some musicians make use of an otherwise derelict corner on tottenham court road. such a good place to work as a gig venue the ex-road is a good size for a stage and the barriers edging the road were a perfect for walkers by to rest against. inspiring example of people making direct use of 'lost' spaces.

took part in a workshop with masters tutor lucy tauber. she says she always carries little people in her bag so she can take pictures of them in different spatial arrangements. this is one i did.

drew the logo for greyfriars art space back home in kings lynn.

'drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways' exhibition at the curve in the barbican. a flock of zebra finches perch on electric guitars laid flat and aloft and the artist idea is that through playing their landings and movements then one can record their routines. i like the idea of finding new ways in which to measure reality.

went to the emirates stadium for champions league match between arsenal and porto where arsenal won 5-0. i watch alot of football following my home team norwich around various tin shed away stands in league 1. walking up into the 60,000 seat stadium was completely overwelming.

benches in normand park, london designed by kinnear landscape architects. i like the really simple changes in the form that allow different ergonomic possibilities as apposed to normal retagular benches. they provide different uses and it seems as though the designer has thought about the spectrum of people who use them.

went to the crash exhibition at gagosian. works inspired by the novels of jg ballard. the works generally represent destruction, sex and violence exhibiting the extremes of human nature and commodity of western culture. as well as the works being very provocative pieces i found the exhibition to be insightful into the extremes of existence. not necessarily a new idea, crash is a reflection of these ideas. I particulaly enjoyed a piece where there were lots of contact lenses lying on the floor next to one wall of the gallery. the viewer may or may not be aware of them or even able to see them so is likely to stand on them. so as the exhibition goes on more of the contact lenses are stood on. i understand this to be the destruction of focus over time. i enjoy the idea that the older something becomes, maybe there is more understanding of something but less focus on the reality. like the way society gradually dictates our thoughts and actions and we become less focused. http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2010-02-11_crash/#

taking walks under the thames. (top) woolwich foot tunnel and (below) rotherhithe tunnel.

Focus Week was spent in the French Alps skiing. The top image is taken from inside a lift over the valley between les Arcs and la Plagne. The next image down is taken sandwiched in between two layers of cloud.

On tuesday I injured my shoulder so on wednesday went for a walk around the mountains further awy from the commercial resort type appartments. I found some really nice old structures as well as some purely handmade buildings where you can almost see the process of how the wood is nailed together, holes cut out of the timber clading to allow the floor beams to poak through. I think its more interesting to see the process within an the aesthetic of an object than to have something clean and untouched. When one is contending with the snow maybe there is more of a priority for something to be made just do its job.

showed terminator for free at the rose theatre in kingston. It was on a projector in the bar. really informal and inviting. they have more viewing on monday nghts.

camden market redevelopement. nice use of materials. staffolding and perpex shelter. like how they use just normal supporting materials so to perform just the shape the shelter needs instead of making a bespoke high spec stainless steel construction.

bixwork party poster

working on a project in the new year with wayward plants.ex-xmas trees
www.waywardplants.org

FADA launches annual Sustainable Design Solutions workshop. We disscussed sustanability issues in Kingston in particular the ravens ait island on the thames. the island has been common land since 14th century and since it was recently abbandoned a group of squatters lived on it and proposed serious ideas to Kingston council about making the island a eco conference centre with ecological and sustainable method learning oppotunities for Kingston. the council refused and the squatters were physically forced off the island. In are workshop we were reflecting on thier proposal. we agreed that the ideas expressed in the proposal are good and definatly positive for the surrounding communities. we thought the promlem with the proposal was down to pakaging and stereotype issues. like the council see dreads, baggy trousers and even the word squatter and instanly refuse. this is the nature of society. we proposed that the project needs a champion to gain some respect. an important figure like david attenborough or prince charles.

went to tate britain for the richard long exhibiton. his deep conections with the landscape and unconventional walks through it are based on shapes and time and numbers and mapping sounds, experiences, music. the above image is a circle of norfolk flint. exhibition instalation is not the best representation of his work because his ideals are about his experience of the external natural environment. but as a norfolk boy it was nice to see a material from my home within a london gallery.

i think i have a clearer understanding of what i will write about for my disertation. Having orignally thought about maps i became aware that it is important to write about my own design philosophy. this has evolved through my interest of emotional maps and then discovering the situationist. WOW.. they are a group of international revolutionaries founded in 1957. "ideas rooted in Marxism and the 20th century European artistic avant-gardes, they advocated experiences of life being alternative to those admitted by the capitalist order, for the fulfillment of human primitive desires and the pursuing of a superior passional quality." as i understand situationism is about employing change in society by making new and different social situations to evoke and inspire and change lifes normality. they also used alot of emotional mapping techniques that expresses these ideas of spontaneous urban recreation. i realised that alot of my previous work draws paralels with these ideals. i.e community driven, evolving spaces, that dont have an ending.

attended the Teach-in lecture series at V&A. learnt some new facts about the urgency of changing our climates situation. some particular examples... its extremely possible that the arctic will be no more by 2100. every summer it melts and every winter it freezes but in current history it melts more than it freezes, so its getting smaller. the major problem with this is that the arctic reflects the sun rays- without it the earth will get hotter.
consumers who have a carbon footprint of 8 worlds have the same life statisfaction as those with a footprint of 1 world.
humans engineer the mississippi to stay in its current course. but for thousands of years the river evolve to shift and take varying routes. its this human input thats not allowing natural progress.
i suppose the main idea of the lectures is that we need to act now on these environmental situations and that we as a design community (or maybe more as indivduals) are really the ones who need to force these ideas. both research new renewable sustainable systems as well as designing campaigns that will ingage the public relm. In terms of my disertation ideas about mapping and stats i think it would be good to look at the representation or misrepresentation of climate change issues. and how the public perceive this information.

new pavilion at the serpentine. pretty non spectacular.

Radical Nature exhibition at Barbican. Really inspiring exhibition. Each instalation is a exploration of the natural world. Given my interests in making stuff at the moment (ie.periscopes) i really liked one particular instalation by Tue Greenfort. He maded a machine for capturing images of foxes. He ties a frankfurter to a string and when the fox goes to grab it the string pulls a lever that hits a button on a cheap camera and gets the shot. genius, given the high quality expensive precision that david attenboroughs team of camera men go to get a shot of the natural world and also i think is a good advertisement for film photography- the antisipation of the shot. I must make more stuff this year.

big silver balls- at royal academy courtyard for anish kapoor exhibition