Trackingshot 1. Desert Sessions
TRACKINGSHOT investigates frontier spaces through art practice and cross-disciplinary research. Trackingshot.1 Desert Sessions took place in the California Mojave Desert in April 2017
Over two weeks live artworks were broadcast daily from Joshua Tree, Wonder Valley and its surrounding environs, directly to viewers desktop/mobile device as a transmitted interruption. Associate collaborators Chris Fite- Wassilak, Ellen Mara De Wachter and Jonathan Griffin contributed texts in response to the broadcasts, which form the content of this publication. All artworks and essays are archived and freely available from www.trackingshot.net
Trackingshot artists are Rebecca Birch, Leah Capaldi, George Charman, Adam Knight and Rob Smith, Desert Sessions is the first chapter in our project.
Artichoke House
Introduced by George Charman, Artichoke House looks at the legacy of Edward James in terms of his contribution to Surrealist architecture and questions what influence and relevance his work holds in relation to contemporary sculpture and architecture. This publication also includes drawings and comment by George Charman on his reimagined design of Artichoke House that was subsequently built and exhibited in the gardens of West Dean College.
Artichoke House brings together two specially commissioned essays; The Pavilions of Xilitla: Professor David Stent, visual arts program leader at West Dean College, and, Edward James and the Poetry of Imagination, Sharon-Michi Kusunoki, former archivist of the Edward James Cultural Archive. Also included is, Both In Progress: Artichoke House and a typology of Sculpture, a conversation between Directors of the Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre, Marsha Bradfield and Lucy Tomlins, and, Notes and Sketches, detailing the working relationship between Architect John Warren and Edward James.
Design, editing and publishing by George Charman 2014
Blind Spot
Blind Spot is a site-responsive installation for The Foundry Gallery. Theexhibition presents five variations of space and form determined by the quincunx grid that traverses the gallery ceiling. Each week a new configuration of black and silver chain screens are re-installed, transforming the perspectival reading of the space. The variations are numerous, the variations of these still more so. This book presents 20 possible arrangements of space of The Foundry Gallery.
Design, editing and publishing by George Charman 2015
Tiny Lag
This limited edition publication was produced to accompany the split channel audio work ‘Tiny Lag’ by George Charman & Adam Knight. In the lead up to the exhibition Charman and Knight became interested in the formats of correspondence as a means of organisation, discourse and punctuation between works. Both artists followed YouTube instructional tutorials based upon the children’s puzzle game The Rubik's Snake. The tutorials were often accompanied by users’ nonsensical verbal instructions. Both artists attempted to follow these tutorials exploring the disparity between description and action. The discordant pops, hisses and clicks are direct recordings of the altering Rubik's Snake. The resulting asynchronous stereo soundtrack is played through constructed speakers that distill the modular geometric form of the Rubik's Snake. This publication documents a transcription of one of the four audio soundtrack.
Design, editing and publishing by George Charman & Adan Knight 2014
Wolf Notes
This special issue of Wolf Notes complements two concurrent exhibitions: 'Uncommon Ground: Land Art in Britain 1966-1979' at Southampton City Art Gallery and 'Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson: England and Wales 1969' at the John Hansard Gallery. Together, these two shows combine the largest survey of Land Art in Britain with the first overview of the photographic and sculptural works made by Smithson and Holt during a visit to the UK in 1969. This issue of Wolf Notes brings together further texts by Cooke and Stent, alongside writing from Daniel Barbiero and George Charman. These contributions combine to explore interconnected themes of place, space, displacement and site, extending the range of discourse surrounding these two exhibitions to include composition, field recording, writing and research.
Editor Sarah Hughes