…and when we stop doing it, we’ll be dead.
I promise you these document/augment a conversation that followed entirely logical thought-processes from one topic to another:
[non stick people drawn by the rather talented Orie Inoue]
I’ve been trying to chart the processes involved in the forthcoming [insertspace] show, Open.
It’s hellishly difficult/complicated:
Participation in the project basically involves submitting artwork by fax to the MILL-WORKERS space in Manchester. From here your work is completely in the hands of the MILL-WORKERS tenants…
Whether it gets displayed/whether is gets destroyed/how it gets displayed/when it gets displayed etc etc.
I gave up on the data flow diagram too:
Obviously the only sensible way to respond is by making the process even more convoluted…
trains of thought in an idle moment (click for full map).
I can’t help thinking that some of these might provide an effective graphical representation of how the different strands of my practice fit together…
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/index.cfm
Guest writer Ami Ko has written a few posts for this site now, so I thought it was about time I fashioned some sort of response.
Let’s take this as an example:
明日私は朝5時に起きなければなりません。なぜなら、8時には東京・上野の美術館に行かなければならないからです。
もうすぐ、卒業の時期。我が女子美術大学も卒業展（五美術展）の準備にとりかかっています。私は出品しないのですが、手伝いとしていってきます。
明日早く起きれるか・・・心配� ！！
My first response to Ami’s posts is typically to copy and paste it straight into an online translation service such as babel fish.
In this case it returns something like this:
Tomorrow I must rise morning at 5 o’clock. Because, at 8 o’clock you must go into Tokyo & Ueno fine arts museum, because, is. Already immediately, time of graduation. Also our Women’s College of Fine Arts graduation spreading/displaying (five fine arts spreading/displaying) has started preparation. I do, being not to exhibit, but it keeps helping. … It is worry whether tomorrow to be quick happening it is cut off,!
This is OK to get some sort of overall impression of what the subject matter is, but I’m rapidly losing faith in these things for getting any sort of accurate meaning. Not too bad when it’s just a description of events, but things get messier when you’re dealing with people’s opinions!
Let’s get our hands dirty and try translating it for ourself….
First of all, what can I read without any dictionaries?
明日 [a day reference? It’s not today (今日), but it sort of half looks the same so I’d guess at tomorrow or yesterday]私は [talking about herself as the subject of the sentence] 朝5時に起きなければなりません [something’s been made a negative]。なぜなら、8時には東京 [I think this is Tokyo] ・上野の美 [art? the ‘bi’ in Joshibi 術館に行 [iku: to go?]かなければならないから [from or because]です [sort of “is”]。
もうすぐ、卒業の時期。我が女子美[Joshibi]術大学も卒業展（五美術展）の準備。私は [talking about herself as the subject of the sentence]出品しないのです [sort of “is”]が [“but” : the next part of the sentence might contrast against the first part]、手伝いとしていってきます。
明日 [it’s the day reference again, I’ve not seen any -した endings so let’s guess “tomorrow” rather than “yesterday”早く起きれるか・・・心配� ！！
Ha! Even though I’ve just run the text through babel fish, it’s amazing how little I retained of what I read. Babel fish already told me it was “tomorrow”, there was no need to guess!
I think that’s a part of the reason why I wanted to write this post: I think perhaps me having to translate Ami’s writings myself will force me to actually interact with them rather than just scan-reading an approximation and then moving on. I think if this collaboration is going to develop into anything more substantial it needs more engagement from me.
Here is my eventual translation:
Tomorrow morning I must get up at 5 o’clock. The reason being that I must be at Tokyo and Ueno Art museum for 8 o’clock.
Graduation time is very soon. Preparation has started for our Joshibi graduation exhibition (5 art schools exhibition). I’m assisiting because I myself am not exhibiting any work.
I have to get up soon… worried!
Meanwhile, fate seems to be drawing me towards delving into the world of the research poster.
The walls of the department are covered with these things - they’re everywhere. So ubiquitous that they become almost like wallpaper. Even when I was an undergraduate in the department I can’t say as I ever really took much notice of them. That said, I’ve never taken part in a proper poster session. I’ve never actually seen these things in use…
Prof. Robert Freer, of the University of Manchester, and Alex McErlain of Manchester Metropolitan University have been awarded a grant from the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) to establish a research network in ceramics and glass over a period of two years. They will endeavor to bring together as many people as possible who are potentially interested in this venture at a conference ‘Atoms to Art’, to be held in September 2005.
From the Atoms to Art website.
As part of this conference, artists and scientists presented their research interests by way of posters displayed outside of the main room. There were pseudo poster sessions, but nothing structured: so although we had designated times to look at the displays, the relevant people were not formally on hand to discuss their work.
At some point a comment was made about how different the artists’ and scientists’ approaches to poster design were.
In between presentations at the ISP launch event, my engineering collaborator mentioned about how he’d be interested in investigating the whole communication difficulty thing. Posters came up again as part of this converstation.
As a follow-up to the follow-up of the Atoms to Art conference mentioned above, we are planning to host an event at the Universirty of Birmingham. Various emails have gone back and forth as we home in on a format for the day, but for some reason this line from one of them
This and perhaps posters at lunch time to cover topics from the attendees (contributed papers)?
provoked quite a strong negative response from me.
I’m still not entirely sure why. Again, please note that I’ve never been to a proper poster session…
Anyway, there’s this whole format style convention thing going on with the posters I’ve seen in the department so I reckon there’s some mileage in delving deeper…
No, not another Japanese post, just some nicely pitched ninja animation.
I was immediately taken by the combination of ‘analogue’ background with simple computer graphics over the top. No, wait a minute, those computer graphics look quite analogue too…
Here are some skillls sorry, stills from the fuggy fuggy movie
Simple concept (different aspects of a young ninja’s training); simple style; simple colour pallette; all off set by a nice gentle sense of humour.
Anyway, in posting these stills I was wondering how to approach the whole copyright/credits thing, but then I remembered the fuggyfuggy home page:
After watching the movie I can get some desktop art, download to my mobile and then signup for the newsletter…
Maybe the intention with a site like this is to play off the whole viral marketing thing. I mean, that’s how I came across the thing in the first place, right?
I’m not being cynical, I just think it’s a neat little package and done well: something to bear in mind for the future perhaps?
Anyway, I ended up at the creators’ website www.brothersmcleod.co.uk/ and if I wan’t supposed to be doing other stuff right now I’d probably have a good ol’ dig around…
