Drain and Gain

Drain and Gain was a collaboration project with Danish artist and programmer Jacob Tekiela (tekiela.dk) where we continued my investigations into the communication values of illustration. Using an EPOC EEG Headset (Electroencephalography) we recorded the electrical activity in the brain as people were drawing. The nodes on the headset were connecting to a computer, which in turn was connected to a projector - an animated projection then played, and varied depending on the electrical activity in each participants brain.

The project was supported by Arts Council England and was part of two festivals ‘ENLIGHTEN Manchester - Sound and Light Festival’ and ‘SPECTRA 2016 - Aberdeen’s Festival of Light. In Manchester we created an animation and for Aberdeen we used a stained glass window as a canvas.

The Collective Collaborations Project

The Collective Collaborations Project brought together 3 artist led organisations from across the UK (Bury, Blackpool and Aberdeen) in a peer-learning network focused on developing public-realm installations with the platform of two major festivals. The project strengthened contemporary collective practice in the UK by sharing best practice, increasing international opportunities and cementing relationships. The focus was on areas deemed to be physically at the periphery but ambitious in the scale and spaces they are enabling work to happen in. I wrote and led the project were we created the opportunities for the resident artists to develop their skills, pursue professional careers and engage new audiences whilst supported by the Curated Place production and events delivery network.

The Project Timeline...

August 2017 (Curated Place Studios, Salford, England).

The first leg of the project brought together the 9 artists for the first time to discuss the project, their practices and the concepts for the installations that we would be creating at the major light festivals. Over a couple of days of workshops and inter-group activities an approach and direction was decided.

'NOMAD' was the final concept that we created as a group. Taking the idea of a travelling, nomadic artwork that would take parts of the places that we had come from and were going to; an audio visual installation which would be projection focussed, site specific, which would have ever evolving content and involve new collaborators outside of the 9 of us from the the areas we were from. 

October 2017 (Enlighten Festival of Light and Sound, Bury, England).

The Enlighten Bury Festival 2017 homed our first site specific installation. We had all created visuals that would be edited together to create a 5 minute film which would be accompanied by a soundtrack created by our audio artist Fiona Soe-Paing. This is where we collaborated within the group and brought other individuals into the fold to assist on the project (James Condon for animation, Calum McCready for video editing, Mark Jones for audio editing) and also larger groups such as Sara Stroud's collaboration with The MET Express Drama Group and Gina Warburton's work with The Adult Learning Centre. 

November 2017 (Abingdon Studios, Blackpool, England).

In November 2017 we took the project to Abingdon Studios in Blackpool, where we held an artist and project talk at the Grundy Art Gallery and created a new site specific installation in the gallery space of the studio. The visuals and audio was updated with new material taken from the Bury leg and the the new site meant that Stephen C. Nuttall & Lee Crocker would be collaborating on a gallery installation that included images and text of the previous visits to  Bury and Salford. 

February 2018 (Spectra Festival of Light, Aberdeen, Scotland). 

The final leg of the project took us to Aberdeen, Scotland where we created another site specific installation piece for NOMAD,  delivered a collaboration life drawing event and gave artist talks at a conference for Spectra Festival of Light. 

The project was co-funded by Curated Place, Arts Council England and LeftCoast and Supported by Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre, Blackpool & the Fylde College and Aberdeen City Council.