Tools for Schools (4390) Flickr Comments

At school these were my favourite tools. I would always try using this 'trigonometry set' whatever I was doing; maths, woodwork, metal work, art, geography, science and technical drawing. These tools allowed me to play (navigate) while seeming to work. Ostensibly they were bought for the boring work in technical drawing class, but I gradually figured out enjoyable ways to use the compasses, dividers, mapping pen, in the other lessons.

learning, trigonometry, pleasure, projects, object, social, personal, geometry, work, play, nomads, theme,

Framed Garden (4389) Flickr Comments

Beyond the window frame is a greener world, a space, a place, a view we've made.

Our garden is full of plants, each plant grown from a seed or a cutting given or found. We talked about it this morning.

Remembering the hard work in digging the rubble out when we first moved here in the early 90s. Separating the soil from the bricks, metal, and plastic. Digging back into the ground manure we bought and the soil we kept and then planting the trees, bushes and flowers we had brought with us. In many ways the work was enjoyable and fulfilling.

Gardening is doing something that feels worthwhile, sometimes it feels like hard work, sometimes like play, and you can sit back and rest as you watch and talk about the garden growing. Which is what we are doing now as we drink our morning coffee, watching the bee bounce across the different coloured flowers in this moment of peace and tranquility.

Greener View (4388) Flickr Comments

Facing South, breeze brushing leaves, hot coffee, warm bread, cool gruyere cheese, window flowers glowing, Virginia Creeper framing, Silver Birch shimmering. Gradually our constructed view is becoming greener.

Future Past (4328) Flickr Comments

It's Wednesday morning and School of Everything Unplugged at the Royal Festival Hall. A time and space for reflecting on the week past and the week to come. Dougald mentions a book, 'The Way We Live Now', writen in the early nineties by Richard Hoggart. Later I cycle past the Oxfam Bookshop in Marylebone High Street, I turn back and walk in. On the shelf marked Social Sciences between 'Soft City' by Jonathan Raban and 'McLuhan' by Jonathan Miller, I come across The Way We Live Now. I read some words from page 53,
'In a sense .. adult education is quietist, time out - a time, a space, for reflection, the better to find our way, to arrive at things by our own paths, in our own time.'

The Long Revolution (4306) Flickr Comments

I've had a relationship with this book since the 1970s. It's sat on different bookshelves in many places. I rarely read the words inside the covers. I may sometimes read the words of Raymond Williams but more often than not those words come to me via a computer screen. With the advent of the iPad I feel I will be reading even more texts online. The books and bookshelves that surround me have changed their role in my life.

I began this moment in the day deciding to sort through my books and take some down the charity shop. Now I'm looking through these books and thinking about the value of 'The Long Revolution'. This book cost a couple of bob when I bought it. At the time I could have bought a decent egg and chips, a slice of white bread and marg and a cuppa. Quickly the initial economic cost becomes as insignificant as that egg and chips. What I've invested in is something else, something so much more important than an object, the book. The words inside this book resonate through my life. I open the book, with its yellowing edges, it is small, it fits in my hand easily, I imagine I've sometimes carried it in a pocket. The book takes on social and cultural significance the moment I hold it and begin reading.

I leaf through the book. Pencil underlining here and there. In the first chapter, The Creative Mind, I come across some light pencil marks, ' Culture ... the relations between art and learning, and the whole complex of our activities that we call society.' Later 'Mimesis', is written in the margin. Raymond Williams goes on, 'Plato and Aristotle agree on the fact of imitation, but go on to draw different conclusions' ... 'while Plato emphasises the dangers of fiction .. mere appearances, Aristotle develops his concept of imitation as a form of learning'.

I'm drawn back into the book, I fold the corner of page 21 with my fingers, close the book, lift it onto a new position, on the bookshelf above my computer, here I can see the title, 'The Long Revolution' and the authors name, 'Raymond Williams'. I place the book next to Umberto Eco, Roland Barthes, Ivan Illich, John Berger and Victor Burgin. I now have a desire to locate Culture and Society by Raymond Williams and to re-read these books from the 70s. I may be developing a new relationship with this book, it might just be a quick fling. Holding this book, sitting quietly, leafing through the pages, reading words on paper, these actions have captured my imagination. I find it hard to let go and put this book in the charity bag.

I come back to my computer, save an image I've made of the front cover of the book into iPhoto, click Share>Email and write these words into an email and address this to post@tonyhall.posterous.com , I click 'Send' and out into orbit, as another fragment in the online world, it goes.

Everyday Photography (4187) Flickr Comments

Photomovie . Everyday Photography. . 3.46 mins . Photographs
Music . As Long As I Can Hold My Breath . Harold Budd
Shadow. Walk. Hampstead. Election. Cycle. Canal. Kings Place. Meet. Nomads. Stewart, Robert, Clif. Festival Hall. School of Everything. Notes. Bill, Dougald. Brixton. Conversations. Mapping . Memory. Dissolving.

Timed Space (4288) Flickr Comments

Hundreds of people enclosed in buildings are working very hard to make their clocks go round.

Royal Album (4275) Flickr Comments

David (44) and Elizabeth (84) meet at Buckingham Palace.

Glenda Jackson Celebrates (3843) Flickr Comments

Glenda Jackson celebrates her 74th birthday today (9th May) and her Labour win in Hampstead and Kilburn by 42 votes from the Conservatives.

Atmosphere of Evening (3827) Flickr Comments

A chilling wind blows in from the North, clouds darken the sun, cooking steam forms on the cold glass, a break in the sky, sun shines and for a moment transforms the mood of the room.

Post Office Tower (1970) Flickr Comments

The view from the Post Office Tower towards The City and the newly built Barbican was often filled with pollution.

Xy (1973) Flickr Comments

Xy began working on Valentine around the same time as I was offered a job there as a production/sub by Trudy Culross. I stayed there for five years, working with Jackie Robb, Janice Iles, Tony Baldwin and David Cann.

Luxuries Past (3847) Flickr Comments

Traditional Boiled Sweets become a luxury item in Hampstead.

The Camera (3850) Flickr Comments

It's been around 40 years but this is still a good photography book for anyone interested in everyday photography.

In the beginning it says, " Photography is a magic act - a little black box that can trap people and wild animals, strange places and well-loved ones, and bring them all back home."

You can read through the sometimes inspiring text, or just randomly look at wonderful pictures across the ages of photography; Alfred Stieglitz from 1893, Paul Strand from 1915, Margaret Bourke-White from 1937, Harry Callaghan from 1949, Lee Friedlander from 1962.

The book breaks down into sections from 'An Art for Everyman' to 'On Making Better Pictures'. The sections are broken down into themes; 'A Sense of Place', 'Jiggling the Camera on Purpose', 'The First Candid Camera', 'The Morality Lesson', and the personal styles of 10 photographers; and simple advice, 'Use a camera you can handle easily', 'Take pictures - a lot of pictures', 'Don't be afraid to experiment'.

Wynn Bullock, another American photographer, not in this Time-Life book, uses photography as way to explore himself and the world around him. He's uses photography in a philosophical way, 'As long as I can remember, I have been filled with a deep desire to find a means of creatively interacting with the world, of understanding more of what is within and around me. It was not until I was 40, however, that I decided photography was my best way'.

Another Photograph . Tony Hall Photography . London