Objects & Boxes

If my memory serves me right, this was my request. And I love...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:38:34 +0100

If my memory serves me right, this was my request. And I love it!

Dear Jim,

Please paint me an episode of Come Dine With Me that features Phillip Schofield as the host for the dinner party. The guests are Pat Butcher, Walter White from Breaking Bad and Crash Bandicoot. There is nothing but Pot Noodles and bottles of Buckfast being served to the guests. Crash Bandicoot has a bit too much to drink and ends up urinating on Phillips collection of Pokemon cards.

Thanks,

Daryl

youwontlivethisonedown: Last week, as part of a cultural...

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:56:14 +0000

youwontlivethisonedown:

Last week, as part of a cultural discovery project for one of my classes, I spent three days wearing ‘girls’ clothes while going about my day. I wanted to explore the general reaction and preconceptions that people in my city have to clothing, especially in regards to gender. To me, the idea that a piece of fabric or accessory can be so intertwined with who are in our conscious is perplexing. I didn’t want to show off, or offend anyone by my act of curiosity. Rather, I wanted to act as a meticulous observer of the times, to see if the community around me was really as open-minded as I wanted to believe that it was. After all, if such things really only had a place in the realm of high-fashion and in Scottish tradition, then something bigger must be at work.

On the first day, I wore a long-sleeve pink top cropped at the collarbone. I received many compliments, a few glares and even a free Venti gingerbread latte. On the second, I rocked a pink blouse with a high-waisted belt. Again, the same amount of well-wishes, questions and passing eye-rolls. These things were to be expected, as it isn’t necessarily the norm to see someone like me wearing things like these. I felt collected and confident in these modest outfits, seemingly convinced that the world around me could care less about the clothes someone wore. Most affirming was the response to my nails, which were almost always met with a cheerful grin, a high-five and a few words of encouragement.

What happened on the third day changed my perspective on humanity forever. I dressed myself as I normally would; band t-shirt, cardigan, plain Vans, etc. However, instead of black jeans, I complimented the outfit with a plain black skirt and matching set of tights. For me, this was a huge step in self-image. Years ago, I was barely confident enough to leave the house for school. These days, the opposite couldn’t be more true. As I set off about my day, the absolute worst in people came out in a full-force flurry of expletives and discomfort. I was ridiculed in whispers. I was mocked in glances. I was obnoxiously and filthily cat-called by a construction crew who, from behind, couldn’t tell that I was a man. Stopping by a bathroom before a lecture, a frat-bro went out of his way to shove me into the adjacent wall after eyeing me up and down on his way out. Expletives and names that might induce me to vomit were I to repeat them, were casually thrown in my direction with almost zero passing thought. By day’s end, I feared a full-on breakdown, unable to stand up for myself or what I believed in to maintain the integrity of the observer’s perspective. In a way, I had no right to feel that way, mostly because of the realization that this is the way that many have to live their lives. I fought back tears as every stare and ill-formed word engrained themselves in my sub-conscious.

Though I may not know you, I think that it’s important that we all come to understand why these things happen. In my book, cat-calling, shaming and harassment are among the worst actions we can engage in. As a heterosexual male, I will never truly know the fear that women may experience while walking home from work, going see a friend for lunch, or being sized-up in public based on their clothing. I will never truly know the gut-rot that a transgender individual may feel while being eyed up and down at the store or in class, strangers seeming to think as if the clothing they see before them begs a legal invitation of ridicule. I will never truly know the plights of these people, but as an ally and a human being invested in true equality, it is now my obligation to stand up for them as if I did.

What scares me the most is not the glances, mixed emotions, or 10-page paper that will inevitably come as a by-product of this project. No, what scares me is that this is the world we live in. We exist in a place where individuals living their truths can be subjected, directly or otherwise, to fear simply for living those truths. We live in an age where feeling ‘normal’ in your own clothing can create unfathomable contention with strangers, despite them having zero investment in their lives. We live in a world where the material, the fabric, the pieces that adorn you are somehow allowed to say more about who you are than the convictions in your heart and the sincerity in your deeds.

I don’t know about you, but I refuse that world. I refuse to let these things overcome the passion and genuine honesty that I’ve been so fortunate to bear witness to in my time. I refuse to let backwards, unprogressive mindsets stifle the glow and drive of those who are undeservingly robbed of it. Don’t say it can’t happen to you. If it happened to me, under the most average of circumstances on the streets in a progressive-leaning city, it could happen to anyone, and that is something I truly do not understand.

After all, it’s just a skirt.

What is it about a piece of inanimate, plain fabric that scares you so much?

Streamzoo photo - John Nolan of Taking Back Sunday

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:01:30 +0100

Streamzoo photo - John Nolan of Taking Back Sunday

Thought I would reblog my entry into the “Best of...

Wed, 02 May 2012 10:58:37 +0100

Thought I would reblog my entry into the “Best of Britain” competition. Postcards entered by artists from all over the world will be on display at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester from Friday 4th May, alongside memorabilia from the Queen’s coronation as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

bestofbritainsubmissions:

Daryl Wood

hitrecordjoe: Points worth considering re: the Kony...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:00:05 +0000

hitrecordjoe:

Points worth considering re: the Kony debate…

rtnt:

RTNT On The Problems With KONY 2012

The deluge of social media attention that has been given to the simplistic KONY 2012 campaign and the surrounding haze of misinformation has reaffirmed our purpose at Read This, Not That. Joseph Kony is a warlord and a monster - this much cannot be denied. The present controversy swirls not around Kony himself, but rather around the substance of the campaign, and the intentions of the organization behind it: Invisible Children.

Conversations are raging across the web between supporters and detractors - conversations that suffer, in many instances, from a lack of understanding about the current state of Uganda and of Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (details of which are notably lacking from the film.)

There has been much resistance to criticism of the campaign, resistance founded in knee-jerk reactions meant to defend the perceived good intentions of Invisible Children. The appearance of a noble cause to mask questionable action is not anomalous in our world. As such, it is our responsibility to be skeptical, especially when engaged with propagandistic media that aims to affect us emotionally and prompt a very specific reaction: in this case, to give money to Invisible Children.

Our effort here is to offer articles that inform the debate surrounding KONY 2012 and to encourage everyone to embrace critical conversation, even when that gaze is directed at what appear to be good intentions. Things are rarely as simple as they are made out to be, and we can be sure that the state of Uganda and the LRA is not as simple as the KONY 2012 campaign makes it seem.

Michael Wilkerson, writing for Foreign Policy, asks what the video is meant to accomplish:

So the goal is to make sure that President Obama doesn’t withdraw the advisors he deployed until Kony is captured or killed. That seems noble enough, except that there has been no mention by the government of withdrawing those forces — at least any I can find. Does anyone else have any evidence about this urgent threat of cancellation? One that justifies such a massive production campaign and surely lucrative donation drive?

TMS Ruge, writing for Project Diaspora, pleads with us to respect the agency of Ugandans:

This IC campaign is a perfect example of how fund-sucking NGO’s survive…They are, in actuality, selling themselves as the issue, as the subject, as the panacea for everything that ails me as the agency-devoid African. All I have to do is show up in my broken English, look pathetic and wanting. You, my dear social media savvy click-activist, will shed a tear, exhaust Facebook’s like button, mobilize your cadre of equally ill-uninformed netizens to throw money at the problem.

Ugandan Journalist Angelo Izama, writing at This Is Africa, finds KONY 2012’s portrayal of Uganda outdated:

To call the campaign a misrepresentation is an understatement. While it draws attention to the fact that Kony, indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2005, is still on the loose, it’s portrayal of his alleged crimes in Northern Uganda are from a bygone era.

Musa Okwanga, writing for The Independent, discusses the complexities the video left out:

What the narrator also failed to do was mention to his son that when a bad guy like Kony is running riot for years on end, raping and slashing and seizing and shooting, then there is most likely another host of bad guys out there letting him get on with it. He probably should have told him that, too.

Guy Gunartne, writing for Codoc, questions the wisdom of Invisible Children’s preferred policy of military intervention:

The LRA is reported to be 90% made up of abducted children – military defeat would mean engaging in combat and targeting of the very victims of this war; these children are the LRA.

The author of Visible Children examines the armies on the other side of the war:

Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army are riddled with accusations of rape and looting, but Invisible Children defends them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries”, although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission.

Glenna Gordon, who took the photograph above, takes issue with the filmmakers’ self-aggrandizement in this interview for The Washington Post:

People who have lived there for years, bona fide aid workers who have studied foreign policy and other relevant fields like public health, who are really there because they are trying to solve problems — they see Invisible Children as trying to promote themselves and a version of the narrative.

Eric Ritskes, writing at Wanderings, reminds us that it is not about us:

It falls into the trap, the belief that the problem is ignorance and the answer is education. When we tell more people about Kony and the LRA, something WILL happen. It’s not true…More education does not change the systems and structures of oppression, those that need Africa to be the place of suffering and war and saving…We need to learn: It’s not about us.

Patrick Wegner, writing at Justice in Conflict, offers some final thoughts:

To conclude, the Kony 2012 campaign is a reminder why we should see advocacy campaigns to interfere in conflicts with some scepticism, no matter how good the cause…. It also challenges us to think of ways how to design advocacy campaigns that mobilise many people without dumbing down the problem and its purported solution.

We put in a lot of work reading, reviewing, compiling, and excerpting these pieces for you, and hope you will consider them in this debate.

- The RTNT Team

Follow Read This, Not That on Tumblr / Facebook / Twitter

Happy International Women’s Day! Not much left of it now,...

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 23:40:24 +0000

Happy International Women’s Day! Not much left of it now, but thought I ought to do something to mark it. This is potentially the beginnings of a new project, continuing with similar themes to those I touched on in my dissertation and graduate project. Nothing solid just yet, but a few ideas floating around…

Kinda reminds me of something... Hmm...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:39:30 +0000

Kinda reminds me of something... Hmm... :

Strangely, this is from late 2010, around the time when I first started planning out exactly what I would produce for my final project, but I am seeing it for the first time today. Bizarre!

Couldn’t resist...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:41:25 +0000

Couldn’t resist reposting…

hitrecordjoe:

hellogiggles:

What are you doing New Years Eve? From Zooey Deschanel & HitRECordJOE. Go to HelloGiggles for a fun video surprise!

:O)

I love this project! I was actually brought here because I wrote a piece that was posted on The F Bomb ("My Body Is") and you linked to this Tumblr in your comment. Anyway, just wanted to drop you a line to tell you that your photo project is fascinating. Where do you study, if you don't mind my asking?

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:20:04 +0100

Crazy! Thank you very much, I really liked your piece and thought it was very relevant to the direction of my work, so I hope you don’t mind me reposting it! I have just graduated from the University of Wales, Newport. Thanks again! x

I’ve been meaning to post this for a very long time now,...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:01:21 +0100

I’ve been meaning to post this for a very long time now, but always seemed to have something else to be doing. Finally, here is the installation shot of my work in the Graduation exhibition.

Coming to an end.

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 09:24:46 +0100

So, hand-in and final assessment are now over and done with, at long last. I genuinely have no idea how the assessment went, except that I didn’t cry this time, so I can only assume it went better than the last one? But as I said, I really could not tell. Fingers crossed it was ok, and if it wasn’t then hopefully the grades should all average out…. Thank fook I got a 1st in the dissertation!! That should certainly help to balance things out a bit. To accompany the final practical piece, I handed in a “Project Diary”, which was adapted from this blog and expanded upon. That diary totalled over 13600 words, so I’m pretty pleased with that in itself! I guess we shall see what happens… Now all that remains is grad show and publication, which both seem to be out our hands, so just sit back and wait…

"What’s the point of popular? You’d think that it’s the most important thing in..."

Mon, 30 May 2011 23:25:09 +0100

“

What’s the point of popular?

You’d think that it’s the most important thing in the world. Homecoming queen, student body president, the most Facebook friends, Oscar winner, how many people are waiting in line at the book signing…

Popular is almost never a measure of impact, or genius, or art. Popular rarely correlates with guts, hard work or a willingness to lead (and be willing to be wrong along the way).

I’ll grant you that being popular (at least on one day in November) is a great way to get elected President. But in general, the search for popular is wildly overrated, because it corrupts our work, eats away at our art and makes it likely we’ll compromise to please the anonymous masses.

Worth considering is the value of losing school elections and other popularity contests. Losing reminds you that the opinion of unaffiliated strangers is worthless. They don’t know you, they’re not interested in what you have to offer and you can discover that their rejection actually means nothing. It will empower you to even bigger things in the future…

When you focus on delighting an audience you care about, you strip the masses of their power.

”

- Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog

Kurt is great have read everyone of his books. What book is the quote from?

Mon, 30 May 2011 23:23:20 +0100

My apologies for taking absolutely forever to respond to you! The quote is from A Man Without A Country, which is a series of short essays. I had originally re-blogged the quote from someone else, as I felt it was very relevant to my project at that point. I honestly can’t say I was particularly familiar with his work beforehand - I was aware of him, but have since decided that I need to do a little further reading!

Excuse all the bits of paper on the floor - all the backings...

Sat, 28 May 2011 19:11:53 +0100

The whole thing

Images inside the box

Close up of Img 1 (left)

Close up of Img 2 (centre)

Close up of Img 3 (right)

Excuse all the bits of paper on the floor - all the backings from the sticky dots I used to put everything together! It’s been a long day of trying and finally succeeding to make the mounts for the photos, sticking them in and then having to cut around the hinges so the doors can actually shut. Finally coming together, now just to get all my research stuff together and get my Artist Statement done, et voila! I’ve already got about 10,000 words of research together, aiming to make it about 12,000 plus Artist Statement of about 500 words… fingers crossed I can pull this thing off!!!

I’ve just blu-tacked the images to the inside of the box...

Wed, 25 May 2011 17:10:19 +0100

I’ve just blu-tacked the images to the inside of the box to give an idea of what it will look like - please excuse the quality, this was just taken with a webcam to give an idea of how it will look.

Progress... Again.

Wed, 25 May 2011 16:25:38 +0100

After a much needed weekend off to visit my family, I now have plenty of work to catch up on. Since Thursday, I have managed to sell around 70 shares in the project, which I think is pretty good going so far. I also posted a link to this blog on the Cardiff Feminist Network page on Facebook, and have received some really encouraging feedback, and have a meeting set up with one of the ladies to discuss the issue of objectification, which I am quite excited about.

I also now have my prints back from Davies Colour (who were fantastically helpful), I just need to sort out mounting them and attaching them to the inside of the box. I think I am going to create “false walls” inside the box using mounting board, which should help to cover any marks/screws, giving the box a much cleaner finish and making it easier to align and attach the prints. I will also need to consider using a light inside the box, as it’s not particularly bright in there, and I don’t want that to compromise the images - especially if I don’t end up with a very well lit space for exhibiting.

Currently stressing out a little bit about the hand-in and assessment, as I know I still have a lot to pull together to make this work and hopefully impress the tutors, but fingers crossed it will all be ok… Guess I had better get back to work then!

Installation shot of the box, which has come to be known as...

Thu, 19 May 2011 15:47:36 +0100

Installation shot of the box, which has come to be known as Maude.

My images are currently at the printers, shall be picking them up tomorrow morning! Quite excited. They will be going inside the box, on the interior walls.

The plan for the exhibition is to attach this structure to the wall using a bracket - I’m not sure my landlord would approve of me attaching a bracket to the wall of our flat, however!

sparkleandlight: Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of...

Thu, 19 May 2011 12:36:40 +0100

sparkleandlight:

Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women [Trailer]

This is so, SO relevant to my work, I may in fact have to buy the DVD of the whole thing, just to hand in with my research.

Finally all the hard work re-drawing the crest and researching...

Wed, 18 May 2011 13:09:00 +0100

Finally all the hard work re-drawing the crest and researching shares certificates has paid off!! Here is what the final version looks like!

All of the certificates will be printed and then filled in by hand, this digitally filled-in version is mainly for the publication, to show what the certificates look like, without putting in a blank copy.

Thank you very much to James Rodger for agreeing to let me use his name on the certificate for the publication, and also to Dai Howell for agreeing to countersign each one we issue!

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and..."

Sun, 15 May 2011 14:03:41 +0100

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”

- Peter Lindberg (via photoquotes.com)