Lights of Soho - Feature Series (Spotlight)

Soho has been synonymous with neon lights by Chris Bracey with his pieces making it across the sex establishments in the area. It was only fitting that a gallery opened featuring works that moths will find appealing as well that is the Light of Soho! I popped down to see their Spotlight exhibition which ends on April 2016.

Heading down during the day will give access to the member's lounge and installation in the window display is just as impressive as it is during the night. It's not hard to miss when walking down Brewer Street as you are hit with the wondrous colours of Neon Dog by Deepa Man-Kler, which was also featured in Lumiere London 2016, and comes complete with neon bones and poo.

The exhibition also features the works of M3 (Matt Mackman) and Illuminati Neon, who bring their own unique styling to their neon pieces.

Neon Dog - Deepa Mann-Kler

England's Dreaming - Illuminati Neon

Holidays in the Sun -

Ever Fallen in Love - Illuminati Neon

Tech Talk: What-Dog.net

From the minds of Microsoft's Project Oxford behind HowOld.Net and TwinsOrNot.net brings What-Dog.net. Utilising artificial intelligence powered by new machine learning technology, the application enables identification of objects to project an image that resembles the closest to a breed of dog.

There are laughs to be had when playing about with this app as it distinguishes what breed it is that your dog or yourself would be. It may not come up with the desired result and pictures of one person can yield different results, so there is a in-built feedback feature where people can submit the photos that they used in the application to help improve it. Not only does the breed come up, it'll also come up with the personalities.

First up is Ed the Golden Retriever:

First pic of me comes up with the German Shepherd Dog:

With a slight variation comes up with Labrador Retriever:

Don't have a dog, so we have... Silver the cat:

Give it a spin yourself and see how it goes with friends, family and yourself at What-Dog.net or download the Fetch! app on iOS, which is developed by Microsoft Garage.

#whatDogRobot

Fiona Banner - Full Stop

Fiona Banner’s Full Stop are positioned at different points on the grounds of More London Estates providing different backdrops with many of an opportunity for a passerby to stop at gaze into it. It is a lens reflecting and warping the image it reflects on its solid yet fluid surface. 

The full stop placements were done with test installations with full scale polystyrene models to determine how the full stop plays on with its environment.

Each Full Stop is an enlarged 3D image of a full stop in different typefaces. The titles of the sculptures are Slipstream, Optical, Courier, Klang and Nuptail. They sculptures are cast in bronze and coated in a shiny black paint as the same used for London Taxis which gives it that reflective surface.Each were made with plaster to help shape the texture and movement of the shapes, which were then cast in bronze.

 

Star Log Entry 4: 5 years on at Oxfam Bookshop... first day

It's been 5 years since I stepped foot in Oxfam Bookshop in Bloomsbury for my first day of volunteering and it sometimes does feel like a surreal experience. There's been so many things that I have experienced during my journey at the bookshop from being challenged to read all the Terry Pratchett's Discworld series up to the 2011 within a year to creating 1000 cranes to finding my first job. There has been nothing compared to the life-long friends with the volunteers and customers who've touched me with their compassion and love, and this came on my first day when I met a group of unique individuals that became family instantly.

On Sunday 3rd April 2016, I stood outside the bookshop waiting for the bookshop to open up. Ruesharn, a gentleman (ahem!) with fine taste in clothing with a distinct class glasses, came running up and opened up the store. Gradually the volunteers, Yili and Donna, started to come in and their personalities started to flood in as well.

Ruesharn was like the leader of the pack and had worldly views in a myriad of topics. Yili was silent but deadly with her business and economic finesse, and an eye for detail in photography. Donna was the visionary and she always gave 110% in what she does. Lesley, who I sadly lost in touch with, actually started on the day before and was forthright in the way she does things.

They all helped me on the go-get in showing me carry out different tasks. Even though I did very little during the day, it was tiring and very rewarding work. Ruesharn, Yili and Donna are people I hold dearly as they have helped me through so much through the past years during good times and bad times. They are friends that I can rely on as they have my back, and that is why I will do anything in the world for them if they asked.

Do you have any friends that you consider family?

King's Cross Poetry Trail

The King’s Cross’ poetry trail features children’s poets that are derived and form a celebration of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education CLPE Poetry Award back in 2014. It is brought together with the King’s Cross Limited Partnership and the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.

"We don’t want children to be frightened of poetry, we want them to be given it as an everyday part of their lives and having the poetry trail in such a prominent place and the poems displayed so beautifully gives a high profile to this really important aspect of children’s literature. In Kings Cross we have been lucky enough to be able to display a real range of the best children’s poetry available in an accessible and exciting way, which is exactly the purpose of the CLPE Poetry Award." - Roger McGough, Chair of the judges for the Poetry Award 2014

In total there are 12 poems that form a treasure hunt around the King’s Cross area. Some of which have been moved about due to the development of the area. Originally, the trail had 11 clues which allow the children to decipher allowing them to navigate between each poem.

"King’s Cross is enjoyed by lots of children already, including the ones living in the new homes here; from September next year a new Academy will open, bringing primary school kids together with the relocated Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children. We hope they will enjoy the poetry trail as part of the gardens and public spaces here at King’s Cross." - Robert Evans, Argent

"The aim of the award is to make good children’s poetry books known to a wider audience and to make poetry central to literacy teaching. The Kings Cross Partnership have helped us to show the shortlisted poetry in an engaging, exciting and really high profile way. We are delighted with the experience the trail provides for children, parents and teachers. It makes poetry relevant and fun." - Louise Johns-Shepherd, CEO of CLPE

Trees Are Great - Roger McGough

 Sshhhhh! - Julia Donaldson

 The Teacher Tells us How to Play at Playtime - Joanne Limburg

 Steel birds - Kathy Henderson

 The Brill - Aidan Dun *

 The Day We Went to the Multi-Skills Festival - Joanne Limburg

 Wayland: The Tale of the Smith from the Far North - Tony Mitton

 The Dragon with a Big Nose - Kathy Henderson

 Miss Spring - Grace Nichols

 The Lake's Bottom - George Szirtes

 Voices of Water - Tony Mitton

 Sonnet to an Earthworm - Grace Nichols



Aidan Dun's poem The Brill reads:

Kings Cross, dense with angels and histories. There are cities beneath your pavements. Cities behind your skies. Let me see!

#foundit

Tech Talk: Windows 8.1 - Desktop

Windows 8.1 introduced the Desktop as a way to add familiarity of the previous operating systems as well as to run legacy programs that could not be launched in apps view. The Desktop can be accessed through the Start Screen or the Apps View. Alternatively, it can be booted straight into the Desktop.

First look at the Desktop will show:

• Taskbar - the taskbar will contain the start button, pinned icons for quick launches, the system tray and the display touch keyboard (for touch screen/tablets users)
• Background - can be personalised to the users preference and application icons and shortcuts

Shortcuts can be pinned to the taskbar from the Start Screen and Apps View, which can also be added vice versa. The desktop arrangements can be arranged just like any predecessor formats with options to sort, view and add shortcuts.

Jump list

Jump lists can be accessed from the taskbar which will show miniature screens of the program opened and gives the option to easily "jump" from one application to the other with ease. In the taskbar properties, you can add privacy to clear the selection so the content does not show on the jump list.

Snap!

The Snap feature can be utilised to view programs side-by-side. It can be done by dragging the program to one end of the screen on the left or the right. To put it into full screen, you can just drag the window up to the top of the screen.

Some handy short-cuts to know:

• Windows key + M: minimises all open windows
• Windows key + D: opens all the windows and returns back to the last used window
• Windows key + E: opens up Windows Explorer

Instagram March 2016

David Batchelor - Evergreen #Sculpture #Art

A photo posted by The Vinh Hoang (@thevh5) on Mar 21, 2016 at 3:35pm PDT

Glasshouse at Skip Garden

A photo posted by The Vinh Hoang (@thevh5) on Mar 11, 2016 at 1:41pm PST

Berkeley Square Gardens

A photo posted by The Vinh Hoang (@thevh5) on Mar 4, 2016 at 1:43pm PST

Paddy Molloy's art installation Crossing Time at Granary Square, King's Cross #crossing #time

A photo posted by The Vinh Hoang (@thevh5) on Mar 3, 2016 at 2:59pm PST

David Batchelor - Evergreen

David Batchelor’s Evergreen provides a vibrancy of colours as it adds a glowing green in between buildings made of steel and glass. It’s hidden away but truly comes out during the dark hours of the night as it illuminates encouraging people to explore More London. It remains completely the same during season changes as the trees around it changes.

 

Skip Garden

Skip Garden is an award-winning project run by Global Generation, a charity providing opportunities for young people to create a sustainable future. It gives a set of invaluable skills for young people building upon gardening skills and even a business acumen. It is partly funded by the Big Lottery and the materials are provided by The King’s Cross Partnership, BAM Nuttall, Carillion and Kier.

Initially, Skip Garden was positioned in different spots in King’s Cross and has now just above Lewis Cubitt Park and the King’s Cross Pond. It used to be garden plots built into skips and has expanded by the local community. Some of the structures on site were created by students of the Bartlett School of Architecture in collaboration with Global Generation.

The garden was built collaboratively between children as young as 7 years to businesses, local families, teenagers, students, architects and engineers in helping build and providing resources to bring it together. Recycled materials were used to build the garden with most of the materials found from the construction sites at King’s Cross.

The plot grows fruits and vegetables such as apples trees and pumpkins. The garden is for the most part self-sustaining employing such practices as aerobic and worm composting, fertilising with comfrey juice, companion and rotational planting, rain water harvesting and bee-hive maintenances. The produce from the garden are harvested and used to create delicious food at the Skip Garden Kitchen.

Earthbag Coolstore - the structure made from recycled timber was created by Aleesandro Conning-Rowland of Bartland School of Architecture. The structure is layered with recycled coffee sacks from a local coffee rostery and each one is filled with earth. A cooling effect is provided from the evaporation of the moisture of the bags and helpfully collects rainwater to keep the plants within the structure hydrated. Ventilation is added in through the designed stacks that give the structure the maximum area to absorb the sun keeping the produce fresh.

100 Hands Wall is created by Christophe Dembinski and features a walled space made entirely from earth, showcasing the sustainable ways we can adopt in construction.

Rain Loos by Carrie Coningsby uses reclaimed railway sleepers and boarding are stacked against each other to create two cubicles. Water is collected from the rain water streamed into a membrane covering a steel beam, which is collected into the cisterns of the toilet.

Glass House is created by Rachael Taylor used for a growing space and hosts Twilight Gardening sessions. The skirtings of the Glass House is made from low-tech curtain wall made from recycled sash windows. These are held up with scaffold board wall that leans against a shipping container.

The Chicken Coup is created by Valerie Vyvial which completes the link to the closed system of the ecological cycle of the garden by bringing in a structure to house three chickens. At the centre of the structure houses a 2.4m long silver birch tree from Hampstead Heath. The structure is built with bamboo put into place with steel fixing cast.

The Grey Water Dining, created by Yangyan Liu, utilised a small reed bed system at the back of the kitchen, which cleanse the waste water from the kitchen ready for watering. This design provides a wetland dining area. Pedal pumps are used to lift the filtered water through a water storage tank which is then used for gravity-led irrigation.

The Welcome Shelter is created by Charlie Redman. It is situated by the Skip Garden kitchen and due to its mechanism, it can provide shelter through changeable cover.

#SkipGarden