On the point of art

WHAT IS A CAREER?



You’re doing what Shakespeare and Picasso did, right?

No, your work is nothing like theirs. And, it shouldn’t be.

But you are doing what they do in that they believe in their worthiness enough, at least enough, to pursue an art form and create something an inherent message that art itself – beyond just my own – is important and valuable and not solely defined by others and brilliant by itself. Who is society to judge your own individual struggle? (Not your business, as you are not, personally, their business, either). Are the critics always right? (No).

You can’t have a career in ‘making money’ or ‘being successful’. However much you try. Your career is your pursuit of becoming better at something. A process, a service, creating products. The only thing under your control is the work itself, your intelligence and your energy and time management – and how you promote and project yourself to others who want to see your work. You put things out there? Wow. Celebrate your bravery. Don’t get even, get better, anyway.

The rest? It’s out of our control.

Careers    ,

Brighton street art



Brighton’s street art. Most from Kensington st.

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Artistry    ,

Hoxton’s own Russell Brand



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Artistry, Current Affairs    , , ,

Chance Gallery: Little City Observationist exhibition



The little things in London, often missed by tourists, are a treat when viewed through the eyes – or, lens – of Stephanie Sadler. Her best photos (18 of them) make up her first solo exhibition ‘Little City Observations’ at The Chance Gallery, 123 Sydney Street, Kensington.

See it now until 17 November!

Photo by Vanessa Fergus

Photo by Vanessa Fergus

 

 

Stephanie is the Little City Observationist. The exhibition features photos from her blog Little London Observationist, with some photos from abroad too. A New Yorker artist and blogger, she’s called London her home since 2007 and been on a mission to seek out ‘the little things’ on her travels around the world, for her photography and her award-winning (Top Expat Blog Great Britain via Internations, Top Blog England via Go Overseas, one of the World’s Best Travel Blogs via Travel Onion, etc) blog. She’s started a new one recently to capture other cities, too.

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The launch party on Monday was wonderful. The balance of black and white, and colour, photography is laid out with optimum space for appreciation and mingling in the bright little gallery, and the photos themselves have a distinctive style. Consistent with the focus of the blog, I got a real sense of the limitless possibilities of art, street art, blogging, fashion and design across the divides of London.

I caught Stephanie amid mingling and she was a lovely ray of sunshine as a host, and her love for London and art is clear.

Stephanie on the left

Stephanie on the left

 

Two interesting things strike me about the exhibition.

First, it’s an original and inspired exhibition of the quirks and unusual spots in London, and she has a distinctive style. The consistent blogging has led to a self-made success story purely through dedication, love of Londoners, and she’s a lovely person.

Second, she is clearly genuinely inspired by the city around her and the blog, and the exhibition, gives a real sense of the random mix jumbled together in this vast and varied city. Like her post of 35 Londoners.

It helped me remember why I love it here so much, despite getting caught up in the struggles of life, as we often do, since I came back from New Zealand in 2009.

Have a look and it’ll make you see London in a new way.

 

Two glasses of wine - and LLO cupcakes!

Two glasses of wine – and LLO cupcakes!

Exhibition was funded via Kickstarter.

 

 

 

Blogging, Current Affairs, Photographers, Photography    , , , ,

The Lost Lectures & Ectetera Theatre, November 2013



The Lost Lectures: Big Fight Live

Price: £27-50.

7pm, Friday, 22 Nov + Saturday, 23 Nov

The Lost Lectures 2013’s finale ‘Big Fight Live’

In 1920s boxing spectacle style, see six cultural heavyweights fight for their ideas in The Lost Lectures 2013’s season finale. This culmination of ‘Enchanting Talks from Secret Locations’ – taking lectures out of corporate halls and into secret, incredible spaces – features an immersive experience of inspiring talks, live music and a BIG fight (with a twist: beat boxing or chess boxing). The first night features Hadyn Parry, James Freedman, Caroline Criado-Perez, Susie Lau (aka Susie Bubble), Jasper Gibson and Reeps One, the beat boxer extraordinaire. The second night features Ruby Wax, Lauren Pears, Simon Baron-Cohen, Paul Steele, a mystery Lost Speaker (submit your idea by 7 Nov and you could be that speaker!) and Tim Woolgar, who will host the Chess Boxing. Live-streamed for the first time, with rap battles from top UK hip hop artists, rambunctious art installations and colourful characters, this finale will be an unforgettable fight.

General Admission.

Secret Location – announced to ticket holders

http://www.thelostlectures.com/events/

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Night, A Wall, Two Men

Price: £12 (£10 conc.).

9:30pm, Tuesday – Saturday, 19-23 Nov

8:30pm, Sunday, 24 Nov

9:30pm, Tuesday – Saturday, 26-30 Nov

8:30pm, Sunday, 1 Dec

Homeless and nameless; bleak and funny play at Etcetera Theatre

Two nameless, homeless men (played by Donal Cox and John Eastman) are companions who meet at a wall out of habit, but as the hour-long stage play unfolds it becomes clear there are other walls between them. Their bickering and reminiscing reveals their two very different and potentially irreconcilable attitudes to their harsh reality. Multi-ward-winning playwright Daniel Keene highlights the surprising dignity and humanity found in two men living on the edge, with a production that is bleakly funny, sometimes uncomfortable but always gives truthful, spot-on social commentary relevant to the current issues of austerity and survival.

General Admission. Over 16s only.

Etcetera Theatre

http://www.etceteratheatre.com/

Creativity    , , , , ,

The Argus & why it annoyed me



Picked up The Argus on Wed, Oct 30, 2013. I know it’s an easy target, but here’s my scoff:

The Argus: News, Sport, Brighton and Hove Albion and Entertainment for Brighton, Hove and Sussex.

= News, Sport, Brighton and Hove Albion and Entertainment for Brighton, Hove and Sussex.

The front page news? The weather.

The storm that wasn’t. Also, green spaces under threat. There’s no story on the front to be continued, just two headlines that don’t say anything newsworthy. Maybe there’s no news today…

… Except, it’s the day before Halloween.

I just walked down the road and found Brighton, the UK’s top arts and culture city (besides London?), is holding Halloween parties, themes and do’s of some sort in every single venue, pub, and anything else. With a bit of active research, I could come up with at least three distinctive local-daily-news stories related to the exciting night ahead, pictures of Brighton’s streets and décor, interviews with venues, hosts, and chuck in a scary local resident. To be lazy, I could also wax lyrical on Breaking Bad via the inevitable proliferation of Breaking Bad themed Halloween parties.

The front page headline is not even a news piece about the weather; it’s the opinion piece about the weather.

An opinion writer – the last of a dying species of opinion writers actually still paid to fill the endangered territory of a local newspaper double spread – has used his space to write that the weather was not worth the writing. Nihilistic and self-defeating dribble about journalism itself that got his opinion onto the front page: “These feelings of unease were made worse by newspapers such as the Express, which delight in doom-laden weather predictions.”

So where is the breaking news, the daily news, the local news? Page 2 is a national story about the Royal Mail where the only connection seems to be the fact there’s a post office in Brighton; well done. Page 3 seems to be a game of how many fish-related puns – haddock-enough? – can fit into one plaice (sorry) in a story about a fish-and-chip owner who retired. A month ago.

Page 4-5 is ‘Your News’. I’m sure this is a much-cherished feature of The Argus but in practice it means the first actual up-to-date news the local newspaper reader comes across is written by residents, not journalists.

And then: The prominent feature about Kickstarter.

In which, three local projects are cited, fair enough; but these projects aren’t the mainstay of the article. Nothing, absolutely nothing, pertains to anything local until at least two thirds of the way into a double page feature in a local newspaper. The first two thirds give the impression that desperate, confused journalists just Googled their way through and cobbled together a quick collection of speculation and figures without any interested, specialist knowledge – or the inclination to interview anyone to obtain some. This is evident from their cited example of the games console Ouya as a ‘notable success’ on Kickstarter but this project has actually been a catastrophe in every sense of the word.

The Argus has a Twitter feed but they didn’t use it, despite Twitter being the prominent social media used to promote Kickstarter projects.But I can think a couple of Brighton projects off the top of my head I have passively seen via my Twitter feed, despite the fact my feed is based in London. (Reason: Brighton is an arts hub. Does The Argus know that?).

I just found three Brighton projects that are worth much more than a squashed mention at the end of the feature, via a 5 second Twitter search (clue: ‘Kickstarter’ + ‘Brighton’): Playing With Fear, Kollektiv’s First Ever Gallery, and CAT SKIN. These three have something unique about them which I could ascertain from just an interested glimpse.

Current Affairs, Journalists    , , ,

Joyously melancholic Thermoluminescence’s new album



Will (right) and Adam (left)

Will (left) and Adam (right)

Just a couple of kids jamming in bedrooms, Thermoluminescence have released their shockingly good ambient electronica album- TODAY!

Entirely self-produced and two years in the making, DISCODISCODISCODISCO is fantastic. “Joyously melancholic” is an apt description from a friend of theirs, and this strong album fearlessly juxtaposes amazing ambience, uplifting and catchy tunes and eerie yet calming ups and downs. I’d recommend it for a Halloween house or dinner party, rather than a club. The songs are so distinct they made me want to dance, hum, and concentrate at different times. I imagine their first live shows, planned for early 2014, will be epic and transportive, and they have a pop edge.

But, not that kind of pop edge. Adam has articulate views on the competitive nature of music a la X Factor: “The competition thing is just really ugly and weird. Pitting artists against each other,” he says, “A release from Sony and a release from EMI are going to be directly competing for sales if they’re released in the same week, and that’s really weird to me. Art really isn’t a competition, so to boil it down to number of sales, number of awards, and number of twitter followers is a bizarre way to approach an art form. We’re not really part of that whole thing if we choose to stay out of it.”

Adam Glasspool was originally doing alt rock music in bands when he developed his “stupid little side project to get rid of the more experimental music things I had in my head.” Unexpectedly, his second album, a free download, took off and he, and band mate Will Bowles, started to talk about record labels, “but we were worried about the level of creative control we could maintain,” he says.

“We have a pretty counter intuitive approach to how ‘big’ we want to become as a band. I can’t imagine a record label would be too happy with the idea of limited growth. So I hastily set up a record label – Poles Apart Records to release stuff on – just to make it official. We were thinking about the future too, especially in regards to control over our own music. Right now we can pick where we’d like to go for album number four and how long it will take us to get there.”

Thermoluminescence, made up of experimental 20-somethings Adam Glasspool and Will Bowles, are a band with a clear idea of where they want to go – and no further, if it means selling out their independence and passion. They are a fine – and sweetly humble – example of awesome art from today’s entrepreneurial creative generation, and my favourite quotation ever:

“The first step – especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money – the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.” – Chuck Palahniuk

Thermoluminescence create music for the pure love of it, if I have judged the incredible, brave freedom of this album correctly. I like most songs yet every song is different, it sent chills down my spine, made me want to dance, and inspired me to work, all at once. My personal favourite is Stop Worrying – it simply had me grooving before I even stopped to appreciate its complexity and deft key changes and mood shifts. Round+Round has a music video on youtube today – watch it!

Adam admits he has evolved, from making “shitty dance music on my own” to a self-assured duo with Will with great music videos and plans for the live shows. “I know I’m more proud of this album than I have anything I have ever done,” he says.

Download the full album at  http://thermoluminescence.bandcamp.com and pre-order the CD with bonus music and full artwork exlusives for January 2014.

I’m going to their show – you coming?

Music, Musicians    , , ,

Arts or technology: Worth a degree?



This five minute debate on technology vs. Arts degrees is weak on the side of the arts. Against Belinda Parmar, campaigning tech agency Lady Geek’s CEO, the Guardian art critic Adrian Searle often resembles a rabbit in the headlights. He says he couldn’t bear a world full of technocrats and I would like to develop that thought.

It is not just technology that is important, and it is certainly not the most important advance for society, despite the financial and career rewards at the moment. Logically, a world focused on developing technology leaves less room for the ideas, visions and – if you like – soul, behind them. Think human and machine: Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, or I Robot. Amazing films. I studied them at University and learned about the ideas and moral questions of technology. I wonder if you learn as much about the arts when you study technology.

Films that belong with the arts and the arts are where philosophy and how to live and morals are truly debate and grow, by the people who study, love and invest in the arts. Technology certainly does enhance the arts, but I say there is no point to technology without the arts. Study of the arts (and I don’t just mean through a University, of course) are there for that purpose, and that is what they are worth. Technology may well provide fantastic career options, but I gained an arts degree for the purpose of a career and to nurture and appreciate myself, the world, and the stories of life.

Careers, Critique, Current Affairs    , ,

Scribblings of success



What can you do well in front of hostile strangers? What do you keep doing even when there is no room for you in that world?

There is no drive when it is easy. And it is easy to find fault with your work, but it’s not easy to stand up and be proud of what you’ve done when no one else understands and thinks much of it. Who do you choose to hang out with – and how can you serve these people? How receptive are they, to what you do? If they aren’t appreciative, what other groups of people might be?

Success isn’t about creating inherently good things. It’s about putting work in front of the harshest judges, to pitch and deliver your best and aim bigger and better than that, and do it now because what’s unrealistic now will be realistic later. Pain is a fire you grow through and where there is pain, there is growing up, and strength in the torn muscles, and when your comfort zone and your friends are no longer around, how do you survive?

Artistry, Creativity    ,

Snippets from my play (1)



These are a couple of snippets that were taken out of the play I am writing “Life, Death and Journalism”.

It’s in the second-third draft stage and needs work.

Jack is a journalist encouraged to resign by his editor after his own existential crisis on the point of journalism, and these are some of his doubts.

 

“So why are we doing this? Isn’t life more important than the barrage of news and words about news and everyone trying to get their by-line to the story first – where is enjoyment and art for art’s sake and play in all this? No one has time to even appreciate how tough it is to write quality, perfect stories and a badly written story is just as good anyway, all those writers craft in their rooms and for what? There is no stage for the countless hours of practising writing, just more lonely writing, it’s not like the hours spent practising Jimi Hendrix in his bedroom to play the guitar. Music is more enjoyable to listen to than reading harsh news.”

 

                              It’s just words, endless, unnecessary verbiage

                        Erudite and intellectual articulation of issues

                        That no one has time for

                        I don’t understand why people would consciously choose

                        To leisurely read the handpicked most painful, deliberately provocative,

                        Stories of today’s messy and stupid humanity

                        Crafted into a product and broadcast to masses of people

Journalists, Play, Writers    , ,
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