Archive for the 'Artwork' Category

Therapeutic sounds and a Christmas present

Monday, January 18th, 2010 by lunaman

I was referred by the Nature Recordists emailing list to the following site, which pokes a bit of gentle fun at soundscapes:

http://onepercentfortheplanet.org/blog/2010/01/new-album-new-artwork/

Meanwhile 2010 brings me a new piece of gadgetry, with exciting flashing green lights ‘n all: the Sound Devices MixPre, identical to the one I’ve hired out in the past, but now all mine, all mine.

MixPre mixer

Oh, and recently there’s been some snow in the UK … here’s the view over Oxford from Wytham Woods taken on a recent run. The Mizuno Wave Harriers stood up to the conditions really well, much better than I did in fact.

Over Oxford

Austria and Germany in 6 minutes 16 seconds

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by lunaman

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Sounds recorded in September on a trip through Munich, Regensburg, Bayerische Wald, Passau, Linz, Salzburg, Berchtesgaden and Lienz.

All recorded using my dandy new Olympus LS-10 recorder, and some using an external Sennheiser ME-66 microphone.

Art in the Arboretum

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 by lunaman

The three week project has now sadly ended. View photographs from the residency at Harcourt Arboretum on the project web site, and visit my own site for photographs of Megasporangiate Strobili and Park Meter.

Megasporangiate Strobili : Alun Ward

Park Meter : Alun Ward

The Wood has Ears

Saturday, July 4th, 2009 by lunaman

“Quiet!” warned Adam. “The wood has ears, the field has eyes, and the forester has three young archers who serve the king and guard the deer day and night and have a lodge high upon a hill.”

from King Edward and the Shepherd, medieval manuscript, c.1300

That field hath eyen, and the wood hath ears.

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The Knightes Tale. Line 1524.

Becomes John Heywood’s, Proverbes Part II, c.V of 1565

Fieldes have eies and woods have eares

From Herman Hesse’s Wanderings

So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts. Trees have long thoughts, long breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.

Wandering : Notes and Sketches / translated by James Wright. – New York : Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1972

Art in the Arboretum

Friday, June 26th, 2009 by lunaman

logowebThe European artists inhabitation of Harcourt Arboretum begins next week, so things are hotting up. Or getting wet, or something. I’ve been sketching and thinking for ages, but really awaiting the arrival of all artists on the scene so we can begin conversations. I think the aim is to allow our meetings to affect the work produced, at least that’s my way of thinking. Read more about the project at the web site www.artinthearboretum.org, and visit the Arboretum between July 1st and 18th to see artists at work.

arboretumparkingmeter

Sketchbook image of audio listening posts, which look more like parking meters … watch this space!

Earlier Bluebells

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 by lunaman

Wytham bluebells 2009

They were out in Wytham almost two weeks ago now but are still emerging in several woods.

Also in progress is compilation of the footage from my various trips. Below is a close up from Afon Tawe in the Brecons / Fforest Fawr

Afon Tawe flowing water

OFVM have now kindly lent me their smaller, dinkier, Sony HVR-A1E video camera. This will let me rove a bit more widely, with a lighter tripod, because these natural beauty spots are almost inevitably a half hour hike away from a road.

Becoming Ordinary and Running 10k

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 by lunaman

Another outing for Transporter Mix yesterday, in the Quiet & Relaxation Room at the Becoming Ordinary conference at the Town Hall in Oxford. This was organised by RESTORE, Oxford, a charity that ‘supports people with mental health problems do things that they want to do‘. About thirty people  took off their socks and shoes and stepped onto the platforms provided to listen to the sounds of the seashore, woodlands and parks of the UK.

I must learn to make this experience more relaxing for myself, as by the end of the day I was completely exhausted!

Here’s one particularly sweet comment:

Absolutely blown away by this experience. Love the idea of textured boxes under my feet. Sounds were very relaxing and de-stressing.

Sunday was F’s birthday, so, naturally enough, we ran in a 10 km race together. This was F’s first ever 10k, and the furthest she’s ever run. Despite the unseasonable heat and sunshine at Eastleigh, we came in under our target at 1:09, so I’m really, really proud of her. Thanks so much to all the crowd supporters who helped make it a great event.

I can’t quite believe that this is my first race since October last year. Next on the agenda is the Stratford Half Marathon. I’ve crept up to 30 – 35 miles per week again now, so might still race the Half, but think I’ll just see how I feel closer to the time. However, I’m definitely doing the Oxford Town and Gown 10k on May 17th. And, all being well, that will be a PB (personal best) attempt. Gulp.

Interactive performance

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 by clare

YOURSYOURS

Interaction with the audience at Metron was more intense and more dynamic on days three and four this week-end. In the performance work YOURS, I invited the audience to participate in the work. This was following on from MINE, that I performed last week-end, where the audience were witnesses to my actions. I talked to each about the symbolism of the objects I was working with, that I was crushing the rosemary in an attempt to invoke memory in the space through the scent of it. I then offered each a sprig of the herb to invite the idea of remembrance for them. I asked them if I might then photograph their hands holding the piece of rosemary. Everyone agreed and all seemed pleased and quite touched by the simplicity and sincerity of the gesture. Many wanted to talk about the significance of it for them and offered me personal recollections.
This was the most engaged with the audience that I have been in a performance work. It was an enjoyable and rewarding experience and gave me a sense of real connectedness with the audience. I think that they enjoyed the opportunity to talk with me and to get more understanding of what I was doing. I think that for some it all appeared a little daunting and inscrutable when they first entered the space. They were pleased to speak with me and have me answer the most usual question ‘what are you doing ?’.

This is actually a hard question to answer, and one that artists often resist. It felt a challenging and positive process for me to go through, of testing what I was doing, my intentions, whether my ideas were reaching the viewer and the overall relevance of the work.

Interaction with the audience represents a new direction in my performance work and I am intrigued by the possibilities of working in this way. It is the next development I am introducing to my work following my decision to return to performance work in 2006 and to perform solo works. It is progressive and challenging for me to do and is helping me to gain confidence as a solo performer.

I am pleased by how much people are willing to engage and to talk with me. I obviously make people feel at ease and able to offer their own ideas and feelings to the work which is positive. I am aware that this is a format that some artists, notably female performance artists, do use in their work and have done since the earliest days of it. There are early precedents like Valie Export, Annie Sprinkle, Yoko Ono. Their contact with the audience in the main seemed to be provocative and about confronting them with images or to participate in actions that were designed to unsettle and challenge them. I emulated this posture in the performance work,TAGS that I made earlier this year.

Contemporary artists like Ann Rapstoff and Sonjia van Kerkhoff appear to use interaction in a more conversational manner as I am now doing, as a means of making connections with the audience and offering ideas and images through identifying shared experience.

If I feel any dilemma with developing the work in this way it is that there is a conflict between my desire to engage with the audience and to make the work more transparent for them and my own need to absorb myself in the ritualistic aspects of the work I have made.
The work changes for me when I am not in conversation and I am able to perform the repetitive actions that I have built into the work – in this case the crushing of the herb in the pestle and mortar. I am able to sink into the rhythm of the actions and synchronize them with the sound of the footfall in Alun’s video piece. It quickly takes on a contemplative aspect which feels as though it is approaching the core of the piece – an attempt to invoke memory. I hope that Alun and I will be able to show this work again and if so I will build into it periods when I am able to sit and work the piece without distraction – with or without an audience.
It is difficult talking with the viewer and yet maintaining my ‘performance head’. I was aware even if the audience were not, that even though I looked like I was chatting to them I was in fact still performing and they were participating in an art work. This was implicit rather than explicit and few were perhaps aware of this until I pointed the camera at them and photographed them.

This illustrates for me the necessity of adopting different performance persona within a work. As long as I maintain mindfulness of them and pay attention to where I am in the work then there need not be a conflict.

Nitty Gritty

Thursday, May 17th, 2007 by clare

NITTY GRITTY

NITTY GRITTY


The first of a series of photographic works by Clare, NITTY GRITTY, that will explore varieties of remembering, representation and interpretation of imagery and question the trust implied in the relationship between artist and viewer.

Sounds from Day Two

Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 by lunaman

And here, for your listening pleasure, are a couple of minutes from Clare’s performance MINE on Day Two, alongside the audio from the film RUN, and some background chatter.

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