welcome to the machine....: October 2010

Thursday, 28 October 2010

Chromophobia - A short animation

David Batchelor - Chromophobia

I recently bought this book by Scottish artist David Batchelor.
I am still waiting on Amazon delivering it. I think they have forgotten about me.

About the book:

The central argument of Chromophobia is that a chromophobic impulse - a fear of corruption or contamination through color - lurks within much Western cultural and intellectual thought. This is apparent in the many and varied attempts to purge color, either by making it the property of some "foreign body" - the oriental, the feminine, the infantile, the vulgar, or the pathological - or by relegating it to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential, or the cosmetic.

Chromophobia has been a cultural phenomenon since ancient Greek times; this book is concerned with forms of resistance to it. Writers have tended to look no further than the end of the nineteenth century. David Batchelor seeks to go beyond the limits of earlier studies, analyzing the motivations behind chromophobia and considering the work of writers and artists who have been prepared to look at color as a positive value. Exploring a wide range of imagery including Melville's "great white whale", Huxley's reflections on mescaline, and Le Corbusier's "journey to the East", Batchelor also discusses the use of color in Pop, Minimal, and more recent art. (Amazon)

Chain of Stools

A splash of colour

My two new favourite artists at the moment:

Sarah Sze - New York based artist.

David Batchelor - Scottish artist/author, currently working in London.

Crayons

I found these Crayons in work. I had to have them.

Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Glasgow

35mm Pentax camera using Ilford HP5 400 B&W film.

This is a series about the relationship between the city and the people that inhabit it.

I love Edinburgh but I think Glasgow really stands out as a city. It is full of character.

The people of Glasgow make the city real.

A hard days night

Jumble sale

I love to be organised.

My room. My bag. I write lists for everything.

Though somehow my life and thoughts still seem to be a jumbled mess.
An 'organised' mess at best.

I am very indecisive.

I am always unsure of myself.

I am dyslexic.

I don’t see it as a problem though.

I love to read, and I read well.

I write well.

I just don’t spell very well....nothing a dictionary can’t sort out.

Dyslexia means that there is a difficulty in processing information. This can be letters, words, sentences, numbers or even general thoughts and information.

This is very apparent in myself.
Instead of ignoring it or masking it I intent to embrace it as part of my work.

I want to organise my ideas so that my jumbled thoughts become easy to follow for me and for others.

This will be the stimulus for my work.

I have a really strong love for words. I write poems and songs and often spend a long time finding the perfect word for what I am trying to convey.

I am not so good at speaking. I get nervous and confused when I talk. I often end up not saying what I want to say.

JUMBLED!!!

I think that’s why I love to write. I can focus what I am trying to say and say it well.

In my Educational Psychology test for Dyslexia my highest score was in my knowledge/ spoken vocabulary.

My lowest score was in my written vocabulary.

Except I always work better (even spell slightly better) when I am writing.

I have decided to create a small personal dictionary for myself.

Words that stick in my head. Points of interest.

This is where all my work stems from. The words that inspire me and my work.

I am the common denominator to all of the words so therefore no matter how scattered or random they seem, they will fit together.

Monday, 18 October 2010

Framing

I have been thinking about the idea of framing or grouping collective thoughts or ideas together.Framing is the basis in which we lay our ideas, or a viewing space to interperate a thought or a piece of work. For me it is a way to organise things into catagories. It is a method to arrange my thoughts into a more manageable order as I tend to jump around myself a little. Which always ends up confusing everyone.