I thought I would start posting these sketched here directly, as well as on Instagram. It gives me more free reign to add rambling thoughts afterwards.
Drawn without looking. I went in quite hard with the snapseed as you can tell.
Pencil. Notebook: Ethel
Here’s the previous one:
74/365 Various people on Whiteladies Road. Pencil and V-ball. Notebook: as-yet-still-untitled
“The truth of the concept of immiseration has been demonstrated today not, as Marx expected, in the field of goods necessary for survival, since these, far from becoming scarce, have become more and more abundant; but rather in relation to survival itself, which is always the enemy of real life.
Affluence had seemed to promise to all men the Dolce Vita previously lived by the feudal aristocracy. But in the event affluence and its comforts are only the children of capitalist productivity, children doomed to age prematurely as soon as the marketing system has transformed them into mere objects of passive consumption. Work to survive, survive by consuming, survive to consume, the hellish cycle is complete. In the realm of economism, survival is both necessary and sufficient. This is the fundamental truth of bourgeois society. But it is also true that a historical period based on such an antihuman truth can only be a period of transition, an intermediate stage between the unenlightened life that was lived by the feudal masters and the life that will be constructed rationally and passionately by the masters without slaves. Only thirty years are left if we want to end the transitional period of slaves without masters before it has lasted two centuries.”
1. Honeyblood
Heard this tune when walking past the radio at work, I only heard a few seconds and I was completely hooked. The album’s great (buy it). This track is called Choker, been listening to it a lot.
“This song is loosely based on a short story by Angela Carter called ‘The Bloody Chamber’.
Mostly, it’s about not letting anybody **** you around, even when they are trying to kill you. **** that ****.”
(via)
True to form I discovered them days after they had played Bristol. Curses.
2. Playlists/Cassettes
I recently met a old and dear friend of mine, who I do not see enough of. We used to communicate with compilation tapes. So when he came over he brought a CD of stuff he was listening to. So I made one for him. I had completely forgot about he process of this, the rise and fall, does this song work well before that one, do those three tracks work well together. Listening to it over and over to see if it worked.
Does anyone do that anymore, apart from DJs. It’s a beautiful thing. We got Spotification and even iTunes before that eating that decision process up for us. I know there’s places like 8tracks still around for this, but still.
3. Facebook can be useful
I recently reposted 70/365 on my Facebook and it inspired an exchange of how it could be be transferred into film. These two classics were posted as a steer for the concept.
and Feeling My Way by Jonathan Hodgson
4. Boxers/Saints
Recently read Boxers/Saints by Gene Lueng Yang. It’s a two volume magical realist semi-history of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1899. Each book is told from a different perspective. It’s very personal and manages to say a lot about history and what is remembered underneath the story itself which is compelling.
5. Somebody App
I’m not sure if I have mentioned this here before. Artist and writer Miranda July made a messenger app that, instead of sending a text direct to the recipient, will locate someone nearby using GPS and then gets them to pass on the message verbally. You can give instruction for emotional tone, and so on.
The actual app is here: http://somebodyapp.com/
and there is a rather crazy short on how it can be used here:
I’m currently on Android, so you can’t try on me.
6. Sprautumn
..and I decided to put my face on all my profiles, not sure if it’ll make people relax because I’m obviously a human or give them the spooks. I call it my Bat Country Portrait.
7. I remembered Vine
Then I forgot it again.
Coxy is still on telly. Don’t miss it.
..and to add insult to injury two of these I have already posted here. But in the spirit of complete-ism and putting everything down this blog pipe, here we are.
Notebooks Zebulon (9 x 14 pocket Moleskine) and Leonidas (8 x 11 homemade pocket book) are now retired (so you can see I do continue to use them, it’s just most of the content is not suitable for posting in the internet (and I mean that in a nice way)). Ethel (13 x 21 Moleskine) is still going strong, and is what I am mainly using for writing, mapping, drawing, general ranting and work. I also have a new shiny currently un-named homemade pocket book. I’m sticking with just the two for now, as I’m currently liking seeing the consistency and flow in build up in Ethel, and I obviously need a smaller pocket book that I can be a Everyday Carry type object for emergencies.
(above from a week or so ago) Notebook Zebulon is close to the end. But there are a few corners not filled with indecipherable tiny writing.
A few items are coming to a head, at BDH one large project at work is being broadcast at the moment and the Very Large Animation job we did earlier in the year is on the brink. Also a small personal piece to be published in a new and very exiting way with other stuff that’s much better than mine. The “things planned” part are art things (as opposed to wok things) that I hope to post about here as I progress through them. That involves removing a few shackles of hesitancy on my part. Not to mention my bionically slow progress. But one can only try.
What? Oh, yes sketches, they get pushed to the back of the queue on a daily basis, then I feel bad. But I have to keep reminding myself, NOBODY CARES, so it’s ok. Might also start playing with posting them straight here and pinging them out then putting them on Instagram, instead of the other way around.
Man in shorts and flip flops looking at a Xmas display in the department store. #2014 #sprautumn
At BDH I was recently a small part of the awesomeness that was the CGI and graphics team on The new Professor Brian Cox series Human Universe.
It begins, with the first episode “Apeman-Spaceman” this evening (Tuesday 7th October) on BBC TWO.
We previously worked on the Wonders of the Universe and Wonders of Life with the same team.
“And so maybe the way human beings combine these random snippets of information to create something new, maybe the connections we make and the way we remix the things we know and transmit them to others are what gives us the edge over the machines. Maybe our creativity is the real key to our survival. We can take that information and not just reduce it, we can make something new out of it. And the machines can’t do that. Yet.”
– Julian Simpson (@)
Paul Greer 