Relate North 2016

The 2016 Relate North conference is taking place in Shetland from 8-11 November. For details and registration see the ASAD website.  

The symposium and art exhibition will bring together  artists, educators and researchers from across the Arctic Fringe to explore ways in which art, innovation and creativity can help build sustainable communities in the North. It's exciting to host it in Shetland - previous Relate North conferences have been held in Anchorage, Alaska (2015); in Kautokeino, Norway (2014); in Reykjavik, Iceland (2013) and in Rovaniemi, Finland (2012).

 

This year’s theme, Practising Place: Art & Design for Creative Communities, brings together internationally-renowned contemporary artists and designers, art educators, ethnographers and cultural historians. The event, a collaboration between the Arctic Thematic Network on Arctic Sustainable Arts and Design (ASAD), the University of the Highlands and Islands and the University of Lapland, will include representatives from many of the eight countries of ASAD – Scotland, Canada, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. 

This year the project I took part in in Iceland in August, Northern Exchange: Cold War Histories and Nuclear Futures, will be featured in both the exhibition and symposium. There is a team of organisers, led this year by Roxane Permar, reader at Shetland College UHI, with Ásthildur Bjorg Jónsdóttir (Iceland) Elina Härkönen and Glen Coutts (Lapland). Roxane has been arranging venues and participants, while Elina has designed the catalogue. I volunteered to help with the preparations, and have drafted a media release and the catalogue entry for Northern Exchange.  I will be flying up to Shetland before the event begins, to help with last-minute organisation and with the hanging of the exhibition. This is all very relevant to my Professional Practice 2 module, and it's great to have this opportunity. I am really looking forward to learning as much as possible about hanging artwork and the practical running of the event. 

Social Media - work in progress

 

Over the last few months I've been researching how best to use the web and social media. There's a lot of information out there. Our last Professional Practice lecture covered social media possibilities so here is an update on what I've learned so far. I've made some progress, but still quite a way to go!

Website -
I looked at a range of artists' websites and found one I liked - very simple and minimalist with an integrated blog. I contacted the artist, Debbie Lyddon and she put me in touch with her website designer Liz Wilkinson. I made some enquiries and was quoted about £400 for designing and arranging hosting for a wordpress website and blog with editing powers and a package of support.  The website template is called Twenty Twelve. Liz was very helpful, and suggested that I could have a very simple web page with a free online blog if I wanted to save money.

In preparation I selected and resized photographs and wrote text for the main bodies of work. Some of the larger work really needs to be photographed professionally, and I sourced a photographer. However, I think I will try to get the website started first to see how many additional images I need.
Having set my sights on Wordpress I heard that it was complicated to set up, so I have also looked at WIX as a possibility. http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/wix-vs-wordpress/ is a useful discussion on the pros and cons of WIX and Wordpress. The Professional Practice module in Shetland takes students through setting up a WIX website and I thought I might get some help. I am at the stage of selecting a WIX template and working out which is currently the best and cheapest hosting option. 

Blog

I've kept blogs on various topics for a while. The blogs associated with learning I use more as a way of recording progress and thinking. Blogging is more reflective than other forms of social media. This Professional Practice blog will help me chart my own progress over the next year or two. 

Pinterest
I've had a pinterest collection of other people's work for some time, but I need a website before I can have a pinterest page of my own. Things to remember include:

• The half life of Pinterest is about 3.5 months, and images are constantly repinned, so it can be a good way of opening up work to a wide audience.
• There are privacy settings if you want to restrict access to your boards
• ensure that your website address and an interesting description accompany your images - items with descriptions tend to be pinned more often
• share other pinterest sites - this will extend your own exposure

Facebook
I've been very resistant to having Facebook as I was afraid it would be intrusive. However, I've finally set up my own artist's Facebook page to help with networking.  It's been very useful in keeping in touch with the Cold War Project team from this summer in Iceland and preparations for the Relate North conference in Shetland in November. Things to remember include:

• Create Page - on the far right is a 'create page' tab - you don't have to make a separate FB site, you can simply create a new page to separate work from personal
• Create Event - you can use FB to advertise an event you're running
• FB has a very short half life (only about 30 minutes) so posts will soon be lost. It is a good way of reaching people quickly, but not a good way of keeping attention on a particular issue.
• It takes time to post on FB

Etsy
Selling on Etsy is possible, especially for craft items. You need to include keywords so that your items appear in search engines. There are charges for selling online, so add about 8% to the cost of the item to cover this. I am not yet at the stage of online selling. 

Findhorn Arts

It was a wonderful spell of weather and a great excuse to take the family and camp at Culbin sands for a couple of nights and take part in the annual Findhorn Bay Arts Festival, which ran from 21-25 September at venues and and around Forres.

biosculpture: Biomatrix Water Solutions

We spent a wonderful evening listening to gaelic singer Julie Fowlis and her band of first class folk musicians. The second evening we watched an interesting autobiographical performance piece by Mairi Campbell, from Lismore. She is well-known for her traditional music CDs, and in recent years she has written many of her own songs with husband Dave Francis. The piece 'Pulse', follows Mairi's musical evolution from the stifling Guildhall in London to finding her own 'pulse' in step dance and the music of her own west coast of Scotland. It was funny and moving, and involved some improvisation. 

Luke Jerram: Glass microbiology

Improvisation, collaboration and finding one's 'voice' in the creative arts, is right at the heart of Mairi Campbell's work. She involved the audience in creating some pieces of improvised music and singing, which was really excellent. 

 During the days we visited various exhibitions in the Findhorn area. I particularly enjoyed the work at Brodie Castle. This included the inspiring 2020Vision photographic celebration of UK wildlife conservation, Luke Jerram's intricate glass models of lethal virus molecules (Glass Microbiology) and the 'Biosculpture' of islands of wildlife habitat on Brodie pond. There were also paintings Lisa Shaw inspired by the pond life of the biosculptures.

Silvana McLean at Highland Print Studios

Seahouse Tangwick

 Silvana McLean, Artist and Printmaker from Moniave, has a new solo exhibition 'Diary of a Cold Spell' based on an artist's residency in March 2016 in Siglufjordur in northern Iceland, and on work made following visits to Shetland. I saw it on 16 September while it was at the Highland Print Studio (1-28 Sept). It's now showing at the Designs Gallery in Castle Douglas until 12 November.

The exhibition included etchings, monoprints and collagraphs, mainly landscape-based, in greys, browns and blues.

I am interested in the solar-plate etching /polymer photogravura technique, in which the plate is coated in a polymer.  This image, entitled 'Seahouse Tangwick', is photo intaglio and soft ground etching, which gives some wonderful texture and line. 

Product of Iceland

Like so many artists, McLean is inspired by Scotland and the north. I was particularly interested in this exhibition for its Iceland connection.  McLean says, 'The far north fires my imagination, the focus oscillating between Iceland and the Northern Isles of Scotland. Whether works are sea-based or on geological and glacial themes, the north remains a connecting factor.



Freya and Kai chose the pictures they liked best, including this etching 'Product of Iceland', a collagraph with text. The deep blues work well. I am also interested in the technique of sewing into prints, which McLean uses in some of the pieces.