G.R. SEAGO BEGAN WRITING THIS STORY IN 2004 and it was completed during the well publicised end of the world in 2012. The writing has a tendency to play with authorship, ownership, appropriation and revels in hyper–connectivity with mass media and western culture. With folklore and ancestral memory. With drugs and technology. With ourselves and…
WE WERE SEVEN YEARS OLD WHEN 1980 arrived. The currency of music in the playground was without doubt the compact cassette tape and the beloved mix-tape. We spent hours sitting next to the radio trying to time the perfect recording of 1999 and hustling friends for their uninterrupted version of Take on Me or Mirror…
ARE YOU FRUSTRATED OF FEELING LIKE YOU have to please your audience, bank balance, followers, your tutor or teacher and pretty much anyone else before you are happy with your art or design work? I am a tutor and it’s common for people learning to think variations of this. Knowing who your audience is, is important but…
ON A COLD AND SOGGY WINTER DAY we set out for London to visit the major retrospective of artist Bridget Riley. She is one of those painters that has to be seen in person. There is definitely a sense of being transformed by or through the colour relationships she explores in her paintings. The result…
RISING OUT THE DARKNESS OF LIVERPOOL STREET STATION we ascend into a pandemic stricken City of London – three days after (MOST) legal limits on social contact were removed; this was July 2021, the second summer of fear and lies. Bishopgate was like a dream (NO PEOPLE) slash post-apocalyptic nightmare (SCARED PEOPLE), masked, double-masked and…
A PROVOCATIVE RESPONSE TO THE SIMPLE QUESTION. What is to be done? from way–way back (1988) DON’T — ‘I think the answer to this is not only nothing but considerably less, than nothing … and what I mean by that is that the real solutions to our problems lie in a series of negatives.’ Terrence…
DEATH IS YOUR GIFT — THE PROPHECY BESTOWED on Buffy by the first Slayer. She wasn’t wrong, for Buffy or for any one of us for that matter. It’s the only constant, for sure; not thinking about it seems like a high–risk strategy for life (especially with hindsight) don’t you think? We know what you’re…
DO YOU FEEL UPSIDE DOWN? with a nagging feeling that the world is far from ideal and free thinking for yourself is considered over–rated, in an ever expanding media induced 21st Century haze. If you are feeling upside down it’s time to switch off and tune into yourself. Pause for a moment and think, don’t…
THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN SPENDING TIME exploring a hedgerow or wild field or woodland. Butterflies, hoverflies, beetles and even the odd frog will show itself. Spending time in nature is vital for health and well-being. Find your nearest nature reserve, park or botanical garden head for whatever is flowering and take your time. It’s…
THE OPENING LINES TO PALE BLUE EYES, written by Lou Reed and recorded by the Velvet Underground has become a personal and abstract expression for a feeling I have been experiencing lately. To be specific, the feeling happens when walking in my neighbourhood, city and in nature. The sadness doesn’t come from lost love as…
LIFE IS WITHOUT DOUBT LIVID PINK IN the world of Fredrik Öst – self-proclaimed Dr of disturbance, disruption and disobedience and founder of Snask – who really know how to challenge the outdated idea of what a design studio could be in an unrelenting passion for making, craft and mischief. As well as working for…
WHY ARE THESE IMAGES INTOXICATING TO LOOK AT — is it because there are both beauty and destruction all in one spectacle? The blends found in these expanses of colour are fascinating to stare into, the way they twist and wave into a glowing pattern is like a tractor beam of sorts. The transformation is…
STUMBLING OUT THE DARK CAVE OF LIVERPOOL Street Station on to a bright sunny Bishopgate we head east for Commercial Road and immediately run into Minty, a SKELETOR hopelessly in love with his closest friend: Frida. She is suffering from bad dreams of Brexit and family disagreements about the socialist agenda. The walls call out our soon to be…
THINK ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY TO WORK, OR class from home each day, how far do you stray from a well trodden path slash route? With the advent of hand-held illuminated devices (location services willingly enabled mapping your position on the earth) we are, sheepishly some might say, directed and overseen by the shadow of humanity.…
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN LIVING MEMORY, (AT LEAST OURS) the people of the UK gathered around a simple set of collective principles to make change happen “Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives”. The lockdown of the UK was announced on 23 March 2020 by the Prime Minister with measures to mitigate the spread…
YOU START AT THE BOTTOME & HEAD UP, round a loop, then back on yourself before reappearing in a similar place, but better for the experience, & hopefully the journey leaves you richer. The trick is to remember the ampersand of life is just a ride, & whether you are at the top of the…
STUMBLING OUT THE DARK CAVE OF LIVERPOOL Street Station on to a windswept Bishopgate we head toward Hanover to replenish our ‘PLANT BASED FOOD SYSTEM’. Walking against the current of hurrying people, we follow a cloud of friendly neon skull winged butterflies wandering playfully. We listen to their fluttering as they casually flock together singing…