Light going on and off

Spent Saturday at a digital aesthetics workshop run by Graham Dean of Highwire. In a few short hours he helped a bunch of (not very techie) artists to master basic programming and electronics to the point where we could contemplate taking data from the world and converting it into another creative form. Though many, very exciting things are possible using the Arduino software and hardware, the pinnacle of our day was making set of LEDs go on and off with a motion sensor. Believe me, when you've connected up the components and amended the code yourself, this is very exciting...

This article may change my life

For some time now, I've been worrying about the relevance of static gallery art. I love galleries, but the work in them often doesn't seem to be addressing anything apart from itself. Meanwhile, out in the real world, there are things I feel quite concerned about - or at least more interested in.

When I started working with Felicity Shillingford on a response to the visit of the British Art Show to Plymouth in the autumn, our first thought was to secure some kind of space in Plymouth and put on a show. But then we thought, why should we go all that way just to add to the quantity of art being exhibited in a city where we don't even live?  A city which has already swallowed up Exeter's art college and many of our artists. And the idea of stealing art and bringing it back to Exeter was born. It's still going to result a gallery-type show, but the really important part of it is the stealing and removing of art to another place, and the negotiations that will be required to do so.

Meanwhile, in attempting to help the Spacex Review Group formulate responses to a project called The Recipe Exchange, I stumbled across an article by Grant Kester called Dialogical Aesthetics: A Critical Framework For Littoral Art.  I'm not expecting to suddenly become a completely different kind of artist as a result of reading it...but I do feel a shift in outlook starting to happen.

www.foundspace.co.uk

A turning point? Or just more of the same?

Attended the Connectivity, Diversity, Criticality conference organised by Turning Point South West at The Brewhouse Theatre & Arts Centre, Taunton yesterday. It set out to "launch and mould a regional programme" that will allow visual artists and arts organisations "to share ideas and resources".

To be honest, I'm always a little suspicious of these high-level, admin-heavy, committee-driven organisations that that seem to soak up the available arts funding like a sponge and never re-distribute it to anything that's actually creative or productive. But, in this case, there has been input from some good artist minds along the way. So I felt optimistic enough to join in and submit myself to break-out groups, flip charts, marker pens and all the other corporate guff I've worked so hard to escape over the past eight years...

There was hot, corporate air aplenty, of course, but real high points too, such as Alistair Hudson of Grizedale Arts speaking on International Links and Local Social Engagement in a Rural Context; artist Steven Paige talking about Independent Artist Initiatives and Exchange; and Curator and Producer Claire Doherty of Situations talking about the SouthWest's Cultural Olympiad Project nowhereisland

As to the outcomes, well, we'll have to wait and see....

Fringe benefits

Pleased and relieved to see a flurry of funding for grassroots visual arts events running alongside the British Art Show 7 when it comes to Plymouth (Sept-Dec 2011).

Come to Ours has been awarded substantial funds by Arts Council England and Plymouth City Council. It's a series of events organised by a group of Plymouth-based artists (Rachel Dobbs, Bryony Gillard, Mark James, Hannah Jones, Beth Emily Richards and Neil Rose).

Meanwhile HEIST, the project I'm producing with Felicity Shillingford, has been awarded a modest grant by Exeter Arts Council (Exeter City Council) to bring a taste of the British Art Show 7 and Plymouth Fringe to Exeter - via the medium of theft.

Further artist-led events in Devon are expected to be announced as part of Plymouth Fringe.