I never really thought about that I see colours for each letter of the alphabet and numbers, but the last couple of years I've come across syneasthesia in a few different places and that made me think more about it. So I made my coloured alphabet.

What is synaesthesia?

"In its simplest form it is best described as a “union of the senses” whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together" UK Synaesthesia Association explains.

The senses really interests me, and I would love to find out more about why some people have these joint experiences.

Read more about synaestesia here: www.uksynaesthesia.com

Luckily SEIZURE re-opened this July; last time around I found out about it the same day it closed so I didn't manage to go. And I REALLY wanted to see it, when I was a kid I was obsessed with this bright blue copper sulfate crystals and did endless attempts to make big ones. But without success, they never became bigger than a few mm.... So SEIZURE was my paradise (well almost) with a whole house covered in giant crystals. Go and see it, it is open until 3rd January 2010.

There's more info at Artangel here - www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2008/seizure

When I exhibited my project Music of the Spheres in Milan this year for some mysterious reason one of my boxes disappeared. I was devastated as some parts of the project were gone. GONE! So back in London I started to find people that would be able to make new pieces since I didn't have access to a workshop (oh I miss that workshop!), and I found Bela Pasztor, an extraordinary man making the most wonderful pieces in brass. He has had his workshop in Soho for 48 years, and he happily told me his life story when I came to pick up my things. Amazing to see that these kind of places still exists in the centre of London.

Even more mysteriously, the missing box returned after five months, and I got the pieces back in the end. But I'm so glad I found this treasure on the way!

I first came across his work in the fantastic bookshop at 10 Corso Como, Milan, and his photographs have been stuck in my mind ever since. His images are close to both playfulness and madness, and has a dark, ritualistic tone to them.

Have a look at www.rogerballen.com

The news are filled with reports from the election and the following protests in Iran. The results were published on June 13 and the election has provoked Iran's biggest and most violent demonstrations since the 1979 Islamic revolution (Reuters).

I've recently come across a few different things that gives a bit of an insight and background to the state of Iran today, so I thought I'll post it here.

Drottningen och Jag aka The Queen and I is a documentary by Nahid Persson Sarvestani. She is an Iranian exile living in Sweden, as she had to flee Iran in the early 80's. In the film she meets Queen Farah Diba of Iran, the widow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran who was overthrown in 1979. When Nahid was young she fought on the left in the revolution against the Shah, so in making this film she is confronted with her old enemy but in completely different circumstances.

Watch the trailer:

Another Iranian woman who grew up during the Islamic Revolution is Marjane Satrapi, the author of Persepolis. This autobiographical graphic novel illustrates her childhood and youth in an unstable Iran. The fantastic book has also been made into an animated film.

Lastly, in their series of exhibitions about great rulers, the British Museum showed Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran. Shah 'Abbas reigned AD 1587–1629 and the exhibition explored the great importance he had for the country.

See more images here

Read more about Shah 'Abbas: The Remaking of Iran here

Introduction and video from the British Museum

I instantly felt at home at the Stags Head on Orsman Road when I saw the clock on the wall (the white one). The top one is in my kitchen... It's not running on batteries, but on the main power supply through a hole in the wall. Old school! 

At the moment I'm doing some work with YCN at their relatively new studio at 72 Rivington Street, just off Shoreditch High Street. The ground floor is open to the public and has a inspiring lending library as well as an exhibition space where the work of up and coming creatives will be on display. Please come and visit us!

www.ycnonline.com

Take a look at what the place looks like here: www.72rivingtonstreet.com/press/

Follow the work I've been doing for the new award by YCN on the blog 'A is for Awards...' www.ycnonline.com/blog/show/60

As stated on www.tintarts.org:

TINT is pleased to present Passing Through, a group exhibition featuring the work of sixteen emerging artists and collaborators, creating works of art which are interactive, responsive, user aware and audience led.

The progression of Interactive art is not a recent phenomenon, originally explored in the 1960’s; it’s visibility in the art world has often been shrouded, seen as a fad created by artists whose principal concern is in producing works of technical trickery, rather than artworks that pursue an intellectual and referential meaning. However, in society and indeed culture we are forever forging stronger relationships with technology. Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), GPS, iPhones and the Internet are all examples of the daily influences of digital media. This interaction has and is continuing to shape the way we live, how we perceive our environment, the way we communicate with each other, and importantly how we view our relationship with art.

‘Passing Through’ explores the movement of the spectator turned interactor on a personal journey, engaging in direct conversation with the artworks in order to realise and complete the work that would not exist without his/her actions.

“By putting the user into the controls interactive technology could be claimed to have a strong liberating potential, as well, making it an effective means to analyze and deconstruct preexisting ideological formations.” Erkki Huhtamo

Works such as Lottolab Studios Music to our eyes uses the audience’s presence to produce orchestral compositions from colour, contrast and brightness. Other artists create responsive installations from light, sound and kinetics, exploring notions of culture, media and memory. Artists include – Bulbcollective (Owen Bowden, Edward Holland & Suzi Tibbetts), captincaptin, Matthew Curtis, Stuart Dunbar, Jamie Elliott, Ben Faga, Peter Forde, Jon Garlick & Lawrence Abu-Hamdan, Richard Kendrick, Lottolab Studios (Ilias Bergstrom, Beau Lotto & Sam Walker), Parag Mital, Agelos Papadakis & Dave Murray-Rust, Artemis Papageorgiou, Tobias Revell, David Strang, Jamie Thompson.

Private View: Thursday 14th May 6:30 – 9:30
Open: 12 – 6, Tuesday – Sunday
Curated by captincaptin artists Gareth Goodison and Jonathan Hall
James Taylor Gallery, Collent Street (off Wells Street), Hackney, London, E9 6SQ

www.jamestaylorgallery.co.uk

Mental illness and the visual arts in Vienna 1900

This exhibition at the Wellcome Collection takes us back to Vienna when the new ideas of the self and psychiatry flourished. It shows the plans and thoughts around newly constructed institutions and explains the life in these hospitals. It also compares the work of some of the artist that embraced these ideas about the mind, and the competitiveness amongst them of whom created the greatest 'psychological portraits' (unfortunately, the people who commissioned the portraits were not always too happy with this movement, since they were portrayed as mentally ill even if they were not). Egon Schiele (1890-1918) explored this art-form by making self-portrait, an critical examination of his face and body where he pictured himself grimacing, gesticulating, masturbating and shouting. One of his influences was the photograph as a diagnostic tool for the study of mental illness, images showed the supposed signs of mental illness, from enlarged digits to spinal deformity. Images like this was in circulation in Vienna during this period and was marketed as a source-book for artists searching for new iconographies of the body.

Bobby Baker's Diary Drawings: Mental illness and me, 1997-2008

The second show is a diary in form of drawings made by Bobby Baker during her journey to recovery. The diary starts in 1997 when she was told she had a borderline personality disorder, and continues for over 10 years. It is a very moving and personal exhibition where she lets us in to see her deepest fears and tough struggle, but also gives us insight in what helped her through the days. 

Madness & Modernity is on show until 28 June, and Bobby Baker's Diary Drawings until 2 August. Both are free.

For more info click here

www.wellcomecollection.org

He is probably the hottest Italian designer at the moment and his exhibition at the Triennale, Milan's design museum, presents his pieces in a truly Italian way! First one walked into a dark room and one could only see a beautiful theater stage in form of a rose. The light and the music created a magical atmosphere and it was definitely a great moment just to sit down and watch the scenery. Fabio's pieces were placed in the coulisse, so they only revealed themselves once you walked to the side of the stage to look between the walls that constructed the rose. Each section had its own theme, presented with video-clips of old Italian(?) films, mixed with visuals of the projects in their original context. It was very clever and beautiful done and was the exhibition with the strongest visual impact I saw during the week.

(I apologize for the poor image quality, my camera didn't work so had to use my mobile...)

www.novembre.it

www.triennale.it