No excuses, I've just not done this for ages. I've been enjoying tweeting much more. Probably since I now own an iPhone, where it seems somehow easier to be more immediate. I've still to work out a way to transfer some of the enthusiasm I feel for that to this place. Other than that - a quick round up and reminder (mainly to self) of what's been going on. Lately, Future Everything. Not the conference this year, but gigs and art and eating and drinking with friends from across the UK. Definite highlight was Konono No.1. I've wanted to see them for a long time, and it was a surprisingly small and un-packed gig. The exhibition Serendipity City included some great work: to name a few - Eyewriter, No. 207 by Rana Begum, Jon Rafman's Google Street Views, and of course the Open Sailing project, which if I've not mentioned before, then I should have done. Also, another exhibition, Cu took me to the unlikely venue of The Palace Hotel's basement bar. The hypnotic Death Calls the Tune by Lab Binaer was a definite highlight for me - a record player armed with a UV LED and glowpainted surface, which was activated by an RSS feed of headlines. There was a film screening too - and a reminder of how amazing John Smith's Blight is, with a soundtrack by Jocelyn Pook. I was annoyed to miss the discussion at Castlefield about art and media, but it will apparently be online soon, so at least I can marry up the twitter comments with what happened in retrospect. More blogging on Future Everything here.
The reason I didn't see everything I wanted to in Manchester was because I was also in London for meetings, but also to see No Soul For Sale at Tate Modern.
It was a celebratory event (Tate Modern has been open for 10 years), which has been met with some criticism. Not sure I would agree with this, but then I was in the position of being able to chat to lots of people who I knew, and who were given a square of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall floorspace to display their wares. Black Dogs' pub was brilliant to hear about.
Their idea arose out of considering their environment for the few days in residence in the Turbine Hall, and to display the pieces that they'd been working on for the event. They weren't allowed to serve beer, but I admired their desire to create a cosy relaxed corner nonetheless.
Oh and before all this, I was at the second National Photography Symposium. I had a great time. I was working, but also felt like I was not. It was brilliant to meet and remeet people who I communicate with all the time (by email and twitter mainly), and rarely get to hang out with. Being in Derby and at Quad was a treat, as was learning and working with all sorts of people who know an extreme amount of stuff about photography and all of the issues that surround it. Rut Blees Luxemburg gave the closing keynote, using 35mm slides, in an auditorium that had to be completely dark. Hence the dark photo, but you kind of get the idea. Her works glowed appropriately.
(If I haven't mentioned this before, I work for Redeye when I'm not doing research. They are a photography network, based in Manchester.)
In other conference news, I also bit the bullet, cheated the ash plume, and went to Brussels by air.
(This is Dover harbour, I think. And a bit of plane.)
Brussels sems to be a tiny city bursting with a great sense of identity; I liked being there very much. The conference, Institutional Attitudes was surprising and sometimes baffling, but gave me food for thought for my own research, which was as good a result as I could have expected.
And then there was the small matter of an election, and today, news of new cultural policies on the horizon ... no wonder I haven't been sitting down to write... Now, I've not done any of these complex events justice, or even written about them in a chronological order, but at least I've gathered all these links in one place. Anyway, I'm so late doing this, everyone else has written tons about them all already.
