Unit X: Blog Summary

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

Unit X was a ten week cross course MMU Art School project.

The ideas behind the project were:

1) Encourage collaboration and co-operation across the courses and also with various non-university art/cultural related organisations across Manchester.

2) To explore the diversity of cultural, social and historical layers in and around Manchester.

3) To create links and networks in the Manchester cultural scene.

4) To produce work related to the inputs, trips, events, talks.

5) To keep a blog record of our Unit X process and work.

BLOG SUMMARY:

We were initially asked to set up a new blog using ‘Posterous’ blogsite. However there was some dissatisfaction with the site. Our tutor Hazel Jones said it would be fine to use our original Interactive Arts blog. So some of my Unit X blogs are on Posterous and some here on WordPress. This is a list of all links to Unit X blogs.

POSTEROUS BLOGS

(March 8th – April 28th):

Exploring Kenneth White in the library Special Collection. Research into modified books, poetry and image, artists books.

X

Trip to MOSI: photo modifications of aircraft.

X

Walk along the Mancunian Way: a tour with Steve Millington. Seven video clips of Steve talking about the history and geography of the Mancunian Way.

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Hotspur House insides ;

Hotspur House outside :

images and research regarding Hotspur House.

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Hotspur House – Working to Code : presentation about studio practice. Also Manifestos.

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Harry ‘Hotspur’ : Research into the possible connections with Harry Hotspur - 14th.C Northumbrian knight and distant relative of the print business and owners: Percy Bros.

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Unit X and the Counter-culture : thoughts and reflections on Unit X and counter-culture.

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Links: Textbook Studio working with Unit X

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The Wedge in the Medlock and

Medlock Wedge variations :

exploring the stone weir footing in the river outside Hotspur House. Making photographic adaptations. Industry to Mandala series.

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Museology : a talk by Kostas Arvanitis.

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Visual Resources Department MMU : a presentation by John Davis on the slide / film archive.

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Clockwise / Anticlockwise: simple drawing exercises.

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Book Modifications: starting a series of book modifications/interventions.

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Views from Piccadilly Car park: photo-shoot.

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Hotspur House Pipes and

Pipes of the Impossible :

research and development of an idea regarding the pipework at HH. Also part of the series -Industry to Mandala.

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Urbed Bus Tour : blogging a not so good trip.

WORDPRESS BLOGS

(April 28th – May 18th)

Crossworks and

Crossworks 2 : crossword modifications.

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Sound patterns : playing with images of sound.

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Richard Creme 1 ;

Richard Creme 2 ;

Richard Creme 3 ;

Richard Creme 4 :

Record of working with and curating Richard Creme’s very successful exhibition in the Link Gallery. Collaboration with Stroke Association and MMU Arts for Health.

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Pipeworks and

Hotspur Mandala :

Continuing with exploration of photographic modification of industrial imagery.

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Box Balloons ;

Burst ;

Chara Kite Collaboration ;

Glossop Kite flying trip ;

Link Gallery Kite Exhibition  ;

Mosaic Kite :

Research, experiment, kite and balloon structures, videos all relating to the Glossop Kite flying trip.

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Passage of Time : a video mash-up

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DIY Derive : images from Fine Art student led Derive.

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TOTAL: 36 UNIT X BLOGS

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Mosaic Kite

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

Using the free software MacOSaix I created this Kite Mosaic:

Kite Mosaic

The original image is an embroidered kite that I made on my Foundation Course.

The software searches for a search term, in this case ‘kite’ and downloads images from selected sites (this one was from Flickr). The images are then rearranged to match the colours in the original image. This image contains 1600 trawled images of kites (including the bird!).

I printed the image out on an A1 sheet and presented it in the Link Gallery Kite show.

Kite mosaic print in MMU Link Gallery – ‘Kite Exhibition’

Here is the original image of my embroidered kite:

Posted in Flight, Link Gallery, Photo-collage, Photography, Thread & Yarn, Unit X | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

DIY Derive

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

Really enjoyed a short ‘derive’ devised by some of the students on the Fine Art degree.

They provided a box with various items in it: A pin-hole camera made from a Coke can; a small tin; some pieces of paper; felt-tip pens; string; template and charcoal.

We were given a map and a route with instructions to take a pin-hole camera picture; to place a found objet in the tinbox; to record thoughts and comments on paper; to create markers along the route with the template and charcoal.

I made a photographic record of the derive. Noticed how my perception and awareness was opened up.

Derive route: Cambridge St – Hulme St – Medlock St – Hewitt St – Castle St – Canal path – Duke St – Bridgewater St – Whitworth St - Cambridge St

Posted in Decay, Derive, Event, Unit X | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Link Gallery: Kite Exhibition

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

Following the Glossop Kite fly we decided to exhibit the kites in the MMU Link Gallery. We displayed broken kites, structures, and videos related to the trip.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted in Flight, Installation, Interactive Arts, Link Gallery, Unit X | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Glossop Kite Flying Trip

Posted on May 14, 2012 by

The annual MMU Art School trip to Chunal Moor, outside Glossop to fly kites, air-born creations and wind-driven things. Also to mark Ludwig Wittgenstein’s trips to the same place to test meteorological kites and to stay at the Grouse Inn at Chunal.

I went on last year’s trip as a guest from the Foundation Course and this year was just as much fun, if not more.

I made one square kite – made of rip-stock, balsa corners, zip-ties and modeling stick -which did not fly! And also a helium balloon filled ‘sock’ which did fly!

Chunal Moor Kite Area

Interactive Arts Group photo

A section cut and pasted from the Royal Society webpage: ‘Wittgenstein’s Aeronautical Investigation‘:

“Initially Wittgenstein worked under Professor of Physics Arthur (later Sir Arthur) Schuster FRS, a renowned Manchester physicist and incidentally an old friend of Hertz. Although retired (1907), Schuster still supervised the Upper Atmosphere Research Station at Glossop, some 13 miles southeast of Manchester in the foothills of the Peak district.9 (Schuster’s celebrated successor to his chair was Ernest Rutherford FRS.) Here Ludwig’s interest lay in the dynamics of kite flight and its relationship to wing design. In similar respects the Wright brothers had chosen one of the United States’s statistically windiest spots, Kitty Hawk off the North Carolina Atlantic coast. They launched their embryo aircraft from convenient sand dunes, flying it virtually as an unpowered tethered kite, and improved on wing design accordingly. Glossop Moor (1100 feet) was one of several nationally distributed research stations run under the aegis of the Royal Meteorological Society. Meteorological research and investigation into the ionization of the upper atmosphere was conducted with scientific instrumentation suspended from balloons or kites. At one Society meeting and after the delivery of a paper, ‘Electrical state of the upper atmosphere’, the ill-fated Hon. C. S. Rolls, a member of the audience, asked if St Elmo’s fire had been observed at altitude, no doubt seeing this as a possible future hazard to manned flight. There was a positive reply: ‘at night in a strong 20 m.p.h. wind a balloon at 3000–5000 ft had been observed displaying the effect’.10“

For more on Wittgenstein and creativity see ‘In The Footsteps of Wittgenstein‘ blog

See Susan Sterrett’s book ‘Wittgenstein Flys a Kite‘

Posted in Event, Flight, Interactive Arts, Unit X, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Chara Kite Collaboration

Posted on May 11, 2012 by

This is an edited movie of some low res footage taken by Chara Lewis (Fine Art tutor MMU) on her Blackberry.

It is from a Unit X Art School kite flying trip to Glossop – a celebration of Ludwig Wittgenstein and flight in general.

It’s a silent movie – perhaps waiting for a soundtrack.

Posted in Flight, Thread & Yarn, Unit X, Video | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Passage of Time (Video Mash-up)

Posted on May 7, 2012 by

Various video clips mashed together and indicating something to do with cosmic time and change. Most of the clips are mine except the diagrams showing the size of the universe from micro to macro levels, which I grabbed off the web.

Posted in Interactive Arts, Unit X, Video | 1 Comment