Bookish Bits and Bobs: A Journey Into A Digital World

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With Fathers' Day on the approach in several countries, including in Britain and France, the mad scramble is starting for gifts and cards. Having already recommended on Twitter the other week that Richard Hammond's autobiography "On The Edge" would make an excellent choice of present for many a father, I got thinking about other book recommendations. I have already passed on a copy of Paul French's recent release, "Midnight In Peking", to my own father, as it's a superb historical thriller that takes us on an exciting analytical tour of China in a tragic "whodunnit" case that would appeal to many men (and indeed women) for the mystery that surrounds it, going back 100 years to resuscitate the evidence and finally bring justice. For dads who are into Photoshop and new media, there is also a host of literature on this subject, from authors such as Christiane Paul (author of Digital Art) and Susan Tuttle (who penned Digital Expressions in 2010).

But sometimes the best gift is just time with your dad. I know that either of my parents would probably give their right arms to spend time with their own fathers again. And even if your dad isn't into editing photos and creating websites himself, he may well be interested in a more modern age of art nonetheless - and what better way to indulge than visiting a digital art exhibition together this weekend? While America is arguably better equipped for this than us, with our Yankee brothers boasting digital art museums in Los Angeles and Austin to name just a few, there are plenty of options within the UK. The Waterman International Festival of Digital Art, in celebration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, is running until October in Brentford (postcode TW8 0DS), in conjunction with seminars organised by Goldsmiths, University of London. Each installation will only come alive when people interact with it, and the exhibition's aim is to bring together artists from around the world, as well as exploring and questioning audience engagement with digital art. The current exhibition seminar (until July 8) is entitled Granular Graph, and takes an interdisciplinary approach combining art, science, music, and more. 

If it's raining (which, let's face it, it probably is), there are also plenty of online exhibitions, such as Print Fiction, which runs until June 24th, and the UK Crafts Council exhibitions, which can be accessed here. Online galleries are just another logical step in digital art's surprisingly long history; as well as exhibitions that finished in 2012 in locations as diverse as Hanoi, London and Sheffield, there's also evidence of a San Diego show that took place in 2007, and even a San Francisco show that took place in 2001.

Viral video by ebuzzing

If all of this does inspire you - or your dad - to create some digital art of your own, Designboom/INFINITI's International Digital Art Competition should prove a perfect outlet for your talents and interests. Inspired by the theme 'Curved Visions', as a follow-up to their first theme of 'Inspired Performance', the results will be exhibited at various INFINITI Centres across Europe. The winner of the first round was perhaps unsurprisingly from Japan, where digital art has already achieved a cult following. Shinji Nukumi was announced as the winner and awarded the first prize of €10,000 in Marseilles.

Even if it seems daunting, do not panic! It is stressed that participation is open to applicants worldwide, whether you are a professional or student. As long as you are enthusiastic about design, that is the main thing - and to me, that sounds like a great Fathers' Day project to develop your daddy-daughter or father-son relationship throughout the rest of 2012 and beyond.

Bookish Bits and Bobs: Writing Your Life

I have always been a fan of autobiography as a genre, and luckily so is my husband. As a young teen I would read autobiographies of my favourite pop stars, while today I am more likely to read autobiographies of my favourite writers and broadcasters. These sit on the bookshelf alongside Jean-Marc's choices (often autobiographies written by political figures like Charles de Gaulle). 

So with this being a source of entertainment consistently from teenagedom to adulthood, it hardly seems surprising that I was immediately drawn to the exhibition on autobiography being held at the Louis Vuitton Espace Culturel in Paris' 16th arrondissement. It's just lamentable that I only heard of it a week before it was due to close, meaning repeat visits are unlikely to be possible.

It seems bizarre that while the Louis Vuitton shop on the Champs Elysées teems with Chinese and Japanese visitors, who queue in droves outside the door of the flagship store, the Espace Culturel, which is immediately adjacent to it on the Rue de Bassano, is practically deserted. There are some visitors, but still plenty of space and quiet for you to explore the exhibits, which prove to be an entirely positive and fruitful experience.

The venue itself is spacious and clean-looking, with its white walls and surfaces allowing exhibits to just pop out at you. This is complemented by the panoramic view of Paris to be gained from its tall windows (seriously, don't ever pay to go up the Eiffel Tower when you can get views like this for free) and contrasted by the lift ride up to the exhibit space, which is an exhibit in itself - with your ride taking place in total darkness, the artist behind the exhibit wants to encourage riders to explore their senses differently.

As well as it being free to enter the Espace Culturel, another perk of this exhibition was the sumptuously-illustrated and bound catalogue, also free, which gave details of the artists and their work as you went round, and doubled as a satisfying souvenir. But the whole thing is more than worth paying for, with high quality artworks in a variety of different media providing something for everyone. The number of ways in which the artists have chosen to "write their lives" is incredibly far-reaching: aspects of life and experience are captured through wood sculpture, books, film, photography, watercolour, comic books, and more. 

But perhaps more to the point, the reasons why they have chosen to do this do a lot to make visitors think about what it truly means to be 'us', and what we gain - or do not gain - from exploring our lives' twists and turns. For some artists, such as David B, the aim is clearly catharsis, helping them to work through life events such as the illness of a relative. For others, such as Fiona Tan, the autobiography (an hour-long film entitled May You Live In Interesting Times) is a cruise through their family, lives, and history, in an attempt to find out who she really is (which, you understand, can be difficult when you're half Chinese, half Australian, have lived in Indonesia, and now live and work primarily in the Netherlands). This also raised important questions of identity for us: we are a bi-cultural couple (I am English, he is French) who have both lived in each other's countries and plan on possibly going to live in a third one in a few years' time (Belgium). As a teacher in an international school, I also frequently come across what are known in the industry as "third culture kids": children and young people who are caught between the culture of their parents, the culture of the place in which they live (at that particular moment: some stay for less than a year before moving on) and the culture of the expatriate and international school lifestyle. Now that's some autobiography.

Lucy Wadham is someone else who, although she hasn't written an autobiography, has explored this conundrum through the sociological (and, OK, semi-autobiographical) tome The Secret Life Of France, where she discusses not only her own difficult adaptation to French culture and how this has affected her life but also the voyage of discovery travelled by her children in getting to grips with their Britishness (being raised in France, even by an English mother, has understandably made them very French). 

This is less addressed in the Autobiographies exhibition, though, than pivotal moments that the featured artists feel have shaped their lives: Ernesto Sartori, for instance, illustrates a supernatural experience that he had while still a child through the medium of sculpture, and Frédéric Pajak focuses on a gift of a Tintin album and how this helped him to deal with the death of his father. Others are more gradual (as the reading room of autobiographies in the exhibition space also attests), systematic and analytical in their approach, such as On Kawara, who marks each day of his life so far with a dot on a calendar that has a tiny square for every single day for 100 years. This is colour-coded too, with a yellow dot representing an ordinary day, a blue dot showing a day where he produced one work of art, and a red dot indicating a day where he produced more than one.

The forms of autobiography, then, are clearly as varied in their form and purpose as the spectrum of human life and experience itself. But don't take my word for it: if you're passing through the French capital this week, don't hesitate to go and visit the Espace Culturel. Or, at the very least, view the video trailer of the expo here. And when you've done that, you'll find me watching the story of Roald Dahl's life and work that's still available on ITV Player.

The Autobiographies exhibition at the Espace Culturel (60 rue de Bassano, Paris) runs until May 20th.