Meeting notes

Work done on creating questions and shortlists was time well spent.
    • structured the methodology
    • showed complexity of thought going into subject
    • sets the stage for prog exam
    • criticisms arising are constructive: mostly about couching terms/sensitive interviewing
    • will knit well with assignment materials

As regards assignments:
    • Iain will get hold of the new, simpler set of instructions for me.
    • It's expected that some work I have done will fit in quite well (in particular, my assumptions about the taxonomy of terms exercise seem to have been more or less corresct)
    • It's important that my advisors can say that I will have this work done, but it may not be essential that it is done now, though clearly I'd like to get it sorted out anyway.
    • There seems to be more leeway about providing work that obviously fits the intention of the assignments without adhering to the letter of the law. This is good news because I've done a lot of work on the relevent areas: maybe just not the specified work.

On the artwork:
        • General agreement with my self-criticism. Work has lacked material and expressive richness of late because of time constraints and production capabilities. My stated aim of spending more studio time doing autographic work (versus digital production chipped away at inbetween my research studies) seems well received as a proposed remedy. I just need to make that work! However, no complaints about my work. Quality could be better, but I'm obviously doing what I can under the production circumstances.

Some points not covered:
    • joining art practice to my case stufy methodology: I've a pretty decent idea of how my writing and researching is going to perform self-reflexive/hermeneutic research, but as yet, I've only pencilled-in how I intend to examine issues in the research in my artwork. Although I'm clearly relating my own work and its' accompanying propositions (my understanding of what book arts are and my work's place in it), to the work of others, and stating an aim to scurry backwards and forwards between my assumptions and what I glean from other folks' practice, this is more about comparing theory. I'm not really comparing the work itself that clearly here. So it's not comparative analysis, this reflexive process that the work is supposed to take up. It's more, I think, going to be about finding understandings of issues raised through art means... Obviously I'm unclear here. How can I make work that forms part of my investigation. Do I have to wait and see what I start finding out?

• I also want to figure out how I am going to construct my thesis. I was reading about Ricoeur this morning, about how the studies in the Rule of Metaphor gradually unfold the different levels of R's theory of metaphor. From a stylistic point of view, I think I'd like to take up something similar, I think. I haven't read the Rule of Metaphor yet, so I can't say what this unfolding means in terms of R's methodology (one presumes, in setting out to writew, that he already knows what his theory is, and is using these 'layers' as illustrations rather than as hermeneutic experimentation) Nonetheless, my existing metaphor of 'back and forth' or of 'repetition' could easily make for dull reading if there is no 'dramatic structure' to how my understanding unfolds. The problem is, that I don't know what I'm portraying. So I can't decide in advance what to unfold, what bits will unfold in different case studies, etc. Perhaps it won't be possible to do this. Or, perhaps, I will discover a story in the course of my research which I will later be able to edit into something readable. A hermeneutics of continuous repetition or fractious back-and-forth could be very trying, and I aspire to something less dull. Fingers crossed for a good story! This would be an interesting point to discuss another time.

tangled

Tanpit Woods 2, originally uploaded by aesop.

Today is going to be all about setting down some of my ideas into the structures already in place for the progression exam writing I'm doing. There are plenty of ideas and sufficient theoretical framework in the background, even though the more I see of it, the better I would like to delve into it more fully. In particular the theoretical articulation of how studio parctice is a form of research. I'm reading Graeme Sullivan's book on this just now, which is ever-so-slowly peeling away layers of theoretical grounding: I'm waiting for the chapter where he begins his exposition of the theoretical heuristics that allow the richness of research within artistic practice to be examined critically. As I say, I'd rather know more about my application of this at the moment. Beyond a certain hermeneutic program of interrogating and instigatingmy work through the selfsame questioning matrix that I will be bringing to my case-study data, I'm not too specific about how cog 'a' will mesh with gear 'c'. I suspect it's something that by definition will work itself out in the hermeneutic process.

Be that as it may, I'm now writing so as to have a locus to edit, to add ideas to. At the moment, I'm conscious of having many different vectors of thought on and around my research interests and in tandem with several interpretations of the web of theoretical and other 'outside' references.

Reading room, Bristol Reference Library

Reading room, Bristol Reference Library, originally uploaded by aesop.

From a set of photos I took for the forthcoming book on the library, which celebrates its centenary this year.

Poisonwood Bible

Link: Poisonwood Bible
I just finished this book in order to be able to talk to the guy who runs the ferry I catch to work in the morning. What a great book. Far too complex and emotional for me to offer my opinions on, unfortunately. It was, for some time, popular with reading groups, which tended, to my contrary misanthropic side, to register as a mark aginst it. I'm glad I got over that prejudice to read it. Worth (I think) all the time I spent reading it when I should have been sleeping or working.

coptic stitch

coptic stitch, originally uploaded by aesop.

A how to diagram for Guerilla Bookbinding which will be happening at Spike Island in February. I'm going to produce a whole booklet like this with the 6-10 different bindings I'll be teaching.

Click the picture to see at higher resolution (look for 'all sizes')

planning saturday

It's going to be the first Saturday in a while at home for me, and I'm looking forward to a day's farting around the place. Laundry will get done, tidying will happen, and all within reach of a never-cooling kettle.

I'm also going to treat myself to a job I've wanted to do for some time: drawing up my own diagram-guides for my guerilla bookbinding class. I've appropriated stuff from all over before, but I'm planning a sort of folksy handlettered booklet feel. I'll be able to devise it as a booklet in itself, too, which will be satisfying and give my students a nifty way to keep some record of the bedlam that might possibly be referred to. The least I can do after benfitting from other's work is to offer my own material for others: I'll post versions for download when I get them finished.

Lindy's invited me over for dinner on Saturday night, too, which will be cool.

Bristl Flickrmeet

Link: Bristol Flickr Meet

It's time to have a beer or two and meet some of the other people currently viewing the visual world as a series of photo opportunities. speaking for myself, I'm in a sort of exhausted, post-jaded state where I seem to have taken all the photographs I know how to take. I'm now approaching some sort of other-state where I take the photograph because it wants me to take it, rather than the other way around. I think my recent pictures are unexciting, really, but they exist now, and I'm waiting for one of them to tell me something, so I keep taking them.

Maybe I'll learn something tonight?

Hugh & Andi at the LAB

Hugh & Andi, originally uploaded by aesop.

(Hugh Bryden and Andi McGarry)

At the London Artists' Books fair at the ICA this weekend. I had a really good, productive time 9even though I was surrounded by a superabundance of tempting artworks and all the expense that the metropolis can throw to a man with my modest tastes (I even order a cheap curry on a boozy night out)I took a lot of notes and made contact with a number of people whose work I'd like to find out more about. I came up with a couple of ideas whilst there, too, but they await a bit of further thought before I write them up. I was a bit disappointed in my own books. They looked a bit sad and unloved, and not really up to the standard I'd like to reflect. For the moment I'm putting it down to a bit of a flirtation with trying to make commercially-viable work, and a bit of aridity arising from too much computer work. Suffice it to say that at the moment my fingers are mucky with charcoal, and though I'm still a bit timid about feeling that my books are getting better, it felt good.

getting ready for LAB

I'm going to be at the London Artists' Book fair at the ICA tomorrow. I need to pack, obviously, but more important will be the scene-setting I want to do for myself. I want to use the event as a chance to make a few informal contacts with artists and survey work I think I will want to consider for possible case studies. Since my research is going to be about studio practice, I want to try to sound out how I will talk to artists about this aspect of things. It needs to be somewhat distinct from a regular critical discussion, and closer to something which looks at how ideas are managed and developed, nurtured even, through the enabling form of the book. My hunch, as I've written elsewhere, is that book artists all use books as an heuristic tool to get some conceptual leverage on their ideas. They give access to discrete qualities, particular sorts of media articulation and a full circuit of roles within the creative field. Anyway, I want to find a way to tal to artists about this, in so many words, to find out what it feels like to work on books from their point of view, and to what extent the y feel books are an enabling factor in their work.

It'll also be a chance for me to enjoy other's work and look at some of the best new books available. I've been feeling a need to return to my own work, in terms of quality and intensity, things having been on a bit of a commercial footing of late, and sacrificing something of the obsessive quality that makes the books tick. It'll be good to have this chance to be inspired.

Also, and no small thing, there'll be a chance to have a beer or two with some of my acquaintances from Wexford. I can't get too drunk (are you listening to me, Andrew?) but it'll be fun.

Tiercel Movie

Tiercel Movie (The link takes ages but does work if you've got Quicktime)

This has been kicking around for some time. I finally got around to putting on some kind of soundtrack music. I've found that  iPhoto's  pre-packaged web exports seem to do the best job of delivering a file of anything like acceptable size, despite my tinkering with various compression regimes/framerates/palettes/screen sizes. The only problem with this solution (which gives a filesize of about 9mB with identical-seeming quality to my next-best effort at 24mB), is that it outputs to the wrong screen size ( a 4:3 ratio, as opposed to my eccentric choice based on the size of the book pages the film was based on) Anyone know what settings I should use, or what ones have been used in iMovie's settings? Is there something inherent in the aspect ratio I've gone for that defeats the compression algorithms somehow?

Anyway, here, at last, is the Tiercel film on the web. It looks a lot better from here but I thought a 400mB QT was asking a bit much of my reader.

finger puppets

finger puppets, originally uploaded by aesop.

These here characters are part of my contribution to A-Mart, the art supermarket at Ale and Porter in Bradford-On_Avon. The opening will be at 6.30 on Friday, and there'll be lots of stuff there from dozens of artists, including ceramics in the shape of 'tupperware' type plastic containers, t-shirts and stuff by Mark Pawson, and artists books by me and Melanie ward, amongst others, all set amidst the engagingly bizarre cerise colour scheme dreamed u for the occasion. I was quite keen on the sock puppets which will be available, though there's also a range of pinhole camera-related stuff that looks good, too.

I was over there yesterday, having gotten a lift from Linda Clark, whose driving opened up a new chapter with this inter-town run, hooray. As always, everyone was very welcoming and sympathetic about my sore back. I'm in the wars again now, having managed to introduce a fragment of prawn cracker into the surroundings of my left eyeball, which swelled up a good deal. Sarah's liberal application of ice in a selection of rubber gloves kindly supplied by viki seem to have done the trick and staved off a monocular future for a while, though I'm typing wit the affected eye still closed and a bit itchy-runny, but well within acceptable norms. ( I can see fine through it if anyone's worried, though it still feels a bit crumby). Spoiled a game of scrabble that was shaping up to be enjoyably awful.

Tai Chi

Attended a class in Tai Chi at the Southville Centre last night. I'd been a bit cagey about starting it, since the taster class I'd attended was run by the regional head instructor rather than the actual teacher. I needn't have worried, as it was great. really worth the while. I think I'll enjoy it, but I have to find the money, which is a bit tight right at the moment. I'll find a way, though.

I've spent most of the day today putting together material for Ale & Porter's AMart exhibition. Since I've done a small range of finger puppet toys for them, it amounts to mounting and cutting out these. I hope this show will prove a bit more fruitful than the artists' books fairs have been of late!

Off to Wexford

I'm off to Wexford to take part in, and give a talk at the Wexford Artists' Books Symposium (link is pdf, sorry)

Plan 9

Plan 9 is a temporary art space in Bristol's Broadmead shopping district. There's a new show there called "Drawn" which I'm planning to get over and see tomorrow.

I've been having a pretty quiet weekend after giving my class in book binding at Spike Island, but I'm going to get back to work tomorrow- work being my continued reading, and getting back to grips again with my PhD. Not thinking a great deal about artwork just now, but getting the teaching done clears my mind a bit.

Mountain pass

mountains4, originally uploaded by aesop.

This photo relates to The Remembrancer, an artists' book I produced several years ago, with the assistance of Richard Asplin, who salvaged these photos, (along with the invitation to the Lord Mayor's Banquet, 1933) from the trash.

from Southey diary

from Southey diary, originally uploaded by aesop.

 

The Scottish Poetry Library

The Scottish Poetry Library, originally uploaded by aesop.

There's an artist's book event there in early October. I don't know if I will be able to make it, since I'm going to be in Wexford in September and in Amsterdam in October- and I haven't booked any of it yet. Hope I can go.

sketchbook entries

sketchbook entries, originally uploaded by aesop.

L's little Rupa, White Tara.

Countdown

My last couple of days before enrolling on Tuesday. I've spent part of the day continuing to produce some pictures for use with the Corporation Bible slideshow, and partly at the library, to all intents and purposes wasting time.

I'm looking forward to having some sense of purpose, however. The last week has been a bit amorphous as I've starated the process of getting organised for my research but still have no particular reason to research in one direction or another. I'm hoping the next few weeks will see me pulling myself together in this respect.

Off I go

I think I've worked hard enough now. I've got a fair-to-middling idea of what I can and cannot do with this here thing now, so it remains really to stop for the evening and just get my head down for a bit. It's been good finding out how to tweak things a bit so as to make it a bit more peersonalised, and working with it has inspired me to get to work on my (hem hem) real website, which I've barely touched for years, having honest-togod been busy doing something else. But this has actually been fun in a way that printing lots of copies of my books hasn't been recently. I put it down largely to simply not having made much new work of late. This little effort has been a little bit of a creative outlet for me, and I'm starting to feel that I might be able to live up to my own intention of using it as an online sketchbook.

It's now about 3:40, if my clock's right. So I really HAVE to go to bed now, or I might start jabbering.