Experiment using text to voice function on a Mac. This irreverent haiku is given twists by 11 different voice options including Russian, Chinese and musical alternatives.
Blue sky. Housemartin.
Shit on my precious poem,
Shit on my hand.
Two manifestos.
The first is my personal current manifesto. I have written these before and find they are a good way to clarify where I am at in my process, to help define practice, to set some sort of orientation and direction.
Towards a Methodology of Practice
Or: a Methodological Manifesto
The field is always open.
Rest easy with unanswered questions.
Sometimes an unformulated question has real validity and energy.
A question can form in the body, a curious urge.
A question can be an attitude or orientation.
Being open to the possibility that a dialogue about an artwork or object can be more significant than the artwork itself.
Dialogue as art.
Two relational fields:
1) the individual artist in an environment, field of exploration, or studio.
2) the artist in relation to others relevant to the environment, field of exploration or studio.
Methodological Stages:
1) Find the field, explore the field broadly, intensely and deeply.
2) Turn over the questions
3) Collect ideas, objects, documents, connections, photographs
4) Redefine, reduce, and clarify the field
5) Translate the field into installations, re-presentations, assemblages, artefacts
6) Invite dialogue and discussion
7) Modify and adapt
8) Reengage with the broader field
9) Connect the project with other projects
Bear in mind space as:
1) interrelated i.e. constituted through interactions both local and global
2) mutable i.e. always being re-made and re-formulated
3) a sphere of multiplicity i.e. there is a coexistence of many trajectories
(See: Doreen Massey (2005) For Space. Sage: London)
Now! Beach Party Manifesto
This second one is from a manifesto workshop. I was working with a colleague and we were coming from quite different directions. So we agreed to take it in turn to focus on each of our manifestos and then to see if the two fitted together.
My colleague wanted to work with the idea of ‘Now’. I wanted to work with the idea of ‘Neglected spaces’. Having created two manifestos we attempted to edit the two into one flowing manifesto. An interesting issue was the place of humour vs seriousness. I realised that I was resisting humour in mine as I felt it undermined my serious intent. However I then realised, of course, that humour is a valuable way of communicating serious issues. So our final manifesto breaks from seriousness into comical and even absurdism, without, I think, undermining the manifesto.
NOW! Beach Party Manifesto!
1) All we have is the now.
2) Even the ordinary moment can be transformed
3) We respect and acknowledge our debts to the genesis of our ideas
4) We are not isolated
5) Value neglected spaces
6) All spaces are mutable
7) We explore and re-evaluate neglected places, buildings, ruins, roads, tracks, streams and rivers.
8) Urban beach parties are essential
9) Throw a shrimp on the barbie
10) Get yer rocks off
11) Aaah…disco
12) Wear Welly boots, bikinis or wet suits
13) Dance to the music of the birds, the local traffic, the occasional barking dog
14) Clean up before party; clean up after party.
15) Now Party!
My print ‘Our Lungs Are Made of Tesco Bags’ is getting a good tour. Now in Edinburgh (Castle St, Fair Trade tent) and for sale as a fundraiser for Black & Blue writers.
One of my poems is in the new edition of Black & Blue writers:
Interactive Arts Enquiry 