Notional Express [re_configure]

All Images: M1 (Leicester - London - Leicester), Brent Cross Junction &
Victoria Coach Station, London, December 2025

[Reconfigured Appropriated Texts]

Whether you're a newbie or practically living on our coaches, that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop! Budget-friendly fares mean you can still say ‘yes’ to adventure, beginning at a point which is 97 metres after marker post 49/6, and 4 metres before marker post 49/7, and ending at a point which is 42 metres after marker post 71/5, and 63 metres before marker post 71/6. You WILL be woken up by a biblical set of bright white lights running through the cabin [if you are able to sleep at all with the rattling]. Grief is hard - any words following the terms “including”, “include”, “in particular”, “for example” or any similar expression, shall be construed as illustrative and shall not limit the sense of the words, description, definition, phrase or term preceding those terms. There are amendments to section 64 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act (1984), but none of these is relevant - I don’t need personal rude comments about my appearance.

Got some wiggle room in your schedule? Great! the letter 'M' followed by a number is a reference to the motorway known by that name. Today, it has seen a number of expensive upgrades to help it cope with modern traffic. The letter 'A' followed by a number is a reference to a stupid remark, especially when the passengers do not understand English. Make sure to pack your charging cable, and a good pair of headphones will make the journey fly by. I highly recommend the audiogram and hearing service. We have found the drivers to be - quite rightly - a bit hard to hear on the speaker. All starts off well, then it becomes painfully obvious I probably should have had an ear assessment for the purpose of indicating that vehicles are entering, have entered or are exiting a specified road. Its architecture and bridges reflect its futuristic ambition, and 'Zone Sign' means a sign authorised by the Secretary of State under section 64.

On my most recent journey, I am pleased to report that the seat-belts worked properly, being easy to fasten and flexible to the intentions of the parties under the severed provision. Once fastened, the remaining condition and applicable special condition [or parts thereof] when someone is in a seat you have paid extra for [which happened to me] is simply not good enough. This isn't right or hygienic. Savvy travellers know the secret: should any such condition or applicable special condition [or any part thereof] be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed from these conditions or the special conditions [as appropriate]. On both the outward and return journeys, we found out that although I still had mild tinnitus, my ear drums were actually quite healthy. What a relief! Sadly the wi-fi remained unworkable throughout both legs. We had to deal with the strong stench of urine for three hours and it has created an unpleasant atmosphere [I will SUE everyone!].

Still composed without A.I. in 2025 [for better or worse]

Season's Greetings 2025

 

All Images: Central Leicester, December 2025

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Still composed without A.I. in 2025 [for better or worse]

'The Basin': The Emergency [Draft 1.0]

 

All Images: Bristol Floating Harbour, February 2023 - August 2025

[Reconfigured Appropriated Texts]

Helicopter downdraft suddenly whips the surface - called-in from a remote control centre. The air rattles as gaudy vehicles rapidly assemble [The unit should be brightly coloured and response times are a critical factor]. Concrete is electrified in blue. The routines must be enacted according to each specific risk-assessment and there are also electronic systems available to help speed up and automatically record audit information. According to protocol, the immediate environment is surveyed for hazards and all control measures implemented. 5G technology has been placed around the water at specific ‘trigger’ entry points. It’s obvious something sinister is going on!

All rescue equipment should perform with low latency if deployed correctly. It may also be doughnut shaped. Inflatables are launched and key personnel take up a watching brief at decision points in pathways. Static crackles over radios and shouts are diced by the rotors. With all agencies represented, smart connectivity can make an immediate and positive impact on people’s lives, but sadly, we've turned peoples' deaths into memes over here, instead of sending a message. The line must be able to float, be highly visible and have a maximum length of 25m plus any expected maximum drop. It should also have little or no memory [a full version can be found at the back of the manual to photocopy and laminate].

There is a LOT of water, and is both hazardous and potentially toxic [short-term E-Coli levels in water can be caused by storm water runoff, which can carry with it animal faecal matter]. Metallic waves reveal nothing - but what lies beneath? volunteers have recovered a motorbike, novelty Christmas clothing, bikes, and an inflatable sex doll amongst other things. Extreme temperatures may freeze all good intentions, and probably give you cold water shock. That can cause you to gasp for breath, inhale water or panic, and can lead to drowning. Once unearthed or disconnected, we are easily lost at sea. Hidden currents can make it difficult to swim back to shore, even for the strongest swimmers. Stretch out your arms and legs. Lie back in the water.

The Basin collects lives as well as time. Complete drainage is of course possible, and the ROV is fitted with advanced sonar technology - enabling it to pinpoint individuals in reduced visibility. The methodology utilised provides a novel, useful, and relatively economical tool for future monitoring, but the service has not purchased the ROV and bodies may still drift far from understanding [all are subject to the daily flushings]. One of many reviews has been from a tidal expert, who recommended additional areas we could search further up.

That search goes on to no avail. Definitive tragedy is suspended. Localised mystery blurs into folklore and online theory. So-called psychics have climbed on board offering nothing beyond crackpot suggestions which merely muddy the already muddy waters. The investigation is subject to complaint, but our drone unit has been deployed 16 times during the searches carried out to date. Furthermore, each report is carefully assessed and triaged by detectives from our investigation team. We have detected the obscure impression of a lone CCTV wanderer, intoxicated and entrapped by the system in the early hours. He passes  from one camera to another, struggling for focus. Momentarily, he gathers a little resolution, but is mostly a phantom trudging through static, snow and pixels. This footage is grainy and taken from a distance, however due to the timing, the location and the family’s views, we accept the new hypothesis. Zoom-in, push the image, study it once more.

The system becomes a maze after dark. It’s very dark, and when it is dark, it’s pitch black. In my mind, down there is a very unsavoury area [specifically, the second poorly-lit bridge area]. Few pass, fewer still lurk in the darkest wedges [motives are best left alone there]. The last call was truncated and the phone subsequently stifled, but we have carried out enquiries regarding the AirTag. Sadly, there is no data for this, due to there being no connection to a named personal account. A taxi out, then? - or some other, more dangerous ride? [there is ‘no evidence’ suggesting a serial killer is at loose, but 28 deaths remain unexplained]. Family members retrace the route with torches. As you go around this corner, it’s really not pleasant, but without love, where would we be right now? Circle the perimeter, cross the bridges, then spiral back down [he must have just thought, "How the hell am I going to get out of here?"]. A young man’s cloned face haunts the Basin, gazing across from multiple vantage points. The surface remains impassive. We wish for a happy ending, or at worst - a probability scale to make a proportionate judgement.

Written without A.I. [For better or worse]

'The Basin': Art Trail 3 - Ritual Space [Draft 1.0]

All Images: Hotwells/Cumberland Basin, Bristol, April 2024

[Reconfigured Appropriated Texts]:

This is a collaborative, multidisciplinary endeavour, demonstrating a clear desire to reimagine the traditional parameters the exhibition space. The objective has become to find ways to think in terms of modalities of association and interrelatedness rather than modalities of separation. Intersectionality and emergence soon became key operators, underpinning the intention that the new topology would be a place where not only different artists are programmed but rather it would understand itself as a place where an ecology of energetically and structurally different gatherings can take place. The over-coding of earlier imperatives is clearly evident - whether through applied surface coatings, or by showcasing the debris of contemporary subcultural diversions. In this way, we retain the insights of the postmodern code from a more complex vantage that is able to integrate it, as well as the others, in a multilayered perspective. Fleeting encampment and vehicular abandon are not unknown.

The space itself is experienced as a ‘glade of contemplation’, separated out from the surrounding machinery, and defined by forest trunks and the intervals between. Interiority operates through the canopy above [although certain tantalising sight-lines to The Control Room do remain]. The question is posed: with which parts of our bodies and which senses, with which freedoms and responsibilities, do we want to encounter artworks and each other in these spaces? Certainly, access/egress are permitted from all directions, although a clear processional route is also indicated.

All our actions when constructing a ritual space come from choices which are fundamentally crooked in nature. Instead of seeing God as a distant man in the sky, we will begin to see the Godly nature of reality itself, that every moment is an unfathomable gift that just keeps on giving. Consequently, variable viewpoints are intrinsic, with insights sectioned accordingly, as devotees interact with the assorted sacred features assembled within [fertility/offering mounds, divine texts, cosmological diagrams, symbolic pictograms, and mysterious artefacts such as ‘The Step-Up’, etc.]. If we presume the conditions of a ritual space per se are to evoke the primacy of something which we are not completely aware of, then ‘Ritual Space’ becomes something of a platform upon which to lay our fascinations.

Written without A.I. [for better or worse].

'The Annihilation of Time and Space': HNY 2024/25

All Images: Lincoln East Bypass, December 2024

In what is becoming something of a seasonal tradition, I found myself up on the Lincoln East Bypass, with bike and camera, on Boxing Day. Certainly, this indicates that, like so many of my creative endeavours, my 'The Annihilation of Time and Space' project has been 'ongoing' for much longer than originally envisaged. However, it also means that the scope of the project has expanded to encompass this slice of edgeland in a range of different conditions and moods.

Last year, the landscape was bathed in crystalline winter sunlight, but this time the conditions couldn't have been more different. The entire region was sunk in dank fog and, even in the early afternoon, light was fading fast. The defining characteristics shifted from deliciously blank to poetically bleak.

Given the state of world events, and the trepidation any of us might feel regarding the coming year, perhaps these conditions were glumly appropriate. As the somewhat reduced procession of vehicles beat on into the gloom, it was impossible to avoid the inevitable impressions of a lost civilisation careering headlong into an obscure and forbidding future.

Whatever the truth of that, we can only hope there are still some brighter days to come, whatever the general trend, and to seek the reasons to be creatively cheerful wherever they may be found. The conditions may have made my cycling a little arduous, but they also prompted me to see a familiar environment in fascinating new ways - and to capture some images with a darker romance not previously attached to this particular project. There's usually some uplift to be found if we remain open to the possibility, and - as Albert Camus pointed out, we should still find the time and energy to dance, even on the edge of the abyss.

Happy New Year.