/ / / / ECHO

Currently we have a piece of art on display in Cambridge. The work is part of an art fair called Art Language Location which sees works by various artists dotted around Cambridge. The piece is called MIRROR ECHO. 

We have chosen three double sided notice boards outside a lecture theatre in Cambridge University’s Sidgwick Site. 

The piece is a play on perception and reflections. We want you to look at what is reflected on the boards instead of what is in them. Underneath a glass surface are a white sheet, black sheet and sheets with gradients from black to white and vice versa. 

The outer boards have the gradients so reflect the rest of the campus in a slightly distorted way. A black surface reflecting much clearer than a white one. The gradient boards act like a lens flare in a photograph masking out parts of the image. It is something that has to be seen to really experience it,  as the photographs have a kind ‘photoshopped’ quality, where the boards look false or artificial. It is something that you have to walk alongside, in doing so you see your reflection disappear and reemerge.

MIRROR ECHO from George Cullen on Vimeo.

On the reverse of these gradient boards are printed two words: MIRROR and ECHO. These words reflect on the centre board. As you walk though the space you get caught in the reflection. You may notice the words printed backwards or you may notice the reflection of the word, but to see one board is to see the other. Situated outside the doors to lecture theatres that see multiple lectures a day there is a lot of passing traffic. I hope at least a few stop and contemplate on the space. 

MIRROR ECHO is located on the Noticeboards outside Lecture Block A, Cambridge University, Sidgwick Site, Sidgwick Avenue, CB3 9DA. They will be there from 15 October – 1 November 2015

What became really interesting for us in this piece are the gradient boards. I'm wondering if it will lead to more uses of gradients and the change in perception that they provoke.

I came across this book, that will act as a colourful contrast to our black and white boards.

The RGB Colourspace Atlas by Tauba Auerbach

It is interesting how the gradient defines the passage of time and space. The movement in colour signifying a movement in page and a movement on the page signifying the volume of the book. There is a lot in the simplicity of it. In the fact that it can only exist as a book, a 3D visualisation of a form of colour. 

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[George]

visual narrative: when the Bible is a comics

I am not sure at what age I started identifying the Bible with a brick volume of thin pages filled with two columns of text in a very small type. The Bibles that I have owned (and those that I have not owned) all look the same - whatever the language.  As a result, I was genuinely excited when I first discovered Robert Crumb's comic Bible. It had the colour, the fun and the passion of a great story. Later, I found this vibrant storytelling in Medieval manuscripts, churches, interiors.

Visual story telling has long been used in religious education of illiterate or semi-literate population. V&A Cast Court Collection has Hildesheim doors (1015) on display. They are decorated with images from the Creation of Eve to Christ appearing to St Mary Magdalen. Churches frequently have stained glass windows and statues showing sequences of Biblical scenes, to aid the less educated with their knowledge of the Testaments. Visual narrative allows engagement of a more diverse "reader", as  a result, wider communication and bigger impact on the religious thought.

Here is 12th century manuscript Bible of Stephen Harding . Folio 13 features the story in a format of a comic. I have not managed to find out much about the manuscript, except, that it is held at Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon and some scanned folios can be found HERE. 

Manga Bible is a spectacular publication of the best manga drawing. A five-volume manga series is based on the Christian Bible and created under the direction of the non-profit organization Next, formed by people from the manga industry. Though first published in English, the books are originally written in Japanese and each volume is illustrated by a Japanese manga artist. Each book is adapted from the Bible by Hidenori Kumai.

And then there is Robert Crumb's Genesis ( Nominated for three 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards) and Nestor Redondo + Joe Kubert's DC Comics Stories from the Bible : both are fabulously edgy, risque and fresh; in contrast to many others, which are roughly interchangeable with a range of books seen in Christian bookshops' windows. This is what Crumb said to Paris Book Review:

In all the comic-book versions I was able to find, they just made up dialogue, pages of it that are not in the Bible. I was reading this one thing and I thought- did I miss this? And I went back and checked against the text and it’s not in there. And they claim to be honoring the word of God, and that the Bible is a sacred text… the most significant thing is actually illustrating everything that’s in there. That’s the most significant contribution I made. It brings everything out.

 Could his comic version of the Bible be the most honest one yet?

 

 

Nestor Redondo and Joe Kubert's DC Comics Stories from the Bible was printed in 1975 and covers the stories from Creation to Sodom & Gomorrah.

by Egidija

GUEST POST: I read to the middle (Seekers of Lice)

“today I would portray the world from an ant's-eye view 
and tomorrow as the moon sees it”     
Hannah Hőch

I read to the middle	objects put where	as she went out and in
the middle lye in bed	that contains them	brushed slight against it
sheets of clean newness	(envelope)	coat hung in the bed
papered and enveloped	light cuts them out	-room doorway she beneath
what do you want	meaning she had a diamond	would live forever
beneath the lamp	sold for a coat of fox fur	over forever sheets the
two fingers laid on your	coat a coat of astonishing beauty	the overcoat and the moon rose
skin with meaning	diamond became fox beauty	she changed the bed sheets each
each day a cough signed she was	make out self's feathers	odds and evens oddness added
there her heart beat faster	like air and habit	following breadcrumbs
(beating) under the covers	collapsing a mathematical room	undoing dangers
eating bread and butter	end papers oddness	each time tell something re
-vealing tearing dis	yawn and trail trying to be plain	wondering as she wore it
-traught clothes off	about what's not plain	at people in her mind who
as precedent of	what pretence of understanding	saw cruelty of beauty and
breadcrumbs laid trailing	of hardening steeled	(Larionov and Goncharova)
I'm beginning to see how it	what if it all turned in	it's strange nonetheless
might go don't talk what	-side out if skinned	accounting for things
of sonnets on shirts	fox cries for its fur	trying to keep fed a
of the skin of things	fox sharps monstrous fabulous	teleology each day
each day cleaning the filter	rubbish and cherish	hastening towards you
take out the rubbish	such dazzling beauty	now and now and now
accounting for things	could the fox be more	is that the true answer?
devious and interesting	undone without precedent	this now is a true story
how true in a sleepdream	parting and longing	striking like a match
writing around talk of ev-	it's strong and fond	the bread rising
erything quick jump the	more powerful than	strong and fond it's
lazy dog's back	lust which lusts of	soft like your inner thigh
& all the rising nothingness	in the cold yellowish sky	he loves even the dog on
a beetle walking	breaking the journey	the street his beloved lives
across the bed	or sky egg blue	there's a little spy hole
where there's no bedhead	returns to life a dead hero	and even the dog sees
should we be more	swan geese migrating odds	the yellow river the blue
at odds with one another	Mongol Daguur to Yangtze River	river the Yangtze river
	Poyong Lake and Fengsha Lake	afternoon light on the
	the wintering ground	jagged grey mountains
the fractured of days	pupin coils at the ready	no status flayed & visceral
dailiness of microfarads	resisting current resonance	sometimes the hero is cut to
light stray currents	monotonous whine	pieces and put together again
iron grey saturation	electric loneliness	only to read the story's feather
what the poet did or said	like a private letter	tonight the moon's so big
talking of nothing a clod ex	babbling beyond all measure	when pins & needles I sleep
empt our stories words et	hurrying on roses love flee	new phone needs no pupin coils
-iquettes touching	-ting passions eat now!	describe your muscle-thoughts
describe an ashtray	semolina lemon	the yellow beak of day
a heart a muscle	a stilt a letter	he says or so you've had the
a wound a suture	a structure a suture	say-so ten lines tenden-
a letter a stilt	ambition regret	tiousness of song or lilt
babbling beyond all measure	groin crotch and lap	we thinking we
lilt like a private letter	without one of us	know something hidden
I'm half-hearted half-	she wrote it on her groin	the wood grain laps
baked but rising like dough	the paper printed on her lap	& swells
within crystals particles	ultramarine peach slick	unfocused close up (lips) the
move like ants or flocks of birds	stroking the side of your ear	shape of heat bodies make
colloidal suspension	ear is lucent licking your lips	pleach parfait heliotrope flash
something blurted	cobwebs brush the floor	without the yellow beak of
strongest on earth	mysterious mould on the wall	I've come to tell you
a limpet's tooth	to pleasure flies you and me	the sun's warm no scores but
day still over-excited	still exercised still fantasizing	blossom on brick
eat what you're good at
blossom stutters stum	the nightingale's voice	I've come to tell you
-bles more like itself that	and nothing more	I've come to tell you
logic ends in	lucent liquid shivers falls	to seduce you
thumb's prick tongue	I dream your body	flurried particle on particle
my skull-bone flêche	dream of fleshly flesh and	chance alerts you to your life
thighs muscles of this	shivers flurried lead	vibrates along the line
we part and simultaneously	we part and simultaneously	embedded in such varietals
(bird cherry) he's lost &	(bird cherry) he's lost &	to the right of her groin
look what's come to light	look what's come to light	a golden hair
		rude mechanics of limbs
what touch or itch	you think of lips	canto della moscha
what hot and screech	and all around we	screech of lightness
inside outside ver	all around the	small things slip
-min apple-pink skin	we hone ourselves	hairs pollinate
apple-pink skin		palpable sun in an
thin insects' bodies	I've come to you	empty room you
moths combs dust		entering room and sunlight
so purposeless		waiting to be felt
	palpable she notes it
	withal and happy
	impatiently patiently tuned
	static blossoms to fizz

ABOUT:

seekers of lice is an artist and writer working with text through artist's books, poetry, interventions, exhibitions, installations and performance. Recent books include Encyclops. 2014 ( if p then q), and Fly-leaf, which is currently being exhibited in the 7th International Artist's Book Triennial in Vilnius, Lithuania.
seekers of lice has work in many public collections including ten books in the Artists' Book collection at Tate Britain, and has published work in magazines including VLAK, Rattle and onedit.

Karen & and the Interactive Narrative

If you've not met Karen before let me introduce you, she's been my very own life coach for the past few weeks - she has taken me on a very interesting journey.

A message from Karen from Blast Theory on Vimeo.

Karen is real person, who asks you questions over a period of ‘sessions’ to get to know your personality and build up a profile of you from the information gathered. The app is free for iPhone and Android.

When we first meet Karen she shows us her office and sets the first appointment. Exchanges take place face-to-face, as if you were using Skype, and appointments are set according to her schedule, not yours.

First meeting with Karen. Image credit: Blast Theory.

The exchanges aren’t actually happening live (the footage of Karen is pre-loaded), but she responds to what you say and seems to genuinely get to know your character. What's more she is quite unpredictable and the sessions evolve dramatically.

I feel like I am encroaching into 'spoiler' territory here, perhaps it would be best to download Karen, let her get to know you, and come back to this when you’re done. One small warning – she does produce a final report about you, but it costs £2.99 (she could have warned me first!). You don’t necessarily need the final report to enjoy the app though, as she feeds back a lot of this along the way.

Karen likes asking questions. Image credit: Blast Theory.

At its heart Karen is a story, one that evolves over a period of days, about a woman and how she has been shaped by life. By involving us in the narrative (i.e. making us answer psychological questions along the way) we are prompted to draw parallels with our own life and circumstances.

The time-based element of the app (the fact that it evolves unpredictably session by session over days) is an excellent device to draw us into the narrative as it asks us to invest our time and enthusiasm. The fact that Karen is a real person makes her communications seem personal and bring on that pang of excitement we get from real-life interactions.

The naturalistic set-up (i.e. using ordinary-looking locations, real-life scenarios and the Skype-like delivery) give the whole thing an air of authenticity, making the story credible and relevant.

The experience reminded me of the choose-your-own adventure books I read as a kid, but instead of the story being mythical or fantastical, it was down-to-earth and relatable. It made me wonder whether there is a market for choose-your-own fiction for adults? Something that, like Karen, is about real-life choices.

Choose Your Own Adventure books.

The nearest thing I have heard of that sounds similar is a new novel by Iain Pears called Arcadia made exclusively for the Apple app store.


 Chris