Its actually really good having complete strangers review your work to see it from an alternative perspective, especially after I have had my supervisors going through my work I kind of know how they think, so new eyes on my work is really refreshing!

To give you an idea of the what the paper is about, you can look at my abstract for it in the abstracts section of this website under Seductive Technologies

I should have realised it last year when I was mentoring last year’s cohort of MSc Product Design students about their interactive plinths.  I’ve really been enjoying working with the students so far. They’re a great group of people with some interesting ambitions. I had missed student interaction when fully on research, and at the moment this post is good because it is not that demanding, so I can balance research, art making and my responsibilities to my students.

All the internal examiners/ staff said that the external examiner made it really hard because in the time when I was supposed to be answering questions, so I could defend my research, he kept telling me what he thought could be improved upon, rather than asking me questions.

There was one point during the viva when I just sat there thinking “Why the hell didn’t I do a science PhD? Art is so subjective, and personal – it would have been so much easier to point to some cold hard figures that had an irrefutable proof of something…. I was also foundmyself wishing that I had done my PhD in Australia where they don't have vivas! That said, everyone, even the tricky external examiner that I defended my work very well. *sigh of relief*

All the examiners also told me about how much they really liked my artworks, how they thought they were witty and magical, and although it was supposed to be under exam conditions, there was quite a bit of laughter, particularly when they recalled some of the works. It was really nice hearing that because all through this process I’ve not really had any feedback from my supervisors on my artworks as works of art  in their own right, rather than ancilliaries to my research!

Lately I’ve been really busy with TOTeM, working like crazy on 2 exhibitions: One where I’ve been  editing vides and audio for interactive plinths and mentoring MSc Product Design students in reinventing ideas surrounding the physicality of plinths in the gallery space. This is for a TOTeM exhibition I’m Seeing Things taking place in the 26^th of October 2012. It’s part of a symposium we’re running on the internet of things, and to disseminate our research outcomes since TOTeM Is coming to an end. The worst of it is though, that it clashes with my PhD viva, so I won’t be able to attend  : (.  I get all the joy of organising and making, but none of the joy of experiencing the final outcome! *sigh* More info about the event is here.

The other exhibition I’ve been working on is  From the Western Arctic to the Bay of Bengal  for the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther . For this exhibition, the Dundee team are exhibiting the work we’ve been doing in Trout Lake with the Canadian First Nation Community, as well in India, Portugal and Scotland.. All three communities are based on fishing so the exhibition explores stories around cultural objects, artworks and fishing. We’re looking at how remote communities are bourght together through mobile tagging technologies and online social networking tools. The exhibition is on until the 13^th of February 2013, and more information can be found on the Scottish Fisheries website.

I have been working through two great guys, Scott and Paul, who have been going out to Canada and setting up the Sambaa K'e print studio. The artworks coming out of the studio are really amazing and I’ve learnt so much about the Dene culture through the stories. Because we weren’t sure if the community would be interested in working with the TOTeM project, Scott did a workshop with the children of the community to tell the stories of the favourite thing or place. It went so well that now more people are becoming involved and we’re tagging artworks with stories. In October this year, they’ll be part of an exhibition at the Anstruther Scottish Fisheries Museum, and I'm quite excited about seeing it all come together.  What I like about what we’re doing is that the community we’re working with is of an oral tradition, and with the use of audio, we are able to preserve that too. The lovely aspect of hearing someone tell a story, I hope will bring people closer together.

We’ll have an opportunity through tagging artworks, to let others know about a culture and traditions that may not otherwise have access to, and in doing so provide a platform for sustaining and preserving what is important to a community. What’s great about it all, is that through tagging and mobile technologies, the audience becomes wider and more global, raising awareness of cultures that may otherwise be lost. Interestingly another group in Chile is also going down the path of tagging to preserve indigenous culture with the project Coded Stories. Artist Guillermo Bert has been working with Maupache weavers in Chile to create QR code weavings that link to poetry and stories from writers, artisans, healers and village elders. The Maupache are Chile’s largest indigenous population, who have fought to protect their identity for over 300 years. Recently they have begun to reassert their cultural and political rights within the framework of modern Chilean society. But their way of life continues to be threatened, and their language and stories have started to disappear. Bert has worked with the community to try and reverse this, through the creation of woven, encoded textiles and a film, which will be shown at the Pasedena Museum of California Art, also in October:

“Los Angeles-based artist Guillermo Bert's exhibition Encoded Textiles is inspired by the latest generation of bar codes (QR codes), their capacity to hold 200 times more information than traditional bar codes, and the graphic similarities between the bar codes and the textiles of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. With the use of high-tech software and industrial processes, Bert transcribes the stories, poems, and narratives of six influential leaders of indigenous communities into QR codes, which are then re-created into tapestries by indigenous weavers. Bert's project, an exploration of technology, language, and cultural heritage, seeks to open a dialogue about the effects of globalization on the worlds indigenous population.”

 I was given the choice of having my new supervisor do speed read of my 2^nd draft and then hope for the best to fit in with my original timeline, but we talked about it, and I didn’t really want to put that kind of pressure on him, when he needs time to get up to speed with where things are at.  So that’s all taking a bit of time and things have been pushed back another month. Its like the sword of Damoccles hanging over my head – I’m ready to move on, and I can’t until this is all done, and done well!

 Not to mention, things are getting busy with TOTeM again, so my head space in that area as well. I’m trying to carve out time to write papers, while being involved with organising 2 exhibitions that are taking place at the end of October, supervising some Product Design MSc students on reinventing the plinth, and co-ordinating the collection of stories from some really interesting First Nation people in Canada.

Each of the rings in the illustration shows themes and how important they are to my PhD with the outer ring of less importance than the inner. The outer knowledge areas, not contained in the rings are boundary areas where my Phd research crosses over into, but are not actually areas central to its aims and objectives. They are, however areas, which other research projects in which I am involved in, are more central to.