I made a visit to Cerfav recently, on a trip on Eurostar on which the weather constantly interfered, but somehow did not interrupt a kind of reverie as the trees sped past. Cerfav is a small specialist Institute in north eastern France, near Nancy, in Vannes de Chatel. In the woods, in perfect peace, the students learn crafts which bind together digital techniques through this most precious of material engagement, glass. Being a material so intrinsic to the digital experience, and so often captivated by it’s decorative purposes in moments when I am in highly functional glass environments (buildings, cameras, screens, computers). I wanted to meet the staff at Cerfav to talk about techniques old and new, while amongst traces of ash and stone, the students turn this digital dream into refined and refracted silicone crystal, coaxing new forms and new possibilities from glass.

I was able to speak to Denis Garcia, director, about his vision for Cerfav and about many international collaborations. As glass reaches deep into the human psyche, allowing movement such as air travel and screens to mix with phones, mix with windows, and light and information can sometimes cancel each other out. We’re going to work on ideas about psychology and glass, how reimagining our relationship with the physical characteristics of glass can permit us to think about shared civic responsibility as well as what kind of intrusive city of the future, that should be resisted. Instead, permitting glass in it’s many beautiful forms should offer us an alternative to those which are monochrome and dimensionless. The spatial characteristics of glass don’t all exist in essentially flat or slightly convex surfaces scattered about our daily lives. Instead, it offers poetical characteristics which I’m sure will delight and educate others, like the school of poetic computation, for many years to come. Therefore looking forwards to working with Phillipe Garenc and the team, attempting to realise something fantastic

Cerfav Fablab twitter: https://twitter.com/CerfavFablab

Photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sevenspiral/

New Zealand is a terrific country to visit. My short trip was assisted by fine late summer sun, and a general relaxed and buzzy air from the very young 4m population of Auckland itself, a city that’s very liveable and walkable, and has made great strides at civic level to try and draw together threads of good architecture and deal with a recent spell of bad planning. The harbour and dock are standout areas, and the downtown area around the Town Hall was where I was based. My trip co-incided with the Auckland Arts Festival, which brought colourful flags and lunchtime jazz spilling out into the parks, and a rich evening social programme.

The new Sir Paul Reeves building was wonderful to see. After a traditional welcome at the Maori Marae (meeting house), as part of my powhiri, we conducted a tour around the new facilities, starting with teaching spaces and slowly descending in a spiral down to the atrium area. This had been newly enclosed, being previously a service road for deliveries, and so previously external walls had been cleaned and prepared (and greened) and the roof covered over, in a style familiar to visitors to the British Museum or Kings Cross rail station. Everywhere was evidence of thought and detail, from the varying levels of seating and privacy as part of the social collaborative spaces, which designers Jasmax has put in for students and staff, through to the crafted interactive touchscreens and signage, for which a strong content strategy has been written. There were salutory lessons for the activity of our own signage at Ravensbourne, which doesn’t have a content strategy.

(c) Rob Kesseler

A little while back in 2012, at their invitation, I chaired an early morning discussion at Nesta on biomimicry, which is the use of science, maths, engineering- well, anyone really, with concepts from the natural world, from the close scrutiny of that world that makes up biology. I’ve had reasons to think about that several times since then – I did a post at the time, but that was shredded when I wiped my blog database (which I did on purpose to effect a fresh start). I barely remember what it was that captured my imagination at the time, but subsequently, it’s been the work of Rob Kesseler. He was a calm, keen presence on the day, sitting on my right as we surveyed the floor, and gave some insights into his work as an artist working at a very deep level with tiny parts of nature, at Kew Gardens. His work has stayed with me and I’m slowly saving for one of his books (I can afford the book, just not the space at home and the bookcase…) but when I get it, I know it will come with an enormous sense of fulfillment.

I’m thinking about that session now; all the things I could have said, all the ways I could have said them. But the strikingly visual nature of Rob’s work, and it’s power to move us, doesn’t need any more spoken words. In the work at Ravensbourne that’s taking place at the moment, the ArtScience Prize, I am sure that Rob’s work will find another amazed audience.

In terms of where I am with it, it’s sat dormant for a little while. There’s so much I want to do with it and so much I need to do with it, the lines become a bit blurred. I had some excellent advice from my supervisor around the incorporation of the appendices in the main body of the thesis, so my first task will be to make this happen. The other major concern right now is the age of some of my reading, beyond what are, of course, the classics of sonic arts practice that I read while working and having access to the library at Culture Lab, in Newcastle. That time in Newcastle has been coming back to revisit me in my thoughts recently, as it was such a stressful time but also one of the most intellectually productive.