tony conrad at tate to help me in my essay (and this is fantastic for this) and practical explorations of process as performance, temporality using time based media and responding to site- went to see tony conrad's Unprojectable: Projection and Perspective. this 60s audio-visual pioneer explores experimental process as performance and was great visually responding to the old industrial site and his own film and music history- but sound wise the drone was just too loud to really be able to watch the performance for the 1 1/2 hr duration. you are sitting on the floor of the turbine hall, below cloth screen billowing in the wind, the light-projected image of the activity on the raised stage arena, contours, enlarges, shrinks as it moves. you can see the real people as the screen blows around making the visuals you can simulanteously see projected giant. the performance is in 3 parts; films in run through reels and drill sounds are heard as though something is being manufactured/repaired, then industrial parts appear with film again running through, and finally an string quartet appears speciailising in drone. the vantage point is interesting, you can sit either side, and the images differ, some are sharper or more gestural figurative imagery- depending on how close they are to the light source. the string instruments when sharp have a strong elegance in contrast to the wires, block shapes of the industrial objects earlier projected.
for my work- the snatching and elongating of the image, working with another sense other than purely visual and beyond dialogue, experiments with scale
in the booklet they handed out afterwards (which made me think how much do you need to know beforehand) it talked about a piece of his work, Curried 7302, 1973 in which he cooked substituting onions in a recipe, for film.
ok- working with the idea of reason to eradicate an image live in a performance (as opposed to being developed, here it is being destroyed), i have selected a nanny's funeral (stand up ) story related image, the inappropriate event to photograph, therefore destroying it (interestingly, this is a popular topic on flickr, see here for floral tributes with some great examples of floral remote controls and cross-words ) and here for funeral photos as my great aunt was photographing my nan's funeral and i remembering feeling very uneasy at the time- under the spotlight of how to behave/reactfurther emphasised by the intruding camera lens on personal and collective grief but its also seems inappropriate to smile- hmmm? or alternatively as its a celebration of life- maybe its not? life goes on)
so here am trying to see how i can remove the inkjet printed image found on flickr this already feels disposable- image found on the internet through a search- (onto satin photo paper) using various solvents;
top to bottom- Vanish stain remover, upholstery stain removing spray, nail varnish remover, Cillit Bang, and timed to see how each solvent reacts with the photograph. Applied the nail varnish remover with a cloth (could this be a handkerchief? put the nail varnish remover in an old style bottle?) so image is pulled off- wiped away onto the handkerchief. i like the handkerchief as it references the sadness of funerals, how you pull it out from your pocket
Interesting to watch how the solvents sit on the surface and silently eradicate. the upholstery spray gave globules which then looked quite cellular after 2 minutes. cillit bang removed the most with a clean wipe back to the white paper (the most instant removal), the nail varnish removing pulled off the inkjet ink slowly and you could move the ink around- needed a lot of care to remove it in layers- slow, methodical action required- destruction is slower
Cillit bang caused the ink to separate, see above
in this video i have purely worked with nail varnish remover- immersing like in a darkroom tray (where nothing actually happened) and then wiping with the cloth- obliterating the subject form its surround. paper, however as its not as durable as the resin coated photo paper, gets soggy and the surface rather than the image starts to be removed. probably don't need to put it into a tray, i like the nail varnish as its a personal item rather than household- scraping back the layers of made up beauty back to ordinary self.
DIGITAL EXPERIMENTS i am now coming back to my earlier experiments for the nunnery using the idea of digital projection killing the traditional photo in development- by trying a still photo feed straight to projector of the image reacting to light, which then projects back over the image- repeatedly to see what happens to the image when no chemicals used. the sunprint method gives a pale pink feminine colour- (i once used this technique with young students to make a mothers day card) i like the DSLR still image rather than video as it comments on the temporality even more- as it appear on the projector, it is of the moment already passed- and snatched away again to be replaced by another- not a constant feed
idea for the forum- NB this work-in-progress is one sided, non participatory only at this point to test ideas- but the work is intended to be participatory when developed- eg 'bring a flower' or 'bring a photo you no longer want' )
announce this work-in-progress performance has 2 possible photo methods so not intended to use both but done for purposes of forum discussion.
Resources Table, chair, multi-media projector, DSLR, RCA cable, photo paper, flower (TO BUY), plate of glass, old box/suitcase (TO BUY/FIND) containing old bottle (TO BUY/FIND) with nail varnish in it, old photo album containing cat wreath photo, handkerchief in pocket) Projector is set up on the floor in line with the flower on the floor.
lay out the flower onto the photo paper on the floor at front. put glass on top of it to push it flat onto the paper
sit in front of the group behind a table and tell the cat wreath story - live OR pre-recorded on a video projection so can be short and timed exactly as forum is short- max 3-4 minutes (also be good to see response to prerecorded?)
get out old box and lay out bottle, and photo album. handkerchief from pocket, neatly unfold on the table.
open photo album towards self only and take out the photo of the cat wreath
wipe nail varnish over the photo flat on the table removing cat wreath subject of the image.
remove the glass from the flower and remove the flower and put to one side.
Using the DSLR, photograph the sunprint trace left
image projected across the sunprint
repeatedly photograph it- see what happens! how dark does it go- does the flower disappear?
as it goes, destroy the flower (carefully or violently)
i have mega tutorial day (geraint and doug) thursday before the forum so need to be quick setting up on thursday
ok- i don't have any time to think and need to get on and do for the forum on thursday- (many blog posts on hold) deadlines with the draft dissertation deadline- which i changed the focus of end of last week- arrgh! so here it goes...
I aim to be testing out ideas for shedseason idea for shed load of laughs or shed your tears- stories from flowers (jordan liked this idea the best, simplest,the pinhole idea might be too complicated? and overlooked might just not work at WCA now not got chosen space- very sadly- save for the shed-and-a-half gallery later in the year?).....
so have this idea to run the story i used for stand up of my nan's funeral and the cat wreath- experimenting with doing this live using 2 photographic methods;
lay flower on floor on photographic paper in sunlight before i start story, and finish story by taking if off the paper and sitting and watching it in silence
photo of cat wreath coming out of family album, then bleaching it out to nothing and throwing it away
Questions: 1. what happens when its in daylight- change in intimacy in this situation, group of people- change in reception by the spectator. 2. response to story in relation to new photographic methods 3. difference in the duration of the image development/extinction 4. now working in colour- away from monochrome photogram- how's this production and material change affect the reception by the spectator?
TECHNIQUES:
Wrack: From the "Bertoloni Album," 1839 William Henry Fox Talbot (British, 1800–1877) Photogenic drawing; 8 11/16 x 6 7/8 in. (22 x 17.5 cm) adapted from ideas about the sunprint (photogenic drawing)- Fox talbot- early photography pioneer- the 'pencil of nature'- using the photo paper ( my intervention could be-WITHOUT chemicals) in DAYLIGHT- non-darkroom- light can come through the window of the shed and allows for projections onto possibly 'tracing paper' windows or curtains
storytelling matched to some experimental techniques to eradicate an image or part of;bleaching out parts of the image- like this creative collage blog shows you, a technique of my ole fave dave mckean. different times to bleach out depending on whether normal photo printed or inkjet. also to think about dilution- as bleach smells- HEALTH AND SAFTETY!- and prolongs erosion time. this is building on corrosion ideas also in decasia film (se previous blog post)
i pulled out of the stand up competition recently- didn't feel a good time to be trying to be funny and possibility of dealing with hecklers freaked me.....so thought it better to try to generate more anecdotal material, ideas about recreating spontaneity for use in my work...am doing the rescheduled course at CSM plus also on practical skills front, one on Isadora
in an attempt to try to achieve clarity of vision to take me forward into the new and final MA term, i need to reflect more fully on the assessment and not get racing away into the world of shedswithout a solid structure set for me to follow. in the assessment i overall did much better for my studio practice this term than the research paper- which i am not too worried about as my practice last term was of most importance to me in defining myself- laying foundations, experimenting, asking questions, revising methods, re-lauching them in new ways.
whilst i am still reading around my subject, i will need to come back more fully to the critical studies, shape up my central research question more clearly through tutorials and presentations this week.i have studied examples of structure, style, research question to gain a sense of more fully how the debate can be laid out and argued over 5000 words. i know i need to move my writing beyond the survey into the critical and work out whats the most important of temporality, photography, intimacy, participation- do i need to be selective or can i continue as i started in the diploma research paper across these 4 areas but cement them more critically or think back to the certificate stage research paper which was focused purely on photography? anyway, more to come on this.
studio practice- the feedback was very positive for the level of experimentation, progression of ideas, reflective understanding of historical and contemporary framework, presentation of work and planning, and the lower area was critical self-reflection (includes ambition.) have realised in writing this i need to establish what is meant here by ambition in terms of my work or whether this is more about the need for self-reflection as i feel i am very ambitious- possible too so! the comments centred on the need for me to now tease out the areas of high importance, why i make the choices i do, and their relationship to the spectator- through analysing the body of work i have now created.
so....in looking back at my blog posts i have realised that the pace of my projects has meant i haven't really analysed them enough myself before swiftly moving on (partly due to event dates not set by myself, there was only 4 weeks and an assessment between the space-in-between and the EEC i might add, but also my constant thirst for the where next? ) and need to do this to consolidate my thinking and identify key areas of interest. that being said, i like layering my work with many facets of temporality but need to address this in terms of the participatory experience- what's in it for others- why bother taking part?
so...now need to take stock more of each of the 3 projects- nunnery, space-in-between and EEC....
ok, so have been a little away from things here as i let myself have some restorative time post assessment, post EEC and post the recent passing of my blood father. this has meant i have finally finished gum thief by douglas coupland, and managed to hold concentration for once, not leaping off on a wild tangent whilst trying to hold a book still. the time recently has been one of pigeon holing thoughts pushing to the forefront things which excite and inspire me and to the back things more difficult to handle or absorb.the latter being things that i hope to work through to help me grow and strengthen in my self and my work.
the most revealing thing which has been whilst digesting my EEC performance,being with my family together sharing emotions, was that last weekend, whilst visiting family down that way, i went to see jordan mckenzies performance for rules and regs in southampton medieval vaults that lie under the city. we chatted before the performance started, and jordan told me the title of his piece, Dead Dad Club. when he told me the subject of the piece i was worried how i would react to experiencing it (and had i known before unsure whether i would have come along, a very private thing made public made me feel uneasy.) But, to actually be sharing this amongst strangers was a strangely comforting experience- there's only so much talking to your family and friends you can do at some points, and to be in a completely new situation in experiencing the bereavement process and impact through performance,and the aftermath discussion, gave me a new way to process things. from smelling the water and whiskey which my father also used to drink to the spotlight sensation when people look at their feet when you tell them. the wierdest bit was pinning on the Dead Dad Club badges we were asked to wear above ground before we went in- the non-club people i think became more awkward than the club people- and yes, looking at the floor. the experience was very odd, engaging and warming- and afterwards down the pub i found a different kind of chit chat where things could be out of the open in the club.
the connection here is how interested i am in the idea of collective, shared experiences, the commonality of human existance. from the contents of our pockets to the contents of shed, loved ones we grieve for, i like sharing in new ways the personal, heartfelt, perhaps usually unsaid, seemingly insignificant, or not yet tapped into.
there is something really macabre and odd about all this generating intimacy, and mortality of the image business i have got myself into but i think its true, as jordan has explored that life does feed your work, you ask questions in a collective environment. i have many people i wished to be closer to or have known better, my father for one- he was an artist, photographer but we very sadly didn't share this very much for many reasons. this is not that i see my work as therapy but i'm thinking about how it parallels for my life- i like having discovered being hyper harry in my performances as a contrast to the temporal image. i don't think this post is over yet but will leave it there for today, its all to help me in the next stage as i review where next in my practice...
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