Banana supplement

I've just received advance copies of The Great British Banana - my contribution to Nick Davies' Loophole Supplements series. It features some of the documentation from Foreign Soil, my ongoing attempt to grow dessert bananas outdoors in Devon. Free copies of this limited edition booklet will available later this summer from venues across Wales and Southwest England.

Loophole Supplements is a free quarterly artist editioning platform that commissions artists from Wales and the South West. The booklets are printed using the risography process. Loophole Supplement #6 has been produced with the generous support of Exeter Arts Council.

Find out more about Foreign Soil at britishbanana.blogspot.com

Art/science project takes off

Pigeon Point Cloud (2013) Working digital drawing which depicts positions logged during the 30-minute flight of a single pigeon in relation to a base level. Points cluster where the bird returned to and rested on two rooftops.

I'm very pleased to announce that I've been awarded a grant by Arts Council England for my research project Solid Air. Working with scientists and technical experts, I'll be exploring how to recreate the flight paths of birds as fixed three-dimensional objects.

My key collaborator is Dr Steven Portugal of the Royal Veterinary College's Structure & Motion Lab. I'll be visualising high-resolution data collected as part of his post-doctoral research into the aerodynamics of flocking birds. The data, which is gathered by  free-flying birds carrying highly sophisticated data loggers, is first transcribed into digital models before being made into physical models. Accurate physical rendering of such complex data is only possible through the new technology of laser sintering (also known as rapid prototyping or 3D printing).

The project grows from my long-standing interest in recording bird flight paths as a way of examining processes of transcription and interpretation, revealing the slipperiness of 'the real' when subjected to scientific scrutiny. 

It also builds on my work last year as part of the Exeter Phoenix Digital Art Commission 2012, which gave me my first opportunity to work with laser sintering to visualise flight paths in three dimensions. For that first test piece The Geometry of Air, I worked with GPS data from human glider pilots (who, like birds, use thermals and wind currents to shape their flights).

Now, thanks to the Structure & Motion Lab, I have access to a source of incredibly high resolution data generated by a range of birds including pigeons, ibis and raptors. Working with a programmer and 3D printing experts, I'll be looking at different ways of visualising this unique data. I'll also be taking time to reflect on the critical and theoretical context of the work, including what it means to translate natural flight into synthesised objects.

On going places and never giving up

LOW PROFILE Never Give Up (2013) site specific installation at Exeter Phoenix

Plymouth-based LOW PROFILE staged their 12-hour performance DRY RUN part 2: How to save your skin when disaster strikes without warning last Saturday as part of their show 'Against All Odds' at Exeter Phoenix  (24 May - 6th July 2013).

During this performance, they read, learn from and test each other on the advice offered in a 1960's publication - The Book of Survival.  It all took place in a building decked out with a giant window work encouraging passers-by to "Never Never Never Never Give Up" and with a small, displaced safety curtain draped across its reception space.

I only dipped in for an hour but learned a lot about avoiding avalanches and escaping burning buildings. (And also, I guess, about surviving as an artist.)  The tone of the Q&A dialogue between the two performers veered from funny/absurd to calm/weary to nervy/hyper, recalling Forced Entertainment's Quizoola!  It was good to see a durational performance where endurance was essential to its meaning (rather than a masochistic/macho add on).

Down the road at Spacex, Layla Curtis is showing 'Antipodes' (18 May - 13 July), based around a curation of paired public webcams worldwide. Drawing attention to what's happening on opposite sides of the globe isn't a new idea, but there's something pleasing about the haphazardness of relying on someone else's live footage and the odd correspondences (and blips) that occur.  It's shown alongside an intense video piece Tong Tana with amazing binaural sound, filmed from an tiny HD camera sewn into the hat of a hunter in Borneo and showing you the forest from his point of view.  Borneo is antipodal to the UK and the contrast couldn't be greater.

Fund-a-mental findings

I've always considered working with funding organisations an integral part of professional practice, but my experiences over the past year are making me think again about how to negotiate this relationship.

I've been working on two projects in parallel. The first, Foreign Soil started out as a bit of an experiment, an unfunded diversion from my core practice. And it's ticking along nicely.  I'm not sure where it's headed but the journey so far has been a real process of discovery. Work is getting made, insights are happening and, as a result, I've been able to engage very widely with other people, including a range of generous collaborators.

The other, which has the working title Solid Air, is still mired in administration. It relates to my long-term core practice around transcription of bird flight. I've been developing this particular phase for over a year, pursuing funding, commissions and gallery shows in a more traditional way.

It's based on 3D printing, an expensive process, but one I had the chance to experiment with last summer and would like to use again.  It's the only way I know of getting the complex bird flight data I've sourced and modelled into a tangible form. I've now pitched the idea to various arts organisations at least five times - not including the presentations and proposals I've made to potential collaborators and sponsors.

I'm not saying this is unusual for a professional artist, but I am beginning to question whether it's good for the work - and for me. I've talked about and written about Solid Air relentlessly for 12 months but - apart from my first prototype and a few test drawings - I haven't been able to make any of it. Time and again I'm forced to describe the idea, the process and the likely outcomes. Worse still, although nothing much exists yet and I don't know what I'll discover when I do make it, I have to speculate on its likely critical context and imagine how I'll engage the public.

I'm determined to make this work - it's had a lot of interest and good feedback.  And the very fact that some people can't quite get their heads round it suggests it's showing them something they haven't thought about before. But I have to admit that the struggle for funding and support is destroying its momentum. By the time I've explained it for the umpteenth time, I wonder if it needs to be made any more.

I went to a talk by photographer Jem Southam the other week and he spoke a lot about finding meaning through making - using photography as process of discovery, rather than “trying to put things into the picture”. All good stuff, but it seems to me this is a privilege that's only afforded to established artists. Or those who opt out of the funding game.

I don't know which of these projects will turn out to have the most value or meaning in the long term. What I do know is that one of them is actually happening and the other is still only an idea. It makes me think very seriously about the way should approach my practice in the future.

Wolverhampton wanderings

A selection of works from The Library of Lost Books  is currently on show at the Bessant Gallery, Wolverhampton,  25 April - 23 May 2013.  The show includes my contribution Mutter Erde. http://gabriellehoad.co.uk/mutter_erde.php

Creative collision

Exeter is rapidly becoming a real hotspot for innovative theatre. This includes many performance and participatory activities that don't take place in buildings, so the crossover into fine art practice is very pronounced.

Kaleider is one of the organisations driving this movement and, a few weeks back, I accepted an invitation to attend one of their 'Open Fridays'. It was odd walking into someone else's office space just to hang out and eat a packed lunch, but they offered a warm welcome and good conversation.  And it turned out we had a little more in common than I first thought. Their work as producers and mentors of live performance is rooted in a concern with climate change, the fiscal crisis and the end of oil.

So a month later I was back delivering an informal talk: the first proper public articulation of my ongoing project Foreign Soil. This documented attempt to grow edible dessert bananas outdoors on a Devon farm is meant as a provocation for thoughts about the sustainability of our food supply.

From there I was coaxed into joining their Ideas Lab - designed as development tool for writers and performers applying for Kaleider commissions, but in fact a really exciting forum where environmentalists, activists, artists, performers, educators, poets, actors, directors and many others met to share ideas.

All the stand-up, quick-fire brainstorming and improvised role play was hard work for me - an artist who thinks on paper (or with her hands) and who looks to research and reflection for ideas rather than riffing with other people.  But it was good to see how another group of artists went about their business and to share in their amazing energy.  It was also a great opportunity to network with like-minded people - and much more may come of that.

Questions of reputation

I feel it's time to retire my blog about the Exeter Studios Project on a-n.co.uk Artists Talking. It's now five years since I stopped writing it (seven since I started) and, as many of the issues are out of date, its educational value for other studio start-ups is on the wane.

More importantly, I'm not the same person who wrote that blog. I was a new artist and so desperate for workspace that I ignored my instincts about some of the people who volunteered themselves as directors. I started writing the blog as a way of logging our progress, raising our profile and gathering support. Much later, as part of a genuine attempt to rescue a project I'd sunk my heart and soul into, I alluded to some (and only some) of the very serious problems in its legal, financial and general management.

Although I stand by what I wrote, I don't want people judging me now on the basis of it. You can still find out about the Exeter Studios Project here. It's also featured in an article on artist-led activity and an article about blogging, both by Jane Watt. I'm also very happy to talk in person about my experiences - please contact me via my website.