Issue #195 - The Spaces in Between
City Cite
How are you? It’s been a good week, I’ve managed to stay productive, catch up on work, and put a few things in place. I have meetings over the next few weeks, and some travel to book. The weather is a bit strange, it feels here as if there’s a transition to Autumn, scattered showers, high temperatures and muggy nights. It’s the end of the summer for sure.
The south east states are being battered by Hurricane Helene, it is life-threatening, flood waters are rising, trees are falling, and there is large scale destruction to property. We’ll possibly get the tail-end as it starts to move north, and already as I write it is raining, and the winds are picking up. It won’t be nearly as bad as it is for those in Georgia and Florida, and will blow out be Saturday afternoon, but it’s chastening watching the news and the fear and worry it is bringing to so many. People can’t help but think about Katrina, and hope that people are safe and will receive the help and support that they need.
This week, I realise I’m writing about connection between people and place, and how creative people are able to draw on this to make new work. It’s something that I hope that students are able to do, it starts with looking up from their computers, and venturing out beyond the campus, or the area they live, to explore aspects of culture, take in a little of the history of where they are, and meet the people that they share this space with.
Stephan
Spaces to Connect
I wanted to write a little more about the study abroad program in Nantes, so far I’ve only skirted the surface, so here’s a bit more for you from the notes that I kept, and reflections since.
We’ll be presenting on the program at the IES conference in Chicago in a few weeks’ time, and talking about this particular experience of language immersion. That we also used immersion as a touch-point for the sort of creative activities we engaged in, was useful. We talked about the ways that art can live outside formal settings, whether street art, small book publishing, community art, from printmaking, and poster-making; and even tapping into the local music scene. As we explored the city, we were introduced to many creative people, some very well-known, others new and upcoming, but all who use the city as inspiration, and in many cases, as a literal canvas for their work.
Our first attempt to find someone to give us a guided tour of the Nantes’ impressive street art, was met with failure, someone from the tourist board, who didn’t really seem to want to meet, or talk with our students, which would have been troublesome to say the least. So we were introduced to Persu, an artist who has been active in Nantes since the early 90’s working in various guises, painting with a wild-style, complex lettering, often in abandoned spaces, adapting to the architecture and texture of the wall. He was brilliant, knew everyone, could read every tag and tell us about the artists. We walked down back-alleys, spaces in Nantes that we had no business finding, with Persu’s expert guidance we saw so much.
The other important artist, who acted as inspiration for our work, was Tangui Jossic, a professor at the School of Art, illustrator, agent provocateur, and chief mischief-maker. Tangui’s art appears all over Nantes, often in posters, or editorials, commissioned by the city and organisations including the Maison Fumetti. He is also a wrestler, appearing with a troupe as artist luchadors, fighting and drawing in shows throughout France. He gave us a tour of the School of Art, and talked through his work, including the series of illustrations drawn during lockdown. He is a remarkable artist, drawing on a range of influences, referencing at renaissance painting and the graphic novels of Charles Burns, all in the same breath.
Both these artists portray a deep connection with a city, and both related the idea that Nantes is receptive to work that possibly might not find a home elsewhere.
Life Lessons
I also haven’t written too much about Pittsburgh lately. I think this is a good place to live and raise a family, the boys are generally getting along well at school, recovering some of the lost learning of the pandemic years, and both of them thinking about their futures. Sports have been filling spots on our calendar, it’s a major focus for the community, there are different seasons, and it’s still fun to see kids’ baseball games, or attend a High School Football fixture. I’ve enjoyed coaching girls’ rugby, mostly because of the energy of everyone involved with the club, and how keen we all our make it such a fun experience for the players. In contrast some sports seem to demanding, of player and parents, high costs, pressure to win, and I’ve witnessed some shameless shouty nonsense which frankly doesn’t help the kids.
I still get a kick out of being here, it certainly doesn’t just feel normal. I can also see that we’re living our expat existence, BBC Radio 4 on in the kitchen, watching Bake-off and various comedy shows. Our diets haven’t really changed, and our habits and interests are pretty much the the same as they were in the UK. We still enjoy a mug of tea around 3pm while sitting out. This is transient, we are between countries, which could be the experience of many who moved from another place. Your upbringing, the cultures, histories, and attitudes remain, they’re all a part of who you are. We’re also happy to share, people are generally interested in our perspective, as we are learning about their lives, and how they encounter the world.
Again, as in Nantes, I’m finding people who speak to the relationship that they have with their city through creativity, in art and craft, photography, filmmaking, music and much more. Perhaps I can too, and I might make work that holds me to these places, and cements connection.
Lost and Found
Here are a couple of things I found and stumbled on, food for thought, places to go, bits of reading.
This article titled Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art from the New Yorker.
Findings Highlighting Challenges and Innovations in US Higher Education Language Programs makes for sober reading, but interesting to see that some of the efforts to support language programs are just the sort of interdisciplinary courses that we are promoting.
Check out the announcement about Orion, Meta’s new mixed-reality glasses. While the form-factor is interesting, the test will be how the various apps integrate with the user needs, and whether we’ll be happy working in this way. The relative portability does suggest that Meta are currently way ahead of everyone in this sector, that Apple need to catch up.
Finally, because I’ve not posted a video for a while, and I’ve been listening to her quite a bit. I can hear The Carpenters, Mercury Rev, Harry Nilsson, there’s a nice article here about growing up and the places that matter to her. There’s so much from another time. Here’s Weyes Blood.
Thank you
Okay, we have a busy weekend ahead, lots of soccer, maybe a trip out of town. I’ll let you know next week. As I’m writing, the rain is hitting the window and the barrel that we have on the front porch is filling up, the drain spitting from up high, gutters starting to overflow.
I hope that you’re well, thank you again for all your messages of friendship and support, it really is a lovely community here and appreciate each and every one of you. You are superstars.