Merry Light in the Dark Festival to you all!

I'm signing off from work tomorrow and wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas. May your festive break be a red flower and some spangly lights in the deep shadow of the midwinter. 

Look Up, Look Down, Look Sideways

One of the several hats I wear when I work is that of an arts workshop facilitator. Recently I had the very great pleasure of meeting lots of talented young people at the Museum of London's family festival. Taking inspiration from my interests in walking and digital arts, I encouraged them to look up, look down and look sideways as they travelled around the Museum, taking photographs and tracking themselves using GPS on an iPad. When they returned from their journey we looked at where the satellites thought they'd been and asked whether machines can really know where you are or remember where you've been. Does looking help you find yourself and the camera help you remember? What does your memory look like if you make one picture from it? Below is an overview of the stellar layered artworks I helped them create from their photographs.

Not that I play favourites...but these were some of my favourites.

Because glitter

Can't lie, it's because I was so flattered to be included in this one...(look past the neon skull).

Above and below were created by two sisters from the same walk. I love that they came up with  works that were similar but different from the images they shot together.

The starburst detail of the top image and the additional maps included in this make me very happy indeed.

The children printed off their images to take their art home. They also had the opportunity to further decorate the printouts; I liked the clash of the tactile, analogue world with that of the ephemeral, digital one - and the careful placement of these shiny stickers was so meticulously done!

Afterwards the Museum was kind enough to send me these images as well as the screenshots of the routes everyone walked (or that the bots thought they walked...) 

I am increasingly using walking not only as exercise, but as meditation and as a form of mindful activity aimed at rooting (ha!) myself more fully in my own life. Obviously this then expands into my artistic practice and photographic work because I can't help the one bleeding into the other. I'm making a series of 'walkwork' collages combined with digital drawing and photographs, which you can see some of on my Instagram. I'm not sure whether these 'routes' will be used for anything else in the future or if I will just carry on using them as a jumping-off point but here are several ways of looking at the 33 walks, using a variety of automated editing techniques. 

 
 

I run workshops for cultural organisations and in schools for the most part, but can happily design something for private groups too. Please do get in touch via my website if you are interested in finding out more.

Collapsing time and other photographic tricks

Several months ago I posted about some 'tintypes' I'd been making. This project continues to chug away quietly in the background - I'm finding that only specific sorts of faces work for these portraits, so I am only shooting them when I come across someone who gives me that 'Aha!' sensation. Writer Catherine O'Shea's china-doll colouring somehow works perfectly even in black and white, while artist Ella Hempsted's Pre-Raphaelite hair gives the ideal frame for her face - I'll share these another time when the project feels like it's coming to some kind of fruition. 

Part of the reason I like making these fauxtypes is because of the way they collapse time - smashing past and present together and carrying it forward into the future. My latest subject is interested in the same thing, adding another layer to the images again. 

I'd been following Jordan J. Lloyd's Dynamichrome project online for ages; vintage images are digitally recoloured in astonishing detail, bringing the past vibrantly to life. As a fan, I attended the exhibition that launched the book The Paper Time Machine, created with Wolfgang Wild of Retronaut. Imagine my surprise when, describing the event to my studiomate, she revealed that he was a childhood friend. I jumped at the chance to add Jordan's 'tintype' to the gallery and we met at the Barbican. This itself is a total layer cake of history and I couldn't resist bringing the 'real' camera along to try and capture some of those surfaces - medieval, Brutalist, contemporary - too. Check out the Dynamichrome project online or on Instagram and buy the book! (This video is so worth watching for the jawdropping skills displayed).