I want to go back to a time when my brain was, at least, 40% full of wonder as to whether Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschanel would ever make the perfect romcom together

I don’t use social media anymore (for more info see a previous post, from October 2020, about how I think it will lead to the end of civilisation as we know it - maybe it already has…) I’ve decided to title my blog posts with the kind of pithy rubbish that I would have probably posted on Facebook or twitter had I still been feeding those vast containers of ego and hate. That said, I’ll probably do it this once and then realise it’s a terrible idea, but that’s all part of the creative process isn’t it kids…

I had an interesting week last week. On Monday I passed my PhD viva with minor corrections (examined by Professor Ross Sinclair and Professor Andrew Hewitt). I think it’s perfectly acceptable for me to be momentarily proud of myself for that one. It’s taken me about 5 years, part-time, and I’ve done it via the ‘by-publication’ route. If any of you are reading this and considering doing the same thing or just wondering what on-earth I’m talking about, I’m very happy to have a chat about it. Just send me an email. Anyway, I digress…

The week started with that, then by Wednesday I was having one of the worst days I’ve ever had whilst teaching in H.E. I’ll spare you the details, but those 72 hours were an almost perfect window on to H.E. life - the highs and lows of the profession, particularly for someone so firmly partly-in-and-partly-out (my contract is 0.4). Then I opened my emails today to find a thread from concerned colleagues across the West Midlands, as the government has just announced (and is consulting on) their intention to halve funding to arts courses (including the likes of art and design, music, media studies) as they don’t fall within their ‘strategic priorities’. Here’s a Musicians Union article with a link to the consultation.

In honesty, it’s no great surprise, is it. The fundamental lack of appreciation and understanding of/for the arts from this UK government is plain for all to see (even their seeming total lack of understanding as to the arts key role in the UK economy. Not that it’s all about money, but all the same…) It’s also the pace at which this halving of funding is potentially coming in to effect - 2021-2022 - so, essentially, immediately. Take a look at that consultation document and formulate a response if you get the chance. You’ve got until May 6th… (GO!)

Then, changing direction completely, I’ve had the pleasure of watching the documentary ‘Sound of Scars’ a couple of times this week. It's everything a good documentary should be - interesting, compelling, moving, educational, exhilarating, fun. I’ve a personal interest in it as it’s about the band Life of Agony, who I’ve liked for a very long time, and whose guitarist, Joey Z, kindly worked with me on a small project that formed part of my PhD submission (see how all this fits together?…) It’s really a great film - partly about the history of the band, but also focussing heavily on the incredible journey of their singer, Mina Caputo, who came out as transgender in 2011 and has been transitioning since. They’re a great band and she’s an extraordinary individual, so I’d highly recommend it if you get the chance to see it.

Finally, towards the end of the film, up popped a Life of Agony mega fan (as often happens in these docs) by the name of Phil Able. This was totally unexpected to me, as I’ve known Phil for the best part of 30 years from when we were all part of an amazing North Kent music scene together, but it’s one of those friendships where for the last 20 of those 30 years we’ve just kind of known where each other are and that each other are ok. (Is that a friendship? Personally, I think so, as I’d still class Phil as a friend. Is there an amount of time you need to spend with someone on a regular basis for them to still qualify as a friend? Does anyone care?) Anyway, I had/have a phone number for Phil, but no idea if it was current, so texted him to say how nice it was to see his face appear on my TV and, today, we had the first phone call we’ve had in more than a decade. Phil’s still a musician and you can hear one of his bands, Silverkord, here.

And I’ll leave it there for now.

ROAD TRIP!

If you’ve read the recent blogs you’ll know that I’m currently working on a project with my occasional collaborator, Gordon Dalton, for Eden Arts. In brief, the commission is to make a new video work based on the A66, that runs all the way East-to-West-to-East-to-West across the North of England. We’re seeing it as a kind-of follow up to our 2007 work ‘Everyone Knows This is Nowhere’; ever since we made that trip (from L.A. to Twin Falls in Idaho) we’ve wondered if it might be possible to make a similar trip in the UK.

So, now we know.

Last week, with lockdown being eased just enough, we set out from the North East - where Gordon is based - to drive the full length of the A66 and back again over four days. The road itself is only about 200 miles across, so it’s perfectly feasible you can drive there and back in a day, but where’s the fun in that.

We’ve been reaching out to various folk along the route for a few months now, in part just to chat and get a perspective on living along the route, but also in an attempt to gather footage/images/text/audio that we can incorporate in the final film too. It’s not too late to offer a response to us, so if you live along or nearby the route and are interested, scroll down to the bottom and there will be the information there for you to consider (after all the photos I’m going to post). Your involvement would be much appreciated.

I’m not going to post a full road-trip report here, just a few images and thoughts about the journey and project in general.

First thing to say is that it’s been a difficult project to get going. That’s not anybodies fault - Eden Arts have been great, really supportive and keen to offer the contacts they can etc. - but the time we’re in right now makes a project where the plan is to drive across the country and talk to/meet people, understandably, a bit tricky. I know from every project I’ve ever done like this that the best stuff often comes from a chance meeting with a stranger in a pub or corner-shop, not necessarily an organised Zoom meeting. That said, I’ve had the pleasure of chatting/meeting some interesting people through Eden Arts introductions.

Personally, I’ve barely left Cardiff for about a year now, so being out in a totally new landscape was refreshing, exciting and slightly disorientating. There’s a sense that the world is trying to wake up, but hasn't yet, and is being rightfully cautious as it goes about it. That’s mostly the case anyway - we did drive through Keswick on Saturday and decided not to stop as the main drag looked a bit like those images of the 2020 Cheltenham Races. Did somebody say super-spreader event?… (I’m being overly dramatic, of course).

We took the approach of driving and stopping in any places that caught our eye. One thing that led us a bit was the excellent website Atlas Obscura. If you don’t know it, it’s a world-wide database of interesting places, with a search facility attached so you can either look up a certain place or just find out what might be near you. So, pretty much our first stop was at the grave of Moses Carpenter in Middlesbrough - a First Nations man who travelled through England with a snake-oil salesman in the late 1800s.

We both love this kind of stuff, in part because it brings a slightly American-road-trip veneer to the whole thing. Something we were mindful of trying to circumnavigate/embrace/acknowledge is how when you travel in your own country/nation it’s harder for things to catch your eye than when you’re in a foreign country/nation. When you’re in an alien land absolutely everything looks interesting - a traffic light, a cafe-diner, a road sign - fairly mundane things that are so exciting when you’re somewhere else, but just become an ambient background visual when you live somewhere for a long time.

That said, the landscape along the A66 is pretty extraordinary, even before you hit the dramatic fells of the Lake District, and we ended our first day in Whitehaven, with a really beautiful sunset.

The next day, we met up with one of those Eden Arts contacts, John Scanlan, in Workington. I’d had a zoom chat with John prior to the trip which culminated in him making the generous offer to walk us up a grassed-over slag heap when we finally got to do the road trip. Who could pass up on a generous offer like that?!…

It was a genuine pleasure to meet John. He’s a very generous individual who has an incredible knowledge of West Cumbria. He also has a real interest and knowledge in rock and heavy metal music, so was pretty much the perfect person for me and Gordon to spend the morning with. And that slag heap, what a treat. The views out to sea and back across Workington were really incredible. If you’re in the area and have never been, I’d highly recommend it.

The next few days followed the same path (literally), driving and stopping and driving and stopping (Warcop and Helbeck both caught our eye, for teenage heavy metal reasons). We ended the trip by burning things on the beach in Saltburn-By-The-Sea; not technically on the A66, but close enough to count.

I’ll not go on any more, otherwise I’ll end up writing the full school report, so I’ll leave you with a bunch of images from the trip. And, as I said at the start, if you live in - or are connected to - the areas along the A66 and fancy offering a response for the project, please take a look down the bottom, past the photos, where there’s some info that’s informing this whole thing there. Cheers…

If you want to help us out/get involved…

Northern Valhalla is a new film and public art project by Gordon Dalton & S Mark Gubb, commissioned by Eden Arts. A road trip, from East coast to West coast following the A66, talking to people about their hopes and fears for the future. We are keen to receive anything you may like to share, in any format from drone to tiktok to archive or visual/sound/text. We will be conducting interviews via Zoom or whatever is easiest for you. Please message us if you would like to take part and have your voice heard. 

Here's a list of some of the questions we are asking people.  If you want to answer some or all of the questions you can send us audio or video, text or we could interview via zoom. Hopefully we can do it in person soon, at a safe distance... all opinions welcome, message us here or tiktok, insta, facebook (search Northern Valhalla)

 Are you bored? 

How are you feeling? 

What does the future look like? 

What does culture look like? 

Do you enjoy social media? 

Are you proud to be British? 

Who is your hero? 

Does music have an emotional effect on you? 

What does success look like? 

What do you believe in? 

Who do you love? 

What's life like in Cumbria? 

What's life like in Teesside? 

Do you remember your childhood? 

What are your hopes and fears for the future? 

More than just a film, the project will include exhibitions, collaborations and two spectacular events (think Kirk Douglas at the end of the Vikings or putting 200 hundred Mentos in a coke bottle). Our first collaborator is the extremely talented Lord of the Logos, Christophe Szpajdel, who has created logos for just about every Black Metal band ever, as well as logos for Rhianna, Metallica and the Foo Fighters. He's created our logo, and we're working with the brilliant Pineapple Black Art Space in Middlesbrough to show his work. If you want to add your voice, have any A66 related footage, get in touch and we'll go from there to Valhalla and beyond... 

Time Flies...

…when you’re in the midst of a global pandemic. I just came on here to do a bit of maintenance and realised I’ve not blogged yet THIS YEAR. Which I’m going to consciously change, starting not…

So, I’ve ditched the ‘Happening Now’ bit from the site. It’s a bit like trying to run two blogs about the same thing on the same site, so it makes sense for one of them to go. I’ll just make sure I update this more, and I’ll tag on the last ‘Happening Now’ post at the end of this blog too, for context…

The main thing I’ve been working away on is the Eden Arts project I’m doing with Gordon Dalton. We’ve been trying to reach out to folks who live along the A66, which is an interesting task to set yourself when the entire nation is in lockdown and no-one can go anywhere or meet anyone. But not things are opening up a bit, we’ll be making the drive both ways along the A66 in the week of April 19th. Very much looking forward to it. If you are in that are, please drop me a line as we’d love to say hello (in person, or virtually).

The other thing, I’ve been writing some music for a project I’ve been planning with Dr Tom Cardwell for way to long now - based on ‘The Four Branches of the Mabinogion’ and Black Metal - two surprisingly logical bedfellows. More to follow…

I’ll leave it there for now, but rest assured I’l be posting more often from now on.

(the last ‘Happening Now’ post…

There are a few key things happening at the moment; I’ve just been commissioned by Eden Arts to make a new project with my occasional collaborator, Gordon Dalton; development is well underway on the second stage tender for the St David’s/Ferns public art project with Alan Phelan; and the new permanent work I started this time last year in Middlesbrough should be coming to fruition this spring.

So, the biggest news is the Eden Arts commission. We’re both excited by its potential, partly as it will give us the opportunity to revisit (in some way) our ‘Everyone Knows This is Nowhere’ project from 2007. Essentially, the project will take the form of a road trip along the A66, from East to West - but rather than taking a road trip in to a nostalgic past, as we did in 2007, it’s a road trip in to the unknown future and landscape of a post-Brexit, pandemic Britain. We’ve already commissioned the project logo from Christophe Szpajdel, whose work will from part of the project through an exhibition in Middlesbrough. Watch this space for updates…

There’s nothing major to report on the St David’s/Ferns tender partly as we don’t want to give our ideas away in this competitive process, but it’s been interesting so far; in part, the complexities of being part of a process set across sites in two different countries when no-one is allowed to travel.

Finally, the Middlesbrough project. I can’t recall if I ever posted about it on here, but its basically a new neon drawing/sculpture based on the history of the Middlesbrough Meteorite, which struck the town in 1881. It all got put on hold as the pandemic descended last March but, I believe, it’s all due to start up again this spring.)

Happy Christmas/Nadolig Llawen

It’s nearing that time of year, and I probably won’t get round to making another blog post this year, so best wishes from me, to you, for the holidays.

As a special treat here’s a link to a video of half of Thin Lizzy and half of the Sex Pistols performing a Xmas song on Top of the Pops a long time ago. I had no idea this had happened until about 10 minutes ago, so here you are (you’re welcome):

Here’s to a better 2020 for all of us.

Take care.

To Go Invisible?

There’s a bunch of interesting work-related things that I need to update on here, which I will get to in a separate post, but I just wanted to get this down whilst the thoughts are fresh - and confused - in my mind.

We all hate social media, right? It’s a digital sinkhole that steals your time and your ability to properly engage with things. It’s turning us all in to morons, but we largely view it as a necessary evil, or a bit of fun, or an essential tool to engage in creative discussions (which really means posting your stuff on instagram in the belief that it means the world won’t forget you.) But I honestly think we’ve reached the point where we need to have a much more serious discussion (with each other and ourselves) about the considerably wider problems of social media and how it’s not just destroying our brains but is also destroying the world (I’ll come back to this).

I’ve been thinking about this a fair bit since I had the pleasure(ish) and good fortune to listen to Adam Buxton’s podcast with Shoshana Zuboff. It’s a scary and fascinating interview, where she discusses some of the key themes that run through her book ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’. Hear the interview, read the book. Many of the things she touches on are things we think we already know, but it really lays out the incredibly sinister web we all willingly leap in to every time we go online. She also appears as a talking head in the recent Netflix documentary, ‘The Social Dilemma’. It’s 1 hour and 45 mins long, which I guarantee is less time than you’ve spent looking at your smartphone today, so put your phone down and go and watch it.

I’m aware the documentary has had varied reviews, but as a starting point to begin rethinking and reeducating yourself about your own use of social media, I think it’s a great place to start. Most of the talking heads on there are people who have worked very high up in tech companies - the same tech companies that the documentary covers - so there’s a sense that it’s, at least, based on ideas from people who know what they’re talking about (fair enough, they might just have beef with their former employers, but let’s assume that’s not all of them).

One of the main things it discusses is how every moment we spend online is being used by algorithms to develop a more and more accurate model by which it can predict our next action - and in turn influence that next action. We kind of know that don’t we, but how often do we really think about it? One of the leading voices in the documentary discusses how this is creating an existential threat to humanity. Of course, the apps and us using them aren’t creating that threat in-and-of-themselves, but the wider societal impact they are having (such as our near total dislocation from concrete notions of truth due to fake news and misinformation) can, and currently looks like it will, lead to the destruction of democracy and, ultimately, humanity’s downfall. This is our lead in the water pipes moment. Even as I type this, I’m aware that it sounds like it’s bordering on conspiracy theory, but if you want one very quick example of this rapid decline, I’d urge you to go and watch Adam Curtis’s ‘HyperNormalisation’ documentary, which you can find on iPlayer.

That documentary came out in October 2016 - three months after the Brexit referendum and two month’s before Trump’s inauguration. When you watch it now, only four years on, it sounds pretty much like a prediction. The things that, four years ago, sounded so shocking in it, in relation to the power of disinformation etc., are now things we can see having a profound effect on our democracy on a daily basis.

I’ve digressed a bit from my original reason for this post, but it’s important to contextualise it. It’s impossible to inform yourself about this stuff and not be moved to see social media as one of the biggest existential threats we face today. But then what do we do about it? Our individual use of it feels a bit like the old idea of dropping rubbish - ‘my one bit of rubbish won’t make any difference’ - but then if everyone says that we end up buried under rubbish.

I closed my Facebook account a few months ago. I was bored by Facebook a long time before that, but in the middle of lockdown found myself scrolling it regardless, so decided to get rid of it. In honesty, I’ve not missed it, at all. The only thing I was concerned about was whether some of the more distant acquaintances I have on there, who I genuinely really like, would think I’d unfriended them. (Which I didn’t, if you’re reading this.) So, today, I’ve deleted the Twitter and Instagram apps from my phone, after posting messages directing people towards this website. I’ve no intention of ever going back to them, but this raises the question behind the title of this post - is it actually possible to be an artist or creative or self-employed business-person in this day and age without engaging with those platforms?

My website will become the sole online space through which I can communicate with the world and the world can, digitally, engage with me. But how does somebody drive traffic to their website if they’re not doing it through those other platforms? Is this decision financial suicide, in terms of getting commissions, exhibitions etc., as I’ll become all-but-invisible to the majority of people accessing those platforms?

It’s an interesting question, and one I guess I’m going to find out the answer to. With any luck it will drive me here more and make this blog more active but, again, to what ends if I can’t then shout about the fact I’ve posted a new blog via Twitter?

Check back in from time to time, see how I’m doing, and I’ll update you how it appears to be working out. If you remember I exist at all.