It has been half term and sadly I have missed out on a week of studies (this is the first of two weeks). So for this blog post I thought I would write about the inspiration I gained, however while I was thinking about it I realised a lot has happened and I have gain a lot of inspiration and recognised many possibilities for works along the way.
Firstly, I tried to take photos of my day-to-day life in the same style which I was developing over summer (the four with the ariel view). It seemed to work, at least I was happy with it, or perhaps my expectation was low -either way I need feedback on it and hope to present it for the first group show of open-cut although I do not feel I have anything to present. There is a new style creeping into the photos and I am not at present sure about it.
This new style for me is a record of actual life. In fact looking at them they tell a story, from defiance at bedtime, the tantrums, the mess, the patience. I do not feel like I want to expose this part of my life for fear of being seen as a bad parent. The pain on my daughters face as my son runs away and the way the flash dramatises the situation, makes it seem a horrific situation. Even now I feel the need to justify that they were only upset because he had sat on her bed and she thought that an unforgivable action and was about to 'get' him for it. Curiously now I have written that an analysed it, the power of the image has diminished for me. Perhaps this is what I should be exposing? Real parenting in a documentarative way?
Secondly, I visited The LookOut Discovery Centre in Bracknell. It is primarily an under 12s hands on science centre. If you remember the LaunchPad at The Science Museum, London it is like that. The exhibitions were set up so that the children (and quiet often the adult) would engage in a kinetic version of and experiment. In my opinion art seem to be going down the same route. There is a desire for kinetic, experiences. Experiences that involve as many sense as possible. Olafur Eliasson's exhibition at Tate Modern. Has a huge wall covered in Icelandic moss, the sight was immense and the smell was sweet but subtle. Sadly it was not encouraged, in fact we were discouraged from touching it. But my point is that it yearned for the experiencer to touch it. Throughout his works there was the element of play, which is one I would love to bring to my works at some point in some form. I noticed that at both Eliasson's show, The LookOut, and at Singapore Science Centre there was cross over. Eliasson has taken fun science exhibitions and made them experimental or blown them up and added intensity.
Thirdly, there has been a few instances where I have found videos of mundane things which I have found of interest, the coffee pot spinning, blowing bubbles in slime, building towers of sand.
Fourthly, we visited Surrey Sculpture Park. What an enchanting place, a forest filled with over 850 sculptures. Big small, beautiful grotesque, graceful cumbersome, serious jovial, there were so many and alot which were possible with the facilities university offers, which I will lodge in my mind incase I find a project which may look good in that medium. It did occur to me to think about how a sculpture works with the environment. There was an oversized windchime which made the most beautiful deep notes and a boat which turned as the wind passed by.