…waits for no-one Image: Alison Whitmore/Helen Stevenson

Yesterday I ran an experimental sound workshop where we began with a sound walk and then the participants went out into Derby recording things on their phones or cameras that interested them. Although there were only 2 participants left in the afternoon, we had a really interesting time as they were very focused. The last thing we did was to listen to the fountain in the middle of a roundabout with a hydrophone. The outcome of this day was that we are going to compose a short, new sound work with all their recordings which will be done by more than one person so we will have several pieces using the same original material but probably very different. Hopefully, they will be played at Artcore sometime in the future.

This will probably be the last blog for this exhibition and it is part evaluation and part commentary on happenings. One thing that I am so grateful for is to be able to create an exhibition without compromise. Usually, I have a big idea and then have to scale down and down until I get to my meagre budget. See Hear had a budget that allowed me to fulfil my ideas. Thanks  Artcore for having faith in me.

                                                          Dear Passengers with Ashley Morris film, Heartbeat of a Journey 

I love the look of the exhibition, it is clean and minimal with the works by myself and Ashley fitting well together and creating a flow of interest. Of course, there are one or two things I would do differently but they are not major. For example, the links connecting Osnabrück and Derby could, maybe, be more prominent.

I loved Osnabrück, the old and the new part of the town, the friendliness of the people, the bike lanes, the woods behind the house we stayed in, the Schrebergarten and especially Atelier M82. Having a studio there and in Derby made a real difference. It gave me time to step outside everyday life and think. Often, thinking space is what is most needed, even more even doing space.

So, after this ramble, what is next? Firstly to try and find some funding to begin a collaboration with Margit. What I would like to happen is that I do some initial research here, then continue with Margit in Osnabrück then to follow up together in Derby culminating in an exhibition. Good to have an ambitious plan.

Margit Rusert’s work for Lange Nacht which is the work I would like to make sound pieces for.

I still have work from the residency to resolve that needs a little more thinking time. I will continue with my ‘Plantagrams’ on instagram where I am recording, snaps on my mobile phone,  all the plants on a patch of land near the River Soar.

Plantagram No. 1 Purple Loosestrife

. In addition, I have an article to write on poetic mapping for a publication. Oh, and have a bit of a rest!!

I would like to give my thanks to everyone who has made this happen and made the experience a good one. Not forgetting my fellow artist, Ashley Morris. We made it and it worked.

Thinking about the whole process of a residency and exhibition – whilst I think we have created amazing work, she says modestly, it is so much a team effort and many, many thanks to everyone at Artcore and in Osnabrück who has contributed. As an artist, it is a case of being there and hoping ideas will come. This means you have to trust yourself that it will happen. Not always easy but I am learning. So, now time to get the plants in the car and hoick them up the stairs to the gallery. Got my muscles ready!

Blogs get less as work gets more! We have a formal invite and it looks good. Last week was a whirl of activity and now I am on the final stretch. The last 5 days have been spent in London at the Crisp sound conference at UAL and what a lot I have learnt. In between sessions, I was negotiating about the exhibition catalogue. A very busy week but now, I am back and ready to work.

I had envisaged the plants that I had been growing  for the exhibition much differently than they really are which is tall and weedy not bushy and productive. They have four days to look good. But maybe it doesn’t matter, the idea is that they grow according to their own agenda, their time is not the same as our time. I think they are teaching me and I should listen. It is not the Artcore Flower Show after all. Now, there’s an idea!

The list of things still left to do ebbs and flows.  But the catalogue is off to print thanks to some late  emails and thanks to Hemal Talati of Designcore. He works hard, that man. I need to do a reminder for opening night invitations and beyond; pick up and install photos;  organise delivery permit –  I am not carrying the thin and weedy plants from the car park; edit one of the sound pieces; put all on micro SD and test; install speakers; finish swing set-up; hang drawing. It is all about time.

Clock-repairers Michael Nitsche (might have spelt this wrongly) in Osnabrück with my reflection. This somehow seems very apt. In Derby Museum, there is a study room with several clocks and books of interest so that is another place to go and research.

But what I want to do is disrupt the notion of time, how it is measured and how we can create our own individual measurement through a physical action. It is a crossing of a border from the known, the authorised, the accepted to the way  that time seems to each of us. Sometimes it appears to go really slowly, others it is gone before you know it.  Need to delve into the philosophy of all this but, at the moment, just need to get the exhibition ready.  Two pieces are ready and edited, Dear Passengers and Echoes of the Beach which just needs a way of showing the drawing which inspired the work. Not a fan of frames, it is concertina’ed so could put up a shelf, I suppose. But it is not a major problem. Just got this main piece, currently called waits for no-one although that might change, to work out.

Took an intense look at the gallery space on Friday with Ashley, the film-maker I am doing the exhibition with, suggesting ways we may fit in all the work so that, with my sound pieces and his film work, each can be heard without too much leakage.  We are planning a workshop,  experimental sound and film-making over two days, which will be good fun, I think!

Dear Passengers open studio clip Dear Passengers from Lange Nacht open studio

Back in Derby with lots of work to do. Only 4 weeks to the exhibition opening, counting this week, install week and a week when I am going to the sound conference in London. I need to get a move on! I now have a direction but need to discuss it with Artcore first, ha ha, it’s a secret. The last few days were a rush to get my final photos and visits done. Doing the Slow Running project right to the end and have many sound and video pieces to edit. I have also been working on my Strange Instrument series shown below and ‘played’ in woods with birdsong and mosquitoes

Strange Instruments series.

I have had a brilliant time and everyone was so kind from Margit Rusert for sharing her studio and Elizabeth Lemme for sharing her house. Sharing the studio with Margit  meant that new connections were made, not only between the works but also on a personal level and we intend to collaborate together in the future – we have plans!

Stemming from the Open Studio Night which was predicted to get 300 visitors but it turns out there were 500, what an amazing turnout, I did a studio exchange visit later in the week with  talented artist Joost-H Becker (https://jhb-art.com/). Here are a couple of his drawings-

I went to the Botanic Gardens to wander and think and also to the Clock Museum at Bad Iburg. The sounds of all the clocks ticking together was a recurring nightmare as a child.

Clock Museum at Bad Iburg

Currently editing the work created in Osnabrück, Germany..  Here’s a glimpse! Excited to present the rest at our Artcore exhibition in the coming weeks!

Enjoy

Ashley

#ExperimetalFilm #MovingImage #LOAF

Echoes of the Beach Lange Nacht 8.6.24

Lots of interesting conversations  and discussions about the work. I also showed Dear Passengers and my working documents such as the mind map and sketch book. The work Dear Passengers, will be in the next blog as I need a better recording.

So today was a little bit of a relaxing day, I went out with the camera. I have now a future photographic plus project in mind  that links with Derby, if I am invited back that is. I need to improve my German before tackling it though.  For now, I  am here as a sound artist and will begin tomorrow to build on the sound recordings I have already made which includes ad hoc instrument making. I am not sure where I am going with this but it will become clear when I get back to Derby. In addition, I am linking filming from my daily run in the woods, a Slow Running practice, which is filmed, to different recordings.

 Running path in the woods behind the house

I will visit the town twinning office this week as invited to do so. Hope to hear of some positive ideas for future connections.