Get Your Hands on Poetry!

Following the well-attended pop-up exhibition in October, as part of the wider UCL Festival of the Arts, on Saturday there is a chance to see some different items from UCL’s collection of little magazines and alternative press publications. Slade Librarian Liz Lawes and Department of Information Studies PhD student Sara Wingate Gray have curated a selection of the concrete poetry, and Sara has also designed some bookmarks and an accompanying website, with support from a professional graphic designer.

From the event web-page:

Did you know that UCL Library holds over 12,000 small press poetry items?

As part of UCL Special Collections, the Poetry Store is a collection especially rich in visual, sound and concrete poetry: these forms of poetry are visually striking and innovative, questioning established forms and attitudes, all of which featured prominently in small press activity from the mid 60s onwards in Europe and America.

Come along to our hands-on exhibition to explore in more detail a specially-curated selection of these rare items, and learn more about their history from Liz Lawes (UCL Library Services), Anne Welsh and Sara Wingate Gray (UCL Department of Information Studies), who will help you explore these items on the day.

The Itinerant Poetry Library will also be opening for part of the afternoon and there is a wide range of other activities, all free, and almost all on a drop-in basis.

Materials at the Centre

Last Friday, Hermione Allsopp and I had the chance to take part in a workshop at the Institute of Making. Entitled Materials at the Centre, it allowed participants opportunities both to discuss the materials available at the research centre (Institute) and also to discuss how materials are at the centre of their own practice.

I have a long-standing research interest in the materials and, indeed, the materiality of the Book, and it was great to engage with other researchers with related interests and to hear about research centred around different materials. In particular, it was lovely to watch and hear Hermione’s reactions to some of the experiences we encountered, and I asked her if I could interview her for a blog article here.

AW: As a sculptor, what sorts of objects attract your attention to become materials for your artwork?

Field of Dreams. Image used with permission.

HA: I mostly use objects that I collect from charity shops, often in conjunction with materials from the built environment (materials from interior space), or materials that relate to the constructs of display -so lights, mirrors, display structures etc. The objects I find to work with are things like ornaments and furniture and lampshades (objects from the interior).  This is related to an interest in objects and how they operate in our homes and lives and the value we place on them. My making is a kind of thinking through objects, but I often select objects for their form or material quality.

AW: We took part in three hands-on sessions. What were your take-home ideas from these (so far)?

HA: I was interested in the 3D printing and how it can be used to make dissolvable structures to implant in the body to aid healing and tissue or bone regrowth. Its interesting to see how relatively new technologies start to create possibilities and developments in different areas.  It also opens up dialogues about different ways of making and what it means today.

AW: Did you find out about any new materials, either in the hands-on sessions, the talks, or just looking at the Materials Library?

HA: Yes, I was very interested in Sugru (a self setting rubber), which was mentioned rather than demonstrated. It is a material that has been designed to mend things, a substance that you can sculpt to replace a broken part or solve a problem by making, it has possibilities.

The talk on plastics and their use in art works was very interesting and relevant. I use expanding filler and foam so it was fascinating to see how these things degrade over time and the problems it causes with displaying works. The demo of polyurethane foam was also very exciting as it’s not something i’ve worked with in that form. It started as a gloopy liquid which was stirred vigorously and like the magic porridge pot of children’s stories it began to grown and foam into a lava like foaming mass that cured hard in minutes.

During our first visit to The Library of Materials we saw someone’s experiment with mylar, which we were told is sometimes called “the shiniest aluminium foil in the world” – it’s a polyester film.  As i am currently working with mirrored surfaces and exploring possibilities for our Pistols and Pollinators project installation this was inspiring – the results will be in our piece.

AW: In his summary comments, Philip Ball touched briefly on the difference that working with our hands makes to our understanding of the things we are making. As someone who works conceptually and through making, do you want to share some of your thoughts on this?

Cornucopia Cloud. Image used with permission

HA:Yes, the idea of thinking through things and thinking through making is very important in my work.  My work really develops through process.  The things I work with often have a kind of logical way they fit together. I work both with these logics and against them. The objects I use become elements for making. For example, in Field of Dreams many of the objects are stacked but in a piece like Cornucopia Cloud the objects are arranged and massed together with expanding filler, producing a form that is also a kind of anti-form.  But in both works the materials somewhat dictate the structures and having hands on contact with with the material is everything.  I also think that taking things apart and exposing materials or un-making and remaking is important. Getting your hands on stuff and making does aid understanding of things and the development of concepts or ideas often comes retrospectively.  When I work, I think I am having a kind of dialogue with objects and materials.

AW: Finally, is there anything else that struck you on Friday that you would like to share here?

HA: Just that it is amazing that there is somewhere you can go and find out about things, materials and their properties. The library is a really valuable resource.  I look forward to going to going to the public open events in the future.

The Benefits of Reading, According to Ms Dutton and Mr de la Mare

Here’s Ellen Dutton‘s latest Stop Motion animation, on the benefits of reading. I thought it would be nice to set this alongside some of the thoughts Walter de la Mare shared in his anthologies for young people. Here’s an extract from Come Hither, a book of poems and prose extracts he published for young people in 1923, which was republished again as recently as 1990:

That is one of the pleasures of reading – you may make any picture out of the words you can and will; and a poem may have as many different meanings as there are different minds. (p. xxv-xxvi).

And these are from the introduction he and Thomas Quayle gave to their Readings of 1927:

That is really what it comes to: there is not really time enough in our short lives, with so much to be done, to waste much of it or our minds on what will not prove of lasting joy and use and service to them. (p. xx).

One simply cannot pay too much attention to what we see around us and in particular to living and beautiful things. And more especially when we are young. If possible, then, when you read about anything in a book, see it as clearly as you can in your own mind; then do your best to find that thing in the world around; then compare it with what the writer has said about it. Make your own discoveries. Explore! (p. xx)

A good book, indeed, is the next best thing in this life to a true friend. It gives all it has to give solely for the asking – and wants nothing in return but just a thankful blessing on the man who wrote it. (p. xxi).

The methods of information literacy for young people may have changed, but the sentiments are very much the same. As de la Mare and Quayle put it, “To be able to read is to be able to explore – as far as we will and can – the World of Books.” (p. xvii). Capital ‘W’, capital ‘B’.