Double Agents

Table for discussion

grahamellard — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:07:43 +0000

For the Double agents exhibition ‘The Trouble with Talkies’ in 2005 a table and set of stools and benches were designed and built to act as a focal point for the issue of the journal ’1+1+1′ published to accompany the show. The table was then used in the BA Fine Art studio at Central Saint Martins, around which other Double agents events occurred, including visits from Vito Acconci, Anthony McCall, and Johanna Billing. In this way the furniture acted as a premise or platform for a certain kind of focused discussion, and a certain kind of thinking.
In October 2011 Central Saint Martins moved to a new building in Kings Cross. The first exhibition in the gallery in the new building brought together work from the Degree shows staged at Charing Cross Road and Southampton Row the previous June. The exhibition was curated by Lisa Panting, and in it she included a new set of furniture, made to the original design, to serve as the platform for a series of talks and discussions running throughout the show. At the end of the show the furniture moved to the seminar space of the BA Criticism, Communication and Curation course.
The drawings and detailed specification for the furniture can be downloaded from this page, and anyone wishing to build the furniture to serve any purpose similar to or related to its previous uses, described above, is invited to do so. There are only three provisos:
1. That the design is followed absolutely and in every detail.
2. That the label (available here to downloaded) is printed out no smaller than A5 and attached to the underside of each piece of furniture.
3. That at least one photograph is taken of the furniture in situ, and possibly in use, and sent with a description, to doubleagents@csm.arts.ac.uk, with ‘Table for discussion’ in the subject line.

Double agents & Acme Studios May 2011

grahamellard — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:30:56 +0000

The collaborative project between Acme Studios and Double agents has now been underway for ten months.

The project is examining the role, form, function and future of the artists’ studio in a context of changing art practices and economic conditions. It brings together the work of Acme Studios with that of Double agents.

During this period a number of the project aims have been achieved including the research and analysis of studio provision and use, focussing on Acme’s activities but including visits to other studio buildings in London, Sheffield, Leeds, York, Glasgow. The project has been presented, in progress, at two conferences/symposia; the annual conference of the National Federation of Artists’ Studio Providers in Birmingham (December 2010) and ‘Research Partnerships’ convened in London by Sheffield Hallam University, Royal Holloway, University of London. (February 2011).

Arantxa Echarte, the projects Research and Development Associate, is about to begin the process of interviewing a cross section of artists currently using Acme studios. These interviews, about 30 in all, will form a significant part of the project’s research material from which findings can be derived regarding future models of design and management of artists’ studios. Each of the interviews will be recorded and each studio will be photographed.

In addition a long-term photographic documentation of around 18 new studio spaces at Acme’s Childers Street building, in Deptford, SE8 has been initiated. The pictures record each of the spaces prior to them being occupied by artists and returns at regular intervals over the course of the project to follow the ways in which the spaces are inhabited and used, and how that evolves over time.

A further update will follow at the next appropriate point.

(photo: New Studios at Childers Street, Deptford.

Links:
Acme Studios

Film film: Graham Gussin

grahamellard — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 11:00:47 +0000

Commissioned in collaboration with Blip Creative artist Graham Gussin created ‘Film film’ for screening in the Window of the Charing Cross Road site of Central Saint Martins.

“The work ‘Film Poster’ first existed as a poster for an exhibition in Portugal. It consists of 380 lines which were written over the course of a week. I wanted to make a work which existed as a kind of potential, a list of possible films, some of which seem impossible. The intention was that it should exist as a list of things to make, an instruction to others and a kind of poetry at the same time. I was thinking of the visual and how things are mediated, communicated and made coherent through film. The repetition of the word ‘Film’ brings a kind of frenzy to the piece, as if everything, somehow, must be filmed.

The work for the window at Central Saint Martins is the moving version of this poster, each line fading up and then down, using an obviously cinematic language. It is unlikely that the viewer would watch this through of course, but each line is meant to function separately as well as in the flow of the complete work, each is an image or a problem to solve, an obstacle or a chance.
The work also exists as an unlimited print”. Graham Gussin.

Graham Gussin lives and works in London where he is currently a teaching fellow at the Slade School. He is currently preparing a project ‘Illumination Rig’ for the opening of Turner Contemporary, Margate on the 16th April 2011.
Film Poster was first show in a solo show in Vila do Conde, Portugal in 2008

BLIP is a media research company directed by Peter Cornwall, Visiting Profesor at Central Saint Martins. BLIP researches visual media, computing and electronics has created new display technologies for both the commercial sector and the arts. The company has been at the leading-edge of computer-controlled display projects and creative for more than 20 years, as well as developing extensive experience in specialist film and video post-production. It maintains active interests in the relationship between science and technology in art, architecture, culture and the environment; for example, organising the internationally acclaimed MediaArchitecture conference in London in 2007.

BLIP’s arts projects have included major exhibitions at Kiasma, Helsinki; ZKM, Karlsruhe; ARS-Electronica, Linz; the ICA and Royal Academy, London and ICC Tokyo. University projects, dating back to BLIP’s Visual Theory Group at Imperial College, London in the 1990s. Recent public projects include 40m display installation works in the European Parliament Brussels and at ARCOMadrid, the 30th contemporary arts festival in Madrid.

Links:
Graham Gussin
BLIP

The Way Things Work (cycle seven)

grahamellard — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:00:23 +0000

Gail Pickering; the seventh in a series of studio based seminars with invited artists. The specific emphasis of these sessions is the methods of investigation and processes of production in and beyond the studio, taking in issues of collaboration, negotiation, dialogue, economic conditions and context. As previously, the cycle is structured through three separate sessions. An introduction by Graham Ellard to Gail Pickering’s work through documentation. From this, submissions, in the form of questions, are invited from Fine Art undergraduate, post-graduate and research students as the means to take a place at the round table discussion with the artist. Each participant then brought a prepared line of questioning to the table which was then pursued as a group, in conversation. This face-to-face session drew both artist and students into a direct and sustained discussion which was able to extend well beyond simple forms of presentation, question and answer.
The round-table was followed by a final session with Graham Ellard to present responses and reflection by students, in relation to their own on going practice, to the ideas, observations, issues and interests generated in conversation around the table.

Links:
Gail Pickering

The Way Things Work (cycle six)

grahamellard — Thu, 06 May 2010 11:00:31 +0000

Ruth Ewan; the sixth in a series of studio based seminars with invited artists. The specific emphasis of these sessions is the methods of investigation and processes of production in and beyond the studio, taking in issues of collaboration, negotiation, dialogue, economic conditions and context. Each “The Way Things Work” cycle is structured through three separate sessions. The first acts as an introduction, in this case by Anne Tallentire, to the artist’s work through documentation. From this, submissions, in the form of questions, are invited from Fine Art undergraduate, post-graduate and research students as the means to take a place at the round table discussion with the artist. Each participant then brings a prepared line of questioning to the table which is then pursued as a group, in conversation. This face-to-face session draws both artist and students into a direct and sustained discussion which is able to extend well beyond simple forms of presentation, question and answer.
The round-table was followed by a final session with Anne Tallentire to present responses and reflection by students, in relation to their own on going practice, to the ideas, observations, issues and interests generated in conversation around the table.

Links:
Ruth Ewan

Double agents & Acme Studios

grahamellard — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:57:22 +0000

Acme Studios and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, have secured a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), a part government-funded programme which helps businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of the knowledge, technology and skills that are available within the UK knowledge base.

This innovative collaborative project will examine the role, form, function and future of the Artists’ Studio in a context of changing art practices and economic conditions. It brings together the work of Acme Studios with that of Double agents.

Central to Double agents interests is an interrogation of the artist’s studio – how an artist’s relationship to it is thought, what it’s function is beyond a practical resource and how it reflects the specifics of practices that differ from the conventions of the generic, insular, material workshop space.

Acme Studios is a London-based charity dedicated to helping artists in economic need through the provision of affordable non-residential studio space, work/live space and housing, together with awards, residencies and other professional development opportunities. Acme is recognised as the leading studio development organisation in England and has helped more than 5,000 artists with this fundamental means of support.

The partnership is the result of discussions between Graham Ellard and Jonathan Harvey, Acme’s Chief Executive. The 2-year KTP project, which is set to begin in June 2010, will generate primary research through an extensive programme of studio visits and interviews to produce an informed and authoritative model of the functions of the artists’ studio and a template for future design, provision and management.

The project is being undertaken by an Artists’ Studios Research and Development Associate – Arantxa Echarte. Arantxa is currently completing her PhD in Fine Arts at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, and has a Pg Dip in Research (UWE, Bristol), an MA in Art and Design (Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen) and an Honours Degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country (UPV, Bilbao). She has continued to maintain her practice as an artist and curator, and has experience of studio space as a practitioner, previously being based at BV studios, Bristol. Arantxa will be based with Acme full-time for two years, employed by the university and jointly supported by Graham Ellard for Double Agents and Acme Chief Executive Jonathan Harvey.

(photo: Revati Mann in the Adrian Carruthers Studio, Acme Studios, Childers Street, London, May 2009).

Links:
Acme Studios

The Way Things Work (cycle five)

grahamellard — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:00:37 +0000

Uriel Orlow; the fifth in a series of studio based seminars with invited artists, exploring methods of investigation and processes of production in and beyond the studio, addressing issues of collaboration, negotiation, dialogue, economic conditions and contexts. The cycle is structured through three separate sessions. An introduction by Anne Tallentire to Uriel Orlow’s work at his solo exhibition at Laure Genillard, London. Out of this, submissions, in the form of questions, are invited from Fine Art undergraduate, post-graduate and research students as the means to take part in the round table discussion with the artist. Each participant then brought a prepared line of questioning to the table which was then pursued as a group in conversation. This session produced a direct and sustained discussion and was followed by a final session with Anne Tallentire to present responses, in relation to their own on going practice, to the ideas, observations, issues and interests generated in conversation around the table.

Links:
Uriel Orlow

Aesthetics of The Differends

grahamellard — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:00:37 +0000

A lecture by artist Benoît Maire and Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield
Presented in collaboration with Hollybush Gardens.

‘Differend’ commonly refers to a debate between two or more people about (among other things) matters of opinion and interests on which they disagree. One can say for example: “They have a differend on this or that topic.” The word has been used since the Middle Ages, though it originally had the more precise meaning of the difference between the price requested and the price offered in a commercial transaction; Jean-François Lyotard gave it its philosophical shape in his 1983 book, simply titled The Differend – where he defines it: ‘As distinguished from a litigation, a differend would be a case of conflict, between (at least) two parties, that cannot be equitably resolved for lack of a rule of judgment applicable to both arguments’

This lecture connects to Benoît Maire’s exhibition of the same title at Hollybush Gardens, London. Maire also appears with a collaborative work made with Falke Pisano at the ICA, London in For the Blind Man in the Dark Room Looking For the Black cat That Isn’t There.

Dr. Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield is a Reader in Theory & Philosophy of Art at the University of Reading. He has written extensively on continental philosophy and art theory and on the relation of art’s resistance to ethics and has forthcoming books on Derrida and the Visual and Headlessness (with Thomas Hirschhorn and Marcus Steinweg).

Downloads:
Audio podcast – available soon.
Transcript (pdf) – available soon.

Links:
Hollybush Gardens, London.

The Way Things Work (cycle four)

grahamellard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:00:35 +0000

Graham Gussin; the forth in a series of studio based seminars with invited artists, exploring methods of investigation and processes of production in and beyond the studio, addressing issues of collaboration, negotiation, dialogue, economic conditions and contexts. The cycle is structured through three separate sessions. An introduction by Graham Ellard to a series of Gussin’s works. Out of this submissions, in the form of questions, are invited from Fine Art undergraduate, post-graduate and research students as the means to take part in the round table discussion with the artist. Each participant then brought a prepared line of questioning to the table which was then pursued as a group in conversation. This session produced a direct and sustained discussion and was followed by a final session with Graham Ellard to present responses, in relation to their own on going practice, to the ideas, observations, issues and interests generated in conversation around the table.

Links:
Graham Gussin.

The Way Things Work (cycle three)

grahamellard — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:06:15 +0000

Adam Chodzko; the third in a series of studio based seminars with invited artists, as in previous sesssions as part of this programme – exploring methods of investigation and processes of production in and beyond the studio, addressing issues of collaboration, negotiation, dialogue, economic conditions and contexts.Structured through three separate sessions – the first acting as in introduction by Graham Ellard to a series of Adam Chodzko’s works was followed by a round table between the artist and selected students from Fine Art undergraduate, post-graduate and research. Each brought a prepared line of questioning to the table which was then pursued as a group in conversation. This session produced a direct and sustained discussion and was followed by a final session with Graham Ellard to present responses, in relation to their own on going practice, to the ideas, observations, issues and interests generated in conversation around the table.

Links:
Adam Chodzko.
Tate St Ives.