Issue #193 - The Spaces in Between
Summer condensed
It’s been an age since I posted, so first of all thank you for hanging in there, and for to those who messaged, pleased don’t be too concerned, it’s just been a busy time and nice to have a break. I thought about writing in Nantes, but really started to write one rainy morning in Wales, and I'm finishing it now on a warm afternoon in Pittsburgh.
I have missed you a bit. Despite all the horridness on Substack, there is still a lovely community of people and pages here, hey if it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for me.
This is a quick catch up of photos and thoughts from the last few months.
Nantes
We took eleven students for five weeks to Nantes, for a study abroad course that included live projects and the opportunity to meet local creatives. Students lived with families, took french lessons, and immersed themselves in the local culture with a packed program of trips, talks and encounters.
It’s probably the longest that I’ve stayed in France for many years, and it was lovely. We (my colleague and me) stayed in an apartment in a nice quiet neighborhood about a ten-minute tram journey into town. Every morning we would walk the remaining half-mile from the tram stop up through cobbled streets, through the Place Graslin to our base at IES Abroad, an organization that have hosted students and facilitated programs for the past 70 years.
The students were tasked with developing creative projects in response to a series of prompts, inspired by research about the city, its culture, and social aspect. We started with mark-making, sketching and photography, as ways to explore and reflect on our experiences of living in Nantes. We met with artists, illustrators, creators, and visited institutions, colleges, and galleries. As ideas and concepts emerged, we moved to digital creation, experimented with 3D, geolocative augmented reality, animation, and video.
Finally, we exhibited our work in the Cantine Numerique, a co-working space on the modern, Ile de Nantes, and invited our host families, new friends, and those we’d met during our stay to come and see the work. It was great to end with a celebration, for the students to see their work come together.
I have more to say about Nantes, and I’ll post a few more personal observations in the next few weeks, but safe to say it was a wonderful experience and already looking forward to next year.
Life Lessons
I won’t be teaching in the Fall, instead I have some writing assignments and planned trips to a few festivals. I’m also hoping to create something that I could take with me to some of these places. I’m particularly interested in making a piece that references the upcoming elections, that tries to capture some of the crazy will no doubt ensue over the coming months.
As I'm writing Biden has announced that he won't be seeking a second term as president and that he is standing down from the process. Talking to democrat friends, the news has come with some relief, and with hope that whomever the party puts forward as its candidate will win the election in november. It's been a turbulent time in US politics, it's only a few weeks since an assassination attempt on a former president, and although I heard lots of different views about this in the UK, some thoughts of conspiracy, and some even more, we should remind ourselves that political decisions should be made at the ballot box, and not at the hands of a lone-gunman. The attempt was a despicable act, made possible again because people can get their hands on terrible weapons, and try to do the awful things they think about in their sick heads.
It's going to be fascinating, and no doubt strange to be here during what may be the most important election to take place in the US, a choice it seems between democracy and authoritarianism. We must hope just as in France, that people unify against the threat of extremism.
Lost and Found
A few things that I came across these past few months that you might enjoy.
I picked up a copy of Syllabus by the cartoonist Lynda Barry, who went to school with Charles Burns and art college with Matt Groening, and became an accidental professor of art, and writer of a series of books and graphic novels exploring creativity.
There's a VR Museum of Fine Art that is something of a work in progress, but interesting idea in that you get to see some of the work in scale, something that you can't necessarily do elsewhere on the internet. You can get up close to sculptures, and walk around them.
I didn't have Covid this year (although I hear about cases all the time, and sorry that it's been a blight on some people's summers), and I was still in France when it was Glastonbury, but I did manage to catch up on a few performances, and can't stop playing this song by King Krule. It's a great performance, on stage with his daughter, way past her bedtime at the Park stage. I enjoy his easy genre-shifting from chugging elemental guitar Bragg-ishness, to complex, layers jazz-infused sounds, that he delivers with a verve and swagger that reminds me of the poetry of John Cooper Clarke, or singers like Smiths-era Morrissey, or even at times like, Ian Curtis.
Thank you
So, there you go. I hope that you enjoy some of the photos, it's nice to catch up. I have some more traveling to do in the next few weeks, and then I have some time to properly turn my attention to work and living, and making sure that everyone is okay.
I hope that you're all well and life is good. Thank you for your emails and messages, it's always nice to get a comment on old issues, so just to know you can go and find out what we were doing last year, or the year before that.
Take care, speak soon.