Croydon college Higher Education(university centre Croydon)

I have two modules to complete and then my degree will be over!

Better get my ass in gear and utilise these last few months to get my blog started and established as I have a feeling that blogging and social media,as Peter Kay says about Cheese cake,it’s the future :)

I have been encouraged to use this blog as a way of organising my thoughts as my sketchbook in so disorganised anyone reading it would need a degree in solving puzzles.

First things first.

What ideas will I be exploring?

(the answer will start manifesting themselves as from tomorrow,due to the immense amount of translation I am having to do right now)

What medium to use in my work is my biggest conundrum to date,i have been making use of the freecycle(others are available) network in securing materials for my work, so far I have obtained through the generosity of the public.3 old(i mean really old) working laptops,a desktop computer, a load of unused ohp transparencies , many many used and new floppy disks, circuit boards of varying ages and size aswell as a few other items I cannot think of at this moment but will come to me later on.

oh and an old working type writer and full set of encyclopedia’s from 1975 :)

All of these items have presented opportunities for me to play around and experiment (and if i am being honest: engage my inner childs curiosity) to find out how things are put together or re-arranging them in such a way that new meanings and functions,conceptually and visually emerge through these combinations of ‘defunct’ technologies previous incarnation ie it’s use or characteristics to my work.

In my first creative module of my final year I decided that I would use the set of encyclopedia volumes in such a way as to re-cycle the imagery and structure to create a book,aswell as exploring video to bring these static and probably forgotten images to life or at least take them from their original context within the pages of the encylopedia adn offer the viewer the opportunity to view the images as a large scale projection.I will add the video …

Where has the summer gone?

It seems like only yesterday that I was panicking about what to produce for the end of my second year of my Ba exhibition.

Although having wild dreams of opening a pop up gallery over the summer and having a right old laugh and making somegreat art it didn’t quite go as planned,but I did get a job working at a distribution and recycling centre for tele’s,washing machines and fridge’s- my job was to seperate the recyclable materials which where shipped off to be recycled(clues in the name on that one) it started out as just something to keep me busy and earn a bit of money until my course started up again.

BUT one thing I didn’t expect was the job pricked at my conscience and got me thinking about my rubbish habits and recycling(or lack of) aswell as how my environment and further afield are impacted by my actions.

After a few weeks of churning a few ideas over in my head(I had nothing else to think about whilst seperating cardboard,plastic and polystyrene) I decided to write a few down and explore them a little further.

I am a fan of freecycle and getting things for free,usually stuff that no-one else uses anymore,(this is something that goes back to my child hood when all the cool kids got their hands on the new toys and as we were quite poor I had to wait for the ‘scraps’ and ended up getting my hands on the broken and slightly damaged cast offs(I could always find another action figure with the missing leg still in place and splice the two together,or replace the string and glue the two halfs of a yo-yo back together,or use the motor from a battery powered fan for something cool).

Having previously been to a couple of exhibitions at the photographers gallery and spending the day googling recycled art,I came to the conclusion that I will make my final year about exploring the re-cycling, appropriating, collaging and upcycling of materials that are generally discarded and to give them a new lease of life and meaning that will at least slow the process of this consumerist detritus being thrown away,if I am not able to halt, entirely my materials from being thrown away altogether.

I have never really been into the whole save the planet stuff but for some reason my summer experiance has started to change my ideas.

I am attending a conference entitled ‘TRASH’ next week (14th September) and I cannot wait to get cracking.

ideas come in the dead of night,I cannot sleep for these things keep me awake, I have to act on my impulses and once they leave my brain I can rest easy.

It’s been a while since I last attempted to write in my blog,lots of things have been going on and recently lots of things not going on,which is a little disheartening.

Being alone with no access to the facilities I have been acustomed to whilst studying has left me feeling completley useless and uninspired,a bit like a fish on a bicycle in a tornado.something has to change soon otherwise I shall become self-descructive and not in a good way.

I must dust off the Art materials and attempt to create some work that will help channel the pent up create energy,it is a great therapy as long as I start soon,otherwise it will fester like an old fart under the bed cover waiting to strike.

my task seems simple but is it? we shall see soon enough…