These apples are in the artemiss collection. I decided after yesterday that I've not really looked or interacted with the stuff in the collection its more the idea of the stuff being there rather than what it is- it's meta -stuff. So if I deconstruct my thinking and feelings about objects as becomings perhaps all the objects in the Artemiss collection are lost as they have no recorded provinence - perhaps this is what Benjamin means bv ritual. When we scored the stuff on the aura pro-forma it seemed to be about the point where the object meets the self the moment of interaction the material and the mental or as me and Kate now call it in honour of plane language the thoughts and the stuff. I spent many nights cutting up apples to try and teach my daughter about fractions. I once cut an apple into 56 equal pieces these apples have more aura for me because they remind me of this so I give them more value - do we have to make ourselves into psudo scietist and disregard the emotional or is this work about plotting the space between the personal and the outside. The inner and outer spaces and our relationship to the physical world through physical stuff. I collect stuff which I think may come in handy in the hope this will make me usefull.

sticks for moving cows

hello , i have just returned from leeds and a day with steve, which was good, we discussed many things and looked at aura scoring, which made me glad i dont do science and stats and maths properly and all the time. Although in a doing it under the guise of a "bit of what you fancy" as steve and i have now unoffically called the project, it seems ok. I really enjoyed thinking and talking about this and feel that its helped me, although i cant tell you how just yet, as i cant put it into words.
Steve accused me of being cagey of talking about my work -which is not true, i think, more its a case of not quite knowing how to say it, and also until its further on than it is at the moment, i cant tell you.
What i am trying to do though is listen properly when steve is talking about his work, think and then respond , but maybe not at that moment but later, on here or wherever. I like to listen to others this helps alot in my thinking, although i realise it could mean i do alot of listening and not much saying, so i have to watch for that.
But anyway i have put up a new photo. I was reading the blog and realised kate and steve had said what they like and are interested in regard to objects so i thought i would say what i am interested in; both in a non cagey and a this is my thing kinda way. so here goes - i like objects where the narrative does not drive the object. Where the meaning , form , function, are all equal, nothing is more important than the other. Which allows for the viewer to place his thing on it and read / take whatever. Which then is kinda what kate was saying about it being just stuff. Although obvioulsy i make a selection and put together a collection so i do manipulate this also. Its also in the ambiguity, the potential, the possibleness that the object offers through the three fold form, function, meaning being equal together. i also like the ingenious objects that have grown out of a implicated relationship, out of dwelling. i could go on but maybe for another time.

Also currently still thinking about measuring and man as measure. although got to get my head around him not being the dominant elemant in the relationship to the outcome of his measuring, so in fact its an implicated act blaaaaaaaaaaaaaah....................stopping .

wheel barrow

Tim wants a wheelbarrow. at leeds fest people dragged their belongings around on blankets they were like wheeless wheelbarrows or perhaps just barrows. Done a lot of thinking over the past few days mostly about images and objects and I keep going back to an earlier idea about strippping away physical context and provenance. I am going to spend next week experimenting and try and produce something with the leeds fest stuff for discussion next week.

Our Blog

Just looked back over the Blog and really like it. I have had a day clearing out all my shelves and emptying files of long dead projects. It sort of makes you feel happy to be rid of the junk but sad that you made such a good job of recording every aspect of everything because at some point someone suggested doing a case study but really all they wanted was a couple of soundbites saying how the arts had changed their lives and how everybody had really enjoyed it.

Anyway can't afford to be cynical so early in the year. I'm on the brink of deciding to revise my sausage egg chips and beans to a full English breakfast. this is triggered partly by the fact that Barney suggests we will have to cast individual beans but mainly by the idea of a full English breakfast been a thing people only eat in artificial situations like hotels or greasy spoons also it's the only breakfast which you can get "All Day" which is so directly link to breakfast as a meal that it can't become lunch or tea - the medium is the message it's a signifier which is not changed by temperol shift even late night after eight pints a breakfast bap from greasy vera's still remains breakfast. Actually I think it was about 4 am when I ate that so I suppose it was breakfast. So an iconic meal for an icon plus the fact it will be much easier to make which links to what I was saying about actually having to make something and when your directly involved in the materialisation of the materiality the judgements you make are affected by a different set of value choices.

Following on from

Kate's father's wheelbarrow, here is my grandfather's wheelbarrow.
He must have made it in the 1950's, and he painted it marroon which was his colour for everything he made.
I am interested in Kate's post about objects being 'the thing itself, just stuff' but am puzzled as to how she removes the stories from the artefacts.

Back to work

Had an interesting weekend at leeds fest. I collected loads of stuff and took around 300 pictures with my new wide format camera which is like a normal camera with extra bits on the side. The whole experience made me think about praxis as so many things came up around the individual objects or artefacts I chose to pick up in the field which I wouldn't hjave thought about in theory. I questioned methodology a lot but decided that the main thing was that I didn't try and do psudo comtemporary archeology or material culture study or contempory collecting so stuff like lables and dates and times and specemen bags didn't seem right but I did start to photograph everything in situe at the moment of it's collection which seems really obvious now but felt like a revelation at the time. So I have a box of things a chunk of memories and loads of photoes - all visual no interveiws no sound no personal reflection - I'm going to think about the space between all this stuff and the positioning of the artist and individual experience in the re-presentation of the event in a form which could be used within the artemis collection and possibly ask if this could evolve into a stand alone piece of work outside the structure of the artemis remit.

just stuff

was at artemis this week , looking and taking photos it was fab, empty and they are so nice and helpful.
i like how there is sucha detachment from these objects, no romance or fetish-ising [sic?] its "just a load of stuff', they have a practical relationship with the items, just like us on the farm, the value is in the use for schools and therefore job or related use with regard to past jobs such as delivery drivers previous life as engineer. im interested in this, when do we begin the romance, how does it start? Was listening to interesting program on radio 4 about value and how we could / neeed to use differetnt rational and criteria for valueing things -they were comparing the thames estuary with stonehenge - in the end stonehenge won, !!!!! but i was wondering that is it just because we know its man made a monument a symbol of continuiuty and we are connected somehow to it that it becomes more imortant, than something we had a hand in but really it does its own thing?