#Knitterfeed @FutureEverything Conference, 19th May 2012

'Yarn bombed tree' outside Cross Acres Community Group, Wythenshawe 

On Saturday 19^th May 2012 at the Handmade event at FutureEverything Conference, I will be involved in #Knitterfeed, which is a collaborative project between myself, artist Elizabeth Wewiora, digital programmer Tom Kinniburgh and the Cross Acres Knitting Group (Wythenshawe).

In the run up and during the event, we will be exploring twitter through hand knitting objects and forms that communicate this sprawling network, with a very skilled group of knitters that regularly make out of the ordinary statements through their craft.

Call out for unwanted knitting yarn!

We are looking for donations of unwanted knitting yarn (and needles) that you no longer require or want.  If you do have anything you can very kindly offer, please let me know and I can arrange to collect from you. Thank you very much!

For further information on Handmade at FutureEverything Conference, 19^th May 2012 at Victoria Baths, Manchester, please visit - http://futureeverything.org/handmade-2/

For further information on the Cross Acres Community Knitting Group - http://xacresresourcecentre.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/artists-in-residence-at-xacres-knitterfeed-project-at-victoria-baths-futureeverything-festival/

'Please Allow 30 Days for Search Results', opening 2nd June, MadLab, Manchester, 6-9pm

As you know, I have been working on a collaborative project with Manchester based artist, Elizabeth Wewiora, through our online blog, http://usergeneratedcontent.blogspot.com, where we have been setting each other a number of tasks, and exploring the notion of online user generated content.

Last weekend, we met for only the second time in 'physical real life' with Elizabeth, to create a drawing the documented our relationship online. The resulting work will be exhibited in a group show curated by BLANKMEDIA Collective at MadLab, Manchester from the 2nd - 16th June 2011.

The opening for the exhibition is on the 2nd June at MadLab from 6-9pm. I would be really grateful if you could make it, although I will unfortunately not be there, as !

For further information on the exhibition, please read below;


Location: MadLab, 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester, M4 1HN


When: Public Preview: Thursday 2 June 2011
Exhibition continues: 3 - 16 June 2011


Artists: Osvaldo Cibils, Jamie Crewe, Douglas Gast, Melissa Henderson, Pippa Lennox, Paul Plowman, Mark Powell, Jennifer Ross, Sarah Terry, Elizabeth Wewiora & Jennifer Steele and Teawitter.


Blank Media Collective curators are excited to present the exhibition User Generated Content. Working collaboratively with MadLab, the exhibition focuses on social media and its relevancy in this day and age.

From artists to arduino engineers, Blank Media Collective have searched ‘virtually’ every corner of the world to present to you the weird, wonderful and quirky things people are creating in the physical realm.


The diverse content of this exhibition includes Facebook stalking, ‘like’ popularity contests, Twitter drum, status-stealing poetry, political statements, never-ending YouTube feed, cakes, Flickr craft, moving image works, and a visual portrayal of an online relationship.


It is about Facebook, it is about Twitter, it is about virtual environments. The world in which we live has developed to the stage where we are now navigating our lives within a hybrid form of immaterial and real landscapes. User Generated Content is a term to describe the various interactive online activities.



Event Contact Information


Location: MadLab, 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester, M4 1HN


Contact: exhibitions@blankmediacollective.org


Blog: http://usergeneratedcontent.posterous.com/


YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDdjZzH-HDY

Collaborative Drawing - User Generated Profiles

I will be heading up to Manchester this weekend to work on a collaborative drawing with Elizabeth Wewiora, at her studio space at Islington Mill.  The drawing is informed by our collaborative online blog and research, where we have got to know each other online, and investigated our and other ideas of 'user generated content'.  In particular, we were interested in how people gained an image of idea of us through content online.

The exhibition, 'User Generated Content' is curated by BLANK MEDIA Collective, and will open on the 2nd June at MadLab, Manchester, and runs until 13th June.  More information regarding the Private View to follow.

Here are a few sneek peek images of our plans...

User Generated Profiles - BLANKMEDIA Collective/MadLab, June 2011

The online collaboration; 'usergeneratedprofiles' culminating in a physical work between myself and Manchester based Elizabeth Wewiora and I, has been selected by the curators of the User Generated Content Exhibition at MadLab, Manchester.  The BLANKMEDIA Collective Exhibition Curators, Marcelle Holt and Taneesha Ahmed, will present a group show of works which seek to make tangible the constant stream of user generated content that is continually produced online.

Throughout our online blog, Elizabeth and I have been getting to know each other. Having only met once at a meeting a few months ago, Elizabeth and I have communicated often online without meeting.  We began writing the collaborative blog in late April 2011, setting each other tasks to learn more about each other personally, about our visual practices, and how we could use this non-physical digital process, to create an installation work that discusses our relationship that has developed through a series of mediated interfaces.

Please follow our blog as we work towards our installation which opens on the 1st June 2011 at MadLab.  Unfortunately, I will not be present as I will be flying to Chongqing, but I would love it if you could make it along!

Grants for the Arts - 501 Artspace, Chongqing Residency

I am absolutely delighted to let you know that I have secured funding from the Grants for the Arts programme from the Arts Council England for my upcoming residency at the 501 Artspace, Chongqing, China which is in association with the Chinese Art Centre in Manchester.

During the month long project in June 2011, I will be investigating navigation through digital and physical architectural spaces in the municipality in Chongqing, particularly focusing on issues of censorship and imposed hierarchy which coerces movement within a particular direction.  The research will culminate within a site specific drawing installation and a series of wood block prints.  In addition to an exhibition in Chongqing, I will be presenting the work at the Constance Howard Research Centre, Goldsmiths College and Waterman's Art Centre, Middlesex later this year.  The research will also be presented at INTERFACE 2011 Conference at UCL in July, and the Re-wire Conference at FACT in Liverpool, which is in association with LJMU.  I will also be delivering a series of Artists Talks on my return at a range of art organisations, including the MadLab in Manchester.

I would like to thank the Arts Council England wholeheartedly for their support on this project.  I would also like to thank the following people for their kind and generous help with my application; Elizabeth Wewiora, Sally Lai, Pil and Galia Kollectiv, Jacqueline Utley, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Karen Courtney and Nicola Smith.

usergeneratedprofiles - we are getting to know each other online....

The Manchester based artist Elizabeth Wewiora and I are working on a collaborative online project through our online blog usergeneratedprofiles.  

Elizabeth and I met online in October 2010, when I applied for the Chinese Arts Centre Chongqing Residency.  Since this date we have been communicating online, and have only met once in person.

We will communicate daily through this blog for the next month -  asking each other a number of questions, and setting ourselves tasks, to find out more about each other professionally and personally.

The outcome of the collaborative online research will inform an installation at the MadLab in June 2011, as part of the 'User Generated Content' exhibition, curated by BLANKMEDIA Collective...if our proposal is successful!