“Gamers confront one another in contests of skill that reveal who has been chosen – chosen by the game as the one who has most fully internalized its algorithm”

- Mackenzie Wark, Gamer Theory

A distinct lack of blog updates belies a similar lack of productive art work.  Sadly I’m starting to fall into the trap of working 9-5 and then spending my evenings recovering or pursuing activities specifically to compensate for the fact that I spend 8 hours every day doing something I don’t want to do.  I’ve noticed that I have spent a great deal of money on video games recently.

I’m trying to break out of this cycle by working for its own sake, e.g. videoing my journey to work, keeping a record of my interviews with the mental patients I see each day, creating podcasts etc.  There are a number of small projects I want to work on and it is just a matter of devoting attention to them each in turn in order to finish them off.  I’ve realised that I’m less interested in mental processes than I am in patterns of behaviour, and, specifically, the way in which we can perpetuate destructive patterns even when aware of their impact.

I have to prepare new work if I am to submit a portfolio for MA courses following the end of my training contract, and membership of Northern print should give me the facilities to get a large amount of work done in a relatively short space of time.