Grouper - Church of St John the Baptist, Bristol

It's no secret that I think everything Liz 'Grouper' Harris touches is gold. Her album, Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, is my sleep soundtrack and has been for the past two or three years. It's gotten to the point where I find it hard to sleep without it. So I was pretty excited to see her play in Bristol last night, with support from her Portland friends, Diamond Catalog.

Click here to see the photographs I took of her last year when she played at ATP Curated by Animal Collective.

ATP Curated by Jeff Mangum - The Video

Finally, here's the video I took at the ATP Festival curated by Jeff Mangum earlier this month.

The music you hear is, in order of appearance, the Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise, the legend that is Roscoe Mitchell (despite how it may sound that was a festival highlight, never forget that set, ever) and the last-minute, unbilled ensemble performance of a few Sun Ra tunes by members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise, Boredoms and ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble, who I really regret missing perform two of the most well-known pieces by Yorkshire's very own Gavin Bryars).

It's a long video ... Enjoy!

EDIT: And if you did enjoy it, there's also the video from the last ATP in December. That one's even more mad than this one.

Homogenised Edit

Second year exhibition is fast approaching. As is the Easter break. I don't go home for another week so I'm using the time to think about work. The word 'homogenisation' keeps going around in my head and is starting to shape where this project is going in terms of edits, sequences, etc. Thinking about the exhibition piece being interactive and allowing people to have fun with images and different sequences.

All the images were made whilst "having fun", either generally or with photography as a medium itself. They were all taken over the past seven months and there are 65 of them in all. I've made an edit of around 22 to go on the website for now. Take a look by clicking the link below. Online the images are categorised quite strictly and I may change the edit later. There are links between each image in terms of colour, content and composition, but the order can change quite easily to give new meaning. I'm yet to think of a practical way to do that online, but I like the idea of setting out this edit on a gallery wall and anyone being able to come along and change it to how they see fit. But that may not be too practical either...

I'm going to keep thinking and playing.

http://mjlc.co.uk/projects/homogenisation/index.html 

Vegetarian Sushi

Newport Survey - Preview Evening

Last night was the preview for the Newport Survey show at the University of Wales, Newport city campus. The show is on until 20th April.

The 2012 Newport Survey exhibition represents a celebration of the project undertaken by Documentary Photography students and Graphic Design students at Newport throughout the 1980s to capture life in the city during the decade. Not least, the exhibition celebrates the connection between photography and Newport. The South Wales Argus newspaper produced a campaign publishing photos from the Newport Survey and calling on any readers who recognised themselves or others to come forward with their stories relating to the images captured. The many responses are testimony to the continuing capacity of photography to touch the lives of individuals, families and their communities.

http://www.newport.ac.uk/events/bymonth/Pages/NewportSurveyExhibition.aspx 

Spring Walks

Travel Games

ATP Curated by Jeff Mangum

ELEPHANT 6 HOLIDAY SURPRISE

ROBYN HITCHCOCK

JOANNA NEWSOM

THE FALL

BOREDOMS

MINUTEMEN
[MIKE WATT & GEORGE HURLEY]

MOUNT EERIE 

HANGING OUT WITH JASON

MIX CD SWAP

SUN RA

MEMBERS OF ELEPHANT 6, BOREDOMS, SUN RA
AND AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ENSEMBLE
PLAY 'ENLIGHTENMENT' BY SUN RA

Just when we thought ATP couldn't get any better it did.

Heroes were met as we gave Jeff Mangum, Phil Elverum and others our zine; we saw bands that we never thought we'd ever get to see like the Minutemen, Robyn Hitchcock, Roscoe Mitchell, Jeff Mangum himself; we saw Jason for the first time since we left for India back in December; we had drunken nights watching Community and closed-eye hallucinations during Oneohtrix Point Never; we wandered the beach at low tide in the thickest fog I've ever seen; we saw spontaneous, once-in-a-lifetime collaborative performances; we made lots of friends; we were attacked by seagulls; we didn't sleep much.

I was plagued by camera trouble over the weekend. The batteries in my flash died and I forgot to bring replacements, as well as my film camera taking a minor knock and making the shutter stick on occasion. Of all the photos I took, only half came out, which is a great shame, but nevertheless: best ATP ever.

I'm very sad we won't be going to another one for at least a year and a half. Bring back the May ATPs.