Chemicality - Albedium and Inspiration

Today we are returning to 'Chemicality' a slow burning Collect Connect project where we are gathering  elements to create Period Tables and make exciting new discoveries.

Here is our first Chemicality Experiment.....

Experiment - What are the results of mixing Albedium (Ab) with Inspiration (0!)? 

Date: 17 March 2025 

Location: Wallside Chimney, St Giles, Cripplegate, London Wall, London 

Experimenters: Alban Low and Dean Reddick
Apologies: Bryan Benge who was on a field trip 

Aim
A simple aim of locating the elements Albedium and Inspiration and then mixing them together and recording the results.

Method
We found a location where we suspected the two elements would be present. Inspiration, originally discovered by Lesley Cartwright 'Can be found in the most unlikely places but must be used immediately as it tends to dissipate if left unattended' 

Albedium, discovered by Deborah Westmancoat is 'detected at the point where dark, unformed chaos begins to manifest into light, order and form' 

Alban identified an ancient crumbling and shadowy chimney next to a green pond and very quickly found a piece of Albedium. The Albedium had the appearance of solidified smoke and was dark and sooty in colour and wispy in texture. It had little mass.

The Inspiration was found when Alban glanced at the pond through some bushes. The light playing on the water though short lived led us to taking a sample of the water which we immediately added to the Albedium.

Results
The Albedium and the Inspiration formed a small dark pellet-like participate which initially floated in the liquid Inspiration but then sank to the bottom of the test tube. Initial observations suggested that the participate was stable. However on observations at 1 day and 1 week it was discovered that the participate had dissolved into the Albedium Inspiration mixture.

Conclusions
Both Albedium and Inspiration were easy to find as suggested by their Abundance. The two elements reacted and the resultant compound was unstable suggesting that the compound itself was in a state of change over a time of one week. Both Albedium and Inspiration have a temporal quality at Standard Temperature (Evolving and Effervescent) and might explain the dynamic quality of the compound they formed. Further experimentation is required to isolate this new temporal quality found in the compound.

Alban Low and Dean Reddick

The Bastion 12 experiment (Observations of Alban Low)
The Experiment
Just behind the Barber's Physic Garden we found the blackened chimney of the St. Giles Cripplegate City Wall Tower, otherwise known at Bastion 12. As a novice apprentice I got my hands dirty, while Dean took charge of the test tubes and mixing. As I disturbed the ancient soot and cinders in the chimney, a wisp of Albedium escaped, it was feathery and flighty, caught on the chill wind that whistled around the Barbican complex. The Inspiration was easy to find but hard to catch, the dancing light on the Barbican lake gave us a clue, and Dean knelt beside the shallows and scooped some in liquid form. 

We gave the two elements in the test tube a gentle shake, not long after we spotted a small dark pellet. 

The Result
The way that the Albedium (a dark, unformed chaotic element that transforms into a lighter, ordered form) changed made me think that this must be an Answer (to a question). A pill compound that you swallow and it gives you the answer to any problem. I wasn't brave enough to try. Now I know that the new compound disappeared in a few days, makes me think that the problem was only temporary. And just as the problem dissipates so does our compound. 
Future experiments with the Compound

I would like to create the Answer pellet again and see if we can discover the question that it will solve.
Alban Low (March 2025)

Alban Low (with Dean Reddick) - Sets, Series and Ensembles

Alban Low

Welcome to Sets, Series and Ensembles, an exhibition of art in public places. Accompanying each public art placement is a 'First Response' for you to read here on the website. As artists and writers we are constantly collecting ideas, objects, themes, and sentiments. We are often searching for the connections and narratives that help us understand both our lives and our art.  

Alban Low

I met Alban 35 years ago when we were both studying on an Art and Design Foundation course in Hounslow, London and I am taking the opportunity of writing todays post to say a big thank you to Alban from Bryan, myself and everyone involved with Collect Connect for his amazing energy, generosity and creativity. 

Todays set of painted pebble people comes from Alban Low and the little faces have made their way to all sorts of places. Dean Reddick provides a rhyme.

Alban Low

Alban Low

Alban Low and Henry Moore

Alban Low

The Dream Of Knuckle Number Five

 

Five Yeller knuckle-heads

Sleeping in their stony beds

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Nelly-Knuckle liked to chuckle

Knuckle Lily was loud and silly

Knuckle-me-pink liked a drink

Barny Knuckle was fond of trouble

 

Knuckles number Four to One

Went out in the Yeller sun

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Laughing Nelly was first to go

All the way to Walthamstow

Knuckle Lily, being silly,

Went as far as New York City

 

Knuckles number three and four

Followed their sisters out the door

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Knuckle-me-pink, what a bum

Ended in a beer drum

Barny Knuckle, for a lark

Claimed a place in modern art

 

But what of Knuckle number Five

Where did they go? Did they survive?

Goofy teeth and google eyes

Took the world by surprise

 

Knuckle Five was never found

Though rumour is they went to ground

Planted in earthy borders

To dream about her son and daughters

Alban Low

Alban Low is an artist and illustrator, working in a signature graphic style for album covers and specialising in impromptu portraits of jazz musicians. He currently presents Directorrific! the radio show for directory lovers.

http://albanlow.com/

Dean Reddick is an artist and an art therapist. He frequently works with casting processes and loves drawing trees. 
https://deanreddick.blogspot.com/

Alban Low - Translocation Dislocation (words by Lucy Furlong)

Welcome to the Translocation and Dislocation exhibition, a selection of eclectic artworks that have been placed or screened beyond the tradition gallery walls. Alongside the art, you can read written works by our First Responders. We will choose a different location for each artwork, the art might be placed in a complementary location (to add to the narrative) or juxtaposed against a competing backdrop to create new meaning.

Living in the cracks, lurking in the spaces left behind, Alban Low's crackmen are now starting to emerge from the shadows. Words are by artist and poet Lucy Furlong, read them below.

Alban Low

First Responder: Lucy Furlong

Caught between
the cracks/ hiding behind/
out of view/ habitat
rusty ironwork/ graffiti
decorated edges/ the back
of beyond/ underneath,
the beside/ out of view/
the unlooked for/ unspoken
place/ the soundless house/
the edge of life/ the edge of
the park/ hanging on/ hanging
out/ caught between the cracks/
sliding/ sticking and catching
in the awkward spaces/ dis-placed
but still there/ hiding in plain site/
forgotten/ disregarded/ unseen
on purpose/ un-looked for
on purpose/ falling and caught
in the cracks in-between/
stuck in the empire of in-between/
dis-placed in full view/ un-viewed
in dis------------------------------place,
spirits of uproot and unkempt

-----------------------------------------------------------

Alban Low is an artist and illustrator, working in a signature graphic style for album covers and specialising in impromptu portraits of jazz musicians. He currently presents the JazzLondLive radio show on Brooklands Radio.

http://albanlow.com/

The writing journey of Lucy Furlong has taken her from signing a record deal aged 19, as a singer and lyricist in a band, to a stint in corporate communications working on in-house publications in the 1990s and early 2000s. She attained a degree in creative writing and journalism at Kingston University, and then a MFA in creative writing, specialising in poetry, alongside a Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE). Lucy has published and performed poetry for over a decade, and her work is taught as part of the Open University MA in Creative Writing.

Alertism - Alban Low

Welcome to the Alertism exhibition, featuring artistic and literary works that were inspired by the Emergency Alert test message that was sent to people with a mobile device on Sunday 23rd April at 3pm.

We have a tempting proposition for you today on the Alertism exhibition. CollectConnect co-founder Alban Low asks you to push the button, but just once only. Can you resist? And what would happen if you pushed it twice. The First Responder who has to exert self control is writer Katerina Koulouri. Read her response below.

Alban Low

First Responder: Katerina Koulouri

Clear instructions
In capitals
I could ignore the urge
Follow the instructions
Keep this somewhere safe
Only use it in case of emergency
Only once

    Some other me is tempted to do the opposite and will probably go ahead
    at some point very soon and will press the red button a few times because
    what’s the point of pushing it only once anyway. I’ll wait to see what happens.
    Could it be flooding, an earthquake, a fire? Did I just escape some certain
    death and should be grateful?

Or, I could just store it in a box
Store the box in the cupboard with all the other boxes
Postcards and other mementos
Forget about it, like all the other
Postcards and mementos
After all, it’s only a red button next to some clear instructions
What matters is that someone thought of me

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alban Low is an artist and illustrator, working in a signature graphic style for album covers and specialising in impromptu portraits of jazz musicians. He is currently artist-in-residence at Twickfolk and presents the Jazzlondlive radio show on Brooklands Radio.
http://albanlow.co.uk/

Katerina Koulouri is a poet and translator living in London. She was born in Athens, Greece and lived in France for 5 years where she studied Oenology and Modern French Literature. Katerina also holds an MA in Creative Writing (poetry) from Kingston University, London. Poetry, wine and childrens’ books are her passions. She recently published her debut pamphlet, INVITATION TO ELSEWHERE .

Leonard Matthews - Tolworth Plaque Exhibition

Today we finished off the Tolcake Heroes exhibition with a final brass plaque dedicated to Leonard Matthews. It has been a wonderful exhibition from Sam Tout and Alban Low who hope to be working on a new exhibition in 2020.

Leonard Matthews (b. 1896)
7 Hazel Bank, Tolworth, Surrey, England

The George Medal has been awarded to Mr. Leonard Matthews, a Surbiton A.R.P. worker, of 7, Hazelbank, Tolworth, for his gallantry in tunnelling under the wreckage of a bombed house and causing a trapped man to be rescued, following a raid in September. Mr. Matthews was the leader of a stretcher party which rescued three people from under the stairs of a bombed house, and then turned their attention to another wrecked house. “We were told that a man, Mr. Butler, and his wife and child were under the debris,” said Mr. Matthews, “There was no sign of life but I started a tunnel with my hands, and eventually found Mr. Butler under the wreckage. My colleagues and I pulled him out. He was almost unhurt. His wife and child, luckily, were not at home when the bomb fell.” Mr. Matthews served in the R.A.M.C. in the last war, and for a few years after the Armistice. He twice played in Army Cup Association football finals, and received first a winners’ medal and then a runners up medal from the late King George V, who. just after the last war, decorated him with the Meritorious Service Medal, which Mr. Matthews was awarded for helping to prevent an ammunition train from being blown up in Russia. “Although I have shaken harids with his late father, I have never had the pleasure of meeting our present King,” Mr. Matthews said.
Surrey Advertiser - Saturday 21 December 1940

More Impossipebbles in South Devon

We first encounter pebbles in childhood, selecting them, chucking them in the air, stacking them as piles, selecting colour, pattern.

Later in life we select again, look for the flat ones, the right weight ones, the ones that skim across the water, to disappear.

Humans selected Pebbles as tools, they are among the earliest known man-made artefacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history.

Now they have been selected again, to make paintings, sculptures, repurposed images, placed and perhaps rediscovered by others, to hopefully beckon the minds eye, what, how, why.

This will be the last of the impossipebbles for a few weeks but keep a look out for the Art of Caring call out which should go live in the next week or two.

Bryan Benge - Impossipebble 7 / Odin 3

Placed next to a rusty old anchor at Beesands  

Alban Low - Impossipebble 8, 9 and 10
The Cannon at Bayard’s cove quay side Dartmouth

Impossipebble 8

Within Bayard’s Cove Fort Dartmouth , through a doorway just above the sea on a small ledge.

Impossipebble 9

On the rear axle of the Sherman Tank memorial at Start Bay. 

Impossipebble 10

Impossipebbles in Slapton

We continue our art pebble trail through the lanes of South Devon with a visit to Slapton today.

We first encounter pebbles in childhood, selecting them, chucking them in the air, stacking them as piles, selecting colour, pattern.

Later in life we select again, look for the flat ones, the right weight ones, the ones that skim across the water, to disappear.

Humans selected Pebbles as tools, they are among the earliest known man-made artefacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history.

Now they have been selected again, to make paintings, sculptures, repurposed images, placed and perhaps rediscovered by others, to hopefully beckon the minds eye, what, how, why.

Bryan Benge - Impossipebble 4 / Odin 2

In a niche in the old chancery college boundary wall, Slapton Village.  

Dean Reddick - Impossipebble 5

In a wall niche near the ruined Slapton village Tower. This was built in 1347 and formed the western end of the Chancery College founded by Sir Guy De Briene. It is conveniently near the Tower inn pub for thirsty art lovers.

  

Alban Low - Impossipebble 6

On the seat inside the Slapton Ley bus shelter

Impossipebble for 2020

Recently we've been trying out new ways of exhibiting in public spaces. We have had Alban's What If posters on the outside of a railway station, and then an exhibition of brass plaques on benches down Tolworth Broadway. Both of these are ongoing, and with only a handful of contributors to propel them along they'll develop over the coming weeks and months.

For the start of 2020 CollectConnect co-founder Bryan Benge has developed a new public art exhibition for us to try. He may well be inviting new participants or simply developing the idea amongst the CollectConnect diehards. He has written a little bit more about the Impossipebble project below, and you can see the first 3 pebbles are now out in public!

The name Pebbles is of English origin. 

Small stones; size of 2 to 64 millimetres based on the Krumbein phi scale of sedimentology. !!!

We encounter those at childhood selecting them, chucking them in the air, stacking them as piles, selecting colour, pattern.

Later in life we select again, look for the flat ones, the right weight ones, the ones that skim across the water, to disappear.

Humans selected Pebbles as tools, they are among the earliest known man-made artefacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history.

Now they have been selected again, to make paintings, sculptures, repurposed images, placed and perhaps rediscovered by others, to hopefully beckon the minds eye, what, how, why.

I know not how I may seem to others, but to myself I am but a small child wandering upon the vast shores of knowledge, every now and then finding a small bright pebble to content myself with. 

Plato

Dean Reddick - Impossipebble 1

Location: All Saints Church, Merriott, Somerset.  

Bryan Benge - Impossipebble 2 / Odin 1 

Location: the circular tree bench in Stoke Fleming village  

Alban Low - Impossipebble 3

Slapton Sands D Day war memorial.  

and on the other side of the memorial was this poignant tribute

Thomas Dumper and Nobby Reddick - TolcakeHeroes

author Sam Tout

Sam Tout and Alban Low's new exhibition along Tolworth's famous Broadway continues with new plaques dedicated to local heroes Thomas Dumper and Nobby Reddick. Sam's plaque is inspired by a lovely doughnut he ate at the Moda Caffe. This week they are joined by CollectConnect co-founder Dean Reddick, who has chosen to honour his dad as his hero.

Doughnut
Here is Sam Tout's delicious haiku........and above is the doughnut before it was gobbled up.

Eat space world Doughville 

Lava land of jelly prey 

Tastes stress ball de-light

Nobby Reddick

Nobby Reddick plaque by Dean Reddick

Dean Reddick's plaque is dedicated to the incomparable Nobby Reddick. Nobby (born 1945) and his wife Sonia have been residents of Tolworth for many years. He has worked as a painter and decorator for most of his life and continues to be an active member of the community.

Thomas Dumper plaque - Alban Low

Thomas Dumper
Our third plaque is dedicated to Thomas Dumper (1861-1943). Dumper was a member of Surbiton Council for forty years and was second substitute Charter Mayor. For some years he was a police sergeant (270 Division) and saved a man's life in 1887 when the man deliberately threw himself off Westminster bridge. He left the force in 1898 to become licensee of the Red Lion, Tolworth, and retired as victualler in 1925. Dumper was “father” of the Council, and an alderman when he retired from the Council in 1940. He was chairman of the Surbiton District Council from 1917 to 1920, and was made the first freeman of the borough of Surbiton in 1937. In the 1918 Parliamentary election he unsuccessfully contested the Kingston Division as a Labour candidate.

Thomas Dumper

TolcakeHeroes - Charlie Spooner Tolworth

Sam Tout - Tolcake Haiku 

A few months ago we started a new exhibition at Tolworth Station with our What If posters. It has been a great success and has included work from artists Sam Tout, Bryan Benge and Alban Low. We'll finish this exhibition in the next few weeks and I'm sure we will revisit the format in the future. But worry not public art lovers because we have another venture up our collective sleeves.

Alban Low - Tolcake Hero

Sam and Alban have begun a new exhibition in Tolworth today, this time along its famous Broadway. They have written haiku and had them engraved on brass effect plaques. Alban has chosen to write about heroes of Tolworth while Sam has found inspiration from cakes he is eating in the Broadway shops and cafes. They have placed the first two brass plaques out on benches today. Go and have a look for yourself.

Sam's haiku today was inspired by a Caramel Bun from Costa Coffee (55-57 Tolworth Broadway, Surbiton KT6 7DW)

Sweet Tolworth cake rain, 

On caramel roundabouts, 

Creamy clouds blow out 

Alban's haiku is inspired by Charlie Spooner (aged 13) who rescued a school chum from the Hogg's Mill river in 1909. He was awarded a special certificate from the Royal Humane Society and was lauded as a hero in the local area. The boy he saved was so grateful he gave Charlie all his worldly possessions including his swimming shorts, a fishing rod, 3 farthings and a quantity of cake. Unfortunately Charlie died 5 years later and is buried in St Mary's Churchyard, Long Ditton.

A special thank you to Robin Hutchinson and The Community Brain who has made this project possible. More next week when Sam eats a massive doughnut and I celebrate the life of the great Thomas Dumper.

What If exhibition in Tolworth

'What If' is a new exhibition that celebrates a world of whimsical and playful futures. Posters are being placed at Tolworth railway station over the next few months that we hope will be imaginative and silly. They might even make you laugh and perhaps provoke a thought or two.

For us it is a new format here at CollectConnect and we are slowly trialling the concept. The first posters are from Alban Low who many of you will know and Sam Tout, a new young artist with an inquisitive mind. Dean Reddick and Bryan Benge will be following with their own What Ifs.

Tolworth is the gateway to new worlds, it is the home of imagination where every future is possible. We are very grateful to The Community Brain who has helped with this exhibition and artist Debbie Chessell who has her studio at Tolworth Station.

#whatiftolworth

Sam Tout

Alban Low

Alban Low - groving in Bury St Edmunds

Alban Low's second sculpture, I would prefer a fair trial, under the shadow of the noose, is skulking in Whiting Street, words by Amilia Graham and Tim Welton.

Foreign Bodies

I have seen the weird animals
and the little white flowers
with divine appendages

In the whites of the eyes-
I have seen them in your eyes.

Hold them inside, under the skin.
Let rot.
Go stale.
Let them in.

Amilia Graham 

----------------------------------------------
In the land of Cockaigne
The triple towers of Mammon
Rise to the clouds
From roots in grow-bags
Of corporate snow
Dead presidents
Scowl
From their lofty penthouse
At pavement trash

 In the shadow of the noose
Eager hearts
Chattering like parrots
Trade weightless pounds
At the speed of electrons
Ignoring the dull cries of
Doorway beggars
Feeding from the same trough
 Binary lives
Ones and zeros
Side by side
High flyers and street bums
Drop a dot and slide down
The smoking chimneys pots
From skyscraper to street
The climb is slower than the descent
But one end to the other
Is just a step away

Tim Welton

Alban Low is involved in many creative projects including album artwork, publishing chapbooks, making films, maps, conceptual exhibitions, live performance and good old drawing. He is artist-in-residence at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education at Kingston University and St George's University of London. Low spends his evenings in the jazz clubs of London where he captures the exhilaration of live performances in his sketchbook. This year he is working on a walking project about London Musicians from the 1920s-1940s. In 2018 he spent a week at grove with Kevin Acott where they published two chapbooks. See http://albanlow.com

Amilia Graham is interested in the way capitalism informs relationships between humans and nature. She works across all different mediums, but is primarily drawn to time-based practices such as writing and film. Her research draws from psychoanalysis, film theory, feminism and Marxism. She has completed a foundation in art and design at Central St Martins and will soon begin a degree in fine art and history of art at Goldsmiths. See www.amiliagraham.uk and Twitter @AmiliaGraham

Tim Welton is a theatre practitioner who, as an actor and director has worked on numerous productions including Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Royal National Theatre) London Road (Royal National Theatre) Dancing at Lughnasa (Garrick Theatre) and Cabaret (Lyric and Savoy Theatre and National Tours).

He has written for theatre (Carnival UK) and online digital media (BBC Radio Jam) and is currently developing and writing new musical commissions with Three Pin Productions, the brainchild of West End Performer Ruthie Henshall and Musical Director Paul Schofield.

Alban Low - groving / Acts of Resistance

A dodgy looking sculpture by Alban Low has been left at the top end of Abbeygate Street today.

drug stub doggy bag
suck it up
suck it in
dollar god
tobacco king
snow queen

Sue Burge

Alban Low is involved in many creative projects including album artwork, publishing chapbooks, making films, maps, conceptual exhibitions, live performance and good old drawing. He is artist-in-residence at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education at Kingston University and St George's University of London. Low spends his evenings in the jazz clubs of London where he captures the exhilaration of live performances in his sketchbook. This year he is working on a walking project about London Musicians from the 1920s-1940s. In 2018 he spent a week at grove with Kevin Acott where they published two chapbooks. See http://albanlow.com

Sue Burge is a North Norfolk based poet and freelance tutor in creative writing and film studies.  Her first collection In the Kingdom of Shadows was published in 2018 alongside her debut pamphlet Lumiere. For more information go to www.sueburge.uk

Art of Caring opens at St Pancras Hospital

It was a wonderful evening at the St Pancras Hospital gallery when we launched our fifth ART OF CARING exhibition. A lovely balmy evening brought out a big crowd of art lovers who spilled out into the St Pancras courtyard. The evening was launched by a fantastic passionate speech from St Pancras/CANDI CEO Angela McNab followed by Professor Karen Norman from Kingston University. She presented a well deserved award to the winner of the Art of Caring Writing Competition, Bola Lafe. Then we were treated to fabulous entertainment from Matt Grabham and his magic subterranean violin, Paul Destry with two soul searching blues numbers and our headliner Lucinda Sieger who performed with professional sparkle and joy and captivated our audience with 3 of her key hit songs.

Many thanks to all the artists supporting us who came with family and friends. Reaction to the artwork is strong and positive .Watch out for the premiere of Anna Bowman's new film about the exhibition on our closing night 4/10/19. 

Thank you to the continued support from The Nursing school at Kingston University and Peter Herbert and his team at St Pancras. This is truly a magical exhibition.

If you would like to see a larger selection of photos then follow this link - https://photos.app.goo.gl/19TmbhuMmTXFFvuL8