Cuttlefish Blog
I presented a short paper and demonstrated the latest version of my "I See You" artwork at the UK Systems Society in Oxford last week. If you are interested in reading the paper then e-mail me at seanc@cuttlefish.com and I can send you a copy. The abstract of the paper is shown below:
The Digital Artwork As System
Sean Clark
School of Art and Design, De Montfort University
Can an artwork be seen as a system and can a system be an artwork? What is necessary for an artist to be able to manipulate a complex of interacting elements in such a way that result can be considered art? Additionally, is it useful to bring ‘systems theory’ to the creation and interpretation of art? This introductory paper examines these issues and introduces a systems-oriented approach used in the creation and appraisal of the authors own digital art work. The approach is supported with an analysis of the artwork “I See You”, a digital installation created by the author that constructs itself using images of the people who interact with it.
Shambala is the perfect small festival. Creative, lots of smaller bands to discover, free of corporate sponsorship and plenty of great food and drink! As I have done for a few years now, I contributed laser projections to Modulate's area in the "Wilderness Woodlands". See my pictures from the weekend here on Flickr.
I went on a bit of a break to Derbyshire this weekend and took a few panoramic photographs of stone circles using the Autostitch App on the iPhone. The results were pretty good.
Leicester's music festival Summer Sundae celebrated its 10th birthday in 2010. A typically varied line-up included both new and established artists such as Mumford and Sons, Stornaway, The Woodentops, The Fall and Tinchy Stryder. Despite being a rather wet weekend, it was a great event as per usual - and at least you could go indoors in to De Montfort Hall to get away from the mud!
The best bit, of course, was Cuttlefish's iPhone App for the event :-) The feedback from users of the App was great and over 1,200 music fans downloaded it in little over a week. It's still in the App store if you want to have a look.
Pictures form the weekend can be found here.
Another Summer Sundae means another Summer Sundae Fringe. Cuttlefish has helped organise this festival for five years now and this year we also ran a series of events at Fabrika in Leicester for the week before the main festival. The highlight of the Fringe is, of course, Fringe Thursday where we organise 9 events around the city with open top buses connecting them. This year the Thursday helped raise over £5,000 for local hospice charity LOROS.
Pictures from the Fringe Thursday event at Fabrika can be found here.
Thanks to those who attended and performed at Stenchival this year. Pictures and videos from the event can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seancuttlefish/sets/72157624675178312/
Sat 7th August to Sun 8th August, 2010 @ The Independent Arts Centre, Leicester
7th / 8th August 2010
The Second Annual Stenchival.
Join us for a weekend of experimental music, performance and digital arts at Fabrika Independent Art Organisation (on Humberstone Gate, Leicester). There will be multimedia installations in the café from local artists, plus workshops and two nights of great music and visuals.
See http://www.stench.org.uk/ for more information.
Saturday 7th August
1pm - 6pm - Exhibition
Exhibition of work from local multimedia artists.
Entry - FREE
2pm - 6pm - Atari Fuzz Console Workshop
Electronics workshop with Stu Smith (A.S.M.O)
Build your own stepped tone generator with in built fuzz/distortion, a self contained noise instrument. Limited to 12 places.
Entry £15 (includes entry to evening show) + £8 for materials
8pm - 1pm - Bathysphere/PVC Present
Auxilec - http://www.myspace.com/steveauxilec
Threep - http://www.myspace.com/threepspace
James Kelly - http://www.myspace.com/minimaljames
Myoptik - http://www.myspace.com/myoptik
Roy of the Ravers - http://www.myspace.com/royoftheravers3000
Entry £6
Sunday 8th August
1pm - 6pm - Exhibition
Exhibition of work from local multimedia artists.
Entry - FREE
3pm - 6pm - VJ Workshop
VJ Workshop with Tony Coleman (theLAB), VJ Bridd (theLAB), Tempus, Sean Clark (Cuttlefish). Learn about producing live visuals from professional VJs. Bring your laptop (Mac or PC).
Entry £15 (includes entry to evening show)
8pm - 12midnight - Electronic Umbrella.
Triax - Live electronics and hurdy-gurdy.
Ferret & Badger - Electronic percussion, electronics and guitar.
Synchropha - Voices, electronics, and cello.
Bridge - Theremin, voices, bass, samples, & electronics.
Qwire - Improvised choir with and without electronic treatments.
Memory Wire - Systemic and ambient duo.
Entry £6
Weekend ticket £30. Includes entry to both workshops (limited places available) and evening shows.
E-mail Sean Clark on seanc@cuttlefish.com to book workshop places or to buy advance tickets by PayPal, or you pay on the door (subject to availability).
Part of the Summer Sundae Fringe Festival
http://www.summersundaefringe.com/
See http://www.stench.org.uk/ for more information.
Friday 16th July 2010 saw Sawako (pictured) and Annelie Nederberg play at St Nicholas' church in Leicester. Sawako is on 12k Recordings and plays lush soundscapes with haunting vocals. Annelie Nederberg is a DMU graduate who samples live vocalisations to create complex sounds and audio structures. Both performed excellently and suited the venue extremely well. I provided lighting for the event and produced some video and pictures. The event was put on by Bathysphere.
I got to see Julian Cope play at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham! I don't think he's toured much recently (or maybe I keep missing him) so it was good to get to see the Arch Drude in the flesh. He played a real mixture of songs from his Teardrop Explode days, though the classic Jehovahkill/Peggy Suicide phase and his more recent Black Sheep stuff. He was on top form, with plenty of banter between songs a new hat (apparently).
I'm just back from a two week course at Schumacher College in Devon. The course was entitled "Creativity, Perception and the Modern Mind" and was taught by artist Peter Adams and system theorist Fritjof Capra with a guest appearance from Iain McGilchrist (author of 'The Master and His Emissary').
As with my first visit to the college last year, it was a very enlightening experience. The lectures - with Fritjof talking about the science of Leonard Da Vinci, and Peter talking about his own creative practice - presented a view on the processes and practice of creativity and its connection to the living Earth. Both lecturers offered views which helped me think out my own creative work and it's wider contextualisation. Plus, talking to other members of the Faculty has given me a number of ideas for new artworks.
Schumacher is a truly special place. As well as the unique courses it offers, you also get to spend time enjoying the surroundings, cooking tasty food, talking with other course members and generally helping out around the college. For me it's a real creative treat and, despite having a stinking cold for much of my visit, is somewhere I get to recharge and reflect.
P.S. I took the picture just after a rainstorm. It's amazing how something as fragile as a dandelion can survive such a downpour!
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