margaret-cooter: This week at college

Tuesday: the midpoint review for the fulltimers. We had a few minutes to look around at the various books ("one item each") and then each was discussed in turn. The maker wasn't allowed to say anything, and everyone else was encouraged to contribute to the discussion.

Some common themes: who is the audience; what did the maker intend; does it need more information attached to it; consider cultural aspects; how will the audience engage with the work; what form does the idea need to go into; is it doing what it wants to do; where will it be installed, what is the context, will that affect the meaning; how can the display be informed by the idea of the piece; how important is process, eg where you were when you did it; what's the most important element; do the materials support the subject matter; do the images enhance or distract from the text; what is the audience being asked to do.

Afterwards, a cup of tea ... or something stronger -

Wednesday: some screen printing in the morning, mostly using pale grey -

Building up the background sheets -

Some closeups of my favourite bits -

Karen was teaching simple binding, and inspiring people to make tiny books - sewin into a matchbox, for example -

Or with a matchstick piano-hinge -

The lecture was by Faisal Abdu'Allah, who has a sideline in barbering (a performance art??) and draws on the subjects and physical properties of the barbershop space. His "Heads of State" piece deals with gun crime, and "Goldfinger" with the big men in organised crime. His work evolves from the interface of photography, the printed image and lens-based installations. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1993 in printmaking; his work "appropriates iconography from popular culture to constantly reposition values and ideologies pertaining to representation".

Thanks to a scratchy pen and low lighting in the lecture room, my notes are almost unreadable - but on looking at his website after hearing him talk, I must say it makes a lot more sense than when I looked at it before. It's not just that "we" (anyone new to a certain format of art, or to the work of a new-to-us artist) like to hear the story about the piece - we need that background, that bit of context, before we can pull our own meanings out of it.

Another view of the talk is on Chris's blog.

Thursday: a longer session of screen printing, with these premixed colours -