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Crafting by Committee Conclusion

29/1/2014

In November, we agreed to postpone the Crafting by Committee conclusion until January as some people had other commitments in December. The group was excited then to start the New Year by sharing their final outcomes for the Crafting by Committee project.

There was a varied response with each contributor demonstrating an identifiable departure from their usual practises and genuine responses to both rounds of committee feedback. The group reflected that the experience made people reconsider their approaches, and that the idea of the committee was a good one. There were varying levels of willingness to accept committee feedback however, and some felt uncomfortable about the instructions they received. Despite this, it was agreed that it had been positive to encourage each other to do something different within our practices. Some felt the main outcome was that it reinforced and highlighted what we already do, while for others it has encouraged development and more change in direction. Everyone found it to be an interesting exercise and agreed that it resulted in a variation on existing practices more than specific deviations from disciplines. One analogy was that it was more like adding a new flavour than a using an entirely new recipe. You can find details of the individual outcomes and further discussion on each by visiting the final stage project page.

This month we were also pleased to welcome photographer Jim in his first visit to CRITgroup. With a background in the building trade, he has also been active for the last 15 years in his side line of professional photography, focussing particularly on documenting performances. He is now hoping to extend into other areas and has an interest in 3D modelling and rapid prototyping.

Next month we will meet for an informal CRITsession and everyone is invited to bring some work. We will also make time to reflect further on the Crafting by Committee project, as well as discussing the possibility of a third research project.

James Sharp

DaDa Manchester 1
Things kick as the city decks its halls
Bright red decorations stretch out
Manchester's main streets
Square plays Dancers performing
Quarter's Contemporary Art

Kevin Linanne

Christine Wilcox-Baker

Annabeth Orton

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A Second CRITmas

19/12/2013

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I started off by sharing some of my own recent developments; firstly, some new contributions to the This Place Is project from Dalian. I had left some booklets with the staff and students of English First School where I ran PlaceMaking workshops in the summer and was delighted to receive some contributions through the post last month. With some specific reflections on Dalian itself as well as few references to other places in China, they certainly make for interesting reading. I especially enjoyed contrasting them with my own This Place Is Dalian booklet that I completed shortly after my return to the UK.

Not quite a silent night but certainly a peaceful one; we had a small meeting this evening, three familiar faces and a very welcome new guest! All the more mince pies for us!

We had already agreed to postpone the Crafting by Committee conclusion until January as some people had other commitments in a very busy month anyway. As such, it was really rather pleasant to ‘kick’ back on what was also CRITgroups second birthday and reacquaint ourselves with the underlying purpose of the meetings; discussing our work!

The other outcome from my summer was unexpected but none the less worthy of being shared; upon getting home, I realised how many of the photographs I had taken during my travels had still been concerned with place, although in a slightly different and less urban context. I collated a select series of these into a book titled Peaceful Places and brought along a copy for the group to see. The work will be on display at the Manchester Buddhist Centre’s Earth Café in February 2014. Whilst it was good to share the work itself, I think people also found it interesting to assess the quality of the self-published book. We briefly discussed using companies that allow you to compose and order such publications and their potential applications for things such as exhibition catalogues as well as portfolio books.

We were then delighted to view work by our new visitor; Colin Binns. With a background in architecture, Colin currently works from his studio in Preston and is currently engaged with developing abstract mixed media work based on an exploration of the Bridgewater Canal for an exhibition at the Bank Quay Gallery, Warrington in November 2014. Colin starts with photographic references and develops these through drawing and print media into a series of canvases. He also shared some older work with us, much of which had references to specific cities. Of particular interest was a series completed as a portrait of Blackpool, in which Colin had associated different areas in the region with the concept of Chakras. These had particularly influenced the colours used and environmental features represented in the work. Those of you who have often attended meetings, or kept a close eye on the blogs will remember the work of regular attendee, Kevin Linnane whose work has also been inspired by the canal networks in Manchester. Colin and Kevin found they had still more in common with an interest in the application of dowsing techniques to respond to the environment that inspires their work.

Having had a good chat about the project work shared (as well as our fill of Christmas cake and mince pies!) all that remained was to wish each other a merry, yet peaceful festive season as we wrapped up the last meeting of 2013.

We’re back on the 29th of January 2014 to conclude Crafting By Committee and get the new year off to a creative start!

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UK PlaceMaking and Collaborative Planning

26/9/2013

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This month we broke slightly with tradition and I stepped out of the organiser role to give a talk on my own recent practice. This work, which was exhibited at the Chinese Arts Centre earlier this month, looked at developing recent PlaceMaking project work by engaging with Chinese Nationals both visiting the UK and as residents in China. Christine kindly agreed to take a few notes on my presentation (I can multi-task but probably not write an unbiased account of my own talk!). Her thoughts follow below.

Annabeth gave us a very interesting and informative presentation about her experiences this summer in China as part of her travels. The quote “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” from T S Eliot resonated with her experiences as you will see below. In the tradition of the artist collector, on their Grand Tour, Annabeth set out to gain experience, inspiration and artefacts to further inform her current practice. Her tour took in a variety of friends, locations and new contacts and participants – many of them new to ‘art’. Having already run a series of workshops in the UK (around Greater Manchester, York and London) she had pre-organised a series of workshops in China in order to be able to compare and contrast the responses of those taking part, from schoolchildren to the curious ‘grown up kids’.

Her recent current practice has been focused on interaction with people and city spaces and looks at creating improved relationships between the two. Much of her work is workshop based and outcomes are photographed by her in order to make a series of documented pieces. Looking at differences between the two cultures and identifying things about the UK have been key to the investigations she has made during her trip.

Working with a set of pre-made templates Annabeth asked three research questions:

* I remember
* I hope to see
* This place is

Participants, most of whom were not from any kind of ‘art’ background, were invited to write responses to these questions on transparent acrylic boards - contained in frames with the questions at the top of them – one set in English, the other in Chinese. She was pleasantly surprised in both countries that people were very willing to join in and nobody made any of the ‘what is art’ type comments that she had anticipated. Annabeth photographed each written response being held aloft in front of a location that would give the viewer a clue to which country they were in. The photographs have now been made into an on-line gallery and have also been exhibited at Manchester’s Chinese Arts Centre.

I could write for days about the information gleaned but in order to be succinct I will try to summarise below - you can of course find out more information here (on Annabeth’s website). Annabeth’s findings surprised her as there were more similarities than the differences she expected – however although the content may be similar the Chinese responses seemed to show much more love of their city and civic pride than the English ones and were also more evident of a communal and sharing society. This can mean everyone is more included but the downside is that there are a lot of things taught that very much continue traditions and the perfection of ‘craft’ but don’t necessarily allow for so much self-expression.

Even having worked with interpreters in China she found that she wasn’t able to fully get the ‘background chat’ and ideas inspired by her workshops so couldn’t know as much about the participants as she could in the UK. That said she did feel that the Chinese perspectives seemed more responsive which contrasted with more factual statements in the UK.

During her trip Annabeth felt that as her visit was very ‘managed’ there was an inevitability that she would only see what her hosts wanted her to see. With this in mind on a number of occasions she ‘deliberately got herself lost’ in order to see a bit more reality. Finding these forays ‘interestingly scary’ at times, she saw first-hand the stark contrasts between poverty and privilege. She also had her own personal voyage of discovery about who she is and what home is.

Realising that there’s a lot each culture can learn from the other in many ways, including educational methods of art training, Annabeth now believes there may be opportunities on a global scale to find ways to work together. She is planning to use the internet to move forward with her current galleries, potentially including a ‘virtual exchange’ and is also looking at the possibility of a residency in China.

I should like to thank Christine for her time in composing this passage; it's always fascinating to read about your work from an alternative perspective!

Later in the meeting, we also discussed our plans for beginning the new collaborative project next month. Crafting by Committee will be a shorter, three session project taking us up to the end of the year in which each collaborator will produce a brief project proposal, situated within their current practice. The rest of the group will then act as a panel who will, upon hearing the proposal, specify particular criteria for how the project must progress. The practitioner must then follow these instructions precisely and return to the panel in November with the outcome. The hope is that we can then use these pieces to reflect upon how decision making within different practices can impact upon outcomes but also be an intrinsic part of the creative process. Again, these will be research pieces, starting points for potential development and pieces of work in their own right. As some members cannot be present on one or more of the meetings, we agreed that everyone would submit their proposal in a brief written format a fortnight ahead of the next meeting. This will allows some time to preview the proposals and have a think before forming our committee! Again, as a research project and with so many different practices in the group, the outcomes of this are naturally unknown but one thing is certain; it will be an interesting couple of months finding them out!

I can’t quite believe how quickly the last year has gone and already we are moving towards CRITgroup’s second birthday! It feels as though we have already achieved a lot with the successful conclusion and exhibition of Creative Whispers so I’m very excited about the plans for the next couple of months. Our next meeting is on October 30th and if you would like to become involved, feel free to come along, or drop us a message for more information using the contact form on the home page.

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CRITsummer

28/8/2013

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We have had a quiet couple of months at CRITgroup as people take time out to make the most of the summer, both in creative and other senses.

I have had an especially exciting time of it, though I don’t want to give too much away as I shall be giving a talk on my recent PlaceMaking project work in China at the next CRITgroup on September 25th. While you can see this work on my website, it will also be briefly on display at the Chinese Arts Centre from the 10th to the 14th of September with a late night opening on Thursday the 12th; CRITgroup members are of course warmly invited to the opening!

One project I will share that I have also added to over the summer is This Place Is. A public project launched last year, it aims to build up a physical record of personal responses to a variety of places, starting from the UK and hopefully including places all over the world. I was in a good position to increase the global reach over the last couple of months and you can see my own use of the project booklets by visiting the This Place Is Summer 2013 gallery.

Christine Wilcox-Baker has been getting political with a public art exhibition designed to raise public awareness and support for Asian Elephant conservation. ‘Elephant Parade’ is coming to Manchester before stomping off all over the country and arriving in London next summer. Christine has designed and painted one of the elephant sculptures titled ‘Stop the traffic’ that is the size of a real baby elephant! You can see it, at the Trafford Centre until the 12th of September.

James Sharp has also been keeping busy attending crafts fairs and running workshops. You can find details of his activities in textiles, artists’ books and journal keeping on his blog.

As mentioned, the next CRITgroup will be on September 25th, when I shall be transporting you overseas with an investigation into Chinese approaches to public spaces. In October, we will be getting back up and running with our second collaborative project; Crafting by Committee.

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A Summer Lull

26/6/2013

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It seems Summer is well and truly underway (despite the weather!) with many people on holiday (or conversely being so creative they were too busy to make it!) I do however; have a couple of recent updates of my own that I shall share before including news from a few of our other regular attendees.

On the 15th of June, I was delighted to take the PlaceMaking and This Place Is workshops that I have been developing along to the Magpie Thunder Bureau Pop Up as part of the Barnaby Festival. In the morning, we took the PlaceMaking boards on to the streets of Macclesfield and gathered some thoughts on local perspectives, especially in light of the recent approval of some major town centre redevelopments. This took a slightly new approach to previous sessions and rather than working as part of an existing workshop group, we approached Saturday shoppers and arts trail visitors. We got some interesting conversations going too, once we had persuaded people that we weren't trying to sell them anything! In the afternoon, I ran a This Place Is demo session back at the Pop Up Shop and rather than asking for completed booklets there and then, they were made available for the duration of the festival for visitors to take away and return at their leisure. If you are interested in participating yourself, you can request a booklet online and find the return address on the project page.

On a bit of a tangent, I additionally have four paintings on display until August 11th at Nexus Art Café as part of their Happiness exhibition, along with Renate Wendel who also has work in the Malgras|Naudet Summer Show (until the 28th). Renate has been working on some still-life drawing & sketching and is currently in the initial stages of venturing into portraiture by revisiting the theme of music & musicians, a recurring strand in her work. Although she is experienced in life-drawing, drawing and painting portraits is a new venture and she is experimenting with drawing on old photographs, both studio portraits and live rehearsal/concert shots, and is beginning to explore them further through drawing, painting & collage.

Christine Wilcox-Baker will also soon have some more updates for us on her contribution to the Elephant Parade and has shared these photographs of a recent public art project she has worked on.

James Sharp continues to develop his range of textile coverings for notebooks and has started using some new tweeds from his re-upholsterer. James finds they make excellent slip covers for various books because they feel good as well as being pleasant to work with. James has also kindly offered a 20% discount on his workshop fees to anyone affiliated with CRITgroup. You can find more information about these and links to make bookings or contact James on his website.

The next CRITgroup will be on July 31st and I shall be handing over to Christine for the update as I shall be in China! I very much hope to have a lot more to say about this in my talk scheduled for the September meeting!

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David Haley: Art as a 'Life Support System', Recent Work in Hong Kong

25/7/2012

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This month we enjoyed a slightly different session as we welcomed our first guest speaker to CRITgroup. David Haley is the Route Leader on the MA in Art as Environment at MMU/Miriad and unsurprisingly the work he shared with us this evening clearly located his practice in that context.

David presented the work he was commissioned to produce by the Five Elements Project for the Kai Tak River Regeneration Project which began in November 2011 and culminated in the Kai Tak River Festival in June 2012. An interesting site, much of Hong Kong is developed on ‘re claimed’ land, and the ‘river’ is in fact an entirely artificial construct which acts as a storm drain as well as channelling treated water and sewage. Caught in the ‘limbo’ of the British Hand-Back, and a seemingly never-ending cycle of demolition and rebuilding, the area is earmarked for redevelopment but actually still supports residential communities and wildlife. As the nature of a regeneration project suggests, David became interested in the future of the area, especially with respect to some predictions for rising sea levels and the impact that this would have in terms of flooding and salination of the water table.

Salad Growing by the Kai Tak River (photograph by David Haley)

David Haley presents his work

Following a programme of workshops including poetry, performance and urban wildlife walks as well as discussions with various community groups, the project culminated in an outdoor installation and a gallery piece. This allowed different audiences to engage with the work and the issues it seeks to raise. The installation consisted of an hexagonal bamboo structure which reflected traditional scaffolding as well as utilising local skills in the construction. This served as a frame for displaying a series of textile pieces which referenced different aspects of the research including maps illustrating predicted rises in sea levels, poetry, visual representations of the wider area, their reliance on different regions for fresh water and images which represent the five Chinese elements with a contemporary take on methods of sustainable agriculture and development.

The nature of the project stimulated a lot of political discussion and at times issues of regeneration and sustainability closer to home came into focus, as well as the economics of building, farming, political biases and international responsibilities. David also discussed his philosophy with regard to our approaches to such complex issues, which is that we are taught from an early age to avoid complexity and seek simplification. This then led me to venture that although as practitioners concerned with communities and social impact it can be hard to identify the extent to which our work achieves our aims, the real value actually lies in something much harder to quantify; that being the slow, yet unstoppable tide of change that comes when the time is right, when societies become ready to accept an alternative to the norm and that much of this is facilitated not by sweeping political change or landslide victories over the ballot box but the steady drip into the collective consciousness that it is the legacy of the arts to create. This then, like the imperceptible growth, one cell at a time, of a new shoot becomes the spearhead that eventually pushes through the tarmac of popular opinion and affects lasting and meaningful change. Given that David’s work for the Kai Tak River Regeneration Project essentially centred on relationships between humans and nature in urban spaces, I also think that’s a pretty good analogy to finish on!

We meet next month for informal discussion and reflection on the 22nd of August and welcome Hannah Mosley on September the 26th who will be discussing the concept of masters and apprentices in contemporary arts practices.

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June 2012

28/6/2012

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I normally arrive at MadLab a good twenty minutes before everyone else, so this month it was a pleasant surprise to be greeted on the stairs by a member of staff who excitedly informed me that there were already people waiting. I was then pleased to discover a few familiar faces and to welcome a new contributor.

James Pashley was invited to speak first as this is the last time he will be joining us before flying off to teach in Japan for up to four years! After taking to opportunity to subtly remind me that we haven’t got as far with our collaborative mapping project as we had hoped to do before he left (!), he showed the group his new website (www.instantpash.me). Designed to be a portal to a series of informal blogs which will chart different areas of his various adventures, I recognised that some recent developments had been effective in lending a sense of cohesion to the site, which I felt had been missing before. I also commented that while it did still feel a little fractured, I suspect that in the process of populating it with content it will find its own level and develop into something a bit more streamlined, with the possibility for sections to change or merge depending on James’ experiences.

James Pashley demonstrates his new website

Comments from other members centred (unsurprisingly!) around the featuring of Danbo in the photographic visualisation which head up each section. If you’re a regular reader of CRITblog you’ll remember that Danbo paid us a visit last month; an impressively designed cut-out-and-make cardboard ‘robot’ with moving parts. Asked if Danbo would be featuring in all James’ Japanese photos, he explained he is keeping an open mind about his expectations for the workload whilst out there and wasn’t sure how practical that would really be. This then led on to an interesting discussion about the relationship of photographic documentation to actual experience and the potential for falling into the trap of unintentionally focusing so much on taking photos that you remain one step removed from fully enjoying the experience of being somewhere. James wrapped up by impressing us with his Japanese, demonstrating the most important word he’s learnt so far… 'Bīru'. Yes, it means ‘beer’.

Following James, I shared my latest steps on some existing projects, including work currently on display at the Nexus Art Café in Manchester. I also took the opportunity for one last bout of shameless self-promotion by reminding the group about the next evening’s Private View of the Nexhibitionists show at which I will be showing some photographs of two recent workshops, one with Rolls Crescent Primary Schoo l and one with Nexus staff and contributors (though the Rolls Crescent work has been up since May and will be coming out in a week to move to the school itself.)

I then held my breath somewhat as I distributed the final published form of the brand new This Place Is project, which is replacing This Belongs To as the active participatory project in my practice and on my website. CRITgroup members have been central to the changes and developments that have shaped the final form of the booklet and recently completed mock versions for me to help assess the content and the experience of participating. It has, however, been a project which hasn’t always caused complete agreement and I have had the chance through this to pick and choose from sometimes conflicting feedback in order to try and ‘distil’ the project which best fulfils my intentions. The main criticism of the published document was the fact that I have not included a return address actually printed on it, which caused some members to question if I was making it harder for people to return their contributions. This was a factor I had already deliberated over and made a specific decision on so I was pleased there were no unpleasant surprises in any other areas of possible criticism I might not have thought of! I explained that I was reluctant to incur the costs of a P.O. Box (having already paid for printing) and didn’t want to use my home address for reasons of security as much as practicalities (such as in the insecurities of rented accommodation!) and as I was expecting most responses to be gathered through workshop sessions I had chosen to be a bit more discriminating in giving it out. It was then suggested by Marcelle (our new guest who shall be introduced shortly) that it might be appropriate to ask an organisation or venue I already have links with if I could use their address.

Final copies of This Place Is booklets

Some other issues raised included the age old question of how to facilitate good participant numbers and it was agreed that giving people a specific time-frame or environment in which to get involved would be a good way to approach this. I recognised that my main downfall with regards to This Belongs To was a lack of promotion and outlined arts websites I had thought to use to get the word out. It was also suggested that seeking to ‘attach’ the project to an existing relevant organisation, using peer-generated content to build momentum, and making the benefits of participating clear (such as inclusion of contributions in exhibitions) were all important factors.

Marcelle, Annabeth and James discuss... something.

James peruses the DIY Art School prospectus

After a brief verbal wrangle around what my expectations were for the specifics of visual or written entries on to the forms (I perhaps naively maintained I had none!) we moved on to hearing from Marcelle, our newest visitor to CRITgroup. Having recently graduated from the Interactive Arts degree at MMU she explained how her experiences of being asked to generate ‘gallery ready’ content for a degree show had led her to question the validity of certain aspects of this process and that she had eventually resolved her process into a research project which aims to found an independent fourth year to the IA degree. This experimental curatorial project aims to question the traditional teacher/student hierarchy and facilitate peer supported, user generated learning and assessment. Titled DIY Art School, the project sets out to tackle current issues such as rising tuition fees and investigate what happens to graduates in the years following matriculation. Though Marcelle did end up contributing a lot to the discussions, she explained that her original motive for attending had primarily been to research the format of the sessions and see how existing projects with similar features to her own operated and might become part of a wider network.

Kevin Linnane took over and showed us some video work related to the 53 Views project. Interested in issues of psychogeography, especially around notions of ‘resonance’ and the qualities of places which mean people are attracted (or in some cases it may seem repelled!) to particular locations, Kevin organises and undertakes walks in areas which can be located in the wide view from his flat. These then generate responses to the environment, primarily in photographic form. Some discussion took place around ideas of pilgrimage and how the act of travelling can dislocate the walker from ordinary experience. Most of Kevin’s recent work has included imagery of water around the Manchester canal network and Salford Quays/Media City. This also generated conversations around the religious connotations of water and contrasts between concepts of desecration and libation as applied to urban environments. Kevin then made the suggestion that CRITgroup members meet to join him on a walk round the Mancunian Way. This was arranged for Sunday July 22nd and we will be meeting at Oxford Road Station at midday. Kevin will ask participants to carry out specific activities at points along the route and we will also be using it as an opportunity to air the new This Place Is booklets. I’m delighted Kevin suggested this and really looking forward to the first creative collaboration for CRITgroup! If you would like to join us, drop me an email (mouse@glittermouse.co.uk) and I’ll look forward to seeing you there!

Last but far from least, we heard an update from James Sharp who shared photos of his textile bunting for the Creative Recycling Gallery and brought along a developed form of his journal-based Stuff Stash. Some feedback James had received previously was that the paper pockets he had featured in the Stuff Stash might not withstand the rigours of daily use, so he has responded by including textiles pockets. It was agreed that this was an improvement not only for practical reasons but also because it extended the existing visual language of his textile work and allowed users to continue their experience of this element of his work.

James Sharp's bunting at the Creative Recycling Gallery

Juan uses the camera

That concludes my report for June as I had to leave pretty promptly (for once!) at nine, so I am just left to thank Juan Armellini for taking the photos and to remind everyone that we meet next month on the 25th of July when we look forward to a presentation from David Haley about his recent work in Hong Kong! Hopefully we will also have time to share and discuss the walk of the 22nd.

Finally, if you happen to be based in Manchester and actually reading this on the date of publication, I hope you can make it along to the Nexus Art Café later between 5 and 9! Maybe see you there!

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May 2012

23/5/2012

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Danbo is tempted by the fresh summery snacks...

It was quite a small group this month but no less varied for it. Tammy Leigh, James Sharp and I started off chatting informally about craft stalls before I’d even really noticed we were properly ‘in session’! We mostly discussed the reasons behind lower than expected sales at local art fairs and festivals and tried not to point the finger too exclusively at the recession without being more widely questioning. We all agreed that there was a tendency for such events to attract visitors who have no intention of buying anything at all, but while these may not be immediately lucrative opportunities they still present a useful method of raising interest in work. This interest can later manifest as online sales or interest in workshops. Additionally, we talked about the benefits of making whilst supervising a stall to be time efficient and more importantly provide talking points and interest for potential shoppers. This can also be an effective way of demonstrating that the work is genuinely hand made. The potential for selling and running workshops simultaneously raised both pros and cons; a problem if it makes you inaccessible to make a sale but of benefit if you can make sales relating to the workshop content (such as craft kits, etc.)

James Sharp shared three new journals with us today, a Cook Book (with pages for notes and recipes), a Stuff Stash (a book-based format of an existing textile product; for keeping notes and loose pages together) and a Lazy Journal (for those who enjoy the aesthetics of his work but are not inspired to generate their own content!). James will be giving a live painting demonstration at the Creative Recycling Gallery this Saturday (26th of May) as part of the Chorlton Arts Festival and will have a stall at Much Wenlock in Shropshire on the following Saturday (2nd of June).

James Pashley then introduced us to the newest member of the group in the form of Danbo (see above!); a card model robot who will be helping us keep up to date with James’ imminent adventures in Japan by posing for a series of photographs for section headings on the new (and rapidly improving) instantpash site (link soon). I then spent the next 10 minutes working with Dambo on a series of glamour shots and completely failed to support James in explaining our recent collaboration to the others!

The other work James brought along was the latest development in a project which we have started that references the writing of Mitsuri Senda who discusses ‘circulatory play systems’ when designing playgrounds in urban spaces. Senda summarises this in a series of 7 points, which our project looks at applying to Manchester City Centre by identifying existing environmental features with the potential to be used in such a play system. Ultimately, we aim to design a route for use by visitors to Manchester, though we are still in the early stages of this.

The group view the plans so far

One key consideration raised was the need to be aware of health and safety restrictions, though it was also recognised that this was being deliberately set to one side temporarily in order to avoid prematurely capping the creative stages. It was also argued that allowing children exposure to supervised and calculated risk is an important part of facilitating healthy development and that opportunities to encourage outdoor play could be seen as especially responsive to recent news items regarding a lack of exercise and over use of screen based media. The next big challenge facing us in this project is the actual design of the map as we have a proposed route and a suggest list of features, all of which tie in with the source reference to Senda

Danbo notes the next CRITgroup meeting while the others look at maps

To conclude the evening, I briefly shared the final draft of the proposed This Place Is booklet which has been developed in response to feedback from the group at several previous meetings. That is now ready to be printed and it would not have been half as robust an outcome if it had not been for the input and the suggestions from CRITgroup sessions so it was good to be able to share it one last time before sending it off.

Finally, I invited the group to the ‘opening’ event of a show I am hanging tomorrow at the Nexus Art Café in Manchester’s Northern Quarter; though the work will be up from Friday (25th of May), the actual Private View isn’t until the end of June which coincides with the opening of the Nexhibitionists show, in which I will also have some work. The show, titled I Hope To See presents the conclusion of a series of workshops with various community groups in Hulme.

The next meeting is June 27th and you can find details of months up to October including guest speakers on the home page.

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Fourth Meeting

26/4/2012

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Six months since the seminal meeting, MadLab felt very much like ‘home’ for the fourth group meeting. Five of us came along this month and there were plenty of varied projects to cover with some interesting debates being generated in many cases.

James Pashley started by sharing the exciting news that he has now confirmed an offer of employment working as a teaching assistant in Japan! He will be working as part of a cultural exchange programme to support English teaching beginning in late July or early August. While his insights and contributions will be missed in meetings, we are all looking forward to seeing his new website, which we briefly discussed, and to hearing updates on his experiences via his new blog. Meanwhile I am wondering if this means we can now label CRITgroup as an international art collective…!

Christine Wilcox-Baker who joined us for the first time last month to tease us with a hint of her work in the areas of art and gardening then shared details of what sounds like a very exciting and potentially high profile project working with the Cheshire Gardens Trust. The Caldwell’s Nurseries Project will be creating a garden at the RHS Tatton Flower Show in July for which Christine has designed a 3.3m by 4.5m sculptural stainless steel gazebo and a mosaic. The garden will reference the King Canute legend about how Knutsford came to be named as well as raising awareness of the Trust’s project to record written and oral histories relating to the historic Caldwell’s Nurseries. The conversation turned to a discussion of the benefits of voluntary projects, which whilst being carried out ‘for the love of it’ can still be very demanding. It was agreed that the networking opportunities and CV building potential of such projects was very valuable, however, there are also times where paid employment becomes a priority! We also talked about the onerous task of seeking sponsorship (easier if linked to a charity), ways of promoting events and ideas for getting national press coverage (including the pros and cons of inviting a range of celebrities to your opening!). The RHS Tatton Flower Show is open to the public from the 18th to the 22nd of July and I look forward to both a visit and to sharing photos of Christine’s gazebo!

Kevin Linnane - Castlefield 064

This month, Kevin Linnane brought along some photos he has taken for display as part of a project with MMU for the new childrens’ hospital being built in Manchester. Each of the floors in the new building will be themed and Kevin has responded to the ‘Manchester Explored’ areas from the starting point of linking Manchester to its extensive canal network. His photographs depict various areas around the canals in Manchester with the common element that they have all been taken reflected in the canal; many of the images have become abstract as a result. The group agreed that the textural effects of water as well as the unusual angles and subtle use of colour produce a series which not only respond well to the theme but perhaps more importantly demonstrate an awareness of audience. Comments included recognition of the calming nature of water and the suggestion that an abstract composition provided a greater opportunity for sick or bed-bound children to use their imaginations than more conventional imagery.

James Sharp brought along some of his textile journals for us to see and perhaps what is more important with his work, to hold, open and flick through! After a brief discussion of possible practical applications (James has also produced re-usable book covers and a way of making binders from plastic wallets) it was fairly unanimously agreed that the main value of the books is simply as art objects or, more accurately, artist’s books. Whilst James reported that his High Peak journals were selling well he also recognised that most of his work came in as commissions for a variety of objects from laptop covers to shopping bags. It was suggested that it would be worth pursuing display in Artist’s Book exhibitions as well as his current representations in Chapel En Le Frith and Bermondsey. James also offers tours of his garden and studio and expects to be involved in the RHS Tatton 2013 Flower Show with the Creative Recycling Gallery (there are a lot of green fingers in CRITgroup it seems!)

James Sharp showcases his textile journals

Glittermouse - Mmm... 2012 - 30 x 30cm Acrylic on Canvas

Glittermouse - Mmm... 2010 - Digital image

I then attempted to wrap up quickly (so much for that!) and shared my latest painting. I explained to the group that the series had begun in 2009 with a set of digital images developed from photographs inspired by my new urban environment (having just moved from London to Manchester). The images especially looked at graffiti and explored this as a method of ‘claiming’ or ‘marking’ urban spaces (an interest which can then be linked right through to my recent work in areas of a more social practice) and were combined digitally with scans of drawings I had made during a live installation. From these I then selected four compositions which I developed into painted canvases (well, number 2 is now complete). I initially showed the group the photos of the paintings but it soon became clear that it was necessary to show the digital versions too. This then raised some interesting questions and debate around the relationship between process and outcome, how important this is to the viewer and the perception of comparative levels of skill involved in traditional and digital media. I found this quite exciting as it seemed to be the first time in the group that we’d actually unearthed some differences in opinion (very civilly conducted, it goes without saying!).

I then shared the most recent (and final) photographs from the Hulme Workshops series and briefly discussed my hopes for the future of the project before finally gathering feedback from the group on their experiences completing mocks of the proposed This Place Is booklets (another project seeking to harness interactivity and sharing to positively impact on how people feel about their environments).

The group agreed that whilst time may be a prohibitive factor in getting the booklets done, it had stimulated emotional responses, reflective thought and awareness of alternative perspectives on the chosen locations, all of which had made it a positive experience. It was also suggested that it would be a good idea to make a digital version available for greater flexibility in formatting the layout while some people would prefer a paper based approach. I’ve certainly come away with plenty to reflect on and respond to myself and while I hope to make steady progress on these projects I am also aware that it may take time to get right.

This Place Is contributions from CRITgroup members

The next CRITgroup meeting will be on May 23rd (continuing at MadLab) and I hope soon to confirm and publish the subsequent dates running up to the end of the summer. We also agreed that it would be a good idea to plan a series of topics or themes for discussion as well as potentially inviting some guest speakers so I hope to have some more news on those proposals next month.

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Second Meeting

25/1/2012

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I was particularly excited about the opportunity to meet at MadLab this month as I have attended events there before and know it as a very creatively nurturing space. It was unfortunate that not many people could make it along this evening for various (pretty good) reasons so I'm hoping that numbers pick up again soon and we can keep going. Not to start off on too much of a downer however, those of us who did attend, all left agreeing that it had been useful to meet so that's still pretty encouraging.

Tammy Leigh returned and briefly shared some developments in her range of knitted wire jewellery which involved the inclusion of semi precious stones threaded onto the wire. Following on from her presentation of some pieces made using recycled materials at the previous meeting, we spoke more about this aspect of the work. During that discussion, we arranged for her to visit my students at Tameside College next week to talk with them about using recycled materials in their own work.

I then asked people to look at some mock-ups I had made following suggestions at the previous meeting for the This Place Is book; a development from This Belongs To and a series of workshops run in Hulme. It was agreed that although I had probably done a reasonable job at being clear and concise in terms of the content, I probably hadn't allowed enough space for people to record more personal reflections. We then chatted a bit about possible tweaks to that and eventually came to the conclusion that I might in fact be looking at two projects, one formatted as booklet to hand out to people (probably locally) and eventually compiled into one volume and one printed more carefully to send further afield but to more specific locations. This seemed to make sense and I have since realised that the booklet format might also work really well in a workshop so there are more possibilities for developing those avenues too.

Juan Armellini also joined us for the first time and spoke about his experiences using blogging sites to build an online portfolio. We discussed the format of blogs as opposed to other kinds of web pages and I suggested that a blog might not be the most flexible format for his purposes. We also talked a bit about how the design of the site must 'agree' with or support the content. Having previously helped Tammy with her site, I suggested that at the next meeting I could spend a bit of time with the laptop showing people how I build mine (very simply) using a browser based system not dissimilar from many blogging sites. We agreed that might also help give the session a bit more structure so that has become the plan.

I have since spoken with the very supportive people at MadLab who have agreed we can use the space next month so we will next meet at 7pm on Wednesday February 22nd (2012) at Madlab, Manchester (36 - 40 Edge Street, Northern Quarter). We will begin with an informal sharing of practice and then for the last 30/45 minutes or so I will demonstrate how I build my website. If you fancy coming along but are not already on the mailing list, please drop me a note using the contact form on the main page and I can be sure we make time for everyone! Hope to see you there!

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CRITgroup

_Creative Reflection and Investigation Talk Group is an informal network for local artists and designers. The group meets every other month aiming to facilitate a pooling of professional skills and knowledge to provide motivation, support and social contact for those pursuing a creative (visual) practice in Manchester.

CRITgroup is an initiative organised and managed by Glittermouse.

Salad Growing by the Kai Tak River (photograph by David Haley)

David Haley presents his work

James Pashley demonstrates his new website

Final copies of This Place Is booklets

Marcelle, Annabeth and James discuss... something.

James peruses the DIY Art School prospectus

James Sharp's bunting at the Creative Recycling Gallery

Juan uses the camera

Danbo is tempted by the fresh summery snacks...

The group view the plans so far

Danbo notes the next CRITgroup meeting while the others look at maps

Kevin Linnane - Castlefield 064

James Sharp showcases his textile journals

Glittermouse - Mmm... 2012 - 30 x 30cm Acrylic on Canvas

Glittermouse - Mmm... 2010 - Digital image

This Place Is contributions from CRITgroup members

CRITgroup

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