TREES

 Samyia and I spent the morning looking at the tree measurement videos made by the children. The more we looked the more extraordinary they were in thinking about trees differently. The range to the top of the trees. They hugged the trees. They explored the inside and outside of the tree.  In Dorset we looked at a Coppiced Ash that was over 300 years old and it was hollowed out. The tree-ness of it had disappeared and now it was a cave. It made me wonder, what is a tree, and how is a tree and who is a tree. I want to write the tree measurement article now - bring it on. 

  I have been working with Abi in Clifton Park over the summer we have done 5 sessions now.  Part of me isn't sure what we are supposed to be doing but to be honest I have decided that this is when we do our best work. I'm not that sure why I decided to do traditionally arty stuff for these workshops but that is how it worked out.  There is something about doing a trees project and drawing with charcoal on paper that seems to make sense - all the materilas are made of trees. I've also done some sculptural stuff with clay and Plaster of Paris. Its as though i need to find an artists identity in these materials though i am out of touch with them and have never had a good eye or hand for drawing.  The idea for Tuesday was to try and model drawing and looking and see if the Children would join in on some level - I didn't like my drawing and although the children did join in. they did it on their own terms. Abi was busy looking and chatting- when I got home I decided that...

  I decided to make this morning a morning to be artist in residence on trees.  I kicked off this blog again because its a good place for us to work and think.  Ideas will fall out of this writing and it has long been part of our practice to blog together.   We do it secretly but hope one day it will be discovered and people will think we are clever.  I needed to take a break from shared blogging at the end of my PhD writing for all sorts of reasons but now seems a good time to commit to starting again. I got up at 7.30 and came to my computer for 8, I sat down and wondered what I should do as artist in  residence on the trees project.  Reflecting on where we are now and my contributions I decided that there was something about artifacts.  Do date I have attempted to insert or am asked to make some things, perhaps not art but material and digital stuff that others can work with and riff off.  The forest school film - the after school clu...

 The most exciting conversation we had on Trees was the data analysis discussion we had with Johan, Samyia, Peter and you. In my notes we started with the idea of snippets and what was there and what wasn't there and zooming out and zooming in.  I hadn't done my homework but I did a behind the scenes search. First I watched the videos - the hurried sounds, the tree stamping, the worms, the behind the scenes repetitions and murmurings of school.  I was interested in the zooming in and out and what we see through these images.  Peter talked of resisting the hermeneutical stance and responding but not interpreting. This is an image of bark - it is quite arty and would probably go down well at a conference but it was just taken but not intentionally.  I like the way this reminds me of a ship, the one we took to the Orkneys, in which we sailed for 6 hours from Aberdeen. Before we sailed we went to see the Wee Forest and it had grown.  I like the way the wire net...

    I read through some of this blog today and wondered why we had stopped posting on it.  I think its was probably doing my PhD but also I got frustrated with the trees project and how to position myself as artist in residence.  I think I intuitively felt I needed to fade in to the background.  Looking at some of the later post it also felt like we were both going through the motions a bit. I wonder now though if it would be a good idea to pick this up again and create our 'little thinking space".  It certainly feels like something an artist in residence should be doing. In some way been artist in residence on a project like this is more complex than other projects I've done. The cross disciplinary nature of the work structures spaces of difference.  On other projects it feels like we are building new spaces or Barthes "new objects" yet on trees with its science not science schism its more exploring what an alternative established position, approach, ...

  I am beginning to settle back into trees as I finished the massive distraction of my PhD.  Its good in some ways as I can use it to test out a few things and now with the new school projects we will have to make it 'work' which is the bit I'm good at.  I enjoyed doing the festival of the mind project mainly as we just did activities and ideas thoughts and things emerged.  This sounds really simple but perhaps its a problem with academic projects in you have to think of all the reasons why you are going to do something before you do it and this closes down as well as opens up possibilities. The really interesting bit about trees is how the art meets the science and I think it is here where we need to build something.  It isn't about augmenting or opposing scientific methods its more about creating a mix where questions can be asked and new thoughts come to light.  I think this is already happening but needs nurturing.  The science can be quite dominat...