I am interested in how we communicate in the digital age when everything is free and instant.
So, during a recent visit to the Caribbean I kept a travel blog and discovered a whole new sub-culture- on the internet: an amazing collection of multi-media travel blogs on
http://www.travelblog.org/
Check out my travel blog on:
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Titchtwitter/
What struck me about these blogs was not only their authenticity but the freshness the writers, mostly young people on gap years, brought to the subject.
In my former life as a journalist, before I went to Glasgow School of Art, I had occasionally been offered what was known in the trade as “freebies” invitations to travel abroad. These were all carefully orchestrated so that you only saw the best of the country. Our travel reports were inevitably sanitised. There was an unspoken understanding between newspapers and travel companies that if you wrote anything that was highly critical you wouldn’t be asked again.
Of course the visits were so carefully managed by PR people you rarely got to see anything they didn’t want you to anyway. ( We are talking about travel writing not political journalism).
Forth Valley Open Studios – yes we are all set for another big event this June.
Our brochure is with Edinburgh designer Rosy Naylor and we expect it be able to have the rough proofs to go online early next week for members to check.
This year we have around 100 artists in 72 venues. We can’t put an exact number on the artists since some are in groups. But we are certainly up on numbers from last year.
As this is only our second event, and all without any public or local authority support, we feel quite chuffed with ourselves.
Yes it has meant a lot of hard work and it has been a steep learning curve, especially the marketing and promotion side which none of us fancied doing but it is absolutely essential – no point in having a fantastic studio display if nobody knows you are there.
This afternoon I had a brief encounter with a tough marketing/salesperson who spelt out our mistakes. He was blunt but honest. And absolutely right.
What is the purpose of art?
I came across this quote in my studio yesterday from art critic Suzi Gablik:
” In the past we have made much of the idea of art as a mirror ( reflecting the times); we have had art as furniture ( something nice to hang on the walls); and we have had art as an inner search for ther self.
There is another kind of art, however, that speaks to the power of connectedness abnd established bonds, art that calls us into relationship. Perhaps, as Hillman says, the new aesthetics will not be found in museums or beautiful objects, but in some visible manifestation of ” the soul’s desperate concerns.”
Here’s a link to my latest video made from mashing footage taken in Cuba.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFucPbqZw3g
“The Waiting Game” – Tulum, Mexico
I took this photo on a recent visit to Mexico. It was terribly hot and it was the last photo I took at the end of a long and exhausting day exploring some Mayan ruins.
Only when looking through the files on my return did I realise that it had some unexpected qualities like the repetition of the curves of the iguana with that of the two figures and likewise the shadows replicated in both.
But it was the sense of something eerie and sinister about to happen that caught my eye.
Most of the stuff I shot in Mexico was video which turned out to be a disaster because I was using the much hyped Flip camcorder yes it is easy to use but it lacks a stabiliser and the sound quality is dreadful. Oh yes it is in HD and the colours are amazing.
Back from a couple of weeks in the Caribbean – Mexico, Cuba etc – sampling different cultures .
After the tropical forests of the Caribbean Islands its back to rain-swept and snow- capped Scotland – and work begins on this year’s Forth Valley Open Studios.
Oh yes I swam with stingrays and one grabbed my thumb.
Pix at:
http://annshaw.blogspot.com/
While in Havana visited Ernest Hemingway’s home. Experienced first tropical thunderstorm. Seemed appropriate weather for the Old Man of the Sea.
