40 Rosebery Ave, St Werburghs, Bristol, BS2 9TN
Tel: 0117 9553780
Application to:
Developing and realising visual arts project, Grant for artists:
Funding awarded for:
Project: Do It Yourself Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid Day (DIY DNA DAY).
This was a publicly popular and successful show. I enjoyed the fact that most of the artists actually turned up and were able to hang-out, which makes doing gallery shows worth the effort. I made good contact with Foam and was invited, together with Kayle Brandon, to contribute to their tension workshop.Some reading:
It was also very good to get to know the staff and the history of The Experimental Art Foundation. While I was there we talked about the possibility of a solo show there in 2005.
As ever, its good to have a chance to show off and flirt, but such sessions only really function as an introduction to the presenters and their projects. No real exchanges or developments seem to ever take place as such formal gatherings, unless augmented with social occasions such as dinners, parties and physical adventures.
This was a great event and should be as overly repeated as Photoshop workshops. We were thrown into what felt like the deep end, but was probably only really everyday high school. None the less, we were all excited and inspired. Performing practical processes unknowingly, but guided by theoretical learned tutors was a great way to learn. Each day started in personal ignorance, but by the end everything made fell into the right places with the added benefit that you had actually accomplished something practical. There were some ethical and aesthetic discussions also thrown in, but these were mostly a frustration to my practical enthusiasm. Adelaide has a great sk8 park, in which I learnt to do axle stalls.
I am currently considering organising an art surf event in Byron Bay January 2005. I spent a week there after Adelaide conducting research.
bristol DIY DNA DAY was publicised as: An afternoon for budding biotech hobbyists at the CUBE microplex, Bristol, UK. Bring your kit and caboodle for display, exchange and experimentation (Discovery Kids DNA Explorer welcome. I was intending to structure the event as a craft/ hobbyist fair, but it quickly turned into a workshop led by Julia from PowerFarm. Participants wanted safe hands on step by step guidance from Julia.
I had publicised the event widely and was hoping for a broad range of public, but only art practitioners attended apart from some media interest, who where conducting research for future television programmes. I had also planned it to last only a few hours, but it ended up lasting several days with people roaming the streets of Bristol making biotech interventions.
There is a clear desire and need for a week long practical and creative workshop. Whether as an artist you support or oppose, or believe biotech is on the advance or the retreat, its still worth getting educated in practice, ethic and theory.