THIS BLOG NO LONGER EXISTS! I HAVE A NEW ONE AND HAVE HAD FOR SOME TIME!

Please visit:

www.ourworldmyeye.com

It is full of wonderous things. You will not be dissapointed.

Thanks.

Out

Apology for Gross Misconduct

I must apologies for the title of my previous post.

It was wrong of me and I am not proud of it.

Rest assured, if I try to make any play-on-words titles in the future...the play will actually work.

I will hang my head in shame for the next 10 minutes as way of resolve.

Terror - Terrible or a Terra lot of bull?

So some report says that apparantly we are to fear 2000 people in the UK who are or could be terror suspects in the eyes of M15.

Firstly - and forgive me if this seems either harsh, uneducated or plain stupid - but thats not that many is it? When these sort of stats are wheeled out I am always a bit suprised at how low they sound but how afraid we are meant to be! For example: 103 people are hurt by a hair dryer each year, so lets campaign for safer hair dryers. 103 injuries...is it high enough to warrant a campaign?

I digress, these 2000 terror suspects. Granted 2000 people who may want to do harm is a lot, but 2000 out of 60 million aint that high a number.

What do they base this on too? Is this people who own bomb making equipment? Is it people trained by terror groups? Is it people who have been heard chatting about destruction? Is it people who have visited or posted on an extremest website? What is an extremest?

I find it so hard to take these figures with anything more than a vague glance and then extreme sceptecism. I am sure there are people in this country, just like any other country, who want to do its population harm. Just like I guarantee there are British (either official or unofficial agents) in a country like Iran who want to do its population harm.

I guess my question is...who are all these people who are affraid that Britain is under a constant terror threat? Have we ever not been under this threat and does it affect anyones lives to a huge extent?

Obviously any attack is unpleasant and injuries or deaths resulting from it are deeply wrong, but there seems to be this amazing amount of fear and propoganda whipped up by various sources but I am yet to meet one person who is actually concerned about it.

Perhaps thats just the Brighton bubble striking again.

I am more affraid of my own government that I am of terrorists!

You loved me...then you left me

Well, its been a while.

We have a lot of important issues to discuss you and I.

As you will have gathered, I have been a slacker since finishing Uni, no blogging, no photographing, no writing. Its not so good (like Hedley).

But, times are a changing, times are a changing. First off, the blogging must recommense. Where would the world be without my pearls of wisdom? Slack alley thats where.

I have also made moves to increase the creativity production from 0 to at least 1 or maybe even 2. The process is three fold:

1) I bought a Moleskine notebook. Its a cunning plan where by you spend £8 on a note book so feel guilty if you do not use it. I have therefore penned a few thoughts since getting it and I am enjoying it very much thank you.
2) I have subscribed to a magazine called "The Week". Its tag line is "All you need to know about everything that matters". Essentialy its a weekly magazine that summarises the weeks news, by summarising what the other papers said and so on. Its a bit like the lazy mans newspaper, but thats good as I am both lazy and a man. Anyhow, the idea is it will help me keep abreast (snigger...breast) of whats happening and give me ideas for projects and such like.
3) I have (sort of) started a new photography project. Its super simple and not well thought out at this stage, mainly its an excuse to take a 35mm where every my feet travel to get back in the swing of things. It also involves writing...we shall see where it goes. I am calling it, as a working title "I Fucking Love Cranes". Yet it is not related to building sites! Puzzled...you should be.

In other news, I do fucking love cranes and I love building sites. I enjoy my minute long walk past the building of the new recycling plant in Hollingdean. I like to watch the progress. Sometimes I have to converse with the builders as I negotiate dangerous areas where machinary is in operation. Today I walked past a crane on a lorry. I prefer free standing cranes, but beggers cannot be choosers, unless they are a beggar who is presented with two things at once. The choice between a shiney pound and a cup of tea for example.

I also love diggers.

So...random selections in Itunes etc...how random are they? Not very and I think I have uncovered a consipiracy here. I often find my MP3 player chooses two songs from the same album in succession. In fact it almost always does. Thats not so random. Itunes often seems to select the same songs in a similar order too. What is more, Iphoto does the same. My screensaver is my photo library on random rotation...but its not random. It has favourates and repeats them more often than the other pictures. My conclusion? Computers are alive. ALIVE.

Well, that will do for now. We have discussed some important issues and now i must work.

Until next time.

Finger of fudge

A blog post a week is just enough to give a girl/boy a treat.

First work post

That was my first post from my new workplace!!


How exciting.


(This is my second).

Inteligent flies?

No...not a trouser that automatically does itself up! ARF ARF ARF
(C) John House, all rights for this increadible joke reserved.


I was sitting eating my lunch in the house earlier and along came a fly through the window.

It flew in, bold as brass.

It looked around, by doing a circular fly of a meter or so.

It then turned round and flew right back out the window.

NOW - how come some flies can do that and others come in then bang their head against the open window for days until the die, never finding their way out?


Do flies have differing inteligences or are some just really lucky?

Retrun of the mac (it is)

Hi there.

Oh, hello.

How are you? Been well?

I'm ok.

You not going to ask how I am?

No, not really in the mood.

The mood for what mate?

YOUR FUCKING SHIT, THATS WHAT "MATE"

Jeez...did I catch you at a bad moment.

Maybe you did, maybe if you had bothered to show up in the last few months, even just to say hi you would have caught me in a better mood.

Oh, its like that is it? Your going to hold a grudge?

Well...what do you expect? You don't visit, you don't write..

I have been busy old friend.

Busy. Too busy to say hi? too busy to let me know what you have seen recently. TOO BUSY FOR BASIC CURTOUSY?

I don't know, things go in cycles do they not?

Not for me. I sit here dormant unless you bother to pay a visit. Whats the point in my existence otherwise? Whats the point in anything?

Come on, its not so bad. I had a degree to complete, a summer to enjoy and a new job that doesn't allow slacking. Times are a changing.

For the worse, yeah.

So thats it?

Thats what?

You know, it. Your not interested anymore?

Of course I am INTERESTED, but are you?

Yeah I am. Just need to get back into the swing of things.

Twat.

Fuck head.

Idiot.

I love you.

I love you too.

Sorry blog, I will try harder to make an effort. I will post multiple blogs this week to show my willing.

Ok, thanks, its nice to know you care.



A little story there I entitle "A blog is a relationship, not just an acquatance"

See you soon!

My photographic style...

Leading on from Dr Ed's comments about the description of my work on my website, the text reads:

a photographer who explores the ways in which people interact with and make sense of the the landscape around them. Identity is key to his work - personal identity through our actions, national identity through our landscape and monuments, and a generic identity built up from everything that is around us.


It is quite interestigly accurate given that Dave wrote it when making the site, I shall expand on it based on my views and what I try to achieve in my work, particularly as its developed into a more coherant beast over the last year!


I am interested in landscape of all genres, whether it be a classic picturesque view of the countryside or an urban environment gleaming with modernity. Firstly, there is an initial interest in the landscape and what it stands for. Our land has been shaped for thousands of years, initially (and still today I guess) through natural events, but increasingly through human interaction with it. We build on the land, reclaim it, landscape it to make it look natural etc etc etc. To study the landscape therefore must inherantly reveal something about our national culture and heritage and perhaps allows us to draw conclusions about life by the way it is used and abused.

For me, what is more interesting is people's relationship with the landscape. I enjoy being a photographer and hope I make intersting work because I am interested in really looking at things. Not a fleeting look or walking around staring at the ground, but trying to engage with whatever environment I am in. By presenting different views or unexpected shots of my surroundings, it enables the viewer to maybe see something in a new light or at least consider it in a way they have not done before. Perhaps this is because we are so used to our surroundings we take it for granted? If you go abroad for example, everything becomes interesting whether its a tree you don't see in the UK, a postbox of a different design than you are used to or the way people use the land in their own country. applying these principals to a landscape you are really familiar with is difficult, but provides so much reward when achieved. Because we are so used to our surroundings, if we can detatch from them and step outside what our brain expects to see, the small details come out. I think it is within these small details, those things commonly taken for granted, that we can reveal a huge wealth of learning about ourselves.

It then follows that to view other people viewing their landscape is just as interesting and reveals just as much about how the collective conciousness looks at the landscape and what conclusions can be drawn about peoples similarities in this approach. With this project, I realised that making work about people viewing the landscape was very difficult. Where do you begin to look and what do you choose to shoot. I was reading a lot about tourism at the time and the tourist experience, the manufactured heritage industry and such like. It struck me that to visit well established and well visited landmarks would give me a platform to do just that. I could go to a place that was pre-designated as a sight of interest and where peoples sole activity was looking.

The manner in which people go through the tourist experience like sheep suggests a lot, as does the way a landmark is set up to accomidate this. We are ushered this way and that, given indications as to where to look and take photographs and therefore we are being pre-loaded with information about where we are. Why are we encouraged to look at certain things for example and why do people stick to this?

You can go to a landmark and predict where people will take a picture. You can also bet if someone stands somewhere and take a picture, others will follow suit, assuming it must be the best view. Leading on from that, people's shot selection is rather drab to me as it is the same image seen time and again. Usually people try to represent a place as though it was still in the time it was famous for. For example, if photographing the stone henge, people will try to show the stones and the field its in, but cut out any other tourists, the road, the car park, the signs, the staff, the shop...the list goes on. For me, to make images that show all these extrenuous things is far more interesting, often far more beautiful and certainly far more revealing about the place and how it sits in the modern age.

All these things reflect on identity and I guess that is my key interest and theme at the moment. Part of someones identity is perhaps revealed by how they interact with the landscape. Our national identity is reflected in everything around us and becomes particularly obvious when we look at places that are designated as being part of our identity (for example landmarks) and a generic identity is apparant in all things. Revealing this generic identity is perhaps most interesting to me and I find by looking at the over looked, the obvious or simply what our brains usually make us ignore...i.e that which is taken for granted, gets under the skin of identity and tells me things that I didn't know before.

Something like that anyway! That is just my thoughts from the top of my head...but I shall think on as I have never quite pinned down what I am interested in visually and doubt I ever will!

John House...the artist!

Following on from my show post...

Its really hard to stay positive during a group show and not get too dismayed with things.

Some people get a lot of attention for their work, get loads of great feedback, win prizes, sell work etc etc etc.

If you don't get that sort of feedback immediately, then its hard to stay positive about your work and you naturally start to doubt yoruself and the body of work you have made.

I got a few nice responses in the Private View, but mostly from people I know. Thats all great, but you know they are a bit biased!

However, today, just before leaving the house to come to work, something happened that has made me 1) feel like a real artist, 2) be completely content with the show and my work no matter what else happens and 3) just gives me a real confidence boost.

A chap emailed me this afternoon saying that he had seen my series 'Landmark' (which is my final major project) in the exhibition and wanted to tell me how much he loved the images and the body of work as a whole. He said he wasn't a photographer and so didn't know lots about it, but he really liked my work (I did some research and he runs a kind of arty choir thing that do modern voice productions or something!). He then asked if I sold my work and if so how much it would cost him to buy a piece although he did add a caviat was that he didn't have much money!

But for me, that has just made it all worth while. A random ordinary Joe has seen my work amongst all the other great work in the show, took the time to find my postcard so he would have my contact details and then made the effort to send me an email asking if he can buy some!

If feels fantastic! For me, I always wanted to be a photographer for two main reasons 1) to explore the world and the way I view it and make statements or come to conclusions through photography and art. 2) To try and make work that the public would enjoy, respond to and hopefully learn something from or at least think about something in a new or different way.

So to get a member of the public to respond positively enough to enquire about buying a piece is increadible and such a confidence boost. I have no real interest in making art for other artists or photography for other photographers...whats the point? For me the real value of art is the effect it has on the general population and if I can have an impact on even one person, then that makes me an artist. Today, his email gave me that confirmation and hopefully will be the first of many people who will take something positive from my work.

Just got to work out how much I would sell them for now and perhaps the icing on the cake will be making a small amount back on the vast debt I have amassed creating it!

I think the whole exhibition thing has shown me the importance of publically displaying your work, in whatever way you can. There is no point in making it just for yourself (not for me anyway), it only comes alive when others get to see it and respond whether positively or negatively.

Art after all is horrendously subjective and if your work isn't out there, then you are not challenging yourself and for me are not an artist. Whether it goes down well or not, if nobody sees the work then there aint much point to doing it.

Private view

So my private view happened on Friday.

That really was the last significant event of my degree (other than getting my marks and the graduation ceremony I suppose!).

It was a hectic two weeks of setting up the show, but relatively stress and problem free to be honest. We managed to iron out most of the niggles and ignore most of the whingers and produced what I think is an excellent and rather profesional exhibition.

Friday night all the degree shows opened by way of a double ender or private views. 4 till 7pm was press and VIP's and 7 till 10pm was general admitance and friends and family.

I was relatively relaxed about the whole affair. My Mum came down Friday and we had lunch and chatted before heading home where I donned my suit and prepared myself for the show itself. I didn't go for the 4pm opening in all honesty, thought it was too eager and so headed there for a bit after 5. Thats when I started to feel the burn and got quite nervous as I walked the familiar steps to school, my swanky shoes clipping on the pavement behind me. I wasn't sure why I was so nervous, but I was!

The first few hours were really strange and I felt very unsettled! I didn't know any VIP's only my course mates and I am not the best at networking, idle chit chat or being the centre of attention, so it went rather uneventfully to be honest. I SHOULD have stayed by my work and chatted to anyone looking at it. Instead, I drunk lots of Red Stripe and shuffled sheepishly round the exhibiton.

However, 7pm soon arrived and I was really excited about my friends and family getting to see my work. To be truthfull I think thats what I was most nervous about too! Its a strange thing to present the culmination of three years work like that and your nearest and dearest going to see it for the first time. I guess I was aprehensive as to their reaction and if they would like it.

It was also dissapointing to have so few tickets to give to my gang! I wish I had had more so I could have taken everyone. Instead it was Hannah, my family and Phil and Matt as they have given me so much support over the years and I wanted to be able to thank them in this small way for helping.

Once they arrived though I had a great time. Everyone seemed to enjoy my work and were impressed with what I had done and drinking and making merry took place in between having a good gander at my and my colleagues images.

We then went for a slap up Italian meal and drank wine whilst putting the world to rights.

It was lovely and meant a lot to me that eveyone was so enthusiastic about coming down and checking my work out as well as being so full of praise.

I'm not sure where I would have been without my family and friends and most of all Hannah these last three years. There complete faith in me, support and encouragement justified what I was doing and gave me the belief that it was worth it and I could achieve something I would be happy with and most importantly they would like and appreciate.

That sounds cheasy, but I really mean it, I owe a lot to my family and a lot to all my friends who have done nothing but support and encourage me.

Going to Uni felt like a huge step for me 4 years ago. All I had done since doing busniness related A-levels was a variety of office jobs. Whilst I did quite well in these and could have forged a successfull career, it never felt right and I was never satisfied or content. When I moved to Brighton I grew increasingly agitated at where my life was going and what I was (not) achieving. My passion for photography had grown and thats when you lot all started hassling me to go to university! After a year or so of procrastination...I went!

Its been a hard three years in so many ways. I went to Uni not having done art since I was 13 and showed no promise at all. To then do a fine art degree was a shock to the system and opened up a whole world I never really knew existed. It also filled me with self doubt and confusion over whether I was justified in this new world and whether I could achieve or if I had bitten off more than I could chew. However, knowing you have an ever supporting and encouraging partner, family and friends means you can do anything and get through it that bit easier, so thank you all sincerely.

AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE SHOW YET...GO HAVE A LOOK:

Its open until Thursday 10am until 8pm, except Thursday when it closes for good at 4pm.

If you want a guided tour, let me know when your going to have a look and I will meet you there.

ALSO, I have a holding page for my website now:

www.johnhouse.co.uk

Kindly put up by Dave, who is working on the full site. There are five images up at the moment, which are the images on display in the exhibition. We also have a website for our whole year:

www.uobphotography.co.uk

Hope you get to check the show out and enjoy it as much as we all enjoyed making it!

Behold my gnarly face.

I like it when people of an older persuasion have a weathered face.

You know they have had a full and probably hedonistic lifestyle!

Ultimately, if your gonna get old and your face is going to sag, you may as well do it in style wouldn’t you say?

I find it hard not to try and work out what they have done in their life to get such an interesting face.

Sometimes I hope my face will respond accordingly when I am an old!!!

Whatever happens, I think I will have a classic old man face. There are a number of reasons for this:

1) I have a round, almost fatty nose. Ergo it will be massive when I am an old man.
2) I am reasonably hairy and should therefore be able to sport a massive straggly beard!
3) I already have slight hairy ears and this guarantees me hairy ears and nose when I am old.
4) I have quite bushy eyebrows. I also get eyebrow hairs that are over an inch long, so will have massive eyebrows when I reach maturity.
5) I frown a lot so will have a massive wrinkled forehead and eye area further down the line.

See, it’s worth staying friends with me for another 50 years so you can mock my face!

(Spot the old person theme for my posts today!!!)

90 and counting

So I went to Ledbury on Saturday to go to my nan's 90 birthday bash!

90! Now thats a proper head fuck!

That means she was born in 1917, the end of WW1. If you are my sort of age, then thinking back to decades I lived through, like the 80's seems long enough ago. The 50's seems like a different age and the first few decades of the twentieth century are something I cannot even associate with, apart from through history books and old films!

The only other association I have is with my Nan, who existed then. Crazy. She doens't talk about her life much, even with some probing she will chat about things, but I don't know a huge amount. I guess that is not suprising though as remembering interesting or relevant things over a 90 year life span can't be easy, plus my nan is quite private so doesn't generally chat about herself anyway.

I find her amazing though, absolutely amazing. She has recently moved into a sheltered flat, earlier this year in fact. Up till that point she has lived in the same big house, in a small feudel-like village called Eastnor for about as long as I have been alive. My grandad died some years ago and so she has been home alone so to speak, maintaing a 4 bedroom house and garden by herself. She still drives and until about 5 years ago (if that) she was doing meals on wheels for pensioners, some of whom were over 20 years younger than her.

I love her spirit as although her age is showing more these days, she is determined to live her life and support herself as long as possible.

It was strange to celebrate her birthday, aware of how old she was. I don't mean that to sound off, like I was shocked by her age, more I was just silenced somewhat by the fact I was in the presence of someone who had seen and experienced so much and must know a wealth of things that in the not to distant future, will be lost forever.

I often wonder if thats why I am an artists. To preserve or at least try and document elements of my life and those around me in this age, for future years. If we don't record things some way, then how much of this knowledge will be lost?

I often think that we, as a society, treat older people with little respect. They retire and we treat them as kids again. In other cultures, the elders of a tribe lead that tribe. or at least they are consulted for their experience about important issues. I find it insane how bad we are at that, how much experience just gets over looked because we consider older people to be no use to society any more.

I find it a shame we don't have a decent story telling tradition in our modern culture. I would love to be armed with a wealth of stories past down to me from my relatives that I could relay to the generations below me to preserve the knowledge and take it into account, when ineviatably, similar situations arise.

My nan has had an insane background. She is from a traditional colonial family background. She went to finishing school in Switzerland, lived in India for many years of her youth and countries like South Africa as an adult.

Her father was chief of police in India and so must have been involved in events that I would find appauling. But how I would love to know more about that and what his life was like. She showed me some photos a few years back of her parents wedding, or maybe it was grandparents, in India and I was shocked by the number of servants in turbans there were.

90 years of knowledge and information, yet I do not make the time or effort to learn more from her.

Sometimes I like to moan!

And isn't that ok?

Perhaps a blog isn't the best place though as who comes here to read about my not-so-troubling troubles!

Onwards with normal blogging service!

My boring blog

I think we should have a vote about my blog.

Do you think we should have a vote about my blog?

I think we should have a vote about my blog.

Who thinks it has got rather dull recently?

I think it has got rather dull recently.

My ideas have dried up other than whinging about what I have been up to and the fear of finishing!

That should be no more I think. I wager things would improve if I returned to chatting absolute rubbish about the fascinating things I think and see in the world of John.

Who is with me?

Yeaaaah.

Yeahhhhhhh.

Yeah.

Bored is as bored does!

Now I have no school work to do and term is nearing and end, my library job is so dull!

Nobody comes to get computer advice and I have no work to do really!

It will be great to finish working here! Its been an amazing student job to be fair, well paid, not that many hours and not much to do other than my own work in my little office. But I am looking forward to not working evenings any more and not seeing these same library walls ever again!

At the moment, my new pass time at work obsession is Kdice. Its an online multiplayer game, really simple, yet addictive! Basically its exactly like risk. I have been doing quite well recently too, even won a few matches. stick cricket is a thing of the past, Kdice is the way forward!

The harsh reality of the art world

So now, the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain...

Not so much a curtain, more of a future of dissapointment and rejection ;)

Weeks left until I leave Uni officially. In two months I graduate, gown and all.

So, what they don't tell you before you embark on an art degree, is that your prospects after amount to nothing! I knew that anyway and never really expected to walk out of my degree in any better position than when I went into it, other than piles of debt and piles of experience and learning of course!

It suddenly dawns on you at this time of year that you have to go back to reality! My experience of doing an art course is you live in a crazy self indulgent bubble. Its fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone with a creative flare. Surrounded by shed loads of talent from all sorts of diciplines. Boundless facilities and three years of time dedicated to exploring your passions, interests and theories through art. It is a bubble from reality. Sure you may be skint, but there is always loans and hardship funds and interest free overdrafts, generous parents and that all important part time job. Apart from my stints of working full time in the holidays and my 10 or so hours (on average) working in the library each week during term time - I have been able to side step the normal existance of working 35+ hours in a job you care not for just to make ends meet.

Now, I am aware that this bubble is about to fall on a rather large spike and burst, quite instantly, with a resounding dissapointment, emptiness and confusion! I exagerate of course, but what are you supposed to do with an art degree?

I am obviously staying on in Brighton when I finish. As of a month or two, probably a week or two in reality! All my money will have dried up. My overdrafts maxed, my credit card heaving and other various loans niggling away at my wallet. Suddenly the council will want their tax again and living costs increase...but with no regular loan payments coming in to cover the worst of it.

So, who wants to employ a Photographer in Brighton? Nobody, thats who!

We have started to have a series of professional practice lectures from ex-graduates of my course. They come in and say what they did since leaving etc to give us an indication of the real life in the art world, outside the utopian dream that is art school.

The message from all of them? Its fucking hard! Basically there are a few options most people are interested in:

1) Fashion and editorial photography - to break this industry is notoriously hard. For starters you have to live in London as all the publishers are there. Then, even when you are getting images published and being commissioned for fashion shoots and such like, your skint. The chap today is getting photo shoots from ID magazine each month, but he gets paid £50 a page. He has to pay his costs, so on a few page shoot he may get £200 but will cost him two or three times that. Sometimes you get lucky and get a budget for a shoot - but that covers models, travel, accomidation, film and processing etc...and at the end of it...you get £50 a page! So this goes on for years until you hopefully get a break and make it as a name in the industry when you earn the big bucks. The other dream, of course, is you get commissioned for advertising work where you make billions!

2) An artist - basically this leaves you in a completely solitary position! Nobody pays you to produce bodies of work. You can get Arts Council grants etc if your lucky, or perhaps a residency somewhere - but the budgets are slim and you still front most of the costs yourself. The only hope to recoup them is if a gallery takes you on and you sell enough prints at a good enough price to make some of the losses back. Even then the gallery take at least 40% commisssion.

All this is obvious, nothing is a walk in the park and to succeed you always have to work hard. I am not bothered by that - I will make it or I wont, either way I will continue to make work for my own benefit and perhaps it will lead somewhere one day.

But, with everyone asking you what your going to do after graduating and with the knowledge you must earn to live (and quite a lot to live in Brighton) its all a bit daunting.

My plan has always been to get a part time job 3 or 4 days a week and dedicate the other days to my own practice and trying to get freelance work or whatever else I can to subsidise my income. I am confident(ish) that I can achieve this, but there are a lot of artists who are in the same boat, all jostling for very limited arts grants, even more limited gallery representation and precious few commissions if you don't work with people (which ineviatably I don't).

I find it quite funny really, at the start of the course you know your options are limited, but as the course goes on, you get submerged in self-indulgance. At the end of the course, you remember there are no prospects again and its hard not to let the panic set in a tad. The idea of pension regulating again fills me with dread!

But if you believe and want something enough, the universe provides does it not? I like to think so. Anyway, if the worst comes to the worst, I have had a three year break from the hum drum of everyday life to pretend at being an artist and I wouldn't change that for all the cameras in the world!

My phat suit!

When deciding what to wear to the private view of our exhibition, it was clear a suit was the way forward.

But this presented problems:

1) the only suit I own is shite

2) I don't like many suits, especially modern ones. they are really badly cut and hang on you like a sack and just look a bit shit really. I like really nice modern ones but they cost a fortune

3) I wanted a well fitting suit which, to get new, would have meant getting one tailered at vast expense

4) to get a decent vintage one costs lots too and they are in high demand

So, the best option was Ebay. Hannah measured every conceivable part of me and then the hunt began. I wanted a 60's or 70's Mod like suit that is properly fitted so it comes in at the sides etc and flatters the features! I wanted it to be brown too preferably and have a decent trouser that didn't look shabby.

We saw some beauties, but soon realised everyone wanted them and they were all going for upwards of £150. I can't justify that!

Then, the lovely and wonderous Hannah said she would get me one as a graduation gift, HUZZAH! And then in another turn of furtune we found one that perfectly fitted my requirements and all the sizes were just so and it was going for quite cheap (I think because its waistcoat was missing). We stalked it and did some craft last second bidding and got it for £70 I think all it - which for a suit is a bargain!

It came today and its shitting lovely! In absolutely amazing condition too, looks new! Its even Pierre Cardin or whatever the label is called, so its a proper designer and all!

Want to see it? Ok here you go:

GET IN! Of course, you will have to wait until the private view to see me adorned in it ;)

THANKS HANNAH, YOUR THE BEST!

The great set up...

No, I am not talking a great Heist such as 'The Sting' but the exhibition.

I dragged myself to school for midday as work started on setting up our exhibition today as it has to be done for Monday.

Much lifting and building of islands to show work on took place and a dash of painting for good measure.

There is shit loads of work to do though. We have to build many display islands, paint all the walls in the gallery and then hang all the work after carefully considering where it should go.

Its all exciting though and good experience. I am not technically on the exhibition committee but thought I would help anyway to:

1) get the experience
2) Make sure it gets done
3) get to have a say in where my work goes so I can get a good spot! AH ha ha ha

A bit cheeky, but then I am a course rep so can justify it ;)

We are showing in the main gallery space at the uni building, which is a great result and a really good space as its the first thing people see when they go in. It was a fight to get it this year as photography has had it for the last 4 years, but the tutors put up a good case and we triumphed!!!

FUCK YOU WORLD!

Excuse me for my rude title, it has no relevance to anything!

So, I am now finished. I handed my work in at 10am on Tuesday and there is no more to be said or done about it!

It was a bit of a frantic morning, hooned it into school for 9am to knock out one final print I wasn't happy with and to do a last bit of sequencing before I placed my portfolio box onto the shelf bearing my name...ready to be assessed last week.

It was probably one of the greatest anti-climaxes of my life! I felt there should be a brass band that trumpeted up when I handed in, but alas, no such event took place. I just stood around confused for a while wondering what I should do and whether I could have done anything better (I could have, of course!).

Its funny, you work for three years and it culminates in the moment yesterday of submitting a final major body of work that I began in September last year. The longest ongoing project I have ever worked on. The sum total of three years work in effect as everything before hand was preparation for the major piece. An odd feeling for sure. I wonder if its the same for courses that are assessed by exam?

Following the hand in, I went to Spectrum who are one of the major pro labs in the country. They are printing and mounting my five images that I will show in the exhibition and they were ready for me to go and check. Rather splendid they looked too. they are printed on 20 X 24" paper and looked great that large. The printed had done good too and followed all my instructions, I was happy! Its a shame I didn't print them myself really, but time was too much of an issue and to releive that extra stress I though bollox, may as well get it done properly! What is more, they are professional printers so I would hope they can do a better job than me! They will now be mounted onto sheets of Aluminium (pronounced the British way please). Its most exciting...if not costly!

Then I was at the biggest loose end of my life waiting to get drunk! And drunk I got.

Me and Hannah went to Wagamama and had a feed at about 6pm and drank a few cups of Saki. We followed this with a Manhatan at the Great Eastern before hot footing it to some pub where my course had hired the function room. Henry and Rodney came along later to join in the merry making and making merry we did. I drunk more than I have in a long time, gallons of JD and a fair few shots of Tequila. Ironically it was the most studenty night I have been on since being a student.

I was rather drunk, but still standing which is nice!

It was a top evening and a great way to mark the final day of degree work.

Today I feel like absolute shit.

15 hours to go...

Well its almost over.

3 years of my life wasted ;)

At 10am tomorrow I hand in my final major work, which is the last part of my assessed degree work. I will be a free man (almost).

Can't quite believe it! Four years ago, I tentatively signed up to some saturday courses in photography and off the back of that applied too and was accepted into University to study photography full time.

Now, that time has passed at an alarming rate and the end is firmly in sight.

I am rather calm too, hardly any last minute stressing or anything!

To be fair, I have managed my time quite well this year and so everything has falled nicely into place. Of course, there is always more you could do, but I have done my best, or as near to it as possible and so there is no more that can be done.

I am quite pleased with my final work too, its looking good. As a suffering artists, I wouldn't say I am happy with it completely...but then you shouldn't be. I think being unsatisfied with your work makes you keep trying.

All barr the shouting, I am a free man.

Of course, me being me, I am going to keep working until the end of term. There is the exhibition to set up and then I plan to make the best use of the facilities whilst I still can by scanning as many negatives as I can and printing spare copies of my work ready to enter competitions and such like with.

Our graduate exhibition opens on the 2nd of June to the public, but I will give more details of that soon.

I believe I get my marks on the 23rd of June and then have the graduation ceremony at the end of July.

After that...its the life of a poor struggling artist for me and I can't wait! A whole new set of challenges and finally something resembling a normal life back!

Did you know that I...

...LOVE STATS?

(I do)

Friends update...Texticles Mk ii

Does anyone remember this post from a while back:

Texticles
So, I have a new way to gage popularity.I stumbled accross the text counters on my mobile and the results are in...Sent messages = 1109Received messages = 1136Therefore 25 people like me more than I like them...FACT!Now for some fascinating stats! I have had my phone, I reckon about 15 months. Therefore I have sent an average of 92.41 texts per month (23.10 per week) and received 94.66 per month (23.66 per week).So we can summise that an average of half a person likes me more per week than I like them.Hurrah for me.

Well, I thought it was time for an update to see how my popularity has moved on.

Sent messages = 1598
Received messages = 1715

Therefore 117 people like me more than I like them...FACT!

And the stats update...I have had my phone for about 19 months therefore I have:
Sent an average of 84.11 texts per month (21.03 per week)
Received an average of 90.26 texts per month (22.57 per week)
So an average of 1 and a half people like me more per week than I like them.

Interesting isn't it? I am sending 2 less texts per week than before, so perhaps don't like two people any more? I am receiving 1.1 less texts per week, so perhaps 1.1 people have decided not to be my friend? Still, I am .9 of a person up so I don't care!

DISCLAIMER: I like everyone and therefore these stats are meant for amusement and educational purposes only and to show the pointlessness of stats!

Fine off!

Is anyone else getting a bit sick of fines?

I am getting a bit sick of fines.

Yesterday I got a £20 penalty for not having a train tricket. TWENTY POUNDS! I had got the train from London Road to Moulsecoomb as I was going to work. I was running late and the stupid new ticket machine refused my money, it just kept spitting my pound out. I hate the new machines anyway, they are far less effecient and take far longer than the old ones and by the time I had found the right ticket and it refused my coin the train arrived.

I hopped on.

The ticket inspector was busy so I couldn't get one from him and 2 minutes later we arrived at Moulsecoomb.

I disembarked.

There, waiting by the exit, were three burly inspectors, who looked more like bouncers. I explained why I didn't have a ticket but they had none of it and issued the fine anyway. Given the return ticket costs £1.45, £20 seems a little unjustified? Thats the equivilant of paying for nearly 14 of that journey!

The other big finer are banks. Over my three years at Uni, I have suffered their fate a few times when money ran short at the end of a month and a DD bounced or whatever. I know this is a big issue in the media at the moment, and rightly so - they are fucks. Once I was fined over £200 by Abbey because a few things bounced and they charge you £35 for each one then fines for going over your overdraft then fines for the sake of fines and up it mounts. That means, inevitably, the next month you are short of cash and run into the same problem again. Abbey made over £630 million profit last year and they still think its acceptable to rob their customers like that. YES WE ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS REMEMBER!


So my main beef with fines is that its basically treating you like a kid. No room for explainations, no room for taking individual circumstances into account and certainly no proportionate system of fines. Go a pound overdrawn - £30 fine. Go a billion pounds over - £30 fine.

What gives a company the right to fine someone? They are not the Police or the government or a law maker. They are just profiteering corporations who see a chance to extorte more money from their clients. We keep these services and businesses afloat and yet they seek to punish us when we make the odd honest mistake.

Now would I get away with issuing a fine?

"Excuse me Southern Rail, I bought a train ticket from London to Brighton and as your too tight to invest in rolling stock, I had to stand all the way as the train was so crowded. It was also hot, stuffy and generally badly kept. That will be a £30 fine please."

You would have no chance and to seek such compensation would mean expense and personal risk through the courts. So how has this unjust and unbalanced system been allowed? Why can a business that makes a fortune fine individuals who rarely make a fortune, but not the other way around.

I resent being told off and punished at the tender age of 27, thats why I no longer live with my parents!

Needless to say I always write a strongly worded letter to complain about any fines and I sometimes get it back, but sometimes I don't. It pisses me right off how much companies are allowed to exploit the general public.

Its not even as if you get a fine that is a fair amount. If the train people made me pay twice my fare for example, £3.00, they would make their point, make more money than they would have if I had got my ticket and I would know that it would potentially cost me double to not buy a ticket in the future.

Banks charges are even worse. £35 for a failed direct debit. How does that work? The bank does not loose any money as they don't pay it. Their automated computer system is notified there is not the money to cover the payment and rejects it. An automated letter is then issued and the computer automatically charges you the next month. They say the £35 is to cover costs, but its not - its a fine and a penalty and a punishment for breaking the rules that they establish and do not let you have a say in. Fines that boost their profits nicely thank you very much.

I did some digging around and the banks were asked to explain their charges to a tribunal thing. They said it was a parly estimated cost as it turns out, they calculate the cost of all their debt busting activities. This includes issuing balifs, claiming money from businesses, customers going over their limits, unpaid DD's - everything to do with that side of money collections. They then apportion this to the customers by a sort of guess, so that all the fines paid over a year will cover the cost of all their debt busting antics. So that means the average bank customer is no doubt funding the bank to chase businesses who owe them cash or bankrupts and all that. If its a charge for the cost of the customers error, surely it should be calculated exactly, which, given its all automated, should equal about a pence. I even recall when a BT direct debit bounced and Abbey fined me, but BT didn't. So the company who didn't get their cash did nothing but the bank who didn't loose anything or do anything made a £35 profit off the back of it.

Fuckers.

Give me a p...P, give me an a...A, give me a v...V, give me a k...K whadyagot?

Check it:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1330093.0.new_superpark_to_replace_clogged_road.php

Finally the council may have come to their senses about their not being enough green space in this city!

Huzzah.

The only downside is that they have started to think about it before I got to write a moaning letter to everyone's favourate David Lepper MP. I haven't written him for ages and I know he misses it, going to have to think of a new topic now.

Shame we will have to wait till 2010 if they decide to go ahead!