London 2012 Cultural Olympiad
Jon Adams Artist Workshop and Talk
Saturday 21 July / 1 - 4pm / Free

Artist/geologist, Jon Adams, hosts a two hour drop-in workshop and follows up with an informal talk on Look About, his interactive mapping project, which weaves together science and art.

From 1 - 3pm, visitors will have the opportunity to contribute to Jon's artwork and research by using geology to map and record their visit to MK Gallery. In his short talk at 3pm, Jon will talk about the ideas behind Look About, as well as his background as an artist and geologist.

Look About gathers ‘found objects and experiences’ and presents them as curated films, fossils, geological diagrams and maps. It is a two-year mapping and collecting project created in response to Accentuate and the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad in the South East of England. This creatively driven, multi-layered project weaves together science and art, digital and analogue, and Jon’s autobiographical experiences.

The Look About project has four distinct parts: Look About Gather (including Look About: Transmission); Look About Interactive; Look About Edition Mélange, and Look About Archive. Look About: Transmission, which was shown at MK Gallery from 20 April to 27 May 2012, is a screen-based work featuring film, animation and sound works inspired by Jon’s mapping of London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and Accentuate events in the South East. ‘Transmission’ evolves as it gathers data at each exhibition location, growing and metamorphosing to eventually comprise 128 Fragments.

Jon Adams is a trained geologist who uses observational techniques, data collection and mapping to produce a continually evolving ‘biostratigraphy’ that forms the content of the Look About project (biostratigraphy is a geological term relating to the assigning of ages of rocks and fossils in layers to periods in time and looks similar to bar graphs or DNA samples). The geological metaphor stems from his personal struggle to become an artist within the conventional teaching environment and being forced to find an alternative career as a field geologist and palaeontologist. He has since reverted to art and become a successful illustrator and conceptual artist. Adams is able to uncover the hidden and unexpected; he is a collector by nature, highly observant, and an authentic detailer – all things needed to be a successful geologist. Jon has been diagnosed with Asperger’s and Dyslexia, and therefore inclusion and accessibility lie at the heart of the Look About project. It involves conversation with deaf and disabled artists within the South East region of England and aspires with Accentuate to shift cultural attitudes towards disability in the arts.

Look About is part of Accentuate, a transformational programme of 15 projects, inspired by the Paralympic Movement, which seeks to change perceptions and offer opportunities to showcase the talents of deaf and disabled people. Accentuate has been funded by Legacy Trust UK, creating a lasting impact from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by funding ideas and local talent to inspire creativity across the UK, SEEDA and the regional cultural agencies. Screen South is the home of Accentuate.