How can it have been TWO MONTHS since the last time I wrote something here? Well. Here is 'something', such as it is.
7 January: London: Visited V&A, Natural History Museum and Science Museum in London with mum; can’t believe that her month-long visit is already over! She returns to the USA tomorrow. In other news, my birthday today has been ‘upstaged’ by the next generation (really as it should be). Beyonce gave birth to a beautiful baby girl today. :) ‘Merry Christmas’ to all the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians of the world!
*Authorial Note: I did do quite a lot between 7 January and 26 January but it was mostly 'the dailies'--reading, research, report. Oh, and the monitor data admin. I did have a lovely if brief conversation with Janet Berry that led to my joining-up with a conservators news group! Very grateful for that connection.
Thursday 26 January: London: Natural History Museum Seminar, Dr. Chris Lyal on Nagoya Protocol, Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) and also: British Library research day.
NHM seminar with Lyal was a very informative session. The main interests from my perspective were that the legalities involved currently, require a much more friendly-if-formal, personable (if you will) building of relationships and an international infrastructure for researchers in collection, in the field. Had lovely conversation with Chris Lyal afterwards about the overlap between Nagoya and UNESCO priorities regards ‘Traditional Knowledge’.
Friday 27 January: Nottingham: Nottingham Contemporary –the Demand Opening.
Brilliant opening, well-attended. Under-whelmed by Demand. ‘The Wall’ DJ duo were a bit too loud volume wise, to be the ‘chill’ ambient music they were billed to be. Additionally, they were, at the start using signal waveforms designed to modify the audiences brainwaves patterns . . . to create a kind of experiential ‘tabla rasa’ in audience consciousness, before applying their own, inoculation of music/image patterning (it was a bit heavy handed, imho; please see soapbox below). The ‘arts community’ of Nottingham appeared to have turned out ‘in force’ and as mental lapse would have it, I forgot my camera! Memory image that remains in my mind: mother and 2 or 3 year-old child looking down into the ‘black box’ concert lecture theatre, child in wonder at the scene below, mother in wonder at the child.
Authorial note/soapbox about ‘The Walls’: I liked them very much, but I don’t approve of using light, image and sound to profoundly manipulate/hypnotise unwary people, and yes, such ‘hypnosis’/entrainment CAN be done—it pretty much happens quite naturally—and yes, more and more artists are ‘experimenting’ with sonorous ‘mood control’ that they don’t really understand, to the potential detriment of the audience. Using light, image and sound to mess about with the brainwave patterns of the audience, when you DO NOT know what you are doing (are perhaps just ‘curious to see what will happen’) is a little like the difference between giving the uninitiated a brandied chocolate and giving them a shot of heroine, while not actually knowing for certain which substance you are administering to said uninitiated! It is a bit irresponsible. Such artistic practice is a particularly unforgivable application of a/v spectacle, when some of the ‘uninitiated’ are children! And there WERE children present! As for myself, fortunately, I had my earplugs with me, tied myself to my sturdy sense-of-self mast and transited the dangerous aesthetic waters relatively unscathed. Again, overall it was a brilliant opening. I continue to be very impressed with Nottingham Contemporary and their active engagement of the community.
Wednesday 1 February, London:
I completed my Reader Registration Process at the British Library, researched renaissance ballads regarding objects and ceremony (or tried to) and visited the Transport Museum—including their film event ‘Future Cities’. Interesting, not perhaps what the audience was expecting. Well attended, but audience did not seem to understand that there was a discussion with the artists available after the viewing. Still, admirable start to the new community dialogue direction the Transport Museum appears interested in.
I asked the artists about how, once they have completed a long session of working, their perceptions of the world are—or are not—altered. They had various responses, everything ranging from:
“The management of the studio building think I’m homeless because I never seem to leave my work station for more than a, uh, ‘tea break’”
to
“After a long session at the computer, I have a little difficulty actually talking to you know, friends, family . . . my producer/employer (who wants to know why what I proposed is so different from what I have actually created)”,
to
“Wait, are you saying that this situation, here and now is, like, ‘real’? Are you sure?” :)
My three favourite moments at the Transport Muse: the elevator time machine, the audio rivalry between the two separate braces of horses and sitting up-top one of the early double-deckers (with the signs in the back clearly stating that ‘spitting is prohibited’).
Thursday 2 February 2012: Leicester: Worked on paper. Updated CV. Discovered that I need to transfer my Mobile Me website to . . . ‘someplace else’. All very bothersome. I booked for an open study day at the British Library for 10 February. I worked on my current paper; I’m afraid that at the rate things are going, it will not be very polished, nor well-cited.
3 February overnight to 4 February: LondonLondon British Library Research Day, followed by evening lecture
Sublime Words, Ridiculous Images; Visual Humour in the Royal Manuscript Collection with Dr. Alixe Bovey. Self-explanatory, but focussed again on relationship between objects and agency as well as 19th and 20th century engagement traditions and marriage-as-contract. Dr. Bovey’s lecture was delightful! I do think it difficult however for us to separate the reality of the Middle Ages from the Post-Victorian ‘cultural lenses/filters’ that even today, influence popular notions about the past. Is it possible that the people of the Middle Ages were actually more ‘self-aware’ of their own ‘humanity’ than we are today (in these supposedly ‘enlightened’ times)?
I also visited the Foundling Museum. It was not at all what I imagined, based upon the website. More than this, I am ill-prepared to say for now.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of my father’s death. My thoughts have been with him, and how he would have enjoyed seeing London, how he would have marvelled at the wonderful books I have access to, the lectures I attend, the places I have the opportunity to go to, the trains I travel on and architectural beauty all around me. He would have loved the architecture of St. Pancras Station and the Natural History Museum. In all of his life, he never lost his sense of ‘wonderment’ nor ceased to take pleasure in the world. I miss him, his thoughts, his company. He gave the very best hugs in the known universe. (Actually, I suspect them to be the best hugs in the unknown universe as well but that leads to a certain difficulty—the minute that I prove the fact, the unknown becomes the known, yes?)
They say it will snow this weekend but really, how often are those ‘weather-folk’ right? I mean, it is quite cold but the sky is clear and the sun is shining!
Weekend: It snowed on Saturday. :) Papa would have liked that. I sent a draft copy of my current paper to Sandra on Sunday. Other than that, simply worked on monitor admin and made appointments for next week. I feel as though I have been asleep since the end of November (Thanksgiving, USA 2011) and am slowly rousting very unsteadily from my slumbers.
