Jotta

Jotta

23 January, 2009
by: Tom Jeffreys

London Exhibitions

So January's nearly over. It's now that time of year when you begin to realise that your New Year's resolutions have rather fallen by the wayside. I had vowed to eat more fruit (that's still going ok), sort my finances out (fat chance), and stop writing endlessly about myself (well, that was never going to happen).

So I've come up with a new resolution and it kicks in from February. Given that I have lofty literary pretensions, I've taken my inspiration from one William Blake. In Blake's beautiful epic poem Jerusalem, The Emanation of the Giant Albion, the prophet/artist Los declares:

Well, if it's good enough for Los, it's good enough for me. But how to act upon it? No reason? That shouldn't be a problem. No comparing? That'll be even easier than giving up reasoning. Oops. Maybe not. But creating? I'd better consult the experts.



I've recently been told about a new creative network called Jotta and I'm intrigued. Jotta.com was launched in September 2008 in partnership with Central Saint Martins and the University of the Arts London, as a kind of digital community for creative folk. The idea is that you have a profile on which you can showcase your stuff – be it painting, fashion, graphic design, illustration or whatever – and through this you can see work by people you like, discuss things, organise events, collaborate and feel all the benefits of a community. Jotta have only gone and created a system!

So how does this help me? Well, firstly I can see work by a host of creative types and find out what the cool kids are up to. And secondly – and this is the important bit right now – this February they're taking over the Newburgh Quarter with a programme of activities that you can participate in. On Valentine's Day there's a Scratch 'n' Sniff Cinema showing of Peter Greenaway's 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover', where there'll be unique smells courtesy of Bompas & Parr and 'botanical aphrodisiac cocktails' (whatever they are) supplied by Bulldog Gin.

On Tuesday 17th February there's a Fashion Workshop where you can make your own clothes based on patterns donated by the super-cool Richard Nicoll, and on Sunday 22nd there's an Illustration Market where you can create lots of fun things with the help of illustrator Emma Rios. After all this, the place becomes a curated gallery space, exhibiting the best work by all the artists on Jotta. Pretty neat huh?

So there we have it. Jotta's whole creative extravaganza comes at a pretty good time for me. This February I'm going to get my creating on. And it's all thanks to Jotta, whose business really is to create. And now it's mine too. Let's see how long I last...

Jotta is at 29 Foubert's Place, London W1 from 14th - 28th February.

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Tom Jeffreys