Accidental Post: I love Photography. It is so Exciting.

I painted a lot when I was a boy. I have always used photography. When I was seven, I was given a simple camera. I would get my friends to pose in pretend fights or group bicycle crashes and then capture the contrived looking scenes. Capturing single frames from a situation in apparent motion was what interested me most.

Later I bought a cheap SLR and learnt all about aperture, exposure, shutter speed, depth of field, motion blur, focal length, focus, lens angle and film speed. Later still I saved up and bought a second-hand Russian enlarger and developing and printing kit and turned our family toilet, much to the others' frustration, into a temporary dark room. The process was incredibly laborious and inefficient but exciting. As a teenager I was sometimes paid to take photographs and was assistant photographer on the Tour of Ireland Cycle Race for example which involved hanging out of cars and from motorbikes. Capturing single frames from a situation in motion was what interested me most.

Then I felt like I was part of a skilled minority. Now everyone takes photographs but curiously I still feel special in relation to the phenomenon of photography, having seen its radical transformation with the advent of digital technologies. I discussed the relationship between contemporary photography and painting historically with a group of students recently and found the conversation hugely stimulating. It amazes me how little of the basics of photography, or lens based vision generally, picture takers and makers understand, or feel they need to understand. Very few really appreciate what depth of field is for example and how that accidental characteristic might be advantageous in helping human subjects discern what is important in a scene. It amazes me how something so incredible as photography philosophically, historically and most importantly politically can be taken for granted. The meanings of photography become even more substantial and un-overlook-able when you consider moving image and animation. I make animations and use video, like many, and use still photography for research and to document the dynamics. It is also interesting to consider the spectrum from highly dynamic situations to those where moving image begins to approach still, the movements or fluctuations are slight, less spectacular.

Examples of photographic work I am currently engaged with are as follows: a series of related prints I make at a rate of one per year; the Now Man/No Man exercise which is about the relationship between human being and camera; a plan to utilise the photographs traffic wardens take of illegally parked cars and finally I'm working on something triggered by one in a series (the only one I can now find in fact) of pictures I took of my mother's rusting Datsun 120Y during the more impoverished, pre-Tiger-Economy, period in Ireland. Amusingly this is a car she now refuses to admit was hers. I also worked for artist Peter Seddon and Curator Barry Baker on a project which involved bringing photographs and still drawings to life through subtle use of animation/simulation techniques. This work was exhibited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes from Nov. 2007 to Feb. 2008.

Barthes and others wrote positively about the idea of amateurism. Alternatively there are criticisms of the contemporary situation or 'the cult of the amateur'. I was too scientifically conscious of what I was doing with cameras in the past. In more recent years I relaxed with photo-taking and learnt to use the various technologies differently. I’m fascinated by the wider meaning of photography and the possibility of subverting understandings of it. With 3D Modelling Software you can create a scene and using the virtual camera actually turn Perspective off for example! The technique, or fact of, Perspective is potentially oppressive in my opinion, was taken very seriously for the first time during the Renaissance which corresponded, of course, to the advent of Bourgeois Society. The power to switch Perspective off then I associate, naively perhaps, with an undermining of that order. Photography is a weapon of revolution. Paradoxically, photography now, because knowledge of how it can be manipulated is widespread, and secondly because of the enormous quantitative increase in image capturing, gives us more Truth. If you believe in that kind of thing.

I saw it:

Where it all went wrong

The most famous painting in the world
Behind the smile lies the curse.
Familiarity looses meaning, she is
An example of what art has become.
"What binds these glittery baubles?"
-The shift is all about money
A story is watched, unfolding
Seen with growing disgust.
It is the vast inflation
Effect, and intanglement.
The Curse and the death of experience.


This curse has infected entirely
The contemporary demise of
Cutting edge work.
From new york or the desert of
Writing about art.
A long time ago, Florence the
Great centre of art and patronage
Destroyed. Inclined to help?
Help with the salvage of the after
Confirmed that art is more than life
There is no choice but to watch
The curse and the death of indifference.

www.1st-art-gallery.com/Eugene-Delacroix/Liberty-Leading-The-People-(28th-July-1830)-1830.html

Clarification

Concerning the nature of conflict between 'art' that exists on the street, or in the city vis a vis art that exists in gallery spaces falling under the jurisdiction of the set.

It is important to realise that 'endorsed' art spaces like Phoenix, Grey Area, Permenant, and Fabrica are excluded on the basis that it can be assumed that these spaces provide their own 'dialogues' relating to the art they present. It is not the duty of the set to stifle the presence of discussion around the city by focusing on already established spaces.

It is within the remit of the set however, to find discussion about art where art is presented without it. The 'unendorsed' space - The obvious place for this is the street or the 'outside wall'. The distinction between art/non art relating to whether something is in a gallery or not hinders expression. It removes the possibility of discussion. Additionally, places whereby art hangs as phantom object inside spaces such as KraneKalman, who conribute to the discussion regarding art by simply affirming the 'gallery as shop' hypothesis. It is the intention of the set to not ignore or treat lightly the content of what is sold, and this applies to any wall in any building, available for use.

Seafront Sculpture

Before: After:

Why?

O dear

It appears that 'o contemporary' are no more. A sign on the door informs us of the impending move to place called London W1. This might not be a disaster, for two reasons. Firstly it brings about the possibility of a 'non-review' or something called 'when the shutters go down'. Secondly I think it would be interesting for the doomsbury set to keep an eye on the comings and goings at 'O' over the next few months - my money is on an internet cafe / espresso bar. Just the thing trafalgar street needs...

Call for Submissions

The schedule of dates, times for submissions to Tik Tok, publication of The Doomsbury Set http://doomsburyset.blogspot.com/ are as follows:

1) Wednesday 27th August: Latest date for selection of topic/subject.
2) Wednesday 3rd September: Progress update on submissions
3) Wednesday 17th September, 5pm: Copy Date for final submissions

You can begin now with 1 above immediately obviously and as soon as that’s writing can begin obviously. Either propose a subject yourself or select from one of the following topics we a commissioning:

1) Brighton outlet for Crane Kalman http://www.cranekalmanbrighton.com/
2) O Contemporary http://www.ocontemporary.co.uk/
3) Mad Hatter http://www.themadhattercafe.co.uk/
4) Graffiti on Kensington Street
5) The work of a painter who is also a part time librarian at City College

Our intention is to pay writers but this depends on our success with funding application initially. We will definitely pay writers @ £13 per 100 words if they choose one of the 5 subjects above.

We are looking for 500 to 1000 word pieces maximum.

Currently we are discussing videoing readings at the various sites to be included as DVD video with the publication.

The key aim is to look at ‘unendorsed art’. For guidelines read: http://doomsburyset.blogspot.com/2008/07/from-tonights-meeting-between-no.html

e-mail proposals and texts to: doomsbury@mocksim.org or tiktoc@doomsbury.org

Banking

The Minutes:

Our Financial Expert & Advisor:

Before opening bank account:

After:

The Constitution:

$

Ah, At the Apex of 'what it is' to be at a meeting with two thirds of the set. Furthermore, Mocksim and I, lord lloyd did very much accomoplish achievements. Lines were drawn and things placed either side of these lines regarding "timetables". The prospect of October looms as 'an un event' - dvd -glorious/technicolour/voiceover/shostakovich.

tiktoc, tik - toc the '-' seems unnecessary. A publication and an un event. The constitution/logo/ethos/mission statement/guidelines were heralded in and, with assistance from the suitably officious, as it was 16.53, Rosemary Miller, the Doomsbury Set established a financial bolthole!

Glory of Glories, the only cloud was the fact that Italy was absent.

ONWARD!

Interest

Huge interest in this. Over 15 want to contribute already and we'd been aiming for 10.

John Peel Memorial

Sample: http://interface.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/442585

Second Meeting

From tonight's meeting we formulated a set of guidelines for choice of subject matter and approach as advise for those creating texts and as a framework for our own thinking. This code which might be changed, developed or adapted at a later stage is summarised as follows:

1) Initially we are limiting ouselves to subjects in Brighton, East Sussex, 'U'K (though writers can come from a wider area).

2) The subject should be an item of 'non-endorsed' art. i.e. work which is not typically found in, what are considered to be, the more serious art spaces (Fabrica, Lighthouse, Grey Area, Permanent Gallery, Pheonix, University of Brighton Gallery, Brighton & Hove Museum, Public Art etc). More likely the items will be found in an 'open-house', a café, a small, possibly commercial, gallery or it is graffiti or street art.

3) Design or 'functional' objects such as lamp-posts, bins, advertising or buildings will not be considered at this stage. The subject is more likely to be seen as art, or less easily definable in terms of a practical use. Potentially these are seen by the 'producers' or 'consumers' as examples of decoration or expression, but not necessarily so.

4) We are not art critics. This is writing 'with' the art.

5) Potentially the subjects chosen are enormously problematic in terms of significance or quality but the approach ought to be open minded enough not to dismiss crudely any work.

6) Writers can select subjects and propose these to the Doomsbury Set or alternatively ask for suitable pieces to be assigned to them.

7) Our aim is to pay writers (£13 per 100 words) and request pieces of 500-1000 words maximum.

8) The first publication date will be November 17th 2008 (or October 25th Julian Calendar). Copy date and other deadlines will be set in due course.

9) A number of meta-texts will be included i'e' texts relating to other texts in the same issue.