Eight Encyclopaedia Britannica surround the mulberry bush
thirty minutes (and countless consumed ripe mulberries) later..
...
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
codex inperfecto went bush....
.... and so did its maker...
Habent sua fata libelli. – ‘Books have their own fates’
Self portrait binding codex inperfecto
Sams Creek
Self portrait binding codex inperfecto
Sams Creek
....
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
its a vicious circle...
circulus vitiosus – vicious circle
14 red cloth bound volumes of State Laws, Ordinances and Sub-Ordinances
arranged as a circle on a rock platform in the middle of Sams Creek
series of 5 photographs over a period of 5 days (June 9 – June 14 2013)
....
** with the present bushfire emergencies around my state
posting pics of my book fires feels both so right and so wrong
I hope the rain falls over affected areas
(like it did over my books)
and my father, who lead a convoy of RFS trucks north to assist,
returns home safe and sound very soon
....
Monday, October 21, 2013
return of the copyrights and wrongs...
Have you all noticed that I've started watermarking (some of) my images again lately?
I'm a happy sharing person who hates to see fuggly watermarks all over photos... (I hates it I tell you!) but the continuing lack of awareness about copyright and the 'dos and don'ts' of sharing on the interwebs along with the rise and rise of pinterest and the reblog generation has forced my hand somewhat.
In truth I have no dramas with folk who would like to share my bits.... (I've said all this and more before when I adopted a CC license for my blogs) .... but the inability of folk to link and credit correctly means that many of my arty bits are bobbing around the interweb sea like orphaned flotsam and jetsam.... plonking my watermark on the image at least gives them a chance to find their way home...
The effectiveness and importance of using a watermark was made clear to me earlier this year when I picked up the phone to answer an inquiry from a festival organiser in Belgium -- they had stumbled over this image (that has been doing laps around the internits for years now)
Bless the little Belgians they tracked me down through my watermark. The result? I gave permission for Het Groene Boek (which translates to 'the green book') to use part of the image for a day of talks and debates about books and the sharing of ideas relating to creating a more socially and ecological world... the image appeared online and in their printed matter (correctly credited in the catalogue and other places thank you) .. everyone was happy.
Now lets revisit pinterest land shall we.... hilariously I saw this on pinterest recently --
one sweet person decided to take it upon themselves to double watermark my (already watermarked) image just to be sure that it was attributed correctly.... what a hoot eh? (but of course the image is still not hyperlinked to the original site..... sigh)
ahhhh yes pinterest (sigh) and reblog platforms - here is what I see happening all the time -- even when a piccie of mine is shared with a correct credit (thank you for taking the time) .... links are often non-existent, broken, or linked to other pinterest sites in a maze that never leaves the pinterest universe, or worse --- many times I've seen unscrupulous folk take over the linking to use it for advertising, driving traffic to alternate sites or more nefarious purposes.... mmmmmm welcome to the first reblogging circle of hell (check out this -- yup - its a 'pinned' image of my book 'serpent' - make sure you click the image of my work and watch what happens...) here's another 'pinned' image of my work -- again credited correctly under the image - thank you.... but linked to ???? (indeedy one part of the link whizzes you off to a fb business page... of the pinterest account holder ... of course!) oh and here at looooong last is one that links to the correct source (can I get a small hallelujah!)
but what happens when links are lost in the ether?.... welllllll folk assume that an image is free for the taking (looksee here at that book path of mine again... this sort of uncredited, unlinked, unauthorised, non-compensated image usage is rampant)
(sigh)
sometimes the pin-repin-multi-pin thingy goes on and on forever... (but rarely linking to the original creator - who is, in pinterest eyes anyway, pretty irrelevant really)
(sigh)
This week I was chatting with local blogging ladies and again lamented the state of the (pinterest) universe (which I'd note currently mirrors the arty world - with its rise and rise of the curator as creative demi-god).... one gal-pal quietly (she is well aware of my scorn for pinterest) declared her love for the platform and was slightly bewildered as to why creative folk wouldn't be equally enamoured - why wouldn't an artist be thrilled to have their images shared around the web? (linked or not, credited or not) isn't it all about exposure? and isn't that all good?
ummmmmmmm no. no it's not - if the work isn't correctly credited and linked then its simply a parasitic action of the reblogger linking themselves (clothing themselves) in another person's creative output. (sorry for the hard words *insert smiley face here and dispense sweet treats to all the folk whose toes I've just trodden on* )
I don't want you to think that I believe creativity happens in a vacuum - that inspiration (and sharing and building on others work etc.) isn't valuable and necessary and happening all around us all the time. Nor am I wanting to put a lid on the Very Good Bits about sharing and communal knowledge building (no no no indeedy!) I simply think that there IS a distinct difference between creating and curating (or collecting). Reblog platforms (like pinterest) encourage passive collecting over active creating so that the cultural high point becomes regurgitation (mmmm delish). With the current 'take down' policy of pinterest the onus for operating ethically and fairly is placed on the copyright owner who is expected to discover then chase up every copyright infringement -- rather than on ensuring that the pinner has permission to use every image BEFORE they pin it so proudly to their boards.
So I like to ask folk -- who gains and who loses on pinterest? I would suggest that for the pinterest collector it's a boon... for the pinned creator... not so much so... think about it this way --- how would you feel if someone waltzed into your kitchen (uninvited, unannounced) helped themselves to a slice of that cake you'd just baked and iced so prettily and were saving for the kidlet's birthday party, then they had a look through your cupboards and photographed the bits they liked, shared this with the world.... all without your knowledge or consent.... feeling a little violated? pissed off? wellllll that's kinda the sensation you get when you stumble over your work uncredited, unlinked, incorrectly attributed, printed on a card series for a greeting card company in russia, being used to sell toilet paper in korea or to drive traffic to dodgy web sites.... thanks pinterest - I owe you one!
ps - I was heartened/surprised/bewitched by what happened in social media land this week after this blog post ..... look at how viral this post went! its everywhere! name and shame a thief -become an internits sensation! maybe folk DO understand that theft and plagarism are wrong (and there's no such thing as 'a little bit pregnant'.....)?
ahhhh well - that's my copyright/pinterest whine for this season...
how about you? what do you think about reblogging? copyright? pinterest? online sharing? watermarking images? (ps I won't bite your head off if you are a pinterest lover!)
...
I'm a happy sharing person who hates to see fuggly watermarks all over photos... (I hates it I tell you!) but the continuing lack of awareness about copyright and the 'dos and don'ts' of sharing on the interwebs along with the rise and rise of pinterest and the reblog generation has forced my hand somewhat.
In truth I have no dramas with folk who would like to share my bits.... (I've said all this and more before when I adopted a CC license for my blogs) .... but the inability of folk to link and credit correctly means that many of my arty bits are bobbing around the interweb sea like orphaned flotsam and jetsam.... plonking my watermark on the image at least gives them a chance to find their way home...
The effectiveness and importance of using a watermark was made clear to me earlier this year when I picked up the phone to answer an inquiry from a festival organiser in Belgium -- they had stumbled over this image (that has been doing laps around the internits for years now)
Bless the little Belgians they tracked me down through my watermark. The result? I gave permission for Het Groene Boek (which translates to 'the green book') to use part of the image for a day of talks and debates about books and the sharing of ideas relating to creating a more socially and ecological world... the image appeared online and in their printed matter (correctly credited in the catalogue and other places thank you) .. everyone was happy.
Now lets revisit pinterest land shall we.... hilariously I saw this on pinterest recently --
one sweet person decided to take it upon themselves to double watermark my (already watermarked) image just to be sure that it was attributed correctly.... what a hoot eh? (but of course the image is still not hyperlinked to the original site..... sigh)
ahhhh yes pinterest (sigh) and reblog platforms - here is what I see happening all the time -- even when a piccie of mine is shared with a correct credit (thank you for taking the time) .... links are often non-existent, broken, or linked to other pinterest sites in a maze that never leaves the pinterest universe, or worse --- many times I've seen unscrupulous folk take over the linking to use it for advertising, driving traffic to alternate sites or more nefarious purposes.... mmmmmm welcome to the first reblogging circle of hell (check out this -- yup - its a 'pinned' image of my book 'serpent' - make sure you click the image of my work and watch what happens...) here's another 'pinned' image of my work -- again credited correctly under the image - thank you.... but linked to ???? (indeedy one part of the link whizzes you off to a fb business page... of the pinterest account holder ... of course!) oh and here at looooong last is one that links to the correct source (can I get a small hallelujah!)
but what happens when links are lost in the ether?.... welllllll folk assume that an image is free for the taking (looksee here at that book path of mine again... this sort of uncredited, unlinked, unauthorised, non-compensated image usage is rampant)
(sigh)
sometimes the pin-repin-multi-pin thingy goes on and on forever... (but rarely linking to the original creator - who is, in pinterest eyes anyway, pretty irrelevant really)
(sigh)
This week I was chatting with local blogging ladies and again lamented the state of the (pinterest) universe (which I'd note currently mirrors the arty world - with its rise and rise of the curator as creative demi-god).... one gal-pal quietly (she is well aware of my scorn for pinterest) declared her love for the platform and was slightly bewildered as to why creative folk wouldn't be equally enamoured - why wouldn't an artist be thrilled to have their images shared around the web? (linked or not, credited or not) isn't it all about exposure? and isn't that all good?
ummmmmmmm no. no it's not - if the work isn't correctly credited and linked then its simply a parasitic action of the reblogger linking themselves (clothing themselves) in another person's creative output. (sorry for the hard words *insert smiley face here and dispense sweet treats to all the folk whose toes I've just trodden on* )
I don't want you to think that I believe creativity happens in a vacuum - that inspiration (and sharing and building on others work etc.) isn't valuable and necessary and happening all around us all the time. Nor am I wanting to put a lid on the Very Good Bits about sharing and communal knowledge building (no no no indeedy!) I simply think that there IS a distinct difference between creating and curating (or collecting). Reblog platforms (like pinterest) encourage passive collecting over active creating so that the cultural high point becomes regurgitation (mmmm delish). With the current 'take down' policy of pinterest the onus for operating ethically and fairly is placed on the copyright owner who is expected to discover then chase up every copyright infringement -- rather than on ensuring that the pinner has permission to use every image BEFORE they pin it so proudly to their boards.
So I like to ask folk -- who gains and who loses on pinterest? I would suggest that for the pinterest collector it's a boon... for the pinned creator... not so much so... think about it this way --- how would you feel if someone waltzed into your kitchen (uninvited, unannounced) helped themselves to a slice of that cake you'd just baked and iced so prettily and were saving for the kidlet's birthday party, then they had a look through your cupboards and photographed the bits they liked, shared this with the world.... all without your knowledge or consent.... feeling a little violated? pissed off? wellllll that's kinda the sensation you get when you stumble over your work uncredited, unlinked, incorrectly attributed, printed on a card series for a greeting card company in russia, being used to sell toilet paper in korea or to drive traffic to dodgy web sites.... thanks pinterest - I owe you one!
ps - I was heartened/surprised/bewitched by what happened in social media land this week after this blog post ..... look at how viral this post went! its everywhere! name and shame a thief -become an internits sensation! maybe folk DO understand that theft and plagarism are wrong (and there's no such thing as 'a little bit pregnant'.....)?
ahhhh well - that's my copyright/pinterest whine for this season...
how about you? what do you think about reblogging? copyright? pinterest? online sharing? watermarking images? (ps I won't bite your head off if you are a pinterest lover!)
...
Sunday, October 20, 2013
three books... three tales...
from under the kurrajong tree
the site of the old sams creek schoolhouse
comes three books with three tales...
tabula rasa
One volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sams Creek schoolhouse
Sams Creek schoolhouse
aequat omnes cinis - ‘The ash makes all things equal’
One charred volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sams Creek schoolhouse
...
the site of the old sams creek schoolhouse
comes three books with three tales...
tabula rasa
One volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sams Creek schoolhouse
ignis internum – ‘The fire within’
One burning volume of Encyclopaedia BritannicaSams Creek schoolhouse
aequat omnes cinis - ‘The ash makes all things equal’
One charred volume of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sams Creek schoolhouse
...
Saturday, October 19, 2013
some paths are less obvious....
although there are numerous book/path images or allusions
within 'codex infinitum'
there are also less obvious paths that folk can travel
attached to the side of the old wooden school desk in the middle of switchback
is a small printed square
(can you see it?)
if you happen to have a smart device with a QR reader installed
and you scan the code
this is where you will be magically transported...
and you scan the code
this is where you will be magically transported...
the unfinished book from ronnie ayliffe on Vimeo.
Friday, October 18, 2013
all (book) paths lead to....
codex infinitum - the infinite book
Inter spem et metum - 'Between hope and fear'
32 volumes of The Encyclopedia of the World and its People
arranged closed and face down along the wave line
Cuttagee Beach, Bermagui
Ut sementem feceris ita metes - ‘As you sow so will you reap’
20 volumes of The Golden Encyclopedia
planted in a newly ploughed paddock
‘Alanbar’ Sams Creek
20 volumes of The Golden Encyclopedia
planted in a newly ploughed paddock
‘Alanbar’ Sams Creek
Omnes terra sumus – ‘We are all earth’
14 volumes of World Book Encyclopedia
laid face down on a wildlife thoroughfare beside Sams Creek
14 volumes of World Book Encyclopedia
laid face down on a wildlife thoroughfare beside Sams Creek
"A well-beaten path does not always make the right road"
Anon
...
Thursday, October 17, 2013
more from the 'codex' lot...
while 'codex infinitum - the infinite book'
is still up and running at Switchback Gallery
is still up and running at Switchback Gallery
I thought I'd slowly share works from the show...
Quo fas et gloria docunt – ‘Where right and glory lead’
17 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica laid open on a cattle track
leading to the site of the old Sams Creek schoolhouse.
Sto super vias antiquas – ‘I stand upon the old ways’
19 volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica laid open on a wallaby track
leading to Kooraban National Park, Sams Creek.
ps -- some eagle-eyed folk might recall the art gesture
(batphone) visions/versions
of these ephemeral works...
and
“It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path,
but it's another to think yours is the only path.”
- Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
....
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
TAG - 19...
42 pages from 'how to earn a living in the visual arts'
folded into 42 paper cranes
and arranged as a spiral
....
folded into 42 paper cranes
and arranged as a spiral
....
Saturday, October 12, 2013
codex infinitum - the infinite book...
my solo exhibition - codex infinitum
opened October 10 at Switchback Gallery...
the gallery entrance is now guarded by my book pillars
inside the gallery...
there are large and small photographic prints,
a large book structure and a small handmade book
on the middle partition is my large print...
on the middle partition is my large print...
Ancora Imparo - 'I am still learning'
which is also the name given to the installation
which is also the name given to the installation
recreated in the middle of the gallery...
the installation contains the looooooong coptic bound book
codex inperfecto - the unfinished book
behind the middle partition
hidden from initial view...
is the large
(and beautiully lit)
nec tamen consumebatur - 'and yet it was not consumed'
also in this space are three works from 2010 that long term blog readers
will already be familiar with...
Novus libri scientia - The New Books of
Knowledge
Flammeus libri ardor - The fiery passion of the
book
and
genius loci
as well as a small coptic bound book
carpe diem
I'll share more of what's inside this small book
and some more of the individual works in the show
*next time*
so with a last look over my shoulder -- it's on its own....
codex infinitum - the infinite book
October 10 - November 7, 2013
Switchback Gallery, Churchill Victoria
...
Friday, October 11, 2013
a hint before the big reveal...
I'm rather weary
(today was mostly spent driving driving driving.....
the 7 hours it takes to get from churchill in victoria to sams creek NSW)
but before I flake out on the lounge here's a quick glance at what I've been up to...
bringing work, and concept and gallery space together
but before I flake out on the lounge here's a quick glance at what I've been up to...
bringing work, and concept and gallery space together
for 'codex infinitum - the infinite book'
my funny bone got well and truly tickled
by the arrival of this guy while I was installing...
by the arrival of this guy while I was installing...
(ps for those from away - CFA = 'country fire authority' ....
apparently it was time to check the fire extinguishes in the gallery....
or so he said....)
apparently it was time to check the fire extinguishes in the gallery....
or so he said....)
ahhhhhh my minions... my mates.... neale and russell...
neale has been a fellow traveler in the MVA course at Monash then MFA,
he's a techie extraordinaire, a great friend, all round nice guy and magnificent artist
and I'm ever so grateful for his and russell's assistance
getting everything up and looking schmick
how schmick did I hear you say?
(I'll show you tomorrow - after I get a good nights rest and fill up on kiddie cuddles)
....
Saturday, October 5, 2013
chop chop...
last minute flurry of activity in the studio
(my fingers/hands are covered in itty bitty paper cuts....)
(my fingers/hands are covered in itty bitty paper cuts....)
...
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