Been a bit busy with preparing my final year students for the crunch. In between coming up for air I've been contacting audio visual technology companies to see if there's some new technology I can utilise. WHY? I am currently experimenting with the display of moving image out of the normal flat screen context.
A the moment I am making do by projecting images, using a digital projector and laptop, into or onto 3 dimensional surfaces or cavities.
Ideally I would like to be able to apply or insert a screen of some sort so that - A. the intensity of the image is strong and B. it does not suffer the problems of physical positioning experienced with projectors. A flexible screen arrangement would be ideal, sort of a bendy flat screen monitor.
My aim, if indeed this technology exists, would be to insert a screen into spaces, partially concealed or otherwise to display a portion of a moving image. To get an idea visit my video pages. If you have any bright ideas I'd be interested to hear them!
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Deadline
Yesterday was PG cert hand-in for the MA part-timers and Dip stage for the everyone else. There was some great stuff going on. I was a bit stressed about the whole thing to be honest. The return to education and the pressure to do well has left me knackered, working in Leeds and everything else doesn't help either. I'm enjoying the ideas and the making and can't wait to get my teeth into it next module. The documenting and reflection is something I need much more of a handle on. It's not that I don't do it more that I don't record EVERYTHING. If there's one thing preparing for this presentation has done it's to make me understand the process of research and recording much more, it still won't be easy for me but now I get it!
I put a lot of time into my presentation and think it went ok. As a result of the peer group seminar I have a more recently defined a direction that's built upon my original concept. I am interested in composition, both static and moving. My interest focuses on the idea that a static frame or window as a field of view or observation is a familiar notion, however, the position of this window rarely extends beyond an aperture in the vertical plane and therefore, to some extent must limit what passes through it and how much of our world we see. I want to explore compositions, static and moving, that when viewed out of context but in familiar surroundings exploit cracks in our consciousness.
I put a lot of time into my presentation and think it went ok. As a result of the peer group seminar I have a more recently defined a direction that's built upon my original concept. I am interested in composition, both static and moving. My interest focuses on the idea that a static frame or window as a field of view or observation is a familiar notion, however, the position of this window rarely extends beyond an aperture in the vertical plane and therefore, to some extent must limit what passes through it and how much of our world we see. I want to explore compositions, static and moving, that when viewed out of context but in familiar surroundings exploit cracks in our consciousness.
a crack in the continuum
Friday, 27 March 2009
Peer group Seminar
Things didn't go quite as smoothly as planned but despite being restricted with space the work I intended to show was in place and ready for discussion by the allotted time.
I had produced static images A1 and positioned them roughly as I had intended. Images in a ‘downward’ aspect were stuck to the floor with the intention that the view could and should stand on these while looking up at the corresponding image of what was in the same space. I hoped a sense of space be achieved with the minimal information of up and down without the distraction of the panoramic.
This work was to explore how we perceive our location with this minimal information and how the interpretation might be ambiguous making the viewer question the context of the recorded images.
A variation on this were small scale pieces where images had be reordered from high altitude and so were more abstract. These were to be viewed through a black cone inserted into a lit box with the image inside it, this was deliberate to restrict movement and exclude the distraction of other work shown.
Two videos were also projected upward onto horizontal boards.
Essentially the origins of this work were two fold:
All were intended to use a static window. With the videos the frame was set and whatever image content occurred was as the subject pass across or through the frame or window.
The interaction of the static A1 pieces did not work as the viewer felt reluctant to walk over the floor images and in any case were regarded as just not engaging enough.
The black cone box images were a little more successful but again lacked the necessary impact to fully engage the viewer.
I did wonder if this was partly due to the close proximity of the videos, which it was decided, were by far the most intriguing elements of the showing.
This new experience has taught me not to try and show to many elements or ideas at once. The up and down images I will revisit at an appropriate time in my development to see if the work holds any relevance as my work progresses.
The videos were discussed at length and the potential for the development of these was varied and exciting. One prospect that interested me most was when the kite video projection
was moved slightly and the image partially shifted off the projector board creating a slither of an image onto the roof behind. This gave the sensation of a gap or crack into another dimension. A glimpse of something fleeting. The potential in this is exciting, it will move the work away from a straightforward projection into the realms of installation and site-specific pieces.
The other interesting thin noted about the two video pieces that had not occurred to me was that while both conformed to the static frame idea the content provoked different ways of engagement. The kite movie by now projected in various positions on the multi surfaced roof structure was outside of the space and worked better because of the obstruction to projection. The viewer worked hard at following the content. The glass floor
on the other hand was more absorbing and mesmerising as the viewer concentrated to see movement across a recorded grid.
The outcome of the seminar I see as a positive progressive to understanding how my work might shift into something unexpected, possibly moving away from the up and down concept but retaining my earlier concept of the static frame albeit viewed in a new context.
The earlier part of ‘Erewhon' – work by Jane and Louise Wilson http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/jane-and-louise-wilson/video/ has elements relative to my thinking in relation to my work. The simple, non-figurative linear movements within a frame gives a real sense of place providing an almost balance provoking experience.
I had produced static images A1 and positioned them roughly as I had intended. Images in a ‘downward’ aspect were stuck to the floor with the intention that the view could and should stand on these while looking up at the corresponding image of what was in the same space. I hoped a sense of space be achieved with the minimal information of up and down without the distraction of the panoramic.
This work was to explore how we perceive our location with this minimal information and how the interpretation might be ambiguous making the viewer question the context of the recorded images.
A variation on this were small scale pieces where images had be reordered from high altitude and so were more abstract. These were to be viewed through a black cone inserted into a lit box with the image inside it, this was deliberate to restrict movement and exclude the distraction of other work shown.
Two videos were also projected upward onto horizontal boards.
Essentially the origins of this work were two fold:
All were intended to use a static window. With the videos the frame was set and whatever image content occurred was as the subject pass across or through the frame or window.
The interaction of the static A1 pieces did not work as the viewer felt reluctant to walk over the floor images and in any case were regarded as just not engaging enough.
The black cone box images were a little more successful but again lacked the necessary impact to fully engage the viewer.
I did wonder if this was partly due to the close proximity of the videos, which it was decided, were by far the most intriguing elements of the showing.
This new experience has taught me not to try and show to many elements or ideas at once. The up and down images I will revisit at an appropriate time in my development to see if the work holds any relevance as my work progresses.
The videos were discussed at length and the potential for the development of these was varied and exciting. One prospect that interested me most was when the kite video projection
was moved slightly and the image partially shifted off the projector board creating a slither of an image onto the roof behind. This gave the sensation of a gap or crack into another dimension. A glimpse of something fleeting. The potential in this is exciting, it will move the work away from a straightforward projection into the realms of installation and site-specific pieces. The other interesting thin noted about the two video pieces that had not occurred to me was that while both conformed to the static frame idea the content provoked different ways of engagement. The kite movie by now projected in various positions on the multi surfaced roof structure was outside of the space and worked better because of the obstruction to projection. The viewer worked hard at following the content. The glass floor
on the other hand was more absorbing and mesmerising as the viewer concentrated to see movement across a recorded grid.The outcome of the seminar I see as a positive progressive to understanding how my work might shift into something unexpected, possibly moving away from the up and down concept but retaining my earlier concept of the static frame albeit viewed in a new context.
The earlier part of ‘Erewhon' – work by Jane and Louise Wilson http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/jane-and-louise-wilson/video/ has elements relative to my thinking in relation to my work. The simple, non-figurative linear movements within a frame gives a real sense of place providing an almost balance provoking experience.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Who needs sleep?
I've just handed in my critical writing assignment. I've had a ridiculously busy time the past few weeks which resulted in doing exactly what I tell my students not to do... not to leave it to the last minute! I'd written up a few notes in the previous weeks and just needed to conclude it and type it up. I was staying in a hotel in Leeds the day before hand-in and figured I'd complete the assignment then. After a very long day I checked into my room at 7pm and made myself a coffee in preparation for the task. I lay on the bed for a minute, ...and woke up at 11.15pm! Bugger! I couldn't face it, I was just too tired so I watched the Champions League highlights instead. I had another doze and woke at 2am. Well there was simply no choice so I made a fresh cuppa and got on with it. After what turend out to be a near complete review of the writing I was done and dusted and back in slumberland by 3.30am. Dedication or what?
I wish this was my hotel room.
I wish this was my hotel room.
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Communication
A brief meeting of the Creative collaboration students established one thing.... we ALL find the 'NOW' extremely difficult to navigate and get information. So, despite the thousands of pounds probably spent on it, the NOW falls short of our perceived requirements and we'll be setting up a simple facebook account so we can operate as a group and support each other more easily. It was good to meet up as a group albeit it briefly, I managed to go to see Robyn's band later that night at the Arts centre on station street and thoroughly enjoyed it! It can be quite difficult when you feel as if you're working in a bubble so I hope it's not too long til the next time.
Monday, 16 February 2009
A Good Tutorial
I thought I was bad...but Noooo I'm good!
I was a little concerned about the work I was producing. I wasn't sure what it was saying about me or if there was enough of it! I'm a graphic designer for Gods sake, I can't help it... I've spent the last 25 years being a 'professional informer' and I can't help but want to be very specific about the way communicate visually by providing the answers, I need to snap out of that mentality. Frank (my tutor) was good, he helped me clarify a few things which was in fact all I needed.
I showed a series of images I'd made intending to produce a series of image based books. The structure was simple, from one location, where I was standing, I took one photograph looking up and one looking down, the aim being to explore how the sky view changed in relation to the ground view in a variety of diverse locations. To emphasise this I produce a Google Earth location image with grid references. I see now that this latter part was me trying to justify 'the truth' of my images and it's this I need to give this some thought.
Frank pointed out that I produce a lot of work that clearly demonstrated my ability to produce engaging images but that I should start investigating is how this work might be exhibited.... I showed him a statement that I wrote in my journal in October, it said 'Can the context in which my work is viewed enhance the experience of the viewer - can specific moods & emotions be heightened by creative positioning of images and screen within a 3D space.' it seems we're in agreement, I just need to get on with it.!
In response to this I intend to look at artists who have inventively and successfully use space to make their work more engaging and interactive.
I was a little concerned about the work I was producing. I wasn't sure what it was saying about me or if there was enough of it! I'm a graphic designer for Gods sake, I can't help it... I've spent the last 25 years being a 'professional informer' and I can't help but want to be very specific about the way communicate visually by providing the answers, I need to snap out of that mentality. Frank (my tutor) was good, he helped me clarify a few things which was in fact all I needed.
I showed a series of images I'd made intending to produce a series of image based books. The structure was simple, from one location, where I was standing, I took one photograph looking up and one looking down, the aim being to explore how the sky view changed in relation to the ground view in a variety of diverse locations. To emphasise this I produce a Google Earth location image with grid references. I see now that this latter part was me trying to justify 'the truth' of my images and it's this I need to give this some thought.
Frank pointed out that I produce a lot of work that clearly demonstrated my ability to produce engaging images but that I should start investigating is how this work might be exhibited.... I showed him a statement that I wrote in my journal in October, it said 'Can the context in which my work is viewed enhance the experience of the viewer - can specific moods & emotions be heightened by creative positioning of images and screen within a 3D space.' it seems we're in agreement, I just need to get on with it.!
In response to this I intend to look at artists who have inventively and successfully use space to make their work more engaging and interactive.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
The Impossible Prison
The Impossible Prison, A Nottingham Contemporary Exhibition.
http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/programme/histories-of-the-present/2008-/october/the-impossible-prison/
'Sixteen international artists become “inmates” in The Impossible Prison, an exhibition in an atmospheric abandoned police station. Inspired by Discipline and Punish, the extraordinarily influential book by the philosopher Michel Foucault, the exhibition explores power, control and surveillance, increasingly a part of all our lives.'
What a venue. Perfect! Set in the old Gallery of Justice (disused police station to you and me)
Sixteen artists work set in stark police cells left virtually as were when the Police station closed in 1985 (after the miners strike) it couldn't be more appropriate for the work. Sinister to say the least the exhibition broadly deals with society's relationship with discipline or control and is a direct response to the work of Michel Foucault in his book ' Disicpline and Punish The Birth of Prison'. The range of interpretation is intriguing from 'Multiplicity' the urban controlled environment of the Israeli/Palestinian borders to the more abstract work of Tatiana Trouvé.
The work I found most interesting was the work of Shaina Anand and that of Harun Farocki. It was certainly the voyeuristic nature of the work that I found compelling, I wanted to look at real life.
How much we knew about the people that were being filmed was less significant than the fact that this was real. However the longer I watched the greater my curiosity of the unwitting participants. I wanted to know but am oddly glad I didn't. I don't want to get involved just observe.
It's interesting that both work by these artists involved the use of elevated CCTV cameras. both pointing downwards, observing. Are they still 'CCTV' if they were pointing upwards. Is the sky in prison the same as in the street? Where does the detachment occur? It's something I intend to investigate with my choice of location for looking up or down.
This notion of looking up from a prison might toy with the metaphor for incarceration and freedom, good and bad. Uplifted or downhearted.
I have 'Metaphors We Live by' by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson on order from Amazon. I'm excited as this is an area of language I find fascinating and I'm sure will fuel my investigation into the visual concept of Up and Down.
http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/programme/histories-of-the-present/2008-/october/the-impossible-prison/
'Sixteen international artists become “inmates” in The Impossible Prison, an exhibition in an atmospheric abandoned police station. Inspired by Discipline and Punish, the extraordinarily influential book by the philosopher Michel Foucault, the exhibition explores power, control and surveillance, increasingly a part of all our lives.'
What a venue. Perfect! Set in the old Gallery of Justice (disused police station to you and me)
Sixteen artists work set in stark police cells left virtually as were when the Police station closed in 1985 (after the miners strike) it couldn't be more appropriate for the work. Sinister to say the least the exhibition broadly deals with society's relationship with discipline or control and is a direct response to the work of Michel Foucault in his book ' Disicpline and Punish The Birth of Prison'. The range of interpretation is intriguing from 'Multiplicity' the urban controlled environment of the Israeli/Palestinian borders to the more abstract work of Tatiana Trouvé.
The work I found most interesting was the work of Shaina Anand and that of Harun Farocki. It was certainly the voyeuristic nature of the work that I found compelling, I wanted to look at real life.
How much we knew about the people that were being filmed was less significant than the fact that this was real. However the longer I watched the greater my curiosity of the unwitting participants. I wanted to know but am oddly glad I didn't. I don't want to get involved just observe.
It's interesting that both work by these artists involved the use of elevated CCTV cameras. both pointing downwards, observing. Are they still 'CCTV' if they were pointing upwards. Is the sky in prison the same as in the street? Where does the detachment occur? It's something I intend to investigate with my choice of location for looking up or down.
This notion of looking up from a prison might toy with the metaphor for incarceration and freedom, good and bad. Uplifted or downhearted.
I have 'Metaphors We Live by' by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson on order from Amazon. I'm excited as this is an area of language I find fascinating and I'm sure will fuel my investigation into the visual concept of Up and Down.
