Mesocosm (Northumberland UK), NEW almost-final work
Research Blog | August 27, 2010
OK I just updated the page and files. This is the latest, almost done. The brilliant Veronique Brossier is working with me to create all the new code for this new piece I began in 09/09 at Eyebeam, and it’s in great shape. Check out the work in progress here. It’ll probably take a while…
Mesocosm Prints (in progress)
Research Blog | August 21, 2010
I am working on large format archival prints this summer/fall from the behemoth formerly known as The Friend Feeder, now to be titled Mesocosm (Northumberland). Thanks Timothy Morton for introducing me to the term. Morton, ‘dark ecologist’ looking at literature, ambient poetics, ecocriticism (and more), authored two texts I find really clarifying and expansive: the…
The Friend Feeder
Research Blog | May 11, 2010
I’m ready enough to post this work in progress of a new animation project, The Friend Feeder. The Friend Feeder is based on the figure of Leigh Bowery from a painting by Lucien Freud. He’s a sort of ür British green man, watching out over the moors of Northumberland. Using a probability system, non-linear animated…
petrified faerie
Research Blog | February 5, 2010
From The Times Online, 2005. Marcus Salter, head of Genesis Properties, estimates that the small colony of fairies believed to live beneath a rock in St Fillans, Perthshire, has cost him £15,000. His first notice of the residential sensibilities of the netherworld came as his diggers moved on to a site on the outskirts of…
Project proposals for Northumberland
Research Blog | January 17, 2010
Here are one-sheet descriptions of the proposals I made for Northumberland, that came out of my research residency in June 2009 at ISIS Arts in Newcastle. There are three proposals: a street food cart serving invasive species; a garden feeder in human form; and an animated diptych. In addition, I have proposed a banquet of…
a rap version of Wordsworth
Research Blog | September 30, 2009
I’ve been meaning to post this – I think maybe I was initially horrified but my standards are slipping. Wordsworth was inspired to write Daffodils by the glorious flowers on the shores of Ullswater in the Lake District. A Cumbria Tourism spokesman said: “Wordsworth’s Daffodils poem has remained unchanged for 200 years and to keep…
drawings VIII (the friend feeder II)
Research Blog | August 3, 2009
“The Friend Feeder II” a.k.a. Invaders of Britain. After Rembrandt’s Woman with Snake. Sketch for an animation.
drawings VII (Reds)
Research Blog | August 1, 2009
New drawings of poor little pox-ridden red squirrels:
Drawing VI (REd vs Greys)
Research Blog | July 18, 2009
Veni vidi vici (crest II sketch)
Research Blog | July 13, 2009
Schematic/crest of 3 shields of the Grey Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). Originally imported from America to Great Britain ca. 1840 as a living lawn ornament. On left, the nationalist imperative that the Greys should now be exterminated; on right; deforestation in part to supply the Briitsh Royal Navy with timber historically contributed to the near-vanquished Red…
Red rant
Research Blog | July 9, 2009
OK. I’ve *sort of * held back on indexing the negative spooge that leaks from the corpulent sides of the Us vs Them discourse, but here is a brief list: Red Squirrel’s Nut Cracking Nationalism excerpt: I used to conceal my identity from the disgusting hammer wielding fascist scum, that threaten to burn people alive!…
Drawing V (study for a taxidermy arrangement)
Research Blog | July 7, 2009
Working on a plan to make a taxidermy sculpture, if I can get Paul Parker to give me all his bullet-ridden Grey culls. They’ll be put to good use, employ one of my favorite taxidermists, and look something like zombies from Shaun of the Dead. (The Red will be old fare, nothing newly killed unless…
There is no accounting for taste (crest I sketch)
Research Blog | July 4, 2009
Sketch/ schematic for a heraldic crest for The Mitten Crab. Trying to work through the equation of transport + luxury good + invader. In this case, that translates to: Mitten crab + cargo ship + S.U.V. + plastic pacifier.
Allenheads – Land inside out
Research Blog | June 28, 2009
Things of course are nothing like what they appear. Land like any other time-based and event-based instance needs to be decoded or requires literacy to understand its stories. Last week I was generously welcomed to Allenheads Contemporary Arts by founders & artist producers Alan Smith and Helen Ratcliffe, and by Hannah Marsden, curator of their…
Invasion of the Pirri-pirri
Research Blog | June 28, 2009
Pirri-pirri bur (Acaena novae-zelandiae) is an invasive species concentrated in the dunes at Holy Island (an din parts of northern Ireland). Wily and sculptural little stick-ems that break into seedy pieces when you try and remove them. Would be fun to design a suit to take a walk in, ending up covered in these atomic…
Holy Island Tourist Owl
Research Blog | June 27, 2009
I usually don’t post personal thrills (liar) but I have a soft spot for owls. I’d only ever gotten to pet a taxidermied one. This is a 4 year-old barn owl rescue; some teenagers brought their imprinted charges out to Holy Island from Berwick on Tweed, to raise money for their parents’ rescue operation. There…
Druridge Bay
Research Blog | June 27, 2009
Invasive glove. But nice looking (and dominant). Note coal dust in sand. Invasive Brick. Native lugworm castings