Portfolio Panic!

Yesterday, I decided to apply for a Diploma in Visual Arts at RMIT.
Exciting, yes?

Well, at 2.40 next week, which is 175 hours away from the time of posting, I will be presenting a potrtfolio of artistic work consisting of about 20 works to a panel of 3.

Currently I have... 0 works.
Terrifying.

But it's ok. I have decided to be very honest about this, and to put together a "7 day portfolio", which I intend to make the story of me. Which will be much like the story of O, but less erotic.

Wish me luck!
I will post my progress (or lack thereof)...

Inspiration: Amatuer Art.

Thought Audit

Since my sacking, I have been feeling pretty good - but just finding it a little hard to relax. I have been doing a little meditation course, and it seems that the first step to mind control is just to listen to your thinking: a thought audit.

Well, I tried listening, but I'd forget I was listening and just end up thinking. So I tried a bit of writing. I'll admit there was some beer involved. It helped.

Brief: The Screens

Well, here it is. I have been thinking of working as an artist slash designer for some time, and now is the time to stop thinking and start acting. All creative work needs a purpose, some structure - a brief. I have been inspired by lots of different themes and ideas. But finally, they have all come together as one.

So, here dear reader is my brief.

My studies in Architecture and in New Media had parallel themes. In architecture we were interested in the division of space (internal/external, private/public etc) and of the framing of views. In New Media, my thesis dealt with the mediation of emotion, particulary relating to global media events such as the war on terrorism. Persitent in all of these themes were the presence of screens.

Be they a fly screen, a tv screen. The screen is a multi media interface. It represents a shift in thought, evokes a shift in feeling and hence in behaviour.

At the essence a screen will filter light (information). But we have a multitude of uses of them. Sometimes we project onto screens, sometimes we use them as protection, or as devices of deception, as smoke screens. Sometimes screening is a process of interrogation.

The brief is to develop screens that challenge people's thinking of the screen as interface. To work across media - be it mesh or glass or light or sound or vapour or timber or cord or fabric or material. It is also to work with the idea of art enmeshed with the everyday. So to create beautiful, attainable, useful works producable for lots of different people.

Time to get to work! This is just a draft, so expect it to get updated..

This pic is of a page in a magazine, Art Review. I should have more details of the artist.. But I don't. Naughty!

Goodbye Natasha

Today, my beautiful friend Natasha leaves to undertake humanitarian work in Darfur, Sudan.

I fear for her life, but beneath the fear is a knowing that Darfur needs Natasha, and Natasha needs Darfur.

I love you with all my heart. I'm always with you, and you are always with me. Wierdly, today we both cross our own frontiers. We were blessed to have some time together late last year. I loved it. When you are strong and brave, it holds me to the same thinking. Nothing is unachievable. We might work on the other sides of the planet in different directions, but we work together.

Go forth.

Sacked

So, I lost my job last week. It's never nice having others make your choices for you, but in this case, I feel no anger and little sadness. I am a little apprehensive, but I figure it's time to put my priorities in order.

It's time to get real.