Sunday 23 November 2008



13 months ago: A 25ft (7m) replica of 'Anubis', the ancient jackal-headed god of the dead in Egyptian mythology, is carried by boat up the River Thames in central London, 01 October 2007, to publicise an exhibition entitled 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs' which opens in London in November
whatever we want will be done! x

Thursday 20 November 2008

late nights

we should make a really sick massive flag to fly from the back. 

just some funding based shit i'll talk about tomorrow but the links are here for future use etc;
  • bit early to sell out but fuck it - Art & Business ; info about getting businesses to sponser you/give you money/exploit you, i think they might facilitate stuff like this aswell, worth looking into.
  • The Gulbenkien Foundation - These look really promising, the blurb on another site says
"The Arts Programme is for professional arts organisations or individual professional artists working in partnerships or groups. Its purpose is to support the development of new artmaking in any artform. It excludes activities which are linked to mainstream education. Under its Arts in Public Spaces scheme, grants are available for early research and development activities leading to particularly imaginative and unusual projects devised for urban or rural landscapes, the built environment and the countryside, and to be led by artists, curators or arts organisations.
As a guide, grants rarely exceed £15,000."
  • This Public Art site has got some other good funding leads, some that ain't got websites of their own, i found this on there:
    Dulux Community Projects
    ICI Paints, sponsor of the scheme, provides help to recognised voluntary groups who wish to carry out painting projects for the benefit of the community. Free supplies of paint are awarded for use in connection with worthwhile community projects.

purely gutting, definitely could've rinsed that for the mural!

  • also i watched this videozine Hold Fast recently about the Anarchist Yacht Club, they bought a shitty boat for $1000, did it up and sailed to the Bahamas each winter for 2 years. pretty nuts and vaguely relevant. there is some boat-building info on the website aswell but not really relevant. 
word, see youse at the mural.

FUNDS AND STUFF

THIS IS THE WEBSITE OF THE NSPCC FUNDRAISING IDEAS---

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/getinvolved/raisemoney/guidetofundraising/a_zoffundraising_wdf33538.pdf

HAVE ALSO GOT AN EXAMPLE OF A PRESS RELEASE AND LOTS OF INFORMATION ON PUBLIC AWARENESS ETC. PLUS LOTS OF NAMES AND ADRESSES OF POSSIBLE PLACES WE CAN TRY AND GET OUR IDEA IN..........will bring them to the meeting tomorow.

http://www.sandowncarnival.com/pages/generic/float_top.php
just what eliza emailed a while ago but thought it should go on here.. xx

just read the text...ha
but floating stuff, lit up.
we could do something huge and floating but not be permanently attached to it? like something like this that we can all go out with then detach (cant remember how to spell) from it? or just float next to it?
...we dont have to be the 'thing' we can just go alongside it..i will explain next time if this doesnt make sense!!
also itll be lighter that way and less likely to sink..and if it does sink, its fine because we arent on it! woo

eliza's 'what we will probably look like'..haaaa
i found this:
got some technical bits on it and workload etc..its alot more than we're doing but still..a bit more info!
xx

IMAGINE WITH A SEA SHANTY

R.A.F.T.S

TEAM BUIILDING RAFTS - PROTO TYPES:

http://www.adventure21.co.uk/index.php?p=204

TEAM BUILDING RAFTS IN ACTION:




MIGHT BE HELPFUL:

http://www.banburycanoe.org.uk/Weird%20boats.htm


WHAT WE WILL PROBABLY LOOK LIKE:





Wednesday 19 November 2008

Things to consider...

1. “ We live in a spectacular society, that is, our whole life is surrounded by an immense accumulation of spectacles. Things that were once directly lived are now lived by proxy. Once an experience is taken out of the real world it becomes a commodity. As a commodity the spectacular is developed to the detriment of the real. It becomes a substitute for experience. ”
—Larry Law,
Images And Everyday Life

2.Taking back experience
eg. the situationist view:
'The Situation: this concept, central to the SI, was defined in the first issue of their journal as "A moment of life concretely and deliberately constructed by the collective organization of a unitary ambiance and a game of events."'

3.ships/boats role history of exploring new lands- ours could be to do with an imagined land- imaginary creatures etc.
- links to the ideas we were having regarding the 2012 exhibition

Loving how cheap the registration shit could be. Pete's a legend.

xx xx

thames boat registration

BOAT REGISTRATION
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/navigation/499814/499910/
as far as i can tell, if you've got an engine, registration depends on how big the boat is BUT;

"Unpowered registration charges
The annual registration charge for an unpowered vessel for 2008 is £27.50.

If the vessel is visiting the Thames then short period registrations are available.

A 31 day registration costs £12.50 and a 1 to 6 day registration cost £6.50.

Unpowered registrations can either be applied for in advance by post using the form below or alternatively registrations can be bought from any lock on the Thames on the day of use."


i.e- if we've got a sail boat or raft or dinghy etc, its cheap as chips.

BOAT LICENSING
http://www.sailingandboating.co.uk/GettingSailingLicence.html
if we were sailing on THE SEA we wouldn't need one, but on the thames you definitely do.

"A Private Pleasure Boat Licence allows a boat to be used for pleasure or personal residential use for standard periods of three, six and twelve months. It does not permit a boat to be used for hiring, carrying goods or passengers for payment or any other commercial function - these activities require a British Waterways Business Licence. This is not only appropriate for businesses but for social clubs, local authorities, charities and time share operators."


+Licenses depend on how big the boat is/how powerful it is, whether its got an engine and how much stuff is onboard (how much tech stuff like fridges and tellys and shit). Unfortunately we need an MOT and insurance, but this could be less faff than it sounds:

"Before being issued with a licence, motorised craft need to pass a stringent MOT-like test called the Boat Safety Scheme, which assesses whether the boat meets the necessary safety standards.
A licensed craft will also need to have at least third party insurance. This is the same as a car needs to drive on public roads, although it is less of a headache on the water as the costs are much lower and so most people opt for the ‘all risks’ cover."
THE GOOD NEWS IS YOU DON'T NEED TO BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY DRIVE A BOAT TO GET A LICENSE. SOLID!

the sultans elephant


unrelated - dont know if people remember this but i guess its an example of creating an event or experience that spreads through word of mouth and is personal to the people who see it.

movement

we could create something that moves as we move with the air and the tides.

how to build a raft.

get base to build up from..

http://www.spicebham.com/gallery/Water/Build%20a%20Raft/index.htm

Tuesday 18 November 2008

dopamine

slightly off the boating scale but still food for thought; here's an advertising campaign by a surf company called insight51... the campaign is called dopamine and i'm not quite sure what the idea behind it is but i find these photos really interesting.



the photographer is dustin humphrey. more photos and info here: http://blog.photoshelter.com/2008/07/riding-a-wave-with-insights-dopamine.html/

River of Death

"The Thames runs through Southern England along a wide low lying valley – its flood plain. Throughout the centuries the Thames has burst its bank, swamping riverside settlements causing death and destruction. Because properties beside the river have always been popular people have often ignored the lessons of the past, and they continue to build on the highly desirable land of the Thames flood plain. High embankments and flood alleviation schemes are all part of man’s constant fight against Nature. The great threat to London comes from the sea. Throughout history high tides and strong winds have pushed the sea up the estuary, flooding low-lying areas. It is recorded that AD 1816 people rowed through the Great Hall of the Palace of Westminster, whose floor was covered in dead and dying fish. As the flood waters receded the Victorians considered that the building of the Embankments would protect against flooding. However, as stated before, this resulted in the narrowing of the river, and increased its depth, thus making it necessary over the years to raise the walls still higher. The Thames is now 3 metres deeper than it was 300 years ago."


- from http://www.riverthames.co.uk/cms/shared/display.php?path=3274#liquid

not massively interesting but i enjoyed the bit about the fish.

me again

http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1545&issue=56&s=0
more on Floating Neutrinos and swoon etc (from switchback sea stuff)
not read the whole thing but will do soon xx

i hope you all realise the previous post was a joke


im sure we can somehow get whatever we want to float?

pitch outfits yeah?


same wave length as you all defo

boats for sale cheapest first etc, there are loads to look through:
£66 for this apparently-wheres the catch? don't get it!

love the stuff jord put up

defo up for buying a boat but if not the raft things pete put up look good/fun/slightly dangerous.


£1800, why not>>


gonna keep looking! x

100% luxury

here's a painting of a lovely boat by American painter Liz Brown, complete with neon sails.

and anyone remember rosie and jim?

more from swoon

more to add to pete's post about swoon... before doing her swimming cities project (summer 2008) she did another very similar project called The Miss Rockaway Armada (summer 2007), which was more focused on a collective of people building/living and performing together, where as swimming cities was apparently more focused artistic expression. anyway, nothing especially new but just some more handmade boats to admire...


photos: http://www.flickr.com/groups/missrockaway/pool/tags/forsite/show/
website: http://www.missrockaway.org/wordpress/project-info/ - check the 'raft' page for info on how they built some of the boats.

and news section of the site contains an installation they did in Eindhoven (netherlands) which looks amazing (http://www.missrockaway.org/wordpress/):




they've also been invited to do other installations after these river boating projects - interesting to note how interiors are built and given the same attention as the outside of the boats. these pictures are from an installation currently at the massasuchetts museum of contemporary art which runs till march 2009 (more info here http://massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=370):



"Why are we doing this?
For a bunch of reasons. For the adventure. For the impossibility. But for more than this. We grew up in small towns. We remember the bookmobile and the punk rock band that seeded little pieces of something else. And now, even though we moved to big cities and found people like us, we still live in a country that fights wars so it can consume more. We are taking the urge to flee and heading for the center. We want to meet people who aren’t like us. We want to meet ourselves at age 16. We want to be a living, kicking model of an entirely different world — one that in this case happens to float. Plus we suspect that there is something wildish about seeing the stars night after night from the grand old Mississipi. Yeah sure, the Colorado is prettier, and the Rio Grande is its own divide, but the Mississippi has always been the main artery of this country. We want to start where the blood flows straight from the heart."

- lets not forget we need a reason for what we're doing.

pete boat feedback

hello- the yellow one is lush!!!! we could so fundraise enough to buy that shit- actually being serious. i don't think we should dismiss buying one at all.

Also that picture at the bottom- the raft type thing looks good.

xxx

Monday 17 November 2008

boat shit

been on gumtree and found this;


obvs i'm not saying we should buy any of these, but just a general idea of prices etc. i don't know if a sail boat is going to be more or less expensive seeing as it hasnt got an engine. but i dont reckon there are that many little sail boats on the thames.

alternatively, if we're gonna do it all not on the main central stretch of the thames, we could look into rafts a bit more.
this website has got some pretty sick ideas for floatation devices and shit.
or we could make a bunch of these. the plans are on this site

or something more like this;



thumbs

up

Sunday 16 November 2008

this shit...

...looks good

Thursday 13 November 2008

new look

it was looking a bit dusty so thought i'd give it a clean.



hope ya like it kiddos.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea

this is what i tried to find the other day at school but couldn't, it's this thing Swoon organised this year and its fucking SICK. 

Can't post any photo's here cos they're all tech websites. Check it out though, absolutely nuts.

"Swimming cities of Switchback Sea is a flotilla of seven intricately hand crafted vessels that will navigate the stretch of the Hudson River between Troy and the New York harbor this August 15th - September 7th. Imagined as a hybrid between boats and bits of land mass broken off and headed out to sea, the Switchback vessels will make stops in towns along the river bringing performances and music. Over the course of three weeks they will make their way toward their home port - an invented landscape tucked into a niche along the East River in Long Island City, Queens."