Artist & Writer In Residence 2008-09

Artist in Residence - Martin John Callanan

Martin John Callanan is a European artist and researcher exploring notions of citizenship within the globally connected world. Concerns include information, data, and knowledge.

"Borges' map, described in "On Exactitude in Science", imagines an empire where the science of cartography has become so exacting that only a map of the same scale as the empire itself is sufficient. This seems prescient of the increasing digitization, both of the world about us and correspondingly of our own lives. The world¹s fastest computer in 2006, IBM's Blue Gene L, has more processing capability than the 500 most powerful computers of 2001 combined. Blue Gene L is 15 times more powerful than its predecessor: within five seconds it can produce a volume of data equivalent to the total information held in the British Library². The data collected by our networks, in data warehouses and elsewhere, vastly exceeds that which could be recorded about our world and knowledge on the 1:1 scale Borges imagined."
Martin John Callanan, December 2006.

July 2012:

Next week the London Open at the Whitechapel Gallery opens on  4 July.
The London Open includes work in a diverse range of media from
painting, sculpture, film, textile and photography to installation and
performance. It includes Martin John Callanan’s conceptual works,
International Directory of Fictitious Telephone Numbers (2012) and
Letters 2004-2006. Click here for more information.

At 3 pm on 5 July at the Whitechapel Gallery, Martin shall be legally
changing his name. You are most welcome to attend to observe the
declaration being sworn. Click here for more information.

Later at 5 pm Curator Kirsty Ogg leads an exhibition tour followed by a celebration of my name change. Click here for more information.

Don't forget you have until 11 July to to see  A Planetary Order
(Terrestrial Cloud Globe) in the excellent exhibition curated by
Lizzie Hughes, The Present is a Point Just Passed at the Stephen
Lawrence Gallery in Greenwich. Click here for more information.


Writer in Residence - Richard Hamblyn

Richard Hamblyn is the author of The Invention of Clouds, which won the 2002 Los Angeles Times book prize, and of Terra:Tales of the Earth, a study of natural disasters. His Cloud Book: How to Understand the Skies was published in association with the Met Office in April 2008, and he is currently working on a follow-up volume entitled Extraordinary Clouds (see below). Longer-term projects include a cultural history of volcano tourism, an account of the exile of Joseph Priestley, and a study of man-made landscapes. Richard has also written for a variety of newapapers and magazines, and is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. Click here to view their joint exhibition "A Planetary Order"