bound knowledge - a series ...

Earlier in the year
I accidentally stumbled onto making ephemeral book art works
that I (rather quickly I must say) referred to as
my 'bound knowledge' series 

 the series spurred two assemblages and an initial postcard set
but mostly I shared the series over the year
somewhat sporadically and haphazardly on instagram

in case you don't do the insta -
here were a few of my favourite moments:

 

I made and uploaded the last of that series yesterday

but it struck me that aside from a few words
(and mostly from just a couple of days ago)
I haven't really mentioned much about the series anywhere

 

'Bound knowledge' - the extra bits

Regular bloggy visitors will know of my long held interests in all things booky and ephemeral art-making (often biblioclastic in nature) and that I've long been intrigued by knowledge and epistemology (the fancy word for 'theory of knowledge'): What does it mean to 'know' things? how do we learn? what are the differences between knowledge and wisdom and intelligence? what is tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge, empirical knowledge? how does knowledge affect ethics? what can we learn from indigenous knowledge systems? can there be universal truths?

For this collection I took books from my (ok I admit it --- LARGE) stockpile, stripped them of their covers/identity, wrapped them in various materials; some natural and found in situ, some from my fabric stash, then I placed the bound books in the environment. I quickly settled on a simple 'cross' wrapping for most books as, for almost 2 millennia, the book, knowledge and the church were intimately intertwined or bound to each other. By binding books with and to natural elements I was interested in honouring different knowledge systems. Each time I posted two pics of the work on instagram -- an up close and personal shot and an additional image taken from a distance. Having a photo of the work in its environment allowed me to add a pithy little philosophic musing on knowledge into the mix --- Plato, Kant, Hume, Nietzsche, Emerson, Socrates, Dewey, Russell all got an outing. I am happy to admit that I don't 'get' large chunks of philosophy (all the post-modern folk just make my head hurt) but in small pieces it seems to make more sense!

The bound knowledge series unexpectedly became a highlight in a challenging year.

tomorrow I'm excited to be commencing
a daily posting of the full 'lookUP' project to instagram
(at the LookUP.project ) 

If you are on IG you might like to follow
I must say - the micro-poems of Melinda Smith are something to behold
I don't think you'll be disappointed


I'll see you on the flipside of 2016

Happy New Year everyone


xxxx

 

an emerging series...

It all started innocently enough...
I had some old books, 

I wrapped them with some neutral cloth

 

bound, bundled, swaddled, crossed

  and set them out as gifts...

thinking about knowledge and place...


the series emerged...

a book bound with various materials
(here its a very long kikuyu runner)

and then set out

accompanied on insta with a philosophic musing

(of sorts)


so now I'm binding books an all manner of ways with all manner of things...

I'm even taking books with me

to seize a bound book moment

why not drop over to my insta space
to check out the offerings

....

noted...

look! 

its April already!

and I haven't been back here to tell you all how much I enjoyed presenting 

the collaborative project 

#LookUP 

at Noted 2016

here's a scrappy little pic of the #LookUP project table at the independent publishers fair

(the drawers from my wonky little depression era chest were just perfectly sized for our card series)

 and here's the lovely Melinda Smith giving the one minute overview of the project 

(gosh didn't our table get unruly! 

there were so many people pouring over the work - things got a bit all over the place)

meanwhile, in a darkened small room not very far away 

I was ensconced for most of the day, supposedly making sure the projector/computer/etc behaved itself 

for the debut of our ceiling projection....

ooo how I wish I had managed to get a photo of our space --- 

just days before the work was to be presented Melinda did a reckie 

and noticed that the ceiling in the space was totally useless for a projection  

- there was a fan, 2 enormous fluoro lights and lined boards.... 

EEEEEEK! 

panic!!!

 not to be defeated, 

Melinda and I rapidly built our own little space within the space -- 

using a garden gazebo, steel buckets with creek rocks, stretched painters drop cloth 

and lots and lots of squishy pillows! 

it all turned out marvellously 

 I spent almost all the day talking to lovely folk 

who were all reclining on squishy cushions and looking up 

and Melinda spent almost all the day talking to lovely folk 

dropping by the table at the indie publishing fair

FUN! 

(but utterly exhausting..... )

and then it was time to pull it all down and drive home and home again....

soon we hope to find an online space to share some of the printed cards.... 

I keep telling you how wonderful the poetry is so 

I really really REALLY will have to SHOW you what I mean.

(how's this for serendipity -- 

I reached into the box of 366 cards and pulled out the card of the projected piece above) 

(#LookUP 213 aka Saturday 1st August) 

ps if you'd like to see more from #LookUP or other arty things I'm currently up to

drop by instagrammaland 

lookupproject or book_ronnie

seeya! 

...

instagrammaland

yes

last week I joined instagram

(you can find me as: book_ronnie  just look for the familiar book head!)

 

and guess what

I really really like it
(gasp!)

in fact

I like it so much
I'm going to be migrating much of my posting to that medium

and I've got a couple of things that I'm going to be doing exclusively
(or at least predominantly)
in that arena in the new year

yeeee harrrr

 right now I'm finding my way around and introducing myself in instagrammaland
by posting from my archive of past works

its nice to bring out the old friends in this new world



thanks to friends who have already found me on instagram
I appreciate your support and help as I find my feet


xxxx