I now find myself in NYC once again this year, it really feels like a second home. This Thursday takes me to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY to give a talk to the ID grad students. Since my last instalment I’ve been in Chicago at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College.
Honestly it was a full house… My host for SAIC was Xavier Toubes, my external examiner from the RCA. I spoke to a mixed student body ranging from Ceramics, English Literature and Designed Objects. The Ceramics dept (who invited me) is situated within the Art Institute of Chicago which is truly an amazing place, one piece that I just could not leave was in the Modern Wing titled Hinoki 2007 by Charles Ray. The piece is an exact replicar that has been hand curved, I really cannot do it justice so here is the video of the installation which shows the scale of the piece.
I also had a meeting with Helen Maria-Nugent the course leader of the excellent Designed Objects course at SAIC. Some amazing things going on there and great to hear of Tim Parsons recent appointment, check out his blog Object Thinking.
My host at Columbia College was a very good friend Petra Probstner, once again the students and faculty during the lecture provided a lively debate. One thing I have found is that, to date, I’ve not been asked the same question twice. It always fascinates me how each person takes away something different from my lecture. Also I would like to thank all the students that have personally emailed, thank you for listening…
During my time at Columbia I was lucky enough to see the Lev Manovich Lecture regarding data visualisation also this tied in with the exhibition titled Data Mining that was next door in the A&D Gallery. It’s always interesting to hear how other people ‘perform’ their lectures/talks especially since I’ve been almost been on auto pilot of recent, reflection is always good.
Once again after visiting both of this amazing institutions the same topic arises… Technology. However in both of these cases they’re concern was the application and how their respective creative languages can exploit it, a very exciting and dynamic approach.
Next stop Rochester NY and the School of American Crafts.
Note. I will keep on adding to these posts so keep on checking back.