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…

WFH: DAY 64. 5.30 am: I could sleep no longer. The birds had begun their dawn chorus two hours earlier. For the reminder of the morning I was, in my head, one hour ahead of true time. 7.00 am: A communion. 8.00 am: I remembered a detail from a landscape: At first sight, the instinct was to caress. I let…

‘There is a world elsewhere’ (Coriolanus) WFH: DAY 63. 7.30 am: Breakfast: 8.30 am: A communion. 9.00 am: The morning was set aside for odds and sods, marking extension submissions, coordinating marking validation meetings, holding conference meetings, setting up a review structure for MA applications, procurement, and replying to academic business on social media. (In the background: Cherubini’s Requiem in…

WFH: DAY 62. Now let me tell you about yesterday. It was, more or less, the last day for finalising my module marks, uploading comments, agreeing decisions with second markers, overseeing student submissions, and deepening my knowledge of upload-portal-logic. The Lion’s share of the work was now behind me. In the evening, I returned to my sound work and considered…

WFH: DAY 60. 8.00 am: A communion. The clock is ticking. Deadlines approach. 9.00 am: Back to report writing. These would be completed by the end of the afternoon, at the latest. In the background: BBC Radio 3’s Chorale Evensong from Tewkesbury Abbey in May 2014. There used to be a good ‘chippy’ in Tewkesbury. When I was a child,…

WFH: DAY 59. 7.00 am: I awoke to the sound of the rain on the Velux’s window pane, and was thankful. In a different age, communities prayed for rain in times of want as they did for a successful harvest. Likewise, they petitioned God to bring down the wicked, unwise, and oppressive ruler and establish righteousness in the land while,…

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so (Thomas Merton (1915–1968)). WFH: DAY…

‘I’m Jack Johnson. Heavyweight champion of the world. I’m black; they never let me forget it. I’m black alright; I’m never let them forget it’ (Jack Johnson (1878­–1946).) WFH: DAY 56. I woke at 7.45 am after a dismal night’s sleep and a great many thoughts. House (detail) #36: The day, therefore, began behind time — at least as far…

Silence is not the absence of sound, rather it is an aspect of sound WFH: DAY 55. 8.00 am: A communion. House (detail) #35: 8.30 am: A review of the inbox and my plans for the working day. 9.00 am: A little mopping up of MA Vocational Practice presentation assessments. 9.45 am: Refreshments were served. My habit of eating a…

WFH: DAY 54. 6.30 am: Rise. House (detail) #34: I shaved to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 this morning. It’s wonderful forward momentum had me tripping spritely around the bathroom. 7.30 am: A communion. 8.00 am: Adminy stuff was approached with vim and vigour, fired by a desire to apportion the larger part of the day to research catch-up. 9.00…