After watching Ellen Terry play the role of Lady Macbeth in 1888, artist John Singer Sargent knew he had to paint her. But his dramatic portrait, with Terry holding the crown above her head, depicts a scene that didn't actually occur in Irving's production. Nevertheless, Sargent's painting established Terry as a true Victorian 'diva'. This is an extract from Exhibition on Screen's film John Singer Sargent: Fashion & Swagger. Filmed at both the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tate Britain, the documentary explores how Sargent used fashion as a powerful tool to express identity and personality. The exhibition Sargent and Fashion is at Tate Britain until 7 July: https://ift.tt/7eyG29W Find out more at https://seventh-art.com. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl
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23.4.24
21.4.24
Five things our research uncovered when we recreated 16th century beer (and barrels)
Susan Flavin, Trinity College Dublin and Charlie Taverner, Trinity College Dublin
It’s true that our 16th-century ancestors drank much more than Irish people do today. But why they did so and what their beer was like are questions shrouded in myth. The authors were part of a team who set out to find some answers.
As part of a major study of food and drink in early modern Ireland, funded by the European Research Council, we recreated and analysed a beer last brewed at Dublin Castle in 1574. Combining craft, microbiology, brewing science, archaeology, as well as history, this was the most comprehensive interdisciplinary study of historical beer ever undertaken. Here are five things that we discovered.
1. People didn’t drink beer because water was unhealthy
It’s often assumed that lack of access to clean water led people to drink beer instead. We know this isn’t true for many reasons, not least because brewers needed a constant source of fresh water to make the best beer.
Water was certainly viewed as less healthy, but not because of any understanding of microbial contamination. According to a system of medicine and treatment used at the time, Galenic humorism, water was a “cold” drink that affected digestion, causing fluctuations and windiness. Meanwhile, beer was “warm and comforting”, balancing the “humours” and quenching thirst.
2. Beer was a payment for work
Beer was taken as medicine, often mixed with curious ingredients. Treatments for conditions such as flux or bed wetting, for example, required ground kid’s hoof or grated stag’s penis to be taken with a drink of beer.
People drank at work, commonly receiving drink as part of their wages. The quantities were staggering. At Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin, masons received up to 15 pints per day when undertaking heavy work.
More typical was a range of five to ten pints, as was the case at Dublin Castle. There, servants imbibed up to 2,700 calories a day in beer alone, the cost of which exceeded what the household spent on bread.
3. Beer had some different ingredients then
In many ways, 16th-century beer would be recognisable today. The key ingredients were malt (made from barley or oats depending on the region), water, yeast and hops.
The addition of hops, a Dutch innovation, spread throughout Europe in this period. This resulted in a longer lasting drink, accelerating the development of the brewing industry as we know it today.
But there are differences between pre-modern and modern beers, relating primarily to the nature of the ingredients. Four centuries ago, cereals were grown as landraces.
A landrace has a wide range of characteristics distinct from those of standardised modern varieties, through adaptation to their regional climate, soils and topography. Shrinking cultivation of these landraces meant that sourcing heritage ingredients was challenging.
The variety of barley we chose was bere. This is the only landrace barley still grown commercially, thanks to the conservation efforts of agronomists and farmers in Orkney, Scotland.
The experiment was a unique opportunity to examine the significance of these varieties to the taste and quality of drinks in the past, and the benefits of saving heritage crops for future generations.
4. Making beer required skills in short supply today
Industrial brewing today produces the same beer every time. Brewing in the past, using simpler equipment and in a more open environment, was much more challenging. Brewers were deeply in tune with their working conditions and didn’t have modern devices such as thermometers.
They used their senses and knowledge to make adjustments as they worked. As the project team learned the hard way, small mistakes could be disastrous, resulting in spoiled beer and accidental porridge.
Recreating the technology of the past also highlighted the wider craft skills, such as coopering (making barrels), wicker-weaving, woodworking, and coppersmithing, that went into making all the equipment needed to make a pint. Much like heritage crops, these skills are in worrying decline.
Our oak fermenting barrels and mash tuns (a vessel used in brewing) were made by Les Skinner, at the time one of the last two master coopers in England. He has since retired. We had to go all the way to Portugal to find coppersmiths who could build a large freestanding boiler.
5. Even everyday beer was strong
One enduring misconception is that people were able to drink so much in the 16th century because their beer was relatively weak. Based on little evidence, it is assumed that beer of around 2% alcohol by volume (abv) was the most common drink of the working classes. But we know this so called “small beer” was widely rejected by workers, as well as by physicians, dietary writers, and government officials, who all deemed it dangerous to health.
Our experiment showed that a typical beer of middling strength actually had the potential to be around 5% abv, comparable to modern lager. This means people could have been extremely inebriated from merely what they drank alongside work. Unsurprisingly, there were loud and frequent calls for drinkers to show moderation.
Those calls often came, however, from the same people who liberally supplied their workers with beer. This suggests that the context in which people drank was very important. If having a pint or two at breakfast and dinner was acceptable, even expected, many more at the village alehouse was seen as more troublesome.
To learn more about brewing a beer from 1574, visit our online exhibition. A documentary film is coming soon. Details will be on our website.
Susan Flavin, Associate professor of history, Trinity College Dublin and Charlie Taverner, Research fellow, history, Trinity College Dublin
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
9.4.24
How art can inspire solidarity across borders | Tate
How do artists create work within their communities, in a way that helps us see injustice and shows us the way towards change? In this film we look at five artists who demonstrate the power of collaboration across borders: Outi Pieski, Carolina Caycedo, Anna Daučíková, Zanele Muholi and Rita Keegan. Research supported by Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational in partnership with Hyundai Motor. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl
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8.4.24
Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art
Barbican show reveals the medium’s subversive nature
Textile art is having a revival, as the artists on show at the Barbican exhibition, Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art, attest.
The show is a comprehensive journey through the themes explored by artists utilising textiles as a medium. But it also invites deeper reflection on the societal shifts that have prompted a revival of the art form. Historically associated with femininity, domesticity and craft, textiles possess a deceptive simplicity that conceals their potential for subversion and political dissent.
The exhibition focuses on this subversive nature of textiles in contemporary art through works by artists including Feliciano Centurión. His delicate floral embroideries on modest blanket squares are accompanied by poignant stitched phrases such as “Soy alma en pena” (“I am a soul in pain”) and “Estoy vivo” (“I am alive”). These words express his battle with HIV and affirm his queer masculine identity.
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s collaged textile hanging, meanwhile, revises historical depictions of the Romani community. In doing so, the artist reclaims space for stories excluded from historical accounts. And Igshaan Adams’s immersive ethereal installation, crafted from beads and wire structures, prompts reflection on the collective opposition to artificially imposed borders in South Africa’s apartheid regime.
The changing landscape of exhibiting textiles
The exhibition also includes works by established figures such as Sheila Hicks and Magdalena Abakanowicz. Their works were displayed in the Wall Hangings exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1969, a pivotal show that legitimised the use of fibre within the realm of the fine arts.
Using unorthodox and found materials, female artists of this era departed from the European tapestry tradition. Their three-dimensional fibre structures both physically and metaphorically reclaimed space in an art world largely dominated by their male counterparts.
In the catalogue for the Barbican exhibition one of the curators, Lotte Johnson, remarks: “Back in 2020, we had collectively noted how textiles were proliferating across contemporary art practices.” This proliferation can be traced back to recent societal changes, as well as the instrumental role of cultural intermediaries including museums and private galleries.
Social movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter have highlighted the need to tell a more inclusive history of art and acknowledge the contributions of women, people of colour and indigenous artists who have been overlooked in traditional accounts.
Further, the global spread of biennials and fairs, along with increase mobility of curators, has contributed greater visibility of artists from continents such as Africa and South America. Their practices often employ textiles and recycled elements, transcending the European dichotomy between art and craft.
The consumer demand for handmade textile items – a trend in response to an increasingly digitised society – has also played a role in the renewed appreciation for textile-based art. Additionally, movements associated with environmentalism and third-wave feminism have embraced traditionally domestic practices such as knitting and crocheting. These enjoyed further popularity during the COVID pandemic as a stress-coping mechanism.
Museums have been pivotal in endorsing the revival of textiles. And the increased prevalence of women in positions of power at cultural institutions is partly why. The retrospective on Anni Albers at the Tate Modern in 2018, for example, is much-cited as a show that put the spotlight back on textiles. The show was supported by the appointments of Frances Morris as director of Tate Modern in 2016 and Maria Balshaw as director of Tate the following year.
Additionally, a new generation of curators are shaping curatorial programmes to include a more diverse range of artistic practices. These curators were educated by feminist art history scholars such as Griselda Pollock and have now moved into influential roles within prominent art institutions.
Interest in textiles is also gaining momentum within the private art sector. According to the art market database Artprice, textile works generated US$40 million (£31.6m) in 2022, a significant increase from $13 million in 2012.
Private galleries are exerting a growing influence on the art world, and have contributed significantly to the visibility of fibre art and textiles. Last October, the private gallery Alison Jacques opened a new space in London with a solo show on Sheila Hicks. At the Brafa art fair in Brussels in January 2024, Richard Saltoun showcased Textile Pioneers, which exhibited works by Barbara Levittoux-Świderska and Magdalena Abakanowicz, among others.
While the promotion of female textile artists is certainly a welcome shift towards a more inclusive representation of historical artistic contributions, the private sector’s commercial considerations cannot be overlooked. Female artists have been defined as “the bargain of our time”, and textile works are an affordable purchase for underfunded institutions and collectors who cannot afford works by male artists from the same period.
Moreover, the practicality of textiles, being easier to transport and install compared to paintings, further enhances their appeal to galleries.
The resurgence of textiles in contemporary art provides a vital opportunity for conversation and revision within both the art world and society at large. It also highlights the complex interplay of cultural intermediaries who juggle idealistic efforts and pragmatic commercial interests.
Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
Francesca Stocco, PhD Researcher, Art Market, Nottingham Trent University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
26.3.24
First Encounter: Tai-Shan Schierenberg on Portrait of a Young Woman | Tate
Portrait painter, Tai-Shan Schierenberg describes the first time he saw Meredith Frampton's painting, Portrait of a Young Woman and how the piece has impacted his own work. Meredith Frampton painted Margaret Austin-Jones in a tall vertical format. This echoes the full-length portraits of women painted in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, the precision with which Frampton paints, combined with the work’s feeling of extreme stillness, gives this work an uncanny, modern tone. Frampton said that he made this painting ‘to celebrate an assembly of objects... beautiful in their own right’. He noted that, as Austin-Jones was very musical, the cello was an ‘appropriate symbol’. Frampton also designed the white vase on the table. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl
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14.3.24
Stories from the archive – Evelyn Dunbar | Tate
With over 1 million items, Tate's archive is an incredible place of discovery. We sat down with Tate's Library & Archive Coordinator, Federica Beretta to hear more about her role and the stories behind artist and illustrator, Evelyn Dunbar's archive pieces. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl
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27.2.24
How Tumblr raised a generation of feminists
Briony Hannell, University of Sheffield
Like so many millennials, my teenage years on the multimedia microblogging platform, Tumblr, introduced me to feminist politics, which inspired my burgeoning interest in gender and feminism at university. My experiences as a Tumblr teen at the height of its popularity inspired my book, Feminist Fandom: Media Fandom, Digital Feminisms, and Tumblr, which examines the platform in the early- to mid-2010s.
By the end of the 2010s, reports indicated that the majority of young women identified as feminists – a far cry from the preceding decade marked by ambivalence and unease, if not outright hostility, toward feminism.
From high-profile celebrities such as Beyoncé and Emma Watson declaring themselves feminists, to feminist books dominating the bestseller charts, to feminist commentary in Elle and Teen Vogue, popular culture in the 2010s was marked by the sudden and spectacular resurgence of feminist politics.
This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.
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Why you might start to hate the influencers you once loved
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Feminism, it seemed, had lost its former reputation as an outdated and dirty word. By 2017, feminism was so central to the zeitgeist that it was declared the Merriam-Webster word of the year.
Many commentators have argued that feminism’s visibility on social media was instrumental to this revival, ushering in its fourth wave. And few social media platforms received quite so much attention for their progressive, queer and feminist ethos as Tumblr.
Since its conception in 2007, Tumblr has developed a reputation for its appeal to marginalised users, especially LGBTQ+ youth, girls and young women, and people of colour. Widely used for sharing knowledge, community building and personal and creative expression, both Tumblr and its users readily embraced its reputation as a space committed to social justice and the open, self-governing exchange of ideas.
Why and how, I wondered when writing my book, did this platform in particular play such a central role in the feminist experiences and identities of so many of my millennial peers? Here’s what I found.
1. Design
The design and functionality of Tumblr differentiated it from other popular platforms at the time. Unlike Facebook, where explicit identity cues – including your real name, age and location – are required for use, the only identity information Tumblr required of users was their age, email address and a pseudonymous username.
Tumblr allowed users to have a high level of control over their visibility and the way they presented themselves. By virtue of its simplicity, customisability and (initially) lax approach to content moderation, Tumblr enabled a greater sense of privacy and freedom of expression than its more popular competitors. This made the site appealing to those hoping to explore identities, issues and interests that could be unwelcome elsewhere.
Tumblr’s anonymity made it feel safer for its marginalised users, inviting curiosity, experimentation and openness in those important first encounters with feminism.
2. Broad definition of feminism
Feminists have long emphasised that no single or universal “feminism” exists. Few versions of feminism on Tumblr achieved the height of attention enjoyed by liberal, white, western, middle-class feminism. But others nevertheless found a footing there, providing insight into the relationship between feminism and anti-racism, queer liberation, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism and more.
The wide variety of marginalised perspectives and voices on Tumblr combined to play an educational and consciousness-raising role in the lives of its users, offering more complex and critical insights into intersecting inequalities.
3. Culture
For many users, Tumblr’s ultimate appeal lay in its mixture of political and educational content and content that was more playful, leisure-oriented and interest-based.
Many of the Tumblr users I interviewed for my book described their Tumblr blogs as a highly personal repository of all of their passions and interests, from personal life to pop culture and politics. As Emily, who is now in her late 20s, recalled: “I got my Tumblr account when I was 14. I remember an acquaintance suggested it, so I checked it out, and it really offered me a place to collate all my interests. I fell down the rabbit hole pretty quickly.”
When we last spoke in 2018, she said that she was hesitant to leave Tumblr, describing it as a “living document of everything I’ve ever been interested in”.
The mixture of personal and political material on Tumblr served an important purpose for young feminists on the platform. No longer was feminism an abstract, academic and detached endeavour. Instead, it was immediate, engaging and playful, embedded into a bespoke timeline compiling users’ every interest, passion and political affinity.
Decline and nostalgia
Tumblr’s controversial adult content ban in 2018 was widely seen as a death knell heralding its demise and signalling the end of an era for a Tumblr feminism marked by the embrace of different sexual and gender identities.
Yet the ban’s partial reversal in November 2022 has ushered in hopes of a Tumblr revival. These hopes are built on Tumblr nostalgia: a yearning for an imagined past of the platform centring its progressive sensibility.
This yearning is partially driven by doubts about whether today’s popular platforms will harbour the same feminist potential for the next generation. For example, while TikTok has shown some signs of promise, it’s also home to prominent anti-feminist communities and has come under fire from marginalised content creators.
Moreover, its focus on visibility and exposure, compared to Tumblr’s focus on pseudonymity, makes users vulnerable to networked harassment, which, as many feminists have noted, disproportionately impacts women and gender minorities.
Despite its imperfections, Tumblr’s unique design, culture and sensibility combined to shape a generation of feminists in the 2010s. I don’t see any modern websites or apps that would be able to follow suit in the 2020s.
Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
Briony Hannell, University Teacher in Sociology, University of Sheffield
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
23.2.24
Explore the history of The Tanks | Tate
Tate Modern's Director of Programme Catherine Wood explores the industrial history of Tate's underground art space, The Tanks. Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl
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19.2.24
Keeping the spirit of punk alive
Keeping the spirit of punk alive in British culture embodies a commitment to the DIY ethos, a philosophy rooted in independence, rebellion, and self-expression. At its core, punk challenges conformity and empowers individuals to create, innovate, and resist mainstream norms.
One of the hallmarks of punk's enduring legacy is its embrace of the DIY spirit. This ethos encourages people to do it themselves, whether it's creating music, art, fashion, or challenging societal structures. In the realm of music, punk bands often eschew traditional routes to success, opting instead to self-produce albums, book their own shows, and distribute music through grassroots networks.
In the DIY punk scene, there's a palpable sense of community and solidarity. Bands collaborate with local artists and venues, fostering a supportive network that values authenticity over commercialism. This ethos extends beyond music into other creative spheres, where individuals repurpose materials, experiment with unconventional techniques, and challenge established norms.
The spirit of punk thrives in the grassroots efforts of zine creators, DIY fashion designers, and activists who use art as a tool for social change. From squats to independent venues, DIY spaces provide platforms for expression and resistance, serving as incubators for countercultural movements.
G.P.Thomson
Desperate Bicycles - Handlebars
15.2.24
How to write a love song
How to write a love song – three tips for beginners from a songwriting expert
Love and romance are unquestionably the dominant lyrical themes of popular music. In fact, research in 2017 found that “love” has been the most common theme for pop song lyrics in every decade since the 1960s.
If you’re trying to write a love song for the first time, you might not know where to begin, or cringe at the thought of being schmaltzy. But love songs don’t necessarily have to be romantic. In the 2011 song Suck it And See, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner proposed that the ultimate compliment to bestow upon a loved one is to say they’re “rarer than a can of dandelion and burdock”.
An even stranger example comes courtesy of Underneath This Lamppost Light (2008) by The King Blues where the singer expresses undying love and devotion through the line: “I’ll kiss you after you’ve thrown up in the gutter / I’d do anything for you”.
This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.
You may be interested in:
Valentine’s Day: research-backed tips for dating app success
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One of my own favourites, Dry Your Eyes by The Streets (2004), not only eschews terms we’d associate with love, but launches into an expletive-laden ramble in the third verse, demonstrating how love can leave us unable to express ourselves eloquently (or even coherently).
Other songwriters, however, prefer the more direct approach. The likes of Billie Eilish, Avril Lavigne, Mike Love, Lou Reed, Chuck Berry, The Ramones, and dozens of others all releasing songs simply titled: I Love You.
I research song lyrics and creative writing. Here are my top tips for making your own love song special.
1. Ensure it’s accessible
Although the likes of Arctic Monkeys, The Streets and The King Blues have tried something a bit different, their quirky expressions of love risk alienating people who can’t make the connection between the image they’re presenting and the emotion they’re linking it to.
As I note in my book, Writing Song Lyrics, while such original phrasing may bring freshness to the subject matter, non-universal images may be so foreign that the connection isn’t made between them and love. This can make your words less impactful.
As it is, most successful love songs draw on the same tropes over and over. Rain, for example, is frequently used to symbolise pain and misery – think November Rain by Guns ‘N’ Roses, or Raining In My Heart by Buddy Holly. And sunshine is frequently used to represent happiness – think You Are the Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder or Good Day Sunshine by The Beatles.
If a listener doesn’t have to work too hard, you could be on to a winner.
2. Keep it simple and familiar
Three of the top five bestselling love ballads are cover versions – Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet, Unchained Melody by Robson and Jerome and I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston. This suggests that when it comes to love songs, we’re drawn to something we’re already familiar with.
A 2012 experiment found that participants generally preferred songs that they rated as more structurally predictable.
Most popular love songs have discernible introductions, verses, choruses and bridge sections. Some, like I Will Always Love You and My Heart Will Go On, swap bridges (the parts of the song that connect the verse to the chorus) for dramatic key-change sections, but the best ones all strive to keep things as simple as possible.
3. Make your lyrics relatable
Love songs can act as a mirror for our own experiences. As listeners, we use songs as substitutes for what we cannot say. As such, it is important that we can relate love songs we listen to our own experiences.
This is probably the reason why so many love songs are broad in terms of their subject matter, focusing on generic occurrences, people and places rather than specifics to maximise their relatability. See Adele and Ed Sheeran for all the examples you could ever need in this area.
But if you want to write a song for that special someone, try to add a smattering of personal details. That will emphasise that the song has been written for them and them alone.
Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
Glenn Fosbraey, Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
4.2.24
Paul Garrard - artist
Paul Garrard is a contemporary British artist whose work spans various mediums, including collage, painting, drawing, printmaking, and digital technologies. His art is characterised by a unique fusion of traditional techniques and modern sensibilities, creating a distinctive visual language that captivates viewers.
Garrard's drawings, particularly from his early work, are equally compelling, showcasing a meticulous attention to detail and a refined skill in draughtsmanship. His use of line work creates intricate patterns and textures, giving his drawings a captivating complexity. Often, he explores themes of nature and mythology, intertwining classical motifs with contemporary aesthetics.
The artist's influences are wide-ranging, drawing inspiration from both classical art and contemporary movements. Garrard's work pays homage to the rich history of art while pushing boundaries and exploring new territories. This dynamic fusion of tradition and innovation is a hallmark of his artistic identity.Renowned for his multifaceted body of work, a large part of which carries the indelible mark of Dadaism amidst his creative repertoire. Influenced by the avant-garde movement of the early 20th century, Garrard infuses his art with the spirit of Dada, embracing its ethos of artistic rebellion and radical experimentation.
Beyond his technical skill, Garrard's art often carries a deeper narrative. Themes of identity, society, and the human condition permeate his work, inviting viewers to contemplate and interpret the underlying messages. His pictures, in particular, serve as a visual commentary on the complexities of modern life, offering a mirror to society's triumphs and struggles.
In Garrard's pictures, the echoes of Dada reverberate through his unconventional compositions and bold visual statements. The movement's emphasis on the absurd and the irrational finds resonance in his art, as he subverts conventional notions of form and representation. Garrard's ‘canvases’ become battlegrounds of creative insurgency, where traditional boundaries are blurred, and the unexpected reigns supreme. Through his exploration of light, shadow, and colour, he channels the anarchic energy of Dada, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary and inviting viewers into a world of artistic upheaval.
In the tradition of Dada collage and montage techniques, Garrard layers textures and motifs with a sense of playful abandon, blurring the lines between representation and abstraction. His art becomes a celebration of the absurd and the nonsensical, challenging viewers to question established norms and embrace the chaos of the modern world. In this fusion of tradition and iconoclasm, Paul Garrard emerges as a torchbearer of the Dada legacy, breathing new life into its radical vision for the 21st century art scene.
In the art world, Paul Garrard's contributions have not gone unnoticed. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions, garnering acclaim for its originality and thought-provoking nature. Art enthusiasts are drawn to the depth and sincerity embedded in each piece, recognising Garrard's ability to evoke emotion and provoke introspection.
Paul Garrard emerges as a multimedia artist whose creative explorations extend beyond traditional visual mediums, occasionally delving into the realms of sound and vision. In his interdisciplinary approach to art, Garrard seamlessly integrates elements of music, video, and performance, forging immersive experiences that transcend the boundaries of traditional artistic expression. Drawing inspiration from his diverse influences, including Dadaism, Garrard's forays into sound and vision serve as extensions of his artistic ethos, challenging audiences to engage with art in new and unexpected ways. Through his multimedia endeavours, Garrard continues to push the boundaries of creativity, blurring the lines between different artistic disciplines and inviting viewers to embark on a journey of sensory exploration.
In conclusion, the art of Paul Garrard is a testament to the enduring power of visual expression. His ability to seamlessly blend traditional techniques with contemporary themes results in a body of work that is both timeless and relevant. Garrard's art invites viewers to embark on a journey of exploration, where every stroke and detail tells a story, and each piece serves as a window into the complexities of the human experience.
G.P. Thomson
30.1.24
Through Cable Street Beat, music became a potent antifascist weapon against the far right
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In the 1980s, Britain’s far right was on the rise. Fascist parties fielded over 100 candidates in the 1983 general election. And culturally, the far right was also making ground.
“White power” bands like Skrewdriver and Peter and the Wolf began drawing sizeable crowds and selling thousands of records. In 1987, Skrewdriver’s frontman founded Blood & Honour, a music network that soon gained followers and branches throughout the US and Europe.
Blood & Honour’s emergence caused tremors among the UK antifascist movement. Anti-Fascist Action (AFA), the dominant antifascist group of the time, struck back with their own musical network: Cable Street Beat (CSB).
This is the story of how music became a battleground in the 1980s and 1990s, as antifascists fought fascism with guitars and microphones.
Cable Street Beat
Cable Street Beat was named after the antifascists’ celebrated victory over Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts. Before the second world war, British MP Oswald Mosley had commanded a growing fascist movement that had been fiercely resisted by antifascists.
On October 4 1936, Mosley amassed his Blackshirts on Cable Street to march through the East End of London. However, around 100,000 militant antifascists gathered to oppose them, ultimately preventing the fascists’ march.
The first CSB gig was held on October 8 1988 at the Electric Ballroom in London. Newtown Neurotics, The Men They Couldn’t Hang and punk poet Attila the Stockbroker electrified a 1,000-strong crowd.
Crucially, the audience also heard a powerful speech from Solly Kaye, an antifascist veteran of the actual Battle of Cable Street five decades earlier. Kaye warned the assembled concertgoers that fascist “songs” were “poison put into the minds of young people”.
Brendan, an AFA and CSB organiser and horn player with antifascist punk band the Blaggers, described to me how CSB was needed: “Firstly as a way to draw people who might be attracted to the far right into a more progressive type of politics … Secondly it was needed to bring people together from different cultures. Thirdly, just to stick two fingers up to the far right.”
The power of punk
CSB drew energy from the UK’s frenetic punk scene. Bands such as the Angelic Upstarts, Snuff and Yr Anhrefn all enthusiastically took up CSB’s cause. They shared the stage with antifascist activists who gave rousing speeches.
Punk, and in particular the working-class focused, aggressive Oi! subgenre and related skinhead subculture, was an area that the far right had long tried to colonise.
Blood & Honour wanted to believe otherwise, but the skinhead movement (which originated in the 1960s) had roots in Jamaican culture and reggae. Indeed, few skinheads had any interest in white power.
“If far-right politics helped inform the identity of some within the … skinhead subculture,” says historian Matthew Worley, “then the vast majority resisted and rejected the substance of the fascist message.”
CSB gained considerable ground in this battle. High-profile bands like The Specials and The Selecter played benefit gigs. Multiple other bands – including The Oppressed, Knucklehead and Spy Vs Spy – put out AFA fundraising CDs.
Thomas “Mensi” Mensforth, the charismatic lead singer of the Angelic Upstarts’ (who sadly passed away in 2021), even narrated an AFA documentary produced for the BBC in 1993.
Unity Carnivals
CSB’s most high-profile strategy was its Unity Carnivals. The first, held in Hackney Downs Park in 1991, attracted 10,000 attendees. This made it the biggest public antifascist event in a decade. Bands including Gary Clail’s On U Sound System, The 25th of May and The Blaggers kept the vast crowds dancing all day under the banner of antifascism.
But the partying was punctuated with serious political rhetoric. Throughout the day activists gave speeches and handed out flyers. Brendan was part of the team that organised the carnival.
“It’s a cliché,” he told me, “but that carnival really did unite people. It brought a really diverse crowd together in Hackney and really got the political messages across.”
Two more carnivals followed: another in Hackney in 1992 and one in Newcastle in 1993, where The Shamen headlined with their chart-topping song Ebeneezer Goode.
Freedom of movement
CSB was wound down in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, music remained a central element of AFA’s activism.
By the early 1990s, electronic dance music had taken off in the UK. Antifascists immediately saw the potential and in Manchester local DJs and AFA set up the Freedom of Movement campaign in 1993 to mobilise these ravers. AFA’s magazine, Fighting Talk, declared Freedom of Movement’s aim was to “politicise the previously apathetic dance club scene, raising issues of racism and fascism”.
From 1993 to 1996, AFA put on a series of antifascist club nights in cities from Edinburgh to London. They also released an AFA benefit album, This is Fascism, featuring prominent DJs and producers including Carl Cox, Drum Club and Fun-Da-Mental.
Fascism is on the march again. The far right in Italy, Argentina and the Netherlands have all recently experienced electoral victories. Many other countries – such as the US, Brazil and India – have experienced explosions in far-right activity.
Findings from my own research and others’ demonstrate that fascists are adept at using culture to achieve their goals. It enables them to transmit their hateful ideology, generate money and forge networks across countries.
But the successes of CSB and AFA provide us with valuable lessons. Music can send a powerful message and mobilise hundreds of thousands to resist racism. Its emotive nature can change listeners’ worldviews, and help create a shared culture that is antithetical to the far right’s divisive goals.
This is an area where antifascists can make real gains against their foes: uniting antifascism and music is a tried-and-tested method for winning over the hearts and minds of people against hatred.
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Alexander Carter, Research Fellow, University of Birmingham
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
28.1.24
AI is supposed to make us more efficient – but...
AI is supposed to make us more efficient – but it could mean we waste more energy
The European Union is negotiating an Artificial Intelligence Act, the world’s first comprehensive law that aims to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) based on the risk it poses to individuals, society and the environment.
However, discussions of AI overlook one significant environmental risk: a potential increase in energy consumption from using it in everyday activities. Without acknowledging this risk, the development of AI may contribute to the climate emergency.
AI can be a double-edged sword. It can be a powerful tool for climate action, improving the efficiency of the energy grid, modelling climate change predictions or monitoring climate treaties. But the infrastructure needed to run AI is energy- and resource-intensive. “Training” a large language model such as OpenAI’s GPT-3, a popular AI-powered chatbot, requires lots of electricity to power data centres that then need lots of water to cool down.
In fact, the true scale of AI’s impact on the environment is probably underestimated, especially if we focus only on the direct carbon footprint of its infrastructure. Today, AI permeates almost all aspects of our digitalised daily lives. Businesses use AI to develop, market and deliver products, content and services more efficiently, and AI influences how we search, shop, socialise and organise our everyday lives.
These changes have massive implications for our total energy consumption at a time when we need to actively reduce it. And it’s not yet clear that AI will support us in making more climate-positive choices.
How AI is changing us
AI can indirectly change how much energy we use by changing our activities and behaviour – for instance, by completing tasks more efficiently or by substituting analogue tools like physical maps for their digital equivalents. However, things can backfire if convenience and lower costs simply spur demand for more goods or services. This is known as a “rebound effect”, and when the rebound effect is larger than the energy saving, it leads to greater energy use overall. Whether AI leads to more or less energy use will depend on how we adapt to using it.
For example, AI-powered smart home systems can improve energy efficiency by controlling heating and appliances. A smart heating system is estimated to reduce gas consumption by around 5%. Home energy management and automation could even reduce households’ CO₂ consumption by up to 40%.
However, a more efficient and comfortably heated home can make people stay at home more often with the heating on. People may also have increased comfort expectations of a warmer house and pre-warming of spaces. A study on smart homes found that people purchase and use additional smart devices to increase control and comfort, rather than to use less energy.
In the transport sector, ride-hailing apps that use AI to optimise routes can reduce travel time, distance and congestion. Yet they are displacing more sustainable public transportation and increasing travel demand, resulting in 69% more climate pollution.
As AI in the transportation sector becomes more advanced, the effect may escalate. The convenience of an autonomous vehicle may increase people’s travel and in a worst-case scenario, double the amount of energy used for transport.
In retail, AI-powered advertising and search functions, personalised recommendations or virtual personal assistants may encourage overconsumption rather than sustainable shopping.
Rebound effects can also transpire through time use and across sectors. Research predicts that AI could take over 40% of our time spent doing domestic chores within the next ten years. That idle time is now available for other activities which may be more energy-intensive, such as additional travel.
How AI is affecting climate action
At a larger scale, AI will also have systemic impacts that threaten climate action. We are aware of AI’s risks of exacerbating misinformation, bias and discrimination, and inequalities. These risks will have knock-on effects on our ability to take action on climate change. Erosion of people’s trust, agency and political engagement may undermine their desire to cut emissions and adapt to climate change.
As we grapple with the potential risks of AI, we have to broaden our understanding of how it will affect our behaviour and our environment. Scientists have called for more work to improve and standardise accounting methodologies for reporting the carbon emissions of AI models. Others have proposed best-practice solutions to reduce energy and carbon emissions from machine learning.
These efforts tackling the direct carbon footprint of AI infrastructure are important, but not enough. When considering the true environmental impacts of AI, its indirect impact on everyday life should not be ignored.
As the technology becomes ever more embedded in our lives, its developers need to think more about human behaviour and how to avoid unintended consequences of AI-driven efficiency savings. Eventually, they’ll have to somehow embed that into the design of AI itself, so that a world in which humans rely on AI isn’t a world which uses extra energy unnecessarily.
Felippa Amanta, PhD Candidate, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
25.1.24
G.P.Thomson
AI definitely has its uses. I find it useful to sometimes incorporate it into my art. I think of it as a pseudo ekphrasis. Offering inspiration in a serendipitous form. It's also useful for writing stuff. As those who've read this blog on previous occasions will know I'm not really an accomplished writer. I struggle to get across what I want to say. But I want to say stuff, and sometimes I'm put off from saying it because the words just don't come. That's where AI comes in. You can get AI to form the skeleton and perhaps some flesh. After which one's own personal input can be added and edited. I think it's going to be invaluable. It's going to help with all sorts of technical things in our daily. We just have to make sure we understand that it is just software.
I have decided anything created in this way will be credited to G.P.Thomson. A name I have made up. I would also add that AI was not used in the writing of this post but it was for the picture.
18.1.24
Can art save the world from environmental catastrophe? | Tate
What role can art play in tackling the climate emergency? In this film, we take a look at artworks by L.S. Lowry, Simryn Gill, Abbas Akhavan, Otobong Nkanga and Nicolás García Uriburu, to explore how these artists raise issues connected to the environment and inspire us to take action. Research supported by Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational in partnership with Hyundai Motor Subscribe for weekly films: http://goo.gl/X1ZnEl
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14.1.24
"The Ancient of Days"
"The Ancient of Days" is a striking and enigmatic artwork created by the visionary English artist and poet William Blake. Crafted as a frontispiece for his prophetic book "Europe, a Prophecy" in 1794, the image showcases Blake's unique blend of artistic skill and spiritual insight.
The central figure in "The Ancient of Days" is Urizen, a complex character in Blake's mythology representing reason and law. Urizen is depicted as a bearded, god-like figure measuring out the universe with a large compass. This powerful image captures the tension between creative imagination and the constraints of rationality, a recurring theme in Blake's work.
The title "The Ancient of Days" itself is derived from the Book of Daniel in the Bible, referring to God as the ultimate authority and creator. Blake's interpretation, however, challenges conventional religious notions. Instead of portraying a benevolent deity, he presents a deity involved in the act of creation, bridging the divine and the earthly.
The use of symbolism is paramount in this artwork. The compass held by Urizen signifies not only measurement and control but also the act of creation itself. The circle formed by the compass represents the universe and implies a harmonious order imposed by the divine figure. Simultaneously, the fiery colour palette and the dynamic lines convey a sense of energy and movement, challenging the static nature often associated with divine beings.
Blake's artistic technique in "The Ancient of Days" is noteworthy. The bold, expressive lines and the meticulous detailing in Urizen's figure evoke a sense of grandeur and authority. The background, a swirling vortex of fiery energy, adds a cosmic dimension to the composition, reinforcing the idea of a divine force shaping the universe.
Beyond its visual appeal, the artwork serves as a visual representation of Blake's philosophical and spiritual beliefs. Blake was a proponent of mysticism and believed in the power of imagination to transcend the limitations of rational thought. "The Ancient of Days" reflects his conviction that the creative spirit, represented by the fiery energy in the background, is a fundamental force shaping reality.
In the broader context of Blake's body of work, "The Ancient of Days" stands as a testament to his revolutionary approach to art and spirituality. It challenges traditional religious iconography by presenting a deity actively engaged in the act of creation, emphasising the dynamic relationship between the divine and the human imagination.
In conclusion, "The Ancient of Days" is a masterpiece that encapsulates William Blake's visionary spirit, artistic brilliance, and philosophical depth. Its vibrant symbolism and bold imagery continue to captivate viewers, inviting contemplation on the nature of creation, divine authority, and the boundless possibilities of the human imagination.
G.P.Thomson
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Sargent's Diva Portrait | Tate
After watching Ellen Terry play the role of Lady Macbeth in 1888, artist John Singer Sargent knew he had to paint her. But his dramatic port...
