SPIKE IT 6 is on location

This image was taken during installation of SPIKE IT 6 in a staff room at Fareham college.
I was setting up the cctv cameras when the first few documents were spiked. Great to see a tutor enjoy spiking his lesson plans!
Updates will appear in the new year on www.spikeit.org.uk

CITY AS A CANVAS

A really fun project. A commission for the Big Draw at John Pounds Centre
for Portsmouth City Council, this a social engagement project, linked digital drawing,and cycling as a live participatory event.
Following pre-planned drawings teams completed three drawings following a list of
instrcutions, and logging with GPS. On completion the data was downloaded and
screened linking with google earth to get the virtual experience, and finally revealing the 'drawing' on a canvas. The 3 drawings completed were
cycle city, Turning Portsmouth on its Head and A Ferry Good Ride.
For more info and to see the routes and drawings see
www.jeanniedriver.com/cityasacanvas

WORK PLAY

What does ‘work’ mean to me?
artwork, artwork, artwork, does the joining of art and work imply a seriousness, a validity, what about artplay, or workplay?
is that amatuer, or lack of validity?
umm.. ‘artwork’ ‘ new work' 'work in progress'-

I recently read, whilst browsing in a book shop that artists should ‘lighten up’ not take themselves seriously, so I’ve been exploring artplay- are my doodles, my tearings, the remants of play of any value?
May be it is, it sounds a lot simpler, to not worry about the function or meaning, the intention, to revert to the authority of the authors voice just becase, to present the artists views & opinions/ emotional states/ expressive marks..... ummm,
Not sure of anyhting... booked a holiday, limited the reading list and locked away the laptop- going for a think-
revisit in September- it may reveal!

ARC REPORT REWORKED

having completed the arc evaluation commission I'm still attempting to understand the word and world of ‘work’ ,
I’ve recently turned to myself to see what evidence I have of activity, how does it manifest itself, how is it measured and quantified?
The image shown is a pile in progress.. shredding will contine.... Then measuring and deleting of emails and digital docs.

9 th June 2008

Blog
week beginning June 9th

Monday morning - pleasure or pain?

The week ahead-
Wednesday CIBAS conference, as one of the Creative Champions I’m involved in the ‘ask the audience’ style session, surveying the scene…so looking forward to some interesting conversations.

Thursday – attending the
Culture and Consequence: The role of ethics in the arts today at King's College London.

AND WORK- paid

arc evaluation
Working on the ‘arc evaluation’ commission. This image is from the first stage spread sheet. This mornings work is to data input the last questionnaires received and then make the charts to be contained in the final work. Its an interesting process, really enjoying it, thanks to all the creative practitioners who have returned questionnaires.

Queen Street windows
I currently have a commission to create artworks for a retail unit windows in Queen Street Portsmouth. Designs are to be submitted this Friday for feedback.

AND MY WORK

It shouldn’t always be the bottom of the list, but with bills to pay….
Lots of food for thought this week, however I will be making time to further my own work, I have the first two weeks in July to focus, and create new works- plenty of things on the boil…. keep you posted

Open Studio weekend 10th-11th May 2008

A hot but busy weekend at Artspace Portsmouth Open Studios event.

After a busy Friday night, doing the yearly hoover and sort out, Saturday saw
lots of visitors. Its always a great time for conversations, talking about the
work and hearing of visitors office experiences, which hopefully I’ll get to
video in July.

Anyway for those who have missed it, a small snippet of an image and some text from
my open Studio newsletter. Do contact me if you would like to be involved in the spike it project, or interviews.

Oh and my image for the auction was snapped up, so good news for Artspace and me!


Newsletter…..

Jeannie Driver

Welcome to studio 21

I have inhabited this studio for over 2 years, and I continue to divide my time between studio 21, a studio at home and various other locations to achieve the varied elements of my practice. (space is always an issue!) I work full time as an artist, making my living through arts projects, commissions, residencies and studio practice.

UPDATE
Last year I received funding from Arts Council SE to develop my practice, specifically the spike it project, which enabled me to concentrate on making work for a whole year!
spike it locates 6ft spike files in offices to act as catalyst and signifier for individual and collective explorations of notions of work, paper, flow and emotion. The process creates stratified sculptures of office activity together with filmed interviews and cctv monitoring of spike.
The process has a direct relevance to the ‘audience’ and site whilst creating a body of work as social commentary of quodation issues.
The intention for this work is to create an ‘installation’ comprising of a ‘forest of spikes’, together with, cctv footage, video of office culture, data collections, risk assessments and filmed interviews with workers from private and public companies and organisations.

EXHIBITIONS during the previous 12 months
• January 2008 Gallery 53 Beauchamp Place, Knightsbridge
• January2008 Artspace exhibition at Lakeside 1000 (business venue)
• December 2007- Millais Gallery, Southampton
• October 2007 launch of www.spikeit.org
• October 2007 Launch of online ATMOSPHERE board
• October 2007 Spike It exhibition at Apsex Gallery

NEWS
• Acquire exhibition, Aspex Gallery. May-July 2008 Baseline Spike (1-1000) will be exhibited.
• Distributed South Residency. June-July 2008 Working in collaboration with fellow Artspace member Mike Blackman to develop CHARM. This project develops the work of STEPDATA.
• ARC commission- Current. Commission to evaluate arc services and presentation of data.
• gasp 1-12h July 2008 a break from ‘work’ to ‘play’ in the Artspace’s gallery.
• CIBAS -Creative Focus Conference. 11th June 2008. One of 12 creative champions contributing to the conference being held in Portsmouth.

OPPORTUNITIES
My work involves peoples, involvement, participation and contribution. I am currently seeking:
• office workers to interview on camera their thoughts on the ideas of ‘work’
• office and home workers to use the online ATMOSPHERE board for one week
• offices to visit photograph and film
• step data participants

SUPPORT
see overleaf for spike it commissions, purchasing limited edition archival prints, ATMOSPHERE boards, commission artwork, consultancy, public speaking & presentations.

Thank you for taking the time to read this news letter.
Further info contact jeannie@jeanniedriver.com

Paper finds

SPIKE IT
Where is is now

The spike it project is going slowly, I still have four more to place, which are now made and ready to go in to a welcoming office. Still I’ve been a little distracted…

All this talk of paper has lead to more research, Whilst hunting around on the internet, I found marketing and print companies promoting green products and services. On the Michael associates sites I found:

The UK is the worlds 5th largest consumer of paper products.
In 2005 the UK consumed 12.5 million tonnes of paper, of which 7.6m were imported


Alex the Business Development Executive at Michael associates has kindly given me a page of links to go through for paper info and stats, so I’ll keep you posted if I find anything more up to date ( without having to pay for it!)

Oh- I did manage to get a snapshot of this, best you visit www.paper.org.uk