Jane Graves; The Secret Lives of Objects.

This book has really influenced my critical thinking and approach to research generally. I enjoy the way that Jane Graves weaves ideas and references together using a diverse range of writing styles; academic, poetic, humorous, streams of consciousness and flights of fancy.

Lively, thought provoking illustrations and
impossibly small print ...my eyes are ****** but my brain is full!

http://www.janegraves.o.rg.uk/thesecretlives.htm

Naomi Filmer; Edible Expressions, Ice Jewellery and Body Sculpture.

http://www.thisnext.com/tag/naomi-filmer-designer-chocolate/

Initially my interest lay in her utilisation of transient materials
(ice and chocolate).
I remember seeing the limited edition facial expression chocolate lollipops in the V & A shop and liking the idea of edible art;
I suspect that many would just have to eat the damn things rather than stick them away in a box, or have them permanently out on show to torment! No one I know would be immune to the knowledge that there is chocolate lurking somewhere in the house. I wonder how many still exist?
Anyway, the notion of using materials that can be ingested (the ultimate consumption/assimilation of the art object) or that melt and degrade in some way is one that I plan to explore. So, her ice jewellery and installation for 'Be-hind Be-fore Be-yond' are of particular interest.
The sinuous quality, organic forms and reflective surfaces of her metal pieces are really seductive and seeing them for me, provokes a desire to investigate their surfaces, weight and temperature. Innovative, sensual and unnerving, her use of materials often has a prosthetic quality or carries fetishistic associations, suggesting danger and violence.
I find some of the work difficult aesthetically but really like the thinking behind the objects.

http://www.naomifilmer.co.uk/

http://www.judithclarkcostume.com/exhibitions/judith_clark_09.php

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1637_outoftheordinary/artists_more_images.php?artistTag=filmer

Touch Me Exhibition at the V&A 2005

I discovered this exhibition while searching for work by the jewellery designer Naomi Filmer. Can't understand why I didn't go to see this at the time but glad to have found it now. Lots of really good stuff in the exhibition and resources sections but sadly only a few images so definitely want to lay my hands on a copy of the catalogue. Hopefully I will be able to track one down somewhere. 

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1376_touch_me/index.html

Restless; Ron Arad at the Barbican Art Gallery

http://www.barbican.org.uk/ronarad

A Concise Dictionary of Fashion; Judith Clarke & Adam Philips

Visited 2/05/2010
http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/2010/the_concise_dictionary_of_dress/about_the_project/the_concise_dictionary_of_dress

Went to see this fantastic installation at the weekend. Set within Blythe House, previously home to the post office savings bank, now the repository for the V & A archive. This is an hour long exploration of the building and its contents punctuated by a series of curatorial and psychoanalytical responses to the fashion collection.  These are presented in the form of site specific installations accompanied by definitions that provoke an idiosyncratic interpretation of the clothing in terms of 'anxiety, wish and desire'. The guide is not allowed to answer questions about interpretation but can assist with information about materials and practical matters concerning the conservation areas and stores that we pass through. Personal response and interpretation are everything and each visitor to the piece will notice a different set of details. The building is vast; a labyrinth of alarmed corridors on I can't remember how many floors. A warren of staircases, cavernous rooms containing racks, glass fronted cupboards, cabinets and rolls and rolls of textiles wrapped up in conservation white. You catch a glimpse of objects partially obscured by the glare of light on glass and have to pop back momentarily to confirm what you have seen. A spinning wheel, an Islamic vessel, the edge of, what looked like, a stunningly ornate Grinling Gibbons mirror. Stacks, rows, objects propped up against walls and the orderly labels, the labelling and organising of a vast collection of 'things', mostly hand written, some crossed out and updated. Instructions to staff... 'Do not  put anything on this surface or use it for rolling' and there are staff there on a Sunday, waiting patiently for us to move on so they can resume their work carefully shifting artifacts on a trolley. We start at the top of the building, on the roof with panoramic views over London and finish in the basement. I notice strange and seemingly unimportant things; three plastic bin liners of rubbish in a corridor, the surface of a wall, a piece of disused machinery, the thing about an 'Experience' like this is that you are always questioning what parts of the environment are manufactured?

The 'interventions' are whimsical, provocative, amusing, evocative, playful and challenging.

Fantastic Voyage; the human body is an alien landscape.

Our bodies are alien to us.

What we think it all looks like now
http://www.studiodaily.com/main/technique/tprojects/6850.html

Same animation with technical commentary
http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/anim_innerlife_lo.html

What we thought it all looked like back in the 1960's when men were men, and women were beautiful girls!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o8vsU0Dw-4&feature=related

Patricia Churchland: Exchanges At The Frontier Wellcome Collection 8/10/2009.

Another fantastic speaker at the Wellcome Collection; Neuro philosopher Patricia Churchland (based at the University of California) talked about the physiology of the brain and 'Sociality' in humans. I was intrigued by her description of tests that confirmed the successes of sub-conscious decision making relative to conscious decision making, research into the influence of specific proteins and the effects of compromised frontal lobe structure on human behaviours. The discussion also touched on perception, 'causality' and notions of 'free will'.

Link to a Synopsis of key points in the discussion and to the BBC World Service broadcast.

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/exchanges-at-the-frontier-4/patricia-churchland.aspx