The Blue Notebook

I had my first read of the first number of the new UWE-based artists’ book publication, The Blue Notebook. First impressions are very good. I’d read the Marshall Weber article in its online form on the Australian site that documents the symposium it was delivered at, but it’s good to see it in this form with the pictures and the typesetting for the initial poem.

First impressions of Mike Nicholson’s piece were very thought provoking. It seems that he’s thought a lot about what he’s doing. I seem to see something I could learn from in his way of valuing people’s natural commitment to their work (I can’t think of another way to put it, but it’s the opposite of a desperately earnest/networky sort of working). I think, given the hard time I’ve had getting into my research, that I must come off a bit ‘desperate’ in that sense. But I’m also thoroughly based in my books in a real and natural way ( I think people give me a bit of slack/tolerance for that). Because the more social side of my research seems a bit daunting to me sometimes, I’m sure I come off a bit more boring and ‘desperate’ in that sense than I really am. There’s a side of me that would really rather be making books. I think I’d be better understood that way at any rate. But I’m trying to balance things out. I felt far more comfortable on my last visit to the ICA, even though I had to push myself through at at trot to get it all done. Partly that was simply because of time, but partly also because I needed the momentum. It makes one look a bit puffed-out and daft, but it’s a hurry to get your bit said before someone starts talking over you. Still, hopefully I can be more relaxed in less strained circs. Nicholson’s essay seemed to describe some of the feelings one has about showing work and assuming a particular identity. (I’m a book artist, eg) He also wrote about the company he’d kept as a result of taking up this way of doing things and the way that had changed his ideas about what he was doing and why. I wonder if I can transform my sense of what it is to be a researcher as I settle into it more?

There was another piece that I’ll need to re read. Can being able to read the intent of artists’  books set us free?

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As I say, I’ll need to re read it. I’ve just been writing in my previous post about ‘reading’ artists’ books though, so there may well be a point of intersection there.

Also some interesting artists’ pages. The one that stands out for me had a photo of a dead rabbit and a text- a sort of prose poem seemingly detailing a stream-of-rabbit-consciousness fading out to oblivion. I found it effective. It was interesting also from the point of view of my previous writing on Scarry’s text, where she’s writing about the evocative power of language. The association of picture and image (one live, one still?) makes me think about how I’m planning to do the same in a couple of different ways in Turndust.