I like lasercutting

ring-a-ding-ding

I've been busy designing some jewelry to sell at the Goldsmiths' xmas ball on wednesday (to raise money for the end of year show, not for personal gain sadly).
These are some designs for laser cut rings.

Note the sneaky insertion of my project with the 'lucky rings' on the right.

procrastination

leads to me scanning some negatives I found from last year's anti social project.

OK here it is...

the crux of my project.

supersition as:
* a decision maker (placing decisions and actions upon inanimate objects which cannot rationalise the best option eg dice, coin)
* escapism (or wishful thinking. A way of coping and dealing with the stresses and strains of everyday life).
* reason (an answer to things that are not understood, along with applied/learned reasoning - a link between event and object eg I did well on a test wearing these pants - conclusion: the pants are lucky).

In essence how and why one's life may be affected by seemingly illogical reasoning.

phew, I think that's it.

The Thirteen Club

Yes that's right. Founded in the 1800s, this was a club by which its members would participate in deliberate practical experiments against superstition. There were clubs in London and New York both with the same aim: to educate people against their slavery to 'senseless' superstition.

Beginning on Friday, 13 August 1948, an exhibition (influenced by the Thirteen Club) on Superstition, Prejudice and Fear ran at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan for 13 days. This came about as a result of a worried US government claiming superstitions to be 'unpatriotic and unscientific, an open threat to democratic freedom and progress.' The exhibition included having to walk under ladders and rooms full of open umbrellas and broken mirrors. As a relation to this, the 1952 book, Understanding Public Opinion: A Guide for Newspapermen and Newspaper Readers reads '[The superstitious person] not only has false hopes and fears, but he is a sucker for demagogic appeal. He is inclined toward racial prejudice, disregarding all anthropological evidence to the contrary, and in a time of insecurity he will fall for any kind of new Messiah that comes along… A person who believes in black cats and umbrellas and all of these other everyday superstitions is less likely to think logically and clearly in any other field. He is continuing in an unscientific frame of mind at a time when the clearest type of scientific thinking is essential.'

Now, to me, this all seems a bit ridiculous. It is understandable that one should be encouraged to think logically and scientifically else the world be built upon whimsical characters and glitter paint. Yet is it not fair to say that even the most superstitious of people are still logical and scientific to some extent? To say that they are not at all would be implying that they have little or no intelligence or education. For example I know that finding a four leafed clover will scientifically nor logically affect my life in any way in terms of luck, yet it gives me great joy in thinking that maybe it will. It's like reading a good book: you know that what you are reading is not truth, the images you are seeing are not real, but yet you while away the hours enveloped in that world. Escapism. Superstition is escapism.

Oscar Wilde's refusal letter to dinner with the London Thirteen Club sums this up: 'I love superstitions. They are the colour element of thought and imagination. They are the opponents of common sense. The aim of your society seems dreadful.'

Nice one Oscar.

Dear apple, who am i going to marry?

The apple is an amazing thing. It can tell you the initials of your future partner, which direction they will come from, whether they actually fancy you, how many children you will have and how happy you will be in the future. Thank you apple.

I <3 stop motion.

Some stills from a video I created. Watch the whole thing here: http://www.vimeo.com/7842554

pound shop futures

Made from a curious canned 'message bean', two nail clippers and a plastic dome from the packaging of a toy car, this is the OxyBurst3000: A product from the future from which the contained plant releases a surge of genuine oxygen which is inhaled by the user.

This is the short story I wrote to accompany and set the context for this weird little thing:

There was a slight click as the two levers were squeezed and each tiny mechanism slotted into place. Like a contented cat, the can emitted a soft purr as its energy was gathered and the little plant shivered as though somewhere, someone was walking over its grave. I inhaled deeply and let the clean smooth oxygen occupy my whole body. I closed my eyes. The familiar yet forgotten gas seeped into every cell in my body and my mouth creased to form a smile: just for a moment there was green grass, miles and miles of it. It undulated with the earth beneath it, dipping its toes into the cool streams and touching the clouds on the horizon. I bowed my head and opened my eyes slowly. Maybe the grass would be there. Maybe it would be embracing my hot tired feet. Maybe. The all too familiar red dirt greeted me as my eyes opened and the unsullied oxygen left my body as quickly as it had entered.

The air here on Mars was stale, a controlled atmosphere full of synthetic oxygen and thick with melancholy. On a clear night you could see Earth. It was a pin prick of light in the black velvet curtain of space, a grain of sand in the hourglass of the universe. Sometimes at night I would come here and sit between the big red rock and Nanna’s house, hug my legs to my chest and rest my chin on my knees. I would take my fingers and form an ‘O’ from which I would frame the Earth, delicately. And as I sat, silently watching, I would always wonder ‘What did Earth do to deserve that?’ ­

he loves me, he loves me not

I bet you used to feel a bit gutted when you ended up with the 'loves me not' petal. Why? It's just a daisy...

so i've been thinking...

and my ideas are heading more in the direction of superstition, luck and decision making (in the form of the roll of a dice or divination for example). I am fascinated by how they give people a sense of control and security over their lives: a way of handling the anxieties and stress of everyday life. Superstition comes about as a result of uncertainty. Even if you say you don't believe, I bet you do really. I bet if there was a ladder across the pavement you'd walk round it, and if you saw a four leaf clover you'd take it..you know, just in case.

Oh hi there

Did you know that birds are massive in the superstition world? Apparently if the ravens in the tower of london leave, it is believed that the royal family will die and the UK will collapse. Well, fancy that.

MY BRAIN IS GOING TO EXPLODE...

...with all this drawing and THINKING.

wisdom DNA

The below images map people's words of wisdom and rules of thumb. I have categorised them from which each category has an associated colour. My aim was to create an overall view of wisdom. Yes, wisdom DNA.

amazing

Duck update

Harriet, Henry and Daisy are safe and sound. They now live with an illustrator so I'm happy.

Everybody dance now

Teatowel Turban

Ever wondered what I'd look like in 2D form, with a teatowel on my head drying a bowl? Now you don't have to.

Annie

This is Annie with her new family. Doesn't she look happy?

Fred

This is Fred in his new home. He is also going to Australia in 2 weeks. Lucky sod.

Quackers

After scaring the residents of Brockley with my guerilla spider attack I wanted to see what their reaction would be to something fun and humorous: the rubber duck. Mainly I chose the duck because again, I had spotted them in the pound shop BUT they were also chosen for their ability to attach an emotion and character to them.

At first I was just going to place them on bus stops and lamp posts. But as I had discovered from the spider experiment people like stealing SO I thought about how I could use this to my advantage.

I named each duckie and set up an email account so people could email me when they found a lost duck.

So far I know that 6 out of the 20 ducks have found a new home.

Still missing are Matt, Katie, Frank, Jane, Claire, Simon, Fiona, Alan, Bob, Henry, Emily, Daisy, Carol and Harriet.

Somebody did warn me about peaduckfiles in their email...

The scare tactic

Ok so it's 4.30am on a Friday morning and I am outside in my pyjamas sticking plastic spiders on and around bus stops. There is a reason behind this I promise.

I wanted to see how this would affect the behaviour of the people waiting at the bus stops and pedestrian crossings. I was hoping to get a few screams at least. By the time I woke up to observe the behaviour, the majority of the spiders had been TAKEN. Why people wanted them is beyond me but yep they were gone. So I sneakily placed some more, and even superglued one to the top of the crossing button thing.

My hope was that they may create some form of common interest. Something for people to talk about rather than just remarking how late the bus is.

I observed some nice moments. Highlights of the day included an old man inspecting one of the spiders for a while, a mother lifting her little boy up to look at one (he was pretty excited) and a woman practically resting her hand on one before noticing and near jumping out of her skin before turning to the person next to her and laughing.

All the spiders are gone now. Even the superglued one. People sure like taking stuff.

The morning after the night before

So this is what the glowsticks looked like the morning after. I like the way someone has taken them off but then neatly placed them underneath. Maybe they thought they were ruining a piece of ultra modern conceptual art? Maybe they were.

Railing Rave

So I found 20 glowsticks for a pound in Poundland and thought 'Hey let's see what happens when I group 80 glowsticks together and place them in my chosen environment.'

I can conclude that Brockley Road is not dark enough for glowstick experiments. Or I would need at least 200 more to make a real impact. Imagine that, over 200 glowsticks covering the railings of the cemetery. Yes please.

I wish bus stops were more exciting

Don't you find that bus stops are just so boring? Everybody is just waiting. That's all that space is used for. Waiting and anticipating. Noone talks to each other or takes any notice of the surrounding area. We wait there, all staring at the horizon in the hope that the 122 will come round the corner any minute.. now...hmm now? NOW?

This got me thinking. As I sit staring at, i mean observing, the people waiting inanely at the two bus stops I can see from my living room window, I notice other points only used for the purpose of waiting. The three pedestrian crossings for example. In fact the whole area I can see from my window is stale. Where's the excitement in this environment?

This is all in relation to a brief named 'Design Your Own Environment.' I decided I wanted to actively affect the behaviour of people occupying the area surrounding my house. In what ways can I cause some sort of change, some sort of way of affecting the way in which people use and interact with this environment?

Well isn't this nice?

So I EVENTUALLY got round to setting up a blog. In my defense I had been working on a website for myself...

I wish it looked pretty. I may have to snazz it up a bit.