Aftermath

My pics from the August riots have been published recently in Firecall, an Irish magazine for firefighters.

That particular article can be downloaded from here (PDF).

"No occupation, just visiting"

An arguably copycat demo has broken out today near the St. Paul's cathedral with an intention to occupy the London Stock Exchange like the Wall Street in US is. Similar to other protests by left-wing activists which happened often in last two years, this one still introduced something new.

The narrow passages connecting the squares around the cathedral with the main streets were blocked by police as well as by private guards. The signs telling about the private status of those side streets were put outside and only tenants were let in. That was the first thing I didn't notice on the previous similar events.

Major landmark on Saturday - yes, the tourists were there and were apparently happy to see something not offered by their travel guides. As the police presence grew heavy, more an more of them were scared away but at the beginning it was a mixture of protesting locals and random people. Not as easy to make a distinction though as everybody brings a camera on demonstrations nowadays.

There were much more police than usually, clearly prepared to block all the means of getting to the building - from the very beginning the arc was already put under control, and as the crowd thickened more of them appeared proportionally.

So I'd say that the planned occupation has really happened, only the occupants were wearing uniforms.

Another successfully occupied venues were posts and railings - it was nearly impossible to find a place to chain a bike in 500m radius.

I tried to sketch, but it was hard to concentrate.

According to the most recent tweets protesters are now being kettled away. That was, I suppose, expected and doesn't mean much - what will define the success of today's action will be the number of people staying for occupation on the streets, not necessarily near the Stock Exchange. Nights became noticeably colder recently so that'd be a challenge to carry on.

You're welcome to peek into the full Flickr set if interested.

Update: BBC tells Assange was there addressing the protesters. I left too early to see him.

Mind over Matter at Shoreditch

An exhibition has opened recently at Shoreditch Town Hall featuring the stories and portraits of older people who donated their brains to help scientists in a fight against dementia. I didn't expect much from it but now having it visited I should say that was the best photo gallery I've seen so far.

It's not really much one can do with some shabby basement space after hanging your pictures on the walls, but by adding carefully adjusted lights, background sounds and a bit of creativity a fantastic effect could be achieved.

First you see the portrait of a man or woman and read their story pinned near the photo, and several minutes later in another room you suddenly recognise that story being narrated by that very person from the speakers in the dark corner. You also notice some short phrases on the walls here and there in places which you didn't think were the part of the exhibition. Then suddenly the next room (you got there through a hole in the wall) contains no portraits like the ones you walked through before but is empty apart from medical containers for human organs on the floor and white coats on the hangers. Then you realise you no longer hear the monologues read in old man's voice but just some lifeless background noise. You leave that room, take another turn and enter a hall with black rectangles on its walls instead of the photos. Coming close you see that they're not plain black, just very dark, so to see what's on them you have to concentrate like trying to remember something you once knew so well... then a projector turns on behind you back producing for a moment a bright, large and clear picture of a laughing young woman which fades away as quickly as it has appeared. You're not old yet but now you probably understand what's battling your failing mind for your own memories feels like.

Strangely it doesn't make you sad or ineffectively afraid of inevitable but calms you much, so don't be concerned about getting upset. And also you will likely feel a huge respect both for the donors and for scientists. The exhibition will last until October 23rd and it's well worth a visit.

Late Tate

Today's late performance in Tate Britain was a good excuse to revisit the usual exhibition but without the usual crowds.

Maybe it was wine that made me sleepy and apathetic too soon (it seems to be a usual thing to serve alcohol on late events in museums, a tradition I truly admire), but apart from that I can't say I really experienced anything new from the performances themselves. "Define what art is by writing you thoughts down on this large sheet of paper, all together". Meh. Sometimes being creative turns into being creative in a predictable way.

Ars longa, vita brevis

An old and yet never ending argument about the necessity of cycling helmets is closed for me now as I saw a young girl today lying at the middle of the Marylebone road near her fallen bike, scarily motionless, her head in a puddle of blood. Apparently she hasn't been run over, more like knocked off her bicycle, and it's hard to tell for sure but to me it looked like the helmet could have been very helpful. I agree that the serious accidents happen mostly when a heavy vehicle traps the victim under its wheel, and in that case even an army helmet is useless. But believe me, that was still a terrible and very convincing scene to witness. Hope the girl is alive and will get well.

I also experienced a very disturbing feeling of my own feebleness - I don't possess any practical first aid knowledge so it was silly just to pass by and even more ridiculous just to stay and stare. Some man from the public gathered was doing something to the unlucky cyclist, and just to do anything instead of simply standing I called an ambulance while being sure it has been already done (and indeed was told they were already on their way). Now I want to get time to attend a special course or something - being just a helpless observer is very uneasy.

Only two days since the last lethal accident. London is still much safer than many other cities of its size, but be careful for it pays off.

Anyway, I managed to get to the life drawing class on time (usually I don't manage to make it there but today got off the office earlier). It's been several months since my last visit so everything felt new once again, plus there was plenty of space and thus a lot of available easels.

I used my Sharpie pen together with a charcoal this time and also made some smaller sketches in my notebook.

As usually, the N1 area is vividly busy even at the evening. I've been suspecting for a long time that every night is a Friday night there.

Sketching at the Olympic park

With nine months still left till London Olympics, the Olympic park is still nothing but a huge construction site for a random visitor. Modern residential towers surrounding the place are even making it more obvious creating a contrast between finished buildings and enormous holes in the ground with steel rods sticking up from them. All that plus an unusually hot weather (it's the 1st of October, and it's been +29 degrees today) make it not very comfortable place to visit. Upon arrival, you find yourself on a flat concrete plate under the cloudless sky, with very few shadows or air conditioned cafés around, but still surrounded most of time with a crowd of sunglassed tourists.

The ArcelorMittal Orbit undoubtedly dominates the area:

Being often called "the largest sculpture in Britain", to me it is clearly a piece of architecture, a tower rather than a statue - otherwise, the Eiffel tower should be called "sculpture" as well. Its only function, however, is to serve as a landmark and provide an observation platform when complete.

The river Lee which flows nearby was also dying under the sun, though there were nice buildings along its way:

Surprisingly the hottest discussion related to Stratford last days was not related to the Olympics venues-to-be but to the huge shopping centre opened nearby. Is that really an important event? I don't like big multi-brand shopping malls and was quite happy to find London much less dependent on them than Moscow was. Hopefully that will last, but the more metal and glass I see around the less am I happy.

I didn't apply for Olympics tickets since I have no interest in professional sport. Still I am very tempted to visit the site once again when the works are over - the project is very ambitious as is a huge boost for Stratford, already causing the prices to fly and the postcode wars to begin. But yes, when it is ready. No sooner, I am afraid.

Touch gently

I doubt that this is what "touch" was intended to mean: