Inspired by Ruth’s last post, and feeling the same way about becoming too busy to blog lately, I’m going to compile all my little notes of “things to blog about” that seem to be accumulating in my sketchbook... 1. Still Traveling Travel is exhausting. It’s now been eight months of officially not having a “home” as I’ve traveled from South Africa to China to the States to the UK (Furtherfield included) back to the States only to go back to Europe next month. It’s been great, and I’m not sure I’ll ever have the opportunity again to travel and make art for a whole year, but I’m starting to want to be settled again! (I think that will be in August…) 2. I believe in change! And I’m stoked Obama (finally) has the democratic nomination! 3. Baggage policies for Artists When I left Furtherfield to come back to the States I very carefully studied Virgin Atlantic’s baggage policy to find out what I could take and how much I would end up paying for extra baggage. I learned that athletes can check 1 piece of sports equipment in addition to their baggage allowance. This is clearly spelled out and quantified – “One golf bag containing: max. 14 clubs, one dozen balls, one pair of golf shoes. OR Canoes/kayaks up to 4.5m (162in). Canoeing items such paddle, seat, buoyancy aid, spray deck and helmet can be packed inside the canoe/kayak, provided the overall weight limit is not exceeded.” However, there is nothing in the policy for artists baggage. Granted I’m not your typical artist who travels with an easel and a black barrette, so even if there was something like you are allowed 1 painting easel I’m not sure it would have helped me – but still, shouldn’t we have some rights for odd sized baggage too??? On a side note, I also learned they have a separate policy for traveling with wedding dresses – you can mark it fragile and have them hand deliver it on and off the plane. I ended up doing this! 4. Participation vs. Performance I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. This came about after starting my virtual knitting project. At first I envisioned that participants /gallery viewers/ whomever would be able to interact with the piece or participate. But as I started working and had some test versions I started to think that the act of using the knitting needles to generate a visual coded output became a performance. When I was knitting, it felt like a performance. So when others knit, are they participating or are they performing? I’ve been watching people watch interactive work at museums lately and thinking this same thing. Especially when there ends up being a small crowd of people watching what’s going on. Participation or performance? 5. Looping around again soon. Currently getting ready for another exhibition back in the UK. Loop, a solo exhibition of my work will be shown at the Winchester Gallery in Winchester in July. 6. My film Long story short – When I was in Brighton, I went to a screening of super 8 films and won an entry into straight 8 – a festival of films shot on 1 reel of super 8 film with no editing. Having never shot on super 8 (or film for that matter) it was kind of a fluke happening. So I made my film about making the film. I didn’t expect anything to come of it but looked at is as a fun little project from my residency in the UK. Turns out my film was chosen for several screenings! Even better, I will be in London when it premiers! (July 29, Curzon Mayfair) Here is a little video version of my film. 7. Using and Re-using I’m a fairly “green” citizen and pride myself of (when not traveling) living in San Francisco which is a very environmentally friendly city. Last year SF became the first city in the US to ban plastic bags from major chain stores. Stores can only give out paper or compostable bags, but mostly encourage people to bring their own. As I have become obsessed with carrying my cloth reusable bags everywhere and not collecting anymore other bags, I’ve now started to become obsessed with reusing anything possible. I came across a small company that makes kits for you to build your own bed out of scrap lumber. I really like this idea. It reminds me too of the zero dollar laptop project and trying to think of other “sets of instructions” you could come up with for how to make your own things out of reusing other things. 8. No Virtual Wining and Dining Earlier this week I saw the creator of Second Life give talk about it’s new directions. (I won’t even get into how turned off I was by his ultra business sales man-ish attitude and how he referred to Second Life as the most “interesting thing, and that’s interesting with a capitol I” or about how he explained to the audience he only shops at the GAP because he lives next door to one and is too busy to go anywhere else but in Second Life it only takes seconds to change his wardrobe)… anyways… He seems to think that soon everyone will be doing their business meetings in Second Life and there will be no need for business travel ever again. I feel like this is what was said about paper when email started – no more paper! So, okay, you can “see” one another (or their avatar) and you can have live voice chat or text chat… but all I kept thinking about was traveling to different countries where so many times you meet, you go out to eat, have a whole ceremony of a meal, and then the business is done. I can’t imagine that eating and wining and dining is as fulfilling in Second Life as it is in this one… I think it’s a stretch… 9. More airport security! I’m heading back to Europe soon and hope to see some of you: July 3-6 – London/ Brighton July 6-19 – Winchester, UK July 19-26 – Berlin July 26-August 3 – London/ Brighton 10. Another squirrel! Last week my partner surprised me by putting a stuffed squirrel in our bed right before I went to sleep. Looks like I can't escape them!