The Museum of Everything:

Another fantastic show, this time the Museum was out of it’s Primrose Hill space and had taken up residence in Selfridges (I imagine a fairly contentious choice- but come on, to try and separate art and commerce is just naive and anyway I think these guys genuinely bring something great to the world and the more people that see it the better.)

The show was again outsider art and the obsession and otherness of the work was brought into the space by a series of small, packed rooms similar to previous exhibitions. This was really effective at giving a sense of discovery and strangeness, especially when you consider you were in Selfridges. I wish the book was more similar to the exhibition and less of an art book, although I understand why the work in the book is placed on white spreads and is quite ‘proper’ looking. However there is the digital version of the show for guys like me who enjoy the slightly more chaotic form of the exhibition: http://www.digevery.com/room1.html

Wellcome Collection- A Charmed Life

The standout bit for me in this exhibition was the layout of the charms in the center of the room. I also liked how visible the methods of collection were, (see photo below) where there were gaps from other objects collected at the same time which were now lost- being able to understand a little bit more about an objects story post-use or post-context, once it had entered the world of the ‘collected object’.

Pitt Rivers:

Wonderful as ever.

Ashmolean Museum:

A very well designed space and a nice place to have a walk around. I’m not mad into archeology but there were some great moments throughout the museum. The older part of the museum with the paintings in was entirely different in feel, more chambers and carpet and warmth than the informative, new, open space where you enter.

I really liked this quote in the exhibition about how the museum came to exist, (John Tradescant the elder to John Tradescant the younger to Elias Ashmole to The University of Oxford). On the cabinet of curiosity:

“I am almost persuaded a man might in one daye behold and collecte into one place more curiosities than hee should see if hee spent all his life in travell.”

Design Museum: Terrence Conran

A superbly put together revelatory show which highlighted to me how much Conran has contributed and effected design in the UK.

Design Museum: Designers in Residence

A really good exhibition design to this one. I particularly liked Will Shannon’s reformed chipboard/concrete furniture.

British Museum:

Classic museum going experience. Nice old stone.

On a recent beach walk at Hunstanton I came across these huts. Apparently not available for sale these permanent sheds are passed down through families. I guess I like the romance of rocking up on a blustery day making some tea and hunkering down in a blanket on the porch to read a book. They looked to good not to photograph.

Here follows a select few from a new collection. Acquired complete from a charity shop in Harrogate, these matchbox labels are legitimately allowed to take up vital space in my flat as they are small and can be considered ‘work related’ being as they are graphics. For these reasons they get a pass, that and they are also gorgeous. I love the variations in the same manufacturers labels over time.

I have a problem with collecting- It takes up time and money and space. I’ve come up with a way of dealing with some of these collections and that is to document them and then let them go.  It ties in with an idea I had whilst doing my collections project about sequential collecting. A good example might be the motor enthusiast who has only limited resources and so might decide to own certain cars in succession- a Jaguar E Type then sell it, an Aston Martin DB5 (a step up!) then sell it. I have neither the money or space for very many things, least of all cars- these coins took my fancy. Little metal objects I like and engineering and scientific legends I also like. These coins have now been released back into the wild.

The Bay by Metronomy is a proper music video. Shot entirely in Torqauy (I think- yeah something like that). Great great great.

I’m not one to slap up advertisements normally but I really like these new H&M adverts. I was trying to figure out why I like them- I think it’s to do with economy. I feel like they were cheap to do and the effect of a simple set up of 3 cameras is great- all the value is added in the edit and makes for a series of (I imagine) cheap and effective videos. They succeed in what they are trying to do which is look vibrant and exciting and catch your eye- the nifty visual trick of the 3 cameras is engaging and quirky.

Part of an ongoing project looking at nature and the city. These are photographs of Queenhithe, AKA Bone Island. A beach opposite Tate Modern and The Globe on the Thames.

Physicality, with its weight, smell and tactile interaction, grants a significance that bits have not (yet) achieved. The quickest way to invoke nostalgia for a time past with a photograph is to invoke the properties of the physical, which is done by mimicking the ravages of time through fading, simulated film grain and scratches as well as the addition of what appears to be photo-paper or Polaroid borders around the image.

That an old photo was taken and has survived grants it an authority that the equivalent digital photo taken today cannot achieve. In any case, that the faux-vintage photograph aspires to physicality is only part of why they have become so massively popular.

Quotes taken from Nathen Jurgens interesting piece about The Faux–Vintage Photo Pt 2.

(here follows some badly written but hopefully interesting thinking spawned by this article.)

I wonder if the key is that by allowing the digital image to appear as real and specifically old, it becomes imbued with an inherent value which is associated with effort and specifically time. On the one hand this desire to obtain and own things which contain ‘time-value’ could be seen as an anchor against the fast moving and changing world we live in now. It could also be, (and this is where my pop sci-cology kicks in) that we are scared of death- time is running out and if we can somehow possess, and therefore control time, we can keep it away for that bit longer. Or perhaps, more accuratley, by getting hold of stuff with embued ‘time-value’ we can be seen to be adding gravitas to our own legacy, by extending the perception of our timescale (period we have covered with our life) we can be seen to be more successful or better remembered when we do die.

There is another aspect here- not just to do with faux-vintage, but things with a patina of age (a beautifully rusted garage door, or a worn piece of wooden type). Second hand objects in general (some more than others of course) can be seen to be carriers of ‘time-value’ but the way this value is traded is is stories and narrative. The objects acquired at a junk market have had a life of their own before I get hold of them and by purchasing them (and here real currency plays little role in time, It could have be expensive or cheap the effect is the same) I acquire their unknown story, narrative and history with it. In that way the buyer can feel like they are acquiring time.