Sometimes when I'm thinking about projects or pieces, I get so struck by the infinite clamour of possibilities that I can't move. There are moments when the sheer monumentality of the possible - even within the paucity of resources and the constraints that I impose on myself - is so overwhelming that my mind freezes.
Sometimes, the way out of this is to go and literally throw paint/words/ink, whatever onto paper and see what emerges. Other times, I just need to walk away and get out of the house. Each of these strategies has its proper place, though there's no way of knowing what's appropriate at any given moment. On other days of course, it's starkly obvious what needs to be done - all I have to do is get it done.
This bird here is one of those. I've written about the birds before. Their story is well told. But I'm forever searching for new contexts and narratives within them. The film here is an 8mm, black and white, home cine film called, rather dramatically "Bloodsucker". It's a vampire film apparently. Doesn't really matter, it could be anything. That's the nature of memory, and here's the point.
Learning is the process of establishing new memories. Processes, events, important data, sequences, directions etc. It's a lot like cramming film or tape into your head. Gradually your head fills up and as the space fills, the film gets tangled and knotted, until your head can hold no more and the tape/film spills out around your feet, tangling and tripping you, tying you down, tethering you to the spot.
This is just one iteration of this idea, and it's open enough to allow multiple readings. Perhaps the nature and specifics of the film do matter? Maybe it could be replaced by a number of different media producing several different narratives/contexts/subtexts?
Maybe... maybe... maybe... it all becomes horribly elliptical again after all.
This is a personal project that I've begun as a way of firing the synapses and motivating the mojo, banishing the procrastination and freeing myself up from conventional mundanity.
I've spoken/written a couple of times about my methodology and how it is so dramatically shaped by deeply restricted resources, and this project is another great way to explore that. So, there are some fundamental 'rules'.
- First, the aesthetics have got to be there in terms of quality.
- Second, all analogue.
- Third, NO digital!
- Fourth, some processes necessarily take a little time, such as glue drying. There's no cheating on this if I want the work to last, so some books may take longer than a day to actually produce. That means, probably several books on the go at one time. The object is to get a book produced, photographed and online at least once a day - for as long as I can maintain... If the project goes a week, I'll be chuffed!
- Fifth, edition where possible.
All of the books made under the aegis of the project will be available for sale on the site here, and you can follow my progress on INSTAGRAM and TWITTER.
Sometimes when I'm thinking about projects or pieces, I get so struck by the infinite clamour of possibilities that I can't move. There are moments when the sheer monumentality of the possible - even within the paucity of resources and the constraints that I impose on myself - is so overwhelming that my mind freezes.
Learning is the process of establishing new memories. Processes, events, important data, sequences, directions etc. It's a lot like cramming film or tape into your head. Gradually your head fills up and as the space fills, the film gets tangled and knotted, until your head can hold no more and the tape/film spills out around your feet, tangling and tripping you, tying you down, tethering you to the spot.
This is just one iteration of this idea, and it's open enough to allow multiple readings. Perhaps the nature and specifics of the film do matter? Maybe it could be replaced by a number of different media producing several different narratives/contexts/subtexts? 
