Wednesday 31 October 2012

"I am interested in the medium of video as something you experience sensually as well as something that you may recognise."   Turner prize nominee and Digital Media artist Elizabeth Price, 2012.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/talks-and-lectures/turner-prize-artists-talk-elizabeth-price

Balance Out of Life from Wyatt Hodgson on Vimeo.


Wednesday 26 September 2012

For further information on microplastics and how they may be entering our seas please view my blog from the first post. Thanks :)

Thursday 5 July 2012

I have been awarded a First Class Honours Degree!!! Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Tuesday 3 July 2012

An introduction to the new blog,

Beginnings follow Endings



Beginnings follow Endings TUESDAY, 3 JULY 2012 In June I completed a 3 year full time Fine Art BA (Hons) Degree study as a mature student at Plymouth University, England. Since then life has become a time of excitement as well as readjustment. Things seem a little precarious but I am adjusting daily. To some extent there is a sense of anticlimax but I am only at the foot of a huge mountain that I intend to explore and attempt to climb...... In order to go forward, sometimes, we must must recognise that...  beginnings follow endings.
Husband and I went to the Eden Folk Session at the Eden Project, Cornwall on Sunday. Despite the mizzle we had a great time, especially with Bellowhead! 


We sat upon a grassy bank - I was in pure delight. A sea of colourful blobs individually bouncing - festival goers in bright colourful rainproof clothing jigging to the beating music. The unpredictability of where the next bounce was to occur was intriguing and fun at the same time....time to create a new blog and put sub/supra to bed....at least for now :)



Friday 29 June 2012

Things are definitely moving forward! Conversations of collaborations, forming art groups and proposals! Very exciting! 

Wednesday 27 June 2012



Tomorrow is the final day of the show and the work will then be taken down.




I have felt unbalanced during the past week - I seem to have lost my bearings, I can no longer detect north. This has surprised me greatly but a good friend warned me this could happen; recognising this is the key.




I made some curtains this weekend for our lounge, we want to put our house on the market and move to Devon, but the process of making the curtains bored me intensely. I am struggling to grasp the life I pursued before. The weather is not helping...rain, rain and more rain. Everything feels damp and appears grey.




It is however, wonderful to be with my husband and three children again and to not have my degree dominating our time.




My brother and his wife visited my work, as did my parents. Having that support cannot be expressed in words. I am most grateful.




I now have to look forward. I am excited by this though intimidated. Time has been spent with some very special people and I don't think I have realised how big a role they have played. Perhaps this is impinging on me now. This is how my life has always been...a constant flow of chapters...or perhaps books. Each book contains different circumstances and different persons...no two books come together. This book could be closing but that is my choice...I am tired of closing books and starting again...perhaps this book will remain open for a little longer.

Thursday 21 June 2012

I need a studio!


Comments  reference my work in the degree show.


a beautiful and thought provoking piece


mesmerising


stunning 


cool


beautifully considered


interesting and graphic

Friday 15 June 2012

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/in-the-best-possible-taste-grayson-perry/4od#3364319

A frightening but cleverly directed series!

Monday 11 June 2012

Have been reading The Future of the Past; The Loss of Knowledge in the Age of Information by Alexander Stille....a REALLY interesting read!
...wow, Manchester looks great for MA Visual Anthropology also...!

Sunday 10 June 2012

I have been further considering the idea of MA study, and questioning, what were the higher points of my degree study? After some consideration I feel the answer to this has been the research (through lectures, reading, documentaries, related talks) and questioning, and the opportunity to think. I am a thinker, observer and a questioner, as I discovered while writing my Dissertation, Critical Commentary. Translating/interpreting these thoughts into art has been interesting but has sat slightly lower in interest than the research. 


I have often wished for a greater background in anthropology. It is anthropology that I am now considering advancing into. 


Where to study? Goldsmiths offer a couple of courses in this field - interestingly Visual Anthropology which practices predominately in video.  They also offer Anthropology and Cultural Politics which sounds really interesting. Although I imagine highly competitive to get into, if I were successful, perhaps the part time option  may be a possibility. I am of course considering this for sometime in the future when the children are off doing their own things! The crutial thing is that I continue reading and keep up with my filming and editing skills.


Bristol also offers Social Anthropology which again looks so interesting.


Hmmm, food for thought!
This is crazy!


Wide awake and not falling asleep before 02:45hrs??? 


Following 3 years of study, the studying has become, quote Marx, "...the opium.." to my life!


Haha, well not literally, but I am finding it very difficult to slow down...my mind is a constant chunder, chunder, chunder.

Friday 8 June 2012


As humans we feel an involvement with the possession and responsibility of planet Earth. 
We crave to prevent the destruction of the Earth and its species. 
We battle to apply the brakes on evolution.
Much evolving is occurring through mans increasing technologies. 
Can we allow ourselves to consider the Earth and Man's technologies as a marriage and thus, as beautiful?

Wednesday 6 June 2012






My Degree Show piece for my Fine Art BA (Hons) Degree at Plymouth University 2012.

sub/supra iii/pioneer by Mandy Beall
The more I consider the thinking of Zizec and now Nye the more I I believe that since day dot, the day man first walked on this Earth, nature has ceased to exist. From the moment the technology of communication began to the first beast that was slain, congested and skinned  for clothing, warmth and shelter, unnatural, unprogrammed, genetically modified events occured.


We live in a world of constant modification. Some we are conditioned to consider as good and some less so.
I am currently reading David E Nye's, Technology Matters, Questions to Live With. (Borrowing it from Plymouth University Library so must get myself a copy!)


A very interesting and appropriate chapter to my current work (now known as sub/supra iii/pioneer), Sustainable Abundance, or Ecological Crisis. 


He relates to J.B Jackson (one of the founders in Landscape Studies) whom I have previously mentioned and comments, 


'Landscape is not natural; it is cultural. It is not static; it is part of an evolving set of economic and social relationships. Landscapes are part of the infrastructure of existence, and they are inseparable from the technologies that people have used to shape land and to shape their vision. People continually put the land to new uses, and what appears to be natural to one generation is often the struggle during a previous generation. Some of the apparently wild moors beloved of hikers in Britain were once thickly forested. In other parts of England and Scotland, land owners evicted small farmers during the period of enclosure, creating a countryside that visitors now take to be "natural"........Almost everywhere, the appearence of the land is the result of an interregional interplay between agriculture, industry, and leisure activities. Technologies also affect the air, which carry traces of smoke, microscopic particles, pollen, carbon monoxide and the dust raised by travel.'


D.E.Nye (2006:88-89)


The Mit Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England




............and washing machines possibly distribute plastic fibres into the sea!!!!

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Foucalt's heterotopias are intriguing me!
Landscape as defined by J B Jackson...


'A composition of man-made or man-modified spaces to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence' 


John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (New Haven, Conn.; Yale University Press, 1984), 8. cited by David E Nye, Technologies of Landscape From Reaping to Recycling, (University of Massachusettes Press, 1999)

Monday 4 June 2012

Evaluation complete, looking back at initial proposal. It's funny how you think you know the way the work will go, but at the end of the day it can go anywhere. I am pleased with the work though disappointed I didn't have greater opportunities to further the work in the Marine Science Lab. I think this was explored too late in the year and the department had too large a work load. I am gratefeul for the small opportunity I was given though.


As the Degree draws to an end, with the final assess on Thursday, I feel it is time to move on. I am looking forward to allowing myself to begin seeing again. It was lovely to visit the beach with my family at the weekend and to relax while being there. I was able to be at one with my family as supposed to being obsessed with seeking inspiration and matter.


MA studies? Perhaps one day. I loved my first year of the degree and the weekly lectures. Those I have missed throughout the second and third year. I felt my brain expand within that first year!


Now I look forward to spending the summer with my family with a trip to the north west coast of Holland in August...I look forward to foraging new material there.

Friday 1 June 2012

The evaluation goes on! Think I am heading somewhere with it now....

Thursday 31 May 2012

'In the twenty-first century, some of the most dynamic works of art are being produced not in the studio but in the laboratory, where artists probe cultural, philosophical and social questions connected with cutting-edge scientific and technological research...taking in everything from eugenics and climate change to artificial intelligence.' Wilson, S. 2010.


Art and Science Now, Thames and Hudson Inc.
The space looks great! Walls sanded and painted, plinth constructed and painted and sanded down four times, cabinet painted and in semi-situ (!) and floors scrubbed! Having some problems with projection but will deal with that later today.


STILL working on evaluation! Argghh! Succinct is NOT one of my attributes! Having covered so much it is like trying to cram it all into an eggcup!

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Physically shattered!!


Jack came in to help paint the walls while I sanded down minor imperfections on new plinth. This has now had it's first coat of paint...at least 3 more to go! Boys getting school bus home tomorrow, Eliza on school trip in France SO I don't need to leave the studio until it is all complete! Let's hope it won't be too late! Aiming to be in studio for 8:30am.

Monday 28 May 2012

Good day in the studio today - and really great having my husband in to lend me a helping hand with the construction of the plinth and storage unit. The walls have also been sanded down (oops, lots of dust!) so tomorrow will be devoted entirely to painting. Think my son will also be in to assist.






Note - NEW PLINTH!
The materials, the washing machine and the sea, have come together and by so doing have allowed a communication, a dialogue to occur between the two.
Tutor suggests I look into 'techno sublime'...on first glimpse this seems perfect....now off to the studio.
Trying to get my head around exactly what I am trying to convey.


While observing a sand sample under the lens of the microscope the image below struck me as 'dangerously beautiful'. A shard of intense blue. A plastic fibre. A toxic plastic fibre among many grains of sand. Planet earth is made up of many things and though many are foreseen on the surface as being toxic and dangerous can we allow ourselves to consider them as ultimately beautiful? 



When looking down at planet earth from space images present us with a sphere. This sphere appears as a projection and the projection remains within the boundaries of the earths form, this sphere.


The plinth therefore can be considered as a representation of the earth and this perfect projection within this form.
As humans we are obsessed with the possession and responsibility of planet Earth. We crave to prevent the destruction of the Earth and its species. We battle to apply the brakes in evolutionary development. Much evolving is occurring through mans increasing technologies. Can we allow ourselves to consider the Earth and man's technologies as a marriage and thus, as beautiful?


What gives us the right to allow technology to evolve yet planet earth must not?





Friday 25 May 2012

Yesterday all the materials were cut - B&Q, excellent!
Peter taking Monday off work so we can build the plinth and shelving unit together. 
Wall has now been erected - big improvement to my space and likewise to the other students sharing this area. Not sure they are currently feeling the same way but hopefully they will soon when they stop seeing me as a threat to their work. 

Thursday 24 May 2012

Heading in to the studio now....exhibition space begins!
Peter dropping up later and we shall be heading to B&Q to buy 9mm MDF to make new plinth. Keep pondering on the acrylic tank with sand...tricky, tricky. 
Have burnt video to dvd and am taking up dvd player to test this out...otherwise Apple TV here I come!



Wednesday 23 May 2012

'A phenomenologist should go in the direction of maximum simplicity', Bachelard (1994:107)


Likewise the work is calling to be exhibited in 'maximum simplicity'. 

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Things are rapidly going from bad to worse. Communication is breaking down. Cannot believe with only a couple of weeks to go a suitable space for my work has not been allocated. Feeling very angry about all this. Although the work has evolved the needs have always remained the same.

Monday 21 May 2012

A reminder of how this body of work began back in February 2012.


sub/supra ii


i am working with science. i am working with ecological issues. i am working as an artist. i am working as an artist. i am working as an artist....



fact: i am covering an ecological issue covering the identification of polymer fibres entering the sea through sewage outlets. the sewage outlet is a contributing factor. don’t shoot the messenger.


i am on a journey. a conscious journey and also a sub conscious journey. i am a traveller with this work. i am an adventurer. i am seeking to know more. to see more. to discover more. to witness. to investigate. to question. to interpret. to translate. to create. to tell.
Quick update. 


Video projection within a more open space - excuse the rear clutter! This work standing alone holds a statuesque presence. There is a modest calmness to the work. Elegance. There is no sound now, purely visual. To incorporate sound within a mixed medium exhibition is incredibly difficult, but also the visual speaks for itself. If I am able to have the work presented in this way then I will be really delighted. I need to really push for a suitable location. The tutor I need to discuss this further with is normally in on a Tuesday so I shall head into the studio tomorrow  and try and have this finalised - then perhaps I will be able to sleep at night!

In the meantime, keep dosing up with Xtra strength Lemsip, a hot steamy bath and then back to working on the evaluation, ready for assessment at the beginning of June.
 

Friday 18 May 2012

Jack Beall Photography: Paris October 2011When I travelled to Paris, I co...

A plug for my son!
Jack Beall Photography: Paris October 2011
When I travelled to Paris, I co...
: Paris October 2011 When I travelled to Paris, I conducted a photo shoot of the stunning architectural beauty of the city. This was the ...

Thursday 17 May 2012

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Have been working on the new website today - isendyouthis. Prefer the layout of my current website but the isendyouthis site is much stronger.

Tuesday 15 May 2012



Current plans for projection. Directly onto a plinth. What I wish is that the plinth stands within a space - not tucked away within a cubicle - so the viewer may walk around it.
It allows the work to become quite statuesque which I am liking. Current space is definitely not suitable.


Projection through 2 sheets of acrylic (image to follow) An interesting effect, especially if I am to consider having several more...BUT....what am I signifying? They are purely aesthetic, I feel they have no relevance to the work. Tough call.


UPDATE
Due to excess light within studio space I was unable to test the layering of acrylic sheets today.

Sunday 13 May 2012



Am really enthusiastic with this double imaging occuring between the layers of glass. If I use sheets of acrylic (also representing the plastic) to project onto a really interesting effect may be achieved. 


Looking forward to using my new studio space.

The Crate finally on board and ready to head home to Cornwall!

Saturday 12 May 2012

Love the way in which he is playful with a space with his projections and monitors. I feel now that it would be fine to go ahead with the projection of the video (need to name it) but to create the image as life size as possible. This may be hard to achieve within the given space. I will be asking for the end wall to be removed therefore leaving the work open for people to view. It cannot be confined within a space - hence why the Crate was dismantled.
http://www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/art/past-exhibitions/2011/marcel-dinahet.html


<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/25138576" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

Attended this exhibition in Exeter, at the Phoenix Gallery, with a chum last year and she actually reminded me of it on seeing my work. It is so relevant to the work - it is brilliant. I had forgotten about it!...but perhaps subconsciously not!
Have avoided the blog since my last posting as, from what can clearly be seen, I was somewhat upset. There is nothing more to be said, I considered removing the posting but I have decided to keep it in. All part of the process.


Attended a fantastic dinner party away from all of this...wonderful medicine!

Thursday 10 May 2012

Well, studio space given. Sound may not be permitted as I will be next to another student using sound. The space will be fine.


I feel annoyed by the attitude that is given towards me and my way of working. My work is always in a state of development and flux. I know when something feels right and when something doesn't and I move on accordingly if required. 


Signing out!

http://josiecockram.com/

I really despise all of these! October 2011's work experimented with reflective surfaces and now I want something very simple yet effective.


Meeting this morning to sort out exhibition space. Much needed!

Projection through empty fish tank










Projection onto tank with sand.

 Emptying some sand from the tank and allowing tank to be closer to rear wall.

 Reflection from tank onto adjacent wall.


Wednesday 9 May 2012

Suggestion from fellow student K to start making some contact with the Press in relation to this story and my work...
Exciting news on Radio 4 today which fully supports my work.


'Big rise in North Pacific plastic waste'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17991993
Work is looking promising, just waiting for my husband to bring up some more sand for me in the studio! Having said that there were some interesting effects gained by projecting through the two walls of the empty tank. However, wishing to stick with this idea at this time.


Images to follow
Ahaa...I have a large fish tank in the loft...shall experiment with that tomorrow before spending out on materials!
Now to bed! So much for an early night!

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Maybe there is a possibility to return to this obsession with acrylic cubes!


Acrylic boxes filled with sand/water and then projected onto so the image only remains within the boundaries of the box

STUNNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sourced from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DqszYWULlw on eighth May 2012

Rows of houses in a fictitious metropolis are overflowing. The facades of high-rise buildings and bizarre constructions are reflected in the water, the streets seem empty and deserted. 2027, the title of this video installation of Haubitz + Zoche relates to the year of the plot in Fritz Lang�s film Metropolis, which plays exactly 100 years from it�s publication year. A distance that, facing our temporal closeness, attends to the negative futuristic visions we have now approached.
Maybe the slow, dreamily blurring recordings of the various house models can be read as distorted reference to current experiences of Langs urbanistic dystopia. With them the scope of ideas between revolutional architecture, modern functionality and post moderness is measured; But only to eventually dissolve in the diffusely moving blue water far from time or space. In the same unreal and upside down picturesque scope the swimmers enact with one another, seemingly searching for support in weightlessness and control in mayhem.
In all allusions Haubitz + Zoche avoid direct relations to current ecological, social or cultural problems. Instead topics such as dissolution, destabilisation and decentralisation are encompassed � in both form and content. Equally important are the specific locations and their conditions. The aesthetic value also counts: Pictures of suggestive beauty; Pictures, which create such hypnotic suctions, that it is forgotten, which horizon reigns and what levels must still be overcome.
The Artist Duo Haubitz + Zoche
Haubitz + Zoche (Sabine Haubitz, born in 1959, and Stefanie Zoche, born in 1965) have been working together since 1998. Sabine Haubitz studied at the Hochschule der K�nste Berlin as well as at the Akademie der Bildenden K�nste Munich and was Andreas von Weizs�cker's assistant from 1993-96. She received the Kodak Award for Young Artists in 1988 and a project stipend from the City of Munich in 1996. Stefanie Zoche studied at Middlesex Polytechnic in London. From 1995-97, she had a stipend from the Bavarian Ministry of Culture and was assistant for the Klasse McBride in Munich from 1999-2000. Her photo and video work as well as her installations have been exhibited in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the USA. The artists display their work in Munich's Museum of Photography, the Galerie Walter Storms in Munich, and in the Museo Carrillo Gil in Mexico. One of their most recent photography projects is called Sinai Hotels. The photo series shows unfinished hotel resorts in the desert of the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. The photo volume Sinai Hotels won Haubitz and Zoche the German Photography Book Prize 2006/2007.
Haubitz + Zoche's works in public space range from space, photo, and kinetic installations to sculptural work. Spectacular photo installations were displayed in Rotterdam in the Maastunnel and in the Munich subway system. In addition, the artist duo has created location-specific installations for public institutions as well as for companies like the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the Deka Bank, Luxemburg, and Allianz, Munich.

Concept and realisation: Haubitz + Zoche
City views:
Underwater studio and technical implementation:
Uwe Steckhan, Filmyard, Berlin
Underwater camera: Stefan Lindenau
Model construction: Julie Goll, Haubitz + Zoche
Synchronised swimmers:
Carole Rausch, Bettina Wrase (Isarnixen, Munich)
Underwater camera: Haubitz + Zoche
Location: Olympiabad Munich
Video cut: Haubitz + Zoche
Video editing: Toni Maroni

http://www.osram.ec/osram_ec/Informacion_Corporativa/Proyectos_Artisticos_de_OSRAM/SEVEN_SCREENS/Previous_Installations/Haubitz_%2B_Zoche/index.html            
sourced 8th May 2012

These are beautiful....if only I could!! 


The thing to consider is that I can't BUT what can I achieve instead?

http://www.osram.ec/osram_ec/Informacion_Corporativa/Proyectos_Artisticos_de_OSRAM/SEVEN_SCREENS/Previous_Installations/Haubitz_%2B_Zoche/index.html

http://www.osram.ec/_global/img/Misc/About_Us/E40_Reference_448px/SevenScreens_Haubitz%2bZoche_sm.jpg
All very frustrating. 



I have the possible support for building the Drum, but is the drum really required? But, using the projector is not working for me. I still prefer the monitor.The monitor has a far greater image...this, for some reason that I need to understand, is so vital to the work. Using a projector against a wall is so relative to last years work...I despise the idea of it now. Using anything to accompany the video is too fussy - this needs to be sharp and clean cut. 

An earlier piece of experimentation from last week. Bringing the doors into the foreground with the possibility of sizing up the monitor slightly to allow the doors to be in scale and a continuation from the video. A section on ideology in This Means This This Means That.  Hall, S. Laurence King Publishing, 2007, has been very interesting. If taking the readings into account I could suggest the placement of the video being at the top of this photo is idealizing, what could be the case and the doors in the foreground, the realistic, what is the case. Visual Structures, Chapter 4, greatly interprets, 

'Objects, images and texts are given structure through composition. Composition has two dimensions: space and time.' Hall (2007:73)...more to follow!

Greatly looking forward to tutorial this afternoon. Really need to discuss things.


Still very unsure as to whether there really is a need to build a space for this work. I am observing from onlookers either an immediate reaction, and they are drawn in OR they simply pass by the work because they see the image and that is all.


The question is 'How do I want people to see the work?'


Yutaka Makino, The Conditions of the Process, 2011. I visited his work in Berlin in January of this year at the DAAD Gallery, and this has encouraged a desire to build the Drum. (see image)
condition_1.jpg  




I rather like the idea of the work to carry on being somewhat subtle. I am drawn to the idea of the work simply being present in a space where perhaps it is unexpected - so subtle yet also seeking the attention of the observer once noticed. There is a stairwell leading up to the studio that shall be used. It is quite a dingy dark space that visitors will be using. I need to test this out later...not sure if there is an electric supply nearby though!! Hmm! Could be an issue!!

Monday 7 May 2012

A  most interesting and highly entertaining read this A Rebours, Against Nature by Joris-Karl Huysmans, new translation by Margaret Mauldon. Definitely one to return to!


The anti-hero, hypersensitive neurotic and aesthete character, Des Esseintes, contemplates nature accordingly, 

'Nature has had her day; she has finlly exhausted, through the nauseating uniformity of her landscapes and her skies, the sedulous patience of men of refined taste....what small-mindedness, like a shopkeeper who stocks only this one article to the exclusion of any other; what monotony she exhibits with her stores of meadows and trees, what banality with her arrangements of mountains and seas!'


'There is no doubt whatever that this eternally self-replicating old fool has now exhausted the good-natured admiration of all true artists, and the moment has come to replace her, as far as that can be achieved, with artifice.' (2009:20)


Oxford World's Classics

Friday 4 May 2012

Feedback from 4 fellow students greatly appreciated!
Arghh! New ideas NOT GOOD!




                                      Through the lens onto image of sand.


However, have been placing doors before projector and these have a beautiful quality against the receiving support. Although I am not sure they work with this current video they may work beautifully with something less complicated.



Am sitting before the video - this time with projector onto wall. Although the size increase allows one to feel more dwarfed, which has an interesting psychology; amongst this futuristic landscape one suddenly becomes part of, the clarification of image is week and one still feels detached. Becoming part of yet detached...
Heading to Waterstones to collect A Rebours. 


Feeling frustrated at this time. Unable to make any further plans until I have feedback concerning support in building the Drum. If I had a large enough space to exhibit then I don't feel it would be necessary to build, but there will be 80 students exhibiting and space is very limited. The largest spaces already seem to be claimed by those who have been working in them throughout the year. As they say, Keep Calm and Carry On...!

Thursday 3 May 2012


http://www.artcornwall.org/index.htm


This morning's work, plans for The Drum.
Adjustment! Radius should read 2.86ft making the diameter 5.73ft..this may need increasing.
Well spotted SB!

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Black or white?
I am increasingly aware that by the possible 'simplicity' of what is to be shown, everything connected with its presentation is crucial to the semiotics of the work. It is valuable that I now take the next few days researching the validity of  the space and semiotics itself. To start with I shall be reading Gaston Bachelard's, The Poetics of Space - a book suggested to me by a fellow student today. I purchased it last year and have barely read it so now I feel is the time! Also, in relation to my work, I have just ordered through Waterstone's in Plymouth, A Rebours (Against Nature) by  Brendan King and J K Huysmans. A recommendation by MB (technician) on seeing my video. 
The entire Crate has been dismantled.
Feeling increasingly frustrated with how the work is sitting. Need a couple of days away from the studio! Shall be working from home and possibly hitting the coast for further inspiration.
The lower image demonstrates the larger screen but poorer image, the upper image demonstrates the smaller screen but better quality image.


Mock up of a white surround

Hmmm...am in studio now and really not sure about these side walls...don't like this feeling of being closed in like this....shall persevere with paint and see how it goes.
Back up to Plymouth now to continue painting the black walls of the Crate white! Have plastikote spray so shall try this out on a practice sheet of ply also. Must try and talk with MB (technician) today.
Knocking up a couple of tester videos based around the original current video, with a view to trying out several videos displayed together. Also seem to have a fixation with an acrylic box!...a long slim rectanguar box running 8ft long and perhaps 6inchs deep, along the rear wall containing seawater and sand. Visualising it as a floating shelf positioned about 6in below the monitor/s. 


....just an idea!

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Hmm, dilemma! Smaller monitor has a far better image than the larger. Won't make a decision today. However the white surround certainly seems to be favourable...paint time!
Returned to the studio last night to adjust the Crate for presentation of video. It now stands 4ft deep with a rear wall of 8ft. At this current time there is no roof. The original Crate floor remains but this will be going. Am considering alternatives, ie black carpet. Again, testing speaks louder than thinking! I am taking a larger TV monitor in today to test this against the original monitor. My only concern being the previous monitor seems to have clearer definition...this is really vital for this work, hence monitor as supposed to projector. Shall test with the white frame. If successful need to discuss with MB for assistance in cutting into the board a rectangular window so monitor may sit behind. 


If going for the white look then I shall matt emulsion to start. I am however considering sheet aluminum with white enamel paint or plasticoat. This will need testing on a smaller panel in the first instance.


Have been informed of moo.com for business cards from JM-B. These look a great possibility.

Monday 30 April 2012

Able to clear Crate space straight away - removed the stand from the TV monitor and lay the monitor on the floor in a prone position. After imagining how it would look I was somewhat disappointed with the outcome. Removed it from the Crate space but again it didn't seem to work, (need to photograph this for documentation).The image has far more impact in a vertical position. Experimented further with the pipe with purely sound and no sand/postcards - fails to carry the impact that the video carries. The video will be the work that will be shown at the Degree Exhibition. Met with DR (main tutor), positive tutorial and great feedback. Main focus now needs to be

  • to focus on the presentation of the work
  • consider an alternative to the black..use a white frame to test this.
  • speak to ST ref exhibition space    Done
Tutorial scheduled for next Tuesday.

Simon Rundle from the Marine Sciences of Plymouth University featured my brief in his write up for Deborah Robinsons Transpositions Exhibition.

Sunday 29 April 2012

Ok, so download of last week's activities...


Monday - started to clear space to allow for more clear thinking. 
A definite day of allowing chance circumstances to navigate. Not much studio work partaken but a great day to chat amongst fellow students and offer mutual support.
Had a chat with ST (tutor). Showed him the video on the laptop and discussed the pipe and the possibility of sound being used within it - a play on irony. He seemed very taken with the whole idea and felt the work was very interesting. This gave me a huge lift. He suggested bringing an actual washing machine into the space as part of the installation...


Tuesday...Brought in a tv monitor to test the video in this format as supposed to projection. Works far better. The clarity of the screen works stunningly with the imaging of the crystal clear sea. Also there is a black screen surround which is definitely enhancing the image. The monitor is standing against the 3 remaining black walls of the crate, so again this is helping. Experimented further with sound using the replaced piezo speaker that I soldered up that morning at home. This sounded so much better in the pipe. AK (tutor) came to have a look around. His feeling was the film was perhaps slowed down too much. He also came up with lots of alternative suggestions...I explained that all his suggestions had been previously tested and this was now where the work stood. He suggested I check out Gabriel Orozco and his lint work. This was great to look at but a little too late in coming! He also suggested bringing an actual washing machine into the space...! I didn't demonstrate the pipe. Felt a little subdued after AK's meeting!


                                          Video on TV monitor in dark space.


Wednesday...went sand crazy! Before going into Uni I 'mocked up' some ironical postcards - using the images of the doors on the beach and text. I felt these would be quite quirky along with the irony, (I'll put the images up on the blog). I also experimented further with sound. Listening to Big Yellow Taxi in the car by Joni Mitchell. Felt the lyrics were appropriate so downloaded and tried this in the pipe, along with Louis Armstrong's, Wonderful World. ST had suggested lift/hotel type music so I played Percy Faith and Theme from a Summer Place. All sounded very cheesy but apt. Then poured sand around and a few inchs inside also to seat the pipe. I then took the postcards and placed them randomly sticking out from the sand...the idea perhaps being that as people approach the pipe they than take a postcard away with to do with as they wish...keeping the work OPEN. 


Irony postcards with sand and pipe with sound.



Then I tested out the washing machine doors in a more sculptural form along with nylon thread and sand.

I was then visited by AL (tutor)... a great week for tutor input! She was very taken with the video footage, but hated the sound (this interfered with her fantasy of the work). She REALLY hated the postcards! We had a good laugh about it and no offence taken! Really good to have her positive feed back on the video work! She suggested videoing from the inside of the working washing machine!!...I said the household insurance wouldn't cover! Suggested alternative method of displaying the monitor...ie not on the plinth. Felt relifted again!


Thursday Worked at home in the morning. Became inspired by a YR2's sound piece (PC) and hence took to getting back to working on a sound piece as I had been before Easter. A build up of washing machines on various stages of their cycle, orchestrated together, that finally build to a 3sec silence then a climatic roar of the sea (downloaded) to end with.  I visualised people entering a restricted space (The Crate?) to experience the sound work. This was then downloaded to CD. It is unlikely to be used but I always like to have a back up. Once I returned to the studio I started looking into creating a new website...my new website is currently being constructed through ISendYouThis. Oh yes, purchased a new waterproof camcorder...as cheap as poss, with a view to videoing the washing in situ! Shall discuss this further with DR.


Friday Home day working on websites and new Twitter site. Travelled up to Plymouth via train to attend Debbie's Preview evening and Yr1 Exhibition, while travelling I was able to consider display of the video, which is likely to be the piece exhibited. Had a coffee in Waterstones which allowed me to consider things further.


Notes written Friday pm...




3 possibilities

  • most probable to use video and take this further. Consider use of an already set up Webcam, Seaton Beach has one so I can have the doors on the beach during the run of the show as a related but separate piece of work.
  • Consider rebuilding of Crate - the darkness creates a dramatic backdrop to the work - could reduce the work down to the Crate with simply the monitor inside.
  • Monitor could be lying on the floor in a prone position (as though washed ashore). A false floor fitted so as to hide the wires away. This needs testing ASAP.
Need to now remove everything from the Crate space so as to test monitor on the floor.

  
                                         Also the book has arrived back from Blurb.com


Sunday Looking forward to returning to the studio to test out ideas. Thinking of projecting onto a puddle of water also. 




A response from the 2 shows seen on Friday - Less is definitely more. Listened to my sound composition again with my husband and my daughter. I am a person who values sight over sound and I question this amongst other when in a mixed medium exhibition. When I visited an exhibition in Berlin earlier this year with a Sound piece (name TBC) I was confronted with a space that had only this one piece of work. I am increasingly aware of the difficulties of Sound work being exhibited among other non-sound works. This is quite a deciding factor to my decision on the sound piece. It will be demonstrated within my assessment but unlikely to be used for the show.