Backup 6 - http://www.generalimprovement.co.uk/about.htm

 

about general improvement

general: adj. common or widespread; of or affecting all or most; not specific; including or dealing with various or miscellaneous items; highest in authority or rank.

improvement: n. from improve: v. make or become better.

Strangely enough, General Improvement was never explicitly formulated as a theory. Rather, it took its time and, from an intuition grew into a paradigm. Strictly speaking, it is an optimistic theory of change.

It seems to have emerged through my work at the beginning of the year 2000. The first reference I have found is a painting I did in January of that year for a gig of the yet-to-be-famous Libertines. I had lived with them the previous year and, even though our conditions of existence were really appalling and it ended as bad as it could (we got evicted in may '99), there always remained a strong optimistic feeling about. It was a way of thinking that nothing could ever get worse since with each day that passed, I had new events to add to my experience, perpetually casting a new light over my past and setting new directions for my future. The painting, plainly factual, read:

IT IS GETTING BETTER

SOMETIMES WITH THE LIBERTINES

236 CAMDEN ROAD

DECEMBER 98 APRIL 99

The very statement it is getting better I seem to have used several times the following spring. In May, I painted what I felt was the paradox of General improvement. It appeared in the series Logos and Slogans and dated 15/05/00 it read:

MY BED SHALL NEVER BE

COMFORTABLE ENOUGH

It simply stated the obvious, saying that there would always be room for improvement. After that, it seems that everything I did was associated to General Improvement. Either little or big, everything to which could be attached a form of dynamic belonged to General Improvement. Failure began to serve the same purpose as success. Because it remains essentially a specific way to look at things, everything is possible. To some extent, General Improvement can also become a justification to the oddest of behaviour, in so far as one is ready to take on the mental gymnastic it implies.

I arrived in London on October the 15th 1998 and began to use the tube straight away. I soon realised that even though best to go from A to B, it was widely loathed by its users. I felt that the excitement of the early days was going to wear off and that before long I would, as all, be looking down as soon as I stepped in. I had to give myself something to do in the tube in order to enjoy it besides travelling from A to B. I needed an extra justification for being there.

It was clear from the beginning that people, for most of them, disliked the experience of being tightly stuck with strangers in a slow moving underground vehicle. In order to survive the unpleasantness of it all, one has to minimise the very notion of being there. To do so, several techniques can be used although the commonest is to avoid any and every form of eye contact - sometimes to the point of stupidity. The easiest way to do so being to look elsewhere, any two-dimensional media will do; books, magazines and newspapers are abundant down there. The tube is probably second only to libraries for that matter. Other people's shoes represent a poor substitute compared to the safety and comfort of one's newspaper.

As an artist I quickly took on the matter of providing two-dimensional media for those in need. Rather than giving newspapers away - that is what I did for a living at the time - I began to carry a picture on a board attached to my back. By doing so, I provided those in need of setting their eyes on a two-dimensional media with a ready-made, convenient and non-judgemental solution.

I carried a picture for a little less than a year, to date, the longest performance I have ever engaged in. Even though this was long prior to it, I consider it was definitely part of General Improvement. It is a little thing that can transform one's day.

That is for the main idea, the rest is down to whoever feels like playing the game. I like to refer to it as the General Improvement Company, because I like the sense of purposefulness, end-of-chain-product meaning it implies. It is a Company whose capital is non material and whose product is free. It has no chairman and no accountant. It is a Company to which, simply because of the optimistic nature of the human kind, most people belong.

Despite being Hegelian in spirit, General Improvement is not a philosophy. It is a fact. Even if you have done little today, chances are that you have taken part to General Improvement one way or another. In the end it is personal: as much in its expression as in its recognition. This is not a restriction nor a fault since the benefits can only be appreciated individually. Similarly, it does not have to serve any grand design as it is all relative and anything will do. In short, so long as there shall be an itch to be scratched, there shall be room for General Improvement.

As I said the experience is essentially personal and everyone is encouraged to develop its own means. The following links are part of what I can only think of as General Improvement. They are my work and, in all likeliness, they will only interest a few. Still, feel free to browse and if you have anything to say, let me know, I am interested.

Madame Doduffort

Brighton, September 2004

Backup 5 - http://www.generalimprovement.co.uk/skateboarders.htm

the skateboarders

Skateboard: n. a short narrow board having a set of four wheels mounted under it, ridden in a standing or crouching position and often used to perform stunts.

As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a skateboarder... This is how the story could start but it just doesn't. I have been on a skateboard for a long time and the activity as well as the people around have long been a source of fascination for me. In 1995, I began sketching a series which I would eventually paint in 2000. In 2006 I wrote a text destined to help my partner understand how it all came about. These are reproduced below.

The Skateboarders #1, #2, #3 and #4 - Acrylic on clay tile - 2000 (concept 1995)

Children of Brighton; skaters of the world. When kids get into something, naively, most assume that it is of their own free will. Children are children, they engage in given activities solely because that is what children do. Children play, children learn and through play, teenagers challenge what they have learned. Skateboarding is, and has been for the past two decades, a ready-made challenge; it was not always the case.

Skateboarding today is one-dimensional and has lost - at least in appearance - many of its original disciplines. Downhill, slalom and freestyle, the leading activities of the skateboarder of the early 70's have given way to the oh-so-spectacular half-pipe. The (re-) emergence of skateboard in the mid 90's happened on the back of the commercial successes of MTV's X-Games and the likes and, the half-pipe, spectacular and photogenic, was always going to be a winner with TV educated children. Money has entered the equation and there is no stopping it. Those who dare and succeed are now handsomely remunerated by those who don't. Money and fame...

Hold it. What is that all about? What do I know about kids today and the way they relate to skateboards, skateboarding and skateboarders, that is, the full spectrum of the skateboard culture? When I began skating; well, actually, I did not begin skating, I just happened to have a skateboard, just as one has a bike or a set of Lego. One does not become a rider, one rides a bike; similarly one doesn't become a Legoer. In that sense, I was never a skateboarder; I only had a skateboard. At least, I was not a skateboarder immediately.

I never knew of any skateboarding culture until I turned eleven and moved from suburbia to city centre. Even there, the culture was very underground and was only represented by one specialised shop. There, I saw for the first time skateboard decks being sold separately from trucks and wheels. I saw skateboard shoes, skateboard clothes and skateboard stickers. A brave new world that I sadly could never afford to enter.

It is only then that I became aware of my position as a skater. I had no skateboard shoes and my board was not branded. Could I ever be a skateboarder in these conditions? Well, I could ride; I had gone down the vertical side of a homemade ramp and my holies were beginning to get off the ground. On the down side, skateboarders were becoming the target of systematic discrimination in town and soon, the spots we rode became increasingly difficult to use. Diligent law abiding shopkeepers and the development of a new kind of street furniture guaranteed the closure of most of our spots.

Other aspects of my life were becoming more important and I soon stopped riding altogether. It was a few years before I went back to it. By then, I had discovered surfboarding and snowboarding, and skateboards had dramatically transformed. The boards were longer, thinner and completely symmetrical and the wheels were very small and hard - conker like - while the techniques and tricks had also evolved. The common thing for towns and cities at the time had become to acknowledge skateboarders and their activities but to confine the lot to dedicated areas. I was lucky enough to live in Marseilles, which had what was long regarded as the best bowl in the world. Surrounded by grass verges, tucked between Mediterranean hills and sea, it was - and still proudly is - an intricate composition of steps, mini ramps and snakes that culminates in the deep bowl itself: a scary drop, even for the most accomplished. Designed by a truly talented local architecture student, it has since inspired many other such places around the world.

There, I tediously got back to my apprenticeship. My holies were now clean, high and steady but I was always keener on skating around town and jumping down sets of steps than hanging by the bowl. The crowd there, mostly made up of testosterone fuelled teenage boys, always bored me. I'm a purist; I'd rather ride than sit around and on top of it, I am an intellectual. Nobody likes a smart ass, and skateboarders are no different.

From my early twenties onwards, skateboarding had become a mean of transport - a poor one admittedly - and holies, a simple trick of the trade, destined to overcome naturally occurring obstacles. This pragmatic approach was never going to sustain itself - especially as I moved to England where road surfaces and pavements are unfriendly to the long distance rider - and soon my board was, again, taking the dust.

It is only in the spring of 2006, some twenty odd years after my first rides, that I got back to skateboarding. This time I am doing something very different from what I have done in the past, yet very close to how it all started. I now slalom weekly with a bunch of people whose experience has been similar to mine, even if the timescale is not always the same. Slalom is a sophisticated practice. It is yet to regain its former glory but in the meanwhile Brighton provides, for a few enthusiasts, the ideal playground. Away from the crowds of the skate parks, kids look at us in disbelief.

This brings us back top our initial concerns. What do Brighton kids do? And more importantly, how do they feel about it? Kids do what they want; to some extent. Some skate because that's all they know. Some skate because everyone they know does so. Some are good and if they keep on going, they will make something out of it. Yet, for most, it will all be the same. Skateboards are toys, for the young ones and for the old ones. They may come with a cultural luggage, they will remain toys and kids will play with them only so long as they find them amusing; three minutes, a summer or a lifetime. It is up to them to find out.

"I have traditionally been drawn to the counter-culture of skate. It is a meditation, subversion and dance."

(Curt, Skateboarder, 45)

Backup 4 - http://www.generalimprovement.co.uk/logosandslogans.htm

logos and slogans

This work is the result of my combined fascination for words and aversion for painting. It reflects the continuous exposure to advertisment I was subjected to, travelling on the London Underground, from 1998 onwards. They illustrate the conclusions I had reached that 2-dimensional communication can be boiled down to a graphical visualisation and a message of sort.

Logos and Slogans - Acrylic on canvas / permanent marker on clay tile - 1999-2002

backup 3 - http://www.generalimprovement.co.uk/carry.htm

to carry a picture

I arrived in London on October the 15th 1998 and began to use the tube straight away. I soon realised that even though best to go from A to B, it was widely loathed by its users. I felt that the excitement of the early days was going to wear off and that before long I would, as all, be looking down as soon as I stepped in. I had to give myself something to do in the tube in order to enjoy it besides travelling from A to B. I needed an extra justification for being there.It was clear from the beginning that people, for most of them, disliked the experience of being tightly stuck with strangers in a slow moving underground vehicle. In order to survive the unpleasantness of it all, one has to minimise the very notion of being there. To do so, several techniques can be used although the commonest is to avoid any and every form of eye contact - sometimes to the point of stupidity. The easiest way to do so being to look elsewhere, any two-dimensional media will do; books, magazines and newspapers are abundant down there. The tube is probably second only to libraries for that matter. Other people's shoes represent a poor substitute compared to the safety and comfort of one's newspaper.
As an artist I quickly took on the matter of providing two-dimensional media for those in need. Rather than giving newspapers away - that is what I did for a living at the time - I began to carry a picture on a board attached to my back. By doing so, I provided those in need of setting their eyes on a two-dimensional media with a ready-made, convenient and non-judgemental solution.
I carried a picture for a little under a year beginning in February 1999 and it is, to date, the longest performance I have engaged in. It is also the first of several projects I have undertaken in the London Underground under the banner General Improvement for TfL. Most of the themes that I tackled in subsequent performances - public transport, anonimity, engagement, communication - were first explored in this project.

Below are most of the images that were used for the performance.

Backup 2 - http://www.generalimprovement.co.uk/office.htm

office

Office: n. room or building where people work at desks; formal position of responsability; place where informations can be obtained.
In the office appear various works I have completed since 1999. For a more up to date production, visit live work.
To carry a picture is the first public transport based performance project I completed in London. The gallery presents the pictures in question as they were transported over the course of a year of travelling the London tube network.

Logos and Slogans is so far, the only truly satisfactory painting series I have engaged in. For the most part, I have always found painting to be a major pain in the neck and I am always only to happy to focus on other creative processes.
I can at the moment only exhibit part of the series as many have been given away over the years. It is a work that began in the spring 2000 and has been carried (with different degrees of assiduity) until now. I have never been attracted to the action of painting for its own sake, my main aim remaining communication. It seems that the Logos and Slogans succeeded in being concise and potent.

The Skateboarders is a series of four paintings and an autobiographic text exploring skateboarding.

Back up 1 - http://www.generalimprovement.co.uk

welcome to general improvement

This portal presents a collective body of artworks undertaken under the name, and by the principle, of General Improvement.

A combination of performances, paintings, writings and community involvement, the visible side of General Improvement has explored various aspects of communication, urban interactions and social responsibility. The concept has been applied and debated over the years but, as a paradigm, General Improvement remains an optimistic theory of change. Read more...

Below are the several facets of General Improvement.

The Office is an archive of the various performance work and painting series completed since 1999.

The Library is a collection of texts written in an academic context and that have been recognized as worthy reading.

The Playroom presents a range of entertaining features that will amaze the mind and dazzle the eye. It is a place where are broadcast these projects undertaken with no intended purposes beyond experimenting and passing the time in an entertaining fashion.

Live work presents several ongoing performance projects and provides links to a blog where these are kept up to date.

Please explore and enjoy; all improvement suggestions will be taken seriously.