Friday 26 March 2010

Work update - screen prints

Alongside the 3-D pictures I have been developing another strand of work using a millstone as a motif. 

There is a large old millstone sitting in the school grounds outside the art department. A mill once stood on the site. I like the minimalist form of the millstone (a circle with square in the middle). Also I have capitalised on the the biblical references of millstone's using the colours decorating the altar in the school chapel.

Usually my abstract work is minimalist, formal and flat so it lends itself to screen printing. I am not much of a printer but the screen printing process tends to appeal more to painters and I've been meaning to give it a go for ages.

I have chosen the red circle and green square for the 100SQFT exhibition.




Wednesday 24 March 2010

Work update - stereoscopes

This week I continued with developing the 3-D pictures. I have built 7 stereoscopes for viewing stereoscopic pairs produced with a very low tech stereoscopic camera. In theory the stereoscopes are not necessary but they do make it easier for most people to view in 3-D. Also I find the stereoscopic pairs of photographs more aesthetic as objects in their own right as well as the process more enjoyable rather than creating the anaglyphs (the offset red/blue channels using photoshop and red/blue specs for viewing) so I am continuing with the 3-D series using the stereoscopic pairs.

The low tech stereoscopic camera consisting of two disposable cameras glued on board exactly parallel and spaced so as the lenses are 6.5cm apart.















The stereoscopic viewers created using 6mm plywood and using +3.5 reading spectacles lenses.















The results are really impressive in terms of the 3-D images they create given the low tech approach. Unfortunately they do not translate over the web but they will be on show at my exhibition in the school at the end of June.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

What is Human?

Last week I attended the 'What is Human?' conference organised by the religious studies department at school.  Topics ranged from Cybernetics, Genetics, Psychology, Creativity and Spirituality and ended with the debate "Global capitalism devalues human beings".

The day started with a talk on Cybernetic Intelligence by Professor Kevin Warwick, Reading University. Kevin's talk revolved around his experiments and research using cybernetics in four areas. 
1. Identity through implants
2. Growing brains
3. Changing behaviours
4. Therapy and enhancements
Concluding that "In the future your 'body' does not have to be where your brain is". 

The second speaker of the day was Dr Veronique Bataille, Twin Research Unit, St Thomas Hospital discussing genetics which has been informed through her research with twins. There was a good news message for people with moles. Although you have a very slight increased risk to developing skin cancer than those without moles (and she stresses slight), those with moles are likely to age better than those without.

Next Professor Ben C Fletcher, Head of Psychology, University of Hertfordshire, in his 'What is Mind?' speech suggested we are "mere poor users of our brain" and supported this with examples including seeing what is not there, blindsight (and Antons Syndrome), illusion of control, boiling frogs, choice blindness, expecting illness, irrational decision making and playing tennis in a comma. His suggestion to overcome these shortcomings and embark upon personal change is to 'Do Something Different" in order to break  habits and get people "outside themselves". 

The last speaker before the debate was Mark Dowd (TV programme maker and environmentalist) delivering a speech on Creativity and Spirituality. He suggests that today many people see themselves as spiritual but not necessarily religious, that is, believing but not belonging. He also suggests that for a creative act there has to be a change of state or a breakthrough moment. He proposed 4 stages of creativity (inception:the idea, incubation, inspiration - the journey to be actual and the work) and proposed that artists are just a channel for god's work.

Finally the debate, despite a very convincing case by Matthew Sparrow proposing global capitalism is dehumanising the majority sided with the opposition Patrick Cowie who basically agreed with Matthew's speech but suggested that it was human nature not capitalism which was to blame for the ills of the world and that the large global companies are in a position to to good.   

Tuesday 2 March 2010