Sarah Cook talks about our desktop documentary Flat Earth in her article called On Access just published as part of the Guggenheim's biennial exhibition of creative video called YouTube Play.

You can read Sarah's article here: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/interact/participate/youtube-play/the-take/moving-images/3793-on-access

You can watch Flat Earth here: http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/flat_earth.html

You can check out YouTube Play here: http://www.youtube.com/play

We have a new artwork called, 'Seventeen Messages' in this lovely book, which is being launched in London next week.  Here's the blurb:

Artwords Press is delighted to announce the publication of Transmission Annual. Hospitality and invites you to the London launch party on Thursday 11th November from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. at Artwords Bookshop, 20–22 Broadway Market, Hackney, London E8 9QJ, UK

Transmission is the act of passing something on, via a channel. One might make a list of ways of transmission, including wisdom, enlightenment, education, messages sent over a distance through electrical or electronic means, and disease (which has both locus and route). In transmission, there is a move from one to another, and each may be changed in the move, in the encounter. Transmission Annual has followed a theme, that of hospitality, and as a theme it has no rules other than those of hospitality (to honour the guest, the stranger and the friend). Transmission Annual draws on broad horizons, wide paths, and diverse fields.

Contributors to the pilot issue:
Graham Allen, Kristen Alvanson, Amanda Beech, Jerome Carroll, Clegg & Guttmann, Kris Cohen, Clare Connors, Nigel Cooke, Michael Corris, Eileen Costa, Juan Cruz, Meritxell Duran, Tim Etchells, Marcia Farquhar, Rachel Garfield, Charlie Gere, Judith Goddard, Laura Heit, Vit Hopley, Nancy Hwang, Alfredo Jaar, Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Ahuvia Kahane, Sharon Kivland, Esther Leslie, Yve Lomax, Juliet Flower MacCannell, Robin Mackay, Marko Mäetamm, Victor Mazin, Penny McCarthy, E. Elias Merhige, Forbes Morlock, Reza Negarestani, Hayley Newman, Dany Nobus, Haralampi G. Oroschakoff, John W.P. Phillip, Cesare Pietroiusti, Jeanne Randolph, Antonio Santos, Javier Santos, Naomi Segal, Roy Sellars, Blake Stimson, Thomson & Craighead, Irene De Vico Fallani, Rodrigo Villas, Nina Wakeford, Sarah Wood

Edited by Michael Corris, Jaspar Joseph-Lester, Sharon Kivland
ISBN: 978-1-906441-24-1
£16.50, £15 at the book launch
Artwords Press
65a Rivington Street
London EC2A 3QQ, United Kingdom

www.artwords.co.uk
www.transmission.uk.com

Keep an eye out for a five minute extract taken from our feature length video work, The Time Machine in alphabetical order. It's going to be playing in the guest curated slots on Resovision hosted by Resonance FM at Frieze Art Fair.

More about Resovision: http://resonancefm.com/tv
Watch Resovision: http://www.livestream.com/resovision
More about The Time Machine in alphabetical order: http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/thetimemachine.html

We've uploaded documentation of new and recent work to our archive website (http://www.thomson-craighead.net) including a video extract of The Time Machine in alphabetical order.  We'll be publishing more images from London Wall later on in the Autumn but in the meantime take a look at the following links when you have a moment.

The Time Machine in alphabetical order:

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/thetimemachine.html

The End: http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/theend.html

London Wall: http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/londonwall.html

Flipped_Clock: http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/flippedclock.html

Charlotte Frost has written a short piece about our summer shows for this month's Artists Newsletter.  Here's the piece below.  You might have to click on the pic to read it properly.  Oh and by the way, our installation in the foyer of Museum of London has been extended into October 2010.

Our solo show currently on in Scotland gets a mention in this great article on the Highland Institute of Contemporary Art (HICA) in this weeks Review section of Scotland on Sunday.  The little feature is written by Moira Jeffrey and gives a bit of useful context on how the space is run and what shows have been on there and what's coming up!  Click on the image below to see it larger, zoomable and legible.

We've joined the artists lottery syndicate, launched last night in London. It's a forty-strong collective of UK based artists who are joining forces to play The National Lottery over the course of a year, with the hope of hitting the jackpot. 

Described by organising artist Ellie Harrison as, 'a reaction to the recession and its knock-on effect on arts funding, the Artists' Lottery Syndicate is a speculative new scheme for acquiring funds for artists. By utilising the element of 'luck', which plays such a central role in an artist's career, the Syndicate aims to explore the prevalent 'winner-takes-all' market of the arts, described by Hans Abbing in his book Why Are Artists Poor?'

Find out more here: http://www.artistslotterysyndicate.co.uk

Both of us are really excited that our solo exhibition opens at the Highland Institute of Contemporary Art this Sunday 20th June at 2pm where we'll be presenting a selection of new and recent works about time and place.  It's not so often that we get a chance to connect a group of works together in this (hopefully multi-layered and site-specific) way and in such an inspiring location set in the middle of a nature reserve in the highlands of Scotland.

Later in the year, HICA will be publishing a book about this and the other three exhibitions at the gallery from 2010 and art historian and theorist Alistair Rider has been commissioned to write about our exhibition.  We will also post documentation on this blog and our website, but if you are in the area between 20th June and 25th July, then do make the time to visit the gallery and enjoy this beautiful area above Dores at the northern tip of Loch Ness.

More about HICA and all their exhibitions here: http://www.h-i-c-a.org/
The works we will be showing in this exhibition are:

The End. 2010
Vinyl lettering on glass

Flipped Clock. 2009
Live digital animation

Horizon. 2009
Digital archival print

Nearby: within five miles. 2010
Four A3 fly-posters

The Time Machine in alphabetical order. 2010
Re-edited DVD (1hr 38m 26s)

Two exhibitions including our work opened last night in London and Oldenberg.  First off was the second leg of the MyWar exhibition now moved from FACT in Liverpool to Oldenberg in Germany at the Edith Russ Media Space.  We are showing, 'A short film about war' as part of this group show as a two screen cinematic gallery installation.

Second up is the exhibition, 'How we became Metadata' curated by Marq Smith, which launched a new foyer space for art at the newly restored and revamped Regent Street building for the University of Westminster in London.  This show includes a complete set of our Google tea-towels framed up and hanging in the cafe gallery space at the side of the main foyer.

More about 'A short film about war':

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/warfilm.html

More about our Google tea-towels:

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/towels.html

More on MyWar exhibition at Edith Russ Site:

http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/index.php/Programm/Programm

More on 'How we became Metadata':

http://instituteformodern.co.uk/2010/8th-june-private-view-how-we-became-metadata

We're talking about our new commission at Museum of London in context with other work and will be screening (we hope)  our very recent work, 'A short film about war' this Saturday in the Museum's lecture theatre.  The event is free.  Here's the blurb and contact the museum itself if you need more info.  Do come along if you can.

Dates: 5 June 2010

Times: 05 Jun 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Venue: Museum of London

Curator Francis Marshall is in conversation with contemporary art duo Thomson & Craighead about their new work 'London Wall' on display from late May in the Museum foyer.

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/londonwall.html

We were interviewed by Robert Elms yesterday live from the Museum of London, where we are currently in the process of making our new installation London Wall.  You can find out more about the work and listen to the five minute interview here:

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/londonwall.html

As part of the relaunch of the Museum of London, we are making a new work for the entrance hall called London Wall.  The work is a physical manifestation of the invisible city all around us; a poetic snapshot of social networking traffic from within a three-mile radius of the museum itself.  Over a ten-day period, publicly available status updates from popular websites like twitter and facebook will be selected then published as a vast array of posters revealing the idle mutterings of ourselves to ourselves as a form of concrete poetry.

The new displays open this Friday; from 28th May 2010, and we will be building the commission over the space of a week ending June 6th, so come along and see us there.  Works by The Singh Twins and Keith Coventry will also be on display.  Some more info here:

28 May -  5 September 2010

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Special/ThomsonAndCraighead.htm

This group exhibition opens at 6pm on Thursday at Image Music Text Gallery in Bethnal Green, London.  Come along!  We'll be showing a new sound work called, 'Ghosts', where visitors are invited to recover a series of telephone calls made in the surrounding area during the late 1990's by listening to the gallery wall with a stethoscope.  The radio scanner that originally captured these calls acts as a kind of cut up device in this instance, as it locks onto, then loses each signal in turn.  Ghosts is a reworking of our 1998 installation, 'Speaking in Tongues' and has been made especially with Burroughs work in mind.


Other artists in the exhibition: Alma/Joe Ambrose, Steve Aylett, Alex Baker & Kit Poulson, Lawrence English, The Human Separation, Riccardo Iacono,Anthony Joseph, Cathy Lane, Eduardo Navas, Negativland, o.blaat, Aki Onda, Jörg Piringer, Plastique Fantastique, Simon Reuben White, Giorgio Sadotti, Scanner, Terre Thaemlitz, Laureana Toledoand Ultra-red, with performances by Ascsoms and Solina Hi-Fi.

28 May - 18 July 2010
Opening 27th May 6 - 9pmhttp://www.imagemusictext.com/

A bit of a list of stuff here taking us into those summer months.  Do please pop along to anything in your vicinity.  The first few items relate to new and recent work, and the rest of the list is 'and in other news..'  You can also hear us interviewed on Resonance FM here: http://www.furtherfield.org/resonancefm.php  Anyway remember, Summer is a state of mind!  OK.. Deep breath. Here's the new work bit:

----------------------
+ LONDON WALL.  Museum of London
As part of the relaunch of the Museum of London, we are making a new work for the entrance hall.  The new displays open from 28th May 2010, and we will be building the commission over the space of a week ending June 6th, so come along and see there.  Works by The Singh Twins and Keith Coventry will also be on display.  Some more info here:

28 May -  5 September 2010
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Special/ThomsonAndCraighead.htm

----------------------
+ THE END. Solo Exhibition, Highland institute of Contemporary Art
This exhibition will include two brand new works, 'The End' and 'The Time Machine in alphabetical order', so if you're holidaying in the highlands this summer and are near Loch Ness, then do pop along because it will be on well into July and H-I-C-A is a great project in only its second year...

20 June - 25 July 2010
Opening: 20 June, 2 - 5 pm
http://www.h-i-c-a.org

----------------------
+ A SHORT FILM ABOUT WAR.  Edith Russ Site, Oldenberg
Our recent installation is moving with the rest of the MyWar touring exhibition to Edith Russ Site in Oldenberg in June.  Other participating artists in MyWar are Phil Collins, JosephDeLappe, Dunne & Raby, Harun Farocki, Harroll Fletcher, Knowbotic Research, Oliver Laric, Renzo Martens, SWAMB, Thomson & Craighead, Milica Tomic, Sarah Vanagt).

You can also read a recent article on, A short film about War in the french newspaper Liberation : 
http://www.liberation.fr/medias/0101621681-la-guerre-en-eclats-tout-net

10 June – 29 August 2010
Opening: 9 June, 8 pm
http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/

----------------------
+ GHOSTS.  IMT Gallery, London
We are showing this reworking of our 1998 installation, 'Speaking in Tongues' as part of Dead Fingers Talk: Experiments of William S. Burroughs.  Other artists; Alma/Joe Ambrose, Steve Aylett, Alex Baker & Kit Poulson, Lawrence English, The Human Separation, Riccardo Iacono,Anthony Joseph, Cathy Lane, Eduardo Navas, Negativland, o.blaat, Aki Onda, Jörg Piringer, Plastique Fantastique, Simon Reuben White, Giorgio Sadotti, Scanner, Terre Thaemlitz, Laureana Toledoand Ultra-red, with performances by Ascsoms and Solina Hi-Fi.

28 May - 18 July 2010
Opening 27th May 6 - 9pm
http://www.imagemusictext.com/


And now, in OTHER NEWS:
----------------------
+ GOOGLE TEA TOWELS. Data Poetics, Google headquarters in Chelsea, New York
Our Google Tea towels will be part of this exhibition launching a new art thread at the Google Offices in New York (that made us smile!).  Other artists in this exhibition are  John F. Simon, Jr., Marek Walczak, Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas, Aaron Koblin, Brad Paley, Lincoln Schatz, Scott Draves, Luke Dubois.

11 June - 1st September 2010
http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/towels.html

----------------------
+ GOOGLE TEA TOWELS. How we became metadata, 309 Regent St, London.
Our Google Tea towels will also be part of this exhibition launching a new art thread coming out of the Institute for Modern Contemporary Culture at University of Westminster.  Other artists; Martin John Callanan, Corby & Baily, Enju Han, Eduardo Kac, Susan pui san lok, Ruth Mclennon & Uriel Orlow.

09 June - 5th September 2010
Opening 8 June 6.30 - 8.30pm
http://instituteformodern.co.uk/2010/8th-june-private-view-how-we-became-metadata

----------------------
+ SEVERAL INTERRUPTIONS, Urban Video Project, Syracuse, New York.
OK, in our last bulletin we said this was on right now!! But it's **not** and has been delayed to June, where a reformatted version of Several Interruptions will be thrown onto the side of a building in downtown Syracuse, New York.

1 June - 20 June 2010
http://www.urbanvideoproject.com/news/id/03_23_10.html

----------------------
+ FLAT EARTH.  Subjective Projections, Bielefelder Kunstverein
This is part of the series of solo presentations curated by Thomas Thiel, director of the Bielefelder Kunstverein.  It has an accompanying text commission and written by Sabine Himmelsbach both of which can be seen simultaneously in the gallery and online at:

7 May – 03 June 2010
http://www.bielefelder-kunstverein.de/ausstellungen/subjektive-projektionen/thomson-craighead.html

----------------------
+ FLAT EARTH.  Stills Gallery, Edinburgh
will also be screening as part of the inaugural Film Lounge program, 'City & Stars' at Stills Gallery in Edinburgh alongside works by Jeanne Liotta, Daren Banks and Karen Russo.

18 Jun 2010 - 18 Jul 2010
Launch event 18th June
http://www.stills.org/exhibition/film-lounge/city-and-stars-programme


----------------------
+ BEACON. We do things differently here. Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh
We are showing the projected version of BEACON for this group exhibition organised by graduating students on the MA Contemporary Art Theory course, Edinburgh College of Art.

5 June - 19 June
Opening: 4th June 6 - 8pm
http://www.eca.ac.uk/theydothingsdifferentlythere/

----------------------
+ THE FRIEND.  Transmission Annual publication.
We have contributed an artwork for this publication as part of a chain of 'friends' starting with an article by Dr Charlie Gere, followed by us and then on to writer, Kris Cohen, artist Laura Heit, and artist/writer Nina Wakeford. Transmission annual will be launched in July 2010: 
http://www.transmission.uk.com

We're being interviewed on Resonance FM this Tuesday evening by Marc Garrett and Charlotte Frost.  As far as we know it's a live program, so that should add a certain unpredictability to proceedings especially as we have no idea what they'll be asking us!  The other guest on the show is Corrado Morgana and if you're not near a radio for the live show then the podcast can be downloaded here later on in the week alongside all the previous broadcasts:

http://www.furtherfield.org/resonancefm.php

Our 2007 desktop documentary, 'Flat Earth' is showing for a month as part of the series of solo presentations called, 'Subjective Projections' curated by Thomas Thiel, director of the Bielefelder Kunstverein.  It has an accompanying text commission and written by Sabine Himmelsbach both of which can be seen simultaneously in the gallery and online at:

http://www.bielefelder-kunstverein.de/ausstellungen/subjektive-projektionen/thomson-craighead.html

This is from February, but we only just saw this article about, 'A Short film about War' from Liberation newspaper in France, and thought we'd flag it up here: http://www.liberation.fr/medias/0101621681-la-guerre-en-eclats-tout-net

This week's Time Out London has a short review on our narrative documentary artwork, 'A Short film about War' which is available online at animate projects and is also showing in MyWar exhibition at FACT Liverpool.

We're speaking at this conference tomorrow and Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle as part of AV Festival, where we will also be screening, 'A short film about War'.  Lots of great speakers and an interesting theme for the day, so should be a good day all round!

This national symposium brings together leading film organisations, filmmakers, artists and archivists to discuss online access to film archives and the creative use of this material in the digital age. Film is a crucial part of our heritage, however, online access to archives is limited especially when compared to other online collections like youtube. This symposium will open up the debate and look at different ways of collecting, archiving and accessing our shared film history.

More here: http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/10/events/recycled-film-symposium

We will be showing 'A Short Film about War' as an installation for the first time alongside works by Phil Collins, Renzo Martens, Milica Tomic, Knowbotic Research, Harun Farocki, Sarah Vanagt, Joseph Delappe, Oliver Laric, Dunne & Raby, Harrell Fletcher and SWAMP.

We're also really excited that Animate Projects have commissioned Lisa LeFeuvre to write a contextual essay about, 'A Short Film about War', which is available on their website to read and download as a diffusion book alongside a streaming version of the work.

+ See a streaming version of, 'A Short Film about War here: http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/2010/short_film_about_war

+ Read Lisa's essay here: http://www.animateprojects.org/writing/essays/l_le_feuvre

+ More information about MyWar exhibition: http://www.fact.co.uk/2010/mywar

Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool
12 March - 30 May, 2010 (& Touring)

Writer and curator Lisa Le Feuvre has written an essay about A short film about War.  This was commissioned by Animate Projects and you can see a streaming version of this narrative documentary artwork alongside Lisa's essay here:

www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/2010/short_film_about_war

Thanks Animate.  Thanks Lisa, and thanks to alt-w and New Media Scotland who helped us develop the 'movie' component of this two screen work, which you can see installed for the first time as a gallery installation in March at FACT, Liverpool as part of MyWar exhibition -a separate post about that will come later.  Final thanks to Steve Rushton who we developed the script with.

Ok here is a more proper blurb on the re-hang at British Council London where our 16:9 version of Decorative Newsfeeds has been installed.

The exhibition is called 'Trust in an Age of Loneliness' and shows works from the British Council Collection selected by Gerard Lemos CMG, Acting Chair.  

It includes works by Paula Rego, Lawrence Gowring, LS Lowry, Ian Hamilton Finlay (work pictured above), Victor Pasmore, Stanley Spencer, Bill Brandt and Augustus John.

More info on Decorative Newsfeeds here

If you're passing by the British Council offices in Spring Gardens (just by Admiralty Arch on Trafalgar Square), then you will be able to see our version of Decorative Newsfeeds for 16:9 screens on display in their foyer.  Visible from the street, and in the public area of the reception area for the next few months at least.  More information can be found on all our versions of Decorative Newsfeeds on our documentation website:

http://www.thomson-craighead.net/docs/decnews.html

In a period of global unrest, FACT in Liverpool (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) presents a timely exhibition. "MyWar" exploring conflict in a digitally networked world through the work of 12 international artists. Their work investigates the realities and myths of war at a time when the boundaries between the public and the private are being steadily eroded. 


For the first time we will be showing our installation, 'A short film about war' in the gallery. For the complete artdaily preview article for this show, please follow:

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=35731

We are showing one of our Horizon prints in this group exhibition curated by Highland Institute of Contemporary Art for PS project space in Amsterdam.

David Bellingham, Richard Couzins, Thomson + Craighead, Alec Finlay, Geoff Lucas, Alexander and Susan Maris, Peter Suchin

Opening: 17 January 14.00 - 17.00 hrs
17 January - 28 February 2010

PS
Leidsekade 60
1016 CX Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 20 6209303
www.psprojectspace.nl

Open: first Sunday of the month 14.00 - 17.00 hrs and by appointment