So, two things last week. I was having a bit of an odd day on Thursday, and found myself in an angry, livid mood for no reason. I was seething and I didn't know why. So I took myself off for a walk on Hampstead Heath, intending to stomp up Parliament Hill and look out over London and feel a bit superior to everyone. Instead, as soon as I got to the start of East Heath, I immediately calmed down and felt better. So I wandered down a secret path and found a clearing to sit in on my own, which was lovely.

I was messing around with my phone, taking photos using the randomiser on Hipstamatic and I decided it might be fun to take a random photo with it every day. I liked the way these branches were all twisty against the sky.

On Friday I finished a project I had embarked on a couple of months ago, so it seemed like a good time to start something new. I randomly remembered my JPGmag account for the first time in months, and lo, there's a 365 challenge. It was meant to be.

However, it didn't seem right to start a new photo project without posting the pics to Flickr, which is where my main photo activity and community is. So I'm posting the pics there as well. And sometimes here on my blog, too.

I have had this problem with upgrading my Flickr account every. single. year. without fail (except for the years when others have kindly paid for my upgrade as presents or prizes). It's incredibly annoying that the only part of the process which doesn't fail is the fact that it always fails. Frustrating, or what?

So if any pictures disappear off my site for a while, that'll be why, until I can get the upgrade sorted out.

A couple of days ago, a group of us from the LFMU group pottered out of London to visit Bletchley Park for the day, which was loads of fun. I'd been wanting to go there for a couple of years, after seeing Rooney's photos, and hearing him talk about how great the computer museum was. Not that I am really all that obsessive about computers, vintage or otherwise, but it seemed like the sort of quirky independent museum that would just tickle my fancy. Saturday's trip proved that to a much greater extent, as I discovered just how much there really is to see at Bletchley Park. Answer: lots and lots and lots.

Bletchley Park is mostly famous for being the home of code-breaking during the second world war, and there is of course a museum dedicated to that subject; full of strange machines with weird dials and alphabet cogs, and lots of information about what all the machines do, which was quite a lot to take in. Then, of course, there's the National Museum of Computing, which houses all kinds of vintage computers and adding machines, dating all the way back to Victorian "computing scales" made of paper and card, and probably even further back than that. Both of these museums have enough information and objects to look at to take a decent chunk out of your afternoon. What I didn't realise was just how much else there is to see at Bletchley Park. You really get a lot of value out of your £10 entry ticket (which is valid for the whole year so you can go back).

Bletchley Park is largely run by volunteers who have fortunately embraced social media in all its forms, having multiple accounts on Flickr, Twitter etc. When they found out we were planning to visit, we were very generously offered a personal tour of the place, and they gave us quite a lot of extra attention. We were able to see a preview of the bombe register in full working order as a special favour to our group, because the volunteer who runs it doesn't usually come in on Saturdays, so that was pretty cool — especially as it doesn't officially open until tomorrow. Having an official guide with us also meant that sometimes we were allowed to sneak behind the barriers and cordons, and take photos of things that the general public don't usually get to see at a casual glance. The volunteers seemed extremely knowledgeable and were always willing to answer questions and share their enthusiasm, and seemed particularly pleased to open cabinets and turn switches for us, which was also nice.

The downside to this enthusiasm was that our guide, @panavision was so keen to ensure that we managed to see every single museum contained therein that we were fairly whizzed around the place at great speed, which meant that we didn't always have as much time as I would have liked to browse things, and some of us were a bit exhausted at the end of it! Of course, that's a minor complaint, as I really did appreciate having all the bits shown to me, not to mention all the extra attention we got.

On our guided tour, we were whipped through the two museums mentioned above, and also the ones listed below:

In fact, even though my battery ran out before I'd finished going around all the museums, I still had a great day's shooting and took loads of pictures. Better than just taking them all, I was pleased to discover that I actually liked a large chunk of them (which doesn't happen as often as I'd like). Now I just have the task of choosing which ones to put online. I've started uploading some of them, which you can see in the set here, and I'll be adding more to the set over the next week or so. You should also be able to see everyone else's photos here, as long as they've tagged them properly.

After looking at so many rooms stuffed full of so much information, we started to feel pretty stuffed full of information ourselves, and decided to pop into the cafe for a reviving cuppa. Unfortunately, everything is supposed to shut at 4:00pm and the cafe seemed to be the first place to close (as in so many places, why do they do this? It's so nice having a half hour tea break after a museum has thrown you out at closing time!) There aren't any places to eat or drink in the immediate vicinity of the estate, but thanks to waving their hands around a lot, the iPhone geeks were able to get online and look up some pubs.

We wandered around a few corners to the nearest hostelry that had had a decent review on Beer In The Evening, The Eight Belles. Unfortunately, they weren't doing food until 6:00pm, but thanks again to the wonder of iPhones, we were able to find another pub a little further afield. As it happens, The Swan was a nicer pub, anyway; shabbily comfortable with a friendlier atmosphere. Food portions were generous, prices reasonable, and the fish part of my fish-and-chips was very fresh and the batter tasted homemade. Om nom nom!

After dinner, we went back to Bletchley Park, to watch Matthew Applegate, aka Pixelh8, performing his new piece Obsolete? This is a series of tunes (which Applegate endearingly called "songs" even though they have no vocals and no one sings them) made entirely from noise samples taken from the computers in the National Museum of Computing, and was quite entertaining. (I thought timscience would particularly have enjoyed it.)

The entire performance of the piece was quite short, only 25 minutes, but afterwards Applegate went through the pieces again, explaining where the samples had come from, and in some cases the entertaining methods of recording them (like the day he wrapped the machine and himself entirely in bubble-wrap in order to muffle all the external noise). I preferred the second part of the show, as he was far more animated in explaining how he'd come up with the pieces than when he was crouching behind a laptop checking the program in the first bit, so it was more interesting. There's a bit of it on video here, which Martin just sent me the link to. Unfortunately, the video's not working on this computer, but he says I'm onscreen, "presuming you're the ball of hair next to Paul" so see if you can find me.

After the performance, there was a tour around the computer museum to demonstrate the machines that had been used in making the music, but a few of us decided to catch the train, as the next train was an hour after that, and by then we were just too tired to hang around that long. Some of the others stayed behind for the tour, though.

All in all, a really fun, interesting day with lots to see and lots to appeal to different people all in one place. Technology fans will love the code-breaking machines and computery stuff; design fans will love the printed ephemera; history buffs will love learning about the people who worked there; movie fans will love the cinema stuff; photographers will love the fact that nothing has restrictions; and Bletchley Park will love you for showing an interest in such an important part of British Heritage.

It was a great day out, I think. The place was heaving and although the scavengers whinged about how difficult they thought the clues were, the teams all managed to get most of the clues. You can see all of their photos in the Flickr group here. I think there's still a prize awaiting the group's most popular picture (based on page views/comments/favourites) so go help pick a winner! Obviously all of my photos are exempt, being a hunt organiser, but there are still some worthy entrants in there.

Here are some of my favourites from my own personal photos; the rest can be seen here.

Blackfriars Pier

Canada Water Station

Queen Victoria Street

Theobald's Road

Woolwich Road

Paul's photos are here and Billy's photos are here. He's also posted all the questions and answers on his blog. The Mole did a nice write-up of the day if you want to know what it felt like being one of the scavengers. Looks like fun!

But not half as much fun as having the whole place all to yourself.

I've known Jill Allyn Stafford since about 2002, when we first started chatting on the original SK8 Jesus messageboard. Like me, she had an interest in many forms of visual arts and funny anecdotes, and even when I stopped being active on any messageboards, she was one of the people I made an effort to stay in touch with, mostly via her Flickrstream.

In the few years since I first met her, Jill has taken great strides with her own creative life, garnering a significant collection of work, and becoming heavily involved in the running of a local gallery, Vox, in her home town of Sacramento. I'm delighted she agreed to be interviewed because I find her attitude very inspiring, and I hope you do, too.

AJ: Who (or what) inspired you to start making collages?
JAS: In 1995 my husband and I were in New Orleans, visiting a friend of his from childhood. His friend was showing us the town, and we stopped in some touristy store so he could buy stamps. I saw the postcards he was mailing and they were all self-made, and they were all collage. I thought they were the coolest things ever and figured that I could do that. About four years ago I started getting into it seriously, and participated in my first art show in 2007.

AJ: What other artists/people inspire you now?
JAS: Oh wow, so many people inspire me. I absolutely love the artistry behind David Mack's work. Hannah Höch. Graffiti artists. And all those people who push me. Charity Larrison and Jeremy Love were key in originally getting me to put myself out there. Laurenn McCubbin gives me new ideas and just really, wow, challenges the hell out of me. She's amazing in her support.

AJ: How do you decide which images and scraps go best together? Is it just an intuitive thing of trying out different layouts, or do you start with a distinct idea of what you want the final piece to look like?
JAS: I start a piece by picking out one or two images that really capture me. From there, I decide how I'd like to progress — either by color schemes or shapes, or whatever. There really is no specific method to my madness. It always depends on how I'm feeling that night.

AJ: Do you ever find yourself looking for a perfect image to tie the collage together, and having to make do with something else because you don't have what you want? Are you generally pleased with the end result anyway?
JAS: It's funny that way, I rarely run into this problem. When I'm working on collages, my brain goes into this weird kind of zen mode. I lose track of time, and basically I just play with scraps and shapes and colors until it all seems to fit. So there's rarely this idea of making do. Everything either works for me or it doesn't. If it doesn't I'll set that piece aside and work on it later, and generally at that point I can finish it to my satisfaction.

And yeah, I'm almost always pleased with my end results (and even if not, I'll sometimes incorporate that piece into another, so there's never really anything that I give up on).

AJ: Do you think of those situations as happy accidents, or are you frustrated that it isn't exactly what you were after?
JAS: Always happy accidents, everything is a happy accident. I never start out with any specific plan in mind. It all comes together as I work. Which is probably why it takes me so long to finish the smallest of pieces.

AJ: You use a lot of vintage and found images. Where do you source them?
JAS: I generally find old pictures or magazines at antique stores. My husband, though, has always made the best finds. He went to an antique store in rural Alabama and came back with some amazing war ration stamps, vintage African-American photographs, and even an old book on spells.

AJ: What's the appeal of using old images rather than more contemporary ones?
JAS: Ha, easy, no copyright infringement. That's it really.

AJ: Do you feel nostalgic for the past?
JAS: Nah. While there are certain aesthetics that I have nostalgia for — 1920s and 1940s style clothing and art for example — I much prefer the time we're in now.

To quote Gogol Bordello, "there were never any good old days, they are today, they are tomorrow, it's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow".

AJ: So, are you basically the same person you were when you were younger, or do you think your personality has undergone radical changes?
JAS: I'm definitely not the same person. I was shy, no self confidence. Somehow magically that has changed (in most arenas at any rate). When we're throwing an art show and I'm playing hostess, I can talk to anybody. Something that I never thought I could do.

AJ: The art shows are at Vox. Tell us about them — how did you get involved with that?
JAS: I got involved in Vox simply by accident. A client at the law firm where I work saw some of my artwork and told me I should introduce myself to some of the people who threw the Vox shows. I did, and they asked to me participate in their next show. I participated in a few more, and got to really like the people.

I sat in on some of their organizational meetings, and they talked extensively about wanting to be a non-profit corporation. With my background as a legal assistant in a law firm, I had plenty of experience forming corporations. I helped them set up their corporate entity, and somehow I also became an officer and a member of the board of directors.

AJ: What sort of responsibilities do you have running a gallery business? Do you have any advice for people who'd like to do something similar?
JAS: Our responsibilities range from finding artists, to hanging their work, advertising for the show, booking musicians to play, prepping the venue for the shows, tearing it all down when the show's done (we share space so we can leave work hanging for one night only), helping the artists price their work, and coming up with themes for shows.

The biggest thing I can emphasize is that you really need to go into this loving what you do. Since we're a non-profit, we personally make no money and spend so many hours making things happen, so it really is the satisifaction of throwing a great show and making a difference in people's lives that has to make it work for you.

AJ: You have limited space, so how do you decide which art you display? Do you take anyone's submissions from anywhere, or is it only people who live in Sacramento?
JAS: One of our goals is to help people who have never shown before, or never played before, and provide them with a venue where they can gain some experience and maybe some self confidence to continue putting their art or music out there. We have a really big space, so it's never been a matter of too much art. We show everything an artist that we've booked brings in.

We do accept submissions from everyone, but because we are a one-night-only venue, it's easier and more cost effective for locals to participate. That being said, we'd love to show work from all over the world.

AJ: What have you got coming up?
JAS: I currently have two pieces in the Centenary of Collage exhibition at the Arison Gallery in Manchester [more information here], and will be showing at Vox Sacramento for our April Second Saturday show on April 11.

AJ: Okay, one last question for fun: what would you do with a time machine?
JAS: I'd go back and hold my children when they were babies. Sniff their heads and just really soak them in. And then as soon as it was time to change a diaper, I'd come back to the future.

For more of Jill's work, take a look at her Flickrstream.

(click on the picture to get notes about all the items)

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