I have recently been speaking to the artist Paul Newman who apparently saw my work during the Sound wave project for Somerset Art Works. Paul has very kindly asked me to join him and several other extremely talented artists for the 'Outside In' exhibition he is curating for the Quartz Festival at Queens College Taunton. I know a number of the artists that will be showing in the exhibition and can promise that it will be well worth a visit. 
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In my last post I mentioned going to see the Starlings morning murmuration on the Somerset Levels and I thought I would include a bit of the film footage I shot whilst I was there. Unfortunately it was only filmed on a small digital camera so it certainly isn't professional but I think you will get a feel of the experience. 

I have spent many hours researching the murmurations since I took the film and I can honestly say that, whilst some of the starling behaviour seems to be explained, there is still no real understanding of how the starlings manage to navigate their way without crashing into each other. However, in many of the articles I have found reference to an ornithologist called Edmund Selous I have included a link here so you can find out more about him. Selous wrote a book called 'Thought Transference (or what) in Birds" in which he claimed the starlings used a type of telepathy to communicate during the murmuration.  I think it helps to remember that Selous was writing in 1931 so his ideas lack real science but he also wrote a book called 'Bird life glimpses'. This book contains extremely vivid descriptions of the birds he was watching which are a joy to read and conjure the most incredible mental images.

"And still they circle; now dense like a polished roof, now disseminated like the meshes of some vast all-heaven-sweeping net, now darkening, now flashing out a million rays of light, wheeling, rending, tearing, darting, crossing, and piercing one another - a madness in the sky".
Edmund Selous (1931)

Although my blog has been quiet over the last few months I have been extremely busy researching and looking at starlings, a pastime that some of you may find questionable but last years Somerset Art Weeks made me realise that there is a huge fascination with these birds which, at the time, I didn’t quite understand but I felt I should look more closely into.

With my usual initial enthusiasum I spent most of last Christmas rising well before dawn to watch the morning murmurations, a good tip from a birdwatcher. Luckily the Starling hotline made finding the starlings much easier that trying to guess where they would land in the evenings.

I have to admit to several failed attempts and a worrying tendancy to wonder what on earth I felt I was doing, however, the morning of 4th January saw me standing in the reed beds at Westhay experiencing the full might of several thousand starlings all whirling around me, I have to admit, in the space of half an hour I was completely hooked and amazed and have spent the last few month trying to unravel the misteries of the murmuration. Here is a small sample of one of the sound recordings (sorry about the buffering on the speaker)    

I have read many different articles and studied various papers about the murmuration and I can truly tell you that it remains as much a mystery to me now as it did when I stood in the reed beds but it has led me on a very interesting journey which I will share with you over the next couple of weeks before my exhibition for Somerset Art Weeks at Marcombe Studio

Good news! 'Some of the Things I Remember', 'Memory Archive' and my Sound Wave Drawings will be showing in 'Disordering Chaos' at the Bath Fringe Festival

I am aware that I have not been regularly keeping my blog up to date but this is more down to the fact that I haven't had time than the fact that I have nothing to say!

Since December I have been working with Phd students from the University of Exeter on a project called 'land of the Summer People'. My group and I have been looking at the effect that the flooding had upon society and there will be an exhibition in Exeter on 25th March 2015 - I will post more about that later.

A sample of the sound installation that I am completing can be heard here

I can't tell you how much participating in the Emerging Artist Bursary 2014 helped my work. Following the  bursary I was approached to take part in a collaboration with Phd Engineering Students through the Universities of Bath and Bristol and I am still contacted over the work I produced for Somerset Art Weeks. 

As I also work as a picture framer I often speak to emerging artists and tell them about Somerset Art Works so I thought it might be helpful to post the link the the 2015 Emerging Artist Bursary here 

Of course it is rather nice that they used one of my drawings for the publicity!

I have finally got over my block over how to draw the voices of the levels and am actually really happy with the results. See what you think;

My film, Memory Archive will be showing at the launch of the Horsebox Theatre on 29th August at the Salutation Inn, Ham, Berkeley, Glos. GL13 9 QH. Sounds like its going to be a really fun evening with lots happening so if you are in the area I will see you there.. 

I thought it would be quite a good idea to develop my computer skills, using adobe after effects,  to work with the sound files from the Levels and Moors sound recordings. I am trying to give the unseen voices structure or a physical presence. 

Unfortunately the resulting film is a little underwhelming but it took me 2 days to develop the program so I am showing it to you any way!  Do you detect a note of irritation? surely not.