Good Lord,
Bless our hallowed son Ruela for he has outshone himself and gathered a host of angels to our everchanging group. I confess to having run out of 'steam' after five years of 'editing' discharge but the blessed Portuguese has arrived like the second coming of Christ.
Welcome to all those who have recently joined and who have contributed with such a magnificent array of art.
Auraborus, A.Decker, jbkrost, Josep Fábrega Agea, schmideg, Iryna Harpy and Stickleback2 (who created the logo that adorns the discharge blog site).
My boots are filled and my cup runneth over.
Bring on Ragnarok.
CJ
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Monday, June 07, 2010
June 2010
Unwilling to let this courageous adventure die out and feeling a little guilty also, I find myself writing yet another diary entry for the discharge team.
I have begun "The Science of Meat Hooks". The art theft book that will feature the works of all the discharge team both current and those now left. Ruela has already contributed his piece (in fact two pieces of art) and now I am here a begging for more.
I should point out at this stage that I no longer have the ability to edit stuff on D6 but then again neither does anyone apart from Ruela and therefore I am not certain of whose E-mails I have and rather than blanket E-mail everyone thought it better to put my thoughts here.
"The Science of Meat Hooks" will be written by me and will feature a multitude of discharge artists but will then be designed by Dave Vigor (Stickleback2). It will be as far leftfield as he and I can make it. As Dave and I are both working bloody hard on our London Walks project the discharge book will not be started for at least a year. This fact should not prevent anyone from submitting their artwork to me now.
D6 is in good hands with Ruela in charge and I am only sorry that I have such little time to contribute. I wish it wasn't so but it is looking good.
I have begun "The Science of Meat Hooks". The art theft book that will feature the works of all the discharge team both current and those now left. Ruela has already contributed his piece (in fact two pieces of art) and now I am here a begging for more.
I should point out at this stage that I no longer have the ability to edit stuff on D6 but then again neither does anyone apart from Ruela and therefore I am not certain of whose E-mails I have and rather than blanket E-mail everyone thought it better to put my thoughts here.
"The Science of Meat Hooks" will be written by me and will feature a multitude of discharge artists but will then be designed by Dave Vigor (Stickleback2). It will be as far leftfield as he and I can make it. As Dave and I are both working bloody hard on our London Walks project the discharge book will not be started for at least a year. This fact should not prevent anyone from submitting their artwork to me now.
D6 is in good hands with Ruela in charge and I am only sorry that I have such little time to contribute. I wish it wasn't so but it is looking good.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
May 2010
God bless Ruela who has kindly designed and set up D6.
It has fired up the small but tight collection of artists who have produced some fine work.
We still need to to do as Aaron suggested though. Repeating the same formula will only only end up with us all bored silly.
I am writing the 'art theft' story now and I think aaron will, when time permits, produce a CD of discharge music.
I have to confess that I do little here now and for that i am sorry. Perhaps it is time for Ruela to take the reigns as 'editor.' of Reverse Metal. If he doesn't want to, which I would understand, then, unless someone else wants to, I wll be closing this site down as of June 2010. No more Reverse Metal.
It has fired up the small but tight collection of artists who have produced some fine work.
We still need to to do as Aaron suggested though. Repeating the same formula will only only end up with us all bored silly.
I am writing the 'art theft' story now and I think aaron will, when time permits, produce a CD of discharge music.
I have to confess that I do little here now and for that i am sorry. Perhaps it is time for Ruela to take the reigns as 'editor.' of Reverse Metal. If he doesn't want to, which I would understand, then, unless someone else wants to, I wll be closing this site down as of June 2010. No more Reverse Metal.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
April 2010
As I type so Ruela is preparing the way for D6.
The sixth incarnation of the discharge series is about to begin and let us hope it takes us to areas we have never visited before. It needs to be different to previous discharge sites; it needs to be adventurous; it needs to be bold but not timid.
Let all of us make it shimmer with the magic we have come to expect of this place.
The sixth incarnation of the discharge series is about to begin and let us hope it takes us to areas we have never visited before. It needs to be different to previous discharge sites; it needs to be adventurous; it needs to be bold but not timid.
Let all of us make it shimmer with the magic we have come to expect of this place.
Monday, March 01, 2010
March 1st 2010
We said we would let the current version of discharge run for a while longer, maybe as long as eighteen months. We are nearing that point in time now so the question is this: do we change to D6 in June or do we plough on?
I am trying to get more artists onto the site but with little success. I think we need to introduce some new blood; new blood with an international flavour. If anyone knows of anyone then invite them on.
Again there has been some great art posted but again it is, apart from Cloudboy's sudden re-appearance, the same old core team. This bugs me as I really cannot see the point of belonging to discharge if you never contribute.
Monday, February 01, 2010
February 1st 2010 - Hell Bent for Glory
Oh, the sheer joy of it all.
Doriandra into stellerdrive. Ruela into overdrive.
The blog has been busy, so busy that I feel like a fat bee jigging around amongst the honey.
Aaron is on the case when it comes to a music chapbbok but needs all our support so, if you can, make a noise, a drum beat, a power chord, farting into an empty tin of beans, ANYTHING then save it for posterity before sending it onto Aaron.
Tictac is working herself up into a frenzy of editing in preparation for her discharge chapbook and I, my little cherubs, have writen the first part for the discharge 'art theft' book/chapbook so beware!
Great to see such a wealth of ingenious art here in so many forms.
May the farce be with you!
Doriandra into stellerdrive. Ruela into overdrive.
The blog has been busy, so busy that I feel like a fat bee jigging around amongst the honey.
Aaron is on the case when it comes to a music chapbbok but needs all our support so, if you can, make a noise, a drum beat, a power chord, farting into an empty tin of beans, ANYTHING then save it for posterity before sending it onto Aaron.
Tictac is working herself up into a frenzy of editing in preparation for her discharge chapbook and I, my little cherubs, have writen the first part for the discharge 'art theft' book/chapbook so beware!
Great to see such a wealth of ingenious art here in so many forms.
May the farce be with you!
Friday, January 01, 2010
January 1st 2010 - The future is here.
Well, I had a great Christmas; I hope you all did too?
Happy New Year One and All. Mine was spent partying on the Southbank 'neath the glimmer of the Millenium Wheel. Fireworks blossomed like flowers from the centre of the wheel and a quarter of a million people pogoed in unison. It was simply fantastic!
I hope that you all have a great 2010!
Splendid efforts by Ruela who has created a fantastic looking D6. He has managed, yet again, to capture the essence of what we are all about. The spirit of generosity of heart that has always been evident in our collctive approach to art.
Art for and from barrow boys and girls.
I have my own ideas about what direction D6 should take but whatever way it goes I am sure it will be fantastic.
I also have to say how much I have enjoyed Observatory's posts. Very different, very welcome.
Mention has been made by one or two discharge family members that they feel they don't contribute often enough; nonsense, we all contribute as often and as much as we can while all of us working at different speeds. The only thing that gets my goat is those that join but NEVER post.
Anyway, I hope you all have a brilliant New Year and have fun with your lives.
Love,
CJ
Happy New Year One and All. Mine was spent partying on the Southbank 'neath the glimmer of the Millenium Wheel. Fireworks blossomed like flowers from the centre of the wheel and a quarter of a million people pogoed in unison. It was simply fantastic!
I hope that you all have a great 2010!
Splendid efforts by Ruela who has created a fantastic looking D6. He has managed, yet again, to capture the essence of what we are all about. The spirit of generosity of heart that has always been evident in our collctive approach to art.
Art for and from barrow boys and girls.
I have my own ideas about what direction D6 should take but whatever way it goes I am sure it will be fantastic.
I also have to say how much I have enjoyed Observatory's posts. Very different, very welcome.
Mention has been made by one or two discharge family members that they feel they don't contribute often enough; nonsense, we all contribute as often and as much as we can while all of us working at different speeds. The only thing that gets my goat is those that join but NEVER post.
Anyway, I hope you all have a brilliant New Year and have fun with your lives.
Love,
CJ
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
December 2009 - Brewing up a storm
Hell's bells!
That poetry chapbook was good, I feel really proud of it and all the work contained in it was of such a good standard. I thought that by having Doriandra's little quotes as exclamation marks with attitude worked well, it gave the book a pulse, a backbone where the other poems could hang from.
Fantastic stuff!
With all the ideas that are now bubbling away, this in turn has a positive affect on me as it acts as a prompt to me. My idea is this. Either a chapbbok or a fully fledged short novel that has as its plot an art theft. The narrative and plot could be writen by me with images and text supplied by invited team members. The style of the book would have to be as though it were a police file, an ongoing investigation of an art house theft where all the artworks have been stolen. This would mean having the images and text you guys supplied presented as though they were photographic reproductions that have been paperclipped into the police folder. There could be marginal text, again by me, that sets the narrative rolling.
I think it is a good idea but let me know what you all think.
Another welcome is due and this time to Neil who has really stomped his style onto the discharge map. A great start with some fine images and words.
Ruela, Aaron, Jaan and Tictac have all stepped up to the breach in terms of future chapbooks with Murmurists still wanting to produce a DVD version. Obviously we have to keep the ideas pumping and maintain our ever evolving beast of internet art.
Again praise must be heaped on Ruela as he and he alone has put in some huge effort into getting the discharge brand onto so many formats.
Keep those ideas coming in - discharge rules the roost!
PS. Have a great Christmas one and all!
xxx
That poetry chapbook was good, I feel really proud of it and all the work contained in it was of such a good standard. I thought that by having Doriandra's little quotes as exclamation marks with attitude worked well, it gave the book a pulse, a backbone where the other poems could hang from.
Fantastic stuff!
With all the ideas that are now bubbling away, this in turn has a positive affect on me as it acts as a prompt to me. My idea is this. Either a chapbbok or a fully fledged short novel that has as its plot an art theft. The narrative and plot could be writen by me with images and text supplied by invited team members. The style of the book would have to be as though it were a police file, an ongoing investigation of an art house theft where all the artworks have been stolen. This would mean having the images and text you guys supplied presented as though they were photographic reproductions that have been paperclipped into the police folder. There could be marginal text, again by me, that sets the narrative rolling.
I think it is a good idea but let me know what you all think.
Another welcome is due and this time to Neil who has really stomped his style onto the discharge map. A great start with some fine images and words.
Ruela, Aaron, Jaan and Tictac have all stepped up to the breach in terms of future chapbooks with Murmurists still wanting to produce a DVD version. Obviously we have to keep the ideas pumping and maintain our ever evolving beast of internet art.
Again praise must be heaped on Ruela as he and he alone has put in some huge effort into getting the discharge brand onto so many formats.
Keep those ideas coming in - discharge rules the roost!
PS. Have a great Christmas one and all!
xxx
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
November 2009 - Second Thoughts and Another Odd Dream
I wrote about an odd dream I had that involved the members of discharge, the dark angels as I call them, on one of my Wilful Walks. It was weird but no weirder than this latest one.
We are all gathered at an awards ceremony (not sure which one or where it is being held). For some strange reason we are all seated at seperate tables along with a bunch of famous people, most of them probably deceased, when suddenly an annoucement is made.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not often that such a diverse set of artists create such an incredible piece of art but the blog site of the Dark Angels is as contemporary and as innovative as they come; please put your hands together for the collective that is known as discharge."
At this point every light in the place goes out casting us all into pitch black darkness. A low grumble of music crawls up from a subteranean bass, the sound of Massive Attacks 'Angel' rumbles deep into my gut. A single spot light springs into life highlighting me in a silver glow. I am wearing what appears to be a Victorian frocked coated suit - I look quite the cove. Then another light blicks into life and standing tall in her feathered top hat is Doriandra looking for all the world like Oberon's queen. Then Ruela is highlighted, his mohican is dyed a violent green and he stands head and shoulders above everyone, a titan of a man, tattoed and imperial like an indian brave. Then comes Murmurists looking like a Neil Young hippy with tatterd jeans and T-shirt declaring his love of Henry Cow. One by one the discharge team get to their feet and all before the singing begins then, as a single thread of people we all ascend the stage.
I have no idea what happens next as Cookie, my sons Border Collie leapt onto my testicles reforming them into a more attractive shape and I awoke with pain and a start.
I hasten to add that this is only the second time I have dreamt of the discharge collective as it is more normal for me to be dreaming of P.J. Harvey scantily dressed but that is another story for another time.
There has been some terrific art posted of late and some equaly good words; keep it up and if any of you want to invite friends, family or passing rodents onto discharge then please feel free as we still need some fresh blood. (As Dracula once said!)
Sunday, November 01, 2009
November 2009 - In The Wake of Doctor Anthony Donovan the Murmurist Amongst Us
Anthony has left his role as ubbermensch, supreme overseer of this site, leading light and facilitator.
His part here was enormous, not that I am saying he has a huge part for I have never been that close to find out but his role, not just here on Reverse Metal, but on all of the discharge series, has been vital to its growth and to its construction.
Still, he lasted for a year keeping us informed and a splendid job he did too.
Now then, it is back to me to wriggle my tentacles and tickle your tender parts. Hmmmm, now there is a thought. Would the divine Doriandra want an English man to get even remotely near her tender parts? I think not and Junior has too fine a breeding to allow such stuff and the gorgeous Tictac far too sophisticated. But enough of my putrid thoughts. At fast approaching fifty six, I need to grow up don't I? (Never fear I refuse to).
Discharge has, as Anthony often said, gone with an ebb and flow, a series of huge inputs followed by an equal amount of slow. The thing that is hardest to do is to 're-create' not only the discharge series periodically but also ourselves. I have been so busy producing my Wilful Walks, my novels and other bits of chapbooks that I confess I have taken my eye off this place. Never my heart though. I love discharge and my co-contributors with or without tickling any of their parts!
Here are the things I think we need to do.
1. Get new blood onto discharge ASAP.
2. Do regular, quarterley chapbooks.
3. Think about what direction the next discharge should take.
4. Get naked and go mental.
5. Possibly ignore point four.
The central team here are fantastic and the only reasons, if I am to be honest for changing to D6, is that it not only gives fresh impetuous but also it enables us to part company with whoever it is that no longer wishes to be a part of this fabulous series. I am not suggesting a 'hiring and firing' process but one that gently allows those who no longer want to partake to not accept the invite.
Ideas are what we are so then lets have some ideas from us all as to what to do next.
Pass me that fig leaf Aaron, I think I may go nude.
PS. WELCOME TO DOLOROSA, RAPPEL AND R. ENJOY DISCHARGE AND BE A DARK ANGEL
Friday, October 09, 2009
October 2009
Hello all,
It's getting to be something of a habit for me to open these monthly editorials with something along the lines of ... I've been too busy to properly get to grips with Discharge this month! Well, once again, I've been pretty absent, I'm sorry to say. I may have had my first ever month without posting anything, in fact. Lots has happened here domestically; and it's been a bit of a month; with family illness - now somewhat resolved. All of that has meant that I've been a poor blogger, and that, in essence, I've nothing of substance to say here once again!
Except ...
At bottom, these days, I really am too busy to offer Reverse Metal the commitment it needs - not just writing something each month, you understand, more being involved enough to make that writing meaningful. So, I've decided that I can no longer continue to wing it with Reverse Metal, as you all deserve more. So, this will have to be my final patch-up-job! Sorry... Mostly, I think I should have made the decision three months ago.
Plus, even given my repeated appeals for film material for a third chapbook, too few people have come forward: two, in fact, with one tentative. So, similarly, I've made the decision to abandon the idea - at least for now. I just cannot chase people up for material. Apologies to Ruela for that; as he did send a fine piece of work; ant to Jaan, who expressed firm interest in working with me for the project. I hope to realise a DVD chapbook of Discharge material in the future, when the verve and interest is there.
I'm sure whoever takes over will give Reverse Metal the substance it needs; and I hope, with one less thing to worry about, I might actually find more time to contribute to Discharge itself.
Love and best wishes,
Anthony
It's getting to be something of a habit for me to open these monthly editorials with something along the lines of ... I've been too busy to properly get to grips with Discharge this month! Well, once again, I've been pretty absent, I'm sorry to say. I may have had my first ever month without posting anything, in fact. Lots has happened here domestically; and it's been a bit of a month; with family illness - now somewhat resolved. All of that has meant that I've been a poor blogger, and that, in essence, I've nothing of substance to say here once again!
Except ...
At bottom, these days, I really am too busy to offer Reverse Metal the commitment it needs - not just writing something each month, you understand, more being involved enough to make that writing meaningful. So, I've decided that I can no longer continue to wing it with Reverse Metal, as you all deserve more. So, this will have to be my final patch-up-job! Sorry... Mostly, I think I should have made the decision three months ago.
Plus, even given my repeated appeals for film material for a third chapbook, too few people have come forward: two, in fact, with one tentative. So, similarly, I've made the decision to abandon the idea - at least for now. I just cannot chase people up for material. Apologies to Ruela for that; as he did send a fine piece of work; ant to Jaan, who expressed firm interest in working with me for the project. I hope to realise a DVD chapbook of Discharge material in the future, when the verve and interest is there.
I'm sure whoever takes over will give Reverse Metal the substance it needs; and I hope, with one less thing to worry about, I might actually find more time to contribute to Discharge itself.
Love and best wishes,
Anthony
Friday, September 11, 2009
September 2009
Hello everyone,
Back from my trip - after a wonderful time. I'm not up-to-speed at all on what's been happening in Discharge land. I do know Doriandra has completed the second chapbook - and it looks fine and wonderful. Big thanks to her.
Once again, and more pressing now, I'm seeking contributions for a third chapbook - a proposed DVD. So please contact me expressing your interest. Thanks to Ruela for his contribution. But there's been little interest beyond that, as I've said. If I don't receive anything else, the film idea is untenable, of course. I'm thinking in terms of a deadline of the end of October. So get your material in or register your firm intention to do so as soon as possible, please!
Best wishes,
Anthony
Back from my trip - after a wonderful time. I'm not up-to-speed at all on what's been happening in Discharge land. I do know Doriandra has completed the second chapbook - and it looks fine and wonderful. Big thanks to her.
Once again, and more pressing now, I'm seeking contributions for a third chapbook - a proposed DVD. So please contact me expressing your interest. Thanks to Ruela for his contribution. But there's been little interest beyond that, as I've said. If I don't receive anything else, the film idea is untenable, of course. I'm thinking in terms of a deadline of the end of October. So get your material in or register your firm intention to do so as soon as possible, please!
Best wishes,
Anthony
Monday, August 17, 2009
August 2009
Dear all,
I've been pretty ill; so no editorial this month, sorry. Getting better now, though; so no worries.
Please send in your films for the third chapbook. Had little response - just Ruela so far. If there is no interest in film, we can re-think.
Best wishes,
Anthony
I've been pretty ill; so no editorial this month, sorry. Getting better now, though; so no worries.
Please send in your films for the third chapbook. Had little response - just Ruela so far. If there is no interest in film, we can re-think.
Best wishes,
Anthony
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
August 2009 In Anthony's absence
As Anthony is currently touring the globe with his little ensemble and fending off hordes of groupies no doubt, I thought that I would step into the breach as it were and wave my wand at you all. Well, not wave my wand exactly as that sounds perverse but you know what I mean? Add some commentary, a few well chosen words to gee up the troops!
I hope that you all are well and enjoying your summers? Us Brit's were told we would be getting a 'barbecue summer' this year which proves that we at least understand irony as it is pouring down here, still must not whinge.
I note that we have been seeing some exceptional art of late and from all manner of creative folk: Ruela never ceases to amaze me and I think he is really the engine room of discharge now but I also have noticed some equally good stuff from Dodo who joined a short while back.
I haven't seen or heard from the ever gorgeous, ever talented Doriandra so I have no idea how the next chapbook is progressing. I guess we will all find out as soon as she posts/E-mails it to us. Whilst on the subject of chapbooks, please remember to send your short films to Anthony as his next chapbook (the one after Doriandra's) will be a DVD thingy featuring a host of short films. I would have thought that Aaron and Ruela and Undress wotsit will produce some stunning work for this, and of course Jason.
Anyway, you don't see much of me any more but I am still lurking about like a bad smell so take care one and all and keep this site the best it is and ever has been.
Thanks for all your input!
CJ (hung like a hampster)
Thursday, July 02, 2009
July 2009
Dear all,
D5 site-meter tells me 8,928 visitors since December 2008. That's respectable enough, I'd say. Discharge-the-blog - though as vibrant and weird as ever - is by now, however, shifting towards the status of some kind of central 'platform'; from which all manner of extramural activities are being launched. It's an unusual week when I don't receive an emailed pdf-format CJ-involved chapbook creation. And, I'm assuming, Doriandra is busying herself with assembling our twisted modern sickness into a second 'official' Discharge chapbook. Oh good. Can't wait, I have to say. And then, for my sins, it's my turn. Don't be shy, contact me and send your films for the third DVD-based Discharge chapbook. It's not too early and eventually it will be too late.
Best wishes,
Anthony
D5 site-meter tells me 8,928 visitors since December 2008. That's respectable enough, I'd say. Discharge-the-blog - though as vibrant and weird as ever - is by now, however, shifting towards the status of some kind of central 'platform'; from which all manner of extramural activities are being launched. It's an unusual week when I don't receive an emailed pdf-format CJ-involved chapbook creation. And, I'm assuming, Doriandra is busying herself with assembling our twisted modern sickness into a second 'official' Discharge chapbook. Oh good. Can't wait, I have to say. And then, for my sins, it's my turn. Don't be shy, contact me and send your films for the third DVD-based Discharge chapbook. It's not too early and eventually it will be too late.
Best wishes,
Anthony
Monday, June 01, 2009
June 2009
Hello all,
I've greatly enjoyed Discharge this month. Lots of strong, dazzling work going within the blog itself. Elsewhere, CJ seems to have gone into chapbook overdrive - all good, all in-keeping with the tone of Discharge. Thanks to Aaron for taking this material and connecting it to the myspace. I say it each month, perhaps, but this all represents a substantive body of work.
Chapbook 2 is in the wind; edited by Doriandra. Here's what she said on the matter. Take heed, please...
I've greatly enjoyed Discharge this month. Lots of strong, dazzling work going within the blog itself. Elsewhere, CJ seems to have gone into chapbook overdrive - all good, all in-keeping with the tone of Discharge. Thanks to Aaron for taking this material and connecting it to the myspace. I say it each month, perhaps, but this all represents a substantive body of work.
Chapbook 2 is in the wind; edited by Doriandra. Here's what she said on the matter. Take heed, please...
Dear Blogger Family, on the heels of 'Be Serpentine Thy Hyde', comes the vacant space which nature abhors and must be filled with the D5 Chapbook II. As i wear the humble hat of editor for this round, please accept my request for submissions at this time. Thematic issues have been the source of quite some pondering but may i suggest to plant this little worm in your mind as you fire up those brilliantly jagged minds.. Aretaeus of Cappadocia, living during the 2nd century A.D., realized and wrote about the often disastrous duality of spirit that exists between the common man, hence being cited in modern psychological parlance, as the first to identify bipolar disease. But ignore that. What is more endearing is his belief in a physical, tangible soul that violently navigated around in the human body, bursting forth evident in angry men with red enflamed faces and then withdrawing timidly in great panics that rendered the human face pale and anxious. It's this manic duality that i wish to explore- that nagging little voice that inspires you to do reckless and brilliant things, and then the other whisper that sends you scurrying back inside in anxious haste. Or not. Send what you wish...it will all take form in a gloriously disturbing fashion. I will be on the road through the middle of August, peddling my textile wares with the freak circus and thereby making the proverbial day job earnings but will be armed with a laptop and various hotel rooms. expected date for Chapbook 2 would therefore be at the end of August.
There you have it.
Best wishes,
Anthony
Best wishes,
Anthony
Sunday, May 03, 2009
May 2009
Dear all,
Wonderful extensions to our cyber offerings lately...PDF files filling in-boxes. For my own chapbook, I'm going to produce a DVD of Discharge films. It's early days for the detail-hungry - as it is Doriandra's turn to chapbook us next; but I can say these will be so-called short-films, and need not be made exclusively for the project. As such, I don't envisage a constricting theme of any kind.
Lazare, I'd like you to design the physical artwork, please, if you are interested - using material from those weird DVD stills you make. Let me know - cheers.
Anyone who is interested in having their work included, please let me know here, and we can discuss via email.
Best wishes,
Anthony
Wonderful extensions to our cyber offerings lately...PDF files filling in-boxes. For my own chapbook, I'm going to produce a DVD of Discharge films. It's early days for the detail-hungry - as it is Doriandra's turn to chapbook us next; but I can say these will be so-called short-films, and need not be made exclusively for the project. As such, I don't envisage a constricting theme of any kind.
Lazare, I'd like you to design the physical artwork, please, if you are interested - using material from those weird DVD stills you make. Let me know - cheers.
Anyone who is interested in having their work included, please let me know here, and we can discuss via email.
Best wishes,
Anthony
Friday, April 03, 2009
April 2009
Dear all,
Things have been bouncing here of late. Lots of variety; and, I'm personally glad to say, seemingly more visible interaction, in terms of comments. Happily, Discharge often appears utterly strange, utterly alien to me - as I log on and glance through. Those few moments, perhaps less than a second - the feeling of disorientation, of a kind of shock of the new - testify to the strength and ceaseless re/invention here. One's eyes are endlessly renewed - and that is so because of a genuine group application to the production of difference. We have never met anywhere and worked out some unified plan. But, despite the fantastic variety of Discharge, there is a terse and beautiful unity of purpose here. Really, I cannot remember a time when I wasn't part of this blog series; and, equally, I cannot envisage either being without it myself or it fading away into the ether.
Recently, many of our number - myself included - got invited to contribute to the equally fascinating 'the title we just forgot', by Jaan Patterson. Now, I am a huge fan of Jaan's many and endlessly-mutating outlets, and of the man himself. He makes lovely individual works - and there is a real recognisable voice there. I'm sure he would blush at my praise, but, Jaan, I love what you do; and, again, I cannot properly recall a time when I did not know your work. You send me off-kilter, and I thank you for the way your vision reboots my overly logical brain, unhinging me in ways which are often productive for me. Your new blog is, like Discharge, part of my life, every day I get to be on-line - and surely these blogs are cousins, with shared personnel.
How rich and amazing this environment is, eh guys?
With love and best wishes,
Anthony
Things have been bouncing here of late. Lots of variety; and, I'm personally glad to say, seemingly more visible interaction, in terms of comments. Happily, Discharge often appears utterly strange, utterly alien to me - as I log on and glance through. Those few moments, perhaps less than a second - the feeling of disorientation, of a kind of shock of the new - testify to the strength and ceaseless re/invention here. One's eyes are endlessly renewed - and that is so because of a genuine group application to the production of difference. We have never met anywhere and worked out some unified plan. But, despite the fantastic variety of Discharge, there is a terse and beautiful unity of purpose here. Really, I cannot remember a time when I wasn't part of this blog series; and, equally, I cannot envisage either being without it myself or it fading away into the ether.
Recently, many of our number - myself included - got invited to contribute to the equally fascinating 'the title we just forgot', by Jaan Patterson. Now, I am a huge fan of Jaan's many and endlessly-mutating outlets, and of the man himself. He makes lovely individual works - and there is a real recognisable voice there. I'm sure he would blush at my praise, but, Jaan, I love what you do; and, again, I cannot properly recall a time when I did not know your work. You send me off-kilter, and I thank you for the way your vision reboots my overly logical brain, unhinging me in ways which are often productive for me. Your new blog is, like Discharge, part of my life, every day I get to be on-line - and surely these blogs are cousins, with shared personnel.
How rich and amazing this environment is, eh guys?
With love and best wishes,
Anthony
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
March 2009
My friends,
For sure, we are now meaningfully multi-media; of that there is no doubt. Discharge 5 is all-singing, all-dancing; and I personally thank those magicians of html for making each visit here a thought-provoking and kinetic affair. I was utterly charmed recently when some horror-punk din of my own erupted through the speakers - seemingly part-unfamiliar at first; but, spooling down, I saw some nasty little flick I'd made to spite the world of common-sense, flitting about inside its youtube rectangle. I did nothing to make that appear on Dischange; so thanks to whom ever did. On another occasion, it was the goodly Kek in film. Now, last visit, it is Jase. All of this is fantastic, in my view. In and around these grand audio grumbles and flashing lights, so many new voices - using words and still images so well. Discharge is unstoppable. So, do not stop.
Best wishes,
Anthony
For sure, we are now meaningfully multi-media; of that there is no doubt. Discharge 5 is all-singing, all-dancing; and I personally thank those magicians of html for making each visit here a thought-provoking and kinetic affair. I was utterly charmed recently when some horror-punk din of my own erupted through the speakers - seemingly part-unfamiliar at first; but, spooling down, I saw some nasty little flick I'd made to spite the world of common-sense, flitting about inside its youtube rectangle. I did nothing to make that appear on Dischange; so thanks to whom ever did. On another occasion, it was the goodly Kek in film. Now, last visit, it is Jase. All of this is fantastic, in my view. In and around these grand audio grumbles and flashing lights, so many new voices - using words and still images so well. Discharge is unstoppable. So, do not stop.
Best wishes,
Anthony
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Feb 2009
Dear all,
Very little to say this month - as everything is obviously going so well. Thanks due to Aaron for great work posting blogger material to the Discharge myspace.
Below is an interview I conducted with CJ - as part of us being included in the book, Avant-Garde For the New Millennium, edited by Forrest Armstrong.
Enjoy.
Anthony
___________
Hello CJ. I greatly admire the work you’ve done as a catalyst – in bringing together lots of great artists for the Discharge series you started. I think the effort you made – in terms of inviting the right contributors, keeping things moving, and such like – has had a profound effect on those people; and the community you helped create has made some fine work. But you are also an active contributor yourself. As such, I wonder, what are your personal motivations – principally as a writer, and also as a sometime image-maker?
Hello M, may I call you M? Makes you sound a bit like a bond character doesn’t it? Thank you for the praise. Catalyst indeed! I am very proud of Discharge and all the work being done there. It does have some fantastic and highly creative people on it. My personal motivations? I guess, the truth be told, I admire and am a little enamoured with you and all the like minded people there; in fact all creative people amaze me. I genuinely believe that there are two principles that differentiate us primates from the rest of the animal kingdom. 1. Our innate sense of spirituality and 2. Our natural creativity. I do not hold myself in a very high esteem when it comes to much of what is seen on Discharge, I am certainly not in the same league as Ruela or John or even your good self. I suppose I admire you all to such a degree that I want to work with you just to be a part of that process of which I find fascinating. Less a Malcolm MacClaren and more an awed observer. Don’t get me wrong here, I think my writing is as good as anyone’s but it is very different to what is currently the modus operandi that is seen on D5. If we are to distinguish what I do on Discharge as a separate output to my Fekenham Swarberry Tales then my motivations for that are purely selfish: I love it. I love the characters, the parallel universe it exists in and I love writing it. It is great fun for me and I am determined that it will be published and hopefully, one day, might even be seen as a Studio Ghibli type animation. I also would like to be able to write as a career.
Good luck with that, of course; and I’ll address the issue of getting work published in a moment. First, though, can you tell me is art-making a compulsive activity for you or do you see it as a form of recreation?
Simply something that I have always done and have to do. It sounds glib perhaps but creating, in what ever format, is a part of me. I do it as I am driving or doing the house hold chores. I am sure it is the same for all of us. The danger with that is knowing when to switch off. I am not certain that I do. I did try some while back to discipline myself. I took a week off work to write on a series of story’s that I have in my head. I would rise at 7AM each day. Have breakfast and do the sort of things one does before going to work. Then I ‘clocked’ on. I sat at my PC and wrote from 9AM until noon, took a break for some lunch, returned to work at about 12.30 and worked through until 5PM. I very much enjoyed the discipline of that and also the work ethic. I am, much like Mark. E. Smith, a firm believer in the work ethic.
I agree with your sentiments about hard work, yes. What do you hope to get across to the audience with your work?
Oh, several things and all at once too! Fun, outrage, energy, exasperation, joy, fear of aging, fear of authority, anger. (Anger is an energy after all), the absurdity of life and a total lack of understanding for any kind of po-faced seriousness. I don’t take myself very seriously and I do not take much in life very seriously either. Irreverence I guess.
What do you think your work is for?
Me. (Is that vain?)
Well, in some sense that need not be vanity, in my view. But if you are not seeking to bring meaning to the actual activity of art-making by, let’s call it, audience validation, then how do you yourself ascertain its value?
Oh lord, I have no idea! Highly important to me in what I need to do but value? No idea.
What for you would be the ideal response to your type of work?
Again, this will run the risk of making me seem self centred or self absorbed but so long as people are relatively polite I am not overly concerned by their response. I have no wish to offend, although I think society too easily gets offended by all the wrong things, but responses are often just based on taste and taste is a very personal thing.
Given that, do you think in terms of a definite audience? Do you have a mental image of your audience? Or are you unconcerned with such things; preferring, instead, to put the work out there on a like it or lump it basis?
When writing the Fekenham Tales I have a very focused view of who I am writing for and I think can judge that audience and its reactions well; when writing or creating images for Discharge it is very much a case of lump it or like it.
We already touched upon general aspects of how art-making and writing feature in your life. But I’m interested in how you precisely compose your pieces. Do you, for instance, write into a notebook and transfer ideas, passages etc. onto the screen, or do you create by typing directly into the computer?
Ideas float in at the most inappropriate of times and so I tend to use what ever is to hand at the time. Often a notebook which I transfer to my PC later. As is I said earlier, ideally, I would sit from morning to night writing and all on the ‘hoof’ but still there would be notes and references to call on. With my images, I normally take a photo (or steal one) and then ‘mutate it’ by various methods. I want it be as spontaneous and intuitive as possible. I try to have as little intellectual input as possible so that whatever comes out as the finished article is free of thought as can be.
So process is important to you. Over and above that, though, what are your abiding conceptual concerns?
Individuality. (Does it exist as we believe in the way we believe?) Isolationism. Absurdity. Nationalism. Tribalism.
What is the subject most occupying you currently?
Ha Ha, I could be brutally honest and say my finances but let us not go there!
You use a fair amount of self-portraiture in your images. Can you say more about this, about its function, and why you use your own image in your work.
I find that there is something odd about me, a bit of renegade narcissism. Not that I am really that vain but as one gets older odd things happen. Lines appear, hair begins to retreat. The perceived beauty that was goes and good bloody job too. I like growing old. I like the art of growing old be it gracefully or disgracefully but without the need for cosmetic surgery. My own face, and yours and anyone else fascinates me. The way various photos can project an image but often that image is false. Doriandra does it best and I have merely tried to emulate her. I have plans to do some really bizarre and brutally honest (but absurd) shots of my self naked. This may seem odd but hey ho! Self portraits are the sort of fun thing one does when as a teenager you shove your head into the old passport photo booth and gurn. That is pretty much it. Daft as a bag of frogs me!
Well, whatever one does could be seen as a form of portraiture, in my view. But let’s leave that issue hanging in the air! I look forward to your naked pictures, of course! You’ve previously stated that you see blogging as essentially ephemeral – which I took to mean something fleeting but not valueless. Could you say more about what you mean by this remark.
Art for me is the everday; that is not a dismissive remark as art is very, very important to me but art should not be placed on some bloody pedestal for all and sundry to worship at. Creativity is a human condition. We are all creative but by degrees. The great artists had more of a commercial appeal perhaps but they are no more creative than you or I. Again this is not to dismiss Gauguin or Dali or any other perceived great artist. The people who really make ‘great art’ are business people who decide what will sell. One of my daughters has learning difficulties. Her creativity would not sell but who is to say it is not art? Blogging, by its very nature, has a rapid turnaround time. Posts are put up at machine rapidity. This is good. This reflects modern life. Pow, pow, pow. It doesn’t degenerate the art created there and in fact sets itself up as a new form of art and not just bogger but also myspace and facebook too, although I have some serious issues with the later two in regards of censorship. Blogging is not valueless but can only ever be a fleeting vessel, the post that is, as the audience does not have time to spend great amounts of time reading or engaging with the images before another one pops up. I find that fascinating. But it is art and it has value.
Whilst I agree there is an inherent temporal and linear element to posting on, say, blogger, given that the material - though gone, in time, from the front page, as it were, is still there, available to be seen, for years, curiously I think it is also very permanent. What I personally like about blogger, and this links to the point I just made, is that, unlike display in a formal gallery, reciprocity is intrinsically invited – via the comments system. In terms of blogging, what do you personally think the function of comments is? Do you believe commenting is merely a way of indicating that one has read or viewed a posting? Or do you think commenting should have a constructive, critical edge?
I think the comments section has many qualities. Yes, you can use it purely for leaving your mark, which I am convinced that many bloggers do as an attempt to engage with you and to encourage you to reciprocate. That for me is just EGO. An attempt to collect names on your blog in the way an entomologist collects butterflies. That is not for me. Yes, one can leave some form of critique, and I often do but I also see the comment section as being a part of the ‘art of blogging’. Rather an intuitive response and not cerebral but somehow the post and the comment feature as a single piece; or at least they can – certainly with much of what you do and occasionally myself.
I tend to agree: I, too, see comments are part of the piece. Back to our earlier discussion of publishing … I know that recently you have turned your attention to producing a chapbook and to attempts to get your writing published in the traditional sense. Do you see cyber as a lesser activity than realising your work in print, as an object and so forth?
Producing Fekenham as a book is my primary target. The original blog was merely a way to ‘test the water’ so for that genre I see cyberspace as being a supportive tool and nothing more. However, the very essence of modern art MUST encompass the internet. It is where some of the most creative people are. There is some incredible stuff being created out there which is largely being seen only by like minded or interested parties and not by the dreaded established body. I would love to see, as we have discussed before, some authority to recognise that art is the ordinary and ordinary people are creating art and their choice of exposure is the internet and not the gallery. Not that I am anti art galleries, I am not but there is more to art than the established eye sees.
Who and what are your influences?
Blimey, how much time do you have? Kate Bush, Anthony Buckeridge, Robert Rauschenberg, Yoko Ono, Don Vliet, Frank Zappa, Bjork, Robert Wyatt, P.G.Wodehouse, Dave Sim, Los Bros Hernadez, Withnail and I, Comic books, Anime, Alan Moore, Ivor Cutler, Peggy Mount, Syd James, John Lydon, Viv Stanshall, Peggy Ashcroft,
and ZILLIONS of others.
What are your future plans as an artist/writer?
To get The Village Tales of Fekenham Swarberry published. To get a series of animated films of said books made. To promote that wonderful internet art site Discharge until all the folks on it are established art figures. And then, after tea…
Good for you, CJ. Sounds like a plan. Thanks for chatting.
Best wishes,
Anthony Donovan
(January 2009)
Very little to say this month - as everything is obviously going so well. Thanks due to Aaron for great work posting blogger material to the Discharge myspace.
Below is an interview I conducted with CJ - as part of us being included in the book, Avant-Garde For the New Millennium, edited by Forrest Armstrong.
Enjoy.
Anthony
___________
Murmurists interviews Cocaine Jesus
Hello CJ. I greatly admire the work you’ve done as a catalyst – in bringing together lots of great artists for the Discharge series you started. I think the effort you made – in terms of inviting the right contributors, keeping things moving, and such like – has had a profound effect on those people; and the community you helped create has made some fine work. But you are also an active contributor yourself. As such, I wonder, what are your personal motivations – principally as a writer, and also as a sometime image-maker?
Hello M, may I call you M? Makes you sound a bit like a bond character doesn’t it? Thank you for the praise. Catalyst indeed! I am very proud of Discharge and all the work being done there. It does have some fantastic and highly creative people on it. My personal motivations? I guess, the truth be told, I admire and am a little enamoured with you and all the like minded people there; in fact all creative people amaze me. I genuinely believe that there are two principles that differentiate us primates from the rest of the animal kingdom. 1. Our innate sense of spirituality and 2. Our natural creativity. I do not hold myself in a very high esteem when it comes to much of what is seen on Discharge, I am certainly not in the same league as Ruela or John or even your good self. I suppose I admire you all to such a degree that I want to work with you just to be a part of that process of which I find fascinating. Less a Malcolm MacClaren and more an awed observer. Don’t get me wrong here, I think my writing is as good as anyone’s but it is very different to what is currently the modus operandi that is seen on D5. If we are to distinguish what I do on Discharge as a separate output to my Fekenham Swarberry Tales then my motivations for that are purely selfish: I love it. I love the characters, the parallel universe it exists in and I love writing it. It is great fun for me and I am determined that it will be published and hopefully, one day, might even be seen as a Studio Ghibli type animation. I also would like to be able to write as a career.
Good luck with that, of course; and I’ll address the issue of getting work published in a moment. First, though, can you tell me is art-making a compulsive activity for you or do you see it as a form of recreation?
Simply something that I have always done and have to do. It sounds glib perhaps but creating, in what ever format, is a part of me. I do it as I am driving or doing the house hold chores. I am sure it is the same for all of us. The danger with that is knowing when to switch off. I am not certain that I do. I did try some while back to discipline myself. I took a week off work to write on a series of story’s that I have in my head. I would rise at 7AM each day. Have breakfast and do the sort of things one does before going to work. Then I ‘clocked’ on. I sat at my PC and wrote from 9AM until noon, took a break for some lunch, returned to work at about 12.30 and worked through until 5PM. I very much enjoyed the discipline of that and also the work ethic. I am, much like Mark. E. Smith, a firm believer in the work ethic.
I agree with your sentiments about hard work, yes. What do you hope to get across to the audience with your work?
Oh, several things and all at once too! Fun, outrage, energy, exasperation, joy, fear of aging, fear of authority, anger. (Anger is an energy after all), the absurdity of life and a total lack of understanding for any kind of po-faced seriousness. I don’t take myself very seriously and I do not take much in life very seriously either. Irreverence I guess.
What do you think your work is for?
Me. (Is that vain?)
Well, in some sense that need not be vanity, in my view. But if you are not seeking to bring meaning to the actual activity of art-making by, let’s call it, audience validation, then how do you yourself ascertain its value?
Oh lord, I have no idea! Highly important to me in what I need to do but value? No idea.
What for you would be the ideal response to your type of work?
Again, this will run the risk of making me seem self centred or self absorbed but so long as people are relatively polite I am not overly concerned by their response. I have no wish to offend, although I think society too easily gets offended by all the wrong things, but responses are often just based on taste and taste is a very personal thing.
Given that, do you think in terms of a definite audience? Do you have a mental image of your audience? Or are you unconcerned with such things; preferring, instead, to put the work out there on a like it or lump it basis?
When writing the Fekenham Tales I have a very focused view of who I am writing for and I think can judge that audience and its reactions well; when writing or creating images for Discharge it is very much a case of lump it or like it.
We already touched upon general aspects of how art-making and writing feature in your life. But I’m interested in how you precisely compose your pieces. Do you, for instance, write into a notebook and transfer ideas, passages etc. onto the screen, or do you create by typing directly into the computer?
Ideas float in at the most inappropriate of times and so I tend to use what ever is to hand at the time. Often a notebook which I transfer to my PC later. As is I said earlier, ideally, I would sit from morning to night writing and all on the ‘hoof’ but still there would be notes and references to call on. With my images, I normally take a photo (or steal one) and then ‘mutate it’ by various methods. I want it be as spontaneous and intuitive as possible. I try to have as little intellectual input as possible so that whatever comes out as the finished article is free of thought as can be.
So process is important to you. Over and above that, though, what are your abiding conceptual concerns?
Individuality. (Does it exist as we believe in the way we believe?) Isolationism. Absurdity. Nationalism. Tribalism.
What is the subject most occupying you currently?
Ha Ha, I could be brutally honest and say my finances but let us not go there!
You use a fair amount of self-portraiture in your images. Can you say more about this, about its function, and why you use your own image in your work.
I find that there is something odd about me, a bit of renegade narcissism. Not that I am really that vain but as one gets older odd things happen. Lines appear, hair begins to retreat. The perceived beauty that was goes and good bloody job too. I like growing old. I like the art of growing old be it gracefully or disgracefully but without the need for cosmetic surgery. My own face, and yours and anyone else fascinates me. The way various photos can project an image but often that image is false. Doriandra does it best and I have merely tried to emulate her. I have plans to do some really bizarre and brutally honest (but absurd) shots of my self naked. This may seem odd but hey ho! Self portraits are the sort of fun thing one does when as a teenager you shove your head into the old passport photo booth and gurn. That is pretty much it. Daft as a bag of frogs me!
Well, whatever one does could be seen as a form of portraiture, in my view. But let’s leave that issue hanging in the air! I look forward to your naked pictures, of course! You’ve previously stated that you see blogging as essentially ephemeral – which I took to mean something fleeting but not valueless. Could you say more about what you mean by this remark.
Art for me is the everday; that is not a dismissive remark as art is very, very important to me but art should not be placed on some bloody pedestal for all and sundry to worship at. Creativity is a human condition. We are all creative but by degrees. The great artists had more of a commercial appeal perhaps but they are no more creative than you or I. Again this is not to dismiss Gauguin or Dali or any other perceived great artist. The people who really make ‘great art’ are business people who decide what will sell. One of my daughters has learning difficulties. Her creativity would not sell but who is to say it is not art? Blogging, by its very nature, has a rapid turnaround time. Posts are put up at machine rapidity. This is good. This reflects modern life. Pow, pow, pow. It doesn’t degenerate the art created there and in fact sets itself up as a new form of art and not just bogger but also myspace and facebook too, although I have some serious issues with the later two in regards of censorship. Blogging is not valueless but can only ever be a fleeting vessel, the post that is, as the audience does not have time to spend great amounts of time reading or engaging with the images before another one pops up. I find that fascinating. But it is art and it has value.
Whilst I agree there is an inherent temporal and linear element to posting on, say, blogger, given that the material - though gone, in time, from the front page, as it were, is still there, available to be seen, for years, curiously I think it is also very permanent. What I personally like about blogger, and this links to the point I just made, is that, unlike display in a formal gallery, reciprocity is intrinsically invited – via the comments system. In terms of blogging, what do you personally think the function of comments is? Do you believe commenting is merely a way of indicating that one has read or viewed a posting? Or do you think commenting should have a constructive, critical edge?
I think the comments section has many qualities. Yes, you can use it purely for leaving your mark, which I am convinced that many bloggers do as an attempt to engage with you and to encourage you to reciprocate. That for me is just EGO. An attempt to collect names on your blog in the way an entomologist collects butterflies. That is not for me. Yes, one can leave some form of critique, and I often do but I also see the comment section as being a part of the ‘art of blogging’. Rather an intuitive response and not cerebral but somehow the post and the comment feature as a single piece; or at least they can – certainly with much of what you do and occasionally myself.
I tend to agree: I, too, see comments are part of the piece. Back to our earlier discussion of publishing … I know that recently you have turned your attention to producing a chapbook and to attempts to get your writing published in the traditional sense. Do you see cyber as a lesser activity than realising your work in print, as an object and so forth?
Producing Fekenham as a book is my primary target. The original blog was merely a way to ‘test the water’ so for that genre I see cyberspace as being a supportive tool and nothing more. However, the very essence of modern art MUST encompass the internet. It is where some of the most creative people are. There is some incredible stuff being created out there which is largely being seen only by like minded or interested parties and not by the dreaded established body. I would love to see, as we have discussed before, some authority to recognise that art is the ordinary and ordinary people are creating art and their choice of exposure is the internet and not the gallery. Not that I am anti art galleries, I am not but there is more to art than the established eye sees.
Who and what are your influences?
Blimey, how much time do you have? Kate Bush, Anthony Buckeridge, Robert Rauschenberg, Yoko Ono, Don Vliet, Frank Zappa, Bjork, Robert Wyatt, P.G.Wodehouse, Dave Sim, Los Bros Hernadez, Withnail and I, Comic books, Anime, Alan Moore, Ivor Cutler, Peggy Mount, Syd James, John Lydon, Viv Stanshall, Peggy Ashcroft,
and ZILLIONS of others.
What are your future plans as an artist/writer?
To get The Village Tales of Fekenham Swarberry published. To get a series of animated films of said books made. To promote that wonderful internet art site Discharge until all the folks on it are established art figures. And then, after tea…
Good for you, CJ. Sounds like a plan. Thanks for chatting.
Best wishes,
Anthony Donovan
(January 2009)
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