Manchester Digital Laboratory

Tonight we started off with a bit of housekeeping and discussed the outcomes of a meeting I had with one of the directors of MadLab about potentially arranging an exhibition of the Creative Whispers work. As expected, cost is going to be the main factor in deciding how long for and when we want to do anything but aside from sending me back with a new list of questions it seems we are still looking likely for getting something organised in the near future. Once we have agreed dates (and how we will pay for it!) then we can start discussing the finer details of organisation. We were also pleased to welcome back Jo Scorah who shared her textiles work with us last October.We were of course keen to get on to sharing the second round of responses for the Creative Whispers project and started with James Sharp, volunteered to go first in his absence! James had taken my photographic responses to Irena’s starting point and had interspersed prints of the images with prints of his journal pages in to a bound, textile covered book.

David shares his interventions in Irena’s found book

We also looked at photograms from Irena, rubbings from Kevin, manipulated photographs from Shirley, Japanese additions to a found haiku book-come-photo album from David, Illustrations on canvas from Christine, a developed conceptual ‘object’ from Renate and finally a mixed media drawing from myself. Jo took away some prints that Shirley had made in response to Renate’s original acrylic on canvas starting point and will join in with the project in a ‘branched’ thread!This is really just an overview and you will be able to see more of these over the coming weeks as I get sent images with which to update the Creative Whispersproject pages. We finished the discussion on the project with many agreeing that they have found the opportunity to take some risks and be a bit experimental very refreshing. While we may not all have produced work that we are necessarily happy with in a way that we would normally associate with producing work, we have certainly appreciated the stretch of being kicked from our respective ‘comfort zones’!

Glass and Ceramic Transfer by David Hammond

As we managed to finish with a bit of time spare, we were delighted to hear more from David Hammond, a mature student now in his third year of a BA(Hons) in 3D Design at MMU, who shared some of his recent work with us. We discussed some photos of his work in glass; sculptural pieces that make use of ceramic transfer techniques to involve 2D drawings, photographs and collages of modern urban architecture in a spatial exploration. We discussed the link between the materials and the subject matter being closely related to David’s inspirations; the interaction between the buildings and the environmental features around them such as reflections and negative spaces. The glass, it was agreed, is a medium that naturally lends itself to play with light as well as reflecting (no pun intended!) the actual building materials of the architecture.We are now looking forward to March, when we will be sharing the second ‘layer’ of responses as it gets increasingly complicated to pass on a piece without it going back to someone who has already worked on it! In addition, Christine Wilcox-Baker will be giving a much anticipated talk on her sculptural work relating to food plants and gardens! This seems particularly appropriate as we move into Spring; there’s certainly a lot of new creative growth sprouting about us; check back next month to see if it’s started blossoming!