Glittermouse Visual Arts

It's been a hectic couple of months and following all the preparations, workshops and installations in March, April kicked off with a trip to Breakpoint 2010 and a modification to the digital sketch for Saint Peters Square (see below - image shown on the big screen) which finished 6th in the Freestyle Graphics Compo. Not entirely sure about that result, I'm fairly confident it should have placed higher but then public voting is a funny old game and not to be a bad sport, congrats to all those who placed 1st to 5th. 

Regardless of all that, mid April is finally here and it brings with it the opening of Marking the Territory, tomorrow at MMU's Link Gallery. The last two days have been spent finalising work, painting plinths and installing equipment so I shall finally be ready to start the drawing tomorrow morning at 9am. Also on display are six new digital prints as a follow up to the City Poems Series and the newly completed painting Saint Peters Square (acrylic on canvas with a distinctly digital flavour!) which can be found in the Interactive Arts Foyer attached to the Link Gallery. Preview image below but you will have to come along to the gallery to see the actual installation for now! Live installation is open April 14th, 15th and 16th from 09.30 - 4pm and all day on Monday 19th with a special evening event from 5 - 7pm. Hope to see you there!

Updates this week include the good news that GBP is now the main currency in the Glittermouse shop! It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally possible to make purchases of craft items and from the recent series of digital prints without having to convert to USD and back again!
In terms of practical developments in the art work, you can now see a newly updated image of the St Peters Square commission (below)...

... and a video of the most recent experiments with digital video on laser etched objects on the Mouse in Progress page here, however the most exciting news comes in the form of a newly confirmed installation event for April!

Marking The Territory will be a visual and audio installation exploring cities and the sounds and artefacts found within them. Drawing on the writings of Michel De Certeau and Marc Auge to tell stories of Place and Space, a contrast between moving image and static drawing will aim to describe the duality of transience and permanence in urban settings. The work will aim to illustrate human interaction with city spaces and question issues around public ownership.  Situated at the Link Gallery in the Manchester Metropolitan University Chatham Building, the Installation will be open to the public from April 14th – 19th during the following times:

Live Installation Creation:
April 14th - 16th 9.30am - 4pm

Exhibition of Completed Installation:
April 19th 9.30am - 5pm

Private View Closing Event:
With Live Audio Mixing by Ne7
April 19th 5pm - 7pm

Don’t forget to head down to The Roadhouse tonight too (if you’re Manchester based)  for the February excitement that is Norvun Sunday; Live music, arts and hot toasted bread products, how could Sunday get any better?

So, this is the first post to the new blog on the new site! I decided it was time for a bit of an overhaul for a few reasons... Firstly, the tool I use to build and manage this site has had quite a few useful updates since I first got the site live over a year ago and I couldn’t make the most of those with a lot of those old settings. I also needed to update a lot of the content to reflect my changing focuses in terms of areas of practice and it seemed an appropriate time of year to not only update but refresh, renew and relaunch! So here it is! If you’re reading this blog imported or in a feed, please come and visit the new site here: www.glittermouse.co.uk . Should you want to, you can still access my archived blog at www.glittermousearchive.weebly.com but all news and updates will be continue to be published at glittermouse.co.uk.
 
One of the new areas of my current work relating to the installation pieces involves a closer look at the theories and concepts which inform the outcomes. As such I recently gathered thoughts relating to individual relationships with cities and urban environments in a survey. The results were very useful and I have started looking at issues relating to public ownership. In order to focus these ideas and prove/disprove one or two embryonic theories I have composed a new survey which builds on the questions of the old one. To celebrate the launch of the new site (and to encourage survey dodgers to get clicking!) I am giving away a free limited edition digital print to the first ten people who complete the survey. I only published the survey a few hours ago (as I am writing this) and the response has been good – but you are still in with a chance of a free print if you’re interested. You can visit and complete the survey at www.glittermouse.co.uk/survey.html

The installation work is still developing along the 3D route and following the Christmas break I am now continuing to pushing it even further. I’m due to be doing some tests with the laser cutter this week and am hoping to start using transparencies as well as data projection in the work. There will be further updates on all that soon and I’m currently seeking out the next opportunity to get the work out in a live context so hopefully I’ll be announcing a new date within the next few weeks.

In addition to the 3D work, I have made a bit more progress with the production of the canvases produced from the digital City Poems Series. This isn’t really a major focal point at the moment, more something ticking along in the background but it’s good to keep working on things, even if it is sporadic. I’m still working on the commissioned canvas too but that’s going to take a while even with consistent efforts – it’s a big canvas!

That’s all for now but you can see all the work in progress at www.glittermouse.co.uk/mouse-in-progress.html where I will keep updating as regularly as possible!