Author: emwelch

“Getting to know plants” is an event about human interaction with the botanical world.  We curated plants from our surrounding community and created a space for people to have conversation and physical interaction with them.  Our interest in the social lives of plants stemmed from a discussion in class.  Diane Borsato encouraged a student to “get to know the moss”. We became increasingly aware of the way humans care for plants as objects, possessions, and decoration.  This work challenges the conventions of interaction and our relationships with plants.

The gallery was curated with 13 plants of diverse kinds.  They were situated on different objects such as cinder blocks, plinths, artificial turf and shelving at various heights.  The height variation allowed visitors to interact with a plant at their own comfort level.  Each individual was given a prompt card entering the space to either facilitate a conversation or physical contact.

Last Friday, Outdoor School spent the day at Monocliffs where I properly demonstrated how to skip a stone.

Stone skimming, ducks and drakes, or more commonly known as skipping stones is the act of throwing a stone across water in a way that it bounces off the surface multiple times.  You want to choose a stone that is flat, skinny and about the size of your palm.  The smoother and flatter the stone the better it will skip across water without breaking surface tension.  I prefer rocks that are not perfectly smooth, so I’m able to grip it for a better spin.

Once you have your stone, you want to hold it between your index finger and thumb, placing the edge of the stone against your index finger.  Place your thumb on one flat side of the stone and your middle finger on the other.  Your thumb should be rested on top and the stone should fit in the crook of your index finger.

Face the water sideways with your non-dominant side closest to the water.  Squat down, so the rock is more parallel to the water when you toss it.  You’ll want to slightly angle your rock upwards.  The front side of the stone should be tilted at about 20°.

Skipping stones may seem simple, but it’s a beautiful pastime because it connects us to our natural surroundings and often with one another.  I think there is something very special about the act of searching the earth for a stone.

It also creates the nicest sound.

thank you Alison for documentation.

Wanderlust is a solo show by Tim Knowles, exploring the concepts of endeavour and challenge.
The artist’s creative practice incorporates chance operations and performance. For his Windwalks and Nightwalks Tim Knowles acts as a contemporary flaneur, moving about the city and countryside via an unusual self-imposed set of rules. Akin to scientific experimentation, the results of the project are unpredictable and outside his control. For all its verve, there is something unnervingly lonely about Tim Knowles’ work.

video still from Nightwalks

In one of his Windwalks Tim Knowles set off from central London guided solely by the wind. For this piece he created an extraordinary-looking wind vane mounted to a helmet. His steps were dictated by the wind and traced with a GPS device. He documented the nocturnal city life he saw with a video camera.

The walks took place in the early hours of the morning, when the streets were quieter, and some nights were more chaotic than others. Whirling air currents bounced off buildings and lead the artist into a cul-de-sac of littered plastic bags and swirling leaves with no escape until the wind once again changed its direction.

The Nightwalks are a series of illuminated walks that Tim Knowles created in the countryside during a new moon. Over the period of an hour, the artist walked away from the camera while carrying three wide-beam torches. His path, along a precarious rocky ridge in the darkness, was illuminated and captured using a long-exposure, large-format photograph. The image invokes Plato’s allegory of the cave, appearing like a pathway of ghostly travellers shining inside an electrified landscape.

http://www.plymouthartscentre.org/art/archive1/2009/wanderlust-tim-knowles.html