WFH: DAY 65. I engaged a full day of administrations centred on finalisation of undergraduate Exhibition marks. Ordinarily, all staff engaged in delivering this module would walk around the studios, where the students’ work is hanged, moderating each other’s marks and ensuring comparability of assessment across all mediums. The exercise takes an age. But, by the end, we can all feel confident about the collective judgement. Today we ‘walkabout’ in the ether, online, reviewing the PowerPoint submissions.

1.30 pm: Lunch on the hoof. 2.00 pm: A School of Art Management Committee:

Preparations for restarting the university are developing apace. Very thorough. This is a huge undertaking — bigger than anything we’ve attempted within such a short period of time. As a School, we’ll need to significantly redesign the delivery (as distinct from the content) of our modules. Multi-tasking can be a way of life when business is conducted online. As I listened and contributed, student requests were answered and emails posted.

In the background of the day, debates/conversations/discussions about the destruction of public statuary portraying illustrious slave owners rattles on. A biblical and theological perspective on the relationship between values, visualisation, and their undoing:

4.30 pm: We’d had a welcome downpour of rain for much of the afternoon. I ventured out. Moving beneath the trees on Plas Grug Avenue, the water droplets slipping off the leaves upon me, I felt like I was in a rain forest.

Signs of the times:

7.30 pm: Back to hebes-mundi affairs. I pushed myself against the inertia of a resistant will and continued preparing admin for postgraduate research monitoring. I required something loud, aggressive, acidic, and a little frightening to stimulate my body and soul, and occupy the other 7/8th of my brain. In the background (or, maybe, the foreground): King Crimson’s Earthbound (1972), which was released 48 years ago yesterday. The album was recorded live on an Ampex stereo cassette fed directly from a sound mixer. As such, the audio recording was abysmal even by the standards of its day. And yet … and yet … it captures an energy unlike any other live recording that I’ve heard.