Reflective Practice by Laura Harris

Art in Academia.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-10-31 23:57:27 UTC

I'm struggling to put the two together. I did before in 2007-10.
There's something I can't grasp within established institutions. On one hand, I'm grateful art is acknowledged as actual intelligence at a higher level-- learning on a continuum unlike in school where it is either discounted altogether or is valued only as an extra curricular subject. Art being taken seriously as a profession is still laughable today probably more than it was in the past, though, it was what my old peers believed in. In fact it's what we dreamed of: to work in the 'real world' doing what we love best, which of course involves others and revolution on a large or relatively small scale; it doesn't matter which we were determined to work through our failures. To fail was to achieve success and autonomy. On the other hand art practice or learning dependent on or within the institution i.e uni, gallery, council, art market, becomes a hoax. I've decided my position is a) no longer to be 'cherry' about being an artist regardless of situation, circumstances or status, and b), to be interdependent in forming relations with the institution. Never a conformist, I'M AGONISING with this framework of expectations, deadlines and 'what to do lists' here. However, if the institutions don't shift their power to everyday people and affect life in the present day, how else will both worlds ever come together. Thus the power of 'knowledge' remains imperialistic.
I need to keep going regardless of my split mind about art being institutionalised. And it's certainly time to take action.

Writer Laurie Stone answers my post on FB about artists struggle.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-01 00:42:31 UTC

"It is a thing of beauty when people gather to work hard and fall in love with each other's voices simply for the joy of it. "

Notes on Social Art Summit tuned in Live to panel discussion.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-01 16:41:52 UTC

Just finished watching the socially engaged art in higher education lab at the Social Art Summit taken place at Site gallery in Sheffield. The panel talking about the complications and challenges within the institutions and the making of new courses on the subject. Really glad I got to tune in live online. The open discussion and questions from people working within institutions put many of my anxieties about assessment, input and output and structure at bay for now.

My favourite comments from the panel about socially engaged practice were:
It is not made up as you go along necessarily it does have a history. It's been happening since the neolithic cave times throughout social endeavour and collaboration. This is what made art, religion, cinema. What's important is what makes it relevant today the social context, social society . What society are we creating?

It is a deeper practice than public art , community art. It's not just about art.

The context is everything. Interrogate the space we are in because otherwise people put on ppl thinking the transformation has to happen "out there" instead of actual transformation "here". What goes in the glass and what surrounds the glass, why is/place the glass here? -- these range of practices work after a long time , it is like a screwdriver unscrewing the screws.

My faith restored.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-01 17:02:00 UTC

My classmates they are more than my friends they are my supporters, my critics. Or else I evaporate.

The more I move, the more I read. The more I read, the more I am moved.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-05 01:53:11 UTC

Time to get moving!

P.S I miss "teaching", or rather, learning from little ones.

Though over the past few months I'm more drawn to working with older teens and young adults. I just think throughout that transition from intense adolescence and forming identity to jumping in at the deep end into over pressurised adulthood, where the individual is literally thrown into the world with no/little support isn't fair. An opportunity has come up to mentor a young person. I want to but a) how b) what can I do plus am I responsible enough? c) my resources i.e capacity: energy and time i'm limited now until next year anyway. I'd spread myself out too thinly I reckon if I take on anymore change/challenges.

On ETHICS. Btw I'm cheating by reposting my FB posts. It's easier to write in front of an "audience" they see my flaws in crafting something in real time. They seem to want to chip in too when they can, and this motivates/grounds me. I find the opening process creates a better sense of direction overall.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-05 18:21:10 UTC

Art isn't religion. As an artist it's not my job to be concerned with morals. Admittedly i can come across sometimes as "preachy". Ethics though is at the centre of the relationships I form within a conversational framework which changes all the time, even daily. I speak to ppl in public and on most occasions ppl talk to me to what appears to be "off the cuff". I dnt know a lot of the ppl i'm talking with very well at all but the ethics primarily focuses on navigation via participation by two bodies being and doing together; including the opportunity to leave at any point.
From my position my language communicates my own boundaries and intentionally gives space for understanding that each person i engage with is treated as an individual who i can learn from. This is unconditional from the very beginning, otherwise interaction is forced. The writing continues the learning process by means of reflection and imagination.
Individuals go from being to becoming in a shared dialogue which I would suggest is shared ownership of creative output and context. However, when someone asks me to comment on such and such beliefs that's where i draw the line and say i cant comment coz otherwise conversations are just an argument or agreement of conformity so there's no space for key development of persons, another reason why ethics need to be fluid and change moment to moment. The main thing is to be aware of this and accountable for any errors needing to be addressed and followed up by a thorough risk assessment.

I wish politicians did risk assessments.

Looking @ Nicholas Bourriaud again thinking i'll buy the book 'relational ""... then I came across something far more appealing:

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-07 00:31:18 UTC

Nicholas Bourriad ctd

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-07 01:02:38 UTC

I downloaded the free relational aesthetics pdf online and surprisingly found another book by him which is more interesting because it mentions psychoanalysis.

'Author of the influential Relational Aesthetics examines the dynamics of ideology

Nicolas Bourriaud is a leading theorist and art curator. Here he looks to the future of art as a place to tackle the excluded, the disposable, and waste—the exform.

He argues that the great theoretical battles to understand the present will be fought in the realms of ideology, psychoanalysis and art and a “realist” theory and practice must begin by uncovering the mechanisms that create the distinctions between the productive and the unproductive, the assimilable and the inassimilable, and the includ-ed and the excluded.

To do this we must go back to one of the greatest theorists of ideology, Althusser, and examine how ideology conditions political discourse in ways that normalize cultural, racial and economic practices of exclusion.'

Text:Margaret Mead

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-07 03:45:58 UTC

Image: The Bolsheviks

Community meeting @ the Spectrum Centre 4 end of NOV, 26/11/2018 15:00

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 00:12:22 UTC

I sent an email out 6 days ago with a form I had completed attached to enquire about provisionally booking the community theatre. I rang them today to follow up, and literally arranged a meeting with Lisa & Anna within minutes. At the meeting I will present my 'pigeon post' project for feedback in order to gauge suitability in relation to folk who use the centre. Then afterwards there will be time 4 Q&As. I will need to co-create the logistics for all this. Also, i'm amazed how sometimes a phone call suffices pretty well. I think email is perhaps becoming a bit outdated now. People need to hear others' voices clearly & form a response by igniting their own.

Meeting the NGL community UK & US

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 01:34:36 UTC

I need to email a paragraph about what I need support on/with this Sunday to Verene Nicholas who has kindly offered to provide a coaching session and who works on behalf of the NGL community. I have scheduled a VC meeting with her for Friday 23rd NOV @ 3pm via Zoom. There's a possibility NGL members from the US might tune in. I'm currently not a member; I went to one of Verene's workshops over summer in Glasgow and now want to know more about non-violent communication. Particularly, how I can transfer this language into my social art practice when it comes to working with other ppl in the community. And also when working and communicating about sensitive and difficult topics, negotiating parameters, and healthy debating admist complex areas in discussions within the institutions.

Miki Kashtan's blog about her NGL work.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 01:51:11 UTC

Social change mag 4 Writers Collective.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 01:59:50 UTC

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 03:30:27 UTC

In terms of structuring the reading lists. I'm going to read one chapt a day of 3 books, 1 for each module early in the morning. Articles for responding etc I'll study on the day of the seminar while the questions that emerge remain still fresh in my head. I have to read for pleasure too so will do this in the evening. When I've stop reading for the joy of it I struggle with processing text to form meaning and lose focus quickly. Words then "are meaningless and forgettable " - 'Enjoy the Silence' by Depeche Mode. Ive read a lot recently and forget 90 per cent of content when I stop reading essentially for my well-being.

Video illuminates well rounded public interaction.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 21:53:34 UTC

Psychoanalysis is deeply rooted within culture and language. People in Vienna are asked to talk about what they think psychoanalysis is and who Freud was.

The New Yorker article by Joshua Rothman

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 22:05:25 UTC

If there’s a big idea in “Becoming Freud,” it’s that psychoanalysis is about communication—about what Phillips calls “sociability”—more than it’s about a cure. It’s a way of helping people speak for themselves (or of helping them figure out how they are already speaking). There’s a sense in which, for Phillips, Freud’s work was a kind of rebellion—against medicine, against society, against one’s own false sense of orderliness. (Freud sought “to account for—something starkly pertinent for the Jews of Freud’s generation—what one makes of what one is forced by.”) But Freud’s rebellion differed from that of the modernist artists he was surrounded by. It was more like the subtle, ambivalent rebellion of the translator or the critic.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 22:16:07 UTC

"The programme seeks to revive collective social responsibility and common purpose through deliberation and public commitments."

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-08 22:29:17 UTC

"Bruguera is also Tate Exchange’s Lead Artist for its 2018-19 activity year, which is inspired by the theme of ‘movement’. Her residency at Tate Exchange addresses not just the physical movement of people, but the emotional journey from the far away and unknown ‘other’ to the close-by neighbour."

"Surrealism was underneath my skin." Currently, it's become a sub-reality not to be ignored entirely but also not to be taken too seriously either. It's a question of creative positioning. For the imagined to become real is the awakened dream: cultural revolution in fruition, a devoted actioning to take place, and I am fully awake actioning away @ 3.40 am.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-10 03:36:49 UTC

During reading week and specifically after speaking with Jen (my study buddy )over the phone, I freaked out knowing fully well I had to break up with my affiliation with my surrealist peers; those artists who have long been gone and the surrealists from all around the world, who openly share their work in the Global FB Surrealists group. Immediately I get to envisage their desires, hopes and fears, it's been daily pleasure of mine for some time. After being an underground surrealist for 20 years bound to psyche interaction I realised not so much that I must leave surrealism behind to become more socially engaged or attuned to the social art practice realm but rather simply change the image I had of my position within the infinite movement itself. I no longer identify totally as a surrealist anymore because that situated loss has come about due to the formation of new humanistic bonds by being introduced to new peers with their own interests. Plus what's most intriguing is their actual demeanour. Instead of ditching the surrealist school of thought altogether, I have through the awakening dream discovered a social collective conscious which was previously withheld unconscious.

A weekend of action and networking ahead. 1st to Aberdeen to the LUX event "On sharing, separations". Then on Sunday I'm taking part in a screendance workshop with the inclination to improve my video art practice, which tbh is looking a bit flat right now. Nonetheless, I need to upload my 'rituals' up to Vimeo at some point. Since doing a social media detox I'm realising most my ritual vid are online embedded in that format. So technically Instagram and Facebook own my work as I can't get it back by way of downloading it again Onwards and upgrading to tbc!

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-10 04:24:42 UTC

I talk in surrealist manifestos. Still the same tone.

Missing Laurie Stone posts on FB }sob{ virtual loss.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-10 04:40:00 UTC

Alas, I have an atlas of stories to respond to, and equally, a shared social responsibility to present my own material. Not forgetting the non material that those cannot bear witness to. Yes to make material so people can understand or to create a space so ppl can feel they can be understood is important yet understanding isn't the outcome; the in/action is. Side note: distractions are my only competition.

Good news: I am no longer avoiding Padlet.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-10 04:50:29 UTC

Bad news: I've substituted by addiction to FB for Padlet! Nae - er saw THAT ONE COMING [jokes].

Swearing means 'process is here to stay'; until something is resolved or unforgivingly changed.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-10 05:02:13 UTC

#embodied artivism

Idea #1

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-10 05:10:24 UTC

Nothing is old, nothing is new. Everything already exists. It/art just hasn't been created yet.

First insight

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-10 06:25:54 UTC

My work isn't a "project" in a world full of projection . My art is formed through social immersion and subversion. To experience: nature, the unconscious, dance. The transformation throughout life is the art itself. The formation of transformative art emerges from an endless series of captivating dialogues between a couple dozen players supporting different teams, who regardless of background, come together on fields of
grass & goals.

Incredible screendance workshop with dance artist Natalia Barua today. Was a pleasure to dance with her and all the others on stage, around Eden Court and outdoors in public. Exhausted but will write up what I learnt soon. 100 % the best activity i've done in Inverness so far!

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-11 18:34:12 UTC

Storytelling

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-11 18:39:28 UTC

Had so many incredible coversations with ppl recently. my general rule is to write them up the next day or else they become a distance memory and then too vague to recall. I've lost about 5 potential stories but it's ok coz i'm focussed on assignments, and learning new practice techniques. The suppression of dialogue is frustrating but i'll hold up.

Moving Image commissions going @ LUX

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-11 18:45:24 UTC

At "On sharing, separations" I met the artist Tako Taal, plus curator Sean Elder who is originally from Nairn, which I found interesting. Again too tired to type up what I have learned just now. Eve smith programme manager from LUX Scotland spoke about two opportunities for artists to collaborate with eachother and with BBC Sct . I'll look into it but reckon it's far too early days for me yet to participate. Highlight of the night was when I was sat at the front and the artist's mum started a convo with me b4 the performance started. She's a herbalist and gave me her contact details. When I saw her in the film I felt like I was in a dialogue between the moving images, her mother, artist & curator. Physically we formed a
landscape in the inhibited space itself.

'Place sensitive performance'

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-13 18:21:48 UTC

Diane from Dance North Scotland recommended the 'Into the Mountain' project in response to my email this morning. It's simply stunning. My mind has been blown away by all the intricate components and diversity of the terrain, activity & participants involved.

An "invisible" need

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-13 18:41:39 UTC

Physical space meets virtual.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-15 00:13:47 UTC

Went into UHI today for the first time. Slightly shocked at the lack of people in the art department and v. little resources. I taught in a preschool room once which was the same size and yet had more art supplies. I don't know y ppl would honestly bother doing a BA in art there. It made LJMU look like a palace in comparison. I then felt lucky. On the plus side the two art students I met were inspirational in that they just got on with it.

One student was informed. From him I learned there are sad rules like if you want to loan a camera you have to get your lecturer to come with you to witness you take equipment out. Also there was one wall for exhibits but you had to get permission if you wanted to stick up a postik note.

I think i'm missing something here.

I did have a dream a week ago about mentoring some fine art students there. I dunno, I mean at the time I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or simply make do.

The cleaners talked a lot. I wanted to clean with them. They exchanged smiles as I tuned into my online seminar. As I left, I used the sleeve of my coat to dust the banister until I had reached the bottom of the stairs.

I felt a sense of relief knowing I can use this physical space, although the virtual learning environment is a much happier one.

All the ASSessments still to do.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-15 19:17:07 UTC

I hope I can get through it all. so much to do and so busy life wise. Mainly socio-economic pressures honestly i need a miracle right now. If i fail i hope i can still continue. Not giving up just yet. I might be out of my depth here but i've got nothing to lose.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-16 04:01:01 UTC

She is amazing. Simply love her.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-17 18:44:51 UTC

" Writers are deeply invested in the work of metaphors and myth-making; people carry these metaphors around, live by them, often subconsciously: hence the influence they have on our political lives. “The premise of democracy is that we have to be self-aware,” Tokarczuk continues, “in order to make decisions.”

I do all these, all the time, everyday.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-19 01:09:51 UTC

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-21 00:27:58 UTC

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-21 00:30:16 UTC

'Becoming Animal' film @ Eden Court.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-23 15:28:30 UTC

What stood out most from the short doc I watched yesterday "Becoming Animal" is that animals use all their senses to form language,embodied language which understands or speaks to 'space'; the environment in which they live in and to be aware of their surroundings to aid survival. Humans on the other hand use 'time' measured by events in the 'past,present,future' to confirm their existence, one ( in mind) that is detached from the ecosystem, the earth. So an artist I would argue is more interested in space than time, because space is visceral like how the animals perceive it to be from the body. For example, if I look at a bird flying and follow its movement with my eyes I see from the bird's movement a new perception, I can move my arms in the same way in space. Feelings of experiencing this motion is how humans learned to invent the aeroplane. Similarly when I touch a tree, the tree is touched by me, there are two points of view being crossed in relation to each other. So nature is life full of living organisms, living from thousands of povs in space. Creativity expresses the intimacy of these multiple perceptions, a language to form or change what was "known" b4 time exists. It then would explain why art and music are seemingly "timeless" . Even when the body and mind is sick, music linked to memories cannot be forgotten as noted in the case for those with dementia.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-24 22:57:21 UTC

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-25 13:19:28 UTC

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-11-27 19:17:56 UTC

A wee warm up from this morning. Thanks to Cath,Julia and Dance North Scotland for making the 'Reflections' workshop possible.

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-12-15 21:03:40 UTC

Hybridity

SoCiFiGallery — 2018-12-18 16:39:41 UTC

I've been thinking more about where I "fall" into within the arts. I know I am drawn more to dance and my latest friends who I’m learning from are 'dance artists'. They have had rigorous dance training since they were little and are now in there late 20s, 30s and 50s. I think why am I here? I’m not graceful like the swan in Black Swan or Swan Lake. However, I am stunned and stilled, actively rested by mirroring the dancer’s performance. When I perform myself I jerk and everything is conceptual, relationships from the previous conversations I’ve had with "others" come through in a profound dialogical memoir of movement. It's a performance of insight I'm living. The dance artists tell me their biggest fear is wanting to be liked and, how this impacts every stage of their performance, like a rabbit in the headlights, the stage detains them. I say the world is my stage the spot light is the sun, have you seen John Cage’s work? He say’s “all that we do is music”. I respond to their fear with my own, pretty opposite to theirs as in I don’t give a 🤬. My fear is becoming too excited by what moves me, art which is hybrid, trans and social does this. Oh well that would be heaven and less chaotic than 🤬 up because of being preoccupied with being a people pleaser they say. Oh well yes there is freedom of the imagination sure, but there is a disconnection never desiring to conform.

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-01-08 22:37:01 UTC

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-01-08 22:40:34 UTC

A cosy Sunday

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-03 19:14:18 UTC

I spoke with the waiter at the Best Western hotel about a cookie. A whole 5 minutes devoted to exploring the relationship status between a cookie and a wedge of fudge placed on the teaspoon which accompanied my cup of tea. Living in surreal times. He was more about art than service. In the end, I gazed at his name badge and desired to know more.

"The real Sigmund Freud was a socially engaged progressive who changed the paradigm of “helping” from power and authority to insight and discovery."

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-04 14:20:58 UTC

This way of psychoanalysis will play an important part in my upcoming art workshops.

The Bible

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-16 22:56:56 UTC

Nature

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-16 23:19:17 UTC

“… this holds out hope for the future in that by such a morbid and roundabout route, nature is not seen as the dead, soulless object of European modernity but as something roused into life through the wounds and war conducted against it. Like the swamp, death, or more specifically disfiguration, makes it alive and more than alive churning with vitality.” Michael Taussig, Palma Africana, 104

So after my trip to PAris...

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-20 21:30:07 UTC

I must get on with my artistic workshop planning and implementation. I'm going to other workshops to learn the stuturing - observing what tactics work and those drag out parts that don't// but also I can connect and contact the most free minded ppl for my own workshop. I also need to get a patent for my workshop as the skill sets are unique to my art practice. i'm all for artists stealing but this would impact my progress at the initial stages if say the bigger orgs,social entreprises , ot establish artists, even institutions in any way copy what i do . sorry, no.I must be careful in all disclosure. until the concept is planted it must remain a secret for further developments to take place. i'm emerging dear friends. Please be patient with me as I am trying to be patient and reliable --trusting myself. You won't be disappointed love.

Interviewing an artist then professor, though what's more: an engager of SURREALISM

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-20 21:39:12 UTC

SO slow. I do have questions for Matthew Rose, sincerely I do. They are still lurking in my back log. I put Parisian jazz on to riffle the images and unspoken language up. stir

The Scottish Surrealists

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-20 21:42:30 UTC

Shhhhh!
I swear they are out there.
They are coming for you, they are here,
independent,
mind,
revolution!
Women know hope <-> (how) to live a dream.

SoCiFiGallery — 2019-02-20 22:12:16 UTC