The Artú
In 2013 I was challeged to concoct a creative enterprise. I just wanted to make paper, but it was pointed out to me that my domestic approach to the medium could not possibly compete with the wider paper making industry.
The outcome was another ‘performative occupation’, which has evolved into an ongoing project that involves making hand-made circular paper as a portable medium to exchange and disperse the revolutionary thoughts of thinkers. Those featured include philosopher Edward deBono, graphic designer Kenya Hara, architect and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and Catholic theologian John O’Donohue.
The outcome was another ‘performative occupation’, which has evolved into an ongoing project that involves making hand-made circular paper as a portable medium to exchange and disperse the revolutionary thoughts of thinkers. Those featured include philosopher Edward deBono, graphic designer Kenya Hara, architect and MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte and Catholic theologian John O’Donohue.
Business Outline
It is my aim to produce circular paper and develop a means of communicating upon it. It is my strong belief that this activity would be of wide benefit to society. May I flatter myself to assert that contemporary society has a keen and probably important interest in communication and could one assume therefore that we have a good notion of its value and relationship to technology, travel, inclusivity, history and manufacturing?
My role as an artist has been (and may continue to be); the creation of documents that record and express the human being, capable of individual thoughts and ideas. I think it is time well spent, as it has been since cave painting or the forming of Venus of Willendorf. Life may not always allow for such freedom afforded to art and its activities. However art can only exist if some part of the community endorses the activity of art making and allow and support its progress.
In May 2013 the Harnessing Creativity project awarded me an investment of £1500 for equipment that would facilitate the development of a concept for a creative business. I attended 10 Creative Lab sessions in Enniskillen and began to develop a means of making the act of circular paper production into a business concept. I used the funds to acquire a circular mobile art space and a circular table. I now have the opportunity to collaborate with Fort Dunree Military Museum who have shown a keen interest and can see the potential benefits of my activities.
My interest is focused in the activity of producing circular paper and developing a means to communicate upon it. To produce paper I require access to a studio that would allow me to process native fibres (reeds, rushes, flax, montbrecia and sisel) to produce pulp. A Hollander Beater (or without access to this a traditional butter churn), hob and sink would also be essential. A modified mould and deckle, tables, boards, couching cloths, clay and a press would be needed to form the paper. For the final stage of paper-making a warm space is required to dry and store the paper ready for use.
To develop a means to communicate upon circular paper will require extensive research and experimentation. For this it would be important to have access to artefacts and information from an external source (in this case Fort Dunree Military Museum). This stage would require a secure and hospitable atelier to conduct the studio based product development.
The second method of discovery will be through travel and dialogues with communities outside of my own. The circular mobile arts space and table would allow for a portable research venue in more pleasant weather conditions. There are evidential benefits to this approach as not only does the quest for improved communication on circular paper progress and the very idea of it is tested and assessed, those communities participating in the quest are called to make time to delight in discovery also, and make time to express their own creative thoughts and ideas.
For this phase I will need transport, research assistance (to include documentation and collation of research) and access to the suggested research settings where a group of participants would engage with such a quest in a meaningful way. Examples of which could be social groups, nursery and school classes, college students, clubs, teams, or other groups of gathered individuals who could be approached to participate in a community consultation event.
Throughout this Product Development phase I will also require guidance/mentoring in business and marketing to address and inform the production of a viable product/service with a defined market that has the potential to reach nationally and internationally. In the next 5 months of this venture I aim to develop this communication product with the support and guidance of my community.
It is my aim to produce circular paper and develop a means of communicating upon it. It is my strong belief that this activity would be of wide benefit to society. May I flatter myself to assert that contemporary society has a keen and probably important interest in communication and could one assume therefore that we have a good notion of its value and relationship to technology, travel, inclusivity, history and manufacturing?
My role as an artist has been (and may continue to be); the creation of documents that record and express the human being, capable of individual thoughts and ideas. I think it is time well spent, as it has been since cave painting or the forming of Venus of Willendorf. Life may not always allow for such freedom afforded to art and its activities. However art can only exist if some part of the community endorses the activity of art making and allow and support its progress.
In May 2013 the Harnessing Creativity project awarded me an investment of £1500 for equipment that would facilitate the development of a concept for a creative business. I attended 10 Creative Lab sessions in Enniskillen and began to develop a means of making the act of circular paper production into a business concept. I used the funds to acquire a circular mobile art space and a circular table. I now have the opportunity to collaborate with Fort Dunree Military Museum who have shown a keen interest and can see the potential benefits of my activities.
My interest is focused in the activity of producing circular paper and developing a means to communicate upon it. To produce paper I require access to a studio that would allow me to process native fibres (reeds, rushes, flax, montbrecia and sisel) to produce pulp. A Hollander Beater (or without access to this a traditional butter churn), hob and sink would also be essential. A modified mould and deckle, tables, boards, couching cloths, clay and a press would be needed to form the paper. For the final stage of paper-making a warm space is required to dry and store the paper ready for use.
To develop a means to communicate upon circular paper will require extensive research and experimentation. For this it would be important to have access to artefacts and information from an external source (in this case Fort Dunree Military Museum). This stage would require a secure and hospitable atelier to conduct the studio based product development.
The second method of discovery will be through travel and dialogues with communities outside of my own. The circular mobile arts space and table would allow for a portable research venue in more pleasant weather conditions. There are evidential benefits to this approach as not only does the quest for improved communication on circular paper progress and the very idea of it is tested and assessed, those communities participating in the quest are called to make time to delight in discovery also, and make time to express their own creative thoughts and ideas.
For this phase I will need transport, research assistance (to include documentation and collation of research) and access to the suggested research settings where a group of participants would engage with such a quest in a meaningful way. Examples of which could be social groups, nursery and school classes, college students, clubs, teams, or other groups of gathered individuals who could be approached to participate in a community consultation event.
Throughout this Product Development phase I will also require guidance/mentoring in business and marketing to address and inform the production of a viable product/service with a defined market that has the potential to reach nationally and internationally. In the next 5 months of this venture I aim to develop this communication product with the support and guidance of my community.
