19 February 2012
hoarding hyperdetritus,
datamining dirty digital debris,
my sticky sockets soaked in sumptuous stimuli. indeed!
the peripheral versus the decentralised,
inspect inspiring ignored ignitions with
one extract, one reference and, one word;
anomalous visuals
proprioception
tenderpixel + squidsoup
phosphenes
the matrix
dreammachine
pie architecture
kodakclosure
Isidro Blasco
visualfield
seismanarrative
laura oldfield ford
savageredevelopment
Erik Desmazières
etch
olly moss
draw
words
virginia woolfmomentomomentum
francois morellet
neon
http://inbflat.net/
Darren Solomonconductor
Labels: conservation, descartes, dreams, history, light, london, oliversacks, periphery, photography, poetry, quote, vision
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21 November 2011
pope is so sharply funny, satirically damning of the fleet, a pleasure to read this extract.
how concealed from daily notice the fleet river is these days,
and how apt an intersection, the holborn viaduct.
an intuition; there is something buried here worth digging for.
This labour past, by Bridewell all descend,
(As morning prayer, and flagellation end)
To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams
Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames,
The king of dikes! than whom no sluice of mud
With deeper sable blots the silver flood.
'Here strip, my children! here at once leap in,
Here prove who best can dash through thick and thin,
And who the most in love of dirt excel,
Or dark dexterity of groping well.
Who flings most filth, and wide pollutes around
The stream, be his the weekly journals bound;
A pig of lead to him who dives the best;
A peck of coals a-piece shall glad the rest.
...
photograph - a brickwork collage of the south-west viaduct gatehouse, 2011
image - a drawing of the fleet river by 'mr crosby,' 1844
image - a drawing of the fleet river by 'mr crosby,' 1844
text - an extract from the dunciad, alexander pope, 1728
Labels: london, poetry, quote, satire
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3 November 2011
stephen and i embarked on an archaeological voyage last night, with the holborn viaduct gatehouses centred in our spyglass. these images and captions are courtesy of the city of london planning department. i'm really excited by the prospect of a project here, so let this post act as a lite introduction to something much greater
Labels: archaeology, drawing, history, introduction, london, mythology
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19 May 2011
[image: joiner of tmle presentation in action]
stephen mackie and i were invited to talk at the modern language experiment; a critical art, practice + theory forum. this took place on 17th may. we decided to present our collaborative work, drawing attention to the progression of our processes over the past year, between the black mill project and the meta architecture exhibition.
the group discussion around our subjects was most welcomed, raising some unexpected questions about our work. thanks to matt and keh from t.m.l.e. for arranging the event and alan magee for co-presenting the evening with us
Labels: black mill, critique, london, meta architecture, presentation
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1 November 2010
shadow catchers
and the photogram
" the question is, and this possible with photograms, how to get away from the purely documentary aspect and make a picture of the window about the window. "
- floris neususs
there is a rich and potent discourse occurring at the victoria and albert museum; the exhibition 'shadow catchers'. five mature photographers recount their inventive and often poetic manipulations of light and representation. through technique, timing, medium and subject this exhibition promises to overwhelm me.
a common appreciation of the 'photogram' knits between these five exhibiteurs. while this is interesting in itself, what i find particularly intriguing are the recurring subjects and metaphors of life ± death, internal ± external, thing ± thought, as if working with the photogram and the inherent processes involved predisposes a meta-subject, only found in a dark room.
below i have selected quotes from the interviews of [4 of] these artists, which might give a sense of each own's interests + relation to the exhibition
floris neusüss
" an important aspect of my work was more conditioned by the medium itself: I carried the photogram out of the laboratory, that is out of the studio, and took it to the objects... I use this technique because I find it to be a medium that is suitable for purpose, and because, and this is the important thing, I am interested in what they used to do with this technique before my time. "
" a very important aspect of a photogram is this contact, how do I put it…a photogram is not a reproduced print, it is a contact picture. You sense that the object was originally in contact with the picture. "
susan derges
" maybe the underlying desire to make images in the first place was to talk about what underlies the visible rather than to just show the visible "
" photography is kind of tied up with death in many respects in terms of you're looking at absent moments; they're no longer there. So it is quite a lot I think to do with loss as well as holding and showing "
" my interest in light and time is the accumulation of days... the meaning comes from an engagement with everyday and then making sense of all the days. so
"
mething happens which is incommunicable, and it can happen in a work of art or it can happen in a moment... and something occurs, a certain kind of light touches the landscape... and something else seems to be in the room with you, and you feel it.
" in recent work I'm bringing two colours together, and where two colours meet they make a third colour and also a kind of floating transitory space and that kind of edge, that is a kind of place of disappearing or emerging. really what my work is about is to try and create a thinking space, but also a kind of place one can slide into, and disappear into and perhaps not come back from. "
adam fuss
" the way I discovered the photogram was through accidentally finding within the pinhole camera process that it would be possible to make pictures without needing the outside world as a subject. a photogram, which has much less information, has much more intimacy and feeling than a normal photograph. "
" metaphorically I stepped into the camera... bringing images, manifesting images, that bringing out and externalising has been therapeutic for me... you don't create, you die. "
Labels: exhibition, history, london, photography, shadow
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25 October 2010
there is an uncertain moment when you complete the circuit and your fluorescent tube stutters to life. it's a violent event, made all the more startling if at this moment you have the tube in your hands. this is to 'strike the arc'; when the ionised mercury atoms are jolted into a plasma of excitement [think of accelerating from almost stationary to nearly the speed of light in what is effectively, an instant].
it is only now that the electrons meet a small enough resistance between the filaments that the ultraviolet blaze takes hold. over the last few weeks i have, shock horror, begun to admire the technical complexity of these begrudgingly over-used [and often harsh] emitters.
Labels: eliasson, flavin, fluorescence, light, london, photography
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17 October 2010
thirteen point nine kilometres
a search for a white shirt for sister's wedding,
architectural words 2,
coffee at monmouth,
and for the sake of looking up at london walls.
could i record 100 kilometres of walk in london?
[ route details ]
twenty four point three kilometres
a long cycle from kingston to newington green,
two door cinema club gig at the hippodrome.
arrived home at 3am.
[ route details ]
.
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above is a list of words taken from down and out in paris and london, by george orwell.
the words are in order as they appear in the book. the collective's common denominators [for there are many] are that the word made me pause reading; usually due to a distracting interest in the word's sound, its phonetics, meaning, etymology, geographical origin, potential malapropism or some other quality of the word. these qualities set out the criteria for a type of survey.
it is a list of words, and it is a survey of a book. i like the idea that this survey can be a reduced reading of the book, granted the particular parameters/filters i employed irreversibly garble any broad meaningfulness from orwell's pages. these three columns of words represent a lexicon-scape, an essence in some form, albeit a contrived one.
the process needs more discipline in order to produce a rigorous series of lists of different books; the criteria needs more elaboration and understand - but as a framework for the re-cognization of text there seems to be at least some obvious benefits for the reader [...questioning the meanings of seemingly unambiguous prose; testing the rhythm of text etc] and i suspect many curious, literally abstract interpretations of books and text out there [...graphing the number of syllables per word?]
i'm reminded of borges' library of babel; more to follow with next lexicon-scape. [note to self; think of a less clumsy word. perhaps into the portmanteaux archive]
Labels: borges, lexicon-scape, london, orwell
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12 October 2010
the great wen
London, 1802
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.
- willian wordsworth
which suits better? londonium vs the great wen
a note for further reading : william cobbett - a radical pamphleteer
Labels: history, london, quote
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15 September 2010
more to follow
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22 July 2010
five point seven kilometres
route to barbican and serpentine pavilion
which has table tennis tables,
which seem exclusively occupied by architects/students
which is credit to you nouvel
[ route details ]
[ jean nouv serp pav ]
ten point five kilometres
on the bike this time
checking out a flat to live in
on return leg, watched aftobeats and opera signing at ply park
at the shoreditch festival
and a wee read of super-critical
[ route details ]
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12 July 2010
city routes 001
eighth july twenty ten
ramble to architecture association summer exhibition.
eleven point three kilometres
phew.
first time to walk up euston road.
[ route details ]
nineth july twenty ten
ramble to regents park and notting hill.
eleven point one kilometres
london by bike seems increasingly attractive
[ route details ]
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