Ed Tech Creative Collective & Me

I've signed up to take part in the Ed Tech Creative Collective led by Colin Maxwell.

So, this is a post to introduce myself:

I'm an artist who works with the social sphere creating projects that are centered on participation, I sometimes describe my artworks as socially-engaged. Recently I've become interested in Twitter and worked with a group of writers to develop a performance for Twitter called #dawnchorus.

I also work in the Learning & Partnerships team at Modern Art Oxford, a public art gallery in Oxford. Including working on the following project and developing public engagement events that relate to it: John Gerrard, Legacy Fellowship and a new youth programme.

I previously worked in Technology PR, and try to keep an eye on what's happening in the field of art that engages with technology and social media.

Longhouse publication - due January 2012

Longhouse is a professional development programme for artists from Multistory in West Bromwich. Read more about the Action Research Project.

Free Gifts at Present in Public, Liverpool

Present in Public, a development programme for new gift-based public works / interventions for six artists facilitated by Tim Jeeves, is pleased to show these new performance works throughout the city of Liverpool as a part of Giving in to Gift on Saturday 12^th November.

See programme here
Includes my new performance installation in the Hub at the Bluecoat, described below...

Free Gifts

A range of the artist’s possessions are on display and up for adoption; these things are surplus for her, no longer wanted. She seeks responsible new owners and will interview anyone willing to take an object home.
In a culture where consumerism is commonplace and there is an absence of effective systems of repair or recycling, the work examines the legacy of a purchased or gifted object, and the strange hold our possessions can have on us.

Giving in to Gift, Liverpool

As a meeting point between artists, their peers and the public, Giving in to Gift begins a conversation around ideas of generosity and reciprocation and how such themes manifest.

It is an examination of the contradictions present in the giving of gifts, with a particular emphasis on how they may interact with the changing economic landscape, whilst at the same time providing an opportunity for differing modes of collaboration to be explored.

Final event: 12 November 2011

Venue: central Liverpool / the Bluecoat

Web: www.givingintogift.org

Small gift actions, Liverpool

As part of the weekly meetings in Liverpool the participating artists have been offered various prompts and exercises to explore ideas of gift. Here are some of the resulting impromptu actions.

Street Sketch Gift, Church Street, central Liverpool:

Overtly recycled presents, Liverpool:



text: hope you like & enjoy these overtly recycled presents & feel free to RETURN them if not.

Street scene, London

POST Artists at Exchange Project Space, Hackney

Here's an image showing a collaborative performance to video, as installed at Exchange Project Space for the exhibition 'Broken Telephone', 1st September 2011.









Performance video by Katie Gilman, Helen Jacobs, Jenny Rolfe-Herbert and Natasha Vicars







Further information on POST Artists and the research visit with OgreAttend in Athens that lead to this work and the exhibition.

#dawnchorus - tweeting the dawn

#dawnchorus - tweeting the dawn - was performed at dawn on Sunday 16th October 2011 (approximately 5:35am to 8am UK time) on Twitter.

See all tweets here on Twitter

Participating writers are: Joanna Brown,Tiffany Charrington, Eddy Dreadnought, Sally Labern, Tamarin Norwood, Mary Paterson and Natasha Vicars.



#dawnchorus is conceived by Natasha Vicars and developed in collaboration with Mary Paterson and the writers, as part of the Live Art Development Agency's DIY8 programme. For more information, email Natasha Vicars or see us on Twitter.

Hackney Dawn Watching

Hackney Dawn Watching took place on 21 May at St Augustine's Tower, Hackney Central, Off Mare Street.

Photographs and research blog here

Longhouse Bursary project

Dawn Pilot

With Scott Farlow and the other bursary artists, David Boultbee, Laurence Payot, Theo Price, Elaine Speight at West Bromwich city centre and on the top floor of the West Bromwich Premier Inn, in December 2010.

I timed the event by the phases of dawn twilight, of which there are three:
Astronomical twilight, Nautical twilight, Civil twilight.

The times for these are shown on timeanddate.com


So we met at at 5:45am towards the beginning of Astronomical twilight and went for a walk around the central area of West Brom! It appeared completely dark, but this period is when it is first possible to measure a lightening of the sky, even it isn't really perceptible. This phase starts with the sun 18 degrees below the horizon.

The aim of the walk was to observe the town outside of our regular waking/working hours.

Longhouse Bursary project

Dawn Pilot

After a frosty walk around West Brom crossing paths with a few early workers, but mostly seeing the streets deserted, we returned to the Premier Inn and repaired to a warm room at the top corner of the building.

The high windows formed an L-shape giving a views over an 180 panorama, and looking down onto a main road into the town centre... and with Birmingham central on the eastern horizon. We tilted open the windows to be able to follow the changes outside better - to hear the outside, and feel the temperature of the air.

But as we settled in to watch from 6:20am through to an 8am sunrise we were glad not to be outside for the next two hours at temperatures not much above 0'C.

Longhouse Bursary project

Dawn Pilot

Nautical Twilight is the next phase of dawn - starting with the sun 12 degrees below the horizon and spanning light conditions from being able to start to make out outlines of objects outside and getting lighter but not getting to the point of easily being able to work (or play sports!) outside. Sometimes referred to as 'the blue hour' by painters and photographers. Street lights are still on for this period.

On 9 December this phase was from 6:31am to 7:14am

We watched, drank tea, photographed, noted changes... the many shifts in the colour and lighting of the sky, shop lights coming on, traffic picking up. A dark cloud seemed to rest right across the horizon, but the breaks in this deep blue block framed the lightening sky dramatically. Photos below at the time of transition from Nautical Twilight to Civil Twilight.

Longhouse Bursary project

Dawn Pilot

Images: Shifting light and increasing illumination of the sky, photographs taken during the pilot dawn watching gathering, December 2010.

Click on an individual image for a close up.

Longhouse Bursary project

Dawn Pilot

Civil Twilight and Sunrise: On December 9th 2010, civil twilight started at 7:14am and ended at 7:54am with sunrise.

Civil twilight is the final phase of the dawn, with the sun now 6 degrees below the horizon. In this time the horizon becomes clearly visible, and ground objects progress to becoming visible too, and during this period there starts to be sufficient light to undertake activities outside, and street lights may be timed to switch off during this time.

We were surprised to see how much change took place after sunrise. The red glow on the horizon was just after sunrise - the time when the upper edge of sun becomes visible over the horizon - but this soon faded to a sky of greys, and then, around half an hour after this there arrived pinks, yellows, turquoise blue sky... the colours one typically associates with sunrise. Photos below taken at: 7:45am, 7:47am, 7:54am, 8:27am

Longhouse Bursary project

Shifting cloud cover at 7:30am during the period of Civil Twilight...

Applauding the Dawn

Here are some video clips from YouTube of a localised tradition, a spontaneous action that happens sometimes on Ipanema beach at sunset:






I'm interested in instigating a gathering to see the dawn, and to welcome it with applause.

What is the experience of rising to watch the daybreak? Of welcoming it - joining with others to give it applause even? I'm interested in the experience of stepping out of one's daily routine to contemplate a natural event in an urban setting, making a link to Romanticism and its focus on a sense of wonder at nature, but also - influenced by the applause on Ipanema beach - on a group action.

I'm now planning a publicly advertised gathering to watch the dawn through to sunrise - to take place in London.

Flowers for the Sea at ARTSIDE 2010

Photo credit: Priya Saujani



Flowers for the Sea was a public intervention on the beach at Southend-on-Sea.

The work:
Passers-by that approach an impromptu flower stall are invited to select a flower that they can take to the water's edge and - looking silently out to sea - think of their wish and simultaneously throw the flower into the waves. The work displaces a tradition from Brazil of offering flowers to the sea.

At ARTSIDE:
During the afternoon of 17 July 2010 over 100 participants received flowers which they individually threw into the waves. During it's progress, interest in the action spread around the area by word of mouth and attracted more participants.

The flowers washed up gradually along one stretch of beach.


Thanks:
To Derek's Florist for support and donation of flowers.
And Coexist Arts for organising the ARTSIDE programme, supported by Southend-on-Sea Town Centre Partnership.
And Priya Saujani for working with me on the stall.

Video montage produced by Michaela Freeman at Coexist Arts.
Archive of ARTSIDE 2010 programme

snap - a conceptual photography relay race

snap is a work in development

Responding the work of Doug Huebler, and the use of the camera by artists to automate image-making and bring in elements of chance.

Two competitors each receive a disposable camera and - within 24 minutes - take a set of 24 photos to most exactly replicate my photos of 24 arbitrarily selected buildings taken nearby. I immediately develop/print the films. The most accurate photographer of the pair wins; the new photos form the starting point for the next competitors.

‘snap’ functions on various levels. It emphasises lack of authorship – I do not make an aesthetic decision but randomly photograph 24 buildings in the surrounding area. The subject matter of buildings is arbitrary. Participants are more ‘camera operators’ than photographers; asked to re-enact the taking of photographs I started, which may mean copying those of another participant. In effect, the participants are asked to act out a live version of a reprint, with inevitable approximations.

The images produced in each round could be used to fabricate sets of 'snap' card games, where the pairs in the game are each a 'not quite' match due to the process used to create the duplicates.

Found Objects, London - research

Research project - objects found on street in London

Further research

Full series here

Selected images:

Ropery Street

Bow Common Lane

Cockspur Court

High Road, East Finchley

Exploring collecting / hoarding

A sketch: 169 similar sized objects from my collection.
Initial exploration to develop a further live event continuing from Kept Objects pilot at Arnolfini.
Background research