Look Up, Look Down, Look Sideways

One of the several hats I wear when I work is that of an arts workshop facilitator. Recently I had the very great pleasure of meeting lots of talented young people at the Museum of London's family festival. Taking inspiration from my interests in walking and digital arts, I encouraged them to look up, look down and look sideways as they travelled around the Museum, taking photographs and tracking themselves using GPS on an iPad. When they returned from their journey we looked at where the satellites thought they'd been and asked whether machines can really know where you are or remember where you've been. Does looking help you find yourself and the camera help you remember? What does your memory look like if you make one picture from it? Below is an overview of the stellar layered artworks I helped them create from their photographs.

Not that I play favourites...but these were some of my favourites.

Because glitter

Can't lie, it's because I was so flattered to be included in this one...(look past the neon skull).

Above and below were created by two sisters from the same walk. I love that they came up with  works that were similar but different from the images they shot together.

The starburst detail of the top image and the additional maps included in this make me very happy indeed.

The children printed off their images to take their art home. They also had the opportunity to further decorate the printouts; I liked the clash of the tactile, analogue world with that of the ephemeral, digital one - and the careful placement of these shiny stickers was so meticulously done!

Afterwards the Museum was kind enough to send me these images as well as the screenshots of the routes everyone walked (or that the bots thought they walked...) 

I am increasingly using walking not only as exercise, but as meditation and as a form of mindful activity aimed at rooting (ha!) myself more fully in my own life. Obviously this then expands into my artistic practice and photographic work because I can't help the one bleeding into the other. I'm making a series of 'walkwork' collages combined with digital drawing and photographs, which you can see some of on my Instagram. I'm not sure whether these 'routes' will be used for anything else in the future or if I will just carry on using them as a jumping-off point but here are several ways of looking at the 33 walks, using a variety of automated editing techniques. 

 
 

I run workshops for cultural organisations and in schools for the most part, but can happily design something for private groups too. Please do get in touch via my website if you are interested in finding out more.

Big Dance Walk 2012

I photographed Tom Goodwin and Petra Soor's Big Dance Walk in 2010 - back then it was the hottest day of the year and the grass in Footscray Meadows was all sorts of shades of brown and gold, crisp and sere. This year's event in Oxlea Meadows was almost the exact opposite; everything bursting with chlorophyll and rich black mud squishing underfoot. The Big Dance Walk is a gentle, involving, meditative and joyful piece performed by adults, children, and older people and having experienced it in such extremely different ways reflects the richness of life itself and the rewards and wonder both of aging and of being young; and of being out of the city and into the green. For more Big Dance events see their website bigdance2012.com

 How beautiful are these two women?

 Like actual models...

Station/ary

Night walk

Some snaps from a late-night walk through a local retail park. I don't love them because had to hand-hold due to the camera being a last minute decision and thus no tripod, thus loads of noise. But might go back another time. It was like exploring a whole other place from the park as it is in the daylight.

Portobello Gastrotour, yes please

Last Friday I trotted off merrily to Golborne Road to begin my Gastrotour of Portobello. I never ever venture into West London so it felt like an exotic epicurious safari. The Gastrotours are the brainchild of Celia Brooks Brown, a food writer and cook who used to live in the area, and now runs half day tours of all the secret hotspots that you wouldn't know unless you were a local (there are also tours in Marylebone and Borough). Any day that begins with a coffee and a Portuguese custard tart (from the Lisboa Patisserie) is a day that's already started off just fine in my opinion.

 The clothes and bric-a-brac market was in half mode when we started.

Garcia's Deli was our first stop-off - it's been in the area 50 years and is run by the grandson of the original owner.

 Who knew canned tuna could be so pretty?

 Celia holds out a platter of cheeses. I am forced to restrain myself from snarfing the lot.

 The jamon iberico (furthest left, out of focus, duh) was insanely good. Fat melting into your mouth, all acorny and delicious.

 I took home some of the air-dried tuna (back row, in the middle) and had it with avocado and lemon juice on baguette. Hell yes.

 One of Garcia's oh-so-charming workers...

 Next door is a cafe where we sampled some gazpacho (cucumbery and slightly sweet, perfect for a summer dinner party)...

 ...and churros and chocolate, which apparently is a breakfast dish in Spain. I would sugar crash and burn by about 9.10am if that was my breakfast. (Not pictured: samples of tortilla, paella).

Next stop: The Spice Shop. Like being in a souk, all savoury smells and weird gnarly looking things that could blow your head off.

 Yes, I sniggered at the packet below. 

 Moving up the road, we came across flower and vegetable stalls.

 And so on to a paired cheese and wine tasting at Jeroboam's in Elgin Crescent. I usually assume wine people are snobby but the chap who served us was lovely, pointing out various ways of tasting the wine and highlighting why they chose the particular cheeses. (Celia's pouring below).

Argentinian Malbec and something nice and crisp from the Languedoc. Both yummy. 

Manly cigars for sale.

I'm embarrassed to admit I've completely forgotten this nice chap's name. But he's gone off to work in their Belgrave Square shop, so stop by if you're in that neck of the woods.

 Getting into antiques territory now.

 And our final stop, at Melt chocolates. They make almost all their truffles, bonbons, and caramels on site. Michael is the chocolatier on duty that day (there are three others) and he demonstrated the tempering process, and we tried all sorts of different origin and cocoa percentage chocolate. 

Celia highlighting the deliciousness of everything!

 Tempering the chocolate.

 The crowd gets restless waiting for a taste.

 Cocoa pod and cocoa nibs.

 Everyone was terribly accommodating when I asked for portraits. Thanks Michael!

The Melt shop was beautifully laid out, with these gorgeous flowers in full bloom.

The mistress of ceremonies also kindly posed for me. Thanks for a wonderful morning, Celia! I can't recommend the Gastrotour highly enough - mine was a present and I think it was a terrific one.

Celia's website: www.celiabrooksbrown.com