Zee/Kurt Hentschläger/FACT

The most memorable exhibition is ‘Zee’ at FACT Gallery in Liverpool. Even though it was an amazingly immersive experience, it’s hard to describe everything that happened because of the numerous and overlappings of the whole work. There was a ‘prep’ talk before going into the room which made me anxious, and then the other participants went in, about 8 of us, holding on to the red rope to guide us in. The fog is very dense and then there lots of strobe lights, and then noises and patterns and colour which made it intense. At first I was trying to get comfortable but new things kept happening, and then as I was moving around the room was more ‘smiley’ because of it all, and the fact that it felt like an out of body experience and almost like it was entering the afterlife.

Whitworth Art Gallery/Dark Matters: Daniel Rozin, Peg Mirror.

Daniel Rozin’s Peg Mirror was by far my favourite piece in the Dark Matters exhibition. I like kinetic pieces, movement, mechanics, sculpture and responsive visualisation. Peg Mirror comprises 650 circular wooden pieces that are cut on an angle. Casting shadows by twisting and rotating, wooden pegs forming concentric circles surround a small central camera. The mirrored image produced in this work is activated by software authored by Rozin that processes video signals and breaks up imagery geometrically, seemingly pixel by pixel. The silently moving wood components in this piece flicker like jewels or coins in the spotlight, challenging our notions about what constitutes a “digital object”. My aim for this year is to create some kind of kinetic sculpture using motors, electronics and sculpture.

Rogue Art Studios: Owl Project

I went to Rogue Studios earlier in the year as I thought it’d give me a bit of an insight into what I could expect once I graduate and how graduates are working and networking and what their studio environment is like. There was a lot of variety of work, some occasional quirky interesting pieces; the artists were pleased when somebody entered their studio, and I spoke to some of them. I liked the diversity but didn’t feel like it’d be somewhere I could work, and there were a lot of depressed faces. However, there was a major stand out which I stayed for about 45 minutes at called Owl Project. I spoke to Simon Blackmore, one of the three artists in the collective, he told me he had a background in engineering (I wish I dabbled in engineering) and was zoning into everything in the room, the big clogs, the sounds, amplifiers, drips, electrics. It was amazing to see something like that and converse about how its come about and what’s happening next. One of the pieces I saw was ‘Flow’. Flow is a floating self powered structure based on a traditional ‘Shipmill’. A waterwheel will harness the power of the river Tyne and this energy will be used to power a number of electro-acoustic musical instruments that combine mechanical automation and digital technology to produce sounds that respond to the river.Owl Project is a collaborative group of artists consisting of Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons. They work with wood and electronics to fuse sculpture and sound art, creating music making machines, interfaces and objects which intermix pre-steam and digital technologies. Drawing on influences such as 70’s synthesiser culture, DIY woodworking and current digital crafts, the resulting artwork is a quirky and intriguing critique of the allure and production of technology

The result is a distinctive range of musical and sculptural instruments that critique human interaction with computer interfaces and our increasing appetite for new and often disposable technologies. By choosing wood as the main material for the iLog, Owl Project have extracted modern design principles but deflected it back to a traditional sensibility. This immediately raises questions about modern desire for disposable technology and nostalgia surrounding traditional crafts.

Asia Trinniel

I wasn’t majorly impressed, nothing particularly inspiring, although Rashid Rana at the Cornerhouse was something that I didn’t expect. The subject matters, the ways displayed, particularly the Red Carpet, the paradoxes within his 2D and 3D work. I didn’t feel like it was something totally contemporary.

Northern Art Prize

I went to Leeds Art Gallery to look at the Northern Art Prize exhibition. The pieces of work that I was most interested in were by Richard Rigg. He ‘manipulates everyday objects, turning them into theoretical conundrums or playful propositions. He asks us to look at the everyday again from a simple wall hook to desks or chairs, interrogating the familiar and its surrounds’.

‘Some Rest on Six Occasions’ and ‘Two Writing Desks, False Drawer’ were the works that I was most intrigued by as the rearrangement of the chairs and tables and the different joints of the chairs were playful and add a different element to them.

‘Zee’ by Kurt Hentschalger at FACT

The most memorable exhibition is ‘Zee’ by Kurt Hentschalger at FCAT Gallery in Liverpool. Even though it was an amazingly immersive experience, it’s hard to describe everything that happened because of the numerous and overlappings of the whole work. There was a ‘prep’ talk before going into the room which made me anxious, and then the other participants went in, about 8 of us, holding on to the red rope to guide us in. The fog is very dense and then there lots of strobe lights, and then noises and patterns and colour which made it intense. At first I was trying to get comfortable but new things kept happening, and then as I was moving around the room was more ‘smiley’ because of it all, and the fact that it felt like an out of body experience and almost like it was entering the afterlife.

Summer Project: Survival Kit

The summer project was to create a survival kit for a situation. Mine was an ‘Emergency Key Cutter device’ which was a response to the countless times I’ve lost my keys for my Halls. The device was mainly an illustration within a box, a template of your key, and also an emergency tent with personal favourite things for shelter whilst the key is getting made. I’d have love to be some kind of engineer to actually create this!