Sauntering Vaguely Downward

Last week, I spent a lot of time in the microscopy labs with cha_mel_eon, and on my own, photographing the growth of silver nitrate crystals on glass slides in various liquid media. It was a real treat.




Me


Tool (confocal microscope)


Result

It's been so long since I had to wear a lab coat. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it.

I took my dSLR along with me to the immersive Olafur Eliasson exhibition at the Tate Modern in London.


My friend Kate making her way through one of Olafur Eliasson’s exhibitions.

( +++++ )

Snippet.

( the full picture )

I've been clearing out the conservatory after neglecting my art supplies pretty much since we moved in here seven years ago.

One of the things I discovered was that some of my works in progress had been water-damaged.

At first I was upset. One single thing made up for the loss of some precious memories: the discovery above.

Those of you with very long memories might recall that when I first moved to London, almost fifteen years ago now, I started quite a number of art projects. I completed some, others were left hanging after I found a job I could throw myself into wholeheartedly. This is one that I never finished. The plan was to take my little Lomo Supersampler film camera up and down every street in central London (using the A-Z to track where I took the photos), and select small but significant landmarks to represent a section of the grid on the OS map. I picked things that weren't obvious or permanent, like the Natural History Museum, but rather a piece of graffiti or a pub sign, something more ephemeral.

The water damage virtually erased some of the original photos. Others are intact. The effect is much more interesting than when all of them were identifiable.

I still have quite a few prints for other sections that I could use to fill in the blanks, carefully filed away in a small plastic storage tub. I'm now torn over whether to do this. Do I use them? Do I take another set of photos fifteen years later, fill it in, and stash it away in the attic, badly wrapped, for another seven years? Or do I leave it alone?

We went into Brum today with visiting family members, and took in both the BOM Lab and Ikon Gallery exhibitions. The latter was a particular hit with the children, since it involved these beautifully bright tactile fabrics, all of which you were allowed to interact with, so long as you took your shoes off. They loved it.

I reached the Bodyfest venue in Stockholm via Tunnelgatan. I didn't have to - Google Maps had certainly suggested I go round it rather than through it - but I'm glad I did. It was a leeetle bit too long, had a sharp bend at one end that meant you couldn't see the light at the end of it, and I could definitely see why it gets shut and locked at 10 PM. There is a sound installation that plays eerie music at you when you reach the midpoint.

This is but one of several hundred photos I need to sort through, but I felt it deserved its own space.