Andrew Conio

"Andrew Conio is a writer, artist, and scriptwriter. He has published on a range of subjects including philosophy, architecture, language, artist’s film, institutional critique, creativity and painting and is currently editing the volume, Occupy a People Yet to Come for the Open Humanities Press, and writing a monograph entitled Savage Money. He has taught in arts schools for twenty years, including Wolverhampton, Rhamallah, Bergen, Brighton, Chelsea and is currently Director of Studies for Fine Art at Kent University. Witnessing the transformation of the Art School has led Andrew Conio to critique the epistemological and ontological tensions between the ‘provable’ and ‘demonstrable’ predicates that shore up the orthodoxies of Teaching and Learning and the artist’s demands for the contingent and the open."

http://www.artsheffield.org/listings/transmission-andrew-conio/

As I was listening to Andrew I found it very hard to understand a lot of what he was speaking about as it was very philosophical and in quite sophisticated academic language.

Rabotor's Raputre - Jennifer Allora / Guillermo Calzadilla

"Collaborating since 1995, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla have produced an experimental and interdisciplinary body of work, combining performance, sculpture, video and sound.

http://www.deconcrete.org/2012/08/04/if-theres-nothing-suddenly-something-becomes-everything/

Raptor’s Rapture (2012) is a new film involving a flute that was carved by Homo sapiens 35’000 years ago from the wing bone of a griffon vulture. Unearthed at the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany in 2009 by a team of archaelogists led by Nicholas J. Conard from the University of Tübingen, Germany, it is the oldest musical instrument found to date. This remarkable discovery brings further evidence of the role of music in early humans’ social network development, demographic and territorial expansion, and ultimately evolutionary survival.

http://www.deconcrete.org/2012/08/04/if-theres-nothing-suddenly-something-becomes-everything/

The artists invited Bernadette Käfer, a flautist specializing in prehistoric instruments, to attempt to play the flute. This action takes place in the presence of a living griffon vulture – an evolutionary descendant of one of the oldest creatures to have inhabited the earth, and currently threatened with extinction."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL3-UrCSBjs

Additional Notes:

• Occupy campaign
• Anthroposcene - popular growth etc.
• Annehe Wehrmann - 'Wellness Am See"
• Andreas Sickmann - 'Trickle Down'

Grace Schwindt

"'Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society' revisits discussions that Schwindt witnessed during her childhood, surrounded by radical leftwing individuals in Frankfurt, Germany. The text, which appears in various forms throughout the film, is based on an interview that she recorded over the telephone with a former radical leftwing activist who took part in the student movement in Germany in the 60s and 70s. She questions how freedom was, and is, understood, who has access to it and what political and social structures need to be in place to create a free society.

The film sets are positioned on a hill overlooking London. Large photographic prints reference cityscapes and country sites as well as domestic spaces. Eleven dancers carry out a tightly scripted choreography that has a strict rhythm between stillness and movement. The signification of the still and moving body is positioned through a precise relationship to space, other bodies, objects, speech and images. All elements of the production are understood within a choreographic schema; set, props, costume, lighting, sound, camera movement. Each element is equally important and should be read together as a melody with a strict rhythm that comes together through a script that might be better described as a score."

http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/only_a_free_individual_can_create_a_free_society

http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/only_a_free_individual_can_create_a_free_society

I went to see Grace's exhibition at the Site Gallery in Sheffield several times as the film is quite long at 80 minutes and it is quite intense to sit and watch the entire thing without feeling a bit lost somewhere in the middle. 

As quoted above, Grace's work is about her childhood and how she grew up surrounded by radical left-wing people in Frankfurt. I had to do further research into what left-wing politics is as I am not very familiar with it. 

 "Left wing beliefs are usually progressive in nature, they look to the future, aim to support those who cannot support themselves, are idealist and believe in equality. People who are left wing believe in taxation to redistribute opportunity and wealth - things like a national health service, and job seeker’s allowance are fundamentally left wing ideas. They believe in equality over the freedom to fail."

http://idontgetpolitics.co.uk/right-left-wing

After researching left-wing politics I now understand the work a lot better and have a deeper appreciation for Grace's unique way of exploring the notion of freedom.

http://thisistomorrow.info/articles/grace-schwint

Richard Layzell

"Richard aims to embody a diversity of skills and experience, many of which relate back to his own emerging practice as a student at the Slade School of Fine Art in the 1970s. His interests and areas of focus include: environmental and gender issues; architectural space; performativity; the gallery context; the nature of interior dialogue; experiential learning; expanding the audience for contemporary practice and exploring the public realm."

http://www.rescen.net/Richard_Layzell/r_layzell.html#.VQSAnY6sU9Y

http://chisenhale.co.uk/chisenhale/studios/richard-layzell/nggallery/page/2

Sadly I found it very hard to find much information on this piece of work but it was my favourite piece out of all the work he talked about. The image above is of an exhibition of a dialogue between Richard himself and Tania Koswycz, it was a very unusual concept; he essentially made Tania up and has this imaginary dialogue with her. 

After reflecting back on his work with an imaginary artist I think it is actually fascinating and amazing that he managed to keep up this façade for such a long time and so convincingly. 

Additional Notes: 

• Bailey Savage - not acting but inhabiting [taking on the persona].
• Max Hombre - [same as above].
• Tania Koswycz - Artist made her up [dialogue on postcards], see the above image.