stones are classed as ceramic!
cement is classed as ceramic!
concrete is classed as ceramic!

for your information, concrete and cement arnet the same thing apparently (I thought they were). Cement is a mixture of lime, silica and alumina, which sets when mixed with water. Concrete is sand and stones held together by cement.

Stone is also classed as (natural) ceramic. limestone, sandstone, granite (typically used in building foundations and construction) are all natural ceramics!

So thank you Jodie and Ross, for showing me that rock is actually ceramic. I did think it might have been, but its nice to have it confirmed by both people and a very clever engineering book (Engineering Materials 2 by Jones and Ashby).

I was getting worried there for a while.

bear with me these are "thinking" posts, and are probably best ignored.

okay, its all getting very "earthy" around my idea recently, what with archeology musings and great big rocks. It was funny when I look at the picture below (the monolith) I think my god, that looks just like that monolith from that game. (insert own monolith and game, theres plenty out there.. Im personally thinking of the multi-standing stones from alone in the dark).

Its also getting a bit ritualistic too, I was thinking of Presenjits ceramic house idea (or as I like to think of it "earth" house) and would love nothing more that to create my own hole in the ground, line it with clay and then set it to burn like some massive kiln. Perhaps dancing around the smoke at night holiding a burning torch. Sooo "The Comic Strip presents... Summer School". (By the way if anyone but me on this earth watched the comic stip presents episodes and couldnt believe how mind-blowing they were feel free to contact me. ((especially if you have copies of them on tape)))

anyway errr... back to the point, the idea. oohhh maby I could fashion a level out of earth and then clay burn the insides, whilst simultaneously creating a massisve rock monolith (in the shape of the negative space I just burnt) next door, or perhaps miles away perfectly aligned scarily to the stars.

okay okay, too much caffine, not enough sleep. Im gonna stop writing before I say something really stupid, I get far too excited about things like this, Im off to think in private.

Okay, so, no clue where I'm going with this whole negi-space thing.

How the f*ck am I supposed to bring ceramics back into this, Ive been wracking my brains for a while now, and I just cant think of a way. The most Ive got so far is... make whatever out of ceramic. grrr.... I'm not sure I thought my project through clearly enough, When I strayed from ceramics I was like "its okay, ceramics will come back, just keep going" and I was having much fun with the whole unreal negative space stuff that I allowed myself to completely ignore what I was supposed to be doing.

hm. I know theres some way of reincooporating ceramics back into this whole thing, but I just cant think of it.
you must come full circle to find the truth. god-damn stupid line I can never get out of my head.

you can cast shapes using clay slip... using "negi-space"... very relevant...
but what am I supposed to do, whittle an unreal level ouf of plaster then ram some clay in it? pointless. (though there stands my back up idea)

I thought (ignoring ceramics for another minute) that I could try to turn the hidden architecture buildings into like real buildings doing nice visualisations and stuff, but I really rather prefer them as solid big lumps of impenetrable buildings, as thats the point. whats inside them had been destroyed in-order for them to be solid, they should be full of nothing but rock like some big monolith.

No-one ever makes scary looking, great big fuck off pieces of rock anymore.

hmmm....

uurrghh... ill. so very ill. eaten dodgy chicken. not good. feeling a bit better though after last night, Im going back to sleep.

Just before I went to sleep last night I was thinking about my project and I remembered Pompeii. About how the archelogists found pockets of nothingness while they were excavating, and for the first few they didnt know what they were, but then a clever one poured plaster of paris into the holes to get an impression of what had left these pockets and lo and behold if he didnt find people.

Theyre quite disturbing really. The hot volcanic ash pounded these people and with nowhere to go these plaster-casts show the people at the very moment of their deaths.



The "negative" space around their bodies preserved their imprint and helped to kill them at the same time.

Talk about lego taking over your life! Its taken me 2 full days to do my stupid lego car and I think the render is going to take that long too. I'm really interested in the comments about Rachel Whiteread people have been leaving (thanks). Shes done essentially what I was thinking about, taking these 'negative' space casts, creating hidden forms.

I remember in art foundation one of the things we were told to do was to draw the outline of a Mc'Donalds plastic cup with a twig popping out the top of it (bear with me), but we were told to look at the space around the object and draw that instead of the cup itself. Before Rob mentioned Rachael I had a thought about interior spaces, rooms, full of junk and what it would look like to see like a solid version of the room taken from its negative space.

I suppose in a way Rob and I are doing a similar kind of thing, recording a kind of data and representing it in an abstract but understandable way. Anyhoo, loads to think about, Im really liking this project at the mo (despite the fact ceramics have nothing to do with it)

another little piccy, just messing about, i feel like ive almost thought of something good. but not quite. i got some nice stuff on paper too recently.

Went to see Vito Acconci today. I really liked listening to him talk about his work. He went through alot of his work since like the beginning.

With his later work, the more architectury stuff, I liked what he was saying about public and private spaces. I was thinking about multiplayer games where your alone in your own private space (in life) but your interacting in a public space (in pute), a space which itself is split into private groups, like all public space is. He said that ideally (with public space architecture) the space should liberate people. I think its difficult to "act yourself"/"be libeated" in any public space... unless your tricked into thinking your by yourself (or that your familiar private group is by itself)

With his earlier stuff, the conceptual art stuff. I liked how he was talking about taking a neutral space and filling it with person. I also really liked one of his early, more performance art type things. Where he would stand in an old pier from 1 in the morning to 2 and if you went there to see him he would tell you something that he would never usually reveal. Giving the person there in a way a form of "ammunition" against him. Proper bribing material. I definately like works in general that focus on the person, whoever it is. I for one have a billion things that if revealed would destroy me. I enjoy seeing and hearing other peoples secrets, that way I dont feel so bad about myself.

Anyway, liking all these thoughts, he said a lot more stuff but these were the most relevant to me... other than all that stuff about looking at things from the outside, twisting stuff round etc.

Oh yeah I loved his "ground zero" building.

doing well now, getting down to doing stuff.
Had fun at the workshop yesterday, i was reminded of things that are very relevant to me, I was also reminded of Edge the magasine I used to buy religiously. It has an extremely interesting article about and artist who low polygons peoples heads (literally, in life), kinda similar to "claires" photos in six feet under.

Anyway Ill get those names and sites in a bit been messing about in max and unreal, Andy (gracie) had an interesting thought about cubism the other day and im thinking of something, kinda similar, seeing the object from the outside... if you get me, all will become clear once i understand it myself. Heres a little picccy of what ive been thinking about.



kinda like backwards... i am so going to have to learn to explain these things better.