Present Tense

What a lovely response to the launch of A Social Glue last week. Thanks to everyone who took part in the event and all those who contributed to the work - back in the day, Dr Clare Devaney - all those people who talked things through with me - all of you who provided case studies - the forensic eye of Wills and JMcC and the superb designer Georgia Burns. Thanks all.

If you didn't make it to the launch, a film of the things I discussed - alongside the other wonderful speakers - can all be found HERE. The Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance will magically turn my words into a blog posting shortly, so do look out for that HERE.

The full report of A Social Glue, a summary and the Parallel Narratives can all be found on the Institute website, HERE.

For those eagle-eyed regulars to the blog, you’ll be aware I’ve been through the mangle, the wringer, the mill this last year, with my fragile health and whatnot - so much so - that your blogger is booking into a rather smart hotel for a few weeks to have some kind of tonic! Well, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, though while I do imagine myself in some sanatorium in the Alps, it’s Blackpool and the NHS for me, as I book in for a stem-cell transplant. Like some Frankenstein-ish experiment, I’ll be out for the count for a few weeks.

Yet perhaps the Irish Sea isn’t to dissimilar to the Venetian Lagoon and like an old ham, it’ll be more Death in Venice than Blackpool! And though I shouldn’t tempt fate, I can see my touched-up temples running as I slump down in some cholera infected campo - or a deckchair on the Golden Mile!  So - some phone silence from me and positive vibes through the ether are much appreciated and do forgive me this self indulgence. I hope very much to be speaking at the Culture, Health and Wellbeing International Conference in late June. Full details which you can find HERE. My keynote/film will be a meditation on the toxic and unequal world we live in and a rallying cry for change, all imagined from the perspective of my current fragilities and constructed while confined to a hospital bed! 

For old times sake, here’s an old film I made to coincide with the exhibition I co-curated in 2013, Mortality: Death and the Imagination. I wrote an essay called Present Tense which built on a rather famous and wonderful interview between Melvyn Bragg and Dennis Potter. You can read my essay in full HERE. On its journey it takes in some thoughts on religion and science; the numinous, assisted dying and the Euthanasia Coaster. The music for this short film is by Fennesz and is called Laguna. You can get a taste of Potter and more in this brief three-minute film below.
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