Merry Christmas

Stack

Some Things We Know

Samhain

Formless

Two short films I've made are being shown this Saturday in Deptford at Acme Studios. It's a lovely mix of old and new, known and unknown chosen by artist Sophie Michael. It's also part of a wider series of events happening see above! Also note the book cover Sophie used as a backdrop for the poster!

Somewhere amongst this

Richard Woods Fermynwoods Contemporary Art

Pendle Hill Witches

Last week on BBC 4 there was a documentary " The Pendle Witch Child" presented by poet Simon Armitage, based around Jennet Device the child who testified against her family who were subsequently executed as witches. Aside from some rather annoying animations depicting some of the historical characters it's a great overview of the Pendle Witches and the trials socio-political implications as well as Jennet's own demise. IT also singles out the first forensic investigation into a witch trial, where science and superstition collide.

Plus it features Ronald Hutton on more than one occasion which is always an absolute joy! For further reading here's a great interview with him.

Grains

Whilst fannying around un-riotous Brighton waiting for Alex to finish work I inevitably found myself in Infinity Foods looking at the packages of grains pulses and variants which for some reason I find endless fascinating. I will admit I have always liked the branding and ethos of Dove Farms flour but these two handsome packages caught my eye and I felt they deserved a post. Very Angie Lewin.

Some Favourites

Samizdat

Poster made for a Samizdat Exhibition

I recently saw a copy of the above book My by Yevgeny Zamyatin in the Out of This World show at the British Library. Well worth a look if you have the time! Amazing printed cover, there were also two others made by the same printer.

St Peter's Seminary and BOAC

St Peter's Seminary is a disused Roman Catholic seminary in Cardross built 1961-66. It was built by Scottish architects Gillespie, Kidd & Coia and is considered

to be one of the most important modernist buildings in Scotland. GKC are well known for their application of modernism to institutional buildings such as churches and university buildings. Heavily influenced by Le Corbusier the architectural critic Jonathan Glancey wrote,

"The architecture of Le Corbusier translated well into Scotland in the 1960s. Although the climate of the south of France and west of Scotland could hardly be more different, Corbu's roughcast concrete style, could, in the right hands, be seen as a natural successor or complement to traditional Scottish tower houses with their rugged forms and tough materials".

Although there are no immediate plans for regeneration of the building it has been the site of many art programmes both permanent and temporary courtesy of NVA and the Scottish Arts Council.

Another Gillespie, Kidd & Coia building was the BOAC offices on Buchanan Street in Glasgow, the fab interior is shown below.

Womans Hour Four - Music for the Soft Palate

Music for the Soft Palate

Unknown Fields: From the Atomic to the Cosmic

On Monday I am going to go to this at the AA. Not only is Michael Madsen talking but also the Ministry's good pal Mark Pilkington. Try and make it if you can!

Summer 2011 Trajectory Public Forum

Date: 11.07.2011
Time: 11:00:00

This year, on the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first manned space flight and the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster, we pack our Geiger counters and

spacesuits and chart a course from the atomic to the cosmic to investigate the unknown fields between nature and artifice.

Joining us for the Atomic to the Cosmic forum will be an ensemble of artists, authors, scientists and designers. Through the lens of these two events we will re-examine our preservationist and conservationist attitudes toward the natural world and spin tales of the ecologically fragile and the technologically obsolete.
To be the first to enter the cosmos, to engage, single-handed, in an unprecedented duel with nature-could one dream of anything more!
Yuri Gagarin

Land of Blue Light

Fabulous project from Alex Crispin (ex-Diagonal, Baron) and Ross Hossack (Diagonal)

Here's one I made earlier

Here are a few snapshots of 'Exit Strategy Excerise' 2011.

Something with a Canal Boat and a Cat

Some old places

I recently got back some 8mm footage from my Scottish residency...here are a couple of stills of a recumbent stone circle near Aberdeen Airport and the incredible Findhorn Foundation's Universal Hall...

Nobody Here

Leonora Carrington R.I.P 25th May 2011

Glitterball

London Industrial Strategy

Here are three of a larger collection of LIS booklets I got this weekend....Each giving background to ' a series of strategies, closely connected to struggles on the ground'. Incredibly attractive governmental design all done in house by the Greater London Supplies Department...

It's viscounts for tea

There is a side project to the fabulous Baron outfit (who are currently getting on with some new stuff) under the appropriate pseudonym Viscount (could be the biscuit..) More folky than it's predecessor it's a great soundtrack to a lovely English summer..

The Writer's Approach To...

Saving money never looked so good..

I recently found a booklet entitled '2000 Years of Houses'...totally allured by the orange font and illustrations it turned out to be a informational handout from the Building Societies Association (1979) loosely explaining how you can borrow to buy your own home and the importance of saving.....The Great But Ugly Victorian Age?

I never knew I was a stamp collector

Jonny Trunk on Radio 4

Lovely library music programme aired last week on Radio 4. Barbara Moore features and as she does and because I am taking Alex to Sherwood Forest this Easter here's one of my favourite Barbara Moore Singers tracks accompanied with a Robin themed montage...

Habitat Forum 76

Habitat Forum was a non-governmental people’s forum held in Vancouver in 1976. It was an adjunct to the UN Habitat Conference on Human Settlements, which was at the time the largest conference the UN had ever assembled. It was the first time the world community met to discuss the growing challenges of urbanization, the accelerating human migration from rural to urban areas, urban problems including clean water, sanitation, poverty and homelessness, as well as the nascent field of sustainable urban design.

The above text and image was taking from Lindsay Brown at Ouno Design as part of research for her book on the Habitat Forum - for more information and for events in Vancouver visit the forum site. I can't wait for the book it will be an amazing insight into Habitat which seems to have been greatly overlooked.

See her blog post here for more on the Arthur Erickson designed paper pavilion shown in the picture above.

Dr Syn The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh