Dream: Another collaboration

I dreamt last night that I was in the middle of another collaborative project with Andy. We were in a house, a little shack in the middle of what looked like a desert. There was a road just outside the door…JUST outside. We had to borrow Maddison (Heathers mini) to get up to this green field. We were doing something there over 3 days and I had to phone my work and tell them I couldnt come in because I had to install whatever we were installing in the field. Back at the little shack I looked out the door there was a cow lying down on the road. It was huge! I shouted on Andy and a big truck came and passed by over the cow but it had disappeared. Andy was very bossy!!
Nat
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Drawing from a dream…

I am considering drawing my ‘dream city’ perhaps in a form of map or plan. I imagine it would be of some interest to see it mapped out. I have awareness of getting from one place to another in some instances but not in others. In making it clear in a a diagram it may in turn make it clearer when I am dreaming. I possibly will then figure out that it is actually a real city that is only unrecognisable as this city in my dreams.  It may also be a city I have conjured up in my subconscious, or an amalgamation of countless elements of real cities I have been to at points throughout my life. I think (most likely) it is a union of everything I take in on a daily basis. The things I hear but am not conscious of hearing, see but not conscious of seeing etc and also the things I am cognisant of in my life.

Another activity I have been undertaking recently is paying attention and taking notes when I would normally remain in my own little world. Walking to the bus stop when returning home from college I would more often than not be thinking about something random, possibly to do with the day in general or the one to come. Whatever it was I have been ignoring that and listening to the fractions of conversations I hear when passing people and jotting them down. (See the last post for an example)

 

Nat

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The conversations: One: 23rd October 2009

“… I can do about it…” “…something online…” “…please don’t break…” “…great, well…” “…at the Dean Bridge about…” “…about driving…” “…red wig or…” “…I know…” “…she did say I could…” “…07743…” “… where did you find…”

Nat

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Dream: My dream city…

Last night I had another dream which was set in my dream city. For those of you who dont know about my dream city I wrote about it here and here couple of years back. Over the past couple of years I have gotten to know the place a bit better. The one thing I notice is the place never changes: only ever see more of it. The only thing about the place that changes is the people who inhabit it. The people who work in places I go to are different in every dream. There is normally a busker who leans on a motorcycle beside a fruit and veg shop who changes throughout the dreams, interestingly it has never been any buskers which I know. Sometimes I know the interchangable people, sometimes i’ve never seen them before. If I remember correctly then I have not as yet seen any transport in the city.

My dream last night involved me just walking through the city. It was snowing lightly but it wasn’t cold. I met a few people I knew and we spoke about one person in particular. The person I was speaking to these people about was not known to them outwith my dream. I also passed strangers who would nod to me but would nod upwards and it looked very odd…

It was interesting to see the place again.

Nat

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Question and Respond / Respond and Question

Question and Respond / Respond and Question was an interactive installation by myself and Andy Thomson. The work happened last Wednesday and consisted of 10x microphones, microphone stands, amplifiers, headphones and people. There was also a tv with a live feed of the room, a dictaphone, a laptop with a live feed and a camera taking shots by remote. Things were set up so that each person could speak to and hear someone different. Conversation is pretty much impossible.

Although conversation was pretty much impossible it was incredible how long people stayed in the room. Here are some photos of the work.

…and some timelapse

We are hoping to make a website which will recreate this work online. We are not sure how to do this exactly so it may take a while!

Nat

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Manchester…

Heather and I decided to go somewhere… it ended up being Manchester!

As it was pretty much unplanned and we had done almost no research we visited many empty gallery spaces as well as a few which were showing.

It was so unplanned I managed to forget to lift my camera, never normally go anywhere without it and its definitly the first time I left Edinburgh without it, who know you could miss it so much! The few photos in this post are from the gallery websites.

We both had an amazing time though, never stopped laughing and the sun was shining the whole time!

Shows we did see:

PICTURE THIS

Some amazing images.

CITY AS GYMNASIUM

I liked this show, nothing amazing but it was all worth seeing.

Both @ CUBE : Centre for the Urban Built Environment.

PRACTICAL TRUTHS

I enjoyed the collaboration between Jacob Cartwright and Nick Jordan ‘ The Reapers’ but other than that I was not massively impressed with this show at Castlefield Gallery

Next was, I think, both of our favourites

BIRDHEAD

Ji Weiyu and Song Tao

‘My Beautiful Zhang Jiang’

A beautiful film. A woman falls asleep and is carried throughout the city by a number of people. Easy carrying the woman until they are tired and then silently passing her on to the next available person who immediately stops in their path and takes their turn to carry the sleeping woman. She eventually wakes up on the lap of a teenage boy on a train. They exchange a few silent words.

This was at the Chinese Art Centre

Another Chinese artist was in residence, Yingmei Duan, her open studio is in November so she told us we should come back down. She gave us her card.

The empty galleries were Cornerhouse, Whitworth and the mysterious International 3. Mysterious because it was in the wrong place on the Art Update map and we were wandering around the one area for quite some time before we called and found out it was bout 100m up the road but no show was on at the time! The guy who worked there told us to come say hello anyway so we did, the space was very cool!

We went to the Temple, a pub in a converted public toilet. Its a gorgeous wee place. The sun came in through the windows and lit up the mould on the walls and the fresh flowers sitting in the old beer bottles! Great music from the jukebox.

We went to get something to eat before the train, but as we went to order we realised the time and had lost 40 minutes somewhere. No chilli and chocolate burger then! The train back to Edinburgh was the LONGEST journey ever. 3 hours 22 minutes seemed like a lifetime!!

Nat

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It has been a while..

Well I have been ignoring this blog for some time now so I will update you on some things…

I got further hooked on printing errors.

I got to Dundee when the DCA was showing.

I went to London, saw some art and some other cool things.

I made a manifesto consisting of a thunderstorm trapped in a wall.

I did a ‘residency’ project in Dalkeith Country Park.

I went on a little trip around Split, Mostar and Sarajevo and ended up at the Venice Biennale… which was awesome!

Had a dream in Mostar in which I woke up to a huge panda sitting on the floor beside my bed and then I ‘dosed off’ again. I remember it nodding.

I’m finding Edinburgh pretty boring at the moment.

I have been doing more things with sugar but have not photographed anything yet.

I am interested in a lot of things at the moment, none of which I can explain very well.

I am off to the cinema tonight.

May go to London this week.

Back at uni in just over a week!

More on all of this later I guess…

Nat

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