Some good news about the project, even though the SSCs haven’t actually started yet (so we don’t know if anyone will choose them): we have been asked to attend a conference in Truro.
“CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN SURGERY, PATHOLOGY, THE HUMANITIES & THE ARTS – relationships between surgery, surgical culture and the arts and humanities, or the wider theme of the ‘pathological’ and the ‘normal’ at the levels of biological systems, culture (and history), societal organization and networks, or the interpersonal and intrapersonal. “
This promises to be interesting, and also Fun as I worked in Cornwall in the 1970s. Mind you, those were the days when the county closed for the winter at the end of October, and didn’t open up again until Easter. I don’t suppose it’s like that now.
Some interesting correspondence by email has produced the following link to a fascinating website hosted by Loughborough University: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/AHRC/index.h…
Too many issues to start analysing them one by one here. Lots of things to think about at leisure. Our attitides to our own bodies and those of others are so complex… does it all boil down to some basic need for privacy? Why? memo to self: look up theories on the development of ideas of “personal modesty”. Likely to be somewhat fanciful? certainly Very Cultural.
At the Life Class yesterday the model was posing (unclothed) “in public” for the first time, and the pose was obviously arranged with this in mind. The tutor seated him on a padded box with a cloth backdrop – relatively comfortable, and no draughts. The pose also effectively concealed the young man’s genitalia and meant that he had no-one seated behind him, out of his range of vision and likely to cause him more unease.
Downside – one pose for 2 hours (including tea break). The big problem with this particular class is that most people want a nice drawing to take home, and veto any warming up exercises, short poses or anything seditious which might be additionally challenging.
Another memo to self: remember this is a public blog, and keep rude remarks to a minimum.
But I can’t spend two hours with dry media on one piece of A1 paper without running the risk of producing something tight and overworked. (most other folk are using 2B pencils and A4 max.) So I’m usually up and down stepladders, sitting on the floor, walking round the room and generally making an exhibition of myself; but yesterday I didn’t want to worry the model …
Why do I keep going? a question of travelling distance, I’m afraid, particularly at this time of year when the waterlogged roads have turned to sheet ice. But I am on the lookout for something a bit more challenging, if it’s not too far away.
