Project in a day - Researching Whitley Constellations

In researching for Whitley Arts Festival, I made an astrolabe using resources and instructions found online. Find out what it is, how I made it and why.

A project in a day involving conductive thread and wearable tech

Inspired by Mini-maker fair, I imposed myself the challenge of creating a project on 21 July on the day of the Strength Collective meetup....here's what happened when I did this.

Strength Collective #17: If You Go Down To The Woods

The metal band around this box must be there to keep the bears in, right? But then again, they must be pretty small bears so can't be all that dangerous. Can they?

Closer inspection of this photo turned up what looks like an eye peering out of the hole in the top-right. Which is a bit weird.

Anyway, I've no idea what the true motivation was for this modification, but I liked it all the same.

Strength Collective #16: Emerging Faces and #18: Reach For The Sky

I wasn't sure what to make of these sculptures when I first saw them, only that they were strangely appealing, almost other-worldly.

Thinking about it since taking the photos (and I know nothing of the original motivations of the sculptor Jens-Flemming Sorensen) it struck me recently that, combined, they become suggestive of Humanity's exploding population, leading to over-crowding of our planet and our desire to reach for the stars and other places to call home.

Strength Collective #13: In Case You Weren't Sure

This sign is one of those that might be considered surplus to requirements. Maybe it's just me but it did seem pretty obvious which way the path went. Still, better safe than sorry I suppose.

Strength Collective #12: Max Headroom

Low Headroom. No kidding.

Strength Collective #11: I'll Never Let You Go

This scaffolding looks like it's been a temporary measure for a long time now. My guess is that it'll be there for a long time to come, steadfastly refusing to allow the churchyard to break free of its retaining wall. Which is probably for the best.

Strength Collective #6: Tricky

Spotted this not long after the rebuild of the foot bridge at Reading station. Seeing the old door miles up the side of a building offering access to the way out and the car park made me laugh.

Strength Collective #19: Canal Trees

 

The trees are weeping into the canal.

Strength Collective #15: Blade Trees

This tree looked like a moose and has the Blade lurking in the background placing it firmly in Reading.

Strength Collective #20: Wilde

Stumbled across this memorial to Reading Goal's famous inmate in Chestnut walk - wildlife seen through Wilde.

Strength Collective #10: Support and #14: Pavement Sweeping

The detail is from a sculpture that is tucked behind the church and is of three kids about to swim (though I cannot find the details again) and near off King's Road - the ground near it seems to be swept away.

Strength Collective #9: Springtime at Jacksons

Jackson's is obviously an establishment and always has its own unique window dressing. This one was for the spring sale.

Strength Collective #7: Jelly's West end Cubes and Strength Collective #8: Jelly's East end Swirls

Standing in Jelly's Artpad, you can't help but notice the contrast between the architecture to the West...



....versus the tiles and swirls to the East.

Strength Collective #4: Harris Arcade

With all the malls that are in Reading, Harris Arcade harks back to a different era and the lighting in it was atmospheric.

Strength Collective #2: Back to Reading

Taken before we learnt that Queen Victoria had never visited Reading and hence, her statue has her back to the town. Obviously, the message was successful as it seemed natural to take this photo.

Strength Collective #5: Emergency Stop

Oh come on! It's a lovely shiny thing with a big red button in the middle. Please let me just have one little press on it?

More seriously though, I just really liked the way these otherwise utilitarian devices have been made to be aesthetically pleasing.

Strength Collective #3: Wall Detail

I wondered how many people had ever stopped to look at the work that was put into these panels that are set in to the walls of the old council buildings. Maybe once, when they were new people would admire and talk about them, but today?

Other newcomers to the town such as myself may well stop and look as I did. Having captured this photo, even if I have since stopped looking at these every day I pass by on my way to work, I still think about them and all the hard work that went into these buildings.

And I just liked the variety of lines and patterns between the pavement and walls. So much to see in such a small space.

Strength Collective #1 - No!

Wherever we go we're told not to do things. No running. No smoking. No diving, bombing, splashing. Keep off the grass. Don't park here. Don't feed the pigeons. No skateboards, roller skates or scooters.

This sign cuts to the chase. Whatever you might be even thinking of doing, don't even make us waste our time telling you not to bother!

Take part (22 June 2013, Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading)

See our exhibition details on http://bit.ly/rdgites and see the work

Preparations underway - one day to go

One more day as it says on the StrengthCollective site.

Today, it all became real as we dropped off work at  Jelly Artpad and bought all the last minute stationery needed to ensure all the preparation had been done.

Cannot wait to get into Rising Sun Arts Centre tomorrow and start putting up the artwork.

Also, looking forward to checking out South Street as we haven't visited yet.

Waiting...and more waiting

Waiting to find out whether we had been selected or not seemed interminable even though we knew we would have to wait a week.

The wait was over with an email confirming acceptance of the submission - which meant excitement and then the dawning realisation that we would actually have to do something about it now.

Logistical details from the StrengthCollective and a chance to meet the other participants are to follow but our first concern was to print the photos and hope they came out as well as the man in the print shop had assured us they would (or better!).
Luckily, Sara Davies had pointed me in the direction of snapfish.

We were also directed to consider insurance and this seemed to be a good link as it mentioned that through paid membership, we would be covered for public liability insurance. However, the criteria for what is or isn't a practising artist was interesting.

Using poor broadband facilities, we spent a long time uploading the photos and ordering prints - now for the interminable wait (5 days?) for the truth to arrive in the post.

Learning to submit

StrengthCollective is having an Arts Festival on 22 June during Reading Arts Week. They currently meet every third Sunday of the month in the Rising Sun Arts Centre. Today I met Sara and others who gave us the inspiration to just go through the process of submitting our pieces and seeing what happens.

We are learning to submit. The process in itself is very interesting but less complicated then what we had made it. The key is to keep it simple and just try it. Two lessons that are worth remembering for most occasions.