Applause Machine

I am making a machine that claps you as you pass it, when looking for ideas on the mechanism I came across this by Martin Smith:



This feels more like an office toy than a piece of art. You can't actually hear it clap, which is disappointing. The whole point of a clap is that it is a sound generated through an action rather than just an action.

The plan for mine is that it will be wall mountable about shoulder height, and the hands will be life size. The tricky part will be getting the shape of the hands right to make the right sound. eek.

Ventriloquist @ Timothy Taylor

A Mayfair PV was always going to be a bit different from a Hackney/Hoxton student one but I didn't expect that I would not be able to see any art properly.



http://www.artrabbit.com/all/events/event/10596/ventriloquist

Going primarily to see Steve's work, I hadn't even noticed the other names on the poster. The idea of the show, as far as I could gather, was that established international 'art stars' are displayed alongside and mingled with new emerging artists. The title, Ventriloquist, derives from the Jasper Johns piece from the early eighties, and the idea that an artist speaks through the voice of something that appears to be elsewhere.

I don't know whether it was because the gallery was so busy and packed that I couldn't see the work as a whole properly, or whether I was distracted by all the absurdly pretentious twonks*, but I really didn't feel the show had a strong enough connection between all the work. It felt like the new work was overshadowed by the familiar pieces. Seeing a Duchamp next to person x from the RCA was a good idea on paper but it seemed that noone was looking at person x's work, just the Duchamp. Did the curator think that the new work wouldn't be able to stand up by itself? I think it would have done.

As I said at the beginning, I went to see Steve's work of which I knew already. It worked well within the gallery space and was one of the newer works that people seemed to be discussing with genuine interest.

Steve Bishop will be at Kingston University doing one of the Wednesday lectures in March, which should be a really good one.

(*I'm not naive enough to think this wouldn't happen but the volume of twattery was truely astounding. Having come straight from the design studio and dressed in the usual slop and slightly smelling of Hackney sweat, it was a bit of a 'don't really belong here' moment.)

I can only think of things in Illustrator now,
so I'm going to add an anchor point here,
and round it out til about here,
so it looks like this,
and then cmd shift ] it to front,
then right click then
explode
in a wondrous vector explosion,

Good things in Illustrator:

- the A key
- the I key
- the clipping mask maker
- cmd shift ]
- shift C
and not forgetting
- cmd -/cmd+

www.terraplana.com - this is the brand I am helping with, SS10 collection
www.amcdesignhouse.com - this is the company
www.freeform.org.uk/hothouse.htm - this is the beautiful building

A dirty week

Been a little bit busy on the old working this week, therefore not been doing this.

Since last post I have:
- had an interview at AMC Design House for an internship
- got the internship
- been working at said internship
- (almost) mastered the pen tool in illustrator
- been to two gigs
- drunk 10 beers and 1 glass of wine
- been on 24 trains and 5 buses
- slept in three different houses/flats
- eaten three burgers
- not cooked any food myself at all

tonight i will sleep
and also charge/sync up the ipod, as last time I did something wrong and only podcasts and selected songs would play. Therefore have spent the last week listening only to Morrissey, Echo & the Bunnymen, Frank Turner, Adam and Joe podcasts and Compliment Sandwich podcasts, all of which adds up to many surreal train journeys.

"human existence as a process of perpetual falling"

Kerry Skarbakka is an American artist whose photographs are incredibly cinematic. The photographs show the artist falling in various contexts, often at the moment before impact or at the moment of no return. Bas Jan Ader comes to mind when first seeing them, both retaining references to slapstick and conversly being quite macabre.

In his own words, he 'questions ... the nature of control and its effects on this perceived responsibility', the photographs' 'exploration resides in the sublime metaphorical space from where balance has been disrupted to the definitive point of no return. It asks the question of what it means to resist the struggle, to simply let go. Or what are the consequences of holding on?'

I think they're stunning. Can't wait for them to travel over here so I can see them 4 Real.










http://www.skarbakka.com/

if you go down to the kino today

This is my contribution to the goodie bags at tonight's CAFE KINO gig featuring the fabulous Tiger and Panda, Rachael Dadd, Phil Dodd and Grizzly and the Bears. It was done quite quickly but it is for photocopying and I wanted the detail to get a bit lost and damaged when it's been photocopied. Because those DIY kids like that yes?

If anyone is free in Bristol tonight then do go, Cafe Kino, free entry, Stokes Croft, 6pm
then head to the Fleece for some New Rhodes, also free entry, 9pm; two fab gigs in one evening and I can't go.

j-j-j-j-j-jon stewart