INVIGILATOR : MALVERN - Paul Conneally and Nikki Pugh

INVIGILATOR : MALVERN was the 6th splacist intervention in the ongoing INVIGILATOR series by artists Paul Conneally and Nikki Pugh. It was commissioned by MECA in 2009 and has informed and continues to inform the practice of Conneally and Pugh, separately and together.

Both artists continue to explore space place and time via what some call psychogeography but they refer to as 'splacist' methodologies.

INVIGILATOR forms part Conneally's overarching Walk To Work series of interventions, works and exhibitions.

"THE GALLERY OF THE STREET IS OPEN" - Paul Conneally
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

INVIGILATOR : DIGBETH

Thinking back to 'Invigilator : DIGBETH' discussions I am struck by oblique and direct references to boredom - the gallery invigilators job being referred to as sometimes boring.

When transposed to an outside space where the invigilator has to stand or sit and simply ‘watch over’ then the space and the action of simply watching over it sets up an interaction that is boring in such a way that it can transcend boredom if we let it… The space becoming bored of the invigilator throws up new facets new resonances between it and the 'watcher over’ the 'invigilator’ A couple of Invigilator:Digbeth participants said that they found the invigilating very zen like - another not at all - the invigilating passed-by with a contrived doing - a counting of and classification of vehicles passing through the invigilated space. Such actions are invoked by the space itself as it is watched over - after all it was only chance that the space invigilated happened to have cars passing through it - this counting this classifying borne out of the possibility of boredom.

“INVITE BOREDOM” - paul conneally 2008

World's First Splacist Training Camp - Birmingham 2011

What Are The Splacists? The World’s First Splacist Training Camp
Conceived and led by splacist Nikki Pugh with Hannah Nicklin at MADE Birmingham November 30th 2011 with Paul Conneally in attendance.

A group of artists and architects make and use the camp as a base to interogate Splacist Manifesto 2.0 planning and then undertaking direct actions on the streets of Birmingham.

Later they meet with others on the rooftop of a multistorey carpark in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter to experience DUST a splacist work by Hannah Nicklin and Nikki Pugh.

splacist (splā sĭst)
A contemporary mode of practice proposed by Paul Conneally. A new set of ideologies defined by Hannah Nicklin and Nikki Pugh. A hop, skip and a jump away from phsychogeography and the works of the situationist international. Think space, place and splice.

'INVIGILATOR : DERBY' PAUL CONNEALLY at Pecha Kucha Coventry

Pecha Kucha Coventry | Vol 8 | Paul Conneally from MINDRIOT PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.

Artist and Cultural Forager, Paul Conneally, talks in Coventry, UK, on his psychogeography / splacist exporation in partnership with artists Nikki Pugh and Kev Ryan 'INIVIGILATOR : DERBY'.

 

Photo: Kev Ryan

Human Bat Walk - Fruit Route - Loughborough University

As the public gathered for artist activist Anne-Marie Culhane’s ecological bat walk artist Paul Conneally initiated a Human Bat Walk utilising splacist artist and ofttime collaborator Nikki Pugh’s bat goggles. People were invited to wear the sonar bat goggles and experience the orchard space as human bats using only echo location. After this they set out to walk the campus in darkness and meet Loughborough University’s real bat population.