I’ve spent the last 10 years living in London and Brighton working as a photographer and in Production & Education within the Arts & Heritage sector for institutes such as The Photographers’ Gallery as Oral Histories Coordinator for The World in London project; commissioned for the London 2012 Summer Olympics, Photoworks; Curatorial Assistant for Myth Manners & Memory: Photographers of The American South exhibition at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, and Brighton Photo Biennial; Workshop Facilitator and Leader for Snapshot and You’ve Been Framed projects working with local school groups. More recently I worked as Studio Manager for Newangle, a creative digital agency that design interactive games and video installations nationally and internationally.

Since returning to Scotland in April 2015, I was awarded the Six Foot Gallery’s Artist in Residence Program, Glasgow, in association with Street Level Photoworks and Menzies Hotels, which concluded with a solo exhibition, Awakenings; a series of works created during the one-month program in July.

Following my diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis in 2013, my practice has focused on relaying the associated feelings of uncertainty, fear, loss and liberation through my photography. Awakenings is an attempt towards dealing with notions of identity and the play on this in relation to my diagnosis, as well as the intention to raise awareness of MS.

My photography training developed when I enrolled on the BTEC National Diploma in Photography at City College Brighton and Hove in 2005, which then led me to complete a BA (Hons) Photography degree at the University of Brighton in 2010.

After graduating my creative practice lapsed between 2011 and 2014. I had focused the latter part of my degree on my father’s diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease with the projects Railing At The Enthrallment to The Failing of The Light part I & part II. Part II gained notoriety when I was shortlisted for the International Talent Support Photo 2011 competition in Trieste, Italy. The objective of the competition was to also create a new body of work in response to Open The Possibilities. My response to the brief can been seen here The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.

It was tough dealing with the ‘card’ my family had been dealt. My way of dealing with my father’s diagnosis was by creating work in relation to the experience. My creativity was sucked out of me due to the emotions that unravelled. It wasn’t until I was dealt with my own diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 2013 that my creativity flourished and bounced back again.

A few months after being diagnosed I was introduced to George Pepper, Co-founder of Shiftms, a social network for people with Multiple Sclerosis. I became closely connected with the Shiftms team and in August 2014 I was invited to create a new body of work in response to the #GOOB (Good Out of Bad) commission, as part of their MS Energy initiative. With this, Perceiving Identity was created, which launched my photography into the public domain again with the #GOOB private view exhibition in London, February 2015.

I have always drawn inspiration from spending time in Scotland, in and around my parents home. Many of my projects have been shot in the North of Scotland, where I grew up. The combinations of internal/external landscapes of home/nature have been very influential in my work. More recently I have taken great interest in the writings of Oliver Sacks. His style of writing really hit home to me and has led me to dream up lots of ideas for continuing my photographic work in relation to my MS.

Next month I will be starting a new post in my hometown of Forres, with Digital Health and Care Institute who are in partnership with Glasgow School of Art. DHI innovate health and care solutions for Scotland, and more so, the harder to reach parts of Scotland, hence their location. I will be working closely with DHI in relation to my photography. The prospect of bringing my photography skills back to my hometown is a very exciting proposition for me, let alone the fact that the key objectives of DHI are health and care solutions, which is very in line with my own passions and the photographic work that I create.

My hope for the coming months is to have another exhibition in Scotland or UK, to push my work out there in order to raise further awareness about MS.

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David Lemm is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Edinburgh. He studied animation at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee, graduating in 2006. Here he talks residencies, maps and printmaking.

I worked on freelance animation/music video projects after Art School, and began developing my practice in other areas; illustration, printmaking and more experimental work. I still do animation, mainly music related and some commercial stuff. I’ve recently made videos for Miaoux Miaoux and Hobbes music, but enjoy working on a broad range of projects including commissions, residencies and exhibitions.

I recently moved to a studio down in Leith. It’s early days, so I haven’t really settled yet or got into the routine of going somewhere different to work. I used to have a studio/exhibition space in Leith, so it’s nice to be based in this part of town again. I’m currently doing a residency at House of Illustration in London, which means I’m down there for a bit each month. Every day is different at the moment!

New Land

Rites

I use a lot of different tools, depending on the project. I always start with sketches and lots of notes, and then develop ideas digitally whilst keeping analogue processes in mind. I’ve been screen-printing a lot over the last few years, and had my first solo exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers in January. That body of work was a development of a process where I screen-printed directly onto found maps/charts. I layer graphic elements against the original markings, leaving it unclear what marks are original and what are my interventions. The resulting opportunity for interpretation and subjective analysis is a key interest and intention in my work. By printing on maps/charts I aim to create a contrast between the physical mapping/organisation of what we define as real with the unknown, unrealised and imagined.

Shards

I’m currently thinking a lot more about drawing and other hand-made approaches, so that may become more prominent in future work. I did a paper cut-out animation workshop with Atlas Arts on Skye for BBC Ten pieces and I really enjoyed that process. I’ve been interested in maps/diagrams since I was a child and they inspired a recent residency project on Eigg commissioned by lifeoffthegrid.net with The Bothy project. The residency aimed to explore maps as tools of way finding, instruments of organisation but also as material artefacts and repositories of meaning. I was particularly keen to explore the idea that maps fundamentally describe reality through simple abstract lines, forms and motifs, and to consider how experience of a space/place can be represented visually. The outcomes from the residency were recently shortlisted for Association of Illustrators World Illustration Awards.

Bothy – Eigg series

Alec – Eigg series

The House of Illustration residency is for 6 months, with an exhibition of my outcomes in January. There is also a work in progress exhibition between 5-8 November and I’m hosting a couple of events/workshops in September and October. Other than that, I’m excited to be working with Atlas Arts again and will be heading up to Skye to work on a project which should be launched near the end of the year.

More: Website | Vimeo | Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter

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As the offspring of a textile artist and an engineer, the combination of aesthetic expression and methodical problem solving led me to a career in graphic design, and is without a doubt where I belong. Pre-degree, I came from a more art-focussed background, and my course at University of Cumbria embraced this, and enabled me to develop both a conceptual and analytical way of creative thinking, whilst providing the perfect setting to explore the expansive subject of graphic design. This was a great starting point, as to me, concept is key, and I strive to produce intelligent, effective and conceptually inspired visual communication at all times.

Versatility is also something I strive for in my creative output. I don’t have what you’d call a definable ‘style’— which I’ve found is both a blessing and a curse — but I like to embrace the fact that I don’t. I aim to start each design brief with a clean slate and tackle the problems within. I usually find that a functional and effective visual treatment emerges from the creative process, without having had a stylistic approach in mind to begin with. This isn’t to say that all design briefs can, and should be approached this way, this is just how my process has evolved and how it works for me.

Manifesto Zine Contribution

East End Transmissions Exhibition Identity

Don’t Mention Dementia

I am very passionate about culture and the arts, and work on a freelance basis with cultural based organisations and individuals (as well as for clients and on projects outside of this sector) but I definitely get a buzz when I can combine my two passions — design and culture. Art and culture are intrinsic to life. Without the resources of our libraries, museums, theatres and galleries, and the creative expressions of music, literature and art we would find ourselves static and sterile. It is because of this I aim to provide these organisations with the ability to engage and interact with audiences through the power of design, to not only keep the interest in the institutions alive and economically strong, but to share, stimulate and enlighten our social well-being.

Being freelance is fantastic. I get to work within my own creative space one day, then join another design team elbow-deep in a project the next. I have to be quick and able to pick up the elements and create something brilliant, and then head back to my desk at home, to be called upon again for another challenge over in Edinburgh the following day. No two days are the same and it’s not something I would change. I love a good challenge and get a kick out of working under pressure, so I feel pretty fortunate to be in an industry that generously serves both. In addition to my freelancer lifestyle, my current alter-ego is as the sole designer at The List, working across both their website and bimonthly magazine. The most recent issue was out on 3 June, so get your copy of this snazzy dose of arts and entertainment news! (#shamelessplug)

The List

Having the odd personal project on the go is also definitely an asset. I flit between digital and print in my day-to-day work as a designer. I do a healthy dose of front-end development as well as graphic design, so my side-projects tend to encompass them both as well. Currently out and about in the public sphere on my Etsy shop thingsbyJD, are a series of Risograph prints and postcards, which were influenced by the artwork I produced for the Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition at the Barbican. They were the outcome of an exploration of composition and colour, and my first hands-on experience of the riso process. The quality of this type of print is something special, and one I recommend having a go with!

Risograph Prints

Composition Postcards

To me, being a designer is not just a career choice, it’s a way of life. Design is about communication, and by tuning in to the details of the everyday; from colours to textures, from sounds and interactions, and by appreciating both the visceral and the visual, I attempt to draw on all these experiences and infuse them into my design to communicate in strong, beautiful and effective ways.

See more work by Jen on Central Station here.

More: Website | Instagram | Etsy | Twitter

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My name is Bryan M. Ferguson and I’m a filmmaker and photographer from Glasgow, Scotland. I am currently based between Glasgow and Florida. I taught myself how to make films by experimenting with visuals through an array of different cameras from a young age.

I spent the first 10 years of my life without a camera. But when I finally got my hands on one I began to construct my ideas by making films. My first camera would only shoot in black and white and could only work if a big yellow cable was plugged into the back of a VCR loaded with a blank VHS cassette tape. Unfortunately the cable was a restraint and I was stuck having to shoot a lot of interiors and dress my bedroom to look like it was outside but even with its drawbacks I was hooked, I had never been so focused. As I reached my mid-teens I had upgraded to a Hi8 camcorder and this is when I developed most of the optical and visual gags that I use today. I would experiment with compositions, transitions and narratives. At this time I never had access to any editing equipment and so I would need to edit the films in camera. I would do this by having the subject freeze, cutting the camera, repositioning the set up and hitting record. This would make for some unusual glitchy cuts and odd noises in the final product, of which I found quite strange and vivifying. These are devices I still incorporate in my work today.

Dr. Monster

Heterodoxy

Pink Tumour

When I was 18, I made my first serious short film with an HD camcorder. It was chosen to be screened at the Edinburgh Filmhouse and for the British Council in Edinburgh followed by a Q&A. Now 28, 10 years on from then, I have continued to evolve and shape my work. I’m still learning but I’m at a point now where I feel confident in my work and have a particular way of executing my ideas. I rarely work with a crew, I take on many roles behind the camera, from writing, lighting, shooting, cutting and even developing the sound design.

I was 22 when I started to finally shoot with a DSLR camera, I would often use it to shoot photographs in-between making films. Photography wasn’t something I was too interested in to begin with. My passion lay with film. But I found the luxury of working on a single frame addictive. I used to work alone during the vampire shift in an old hotel and I would shoot self portraits in the vacant rooms until dawn. Photography was a hobby that became a study and which for me has now developed into a medium that I enjoy working with.

I feel falling into photography in-between making my films has really benefited my filmmaking. I don’t feel I fully understood the power of composition in an image until I started getting involved in shooting photographs. Having the time to put all my thoughts and energy into one single frame really satisfies my perfectionism and has helped me to be more engaged and meticulous with shaping how I want my films to look.

Wrong Uvula

Irregular Spook

A typical day for me is as anticlimactic as anyone else’s. I wake up, drown my innards in coffee and over analyse how awful my day will be. Though recently I’ve been spending most of my days and nights hunched over and illuminated ghoulishly at my computer editing my new project. I don’t have an office or studio. I find shooting at found locations much more invigorating and less restrictive. Strange surroundings inspire and allow me to develop the ideas I already have and really add flesh to the bones.

Presently I’m almost through with post-production on my new film, “CAUSTIC GULP”. The film was shot in Florida at the start of the year. It tells the story of a mysterious chemical reacting with the chlorine of a hotel swimming pool. This causes the birth of an irregular cult. I feel the project has really allowed me to unspool my fascination with the eccentricities of human behaviour. I developed the film for an audience to study the irregular behaviours of strangers in an unusual situation. I think we’re a generation of perverts and I find it thrilling to watch an audience of regular people transforming into a crowd of peeping toms. The film was constructed to keep its viewer at a distance but to quickly engage them while slowly leading them into the film’s darkly comic but disconcerting situation.

You might’ve caught another one of my films, “THE MISBEHAVIOUR OF POLLY PAPER CUT”, at the opening night of Hidden Door in Edinburgh on 22 May. The film just recently opened for David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET at “Painting in Perpetual Motion” to coincide with his recent exhibition at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. The film tells the story of a hispanic girl trapped in delusions of grandeur and submerging herself into a world of comics and candy coloured nihilism.

For more information on the Hidden Door event go here.

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Brooklyn based photographer, Joanne Leah tells the story of how she became a photographer, tripping on acid at church and what her daily studio life looks like.

My name is Joanne Leah and I am a photographer and designer from Brooklyn, New York. I was born in Germany, adopted at birth and raised in Southwest Virginia. I studied fine art and design at VCU School of the Arts in Richmond, Virginia. I started shooting polaroids of my girlfriends in the early 90s. In high school, my dad let me borrow his 1978 Asahi Pentax 35mm camera. This was my introduction to photography. Later, in college, I learned how to process black and white film and make darkroom prints. In 2008, I purchased a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, my first digital camera. I started taking self portraits. After I moved to Brooklyn, I started shooting friends and friends of friends.

Acid Mass, Seed by Joanne Leah

Acid Mass, Pink by Joanne Leah

My studio is located in the Bushwick neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York. I shoot people from different backgrounds, genders, body types and ethnicities. My favourite place to find people is through Craigslist.

A typical day is somewhat repetitive for me. I wake up, hang out with my partner and my dog while I drink coffee and read the New York Times. Go to my studio and start working, researching and shooting. I am also a designer and sometimes work until very late at night. I like to read before I fall asleep.

Lately I’ve been focusing on my own personal history and childhood memories. I am investigating how childhood perception affects adulthood. But I always find artists such as Andrew Wyeth, Max Ernst, and Charles Burns very relevant. I am also fascinated with psychology, religion, fetishes and cults. I recently read Hannah Arendt’s book, The Human Condition.

Acid Mass, Aquamarine by Joanne Leah

Acid Mass, Banana by Joanne Leah

Acid Mass, Grass by Joanne Leah

I am working on a photographic series called Acid Mass. I was raised Catholic, and when I was in high school, I would take a lot of LSD. My mother would make me go to Sunday mass while I was still tripping from the night before. This series is based on that experience. I plan to present Acid Mass as a site-specific photographic installation.

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Baby Marleena by Erica Eyres

My work is primarily concerned with narrative, and is realised through series of drawings, videos, and sculptures. Frequently borrowing from the aesthetics of low-budget television, my videos centre around narratives based on my own family or people I have known, and are re-told by exploiting elements of storytelling to create works of fiction that allude to the personal. The stories’ biographical fallacy is then furthered by the use of a stand-in narrator, whose presence contributes to a mechanism that I refer to as “the estranged voice.”

Related to Bertolt Brecht’s “distancing effect”, the estranged voice describes a narrator who reveals an unexpected detachment from the story they present. This process of estrangement allows me to complicate the viewer’s understanding of the author’s subjective truth and to problematise the notion of the ‘autobiographical’. The use of dark humour is also significant to my practice, as it enables me to create points of entry for otherwise off-putting stories, and to subvert the act of storytelling.

The Male Epidemic is a news broadcast that follows the progress of a fatal disease that is wiping out the world’s male population. The video features interviews with “experts” and one of the last living men.

Baby Marleena documents a day in the life of Tamarra and her daughter, Baby Marleena. The Baby Marleena is, what is commonly known as, a mermaid, and therefore must be kept in water at all times. For this reason, Tamarra has kept Baby Marleena in a full bathtub for her whole life, preventing her from suffocating and dying. For the last two years, Tamarra has been taking Baby Marleena onto the road, bringing her to different hotels across the nation, and opening the doors to the public. The visitors are charged a small amount of money and they are allowed to stand in the bathroom doorway to experience the miracle of Baby Marleena.

Imaginary Girlfriend is based loosely on 1980s family sitcoms, and features a boy named Steven and his imaginary girlfriend Amanda. Steven is constantly tormented by Amanda, being asked to do things that leave him in embarrassing situations. Simultaneously, the video reveals the suffocating and inappropriate relationship between Steven and his mother.

Pam’s Dream is based on an episode of the 1980s television show Dallas, and features child actors in the roles. The video is inspired by the season 8 finale of Dallas in which Pam Ewing awakes to find that all recent events, starting with the death of her husband Bobby, were merely a dream…though seemingly “so real”.

In Autobiography II, tightly framed images of the museum’s dioramas assume an ambiguous quality that alludes to a film set or some otherworldly site. The video’s narrative follows the course of human evolution, beginning with early forms of under-water life, moving towards dinosaurs, mammals, and eventually humans. At this point, the mannequins devolve to become abstract.

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Self Portrait

When I was 12, I took part in my first exhibition. By 14 I had sold several drawings and paintings. When my friends played football, I drew them and designed their football kits. When I was in a band, I just wanted to make the record sleeves.

I think the reason I’ve began here with my memoirs, is that on reflection being an illustrator has always been on the cards for me. After a few years of flunking out of University first time round and working in a call centre, I finally went to Art School and graduated in 2013.

After living and working in London for a year, I’ve now based my studio in Edinburgh.

My Studio

London can be a great place, but I found myself looking for jobs cleaning or teaching as opposed to concentrating on illustration. It’s an expensive city just to be. Moving to Edinburgh has made me realise that I can make money from illustration now that I’m fully committed to it. I don’t need to subsidise the horrific cost of rent with a part-time job, and subsequently I’ve stopped feeling pressured, I’m enjoying it, and I think my work now shows that.

When speaking about “influences,” it’s hard to nail them down. I think my personal work is a process of reflection. Doodles and thoughts in sketchbooks, looking into the window of the computer monitor at our contemporary landscape of incessant web banners and slogans vying for attention, pop culture’s terminal conveyor belt and the grip of social media. All things associated with modern life’s visual overload and us. I also studied a lot of politics when I was at school, so I like to keep engaged and take references from there if I can.

Life, Death and Prizes

Commissioned work feeds from this, but obviously depending on the job and the client’s needs, it’s not always appropriate or necessary. A recent job for MTV, where I was commissioned to do a wall mural in their Camden offices, was a great example of this. They liked my Street/Pop Art style, which I had developed through my personal projects, but worked with them to create imagery that was appropriate for their needs and the space.

MTV Wall Mural

I think a lot of illustration now is this early 90s, saccharine coated, fluorescent shapes imagery that tends to be more style over substance. That’s absolutely fine, but I like to try and say something about the world in my work. My ongoing collaboration called Mad Quills, where I work with a very talented writer and poet, is a great example.

Facsimile

We’re working together to make a book as well as put on an exhibition soon. Other future projects I have lined up are a few more group shows in London and Glasgow come the spring. But, at the moment I’m working with Warner Music to create T-Shirt designs for Ed Sheeran’s next tour.

Personal projects include finally finishing my illustrated kids book and no doubt playing with iconography, as I expand my illustration print shop.

Jesus Loves Frisbee

In illustration, if you don’t have work, you’re working to get work and I’m looking forward to seeing what it looks like.

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Mutator 2 (Triptych), William Latham, Centrespace, VRC, 2014
Photo: Kathryn Rattray

I work between Goldsmiths College Computing Department, where I’ve been Professor of Computer Art since 2007, and my studio at my home in Hove.

Originally I trained as an artist at The Ruskin School of Drawing (Oxford University) and at the Royal College of Art, before moving into the computing industry and becoming a Research Fellow at The IBM UK Scientific Centre in Winchester in 1987. Between 1994 and 2003, I founded and led the leading games developer Computer Artworks Ltd who produced games such as The THING (Playstation2, Xbox and PC) for Universal Studios, which became a Number 1 hit in the UK and Germany.

Now, I am working with long-term collaborator, mathematician Stephen Todd again. During the past five years we have re-engineered and extended our original FormGrow and Mutator Code from the 80s and 90s to work on the newest platforms in installation pieces, videos and photographic works. These new works stem from my experiences working in Bioinformatics, Neuroscience and Games development.

While I studied at RCA I began to devise an evolutionary rule-based drawing system that would generate organic rather than geometric forms. I called the system FormSynth (short for Form Synthesis). This system uses transforms such as “Bulge”, “Beak”, “Stretch” and “Scoop,” which define how to distort or sculpt 3D forms starting from geometric primitives to evolve increasingly complex forms with each transform step recorded and laid out in large evolutionary tree drawings. Some of these early works are currently in the exhibition Mutator 2 in Centrespace, VRC.

Mutator 1 + 2 : Evolutionary Art exhibition by William Latham at iMAL – Center for Digital Cultures and Technology, 2013

It was at IBM that I started working with Stephen Todd and Peter Quarendon, who importantly had developed an excellent CSG Computer Solid Geometry Modelling System called WINSOM that handled the core 3D Rendering texturing and lighting necessary for early development of the Mutator Code. Starting with the original FormSynth rules from the RCA, we gradually started to adapt the rules to produce “Horn-like forms”, resembling twisted strange animal horns. As time went on, we extended the programming grammar, which we called FormGrow, to include new transforms such as “Bend”, “Twist”, “Stack”, “Branch”, “Ribcage” and “Web” and as this grammar grew more complex and rich the 3D forms generated became more and more natural looking.

This work became the early predecessor to Mutator2 Software which works with auto-aesthetic selection, meaning the viewer has the power to interact with the forms and determine visual outcomes based upon the wide ranging possibilities of the code.

William Latham: Mutator 2, Centrespace, VRC, 2014
Photo: Kathryn Rattray

I take inspiration from the natural world (including fungi, sea urchins, jelly fish, viruses, octopuses), sci-fi movies, paisley patterns, William Morris, heavy metal imagery, D’Arcy Thompson, and Surrealist Art (Dali, Magritte, Tanguy).

Initially my work at RCA was heavily influenced by Russian Constructivism, Pop Art and Process Art and by contact with artists such as Kenneth Martin, Mary Kelly and Eduardo Paolozzi, who became a mentor for many years. I still find these areas of interest relevant today.

Oriental Etching FormSynth, print, William Latham, 1985

Mutator 2 (Triptych), William Latham, Centrespace, VRC, 2014
Photo: Kathryn Rattray

My current Mutator 1 + 2 show will continue to tour the UK next year. To date, the exhibition has been exhibited in Phoenix Brighton, as part of Brighton Digital Arts Festival, and in iMAL Center For Digital Cultures in Brussels. Mutator 2 at Centrespace, Visual Research Centre in Dundee continues until 31 January 2015 and shows a subset of works from the larger touring show.

Next year I’ll be visiting Korea to explore venues for future exhibitions of my work.

It is great to be exhibiting my art regularly again, which I stopped doing whilst working in the games and music industries for about twelve years when I “disappeared off the radar”. Showing my work again also coincides with a wider public appreciation of digital art which up to this time arguably has had a hostile reception from the mainstream gallery/auction house world even though photography and video art have long been accepted as an art form, with computer art being labelled a craft at best. There would appear also to be a strong resurgence of interest in my work going back to the mid eighties including my drawings, which is pleasing.

Mutator 2 (Triptych), William Latham, Centrespace, VRC, 2014
Photo: Kathryn Rattray

I’ve recently launched a new website which catalogues my practice and work. The website was curated by The Phoenix Gallery Brighton, funded and supported by The Arts Council of England, and coincided with my solo show Mutator 1 + 2 at the Phoenix Gallery.

I co-curated Creative Machine, an exhibition at Goldsmiths in November, which was my first time acting as a curator. The vision for the Creative Machine exhibition was to show exciting works by artists who use original software and advanced technology in the creation of their work, often blurring the roles of the artist and machine in the creative process. It features international artists such as Naoko Tosa and Yoichiro Kawaguchi (Japan) Jon McCormack (Australia), Cécile Babiole (France) Félix Luque Sanchez (Belgium), Quayola (Italy) alongside leading artists from Goldsmiths and 2014 Lumen Prize gold and bronze award winners, Andy Lomas and Patrick Tresset and Memo Akten. (See it here)

My research projects include the BioBlox Protein Docking game with Imperial College Bioinformatics Dep, and I am co-Director of the company SoftV Ltd which is working with the UCl Neuroscience Department.

This video was originally posted on Art in Scotland TV, which is a contemporary arts-news site run by the Summerhall TV team.

Read more about Mutator 2 at Centrespace in this featured event.

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Before making films and animation I was obsessed with drawing detail. My art teacher at secondary school, Mrs Livingston, wasn’t sure about me making animation, suggesting illustration. She was cool by the way, and very supportive, but for some reason making things move seemed like the hardest and possibly most rewarding artistic thing to do, for me.

2 years later – Princes St Gardens.
I’ve started studying animation at the Edinburgh College of Art & I’m sitting cross-legged with an A3 sketchbook open with a uni-ball fine liner .05 black pen drawing the Scott Monument. I’m finding the idea of drawing in public quite frightening, as generally I’m a pretty quiet guy. A couple of hours have passed and I’m starting from top to bottom, trying to concentrate as best I can. It’s getting dark, so I pack up and leave unfinished.

Thinking about it a lot, I go back continuously when I can to try and finish this picture I’m becoming very attached to. I sit in the same place, and find drawing increasingly difficult as people seem to want to chat to me quite a lot. Finally I finish it, tallying up the hours in my head to around 13 (partially due to distractions you see). Suddenly, I look up at the monument as a seagull swoops down above me. It passes then suddenly shits on my picture. The disappointment is intense.

At this point I was trying to get over my singular drawing thing, and it was actually a good thing that the shit fell from the sky and landed on this one.

This links to other stuff by the way.

What I realised was that the process was the bit I enjoyed about art, and yeah it was a shame to have a bird shit on it, but I could photoshop it out.

In my last year of ECA we were to make a short film, so with limited experience of doing so I decided I wanted to make a film about me struggling to make a film with a difficult (animated) bird character. This film would allow me to work with a process and use it as its subject matter, but play with it and mould it into something interesting and surprising (hopefully).

The Making of Longbird -
The weird thing was that this film starting screening at festivals and people liked it. It was a surprise, but it became a valuable thing to have to show that I could make animation, write a story, and film some live-action. This time I had something at the end of it though. The bird in the film tried to shit on it, but I wouldn’t let him this time.

Since then I’ve been working making animation, writing and directing as much as possible. I regularly make work with Ainslie Henderson under Whiterobot. Here we make online videos, write and direct things, and do commercial work sometimes together, sometimes individually. Sometimes there are seagulls…
We recently finished our new short film ‘Monkey Love Experiments’ run by Digicult & Hopscotch films as part of the Scottish Shorts scheme
funded by Creative Scotland. It has some upcoming screenings at Ottawa International Animation Festival in September, and Encounters down in Britsol also (with others to follow soon).

Day to day I have a studio where I work at Summerhall in Edinburgh. You’ll see me there kicking about.

I’m glad that bird shit from the sky.

This video was originally posted on Art in Scotland TV, which is a contemporary arts-news site run by the Summerhall TV team.

For more about Will Anderson, read about his winning 9.88 film entry here.

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Untitled (2014 – new work in progress)

My first experience on a photography job was in 2002 on a mountain in Switzerland. I spent 3 days as a second photographer, documenting my Dad’s durational performance and drinking litres of beer at a festival called La Bâtie. I was using my first ‘proper’ camera, a Canon AE1, which I still use now. Starting with analog gave me a good grounding in focus and not getting too snap-happy. I was 15 at the time and studying at Chetham’s School of Music, where I spent more time in the art studio than the practice room.

So, a year later I decided to leave and focus on my art, skipping ahead a year onto the Foundation Art course at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2004. At the time I was working across photography, painting and sculpture…whatever medium best got the concept across. During my foundation I veered into performance practice and installation work and in 2005 I was given a Method Lab commission from greenroom, Manchester. Off the back of this, I decided not to continue onto a degree but instead to go to Berlin to make this piece of work. I spent the next two years making performance and photography work through commissions, whilst also supporting myself through signing on and running creative workshops.

Vislumbrar (2012, Glimpse)

By 2007, I had become increasingly interested in social change and enrolled onto a graphic design course to expand my practice; I saw design as a toolkit approach to be able to practically support ethically driven organisations. I continued to take photographs but wasn’t exhibiting. Instead, I set myself up as a freelance designer and photographer, designing everything from websites to book covers and photographing performances, events and workshops.

Dani Falling Sleeping Waking (2012, The Sleep Collection)

It wasn’t until 2010 that I looked back at the photographs I had been taking privately, unpicking them for threads of themes and concepts. This led me to exploring the idea of the self from which I made three bodies of work: Beyond Their Shells 2010, The Breath Collection 2011 and The Sleep Collection 2012. I began exhibiting fairly regularly in solo and group shows as well as festivals, but it became increasingly difficult to balance commercial work and my own practice. Time was an issue and to survive as a freelancer I had fallen into being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades.

I, Sonia Hughes (2011, The Breath Collection)

Fergus and Father (2012, What Is Left?)

To clarify my practice, I began a part-time MA at London College of Communication in the January of this year, one of the best decisions I have ever made. My practice is being vigorously questioned and is in an exciting state of flux. I have been concurrently creating a funded national touring exhibition called ‘What Is Left?’ with Ellie Harrison, which has been challenging but it is a joy to be supporting myself through simply making artwork.

I have also formed GJRL, a collective with three other people from my course. We do art and parties, running club nights to self fund our artwork. After ten years of working as an artist, I feel like I am slowly starting to strike the balance between commercial and personal work. For me it is about getting to a point of least compromise…and that comes from an increased understanding of what exactly my practice is and what I want it to be.

Upcoming shows:

31 July – 1 September | Sandbar
Solo show
Part of Art Works Manchester

5 – 14 September | Portland
What Is Left? (touring through empty houses)
In partnership with B-Side multimedia arts festival

2 – 4 October | A_SPACE
GJRL present SAVANNAH
Part of Art Licks Weekend

More: Website | Twitter

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