Time Flies...

…when you’re in the midst of a global pandemic. I just came on here to do a bit of maintenance and realised I’ve not blogged yet THIS YEAR. Which I’m going to consciously change, starting not…

So, I’ve ditched the ‘Happening Now’ bit from the site. It’s a bit like trying to run two blogs about the same thing on the same site, so it makes sense for one of them to go. I’ll just make sure I update this more, and I’ll tag on the last ‘Happening Now’ post at the end of this blog too, for context…

The main thing I’ve been working away on is the Eden Arts project I’m doing with Gordon Dalton. We’ve been trying to reach out to folks who live along the A66, which is an interesting task to set yourself when the entire nation is in lockdown and no-one can go anywhere or meet anyone. But not things are opening up a bit, we’ll be making the drive both ways along the A66 in the week of April 19th. Very much looking forward to it. If you are in that are, please drop me a line as we’d love to say hello (in person, or virtually).

The other thing, I’ve been writing some music for a project I’ve been planning with Dr Tom Cardwell for way to long now - based on ‘The Four Branches of the Mabinogion’ and Black Metal - two surprisingly logical bedfellows. More to follow…

I’ll leave it there for now, but rest assured I’l be posting more often from now on.

(the last ‘Happening Now’ post…

There are a few key things happening at the moment; I’ve just been commissioned by Eden Arts to make a new project with my occasional collaborator, Gordon Dalton; development is well underway on the second stage tender for the St David’s/Ferns public art project with Alan Phelan; and the new permanent work I started this time last year in Middlesbrough should be coming to fruition this spring.

So, the biggest news is the Eden Arts commission. We’re both excited by its potential, partly as it will give us the opportunity to revisit (in some way) our ‘Everyone Knows This is Nowhere’ project from 2007. Essentially, the project will take the form of a road trip along the A66, from East to West - but rather than taking a road trip in to a nostalgic past, as we did in 2007, it’s a road trip in to the unknown future and landscape of a post-Brexit, pandemic Britain. We’ve already commissioned the project logo from Christophe Szpajdel, whose work will from part of the project through an exhibition in Middlesbrough. Watch this space for updates…

There’s nothing major to report on the St David’s/Ferns tender partly as we don’t want to give our ideas away in this competitive process, but it’s been interesting so far; in part, the complexities of being part of a process set across sites in two different countries when no-one is allowed to travel.

Finally, the Middlesbrough project. I can’t recall if I ever posted about it on here, but its basically a new neon drawing/sculpture based on the history of the Middlesbrough Meteorite, which struck the town in 1881. It all got put on hold as the pandemic descended last March but, I believe, it’s all due to start up again this spring.)

Happy Christmas/Nadolig Llawen

It’s nearing that time of year, and I probably won’t get round to making another blog post this year, so best wishes from me, to you, for the holidays.

As a special treat here’s a link to a video of half of Thin Lizzy and half of the Sex Pistols performing a Xmas song on Top of the Pops a long time ago. I had no idea this had happened until about 10 minutes ago, so here you are (you’re welcome):

Here’s to a better 2020 for all of us.

Take care.

To Go Invisible?

There’s a bunch of interesting work-related things that I need to update on here, which I will get to in a separate post, but I just wanted to get this down whilst the thoughts are fresh - and confused - in my mind.

We all hate social media, right? It’s a digital sinkhole that steals your time and your ability to properly engage with things. It’s turning us all in to morons, but we largely view it as a necessary evil, or a bit of fun, or an essential tool to engage in creative discussions (which really means posting your stuff on instagram in the belief that it means the world won’t forget you.) But I honestly think we’ve reached the point where we need to have a much more serious discussion (with each other and ourselves) about the considerably wider problems of social media and how it’s not just destroying our brains but is also destroying the world (I’ll come back to this).

I’ve been thinking about this a fair bit since I had the pleasure(ish) and good fortune to listen to Adam Buxton’s podcast with Shoshana Zuboff. It’s a scary and fascinating interview, where she discusses some of the key themes that run through her book ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’. Hear the interview, read the book. Many of the things she touches on are things we think we already know, but it really lays out the incredibly sinister web we all willingly leap in to every time we go online. She also appears as a talking head in the recent Netflix documentary, ‘The Social Dilemma’. It’s 1 hour and 45 mins long, which I guarantee is less time than you’ve spent looking at your smartphone today, so put your phone down and go and watch it.

I’m aware the documentary has had varied reviews, but as a starting point to begin rethinking and reeducating yourself about your own use of social media, I think it’s a great place to start. Most of the talking heads on there are people who have worked very high up in tech companies - the same tech companies that the documentary covers - so there’s a sense that it’s, at least, based on ideas from people who know what they’re talking about (fair enough, they might just have beef with their former employers, but let’s assume that’s not all of them).

One of the main things it discusses is how every moment we spend online is being used by algorithms to develop a more and more accurate model by which it can predict our next action - and in turn influence that next action. We kind of know that don’t we, but how often do we really think about it? One of the leading voices in the documentary discusses how this is creating an existential threat to humanity. Of course, the apps and us using them aren’t creating that threat in-and-of-themselves, but the wider societal impact they are having (such as our near total dislocation from concrete notions of truth due to fake news and misinformation) can, and currently looks like it will, lead to the destruction of democracy and, ultimately, humanity’s downfall. This is our lead in the water pipes moment. Even as I type this, I’m aware that it sounds like it’s bordering on conspiracy theory, but if you want one very quick example of this rapid decline, I’d urge you to go and watch Adam Curtis’s ‘HyperNormalisation’ documentary, which you can find on iPlayer.

That documentary came out in October 2016 - three months after the Brexit referendum and two month’s before Trump’s inauguration. When you watch it now, only four years on, it sounds pretty much like a prediction. The things that, four years ago, sounded so shocking in it, in relation to the power of disinformation etc., are now things we can see having a profound effect on our democracy on a daily basis.

I’ve digressed a bit from my original reason for this post, but it’s important to contextualise it. It’s impossible to inform yourself about this stuff and not be moved to see social media as one of the biggest existential threats we face today. But then what do we do about it? Our individual use of it feels a bit like the old idea of dropping rubbish - ‘my one bit of rubbish won’t make any difference’ - but then if everyone says that we end up buried under rubbish.

I closed my Facebook account a few months ago. I was bored by Facebook a long time before that, but in the middle of lockdown found myself scrolling it regardless, so decided to get rid of it. In honesty, I’ve not missed it, at all. The only thing I was concerned about was whether some of the more distant acquaintances I have on there, who I genuinely really like, would think I’d unfriended them. (Which I didn’t, if you’re reading this.) So, today, I’ve deleted the Twitter and Instagram apps from my phone, after posting messages directing people towards this website. I’ve no intention of ever going back to them, but this raises the question behind the title of this post - is it actually possible to be an artist or creative or self-employed business-person in this day and age without engaging with those platforms?

My website will become the sole online space through which I can communicate with the world and the world can, digitally, engage with me. But how does somebody drive traffic to their website if they’re not doing it through those other platforms? Is this decision financial suicide, in terms of getting commissions, exhibitions etc., as I’ll become all-but-invisible to the majority of people accessing those platforms?

It’s an interesting question, and one I guess I’m going to find out the answer to. With any luck it will drive me here more and make this blog more active but, again, to what ends if I can’t then shout about the fact I’ve posted a new blog via Twitter?

Check back in from time to time, see how I’m doing, and I’ll update you how it appears to be working out. If you remember I exist at all.

James Dean Bradfield - Even in Exile

I just posted this over on ‘Happening Now’ then realised it should really be a blog post, so here it is…

It’s finally out of the bag so I can shout it from the rooftops, but I’ve spent the first half of this year working on the artwork and design for a new solo album by James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers. As any of you who know about my life-long obsession with rock music will appreciate, it’s pretty much a dream gig for me.

You can preorder the album in its various formats from today HERE

If you want to hear some music from the album there are several tracks available on the usual streaming platforms, or you can watch this great moody video below, directed by Kieran Evans, for my personal favourite, ‘There’ll Come a War’.

The album is inspired by the Chilean singer-songwriter-activist, Victor Jara, who was murdered in the first days of the Pinochet regime, with lyrics written by Patrick Jones. If you want to know more, a great documentary popped up on Netflix earlier this year about Jara, called ‘Massacre at the Stadium’.

The Murenger and Other Stories

One of the things I’ve been working on this year is imminently being release on the world, in the form of a book cover and some images/illustrations inside the book.

Earlier this year I was apparoached by the writer Jon Gower who asked if I’d be interested in making some work in response to a new series of short stories he’d been writing. I’ve known Jon for a few years and was excited, in part, by the proposition of working with him, but also in using the site of a book as a space for which to make work. Things moved pretty quickly in the end and the book is already ready to be released.

It will be launched at The Murenger House, Newport, on Wednesday Dec 4th at 7.30pm. All are welcome and it will be a chance to buy copies of the book, which I’m sure Jon may even sign for you. I’ll be there too.

If you can’t make it to the launch, you can buy the book from various bookstores and also direct from the publishers - https://threeimpostors.co.uk/