Looking Back Over the Last Few Weeks –
So much has happened over the last few weeks. It has been a real rollercoaster of emotions and a severe dose of food poisoning hasn’t helped. Reflection Part 7 nicely summarises unit 2. It also summarises much of my thinking in terms of ideas and project work for Unit 3. However, this reflective session 8 will cover my progress as I’ve moved into Unit 3. Hopefully the progression of ideas from Reflection Part 7 can be seen in this current Reflection Session 8.
Below are the usual set of questions that I use to help with the reflective process:
- What have you done so far?
- What have you discovered so far?
- What will you change because of what you have discovered?
- What will you do next?
WHAT HAVE I DONE SO FAR?
Here is a short recap of what I’ve been doing since the beginning of Unit 3 and from Reflective Session 7, right up to this point in time.
- As part of my ongoing project work I wanted to 3d print my own robot. I embarked on the project but ran into multiple problems. If I have time I would like to complete Athena the robot for the end of year show but it’s not been an easy ride with multiple technical difficulties along the way. However, as a result of attempting the 3d printed robot, I’ve acquired some nice footage that may be used in my final film.
- Last term was a real rollercoaster of emotions with happy events and disappointments. I’d had so many disappointments that I even set up a category and tag called ‘Rejections’. I figured that going forwards, rejection is something I’m going to have to get used to in the fine art world. Still, I guess one more rejection is one less to go before success? Well I guess that’s one way to look at it? I was initially rejected from a ‘Mattering Life’ scientist in residence project. However Heather Barnett the organiser very kindly wrote to me and allowed me to attend as I was on the reserve list. I’ll discuss this in more detail below. Since ‘Mattering Life’ I was also rejected for ‘The New Contemporaries’ and a local residency in Paignton that was in conjunction with an Arts Council Grant. I put in a submission for the Runway AI Film Festival and these guys didn’t even bother to write and keep me updated (as promised), so I’m guessing this was also a ‘no’. I also failed to make the annual ‘Pulp’ exhibition, although having visited the gallery I can see how my work wasn’t really a good fit. Here is a link to my New Contemporaries submission, but sadly it was not to be 🙁
- All in all I was feeling pretty demoralised! However, to counteract much of my disappointment, I really did have some lovely things happen too, these included: finishing my first mobile prototype and having it shown in situ at the Paradiso Gallery. From here there was a request for some of my digital art, which now has a permanent slot in the Gallery Paradiso digital area. I was also invited to show some of my photography and I documented the process of framing it. Perhaps the nicest thing to happen (to offset all of my recent disappointments) was learning that my mobile was sorely missed. When it was taken down apparently a number of gallery customers were ‘missing’ it. Therefore, the gallery curator suggested they might have to bring it back in summer. There’s some great footage here of people interacting and photographing my mobile. Finally, I had yet another mention by the Phlobographer Magazine who gave one of my interviews another outing. I’ve learned that disappointment is hard, but where some people may not ‘get your work’, others might absolutely love it! I guess one thing I’ve done is to learn to keep going.
- I produced a presentation and a version of PowerPoint slides to accompany my research paper and I had a feedback session on them. I don’t use PowerPoint very often so I was quite proud of what I’d achieved.
- After multiple weeks of experimentation with my mobile design, I finally had one final push and the first image of the mobile was taken.
- Now that I had finally completed my mobile I was able to start filming and photographing it. I took the opportunity to try a couple of visual explorations. This came in the form of ‘Visual Exploration 1’ and ‘Visual Exploration 2’. These explorations were helping me decide what kind of shooting style I was going to use going forwards. The second visualisation also showed how the augmented reality hidden in the mobile might look.
- As my work is rooted in augmented reality and AI, I decided to train my own computer model so that I could fully understand how these AI art algorithms are working. Interestingly after going through the process myself, I discovered that there is a website where you can check if your work has been used to train an algorithm. I discovered that a number of mine had been taken.
- March was a particularly busy month. Not only was I working hard on my project work I also attended the ‘Low Residency’. I love this time of year when we all get together and have gallery visits and lectures. For a full summary of all of the events and activities please use the ‘Low Residency’ link. I’m pleased to report that my travel confidence continues to grow. This was much needed for the following week as I was going back to London, but this time on my own!
- Initially I thought that I wasn’t going to be a part of the ‘Mattering Life’ Scientists in Residency Programme. However, many many thanks to Heather Barnett who allowed me to join when a place became available. I am so glad I was able to participate in the event. I feel it was for me a once in a lifetime opportunity and I loved every minute of it! I actually thought that I had produced a recap of all the individual daily activities but I must have missed doing it. Therefore, instead of posting all of the daily links I have posted a link to Day #5 which shows the work produced by our group and the film that I made as my contribution.
- On my return from London, my thoughts returned to my mobile and the production of a body of work. I shot a number of experimental images.
- After shooting multiple images of my mobile to try to refine my shooting style, I began to compile an art book. I knew that my mobile was quite a complex piece with multiple layers. Therefore, I felt it was important to create an augmented art book to accompany it. The book has now gone to the printers and I’m waiting for its delivery next week.
- Over the last few weeks I’ve had many musings about my film and finally I managed to put down some initial film ideas. These ideas led to the cutting of my first video. I really didn’t like my first video at all, so I decided to shoot another one. Through this film making journey I’ve learned lots about sound and audio. In my second film which still isn’t quite finished, I used what I’d learned and put it into practice. Hopefully my second video is much better than my first!
- I have now surpassed 250 blogposts. I’d like to think I can reach 300, but only as a natural consequence of my writing.
WHAT HAVE I DISCOVERED SO FAR?
I can honestly say that I have discovered so much these last few weeks!! I learned some extra book making techniques. I learned how to make a ‘Chemical Garden’ and I’ve learned so much about sound and improving voice-overs in film production. I also learned how to train my own algorithm and how to successfully build a 3 metre tall mobile. Perhaps the greatest lesson of all is realising that life comes with disappointments, but for every cloud there’s always a silver lining.
WHAT WILL I CHANGE BECAUSE OF WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED?
What I have discovered over the last few weeks has impacted my thinking massively! I am now going to move permanently away from 2d in my practice to 3d and more specifically mobiles. I want to follow in the footsteps of Calder. I have witnessed first hand how people seem to enjoy kinetic mobile structures and that is shaping my work going forwards.
In the absence of a sound studio I will only ever do a voice-over if I’m underneath a very large thick duvet!
I must try not to get too despondent when facing a barrage of rejection. Things happen for you and not to you – this will be my mantra from now on.
WHAT WILL I DO NEXT?
My short term plan for the next couple of weeks is to perfect my second video and shoot the missing clips. I also need to make it clear how the imagery fits with the narrative. I want to work out the carbon footprint of my mobile and think of ways to reduce it. I also want to learn more about the materials I’ve used for example where did they come from and what impacts has this had on the environment. I need to fully augment both my mobile and my book and I also want to create 2 wall hanging pieces and some handmade booklets. Finally I need to start thinking about compiling my blog to meet the learning outcomes of the third and final unit.
EXTRA QUESTIONS
1). What was the best thing I did? Why was this the best thing I did? How do I know that this was the best thing I did? – with this project.
Over the last few weeks there wasn’t really one thing I could pinpoint as being the best thing I did so instead I’ll list the best things I did. Firstly attending the Low Residency, secondly attending the Mattering Life Residency, thirdly learning all about good audio creation and finally completing my large mobile and art book.
2). What worked least well for me? Why did this not work well for me? What have I learned about the topic concerned from this not having worked well for me?
I tried out a version of augmented reality to affect items optically. This was a disaster! It was such a disaster that I couldn’t even bring myself to document it. However, I am going to explore the technique further as part of my ‘next steps’
3). With hindsight, how would I go about this activity differently if doing it again from scratch? To what extent will this activity influence the way I tackle anything similar in future?
With hindsight I wouldn’t have wasted as much time as I did on it. I’d proceed a little more cautiously in future.
4). What did I find the greatest challenge in doing this work? Why was this a challenge to me? To what extent do I feel I have met this challenge? effectively.
Without a shadow of a doubt the most challenging part was hanging and balancing. However, I also found pushing in small hooks into the dowelling rods what also really frustrating. My fingers became sore trying to force the hooks in.
5). What was the most boring or tedious part of doing this particular task for me?
The most tedious part of my project work has been waiting for my films to render. It’s like ‘watching paint dry!’
DID I MEET MY CHALLENGES FROM LAST TIME?
Here’s what I said I would do – the green tick ✅ indicates what I actually achieved.
- Buy and read ‘Steal Like and Artist’ and finish reading my current book about Ai – stalled
- Contact galleries – currently doing this ✅
- Resume Touch Designer and Processing tutorials – loosely working on this ✅
- Contact the MACBA with a view to showing them my series of three books and video that they inspired – I really need to do this!
- Become expert in making mobiles – getting there! ✅
- Keep evaluating augmented reality software – stalled
- Think of new ways of utilising augmented reality software – getting there ✅
- Initiate a collaboration with my college to hang a giant mobile – tentative enquiries have taken place ✅
- Contact artists and manufacturers to discuss potential mobile making collaborations – still to do – stalled
- Make an amazing kinetic piece of human, digital and AI augmented reality the balance of power mobile ✅
CONCLUSION
I still want to achieve all of the listed items that I didn’t manage this time round. Therefore, I will carry them over into the task list for next time.
My coming task list for the next few weeks is as follows:
- Buy and read ‘Steal Like and Artist’ and finish reading my current book about Ai. I bought the book and now I just need to read it – stalled
- Contact the MACBA about my Barcelona Graffiti project. I still need to do this
- Update my Zentangle gallery – stalled
- Finish my film
- Augment my art book and mobile
- Complete the Unit 3 blog curation
- Produce two more picture artworks
- Produce some handmade books