First off, thank you for the warm words celebrating Issue #100, a few of you pointed out that I could have made more of it, but I didn’t have time, so let’s just keep moving on, rolling along.
There was snow last weekend and we managed to get out and zip down a few slopes while it lasted. We haven’t had a great deal and we’ve missed it, by this time last year, we’d already had a dump in early December and a white Christmas! The world looks lovely covered up and it seemed peaceful sitting up at the top of the slope about to set off.
The snow melted with the rain, but by Tuesday it was colder still, dropping down to -11 Celsius. These lower temperatures when the ground is frozen and you can’t hear any birds, your lungs fill with cold air and your fingers tingle through your gloves. You appreciate warm drinks and ensure close proximity to a radiator.
Spaces to Connect
Although I spent a couple of days on campus sorting and fixing various things, upgrading and updating a few machines, finally putting cable ties around the spaghetti assortment of wires, power adapters, and network lines under the desks, most of the week was spent at home tidying this backroom which really was becoming a hoarder’s paradise. I need reminding that not everything will be useful in the future for some reason and that old magazines, pens, stationery, boxes and envelopes, bits of fabric, salvaged cardboard, and plastic toys can be recycled, donated, or just simply chucked as a last resort. I am particularly pleased that there’s somewhere for the new record player to live, and I can put something on while I work. The place is looking a bit better now. Honestly, it is…
So, work-wise I’m still crashing through Javascript tutorials, learning how to adapt bits of code so that I might be able to create a piece for the immersive room that we have at work. If your eyes start to glaze over when I talk about code then you are forgiven, it is pretty dry and as with most drill subjects you just have to find a way to mainline this knowledge, working on as many exercises as you can until something sticks.
The generative art applications that I’m playing with are mostly math, for instance, you can ask a computer to draw a series of white boxes on a black background, you can define the number of boxes, then you might ask to generate a random number of boxes and change their size and how they’re spaced. If you want something that isn’t random, then you might ask the computer to create a box every time something happens, clicking a mouse for instance. This is an interaction, and from here you can find different ways for the computer to create these interactions, you just need the numbers, generated by almost anything that you feed into the computer, it could be music, live video, almost any data that sets the computer off creating images, animations or movies to display.
You can see this process in the works of Memo Akten and Quayola, artists who have used the movements of athletes to generate pieces that comment on motion, space, and time.
On Screen
I managed to tick off a few things from my ever-growing watchlist (I told you I don’t do lists) and wrapped up a series called How to with…John Wilson, that charmed and captivated and reminded me of Martin Parr. There are shots of people doing strange and unusual things that seem quite normal in New York, along with close-ups of all the detritus and junk in the streets. John carries his video camera everywhere with him and we experience life through the lens, meeting and talking to fellow New Yorkers, there’s serendipity and oddness that just seems to illustrate the very thing he’s talking about. It’s not the easiest show to describe.
Maybe I should get out more and take my camera with me, although I think John may possess some sort of Weegee-like ability to be in the right spot just as someone dressed in a trashbag walks past. Like Parr, there’s a sort of vulnerability, he’s never mocking or judgemental about the people he meets, he sees himself as one of them, everyone together just trying to make sense of the world.
Lost and Found
Here are a few things that I spotted this week that you might enjoy.
David Erhlich is the IndieWire film critic who produces a much-praised video of the year’s best 25 films. You can see a list of all the films he’s included since 2011 on letterboxd.
I’ve been listening to Jon Ronson read from his book So you’ve been publicly shamed which was distributed as a BBC podcast. It’s a bit old, but I’m waiting for his newest series Things fell apart, which is all about the supposed culture wars, to be available in the US.
Love these photos of Bolivian skateboarders in traditional dress.
Origins of the word Gaslighting.
Thank you
Along with new fixtures, I bought a box of art supplies, pens (to replace the dried ones I threw out), printing inks, and blocks of paper. I’m hoping to find time over the weekend to play and get messy. This jumping around between mediums is fun, and although the generative art that I’m learning about and my line drawings and sketches seem a million miles apart, I wonder if there might find a way to meet somehow.
We’re busy completing immigration paperwork this week and making sure that our status is right and everything is up to date. It’s tedious but necessary work and I’m only grateful that I have some time to do this.
Otherwise, it’s been a relatively quiet week as we trundle into the weekend. I hope that you’re all well and that the start back hasn’t been too traumatic. Let’s meet again next week, bring a friend, and share this newsletter. I will promise you a little more focus, it is busy and in true cliffhanger style, I have some fun new projects to share, but I’m not quite ready yet.
Take care, speak soon.