damage to the original piece and its original status.

And there was another distracting, but important issue here as to whether this was also a Banksy/Guetta art joke ; * you can’t sue who you don’t know*. The idea being the identity of Theirry Guetta although real, is supposed to be close to Banksy’s own shadow.

 

 
 

Run DMC done again differently by Mr Brainwash photograph courtesy BoingBoing.net

and sampling Irony aside! this remake has been mosaicked with broken cd’s

 

 

Art >>

Spiral Jetty, just maybe has the crux of what is going on at the moment within the arts :

Greg Allen; a filmmaker, curator, art collector, web entrepreneur and a philanthropist and an artist in his own right is petitioning for the land lease which houses Roberts Smithson’s Spiral Jetty.

The basic story elaborated on by Felix Salmon's reuters blog…is that the land lease is up...and so up for grabs. Utah State Council is opening up the lease for bids and so Greg Allen is bidding (alongside other newcomers) and the original lease holders The Dia Foundation, who have looked after the work up until now.

 

Whatever the nuances of Allens intention the potential problem is clear:

The work is iconic and so attracts attention. The work was made from the land it sits on and the line between where it starts and where it ends cannot be easily drawn. It was made as a site specific piece and so was captured in this state. It is not replicable. It cannot be valued other than in terms of *public* consumption.

So renders it practically and artistically immoveable aside from the elements taking over.

 

Whichever area of the arts we are looking at, the point here isnt about theft or using anothers property to form the expression on.

 

 

The written word shows how it captures expression;

A word is understood in its singular original form and meaning. A building block.

Words can be rearranged to express different meaning and subtly so.

 

Cloning is cloning, as is regurgitation, however badly or well done. It has its place.

 

PR is a delicate and fine art these days and with it brand ownership similarly so.

Social media with all the potentials of the social graph being realised has provided a PR’s wet dream.

The captured image/design/ music/art/written word today is no less its own entity.

It is though being (un altruistically) contested more than before as to who actually owns *it*, and therefore owns its right to exist.

 

Artists take a collective creative chill pill, its going to get a whole lot rougher...

 

Don't Make Me Think....Just Raise The Ante

 

 

In amongst all the maelstrom of social media : with its tweets… be they purposeful political strategy's or not. Within all the FB nudges, pokes, likes, inane games, mind numbing time consuming *interactions* much lauded by the nay sayers and  robustly dismissed by the evangelical standard bearers of new media. Lies something vey close to my heart. Art.

And within this context of social media, like in every respected media. Artists make their art with their medium of choice and Critics critique it.FULL CIRCLE.

Art Fag City’s Paddy Johnson wrote an article in The L Magazine this past week on the relevance of Twitter art (a term she coined for convenience of the article). And in particular (as I see it) being very much on – her – patch, by citing local New York artists and raising questions about the relevance of the creative depth involved in their social media art.

Two artists in particular ; Man Bartlett and An Xiao (both having mentions on this blog before with their internet/twitter and in particular Man’s multi – on - line works). Were examples used in the line of questioning.  I also imagine that being on her relative home turf, her interaction with the physical side of the art and the artists is much more apparent than my one dimensional take on it… on-line-only, miles away in blighty etc. But as I see it this is not about how we interact with the medium more the art involved….So from this perspective….

Paddy Johnsons critique quite rightly, I thought, pointed out that maybe, just maybe in the light of growing bandwagon-esq lauding, commissioning and mucho – typing about the subject… had an air of devils advocate about it >>

That in the light of such possible complacency….Paddy Johnson saw the subject as needing a boot up the jacksy ……and she probably had the crux of it down ; that too much Twitter - art IS focused on it being a new-ish medium and so, as a vehicle, anything done with it automatically = art. Rather than raising questions through art about mediums like this by creating art within it. Her idea that the art should be pushing more boundaries of thought.

Close to my heart indeed! Artists, Art and their choice of how they use the medium :

To give a slightly different alignment. I am addressing local Dj Jose Fedez (while I’m in Spain)  in an up-coming post in lieu of the Electromar festival in Murcia later this month *headlined* by veteran Dj and all round share – it – with – the - people guy Moby.

The simplicity of the type of questions raised by the music industry such as created within mix music within Moby’s creative life time. Was very much about *new* mediums as vehicles and, was at the beginning, also seen as either an abstracted or removed experience of (original) music or a gravitational social experience.

One of Moby’s first majorly accepted pieces was made from an out and out lift from the Twin Peaks Theme Tune entitled Go. The advent of sampling and mixing had been around for a few years. But this blatant success by taking obviously readily suable material (from the film industry) AND making something that was more than aesthetically pleasing to quite a lot of people…subsequently made it a Classic in it own right. Advertising had already been *lifting* stuff for years by repackaging accepted music to endorse a product.

>> the bottom line being yes mixing is a medium, no, not everyone is going to create a Moby classic and yes people did eventually *get It* as a music – art – form. As opposed to renegade bad boys/girls *messing about* with new relatively un regulated media. It found its niches, it grew, changed, embraced. But it had a starting point.

 

I feel parallels here in the concept. And as far as Twitter art upping its communal ante Hell Yes !

But there is such a thing as subtly within art.

Paddy Johnson raised the question of not pushing the boundary's or that these artists were relying too heavily on the medium as content; social interactions and comments in that area ( to which she pointed out she already had a take on that, thank you, every time she IM'd a colleague from over her desk)… and did not need to participate in an art piece stating the same.

In spite of *chipping away slowly* or preaching to the converted by being one step removed from banality ie; stating the obvious, or an unchallenging foray into relational aesthetics. I believe there is a subtly in art that doesn't have to SHOUT the status quo down at every turn. That still moves or transcends though thought engagement. 

So to the medium :

Twitter engagement is personal one to one while being group oriented.This is the nature of it.

From this perspective Twitter art can be more than the sum of its parts.

It is shared in real time or delayed time. It can occupy or interact with a group *audience* much as live media or replay can.

Nothing that couldn't be done in a gallery space or other medium on a smaller scale in its pure form.

And to the art and artists :

The art exists not because of any lets-challenge-the-system-regulators or question its integrity as medium (unless the art and artist specifically set out to do that).

It exists in spite of the medium; it just allows a different kind of interaction. So the participatory/audience/artist are the only relational aspect. The art still exists in its own space. But experienced differently. Including the artists experience.

Just as with mix music and possibly the advent of electronic music perse, when it was luddite-ly seen only as bona fide if the instrument or engagement was *real* and not a  de-humanised product.

So to with social media as an inclusion – mechanism…even to the point of *fans*

But the art within the use of this mechanism is still its own entity and THEREIN lies the SUBLTY whether you think it banal, unquestioning, or not.

 

Hrag Vartanians article in Hyperallergic: Missing the Point About Twitter 

Art Fag City's article : Missing the Point About Don't Follow Twitter

Lives of Artists Series Three : The Designer So Far Soda Good

 

Its a funny old world…. as I am out here in Spain expecting to post about the nuances of Spanish experience, and away-from-it-all rural niceties. With sporadic internet and therefore a less frenetic absorption of *wider* info.

Only to find East London’s new and cool fashion phenomena Lazy Oaf’s models and photographic team on a photo shoot in the village (look book and details soon!). And after a brief encounter with a number of Spanish plumbers (no that is NOT a euphemism) ; read my unfortunate yet timely connection with an errrrm not-so-rural-nicety and the current exhibition at the Wellcome Foundation London. Which, on similar lines to a number of recent posts here, offers a much closer insight into how we deal with waste from pre Victorian ignorance to our current product rife cleanliness and out of sight out of mind attitudes. To the current reclamation of 50 year old largely unregulated New York Land Fill, Fresh Fields.

So, during my almost internet-monastic few months here ( I did say almost ; ) it didn't come as too much of a surprise to find, out of the blue, an email from Nottingham designer Sarah Turner, pop into my inbox:

Sarah is an old favourite on this blog, having taken part in the Lives of Artists series with her innovative and sculptural re-use of plastic bottles which form wonderful, colourful and ethereal lighting.

 

Part of Sarah’s range of lighting, Bluebell and her green Sprite table lamp

 

Lily table lamp and Daisy ceiling adaptation

 

With Cola 30 (yup! 30 cola bottles used in the making!)

 

Sarah’s lighting installation at this years London Fashion Week

 

With her recent exhibition at Maison&Object in Paris AND being enlisted for her special lighting installation at London Fashion Week earlier this year. The following email content seemed a definite par for the course progression;

SodaStream uses eco artist, Sarah Turner’s recycled bottle sculpture in their latest campaign with British super model Erin O’Connor

I can only say this latest venture just totally fits in with the here and now, of what we do about waste and all the wider issues of consumption crisis, the economy and environment.

And, for the uninitiated, when Sodastream was a mere whippersnapper, us youngsters would go round to play at friends houses and sometimes find this latest gizmo of resounding drooling awe. An astute, ever-so-cool acquisition made by various tuned in mums and dads of the day. A glorious array of refillable glass bottles full of fruit syrups with the added bonus of the lava-lampesque design for the water-from-the-tap fizz dispenser The Sodastream!.

Original Sodastream circa 1960

A tap water aerated drinks idea first pioneered in the 1920’s taken to todays wide ranging and healthy options. 

 

A child's dream, a dads economical and possibly dental (for the late sixties anyway), fizzy drinks prayer answered. And a mums, how-to-keep-the-kids amused with easy to use 60’s space science all wrapped up in one ever so displayable package. (I know I’m using stereotypes here but it was back in the day!)

 

And it doesn't surprise me either that Sodastream should want to collaborate with Sarah and her recycled plastic bottles. As they were very much pioneering the idea of the economical use of product containers from the start. The syrups were the first of the super new concentrate concept and, if memory serves me correctly, refill sachets for the bottles to boot!. A great almost against the grain idea during the advent of mass consumer production.

 

Hot on the heels of this collaboration Sarah begins her current her exhibitions at Pulse, Earls Court in June from Sunday 5th to Tues 7th and she then moves onto Tent at the Truman Brewery Building during London’s Design Festival this September.

 

This collaboration has Sarah’s handmade spherical lighting from 562 recycled plastic bottles. And a perfect image to help communicate the message of 'A World Without Bottles' for Sodastream……..

 

Erin O’Connor with Sarah's creation

British supermodel Erin O’Connor holds the sphere symbolically on her shoulders, recreating the iconic pose of Greek God Atlas, highlighting the burden of the world's plastic bottle waste.

 

Sodastream’s campaign aims to reduce the amount of plastic bottles people buy, therefore reducing the amount that end up getting thrown away.

And, Erin O’Connor who wholeheartedly supports the campaign, added that, “We take plastic bottles for granted in our everyday lives but it’s easy to forget that plastic bottle overuse and wastage can clog up our landfill sites”.

 

Fiona Hope, Managing Director of Sodastream UK, also commented: “With so many environmental issues competing for the public’s attention, bottle waste often gets forgotten. Yet reducing the casual use of plastic bottles is one of the easiest, most impactful we can do for the environment.”

 

And as I said its not the first time Sarah’s bottle creations have caught the eye of the fashion world. Snapped here with her light installation for London Fashion week earlier, in February.

 

 

Sarah has a wide range of ‘bottle creations’ as mentioned here before, and all can be found on her website  www.sarahturner.co.uk .

Oasis range

 

To see her work up close, she will be exhibiting her recycled bottle lighting at these two fantastic exhibitions in London this year.  First up is Pulse at Earls Court in June Sunday thru Tuesday 5-6-7th and then onto her second year at Tent during London’s Design Festival in September held in the Truman Brewery from 22nd to 25th. 

 

 

back in a couple !….

Schrödinger's Cat

 

 

 

We’ve had a steady stream of end-of-year-best-of, top-ten lists and awards for entertainment from film to tv shows to music. And just as with any list or award process, unless set in a polling booth scenario, the people involved with sorting the list are usually heavily involved and or heavily interested. Polls and figures whether drawn from box office statistics, viewing figures or downloading stats, all attempt to offer a comprehensive overview in shifting patterns of public taste.

Well, one does hope so. This does tend to work for entertainment, because in general, the public are also pretty in tune with what’s going on.

Then there is Art.

In the 80’s the Turner Prize was realised by a group of committee members connected with the Tate; The Friends of The Tate, the PNA. This was post seventies and post Carl Andre's *Pile of Bricks*. When art was entering into a far less conceptual era.

Cartoon as appeared in The Daily Mail in 1979 : interpretation of Equivalent Vlll

The idea of a prize for artistic endeavour though was always headed in the direction of a rocky reception:

 
Aside from all the discussion about the new penchant for expressionist art being manipulated or encouraged to raise a flagging art market. And lifting Turners (sacred) name for a prize not connected with his original concept. Plus it being based on the successful literary prize format, The Booker, which was all about readership and sales. And the worrisome untimely coincidence of a Tate exhibition largely contributed to by *Labour isn’t Working * campaign advertiser Charles Saatchi with his collection of Julian Schnabel (9 out of the 11 pictures shown were Saatchi’s).

The PNA had suggested the idea of a prize and in so were changing the state of play for a Public Art Institution, who were wanting to change style but were still held back from making any firm decisions as to how. By the simple fact the committee had many differing views about which direction to follow or if indeed whether to change at all.

Max Gordon initially suggested the idea of an annual prize, maybe with TV company collaboration like Channel Four. Alan Bowness a founder member of the PNA instigated the idea to follow the lines of The Booker and, later, an anonymous sponsor offered  £10,000 prize money for three years.

The anonymous sponsor, because of the anonymity was then subject to a lot of theories about relevant sponsorship and funding.

The sponsor was in fact Oliver Prenn, who was also a founder member of the PNA and also successful in business. He didn’t want press coverage, and agreed that his name or brand should not be included in the title of the prize.

Giving the cash was enough.

Now, whether the basic idea of ever offering a Prize for art is in your remit of ethics, and it certainly wasn’t with some: The KLF and their K Foundation made a point of showing the Turner Prize in all its glory by creating The Worst Artist of the Year Award, which had the same artist shortlist as that years Turner. I seem to remember Rachel Whiteread sort of forced herself to accept the prize money on offer from the KF, on the grounds that if not Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty were going to burn the cash – she gave it to charity.

One The K Foundation's Adverts

 

 

In short, out of this turbulence of mixed public-private sponsorship funding and change. Especially with the backdrop of monopolistic tendencies from non government sources being leapt upon by critics concerned about the (the very real) complete demise of public funding through the government (a Conservative policy preference for private sector involvement on every level and political hot potato).

 

And whatever your views on what the Turner Prize has become, its beginning was certainly unique for its time:

The dynamics of a few people and the hands off approach to sponsorship created an almost Schrödinger's Cat scenario for the inception of this particular prize for art. It certainly wasn’t without its critics and never was perfect, but it came close.

Government funding, private sponsorship; power structures and committees all have their imbalance of favour. Buffers of committees and councils can go some way to halt meddling.

But a couple of people drawn by the dynamics of a situation and the ability not to look into the metaphorical box and alter the outcome, is as close as it gets maybe.

I’m thinking even Bill and Jimmy might agree on that dynamic!.

 

 

Back next Thursday 6th January with a round-up of the #class post #rank  debate livestream from 6pm-9 EST Thursday 30th:  teleconference info here .

You don't have to have previous knowledge nor indeed been involved before, just a passion for art, and a willingness to join in and help offer solutions from wherever you are based.
 

Philosophical Sheep

Human Habits, Borders, and Philosophical Sheep !

 

A few years ago I was asked to help proof read a manuscript for a book entitled The Origin of Tongues by Nick Thom.

It was a book written by a Professor of Engineering at Nottingham’s University – he also had a personal passion about language and had spent many years researching and documenting the book – language based evidence of the world’s history of human evolution.

The book was to be self published, as many of the accepted schools of thought in this field (not his usual territory of engineering) were sceptical of the theory. It being new and also pretty much unique. So, with the usual channels of University endorsed publications being somewhat closed, the only option was to either sit on the idea or to self publish.

I have no proper idea of how well the book was received (although the book fairs were very keen) nor indeed how well it sold. It seemingly being very much a labour of love.

However, personally while reading, I was taken on a wonderful journey showing how many of our phonetic sounds can be linked or *matched* in some way to words and sounds half way across the globe – this being backed up by meticulous comparisons of linguistic symbols, words and detailed maps showing the movement and language of peoples. With the advent of things like the domestication of the horse and the evolution of ships from fishing boats etc.,

Early fishing boats travelled the coastal Far East, trading and mixing linguistic influence.

A simple example of phonetic similarity would be, say: the Latin Basilica and the name Basil, to the Russian Wassily, Vasil variants and the Greek Cirili. Being pronounced softly, neither a B, W nor a V or C but something in between ; a bit like screwing up your eyes to see a blurred image, but retaining the substance.

Also, looking recently at some meticulously documented photographs of a 2009 world trip taken by artist Man Bartlett. I was drawn to this idea in another way, through the imagery of the landscapes and seasons, with cultural idiosyncrasies and similarities: Historically, from obvious things like the architecture of occupying cultures to the abstract similarities of simple things like utensils.

Silver Drinking vessel from Peru.
Metals also became part of trade and added to the mix of civilisation's cultures; as different metals were never usually found in the same place.
 

 

Nick Thom’s book showed that the first known sounds ever documented were from around the Caucasus Mountains, spreading to the Urals and the Euphrates and Nile delta and then these sounds were seen to travel north and simultaneously south and east. The south reaching the coastal areas of Africa and the Arab Peninsular and the north splitting first upwards into Russia (Urals) and then west and north towards Gallic/Scandinavia and south towards Latin Spain and Italy while at the same time west through the Middle East to the Dravidian Indus and beyond the mountains into Mongolia, returning again with warring peoples back through the east and up through the Caucasus Mountains before the time of the Ottoman Empire.

Mongol Empire before the Ottomans

Part of Mongolia's Epic route through history: Chinese Mongol monk Rabban Bar Sauma who travelled from his home of Kahnbaliq (Beijing) as far as Mongol-controlled Persia, and from there was sent by the Ilkhan as an ambassador to visit the courts of Europe in 1287-1288.

  

Many structural ideas of the evolution of language within the book were already accepted fact, but the book then took certain elements futher and into a different domain.

And as this is an extremely simplified and assimilated version of the book on my part, I do really recommend reading this fascinating story to absorb the detail.

Nick Thom's The Origin of Tongues

 

All of these things came together to make our history as we know it, and are being constantly updated and documented:

Why and when the Spanish sailed to the Americas is pretty much a given. Not so much so, why the peoples north of Indo-China reached across the tip of Alaska from the Russian extremities (an area of land and ice? no longer there) to travel down into North America. And subsequently the South Americans voyaging across the sea to the Pacific Islands and beyond.

Whichever source is your choice and whether this is deemed as the absolute status-quo does not detract from the fact it is a fascinating story. But as with Nick and publishing an idea, then, not wholly endorsed. That we usually collectively perceive only commonly held beliefs as being fact. And if that status-quo is questioned by an individual or individuals, it can be seen as a threat to, or to undermine the *authority* of its acceptance. Rather than a logical reasoned debate into the possibility of it being fact or not.

Now I am not a philosopher – and certainly not educated in philosophy. But I can see that these commonly held beliefs coupled with borders, dogma, difference, idiosyncrasies and/or mistrust have sometimes led to wars which have been articulated in the name of democracy (or the will of the people). All enacted out, across the globe time and again.

It's a human thing I guess, many people will have experienced the possibly unnerving feeling of moving somewhere new and feeling like they don’t fit in –  because they do things differently, are misunderstood or just new, and therefore by default are seen, at best, as the new kid on the block or different, and at worst a threat and or inferior. This is a loose analogy but for the sake of description....

I read something else on Liberal attitudes being attributed to how friendly or outgoing you were as a child. But I guess a pinch of subjective salt has to be taken with that also.

Personal space, collective space, civilisation, necessities (along with desires) and beliefs.

 
This can all get a bit a-to-b-to-c and back again and sometimes I reach my own personal impasse, déjà vu or duh?! moments when dealing with the minutiae !......

So with this in mind I have taken these two videos from a series of 6 by Alain De Botton on the fundamentals of the human psyche: The Philosophy of Happiness as seen through various philosophers through time.

Here are two of his series of 6, best I think taken in order and bearing in mind they are 20 minutes each:

The first being Socrates on Self-confidence

 

The fourth being the French philosopher Montaigne on Self-esteem

 

Which, if seen first with this image of a brief history of the World’s borders and empires over 10 centuries just adds the cherry on the cake!.

 

Actually it’s mainly Europe but you will get the idea.

 

 

 

 

Back with more next Thursday 18th......