http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 NSCAD Halifax Canada - Coroocoo - Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:24:26 +0000 a-n rss generator a-n The Artists Information Company and contributors edit@a-n.co.uk technical@a-n.co.uk http://www.a-n.co.uk/img/logo.gif http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 I am beginning to send out my 'pigeon post' postcards (aka 'billing and cooing'). These cards will be a part of the exhibition at NSCAD University but will also be part of other shows - in particular Mailbox 141 in Melbourne, a wonderfully quirky exhibtion space in central Melbourne that consists of 19 old pigeon holes, or mailboxes, and run by Martina Copley and Shanley McBurney. The cards I am sending have text on both sides, one side printed the other side hand written. The printed side consists of words that naturalists use in field guides to describe the sound of pigeons singing, such as 'oom oom oom' and 'rackitty-coo rackitty-coo'. The hand written text consists of listed diseases that can spread to humans and/or from which the pigeons suffer. I am sending postcards through the postal system as a kind of metaphor for the ancient role of the pigeon post and the carrier/homing pigeon. With each card representing one bird, the songs and the diseases travel together in text form through the contemporary postal system. As many as 200 cards will be sent over a period of time and to a number of addresses. The postcards represent [directly replace] the birds – as singers, as the carriers of messages and as carriers of disease.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 I might as well add another post while I can! It is a lovely warm late Spring day here in Melbourne (the heat is early this year) and I anticipate the cold winter of Halifax with some trepidation... During Xmas I will be back in old Blighty, however, catching up with my roots, family and friends, so this may provide some useful seasonal adjustments. I am working on the sound work for NSCAD which will be along the lines of me trying to 'learn pigeon'. This will follow an idea that is not unlike those audio learning cds that accompany language learning these days. 'New Practical Pigeon Reader!' 'A new set of texts and audio designed for native English speakers to learn Pigeon!' I don't think I can upload sound bytes to this blog, but there is a small example on my site.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Giorgio Agamben 'The Open: Man and Animal' 2002 (from the chapter entitled Umwelt) 'Uexkull shows that such a unitary world does not exist, just as a space and a time that are equal for all living things do not exist. The fly, the dragonfly, and the bee that we observe flying next to us on a sunny day do not move in the same world as the one in which we observe them, nor do they share with us - or with each other - the same time and the same space.' and 'There does not exist a forest as an objectively fixed environment: there exists a forest-for-the-park-ranger, a forest-for-the-hunter, a forest-for-the-botanist, a forest-for-the-wayfarer, a forest-for-the-nature-lover, a forest-for-the-carpenter, and finally a fable forest in which Little Red Riding Hood loses her way.'... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Andrew Bryant's comments on how useful blogs can be in 'Why professional artists need a blog' is spot on. in particular 'But thinking, talking and writing about what is essentially a visual process, is one of the most difficult things for an artist to do. It can make you feel awkward, pretentious, ignorant, and vulnerable.' and 'For myself, thinking about my visual output is a crucial part of my practice'. I completely agree with both comments. At the moment I am finding it easier to upload images and add small amounts of commentary rather than writing much. Mostly the articulation comes later in the process - it's important to be in the chaos of making and the not-knowing, not trying to make sense of everything too early. There is a lot of pressure on artists to validate their output and this can really undermine the creative process.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Bird Diary entrySunday 13th Dec 6.50am Coburg nr the Merri CreekDoves - constant regular surprisingly penetrating call; fairly close though not in this garden; no other birds close. Blackbird trill in distance. A crow calls 1,2,3,4,5. (Crows vocal at Annalea's yesterday). Pretty quiet; mild, low cloud cover. One myna calls 1,2,3. Couple of lorikeets fly over. Doves continuous. Then one wattlebird in distance.Car passes.Clock ticks.Wattlebird, myna - small chucks and squeaks. Doves - 'uh-orrr-or uh-orrr-or uh-orrr-or' a rougher sound than pigeons.ThenAn upset smaller bird, later realised it was a honeyeater; repeated agitated 'cheep'ing, nesting?Then the larger whistlers sing - pied butcherbird and magpies carol further in distance. An echoey spatial quality to their songs - lovely tone, choral.All the songs start then stop. There is no general build up or chorus amongst the birds, unlike early Spring. Dispersed, individual phases of song. Small individualised, incidental it seems, no crescendo. All except doves which remain a constant, although even they pause after about half an hour.Singers:Spotted Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)Common Blackbird (Turdus merula)Little Raven (Corvus mellori)Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)Rainbow Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus)Red Wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata)White-plumed Honeyeater (Lichenostomus pencilatus)Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis)Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Bird diary entry Wed 16th Dec 09 Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon en route to UK Low cloud cover, mild, 20'c, rain showers, tops of sky scrapers in cloud. Pigeons swoop from roof of hotel - fast and high. Birds of prey hover over Kowloon Park.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Bird Diary entry Mon 21st winter solstice northern hemisphere West London 7.20 am Sun rising - prussian blue lightening to cobalt, and light blue in east. Very cold - minus 2', patches of snow now re-frozen and all water solid ice. Few birds - cold and silent. Then two small sounds - 'chck'ing and a 2 or 3 note whistle. Blue tits? Yes. Blackbird? High air, clear, cloudless, sharp as a knife. Planes fly over irregularly (Heathrow flight path). Must re-familiarise myself with the birds here. Crows (Carrion crow), pigeons and seagulls common as usual. Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) Carrion crow (Corvus corone) Pigeon (Columba livia) Herring/Atlantic gull (Larus argentatus)  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 "What happens when nothing happens?" Stephen Johnstone Intro to Recent Art and the Everyday in The Everyday: Documents of Contemporary Art 2008 "The banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual? (...) How are we to speak of these common things, how to track them down, how to flush them out, wrest them from the dross in which they are mired, how to give them meaning, a tongue, to let them, finally, speak of what it is, who we are". George Perec, Species of Spaces, 1974... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 "How many people turn on the radio and leave the room, satisfied with this distant and sufficient noise? Is this absurd? Not in the least. What is essential is not that one particular person speak and another hear, but that, with no one in particular speaking and no one in particular listening, there should nonetheless be speech, and a kind of undefined promise to communicate, guaranteed by the incessant coming and going of solitary words" Maurice Blanchot Everyday Speech 1962... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Some timely visits to retrospectives of John Baldessari (Tate Modern) and Ed Ruscha (Hayward) both West coast Americans of a similar era, both hovering on the boundaries of conceptual art and minimalism, with reference to Dada. The wit in the work is infectious. Ed Ruscha ‘words as landscape’. On TV last night ‘Horizon: The secret life of dogs’ and their underrated intelligence by us humans (not unusual). Also Natural World on New Guinea's incredible birds of paradise. Which reminded me of Michel de Montaigne (1500s) quoted in Jacques Derrida’s ‘The Animal that therefore I am’ (1997): ‘How does he [the human being] know, by the force of his intelligence, the secret internal stirrings of animals? By what comparison between them and us does he infer the stupidity that he attributes to them?’ Montaigne ‘attributes much to the animal, beginning with a type of language…and [he] recognises in the animal … a capacity to respond’ (Derrida): ‘it is not credible that Nature has denied us this resource that she has given to many other animals; for what is it but speech, this faculty we see in them of complaining, rejoicing, calling to each other for help, inviting each other to love, as they do by the use of their voice? How could they not speak to one another? They certainly speak to us, and we to them. In how many ways do we not speak to our dogs? And they answer us. We talk to them in another language, with other names, than to birds, hogs, oxen, horses; and we change the idiom according to the species’ (Michel de Montaigne ‘Apology for Raymond Sebond’)  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Bird Diary Hong Kong Airport Gate 60 8.15am a few days ago Two unidentified birds land briefly on the supprts of the enclosed walkway between gate and plane. Caught them as smudges on camera as they flew off.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Bird Diary Coburg Front Room 7.45am Sun 24th 'Weh, weh; woh woh woh' Then again 'Weh, weh; woh woh woh' A crow (Corvus mellori) calls loudly. Ambient doves; odd wattlebird; odd car. Then, faint carolling of magpies down along the Merri. Doves calling to each other, a wattlebird again. All faint, no main players (or singers rather) since the crow. More than 25 mins later: Butcherbird whistles it's lovely tune nearby- 1 2 3 41231231 2 3 4 123 rise in pitch sequentially and 4 drops. Plus a dove with it's slightly gurgling 'coo' ('cuckoo-crroooo-cuck' in Simpson and Day). It seems like a great effort to make this sound, not the relaxed purr of the common pigeons' 'oom'-ing (Columba livia). Almost breathy. 'Our - ourrr''Our - our - ourrr''Our - our - ourr' Repeated two or three notes. Higher in pitch than common pigeon. One or two short notes followed by a longer note that drops slightly in pitch. The sounds of the butcherbird and magpie carolling whistles combine in the street somewhere - not an exchange but an unintentional duet (I think). Singers: Little Raven (Corvus mellori) Spotted Turtle Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) Red Wattlebird (Anthochaera carunculata) Australian Magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) Grey Butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus) A useful link for some examples of these birds is: http://birdsinbackyards.net/... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 I am now in Halifax, I gave the talk, which was a very rewarding experience, and the installation at the Anna Leonowens Gallery is up and I am pleased with it. Even better, it has extended my creative process, as exhibiting should but does not always manage. So, food for creative thought.   I have stayed in three different settings here including the NSCAD artist’s apartment in downtown Halifax near the harbour, Barbara (Lounder) and Bob (Bean)’s place in Dartmouth across the harbour, and finally with Cathy (Busby) and Garry (Kennedy) here in the North End. I have felt so welcomed, people have been most generous and supportive.   And the main birds observed  - as expected crows, seagulls and pigeons. The pigeons are of course Columba livia, the seagulls are Atlantic gulls – Larus argentatus – plus others I am not so sure of – and the crows are the American crow – Corvus brachyrhynchos – a new species for me. The crows are numerous and noisy. They have a rolling ‘r’ to their call, similar to Corvus corone in the UK, and the call is a higher pitch. Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are numerous here too and sing outside Cathy and Garry’s – a huge variety of tuneful trills and whistles, a real chorus.   After my talk last Monday, a student, Carolann (Broome), told me about a crow phenomenon up near Mount Saint Mary’s University here in Halifax, where thousands (literally) of crows gather between October and April. Professor Fred Harrington met Cathy and I up there for a tour the other evening, and what an extraordinary phenomenon. I have never seen so many crows in one place – certainly safety in numbers. We are returning tonight to get an extended audio recording.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699 Returning to Melbourne via a snowy but Spring-like New York. Just a couple of days, and will see the Whitney Biennial tomorrow. Some interesting shows today -- the Guggenheim (Anish Kapoor, Tino Sehgal), Marian Goodman (Steve McQueen) and others. And particularly interestingly Printed Matter in Chelsea, perhaps the largest not-for-profit organisation devoted to artists' books.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/573699