Karen O’Leary: Cut-Out Maps

via coolhunting.com

Charlotte, NC-based artist Karen O’Leary reimagines the map as an exchange of negative and positive space. Deftly cutting maps of New York, Paris and London with razor precision, she leaves delicate webs of streets as land and water are cut away. Negative space demarcates land, while meandering grids of paper represents streets. In a recent interview with The Jailbreak, O’Leary said of her work, “I love the idea of a completely familiar object made new and even more beautiful.”

I have always been fascinated by maps, and these lacy depictions of real places showing just the roads are captivating to look at.

Posted via web from Pete Gilbert

Self-hacked products: The arduino makes it possible – Core77

via core77.com

On their website, UK industrial design firm Tinker. it! promotes the arduino, a credit-card-sized circuit board laden with sockets and sold by Tinker Tools. What does this little thing do? Well, that depends on you, really–the arduino is aimed at the physical hacker/tinkerer set.

[The arduino] comes with a series of sockets into which tinkerers can plug light or motion sensors and a similar set for plugging whatever gadget they want to control into. Using a laptop, the arduino can be told what to do when a particular event happens – for example, when a motion sensor is triggered, it powers up a motor.

Look at any recent electronic art installation and the chances are that behind the scenes there’s an arduino. In fact, [Tinker. it! co-founder Alexandra] Deschamps-Sonsino believes more than 100,000 arduino boards have now been sold around the world, although it is difficult to give an exact figure – in keeping with the open ethos of the movement, plans are available that allow people to make their own.

Posted via web from Pete Gilbert

INSIDE OUTSIDE Exhibition – call for artists

If you are an artist living in the Bristol area you might be interested in an exhibition that is being held at the Grant Bradley Gallery in Bedminster. Organised by Southbank Bristol Arts, and running from 10 October until 15 November 2008, artists are invited to submit work in all media in response to the idea of ‘Outside’. The deadline for entries is 5pm on 12 September 2008. Entry forms can be found on the SBA website.

sba arts trail – call for artists

Are you an artist/photographer/maker? Do you produce stuff and wish that you could show it off or even better, sell it to people? Do you live in South Bristol, or know someone who does? Do you want to be part of a great weekend of arts events and activities?

Well the next event that SBA is organising is the 2008 Arts Trail on 10 and 11 May 2008. The forms needed to join in can be found on the Arts Trail page of the SBA web site or the Downloads and documents page (under Taking part on the menus). Don’t delay – register now for this event, as the deadline is soon! (21 February 2008).

To take part all you need is a venue in South Bristol. If you don’t live in South Bristol some of the larger venues may still have space, the sooner you join the better as they fill up quite quickly. Joining the SBA is easy and costs £15, that money gets you an entry in the brochure as well as space on the SBA website (http://sbaweb.co.uk) which includes a blog area and an entry in the listing for the Arts Trail 2008.

Many people who have started from arts trails have gone on to bigger things. Several people I know who have taken part in past trails now have studios of their own and sell into recognised galleries.

So join now and be part of this exciting community event. We are looking of volunteers to help organise the Arts Trail too. If you have skills you think might be useful and want to help out, email communication@sbaweb.co.uk.

my online strategy for 2008

Well, it’s actually going to be my overall strategy for 2008, but anyway, here goes. 2007 has been an odd year for me, with the defining factor being that I haven’t had enough money to get by. That means all kinds of things I wanted to do I couldn’t, or had to cut back on. Like photography. I haven’t had a 35mm film developed since April. And the SX-70 has not been out of the cupboard all year. That is a crying shame. I had to drop my Flickr pro account. And this blog nearly went out the window, until I shuffled some stuff to keep it online. It is still costing me too much but it is such a central part of what I do know it would be almost impossible to give it up. So its stays. But even though the financial situation hasn’t improved, I am determined that it is not going to alter my ability to plan for the year ahead. With the above in mind, my strategies for next year will be:

1. More art. I let my creative side dry up a bit last year, mostly because of lack of cash for materials and lack of time to do stuff in. Not in 2008. I am going to find the money from somewhere. Art is part of how I define myself, its part of me. I find it hard to stop being creative and if I don’t make something, anything for a while I start to lose it a bit. So I am going to spend more time taking photos, drawing, making sculptures, looking at sunsets, daydreaming and generally doing all the things I haven’t been doing. I am now Chair of the South(bank) Bristol Arts, so I suppose I ought to be producing some art. I have started working on a sculpture. And I ought to do some more work on that book I started drawing for.
2. I want to develop this blog so that it is more personal. I think it need more of me and my life here, it seems a little impersonal sometimes. So it will get a makeover sometime soon, with a new focus, me, possibly a new name and a new identity. I want to blog more so expect more of a story here about what goes on in my life.
3. Social networking. 2007 saw me using Twitter and Jaiku and Pownce and Facebook and Ning, and, well, you get the message. Seemed to be a tidal wave of social networks. Some have fallen out of use somewhat, but Twitter and Facebook seem to be very important. So I will continue to use social network tools, although I feel that I ought to cut back a bit. And I need to concentrate again on Ning. Going to further develop my microbrand!
4. Technology. Going to continue working on SharePoint 2007 at work, and I expect that is going to grow even more in the next year to take up even more of my time. I don’t want the technology to take over so much next year, so I am going to play down the tech side in my life, although will still blog about it here to get it out of my system.

So that’s it. More talking, more art, more focus. Seems easy, but as a wise man once said "no plan survives contact with the enemy" so it might get watered down somewhat as the year progresses. Happy 2008 to you.

standing for chair of the sba

At the last SBA steering meeting quite a lot of people announced that they would step down, at least for the next year, from the SBA steering group. This leaves a vacuum that feels quite ominous, and there were suggestions that unless key positions were filled at the AGM, maybe the trail next year should or could not go ahead. At that meeting I proposed that I stand for vice-chair, and suggestions were made that it was not ambitious enough. I have therefore thought long and hard about this and have decided that I would like to run for chair of the SBA at the AGM. My credentials? Well, apart from running the SBA website team for the last two (wow, nearly three) years and attending every steering group meeting in that time, I have been involved in managing large to medium scale projects for about fifteen years at UWE. This has, of course, been in the IT field, but my background is as a graphic designer, where I was involved in several large projects. As an artist I have also been keen to evolve my own work, which has resulted in some medium term projects. So I’ve got a lot of experience of how to get from point A to point B and what it takes resource wise to get there.

So, some of my thoughts as we look forward are as follows: It is possible to hold an Arts Trail in May 2008. We have the skills and experience to do so, if we concentrate on the essentials. The essential part is the Art Trail itself, and all of the major elements are well known and describable (is that a word?) on a timeline. This then allows us to work backwards with a set of goals and targets that we will need to meet to achieve our aim of delivering a trail in May 2008. The key milestones are well understood, and most could be achieved without regular meetings if there was a reliable reporting mechanism from the people doing the work to the steering committee. Although this is possible, I do think we need the monthly meetings to keep continuity.

So to pick up on some of the themes discussed at the last meeting, and some that have surfaced since, my proposed goals for the SBA for the next year to 18 months would be:

• Hold an Arts Trail in May 2008 (100% do-able)
• Expand links with other organisations in the South Bristol Area e.g.
  • St. John’s Churchyard (via scda)
  • Former Ashton Court Festival organisation (they are interested in organising some performance events)
• Investigate expansion into other areas of South Bristol or become a charity or similar to evolve the organisation. Dave Morgan-Davies has volunteered to act as “consultant” to look into the viability of this. Sarah Gibby has expressed an intent to stand as vice chair, and is keen to explore the viability of morphing the SBA into a charitable organisation (at present it is a voluntary non-profit organisation).
  • As a sub project, possibly drop the “bank” from Southbank to become South Bristol Arts.

I am keen to move the SBA towards a greater role in South Bristol, particularly with the expansion of new housing in the area to the south of where we now operate. I think it is a great opportunity to reach out and bring the arts to an area that previously would not have access to it. With our newly identified brands (Arts Trail and SBA) we should be able to make a distinction between the roles that each can play in this expansion. As part of the drive to make things more professional, I am proposing that we take a more project driven approach to the Arts Trail, and whilst I don’t want to frighten people off, I do think there is scope for improvement in our ability to deliver. Last year there was a lot of duplication of effort, and I think if we can reduce this even just a bit, we will make the experience a lot nicer for our organising members. It is important that we do not lose the “fun” element of organising the trail!

I think that with many people stepping down, and with new people stepping up this year, we need to keep it simple and concentrate on our core strengths, otherwise we might get bogged down trying to re-create the existing structures. We already know what we want to achieve, have done it before, and I believe that we have the skills to do it again next year. Here’s to a successful Arts Trail in May 2008!

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Technorati Tags: sba chair bristol arts trail

cocoa abstractions in mind

PingMag – The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Cocoa Abstractions In Mind

From the excellent Pingmag

First, what do we get to see made of chocolate? Thirty
designers, artists and photographers plunge into our
peculiar relationship with this sticky stimulant, using an array of
differing media.

Yoji Ishii`s piece “germination” sprouts a little green stalk from an earthy chocolate bean. From the Chocolate exhibition.

Then,
when we take a look at Yoji Ishii’s”germination” where the chocolate
nut sprouts a green shoot… We thinkthis could symbolise the new 21_21
gallery space – being a fresh starting point and a way to involve
everybody into design by means of chocolate. How did you come up with the concept, together with Issey Miyake and Taku Satoh?”

I
just want to eat the whole lot (maybe not the chocolate
heart…go look..not how you would first imagine) but it does explore
our use and abuse of this most popular sweet stuff.

technorati tags:chocolate, art, japan, pingmag

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why are arts trails so popular?

I ask this because, yes, I am involved in an arts trail, the Southbank Bristol Arts Trail. This year, despite the rain, we managed to get nearly as many people as last year to wander around the neighbourhoods of Southville, Bedminster and Ashton, popping into people’s houses and looking at the wonderful art on show. Now, we arent the only arts trail in Bristol. Oh no. We now have many on throughout the year, in North Bristol, Totterdown, Easton, St. Werburghs, Clifton and soon to be Windmill Hill. I apologise if I have left any trails out. It seems to be an expanding market, with the public hungry to go to these things. Why is this?

The first thing that obviously comes to mind is the fact people like to be nosey. They like to come and look inside people’s houses. So some of the people that turn up are your neighbours. They want to see what your house is like on the inside. How you live. To talk to you. To introduce themselves. When I was showing in a friend’s house a few years ago, we had lots of people from her street popping in and chatting. She had lived there for nearly ten years but had seldom if ever chatted to the people who lived more than a few doors away. It was a perfect excuse for them to come in, chat and break the ice.

The second reason like to come to arts trails is because they are fun. There is lots to see and do and sometimes buy. Weekends can be boring, but if there is an art’s trail on somewhere, well its easy to get to, plenty of parking (the street!) and if you get bored you can just stop and do something else. Or wander off. Or stop and come back later or next day. Its really non-commital. You havent made an big commitment to driving somewhere and paying for parking and then feel that you’ve got to see it all. It’s not formal, its relaxed.

This informality I think is the unique thing about arts trails. You arent tied into something, and the atmosphere is completely different than going to a gallery. Galleries tend to have this atmosphere, you know, whilst its calm and quiet and everything which is sometimes neat, its also not real. It’s got lots of philosphical baggage that some people dont like. I’m not talking about artists here, I’m talking about ordinary people who want to see art but get intimidated by galleries. Artists love galleries. Nothing wrong with them. But arts trails allow people to see art in a real environment. At home. People are friendly, you can meet the artist. Have a chat, a sit down on a sofa. Ask them stuff. You can sometimes do all that in a gallery but not very often. At a viewing you will only get a rare few minutes with an artist.

The next attraction of arts trails is the fact that you will get to see paintings. And drawings, in fact these days you get everything but you do get at least some art that is approachable by the public. I’m not a stuckist but it is nice to see paintings of things. And the public feel that art on trails is approachable. It is then the job of the artist to inform and educate people into other forms of art.

So art trails give people a nice informal community building excuse to get out on a Saturday or Sunday and see art. Its not surprising that they are popular, Whats more surprising is that there isnt one on every weekend!

technorati tags:arts, trails, southbank, bristol

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arts trail a success

Southbank Bristol Arts

Well its been over a week since it ended, but this year’s Southbank Bristol Arts Trail was a success. It was a fantastic week that started with the Arts Trail weekend, then followed on with the performance week. Despite the rain, the numbers were only slightly down on last year, with 4000 people coming through the doors of the Southville Cnetre. The performance events that followed were well supported. That was good, although I missed a couple of the events. The main thing was that there was something on to do or see every night, and whilst they weren’t football stadium style events they were good value entertainment. The arts trail goes from strength to strength and gets better each year. and is now the largest arts trail in Bristol.

Here are some pictures from this year’s event.

It proves what you can achieve in a community with a bit of work.

technorati tags:sba, bristol, arts trail, 2007

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king street

king streetOriginally uploaded by bus_stopper.

Part of an illustration of King Street I am doing for a future book, a collaboration with a local historian about Bristol Streets. We will take several streets in central Bristol, I’ll do the illustrations and she will write about the history and development of that street. Its going to take a while to do all the pictures…

I am working in pen and ink, on quite rough watercolour paper. I want the line to be quite sketchy, although having only just started this project its going to take me a while to get my “eye” in and get the feel of it right. That’s going to develop as I progress with the drawings. We want a “quality” feel to the book, and I want the viewer to be drawn into the picture, to imagine themself walking down that street as if they are there. Again, that’s going to take some time to get right.