Theatre & Tech award nomination
Thirteen Cycles was a huge job to produce and everyone put a lot of effort into it. So it was a lovely thing to be nominated for a Theatre & Tech award for Creative Innovation in Video & Projection. It’s not often that these kind of projects get acknowledged so thank you very much T&T!
Post-Digital Art School report
I’ve just published a report, written with my UAL colleague Charlotte Webb. It’s about the collaborative digital workshops I’ve been running during my time as Professor: it was a lot of work but it came out pretty well, IMHO. Many thanks to Peggy Wang and Ben McKean who designed it brilliantly: also to Bel Aguas, Daniel Charny, Sam Dunne, Malcolm Garrett, Will Hudson, Nat Hunter and Ben Terrett who all contributed. This is the download link: have a look and let me know what you think!
Viv Albertine
In January 2015 I interviewed Viv Albertine at Central Saint Martins and it was a real pleasure. I saw the Slits several times as a teenager and have always been a massive fan, and now she’s written this incredible book. There’s a brief excerpt from the talk on YouTube and I’ve also got a recording of the whole two hour conversation somewhere if you’re interested.
Internet DJing
I was DJing on Tony Slackshot’s internet radio show in February 2016 and lots of fun it was too. His show is called Get On It / Jackin’ so I played mostly bangers with the odd curveball. You can download my set from this very website here or if for some reason you’d rather just stream it from Mixcloud then be my guest.
Forbes Interview
I was interviewed by Heather Lacey from Forbes magazine about my “portfolio career.” It’s a nice piece and full of useful tips! Funny how the internet needs lists to make sense of anything.
Sample quote: “I suggested to him that he was a modern-day Renaissance Man and he laughed and said thanks, but no, he really wasn’t. I still think it’s a fair description.” Thanks Heather! But I’m not. No really. Well, maybe, perhaps you have a point there but no, actually, no – definitely not! Oh, all right then, I am. Now, more about me.
Rough Trade book
Rough Trade is 40 years old: they’ve put a book out to celebrate this fact. I’ve got a piece in it where I talk about going to see the Raincoats as a thirteen year old (supported by Swell Maps and Kleenex – wottagig!) and lo and behold at the launch party the other day if it wasn’t the Raincoats on stage, talking about Rough Trade. How the years fly by, etc etc.
Stereohype badge set
Stereohype asked me to do a badge set for them and I said yes of course. Pretty, aren’t they? I love badges me – I used to cover my school blazer’s lapels with them. I also made lots of them myself for clubs over the years – see My Story for more details.
Modual Workshop Documentary
In May 2014 I ran a two week creative workshop with twenty UAL students: we created a “pop-up design studio” inside the advertising agency Mother where they collaborated across their disciplines to generate a series of powerful projects from scratch focusing on innovation and positive change.
It was pretty amazing and the fantastic Paul Wyatt was there to document the process: he has made a great film that really shows the journey that we all went on. It’s thirty minutes long so sit back, relax and enjoy a taste of what we got up to.
Connect10
So I’ve been chosen as one of ten artists to put on an event for the 2014 Connect10 competition. Basically a range of museums will compete to host my event which I am describing as a “day-glo game show party.” Quite what that means I don’t know but it should be fun! You can find out more on the Culture 24 / Museums At Night website and at some point vote for me to work with your local museum, should you so wish. Hoorah!
Sapporo International Short Film Festival
So I was invited to be a judge at this year’s Sapporo International Short Film Festival, and I really enjoyed it. Here I am with all the other judges, including Alyson Stoner from Step Up 3D and Fatima Ptacek, the voice of Dora the Explorer! Along with Roger Garcia head of the Hong Kong Film Festival, famous Japanese author Joh Sasaki and documentary maker and journalist Yang Yonghi. Read more about us all on the SISFF website.
My proudest moment was being able to give a Jury Special Award to a fantastic French short called “Dickslap.” It’s quite unique!
London Calling
I was recently featured in Simon Witter’s excellent documentary on British pop and its art school roots; here’s an edited film of my contribution. I recommend the full series highly: it’s currently showing on Sky Arts every so often.
Giving Music Depth Talk
I recently did a talk for London agency PD3 on giving post-digital music depth. Thanks to Tully, Cat and all the excellent PD3 folks for having me.
D&AD New Blood Student Of The Year winner
So I was graphic design Foreman at D&AD New Blood this year and here I am with Student of The Year (ie the best of the whole damn lot in every category) Chris Algar alongside fellow judges Louise Sloper, Leanne Manfredi, Dom Bailey and Alex Lampe.
At this point Chris had only won his first pencil of the night: he was already gob-smacked and when it was announced that he was also the (joint) overall winner he turned to us in shock and said “do I go back up?” On returning we made him do the Madonna pose with his two pencils. No photograph unfortunately.
Congrats Chris! Much deserved.
D&AD Foreman
So I’m going to be a foreman at the D&AD Student Awards this year. I’d better get a hard hat, some hob-nailed boots and a reflective jacket right away. Oi, you! Put that consignment over there, not there! Just getting some practise.
Check me out! I get a fancy yellow tab on my picture. And I’m allowed to have the biggest smile, bigger than all the other judges. Except the one who’s just an icon who is actually smiling more than me in secret. She’s smiling because they didn’t persuade her to send in a crappy photo of herself like the rest of us. Except my photo is not crappy but in fact nice because my wife took it.
Are you still reading this? Then you win the prize! Hooray! That’s my foreman-ing done (no it isn’t – Ed.)