Yasmin Ali

This year RCAHMS' Education and Outreach department teamed up with illustrator and designer Mark Kirkham, who runs the blog Edinburgh Sketcher, to host a drawing and information day as part of The Big Draw Campaign, which runs annually at venues throughout the UK, and internationally.

The day was in two parts, with the morning session focussing on an introduction to the Britain from Above project, a historical aerial photography archive by Aerofilms Ltd., of which over 95,000 digitally remastered images taken between 1919-1953, have been scanned and digitised online at the online resource of the same name. The project is run in partnership with English Heritage and RCAHMW, RCAHMS' counterparts in England and Wales.

Aerofilms Ltd. was remarkable as the UK's first commercial aerial photography company, and held specialist stereoscopic equipment at that time not used elsewhere in the UK. As such, their resources and skills were called upon by the military in wartime Britain. In total, their work spans over 1.26 million negatives and 112 million photographs taken over a 75 year period, covering almost every community in the UK at various stages. This provides a resource for understanding the morphology of built and natural environments.

RCAHMS is the acronym for The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, which has a wealth of resources available to members of the public and professionals alike. The Library and Print Room were introduced in the second half of the morning, with a look at original and reproduced samples of maps, drawings and etchings, posters and books available for reference and photocopying.

In the afternoon, Edinburgh Sketcher Mark was invited to host a three hour sketching tour around the Southside, University campus and Old Town, and led a group of around a dozen adults around some of the Southside's hidden corners, noting details, possible techniques and focusing on the juxtaposition between old and new.

Participants were generously equipped with fine ink pens, pencils, sketch pads and watercolour sets and encouraged to sketch under time pressure and not to be afraid to commit pen to paper. The day concluded with an informal group review of the results and framing of a finished piece for each sketcher apprentice to take home.

Weblinks

Britain from The Air - here

The Big Draw - here

Edinburgh Sketcher - here

RCAHMS - here

The Big Draw runs until 3rd November at various venues.

RCAHMS is open to the public from 930-1700 Tues-Fri, and is sited at John Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 9NX.

Leave Miller's Construction Series and neuferts'

at the office and cast an eye over some short books

and novellas which may be of interest...

I neglected to write 'Top' as a prefix to the headline,

because, well, tastes vary, and who am I to say what's  best to read?

Good reads I would recommend, however, include the following curated list:

Original cover designed by Yukio Futugawa

5. If you're searching for a design for life, try the Philosophy book 'In Praise of Shadows', by (Philosopher) Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, first published 1933

Considered a modern classic, Tanizaki's essay speaks eloquently through an aesthete's lens which varies its focus on subjects as diverse as food, interiors, the precious mineral jade, pottery and even toilets. In particular, its passages on the ceremonial art of drinking tea, and the lights and darks of the laquerware have some poetic resonance. At a lean 80-pages, it's slimmer than some design blogs, but there's imagery in every line. Worth a read.

4. If you want to know more about Britain's capital with a book you can take on the tube, try the London essay 'London: Bread and Circuses', by (Journalist) Jonathan Glancey, 2001

Glancey, well-known as the Architectural and Design correspondent of the Guardian, has gifted us with a very concise history of London, which references urban policy throughout. An illuminating read, at under 150pages, including many black and white photos, it's an excellent record of the specific and special issues which shaped-and continue to shape-the history of this modern metropolis. Glancey's polemic makes a convincing case that flagship projects around London are privatised 'circuses', setting up the discourse for an interesting read.

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The British Art Show is billed as the UK's 'most influential and ambitious exhibition of contemporary art'. Scottish and Scottish-based artists featured in the BAS7 exhibition include Karla Black who will represent Scotland at the 2011 Venice Art Biennale.

Curated by Lisa Le Feuvre and Tom Morton, the show now in its seventh edition, takes as its subtitled theme the emblem of a comet as a motif of change, with connotations of discovery and wonder. Of the show, Curators Lisa Le Feuvre and Tom Morton said:

'The exhibition seeks to reinvent, reinvigorate and constantly question itself as it travels across the country. We are delighted to present the exhibition in Glasgow, a city whose artists and institutions are of central importance to contemporary art in the UK'.

The show tours cities across the UK, joining Glasgow from its previous leg in London and Nottingham prior to that, and going on to its final showing this tour in Plymouth later in the autumn.  It is the first time Glasgow has hosted The British Art Show since the glory days of City of Culture in 1990.

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