Priming Experiments at Newcastle Uni

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/eye-see-you

Urbain Grandier

Miroslav Tichy

The Influence Machine, Tony Oursler

Franz West

Rob Pruitt

Atelier Van Lieshout

Old Joker

Balloons

Li Wei

Eric Steen

This Easter James and I embarked on an attempt to brew an alcoholic ginger beer for Eric Steen's Market Gallery Pub. His website is here but theres also a blog about the market gallery beer events here.

D.B. Cooper

I was sent this link by my brother. It reminds me slightly of Point Break, something about a skydiver losing lots of money and it disappearing. I guess hes a good villain to look up to in the same way that 'Sully' is a good hero. I just wish I knew how to turn such good narratives into work.

Rays

I plan to make something to do with Rays soon. In the meantime I figured some research was needed and I was too excited by this photo not to put it up. More ray info in the photo.

rocket mail

Saw a thing on TV recently about a man named Zucker pioneering rocket mail. It exploded on its trial run which is a shame. It reminds me of being interested in other uses for guns as an extreme extension of a pointed finger in second year. I could never think of a good use though.

John Casey

Stagger Lee

A simple story gone huge thanks to some mythologising.

Heroes

Two fantastic examples of heroes.

and a disney homage to Casey Jones:

Antonin Artaud

I was led to Artaud from Brock Enright. He was a playwright who created something called the 'Theatre of Cruelty'. Im sure ill have more information when I get some books. In the mean time, theres a wiki page under the picture as usual.

Brock Enright

Brock Enright is an artist who started a designer kidnapping business where people would pay to be kidnapped in a way that was particularly distressing to them. Theres also a film about him during the time that he was doing this (details of which are here). Id like to follow along similar lines but I prefer the idea of non or semi consensual kidnappings (sort of negotiated kidnappings) where the emphasis is on creating a humour in the violent act.

Extra link I've just found: The Videogames Adventure Services website is here. Its through this site that you can arrange to be kidnapped and its really useful to see what kind of visual interface comes from this kind of business. theres satisfyingly little information unless you are a client.

Stockholm Syndrome

Brains Are Beautiful

Lots of links here. Under the photo there is a website where you can look through any section of brains with a large variety of neurological diseases and anomolies. The pictures have a very interesting aesthetic in themselves, but I was led to them because I have been listening to a series of Reith lectures that can be heard here. The intricacies and perfection of the modern brain are a beautiful example of the complexities that can result in the simplest of rules. There is so much we can do that we are completely unaware of, like see on our left as well as right sides. i feel pretty lucky. I also found a list of things that can go wrong here.

Jacqueline Donachie

Currently the artist in residence at Bellahouston Park, Im really interested in jacqueline Donachie's work which has worked alongside scientific areas. Im really interested in what separates art and science, or if they are actually the same thing working in different ways. theres an article under the photo.

David Harding and Brian Miller

Besides being the founder of the Environmental Art course, David Harding is interesting to me as the town artist in Glenrothes from 1968-1978. He held a similar job to Brian Miller (town artist in Cumbernauld), though there are some differences in the way they worked. they were both very interested in the role of the community in the creation of artworks. Im fascinated by the idea of having such a large space as a canvas for making art and the difference it makes to an art practice to be dealing with a fixed context for an extended period of time. each of the photos has a link to a related page for each artist.

Susumu Shingu

Susumu Shingu's work is really very beautiful, particularly for its simplicity. However the precision of balance of weights and shapes are what makes them so compelling. Even more than this though, Im excited by how his works find hidden and unused movement like air currents or water pressure to create the beautiful movement. Its made me want to rethink working with weights and finding and revealing other sources of motion.