Latest Diffusion Titles, August 2009
August 3, 2009 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
Dodolab Wants To Know by Dodolab
The Lunar House ‘Re-enactment’ by Tony White
Estado de presencia por Cristina Luna
The Octuplet: Story of Our Lives by Babette Wagenvoort
Le Corbeau / The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe tr. Stéphane Mallarmé
More Diffusion Shareable Notebooks by Giles Lane
Blakewalking by Tim Wright
Sutton Grapevine: Youth Group Storyboard by Alice Angus & Orlagh Woods
Sensing the Imperceptible
July 6, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Sensing the Imperceptible
The environment around us is a mass of sensory information, some of it easy to detect, playing on our visual, aural, olfactory, gustatory and tactile senses, while others are less perceptible – electro-magnetic radiation, hi-lo sound frequencies, infra-red light etc – and yet these imperceptible streams interact with us regularly as we go about our everyday lives.
Back in September 2008 Proboscis devised a one day workshop for Dislocate08 in Yokohama, Japan to “engage artists, urbanists, designers, technologists, musicians and dancers in an active investigation into the sensorial patterns and rhythms to be found in our environment”. The workshop was one of our first research activities for Sensory Threads, which we hoped would inspire some critical reflection on the project’s aim to create a playful instrument for exploring imperceptible phenomena in the world around – translating them into sound and touch.
The ‘foreigness’ of Japan to the team of 3 who went to run the workshop (Giles Lane, Karen Martin & Frederik Lesage) was an important consideration in deciding its location. We felt that such an unfamiliar place, people, culture and language might present interesting challenges that would mean we would have to be keenly aware of the environment all the time. Once there it reminded us how easily we become de-sensitised to our surroundings through habit and familiarity: the smells of places, air pressure, humidity etc. Those things which pervade us constantly so that we rarely notice them, except when they change or are absent. In Japan we noticed the extraordinary cultural emphasis on paying attention to the details, the small pleasures and experiences of everyday life, which appears to be preserved in mainstream culture and society there through rituals, practice and patience at so many levels, from seasonal food to street decorations.
Returning to London and discussing the event and our experiences in Japan with the rest of the Sensory Threads team it helped shape our conception of the soundscape that the wearables would create – that it would be designed to act as a means of alerting the wearers to subtle changes in ourselves and the environment so that they could experience a sensitivity to their relationship with it. The choice of sensors would be ones that could be tuned just beyond or at the fringes of human perception, giving us a new means of ‘listening’ to the world and how we are part of it – acting with and acted on. The Rumbler too was shaped by these considerations – making imperceptible phenomena tangible through the media of touch, translating sensor data into vibration as well as sound.
Taking the project forward after our prototype demo at the Dana Centre last month, we plan to explore new levels of participatory and collective sensing, richer sonification and making tangible souvenirs for participants more seamless with the experience.
alright!
July 1, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on alright!
alright! from Proboscis on Vimeo.
A film made by Sutton Youth group about the qualities that make up Sutton-in-the-Isle, a village in the Fens. Using cut up paper and some pretty low tech processes and a lot of laughing, this was made in under two hours one evening.
Sutton Feast Week: exhibition & events
June 30, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Sutton Feast Week: exhibition & events
We are preparing to head off this week to Sutton-in-the-Isle to exhibit our work on Sutton Grapevine at the annual Sutton Feast. There will be a display in St Andrews Church from Wednesday to Sunday and over Friday and Saturday we will be joining various Feast Events to show people the Grapevine and hopefully inspire them to add their own stories. Having spent a week in Sutton in June we have gathered a huge range of stories and audio which are now being edited and podcast on the Grapevine. We’ve gathered stories through interviews and chance encounters, meetings, attending clubs and groups, visiting events, working with the youth group, organising a BBQ, exploring the local area by bike, foot and car, through an exhibit in the Babylon Gallery Ely and through the website.
This week we will be at
Wed 1st – Fri 3rd July, 7pm – 11pm St Andrews Church (during Beer Festival)
Fri 3rd July, 2pm – 5pm St Andrews Church (free)
Sat 4th July, 10am – 12pm Tithe Sale, St Andrews Church (free)
Sat 4th July, 12pm – 3pm FOSS Annual Summer Fete, Sutton Primary School (free)
Sun 5th July, from 7.15pm St Andrews Church (during Last Night of the Proms)
Come and join us for a day in the Fens.
15 years old
June 25, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on 15 years old
Sometime in late June 1994 (the exact date now escapes me) the original partnership that founded Proboscis formally came into existence. Initially we were just a name and a bank account (Proboscis was eventually incorporated as a non-profit distributing company in November 1996) set up to publish COIL journal of the moving image, but even from those early days we had the seed of an idea that Proboscis could become a creative vehicle for all kinds of experiments and projects.
About a year ago we mapped most (if not all) of our relationships with partners, collaborators, supporters, funders, investors and sponsors. This image (below) gives a good indication of just how Proboscis developed a transdiscplinary and cross-sector creative practice over 14 years. Since last year we’ve added even more partners and funders: including Queen Mary (University of London); Mixed Reality Lab (University of Nottingham); University of Southampton; Haring Woods Associates; and the Technology Strategy Board among others. And we are looking forward to working with a whole new set of partners and collaborators in the year to come and beyond that for another 15 years or longer.
June 2009 newsletter
June 16, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on June 2009 newsletter
NOW & UPCOMING
New Website & Twitter
Proboscis is pleased to announce that we have a new website where we will be posting much more regular updates on projects as well as our creative process. We will continue sending occasional email newsletters, but in future we recommend bookmarking the news page or subscribing to the RSS feed.
http://proboscis.org.uk/news/
http://proboscis.org.uk/feed/rss/
http://twitter.com/proboscisstudio
Sutton Grapevine
Proboscis has been working this spring and summer in Sutton-in-the-Isle on Sutton Grapevine, a story sharing project which will be shown at Sutton Feast Week from the 1st – 5th July at St Andrews Church and around the village. We’ve been exploring various different on and offline processes around local storytelling. We roved around the village gathering and recording stories – both past, present and future; hanging out at the community shop, visiting local clubs and individuals, hosting a storytelling barbecue and a workshop with young people.
http://suttongrapevine.org
http://twitter.com/suttongrapevine
Sensory Threads : demo at Dana Centre 23/06/09 & National Physical Lab 02/07/09
We will be giving the first public demo of our Sensory Threads prototype at the Dana Centre on Tuesday June 23rd. The event, Surface Tension, is free to attend (no booking required). Sensory Threads is a new experiment in mobile participatory sensing and sonification – making imperceptible things in our environments tangible and tactile.
http://proboscis.org.uk/1207/dana-centre-demo/
We will also be demoing ST at the National Physical Laboratory on Tuesday July 2nd as part of the Wireless Sensing Showcase 2009:
http://www.wisig.org/showcase2009
Artemov, Mobilefest and Arteleku
Proboscis has been invited to participate in several festivals and workshops this year – from Mobilefest in Sao Paolo (Brasil) and at the ‘Your Map is Not My Map’ workshop at Arteleku, San Sebastian (Spain) in September, to the Artemov festival in Belo Horizonte (Brasil) in November.
http://www.mobilefest.org
http://www.artemov.net
http://www.arteleku.net
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RECENT ACTIVITIES
New Cultural Snapshot: Cultivating Research
Sarah Thelwall’s Troubadour Study for the Creator Research Cluster, “Cultivating Research : articulating value in arts and academic collaborations” is now available to download:
http://proboscis.org.uk/1245/cultural-snapshot-16/
Jump In Workshop, The Rookery, London
Proboscis, Sarah Thelwall and Tim Jon (Solar Associates) hosted a one day workshop with about 20 participants from small arts organisations exploring possible routes to, and reasons for, acquiring Independent Research Organisation status. The workshop was the final activity of the Creator Research Cluster (funded by the EPSRC as part of the Digital Economy programme), of which Proboscis was a founder member
http://proboscis.org.uk/1005/jump-in-workshop/
Being in Common : Catalogue of Ideas
Proboscis has published a special artists bookwork to accompany our Being in Common commission for Gunpowder Park. The catalogue, a deck of cards, is a playful exploration of ‘common space’ drawing together fragments and ideas from across the project, to be played with, read individually or assembled into narratives and stories making unexpected connections and perspectives. The catalogue is available to buy for £10 (inc. shipping) from our online shop.
http://proboscis.org.uk/987/catalogue-of-ideas/
StoryCube prices 25% lower than 2008
StoryCube packs are now an average 25% lower than in 2008 – making them an even more delectable a tool for workshops and storytelling projects:
http://proboscis.org.uk/store.html#storycubes
Diffusion Generator – update on progress
As part of our Technology Strategy Board Feasibility Study, we have completely re-engineered the Diffusion Generator. Thanks to our development team (technical advisor Stefan Kueppers and coders Simon Whiteside & Yasir Assam) the new Generator supports offline content creation; landscape as well as portrait eBooks; both long and short edge version of the Diffusion eBook binding; double and single sided StoryCubes; multiple languages (including many non-Roman alphabets); right-to-left languages (Arabic etc); and can accept CSS-styled XHTML as content. We are building a new website to access it this summer and hope to invite individuals and organisations to test it out as the year progresses. Please contact us for more details.
http://diffusion.org.uk/?page_id=4
Paralelo, Sao Paulo, Brasil
Proboscis took part in the Paralelo event hosted by the British Council Brasil, MIS-Museum of Image and Sound and Centro Cultural de Sao Paulo. We helped with the event facilitation, running two social mapping workshops and designing a special Paralelo Diffusion eNotebook for participants to capture and share ideas, reflections and information.
http://paralelo.wikidot.com/
New Diffusion Titles
Dope smuggling, LSD, organised crime & the law in 1960s London by Stewart Home – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1205
The 36 Stratagems by anonymous – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1192
Would be Disciplined by Tony White – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1178
iStreetLab by mongrelStreet – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1148
Dodolab StoryCube by Giles Lane – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1118
Hard Hearted Hannah: Classics from Nowhere by Cartoon de Salvo – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1104
Hard Hearted Hannah: the world of the Strange and Bizarre by Cartoon de Salvo – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1107
On The Death Of Julia Callan-Thompson by Stewart Home – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1083
H2O by Alejandra Canales, Anne Ransquin and Juan F. Salazar – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1070
The Anatomy of the Horse by George Stubbs – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1062
Measure Once, Cut Twice : a case study of Snout by Frederik Lesage – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1054
Bourriaud’s ‘Altermodern’ – an eclectic mix of bullshit and bad taste by Stewart Home – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1049
Tweetomes : some epithets on practices of pithy exchange by Giles Lane – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1025
The minimal compact by Adam Greenfield – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1012
The Tongue Conceals Time by Shae Davidson – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=1000
Click This? MySpace & the Pornography of Corporately Controlled Virtual Life by Stewart Home – http://diffusion.org.uk/?p=993
StoryCubes new prices 2009
June 12, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on StoryCubes new prices 2009
Our 2009 prices for StoryCube packs are on average 25% lower than in 2008.
Buy packs online from our store.
For UK customers
StoryPack (inc p+p & VAT)
A – 8 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 5.99
B – 27 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 19.99
C – 64 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 43.99
D – 125 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 74.99
E – 40 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 27.99 (education/classroom pack)
European Union/European Economic Area
StoryPack (inc p+p & VAT)
A – 8 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 7.99
B – 27 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 22.49
C – 64 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 45.99
D – 125 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 78.49
E – 40 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 29.99 (education/classroom pack)
Rest of the World
StoryPack (inc airmail p+p)
A – 8 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 9.99
B – 27 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 24.99
C – 64 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 46.99
D – 125 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 84.99
E – 40 StoryCubes & sticker sheets – £ 30.99 (education/classroom pack)
Niharika Hariharan Internship Experience 2009
June 9, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Niharika Hariharan Internship Experience 2009
Internship at Proboscis, July 2008 to March 2009
I am a visual communication designer. I graduated from The Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore in 2006. I am currently completing my masters in ‘Creative Practice for Narrative Environments’ at Central Saint Martins London.
As a part of my study at Central Saint Martins, I interned at Proboscis from July 2008 to March 2009. Working with Proboscis has enabled me to gain a global-local exposure and an insight into the art and design scenario in London.
- As a design student, I have had the opportunity to participate in a variety of multi-disciplinary projects and intend to pursue this approach to my work. Proboscis is an open space that employs such an approach and collaborates with a range of professionals outside the field of design.
- Working as part of an organization that deals with a range of projects from artistic performances to technological mapping, has opened up different avenues of thought, processes and understanding for me as a creative practitioner.
- Being a close knit and well established organization, Proboscis has enabled me to directly participate and gain first hand experience of their diverse work systems.
- Proboscis has enabled me to interact with other practitioners of design, allowing me to acquire knowledge of the art and design industry in London through the experience of others.
- At Proboscis I was given the opportunity to actively participate in workshops and client meetings (Perception Peterborough workshop and Being in Common) which has provided me with invaluable experience.
During my internship I worked chiefly on two projects, Perception Peterborough and Being in Common.
I was involved in the research and production which gave me the opportunity to work and interact with fellow professionals from the industry. I also gained first-hand experience in developing interesting and innovative research methodologies and documentation techniques. This provided me with the confidence to see a project through all its stages right from its inception to final production. I also gained experience in working with a wide range of mediums. For the Perception Peterborough project I worked with moving images and for the Being in Common project we constructed art pieces for installation in Gunpowder Park.
Although, my internship at Proboscis was significant in all respects, two aspects deserve specific mention.
Firstly, the artist versus designer debate. What is art and what is design? How are they related? What are the boundaries that define the two practices? Proboscis is an art organization and their work shifts between design- problem solving narratives to artistic explorations. As a design student over the years my process had slowly become devoid of artistic empathy. Being at Proboscis I have learned to incorporate ‘Art’ into my work again.
During summer 2008 I worked on Perception Peterborough, a project aimed at creating ‘impressions’ of what the city might evolve to become in the following 15-20 years. My approach here was driven by raising issues and providing possible design based solutions. Proboscis viewed the ‘impressions’ more ‘artistically’. They aimed at creating images and narratives that would inspire and evoke thought from the audience. This was an important realization for me, as I had been addressing the briefs from a solution driven perspective. Working with artists enabled me to work with more fluid and experimental concepts.
Proboscis has also given me an insight into London and its people. Through the course of many lunches and tea conversations, I have learnt about the English lifestyle, history, landmarks in London (some that I had walked past unknowingly!). I have had the opportunity to travel out of London, to Peterborough as well as Enfield (Gunpowder Park) and allowing me to learn about experiences and daily lives of people living outside the cosmopolitan city.
I am keen on developing my work in the arena of education in the future. Through my conversations with Giles who is a visiting tutor at Goldsmiths’ College Design Department, I have gained valuable knowledge in this regard.
My work with Proboscis has enabled me to observe how a studio functions at a systems level, which will be undoubtedly be useful in my career.
Finally, as a multi-disciplinary designer, I have always been interested in being part of spaces that allow participation through different processes. Proboscis allows for involvement and contribution to various aspects of a project which may not necessarily be related to one’s specialization. This allows for a larger learning spectrum in a variety of fields related and non-related to art and design.
I feel, from the above, that my internship and learning at Proboscis will be a valuable starting point for my future projects, goals, and growth as an artist and a designer, in the years to come.
Niharika Hariharan
MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments, Central Saint Martins, June, 2009
Cultural Snapshots
June 5, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Cultural Snapshots
A series of essays, polemics and manifestos designed to provoke comment and debate on the contexts in which Proboscis works.
Proboscis accepts proposals for contributions for the series from practitioners and theorists working in fields allied to Proboscis’ areas of activity. Please contact us to propose a submission.
ISSN: 1475-8474 | Free | PDF format
Cultural Snapshots are resourced by Proboscis as part of our core artistic activity – we welcome any donations to help us continue commissioning new titles and providing the texts free of charge to all. To make a secure donation by credit card / Paypal (no account necessary), please click the button below:
No. 16 – Sarah Thelwall : Cultivating Research
No. 15 – Alice Angus : Landscapes in Dialogue
No. 14 – Sarah Thelwall : Capitalising Creativity
No. 13 – Megan Conway : Public Authoring, Education & Learning
No. 12 – Kevin Harris : Common Knowledge
No. 11 – Giles Lane et al : Public Authoring & Feral Robotics
No. 10 – Nick West : The Spatial and Social on your Mobile
No. 9 – Giles Lane : Social Tapestries
No. 8 – Katrina Jungnickel : Sensing the City
No. 7 – Matt Locke : Shaggy Dog Stories
No. 6 – Giles Lane : An Economy of Scarcity
No. 5 – Alice Angus : Near Real Time
No. 4 – Roger Silverstone : Private Reveries and Public Spaces
No. 3 – Giles Lane : Enterprising Culture
No. 2 – Caroline Smith : Fear are easily rationalised in the attic
No. 1 – Giles Lane : A New Cultural Revolution
Cultivating Research by Sarah Thelwall
June 5, 2009 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
Cultural Snapshots No. 16 June 2009
Cultivating Research : articulating value in arts and academic collaborations by Sarah Thelwall
Professional Development Commissions
June 5, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Professional Development Commissions
As part of our internships programme we are initiating a new series of commissions for recent graduates – of vocational courses as well as higher education. The commissions are designed to offer an exciting opportunity for emerging practitioners to work alongside the Proboscis team on a modest project of their own, but where it is not possible or practical for them to complete an internship in the studio. We anticipate offering four commissions a year, two of which will be open submission with one deadline per year (date tbc).
More details will be posted in the summer.
Sensory Threads demo at Dana Centre 23/06/2009
June 3, 2009 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
Sensory Threads will get its first public demo at the London Science Museum’s Dana Centre on June 23rd 2009 as part of the Surface Tension event. We will be demonstrating the prototype Wearable Sensors and the Rumbler and inviting participants to test out the system during the day. The event is free and no booking is required.
We will also be showing the prototype at the National Physical Laboratory on July 2nd 2009 as part of WISIG2009, the Wireless Sensing Showcase of the Sensors and Instrumentation KTN.
Below are some photos from a recent test at our studio and in the surrounding streets of Clerkenwell.
Carmen Vela Maldonado, Internship Experience 2008
June 2, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Carmen Vela Maldonado, Internship Experience 2008
Internship Experience at Proboscis, January to June 2008
I heard about Proboscis while the research stage of an information design project at college. I was looking for interesting approaches into social and communication studies, and I noticed them as a group specially involved into different social areas and communities. At that point I didn’t get to understand much of what I was reading about their projects, but their singular way of working, variety of approaches and concepts made me really interested to know about that “small” group of people with lots of work done. At that stage, trying to classify Proboscis was hard to me and I assumed for most of the people who first get in touch with them. They work across disciplines, with high social involvement and lots of collaborative practice. They have a non-commercial look at design and communication and a tactile and playful way to look at either complex concepts or at everyday life. After being with them, working, collaborating, talking, drawing… Is still not easy to classify Proboscis, but I feel I understand them better, not only their work but also the way they have to look at the world surrounding. The environment in the studio is anything but tense or awkward, is an open space and a place for talking, discussing and listening new thoughts, connections or ideas.
During my time as an intern I used to work from two to four days a week, during a period of about four months. My main intention when I applied for it was to get a first contact with a studio in the city, to get confidence in my work while applying my skills and learn. Learn as much as I could from people who could talk and think about my general areas of interest. At Proboscis they were clear about their expectations and incoming projects in which I could get involved and that made the experience for fruitful.
My tasks there were from image making to lay-out, photo editing, illustrations or printing experiments.
I would encourage prospective interns to feel comfortable for developing work into the assigned projects and feel confident to present to the group, as they are really open and appreciate suggestions, ideas and experimentation. And it builds that unique atmosphere in the studio of a high collaborative way of working, where everyone and every project feed the others creating a whole range of interesting connections.
Some of the best outcomes from my internship time were the conversations with the team and the opportunity to experiment into personal interests in a non-stressful environment. I learn about ideas, meanings, connections, process or methodologies.
My experience with Proboscis is a journey that went from being a non enough confident student of graphic design to feel as someone taking part of a group in a interesting and rewarding environment, feeling able to understand and learn from daily work activities. Currently I work some times as freelancer with them involved in different projects, and it is a pleasure to keep that walk next to them.
Carmen Vela Maldonado, June 2009
Trace Elements Proposal
May 29, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Trace Elements Proposal
We’ve recently submitted a proposal for Arts Council England’s Artists Taking the Lead project for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. It builds on an emerging collaboration we have with mongrelStreet (mervin Jarman and Richard Pierre-Davis) as well as ideas around migration and narrative we have been working on for a few years.
Trace Elements: Why are we who we are?
Trace Elements is an interactive and distributed artwork revealing the diversity of the journeys and migrations ordinary people make to live, work and play in London. Through words, images and symbols that convey these stories it will flow like a digital river through London’s public media spaces: generating a storyscape of endlessly changing combinations. It will allow both participants and audiences to form associations and connections between our lived experiences, hopes and aspirations as Londonders: a visual and poetic stream which we can fall in and out of.
Trace Elements combines the creative inspiration and experience of two artist-led groups, Proboscis (Alice Angus, Giles Lane and Orlagh Woods) and mongrelStreet (mervin Jarman and Richard Pierre-Davis). It will be a multi-faceted project that grows leading up to June 2012 and beyond. It will involve creative research with communities across London to elicit their stories of how and why they have come to live here: what they have given up; what they have held onto; what they dream of; what their fears are. This will be used to inspire a narrative ‘periodic table’ of story elements: images and symbols that capture the essence of people’s stories and experiences. The story elements will become a simple interface for engaging people to share their stories in a visual and symbolic way and will also be used to generate automatic poetry for dissemination via social media tools such as twitter and text messaging.
Using mongrelStreet’s iStreet Lab as mobile ‘stations’ for engaging with communities in their own areas, we will ‘recycle streetcorners’ into storytelling and sharing spaces, weaving a tapestry of social and cultural interactions across the city. iStreet Labs will also be sited in places such as airports, rail stations, parks and other public and private spaces to engage visitors, commuters and locals in sharing their stories. Audiences will be able to dive into the Trace Elements storyscape via media screens in tube stations, bus stops, rail stations, as well as via online and mobile media.
With uncertainty and climate change at the forefront of local and universal concerns we want to work with the people of London to create something that crosses barrriers by bringing to light our collective struggles and our shared hopes. Trace Elements will emerge as a magnificent reflection of the creativity, hope and determination of human spirit that has brought so many people here.
Sandwell Sense of Place
May 29, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Sandwell Sense of Place
Proboscis has recently been invited to join a tender bid to Urban Living and Birmingham City Council for the Sandwell Sense of Place project. The other partners are Rob Annable and Mike Menzies of axis design architects (who are leading the bid); Michael Kohn and Chris of YouCanPlan and Nick Booth of Podnosh. The sense of place project aims to devise a toolkit and archive using a variety of media and techniques for local residents to articulate their sense of place in two areas of Sandwell near Birmingham in the ‘Western Growth Corridor‘. This sense of place and its archive will form a key input into the regeneration masterplanning process.
As part of our interview we created a special Diffusion eBook outlining the team’s approach and illustrating some of our previous work.
DodoLab Montréal
May 18, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on DodoLab Montréal
DodoLab is a collaboration between Render, Proboscis and the Musagetes Foundation – a dynamic and experimental co-creative lab for engaging participants in events and communities to challenge accepted ideas and develop insights into contexts, processes and situations.
The first DodoLab was held in Montréal in May 2009 at the 5th World Environmental Education Congress – a creative intervention in the exhibition hall and out and about in Montréal itself. Led by Andrew Hunter of Render, the DodoLab team created a series of projects engaging the congress delegates in questioning concepts of sustainability and environmental education with a focus on resilience and adaptability. Giles Lane devised and a facilitated a mapping and StoryCube activity engaging several hundred delegates in annotating a world map with their location and connections to other places, and completing a StoryCube about their ideas on sustainability and resilience.
Jump In workshop
May 1, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Jump In workshop
As part of our contribution to the Creator Research Cluster, Giles Lane, Sarah Thelwall (mycake) and Tim Jones (Solar Associates) organised a 1 day workshop at The Rookery in Clerkenwell to explore how small arts organisations could explore working with research departments in universities, and develop the case for becoming Independent Research Organisations. The workshop brought together around 20 participants from a wide group of artists and creative professionals, many of whom are already in collaborations with universities, to share experiences and insights into collaborative practices.
The workshop was partly inspired by Sarah’s Troubadour study for the Creator Cluster (due to be published in June 2009 by Proboscis), the executive summary of which was circulated to all the participants. It drew on the experiences of Proboscis (already an IRO since 2005), Blast Theory and Scan who have all maintained long term partnerships and collaborations with universities stretching back a decade or more. The AHRC was also represented at the workshop and was helpful in identifying the probable routes needed to be taken to achieve IRO status in the current climate.
The participants agreed to set up an informal cluster of interested parties who wanted to take the process further.
Participants: Giles Lane (Proboscis); Sarah Thelwall (mycake); Tim Jones (Solar Associates); Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield); Helen Sloan (Scan); Julianne Pierce (Blast Theory); Rob La Frenais (Arts Catalyst); Tassos Stevens (Coney); Ruth & Bruno (Igloo); Glenn Davidson (Artstation); Rachel Jacob (Active Ingredient); Evelyn Wilson (LCACE); Gini Simpson (Queen Mary); Annamaria Wills (cida); Carien Meier (Drake); Ben Cook (LUX); Tim Harrison (ACE London); Isabel Lilly (Stream); Joanna Pollock (AHRC); Nick? (A Foundation).
Absent Friends: Bronac Ferran (boundaryobject); Julie Taylor (Goldsmiths); Lorraine Warren (Southampton); Ted Fuller (Lincoln)
Funded by the CREATOR Cluster, part of the EPSRC’s Digital Economy programme.
Paralelo, Sao Paulo
April 5, 2009 by Giles Lane · 1 Comment
Paralelo, Sao Paulo, Brasil
Alice, Giles and Orlagh travelled to Sao Paulo in Brasil to take part in the AHRC and British Council sponsored event, Paralelo, hosted by the British Council Brasil, MIS-Museum of Image and Sound and Centro Cultural de Sao Paulo. We helped with the event facilitation, running two social mapping workshops and designing a special Paralelo Diffusion eNotebook, Travelling Through Layers, for participants to capture and share ideas, reflections and information.
http://paralelo.wikidot.com/
Being in Common Catalogue of Ideas
March 27, 2009 by Giles Lane · 6 Comments
As part of our commission, Being in Common, for the Art of Common Space project at Gunpowder Park we created a pack of cards containing our catalogue of ideas. The catalogue is a playful exploration of ‘common space’ drawing together fragments and ideas from across the project, to be played with, read individually or assembled into narratives and stories making unexpected connections and perspectives.
The Catalogue is inspired by the collective nature of playing cards. It includes writing, photographs, imagery and ephemera created and collected during the project, and includes material from the Exploration Packs that Proboscis sent to people around the world to investigate their perspectives on ‘common space’.
The Catalogue of Ideas is one of several works made for Being in Common. Proboscis also created three site specific works in the Park using optics, mirrors and viewmasters, to reveal different perspectives of the site.
Buy Online for £10 including post & packing
A Flash Viewer of the Being in Common Catalogue of Ideas Cards, created by Niharika Hariharan:
Being in Common: Catalogue of Ideas (20Mb)
A Case of Perspectives
March 2, 2009 by Giles Lane · 3 Comments
Proboscis is proud to announce the publication of A Case of Perspectives – a limited edition artists bookwork by Alice Angus and Giles Lane, created as part of Social Tapestries. The bookwork contains a series of designed as well as handmade artefacts inspired by and responding to our experiences in the Social Tapestries programme of projects. 63 Tapestry cards are organised into 3 groups – 21 Endless Landscapes, 21 project photos and 21 Urban Tapestries mobile phone interface screenshots – the reverse sides printed with sections from a map of Urban Tapestries threads and pockets. Also enclosed are 2 StoryCubes, 1 containing images upload by UT trial participants and the other representing 6 principles of public authoring. A copy of the Atlas of Enquiry and a handmade eBook presenting an overview of the Social Tapestries research programme complete the box.
Numbers 1-21 will be sold complete with an unframed original watercolour painting of one of the Endless Landscape panels by Alice Angus. Price – £200 + shipping. Please contact us for more details.
Numbers 22-190 are available to buy online price – £40 + shipping.
Diffusion Residency – Marie-Anne Mancio
January 19, 2009 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Diffusion Residency – Marie-Anne Mancio
Writer and academic Marie-Anne Mancio is one of our Spring 2009 Diffusion Residents. She will be creating an ‘encyclopedia’ of eBooks about the 1970s performance group, The Theatre of Mistakes.
Follow Marie-Anne’s publications in the Residencies Series.
Peter Timms, Internship Experience 2008
December 10, 2008 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Peter Timms, Internship Experience 2008
Proboscis Internship Experience May-June 2008
I stumbled across the Proboscis website while searching for creative organisations that worked across disciplines and this is certainly something that sets Proboscis apart from other organisations. Other distinctive features are the close, small team they have within the work space whilst also putting collaboration with others, artists, researchers, academia and communities at the centre of their practice. These elements were some of the positive aspects of Proboscis and that remained distinctive throughout my Internship.
My internship involved working one or two days a week, lasting a period of a month or so. The experience was primarily engineered through my own desire to work with Proboscis in some capacity, whatever the nature of the work. On reflection this was perhaps a little misguided. In future I feel interns should be clear about the expectations of their work and interests and plan for a longer time with Proboscis than I had available to really feel the fruitions of the work.
I had an interest in Education as I was going to do a PGCE and thought that some time looking at creative technologies would enhance my understanding of education as situated beyond the classroom. In discussion with the team, my brief was to research into how we might develop some of the projects that had been completed in schools, such as Everyday Archaeology and Experiencing Democracy. I primarily looked at how Proboscis’s current work might link in with the ‘Personalisation’ agenda within education and proposed suggestions for developing the work. By the end of my short time with Proboscis I was able to produce a research document and for me personally, more importantly, an insight into the organisation and how creative organisations work. One thing I did not take the opportunity to do, which I urge all interns to do, is make time for conversations with the team and I think this is best achieved through applying to do intern work that is project and collaborative in nature, not individual research.
I did enjoy the freedom to co-construct my own brief with the team, and did feel supported however I do feel that if I had more time and was also involved in a more hands on project, rather than research I would have gained more from the experience. I would encourage prospective interns highlighting that Proboscis provide an alternative internship, a creative and reflective space and learning environment, where you are a genuine part of the team. This measure of flexibility and the engagement with cross-disciplinary practice provides interesting scope for further work in the arts, education and social policy.
Peter Timms
December 2008
Diffusion Residency – Stewart Home
November 27, 2008 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Diffusion Residency – Stewart Home
Artist and writer Stewart Home will be in residence at Proboscis in December and January 2008 creating a series of eBooks using the Diffusion Generator.
Read more here.
The eBooks
Diffusion Residency – Alex Murdoch
November 27, 2008 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Diffusion Residency – Alex Murdoch
Alex Murdoch, founder and director of Cartoon de Salvo, one of the UK’s most dynamic improvised theatre company’s, is in residency at Proboscis in Autumn 2008. Alex is creating a series of eBooks inspired by the stories Cartoon de Salvo created during their UK tour of Hard Hearted Hannah in Spring 2008. The show was a ground-breaking long-form inprovisation where, each night, the audience provided the cast with the title of the night’s show which was then improvised. Over 50 shows and stories were created, which are being collated and illustrated by Alex as part of her Diffusion Residency.
Follow Alex’s publications in the Residencies Series.
Digital Cities: London’s Future
November 17, 2008 by Giles Lane · Comments Off on Digital Cities: London’s Future
Proboscis is exhibiting works from Snout, Feral Robots and Social Tapestries and our film, Play to Invent in a group show curated by architect and masterplanner, Sir Terry Farrell,
“Digital Cities looks at how digital technology helps us understand and improve the planning and experience of our city. It will look at the impact on movement in cities: how communication and information technologies enhance a persons experience of place; how people interpret cities with the use of technology; and how mapping influences the design and planning of cities. It will also discuss some of ‘the big brother’ issues such as privacy and security. “
Digital Cities: London’s Future is on from November 21st 2008 to January 24th 2009 at The Building Centre, Store Street, London WC1E 7BT.
Download the Exhibition Leaflet (PDF 6.9Mb)
