Evaluation

I had a lot of fun on this project, and I'm really happy with how the film turned out. Myself, Shahid and Tom were well organised and got our pre-production sorted very early on, which really made the rest of the production and post so much easier. Our shoot went very smoothly, and we were very lucky to have found the dancer we did as she was perfect for what we wanted. 

As a Director, I felt I engaged with the dancer quite well. I tried to experiment with her and we had a good relationship, I found it easy to explain concepts to her in a way she understood what I meant and my general communication around the group and between the dancers during the audition stage was good and I'm glad I could do that. If I could go back I felt I could have provided a bit more detail, and been a bit more behind the camera on the shoot. On the shoot I directed the dancer, and then proceeded to watch her, and most of the time I didn't look at the shot after. There were a couple of shots I should have done, because I feel that if we had re-shot them then they would have been better overall.

As a Producer, I felt I was well organised. I communicated well and I kept on top of things. I liased with the dancers efficiently and provided quick replies with detail. I felt I was positive throughout the whole process, even during problems and tried my best to make the pre-production as strong as possible to make the rest of the project run even more smoothly.

In post, I felt that we should have finalised the edit earlier than we did. I made the rough cut just to get us ahead, and we never really finalised it. I wasn't entirely happy with it as I knew from the footage we got and from a tutorial with Rosie that the film could be better. I went and re-cut it and a lot of work on VFX shots and sound was wasted as a result. However, we still got it done to a high standard and I don't regret the decision to re-cut the film as I felt it ended up being far stronger overall. 

I really enjoyed doing the sound design as I have previously mentioned, and I really liked seeing it all come together. I think I could have managed my time more effectively, but overall I am really happy with the way it turned out.

In fact, overall I am really happy with the result of the film. It's experimental and abstract, but I think all of us collectively pushed ourselves to create something we were all really happy with. I definitely wouldn't mind working with these guys again, because it was relaxed and fun throughout the whole process. Even when we were stressing about room changed and post-production.

Sound Design

My main role in post-production was to be sound design. I really wanted to do the sound for this project, and on the day I know I recorded some good sounds to use for the sound design and I was looking forward to creating it.

Firstly, my intention was to use the heartbeat recording we took from Amelia to create a beat to carry through the entire film. I wanted to set the pace of the film with it. So I played around with a few beats and I finally settled on one I liked:




Once I was happy with that, I needed to add breathing and movement noises and sync that with the rough cut we had. I wanted to make the noises sound as if they were really close so that they would be obvious and to give the impression of closeness to the dancer. I planned to add a reverb to this later as well to make it sound as if the space was very large. I created a separate track for each side of the 'mirror'. I then added breathing and movement noises to these:





I was really happy with how this turned out, I had to play around with levels, but overall I thought that combined with the beat it sounded pretty good. To add emphasis to the movement noises I added some wooshing sounds to some of quick head flicks and some added sounds to hand movements. 

At this point I added reverb before I went any further. I wanted to make it sound like it was in as big of a room as possible and so I chose to use a large church as a base and then played around with the levels until it was just right.

I then wanted to start creating more of a loose melody with the piece so I started trying to create a couple of tracks to go on top of the main beat to gradually add in and take away throughout. I then had to focus on other parts of the film, finalising an edit over the weekend so my friend Rory Wheble kindly created a few tracks for me to try and play around with:



He really helped me out with making sounds like this one, and they made a great addition to the soundtrack. After I had finished this I had to rearrange the sounds as we now had a final cut to sync them to, and I still had some sounds to fill in because I left the VFX shots blank as I wasn't sure how they were going to look. After this was done I exported it and Tom did a final mix of the sound, and then we exported it. I really enjoyed making this soundtrack even though it took a long time and was quite tiring:

Offline Editing

Over the easter I decided to do a rough cut of the film to get us ahead in our post-production once we came back as we had a quick turn around before our deadline and we also had other deadlines looming as well. 

Firstly I went through and renamed all the footage so that I could find my way easier and then quickly went through it to see what we had, I would loved to have sat there and watched it all but we shot 2 hours worth of footage on the shoot day. I tried to follow the storyboard as closely as I could at first because I wanted to have some sort of structure to start it. However I found that the film didn't really make sense when put in that order, and seeing as a lot of footage was improvised I found match framing it to be quite difficult in order to not disrupt the continuity.

Another thing I had to consider was the effects shots. As some of them would include multiple shots at once, I had to just roughly put them where they needed to go in order for Tom to know where I wanted them later on.

I also had to consider length. I didn't want it to be too long as I felt it wasn't necessary, however I also felt it couldn't just be a couple of minutes because the film is so abstract I wanted to give the audience some time to absorb the film.

Overall for a quick cut it was roughly how I wanted it to be, and I felt I gave it a good go at being thorough ready for our post-production stage.

Shooting Day

The day had finally arrived for our shoot and we were all very excited and ready to go. We got there at around 8 with a view of starting at 10.30. Tom had organised us a shoot order and I gave Amelia a call sheet for her own reference a couple of days before the shoot. Once the lights were all set up, we were ready to go and pretty much on schedule.

I had Kat take the timings whilst Shahid read the words out for our wide shots, which we decided to do first. The day ran very smoothly in general. We let Amelia choose her own music as we felt it would be easier for her to dance to something which she knows would feel right for the quality of movement we wanted. This meant that we were going to have to record sounds later on for the soundtrack. 

At a couple of points throughout the day we had to stand for a few minutes and figure out how the lighting was going to work as we wanted front mid shots and close-ups of the dancer, but we had to move the lights around to do it. This could have been better planned, but we sorted it out very quickly and we just switched some shots around on the shot list in order to make it work more efficiently for us. This was especially problematic for the intended VFX shot of Amelia going through the mirror as we had to keep reshooting it for continuity purposes, which we could have planned better. However we stayed on schedule all day and finished when we expected to. We all had a fun day, and Amelia told me that it was a really nice way of working for her.

Throughout the day we also had Laura, who did make-up for us and Kat and Lauren as our runners. It was much easier having them around and made things run very smoothly. We also had them recording the day with photos and videos as well for our own memories and to give to Amelia after the project was finished.

Rehearsals

On the day of our rehearsal with Amelia, I was really excited to meet her and to get working. I had such high hopes for this film and for her as a dancer and I really wanted it to work out well. I came with a general plan of what I was going to go through with her, such as setting her tasks and then seeing what we could generate with her. The day also offered us an opportunity to do some technical tests and decide on costume ahead of the actual day.

Once Amelia arrived we introduced ourselves and sat down with her to talk through the project and how the day was going to go. She showed us some of her costume ideas at this point and we decided that we would see how the clothes looked while she was moving and then decide based on that.

Firstly, based on the audition we did with Daisy, I gave her the task of trying to dance as if she was trapped in a box, and she really wanted to get out. The harder she pushed, the bigger the box got. I put on some music that I had found previously and we watched her do that. I was very pleased with her movements and knew from that moment that we had chosen the right person for us. She had a mixture of qualities of Joe and Sophie from the dance workshop with Rachel that we really liked. From there things really progressed, and Amelia gave us a lot of input which helped us structure how we thought our film was going to look, and we had a lot of fun in the process. In the end the task we found most successful was getting her to react to different body parts being shouted out. We shouted out random body parts and a verb to go with it e.g. spiky tailbone, and saw how she reacted. This then threw up the problem of how we were going to time it to make it match in the planned wide shots we had, and so we decided to shout out the same words running through it twice, timing when the words were said and then telling Amelia that she was either being oppressed or the oppressor. This gave us some really interesting, contrasting quality of movements without the continuity errors that would have not allowed it to work.

The last thing we did with the day was to shoot some technical tests and just generally shoot some footage of her for our own reference.

We also later on that night decided on costume for her to wear, we took some reference photos of what she was wearing for the rehearsals, but one was too floaty and one was too restrictive. 

We wanted to keep the costume simply, and we liked the bare legs and plain white shirt, so we wanted to keep that but we wanted something with a bit of movement.

Auditions

Our plans for the 4th and 6th of March didn't work out as no one could make it on that day, so we held our skype auditions first on the 12th and then held our other audition on the 13th. During the skype auditions we were speaking to two people, called Caldonia and Amelia. We interviewed Amelia first, and we really liked her attitude towards our project and she seemed to really understand what we wanted. After speaking with Caldonia, we also really liked her, she was nice and she understood what we required from the project as well. We also looked at their show reels and were very impressed with the quality of movement that both of them created.

The next day we then also audition Daisy Tait in person, I was looking forward to auditioning a dancer in person mainly because I had never done it before, and so it would give me the experience of auditioning someone from a medium I have not had much experience with. We liked Daisy and some of the material she gave us was really nice. We asked her if we could film her and gave her the footage afterwards.

In the end we decided to go for Amelia, as we really liked her quality of movement and the way she spoke about out project. We immediately clicked with her and felt that we could have a really good working relationship. At this point we had to change our shoot date to the 20th due to unforeseen circumstances, and this worked out better for her anyway. We arranged a rehearsal on the 16th to work out how we wanted to shoot the piece with her and to generate something really good with her. We agreed to pay her expenses and food etc.

Finding a Dancer

After our pre-production was mostly done and we had booked our shoot for the 25th March, all we needed to do now was to find a dancer. I offered to do this, and so I set about firstly by emailing Rachel asking for ideas of where the best place to post dancer ads would be since she would know far better than I would. She suggested places like Ideas Tap and Artshub, so I set about placing those ads, using our synopsis to give a good idea of what the film was about and our description of the dancer we wanted.

After getting a few replies, we decided to try and organise auditions for the 4th and 6th March. However some people couldn't make it so we decided to hold skype auditions on the 12th as well.

Final Ideas for our Dance Film/Pitch

After talking about our production design ideas, we agreed as a group that we wanted our film to reflect the lighting and minimalistic style of Pas de Deux, because we didn't want to reflect the message we were trying to portray literally. We also felt that the lighting style would contribute to the mood we wanted for our film as the film is all to do with hidden identity, or hidden parts of a personality.

Also, we also decided that our sound design should reflect the sound design in Rosas Danst Rosas, as we really liked that attitude, and as our film is intending to have very specific and deliberate movements, to be able to hear that in a minimalistic way and focus in on that will hopefully draw attention on the dancer themselves and the movements they create.

In preparation for our pitch, we aimed to have all of our production pack together in order to get it signed off quickly and allow us to start organising the shoot day as quickly as possible. Shahid and Tom had already decided that they respectively wanted to be the Cinematographer and Camera Operator, as well as handling the colour grading and the editing. I took on the role as the director, and co-producer with Tom. I also wanted to do the sound design for this project as I had quite a good idea in mind for it. 

So with that all sorted, I went about making a shot list based on my vision for the film, which Shahid then did a beautiful storyboard for. I also wrote the treatment for the film and synopsis, whilst Tom did the risk assessment and also set about creating a google doc with tabs that allowed us all to see our scheduling, contact details, budgeting etc.

The main thing about the structure of the film I would say I wanted to get across is the progression throughout the film from being controlled and restricted to being totally free. I want to try and work with the dancer that we get in order to get that message across. In my shot list I have told it in a very narrative based way, however due to the nature of the dance it's very possible it will end up as something completely away from that.

Our pitch went very well, and we got plenty of compliments on our organisation. I used some photographs to reference what the lighting was going to be like, and they seemed to be quite optimistic about the film in general.

Dance Film- Tutorial and Further Research

My group's initial idea is to create a film in which a dancer is following a set of repetitive movements, stuck in this monotone routine, and their reflection begins to attempt to break the real person free from this kind of oppression. The dance would evolve slowly until the dancers were in unison with each other, and the reflection has achieved its goal of getting the real person to break free from the norm and follow their personal rhythm.

On 8th Feb my group had our first tutorial with Rachel, and this is a summary of what was said:

Glad that we are moving away from the idea of literal - office space,

although this was a good starting point.

I want you to think about that this video represents, what it is

saying -

We talked about:

Trying to escape from the constraints of daily life, particularly:

Facing what represses us

We get taught, told what we should do - the 'right' thing, the 'safe'

thing

As a person as an individual you want to do so many things, but

responsibility sometimes constrains us

Also a lack of motivation, self belief, the pressure of social

acceptability constrains us.

You liked the idea of two different movement styles to represent the

opposing sides - you'll need to find a dancer who can do both styles

that you are after.

I wonder if it may be about constrained v's free movement, how do you

constrain the body?  What texture is in the body when it is

constrained, v's when it is free?

Think about oppositions to represent free v's repressed:

In water / out of water

In the air / on the floor

Slow motion / Real Time

Close up / V's Wide Angles

Tension / Relaxed

contained in something / in a large open space

How does a viewer experience watching the expressed self v's the

repressed self?

So there is alot to work on before our next tutorial. To begin with, I did some research into other dance videos that were similar to the idea we had to try and get some inspiration from them:

Pas De Deux- This film is very simple in its concept, but it's very effective. It is very much my feeling that if you are filming a dance, you need to do something interesting with the camera. These kinds of effects I think are something we could play with.

Lodela- Similarly to Pas De Deux, this also plays with the camera, but more with camera angles. Since we are mirroring it has made me think of a way in which we could mirror in more ways than vertically, and in what ways our dancers could interact. I also love the simplicity of the set in this. I think our film has to conform to something more along these lines.

Rosas Danst Rosas- This dance film has the kind of evolving repetitive sequence we are going for in our film, and the group love the sound design, which is more driven by the movements of the dancers than music. We have agreed that this is the kind of attitude we want our sound to have.

Weightless- This film cleverly plays with the angle, and the set design as the set has been flipped as well as the camera to give this really mysterious feel to the film. I also love the simplistic movements of the dancers which to me suggest a sense of childlike wonder.

The XX 'Islands'- This music video is interesting as it involved repetitive movements which evolve over time, but it a less progressive way. The same shot and movements of the dancers are repeated over and over whilst the band themselves have different reactions to the movement over time, this then appears to affect the movements of the dancers as well. I like this idea of a repeating shot.

These videos have given me a lot of visual stimulation, and will allow me to come up with some further ideas which will hopefully further the film conceptually into something simple, but effective.

Fields and Frames Briefing

On the 29th of January, we had our Fields and Frames briefing. Firstly, we went through our assessment criteria in an in depth way to try and pick it apart. A few things I picked up from this were:

- To innovate is to do a lot with a little. Start from simple things and build them up, you're doing things to create a difference and not to make imagery that looks like student work.

- Make sure you're aware of the critical, historical and theoretical framework in order to understand why you are making the pieces that you are making.

After this, Vicky (our lecturer) showed us some work that she felt to be relevant to the project and to the assessment criteria:

TV Interruptions: Tap Piece. This work by David Hall was screened on national television without warning to the public. This piece merely contains the act of a tap filling the frame, then water slowly drains diagonally across the frame. To me it feels as if the artist is trying to bring the audience's attention to the existence of the frame, in order to remind the audience that all they are watching is a TV set.

http://youtu.be/6h_5rSrZgL0

Turbulent By Shirin Neshat:

This piece is very simple, but very powerful in the way that it captures the audience and comments politically on a situation without the need to be literal.

We next looked at some artwork which is more on par with Vicky's own work as an artist. She uses celluloid a lot to make artwork, and so the following artworks are experimental with celluloid.

Dresden Dynamo By Lis Rhodes:

This piece was created by sticking transfers on to the film, and as well as creating pattern it also created sound when it went through the projector.

Night Sounding By Kayla Parker:

This film used already existing footage, and hand carving of the celluloid to create its own images and 'narrative'. I loved the neon in this piece, and the connection between the shapes carved and the real footage.

We were considering this idea of expanded cinema, and trying to come up with our definition of expanded cinema. Here are a few characteristics I wrote down:

- Multiple Technologies

- Screens

- Bodies

- Objects

- Live Events

- Think about the frame as a fixed thing. It can be any shape, it can go in and out.

From this lecture I was alerted to the idea of the frame being a malleable object. I liked watching the
examples of how you can manipulate celluloid to create a cameraless image. It has made me
consider how you could use the idea of form to create art, rather than focusing on subject matter.
However finding the balance between this and subject matter is something I have to reflect on
throughout my creative process.

Dance Three Day Workshop

After our briefing about making a dance film and shown some examples of films which experiment with the use of dance, we were organised to have a three day workshop with choreographer, Rachel Palmer. This is an overview of what we explored on those days.

Day 1- Rachel firstly went through the history of dance in film, covering the way dance in film has changed with new technologies and focusing on the modern uses of dance in front of the camera. We then began to explore the way in which bodies look on camera with different angles and concentrating on different body parts:

Day 2- We then started developing some initial ideas we could use as a starting point for our projects. We needed to come up with some actions and tasks that we could set the professional dancers we had coming in for the third day. I was working with Thomas, Shahid, and Joel. Thomas wanted to experiment with the ideas of starting from normal activities and having a dancer evolve into a full dance, like an infectious movement that spreads throughout the whole body. I wanted to experiment with mirroring and seeing whether you could get a dancer to interact through dance with a mirror image without touching the mirror. We merged these ideas together to create the idea of a dancer working with a mirror image in a mundane set of movements, when eventually the mirror diverts from this set of movements to provoke something more free flowing, and trying to grab the attention of the 'real-life' person. To experiment with this idea, we got a couple of class members to come up with a couple of repetitive movements and then having them run through this set of movements over and over, until we asked one of them to start slowly adding in attached movements but still staying in time with the original actions. The result was promising, and we were looking forward to asking the dancers to do this on the following day.

Day 3- As I said previously, myself and the group asked the dancers to design a set of repetitive movements, we put them into pairs and then observed their results. I was interested to see a lot of observable differences in the dancing styles and it meant we got a lot of varying results which we were perhaps not expecting. For example, we originally thought of having the dancers facing opposite each other and not touching, but we really liked how one pair crossed over each other in their actions and so it made us consider how we could try placing the mirror image in different places with respect to the 'real' person.

Later on in the day we also filmed two of the dancers together from a couple of different angles to give us some reference for later on. We really liked the dancing styles of Jo, a professional hip-hop dancer and Sophie, a professional contemporary dancer. They were so opposite each other in terms of dance styles that the way they interacted with each other really worked with our idea. I loved how Jo could use her hip-hop background to create the mundane, repetitive actions and I also loved how Sophie could do much more improvisation and really thought outside the box to break away from those actions. It created an interesting dynamic and gave us a lot to think about for the development of this idea.

Maps and Journeys- Bacteria and Supplies Finally Arrive and Agar Creation.

Shortly after I made my previous post about my DNA composition, I was given project approval after many weeks of deliberation and being sent from one person to another. As soon as I heard I got straight on the phone to the supplier of the bacteria and I made my order. They luckily were just about to place an order that day so I was able to get it at just the right time. The materials I needed to make the agar were also ordered and arrived about a day later.

I found the process of making the agar fairly simple, as the solution was 10% salt, you could sterilise it by boiling it. I disinfected all of my kit before doing so and measured out the ingredients as accurately as possible. However, whilst I was boiling it the first time I made it, the mixture boiled over as I took my eye of it for just a few seconds. I was aware that the agar could boil over very suddenly, and so it was my own fault for not paying full attention. The next time I made it, I paid much more attention to what I was doing. I boiled the solution for 15 minutes to make sure the mixture was totally sterilised and all the ingredients were fully dissolved. I then waited until the mixture was about 55c before pouring it into the petri dishes. I then left them to cool and solidify. During the agar making process I did not take any pictures purely for the reason that I wanted to make sure the area was as clean and my attention was fully on what I was doing. However, I will link the method and recipe I was using from this website: http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/gsl/html/agar.html

A couple of days later my bacteria arrived. As soon as it arrived I had to inspect it to make sure it was alive, and to remove the tape from the petri dish to allow it to get some oxygen. I wrapped it in blankets as well to try and keep it at a temperature near to 20c so that it would grow properly as it is way too cold at this time of year. Later that evening, I also looked at it in the dark to see how much light it gave off and also how dark it had to be in order to view it:

I was happy with the colour it turned out, as I was either expecting a green or blue glow. I was also happy with how they could be photographed and I intend to feature photography heavily in the outcome of this project. However I could not film the bacteria as it would not pick up on the camera very easily. To take the photographs I had to do a long exposure of 30 seconds in order for it to be properly exposed, so to make up for this I will be playing around with different concepts I could use to photograph this bacteria. 

I then used my inoculation loops to transfer the bacteria to the other petri dishes to see if they would grow too. In the meantime I also hollowed out the lightbulbs and made my agar to go inside them as well. 

Maps and Journeys- Light Bulb Test 1

After my presentation last Thursday, I had some feedback which left me with a few notes of my own:

-Think about the design of the installation
-Think about the risks involved.
-How will I get a hold of the light bulbs/ other materials?
-Be careful of time frame
-How can I relate the installation back to the idea of sustainability.

Before tackling any of the others, I wanted to confront the safety issues and the practicability of hollowing out the light bulbs. To do this, I went and bought a few light bulbs to try it with. I was also following the tutorial here.

I gathered the tools I needed (pliers, screwdriver) and put everything inside a box to catch the glass as it breaks and falls. I also have some gardening gloves to protect my hands from any shards.

...And here are the goggles I'm wearing to protect my eyes!

Initially the first steps of the hollowing was fairly easy, slightly fiddly but I imagine after doing it a few times I would get the hang of it. The challenge came when I had to break the glass to actually get the filament out.

In the light bulb I was using were the glass was, there was plastic. So, I tried it on another light bulb but the neck was too thin so the filament couldn't come out, which was disappointing. However, I now knew what size light bulb I needed and what to look out for when looking at the light bulbs I needed. 

So, I got a larger light bulb and tried it again, finding it a lot easier. The whole process only took about 5 minutes and before I knew it I had a hollow light bulb! 

On a side note, after taking out the filament there were still jagged edges on the inside rim of the light bulb so I took a rough nail file and sanded them down until they were smooth, thus making it safer for use. 

Then, I filled the light bulb with water to wash out any remaining particles of glass.

Now that I know how to hollow out the light bulbs, I need to figure out how I am going to suspend them, and find a room to hold my installation.

Maps and Journeys- Installation Idea

After my last post highlighting my concern for the installation idea, I decided that the product design was a little too commercial, and that I wanted to create something much more conceptual. So I returned to an earlier idea I had of growing the bacteria on the inside of light bulbs, as well as petri dishes. I have seen something similar done before for the purpose of testing water for toxicity, but I wanted to create something on a larger scale.

I began researching light bulb installations and came across a photograph album of one called 'Scattered Light' by Jim Campbell:

I liked the idea of suspending the light bulbs and allowing an audience to walk through them. This to me would create an enchanting environment for my audience to view bio-luminescent bacteria whilst still conveying it as a light source. As we are seeing biology as light sources becoming more and more popular (as I showed in previous posts) it seems likely that light bulbs that glow green or blue from biological incandescence is a sight we may see in the near future.

Also, as part of the installation I would like to observe the bacteria as it grows, to show the process in which it becomes something of use to us as humans, and to show how the installation was made. After talking with Leah at the end of last year about laying bare your devices, I've begun to put a lot of value into that idea where it is appropriate, and in this case I feel that the process of creating the installation fills the brief as much as the outcome. The creative and scientific journey in creating sustainable lighting, and even the progression of ideas from looking at the connection between biology and man-made machines, to realising that this line between machine and biology is becoming increasingly thinner, is something important to demonstrate to an audience if they are to fully appreciate the installation itself.

In recording the process, I was thinking of taking a time-lapse of the bacteria growing, much like in this video:

I would also like to photograph the bacteria possibly through a microscope, but certainly at stages in its growth cycle, but also using written observations to present like a research diary, detailing the life of the organism which the audience could then view or had just viewed in the light bulb. I feel that it gives the audience essential context on the piece.

Maps and Journeys- Whether my project is possible

After having scoured the internet for how to grow this bacteria and what I would I need, I found that most of the ingredients and supplies are relatively easy to get hold of. The only trouble I had finding was the bacteria itself. I found a company in America called Carolina.com, which supplies all manners of microbiology equipment. I saw that they did the type of bacteria I wanted; Vibrio Fischeri. However, the danger with importing live bacteria overseas is that sudden or extreme changes in temperature that may occur, could kill the bacteria. So, I looked through the information on their website and found that they also had stockists in other countries. So, I contacted their EU sales team and was referred to the only stockist in the UK, who would happily be able to provide me with the bacteria I needed for this project. Also, I discovered that under the right conditions, the bacteria should take about 4-5 days to dominate a petri dish, and so it would fit right with my project. I can continuously transfer bacteria on to new petri dishes to keep the bacteria alive and growing as I approach my assessment date.

I am still unsure about using the bacteria to create a product, as I feel I may not be relating it back to the brief enough. I know that the project directly relates to the brief and there is a very clear line in my research that shows how I got here, but I'm still feeling as if my project is lacking something.

After doing a little more research into how bacteria is being used for lighting, I came across a kickstarter for a children's toy called Dinopet:

This is a form of algae which becomes luminescent when disturbed by movement, and oxygen being pushed into it. The name 'dino pet' refers to the type of bacteria that is used to make this being called dinoflagellates. This is a phenomena seen on some beaches as the waves crash against each other:

I am still very interested in exploring this as my final outcome, especially now that I know it is much more possible to achieve than at first thoughts. However, between the dino pet, and the artwork I displayed in my last post, I am unsure in what form I should use to present it. However, I have also resolved to scientifically keep track of the bacterias' progress as it grows, and to take photos and videos as part of the process. I feel as if the process of making the piece will be as much a part of the outcome as the finished work itself.

Maps and Journeys- Further Research and Final Idea

In William Myers 'Bio Design: Nature, Science, Creativity' He demonstrates many ways in which nature and science are coming together to produce sustainable materials for the future to help the environment. Many of the pieces he demonstrated may feature heavily in the homes of tomorrow, as well as in the structure of the buildings themselves. I thought it important to research this side of the biological process as machine, as it is very much becoming a literal reality as well as the metaphorical one that I envisioned in my initial ideas for this project.

The most interesting one to me is the bio-light, which are containers of either bioluminescent bacteria, or enzymes and proteins which are needed to sustain illumination. These work at a lower temperature to produce incandescent lighting:

I started reading about this kind of product, and found that scientists all over the world are starting to develop lighting using sources such as this to find sustainable alternatives to electricity. For example, a French biochemist, Pierre Calleja, spent years developing an alternative to street lighting using bioluminescent algae. You can see that in his TED talk here.

After some further research I also found one example of artwork done by an artist and scientist, Hunter Cole, which was done using bioluminescent algae in petri dishes:

I became really excited by the idea of incorporating this into my project, and I suggested in a tutorial with Rosie that I create a lit map of the world using the petri dishes of bacteria to show how the world may be lit in the future. However, she felt that it did not need such a literal translation of the project. So instead, I proposed that I create a design of a futuristic lighting source that may enter the homes of tomorrow. This would be to demonstrate what kind of products we may be seeing in the future due to an increased need for sustainable products. My only concern with this project is the accessibility of all the supplies necessary to make this possible. I will have to do more research into this before proceeding.

Maps and Journeys- Further Idea Research

After my tutorial with Kathleen, I took out the book she recommended as the idea I presented to her was related to the similarities between the human body, and the man made structures that exist in the modern world. (For example roads are mapped out much like capillary networks). In the book titled 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' by Walter Benjamin, he discusses the value of art as technology has progressed throughout time. He makes an interesting argument which highlights how original artworks may have lost some of their value due to the ease of replication and emulation. At first I was somewhat skeptical about this idea, however the more I thought of current trends and technologies and how they are affecting photography and film as large parts of the creative industry, I realised that this was very much a current issue.

In relation to my idea, I began to realise that growing urban areas are due to new technologies that have come about in the same way as they have changed the creative industry, by being able to copy or emulate an earlier model. However, this does not affect my belief that modern processes are somewhat based on actions in the body. Keeping with the example of road networks (as this is the most strong example) from early Roman roads which were very straights, over time humans began to try and find quicker and easier ways of reaching their destination. Looking at modern road networks produces some interesting visual comparisons with that of capillary networks in the body:

However, this is not exclusive to humans alone. Capillary networks have been compared to bare tree branches before, and they appear on leaves as well.

I wanted to see if other artwork relating to this had been done before, so I researched for artists that have cut up maps into shapes to see if I could find a similar comparison, and I found an artist called Shannon Rankin. Her works are mainly installation and all use maps to compare biological processes and to find patterns in nature. The one I found the most interesting was a series she entitled 'Anatomy' which can be found here. The series was doing exactly what I described, and using maps to make images of biological things such as the heart. About her work she said:

‘Maps depicting mountain ranges, roads, lakes and rivers resemble internal biological features, reproductive anatomy, skeletal structures and networks of the human body. Symbols of cities become acupuncture points, and meridian lines, like rivers, represent an internal system of communication and transport’.

I have to say that I completely agree with her on this view of the world, however in my project I would like to take a different approach in how I demonstrate this idea.

Maps and Journeys- Kathleen Rogers Lecture

I found the lecture this morning very helpful in looking at different ways to interpret the brief. Kathleen talked a lot about the creative process and the reasoning behind each outcome that she presented to us. She made it clear that her belief is that the journey of making the piece is as important, if not more so than the outcome you produce. She highlighted some very important points about how extensive research and pulling concepts from many different places will ultimately make the piece have a much better grounding as you will have more of an idea of where you are coming from when making the piece, and the likelihood is that this will show through in the outcome.

Another interesting thing about the lecture, with reference to the pieces she showed us, was her challenging the meaning of 'site specific'. We looked at a piece on lace that was handmade, and she commented that handmade objects have a particular 'vibe' about them, in the sense that there is a lot of cultural history behind them that give them some sort of value. Also, the observation of the object, and our interpretation of the object changes the object itself in terms of what it means to the viewer. We co-create the objects even after they have been physically made. She said a similar thing about site-specific with reference to places as well. The known history of a place, with links to culture, can produce a particular vibe about the place, as she showed us with her video on the group of mediums in the mines. Visiting a place, can give you an experience, and in turn your experience of that place adds to the culture and memories surrounding that place, both in your personal experience and the stories you may tell to the younger generation. Thinking about maps and journeys in this way is a different approach from what I was thinking of before.

Following on from this, we had a large group tutorial with Kathleen to discuss my ideas for the project. One new idea that has struck me since my last post about it, is to combine some of my earlier ideas of looking at processes, and the human body. I feel that some of the structures we place around us are reflective of processes and networks which happen within the human body, and the actions that humans take in the world outside the body reflect the processes that happen inside the body as well. Kathleen said it was a nice idea and started to talk about several examples of the kind of thing I had in mind. She highlighted things such as 1920's exercise regimes which involved making shapes which were considered unnatural movements:

This is much like modern yoga, which is all about flowing from one pose to another. 

Kathleen also recommended a book called 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' by Walter Benjamin. I have taken out this book in the hope of coming to understand works that follow a similar line to what I am interested in.

Psychogeography Task

In our lecture with Leah two weeks ago, we were set a task of doing a piece of psychogeography and producing an outcome to show to the class on 10th October. This was supposed to mimic the piece that Leah had written that was inspired by Bill Drummond's own work, and we were supposed to draw our own names into the surrounding area and walk that. However, I decided to take a slightly different approach to this task.

When Leah started introducing us more to Psychogeography and artists that produce works along this 'criteria' as it were, it reminded me so much of Geocaching; which I am very familiar with. Geocaching is an international online site where people go and place 'caches' in the form of whatever they like. This could be a tupperware box, small magnet lockbox, or even something as extravagant as a fake pinecone with a hidden compartment. The idea is then to post this cache online with coordinates indicating its location. The user will then go there and take an object from the cache, only if they are to replace the item with something of equal or greater value. There always features a logbook also to record your visit there. You can then log online that you have found it. Some caches are posted as part of series, or puzzle, which you have to find answers to in order to find the cache. This is what I decided to do for my psychogeography project.

This one had a grid and various places which would reveal a name to you at the end. It's a very good way to learn more about your surroundings and to gain new experiences.

The main thing this project taught me was that the use of sound alongside photographs can bring them to life in a completely different way; It is different experience to viewing film, however. It requires you to use your imagination and put yourself in a place that I find particularly mentally challenging. Also, the experiences I had on this journey allowed me to meet new people and see my surroundings in a way I never have before.

For example, in the hours I spent walking around Farnham I experienced talking to new people that I see all the time but never engaged with, witnessed a car crash, discovered a small cafe that I like, found quiet in a place which has so many cars.

EDIT: During the lecture with Leah, in which we presented this work. She seemed to like the idea behind the walk, but her criticism of it was that I didn't include the geocaching element of it enough. As I came from the idea of Geocaching in my mapping out of my route, she felt I could have included that in the final work much more. 

Maps and Journeys- Group Tutorial 1 and development of ideas.

In this tutorial, I was very interested to hear other peoples ideas about the project, and I was intrigued in the different interpretations everyone had on the brief. For myself, I explained my project ideas as highlighted in my earlier post here,  and Rosie seemed to be interested, but I felt that it needed more development, and so did she. She said that our lecture next Friday with Kathleen Rogers would look more in to the ideas that I had brought up. She also suggested perhaps looking into Geocaching as a starting point for my art work, as I already have a vast knowledge of that subject matter, and so using something as a hobby and turning it into something artistic might be quite interesting. However, I was not sure I wanted to involve my hobby in my work, as I quite like to keep my work and my play separate from each other. Although it is something I can certainly consider. I look briefly into some geocaching art and found some rather creative geocaching pictures made by a series of caches placed precisely to show up on the geocaching map as an image:

However, since looking at this, I have thought of a concept for another idea I could look into. I am very interested in sound design at the moment, having enjoyed my sound work from last year, and now doing the sound workshops for Professional Toolkit this year. So, I thought I could try and figure out a way to turn sound into an image in such a way that I could use it for cartography. I know similar things have been done with Rebeca.org, but I would like to turn sound itself into an image, rather than mapping where sounds have been taken. For example, I stumbled across a business which turns audio files of famous speeches or phrases into prints that you can buy:

I also looked into other experiments with sound as an image, such as a resonance experiment done on youtube:

If I were to follow up with this idea, then I would have to do some serious experimentation on how to achieve this goal, and also what I want to say with the piece. I am also still interested in following up the ideas that I mentioned in my previous post. However, these are my thoughts for the moment, with updates to come.