Noise Vs. Test Space, A Cross City Showdown

Teaming up with three artists from Leeds and Three artists from Manchester, I was asked to complete work for a week long 'rapid' exhibition. The exhibition was organised by Test Space, Leeds in association with NOISElab. The idea was to create work within one day at factory, which is an amazing studio in Leeds, complete with screen printing beds, exposing units, wood workshop, jewellery making, upholstery and everything else you might need to create create great work; 3D, 2D or otherwise. The brief was to create work to represent either Leeds or Manchester, I really enjoyed creating the work in the space of one day as it was a good way to do something outside of university and create work, which reflects my personal style.

The exhibition, showing the rapid exhibition and other Test Space work is running from 30th October - 4th October at -

Birds Yard,

83 Kirkgate

Leeds

LS2 7DJ

www.birdsyard.co.uk

www.fac4.co.uk

The exhibition is moving to NOISElab on the 20th November (date tbc), where Leeds artist will come to Manchester to compete with Manchetser artists and exhibit their work at NOISElab.

Here are some examples of the work created:

Nina McNamara Jay Cover Pete Obsolete

Mapping: Formative: Feminine Influence

Beginnings...

Mapping: Material: Belongings

Mapping the contents of my purse at one moment in time, meticulously labelled and presented

Christian Boltanski

Artist working with different interpretations of 'the self' often in reference to family, and his universal childhood, replacing his real childhood, which has been re-told so many times it has somewhat disappeared.

Animated Routine

p

Needs more work on the timing to reflect the actual action the map is portraying, but here's my first attempt at animating the map.

Map of Routine

Marian Bantjes

I Wonder

by Marian Bantjes

Book

I want this and this womans work is beautiful.

See It.

Interference with Process (1b)

Darkroom Experiment

Process 2

Interference with Process (1a)

Task

A series of darkroom experiments using old slides. I plan to continue these experiments using film I have taken myself, as I feel I don't want the message to be confused by the nostalgia of these images.

Outcome

removal of film

The influence of human error

interferance with image

experiment with silhouettes

photograms

composition

movement

accidents

Heath Bunting, The Status Project

The Map Of Normality

Status Project, Heath Bunting

Cornerhouse, Manchester (cafe)

29 September - 21 November 2010

Outline:

The Status Project.

Our identity is constructed as human beings, that

can possess one or more natural persons (straw men)

and control one or more artificial persons (corporations).

Lower class human beings possess one severely reduced natural

person and no control of an artificial person.

Middle class human beings possess one natural person and perhaps

control one artificial person.

Upper class human beings possess multiple natural persons and

control numerous artificial persons with skillful

separation and interplay.

The status project is surveying these class systems of

human being management and is producing maps of influence

and personal portraits for both comprehension and

mobility.

The status project is also considering the border between

ascendant private supported blood hierarchies such as facebook

and descendant public owned infrastructure such as the world wide web.

Heath Bunting was asked to create a 'map of normality' for the AND festival. The map consists of data drawn from governmental databases and the internet, making a vast number of connections between class, status, personal information etc. Bunting's map making does not end here. As I researched further into his work, I realised the relevance this had to the current project: STATIC. I was more interested in his 'Maps of Influence' and his 'Portraits.' Buntings maps of influence relate to a spectrum of subjects including:a terrorist map of influence, a woman map of influence, a man map of influence, being normal map of influence, a christian map of influence etc. The maps take into consideration a series of detailed criteria, for example in the woman map of influence i.e state of residence, a mother, a daughter, in receipt of child benefit, presence of a human head, torso etc. The maps are extremely intricate and are quite beautiful as pieces of info-graphics. The sense of tedious research and investigation comes through in the cross- hatching of lines and grids. Bunting has also created a 'Portraits' series

For my journal last year, I decided to map out my influences in terms of projects, which ended up like a timeline of influences and how different things interconnected and related to eachother. Initially I wanted to create map where I took everything in my life into account, considering that my life influences my design work and vice versa. I still want to pursue this idea. When thinking out static I came to realise that static could be interpreted as interruption or interferance, what happens if we interfere with influence?I wanted to create a map of my influence, including any interruptions in my life and how this has shaped me to be who I am today. I have also been looking at interferance with process, eventually I would like to combine these two outlets, essentially interfering with my influences using process.

Bunting has also created 'Portraits based around the idea that any reflection of the self is incomplete without consideration of the outside world. The status portraits represent the self in terms of its relationship to the united kingdom. My approach would probably be more emotional rather than technical, and this would be reflected in the presentation of information.

Map of Normality

Map Of Influence

Portraits

.

Recorders

• Manchester Art Gallery

Saturday 19th September - Sunday 30th January

I have had an obsession with vintage recording devices since I began my foundation. In the past I have explored recorders of sound and then later trying to devise a new type of communication, by literally trapping sound. So naturally I was interested in visiting Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's, Recorders exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery. Filled with an array of recording devices via seven interactive installations.

The first room displays rather modest installations which are amusing to participate with. Exploiting the idea of sharing information, placing this experience into a physical space, makes us aware of the information we are sharing, mirroring the way we share information everyday, but in a more obvious way. the highlight of the exhibition is undoubtedly the pulse room, It is rare, if ever, that we are able to actually visualise our pulse, it is usually experienced through sound or feeling. A ceiling is gridded with hundreds of light bulbs, at the head of the room there are two metal handles, the visitor is invited to grab hold of the handles and then watch as the lights in the room respond to their unique heart rate, for a moment, the room represents the visitor, allowing them to see their pulse illuminated on a large scale. I found this experiential exhibition engaging a mixture of recording, ambience, light bulbs and interaction, in my opinion, is worth a visit!

Marxism Today

Phil Collins: Marxism Today

Abandon Normal Devices (AND)

Cornerhouse, Manchester

02 October - 20 November

Phil Collins shines a light on what is generally perceived as the losing side in the political and social upheavals of the past two decades. The film shows contemporary interviews with ex-teachers, specialising in Marxist-Leninist ideals in the former Communist East Germany.These interviews are combined with archival material creating an interesting introduction to the topic. My interest in Germany is constantly evolving, especially Berlin and it's rich history and after spending a lot of the summer there, I felt this was an exhibition for me. I found the screening very emotional and insightful, it is one thing to learn about the history of place by reading a list of facts, but when exposed to a series of emotions and personal experiences, I felt I could really start to put my knowledge into context and understand what it was really like during that time. There were beautifully sensitive examples of archival material combined with the harsh documentary style of the interviews. A real sense of time came through with the screening. Hearing the teachers talk in retrospect about the end of communism and the possibility of becoming rich, there seemed to be split opinions referring to the pros and cons of the party. In one way there was an opportunity to become rich, but in another way some people felt that now they were doing things purely for material gain, rather than for themselves. In the next room a screening of a modern classroom brings the central concepts of Marxist economic analysis to the new generation of students, whose questions are very insightful and thought provoking. This topic is something I am very interested in and as a delve further into the social/ political impact of Photo Montage, this could be something I revisit.

Unspooling

Unspooling

Abandon Normal Devices (AND)

Cornerhouse, Manchester

02 October - 09 January 2011

Work from 18 artists that use of abandon the usual conventions of cinema. The name of the exhibition was what first intrigued me, triggering my fascination with spools, tapes and recording. Inside a range of cinematic/artistic strategies are spread over two floors including sound, gesture, spoken word, painting, drawing and sculpture. Something must be said for the curators of the exhibition, as the spacing and positioning of the pieces around the room worked well to enhance the viewer experience. Julian Moisander's The Manager, 2010, shows a hanging man projected high up near the ceiling of the gallery, whilst Ming Wong's Life and Death in Venice, 2010, is projected onto impossibly thin perspex sheets, which appear to be floating independently in the space, beautiful. Intricate installation is seen inMichaël Borremans', The German 2004- 2007. A scale model of a cinema space, shrunk to a miniscule size, contains incredibly detailed, tiny figurines, who observe the comparitively giant screen, showing the jerky mannerisms of a suited man. Whether it is the model or the film we should focus upon is unimportant, in any sense it made me stop and look closer ,which deserves some credit.

My main point of interest within this exhibition were not the works themselves but the way the works had been presented, which I thought could be applied to my degree show/ D&AD exhibition in the future.

Routine 1

Sachiko Abe

(b. Japan, 1975) I visited the Liverpool Biennial this week. Many of the things I saw were disappointing, however the undoubted highlight was Sachiko Abe. Tucked a way in a corner of FACT is a performance not worth missing. Paper Mountain was the name of the performance, I walked into a warehouse type room to find a beautiful turret of paper, which on closer inspection was made up of tiny shreds of paper, glancing further I saw a woman dressed in white at the top of a mezzanine, cutting into an A4 sheet of paper under a pale spotlight. The intricacy of the piece was fascinating, Abe cuts around the edge of the A4 sheet forming a delicate thread of paper which cascades from the mezzanine and trails to form the paper mountain, which is merely supported by string. A microphone amplifies the cutting sound and I got a great sense of time and presence within the performance. As if Abe had been there for years creating this sculpture, serenely and slowly, part of a fairytale, divine and somewhat magical.

In a separate room there appeared intricate and obsessional drawings. Obviously a theme running through Abe's work. One drawing was on a roll of paper, unfinished. still a vast amount of unrolled paper to work through and two pillows set down on the floor. it was the sense of time which struck me again and the uncertainty of a finished piece. I found the work very calming as if Abe had an escape and was separate from the stresses of life and exists purely for her work. It was this authenticity that I admired the most.

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