Friday 16 May 2008

Is this art or animal abuse?

"In 2007, a so-called artist named Guillermo Habacuc Vargas (I probably have the spelling wrong), took a stray dog from the street, tied him up in a gallery and left him to slowly starve and die." This is completely sick, obviously. I can't believe the gallery allowed it and the artist got to represent his nation...

Metamonkey draws similar criticism, but is not even in the same ball park, as one commentator puts it

" ...Sadly, the opinions of the masses have (for one of the first times in my life) convinced me to perform a U-turn on my own principles.
As you may have guessed, the subject is the Meta Monkey installation. A concept which as you know I was particularly taken with. As long as it was executed with decency, no matter how secretive said decency may be from the audience, I was all for it. I advocated it as a genuine and original way of, sadly, FORCING people to confront their reactions and their hypocrisy in terms of their regard of the sanctity of life and freedom...."

Thats the point and it's off to a great start...
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Wednesday 14 May 2008

SOS Weymouth - Spirit of the Sea on facebook

If you're a facebooker please join this group, it may well help get me a job, then I'll buy you a pint..

Spirit of the Sea
will be awesome and it will be building every year in the run up to the Olympics, as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Moving Tides will hopefully become a much enhanced Carnival., this year it's Armada down the Esplanada

If you want to know more about local art opportunities or just taking part please email me.


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Metamonkey installation

Right. This is a joint concept for an installation from bsidecsidemedia, commenting both on the explosion of web culture and ingrained cultural perceptions regarding animal/human cruelty.

The installation will consist of a cage containing what appears to be a person dressed unconvincingly as a monkey, when in fact it is a monkey unconvincingly dressed as a monkey.

This "metamonkey" can be interacted with via bluetooth controlled devices, and photos with the monkey can be purchased. There will also be a metamonkey cam and website. Plastic, "taunt" bananas will be for sale throughout the evening.
This "metamonkey" will clearly be japed and trousered playfully by people, safe in the knowledge that it is a minimum wage "humanzee", when in fact it is an unpaid monkey.

So we need;

  • a licensed monkey (1500gbp)

  • a venue

  • a bad monkey outfit

  • 3000 pounds (for building set from recyled fairtrade undergrowth, website and tauntnanas)

  • portrait partner (limited franchise already in negotiation)


Expressions of interest are invited for all the above, with the intention of taking things forward ideally looking to implementation in July. Please email

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Tuesday 13 May 2008

Bridport TLC

Awesome idea and ethos. Every town should have a community recycling project which is developing sustainable waste & recycling initiatives alongside local schools & businesses. We are a volunteer-led group, offering solutions to improving our local environment & contributing to a sustainable local economy.

Check it out, let's get one started....

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Bridport TLC

Awesome idea and ethos. Very town should have a community recycling project which is developing sustainable waste & recycling initiatives alongside local schools & businesses. We are a volunteer-led group, offering solutions to improving our local environment & contributing to a sustainable local economy.

Check it out, let's get one started....

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Monday 12 May 2008

Carnival workshop a great success

A glorious weekend saw a good turn out for a fantastic workshop. Ali and Tony from Kinetika were great sources of knowledge and Ali gave us a fascinating history of carnival, followed by a brainstorming session for a range of projects, including Spirit of the Sea.

On the 2nd day Tony demonstrated lightweight backpack manufacture and explained the range of techniques for attaching wings/puppets etc plus explaining the many detailed techniques learnt over the decades and passed among carnival engineers. Ali ran a batik workshop to provide skins for the backpack creations with some beautiful results.

Attendees included Sarah from EmeraldAnt (Spirit of the Sea - moving tides), Jenny Stiling of Weymouth Community Volunteers, Gary Jones of SWANK, several representatives from Bridport TLC, Irene Archibold of Dorchester Arts Center, and Ana and Margaret from Weymouth and Portland fairtrade. Plus of course several members from Weymouth college.


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Donor children!?

Maybe I misheard? Hopefully it's a mistake... I just heard on radio one that the government are debating new science laws that will allow parents to conceive children to act as donors for their other children? This has already happened with bone marrow and is often the subject of terrifying literature.

Surely this IS a mistake. I've found nothing on google as yet. Watch this space...

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Friday 9 May 2008

Kinetika carnival workshops this weekend

spaces still available on these free workshops at Weymouth college.

All
you have to do is e-mail
alan_rogers@weymouth.ac.uk
with “KINETIKA MAY WORKHOP” as the subject line.

Hope to see you there


Saturday 3 May 2008

groovy design

 blog it