Journal

The End, It has Come!

2007-07-12T18:25:00.001Z

Having served its academic purpose, and been fun in the meantime, I have now decided to kill off this blog.

My new Journal is kept at joesart.org along with loads of other things and bobs.

ps Because of not understanding my new blog system properly, I deleted all of the tags on this one, on well!

Wikipedia Photobombing Entry

2007-06-11T12:01:00.000Z

There's now an entry on Wikipedia telling us what my photobombing project is about. I wonder if I should augment it with some information about me. I guess not. At least not until its "notable".

Speaking of quotes

2007-05-22T10:49:00.000Z

Another Chaos quote.

"I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me. I know some people are terrified of the bomb. But then some people are terrified to be seen carrying a modern screen magazine. Experience teaches us that silence terrifies people the most."

Bob Dylan

Seminal... I think...?

2007-05-21T22:04:00.001Z

"The posh girl's daughter died of dyslexia."

Caiti Berry

Photobombing

2007-05-18T15:23:00.000Z

Well after writing my ambition to do a photography project, using my images from my 12 month photo diary. I've set up all the technical side of it; see http://photobombing.com. Now I just need to do it, do it.

Academia so far, seems ok

2007-05-18T10:11:00.000Z

Well, I handed in my journal. I finished my projects and exhibition piece, we did the show. All good, good fun and productive in work terms too.

I did a poor presentation for my assessment of this year, but hopefully I'll make up in other areas. But possibly I'll be let down in other areas. Anyway, year 1 - it all could be worse.

Part of my exhibition was a display of about 950 photographs, making up a photo diary of the last 12 months of my life. During the process of taking them down (much more fun than sticking them up, 4 bits of blue tack per photo is 950 * 4 little pieces of blue tack) I was thinking about what to do with the photos.

I've decided that I will start another photography project, I'm going to attach my photos to public places with blue tack. Each one will be tagged with a sticker, that links to a website detailing the project. I'm also going to try and photograph the situations in which I put the prints and also try and photograph whoever takes the photo from its situation. I think I'll call it photobombing.

Also - must make an Eastenders style soap, but in a documentary style. Perfect.

Twiimendous

2007-05-03T09:29:00.000Z

Discovered the potential power of a Wii remote and I've decided to use it for my University show, it will form the "button" part of my audio installation. In order to record a snippet of audio, you will have to make a gesture with the remote - assuming my programming skills are up to the task.

Legal Fish

2007-04-25T14:25:00.000Z

Just came across an interesting article, relevant to anyone who downloads unofficial MP3s (or those that download offical ones, for that matter).

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/30/1849206

Heroes is Back

2007-04-24T14:33:00.000Z

A couple of months ago, my friend gave me a disk with the first 18 episodes of a US tv series, Heroes. I got addicted immediately, and lost two days of my life to constant watching.

Anyway, after the mid-season break its back, and I just watched the new episode - marvlous. I don't think its that good, in a critical sense, but the enjoyment I get from the act of being addicted is simply fantastic.

Also, I've started freecycling.

Reflections on This & Bibliography

2007-04-23T11:30:00.000Z

I slept for a pittyful hour or so this morning, with birds tweeting and the light endlessly seeping into my room. I wasn't working, rather my head was looping various thoughts, some about WikiPedia - I spent a lot of time reading it yesterday - and also Nena's 99 Red Balloons came back to haunt me again. So I'm not the freshest daisy today!

Today is the day to hand in my journal. This, I think, will be the last entry for the adjuged 1st year journal. I thought it maybe useful to reflect on how I've developed through writing it. Also I want to state its omissions.

I hope that I'll continue to write this journal, writing has proved to be a valuable thinking tool as well as delivering gratification simply to try and articulate my thoughts. Writing is something I used to hate, but the older I get the more enticed I am by the beauty of it. Also, as I'm slowly becoming desolved into a world dominated by Google and the Blogosphere, I should make a stand. Take the fight to them.

Incidental- I asked one of the IT guys in Chatham if there would be any mice lying around, for me to dismantle, for my Autotalk button. He's a nice guy, we ended up chatting about Freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org/) - just another facet of the dawn of Web 2.0 and the internet's constancy of innovation.

I'm not sure if its evident, but I certainly feel like my writing has progressed through the practice I've had here. Maybe it's just a confidence thing, either way, a good feeling.

Incidental 2- For Autotalk, paint the floor black and invite the audience to write something down if they'd prefer that to leaving a recording of their voice? Maybe getting too wishy-washy.

I've tried to be referential to other artists, as I believe that's an area where I generally falls down, in terms of being assessed for University, but I still don't think I've fixed the problem. I guess its because I've only been exposed to the art world (and actually looked at it, in anything other than a casual sense) since September last year and the majority of the time I've been relatively self-obsessed. Mainly looking at other artists' work as it relates to my own progress. Also I harbour a strong belief that if I like something, for no particular reason, there is no need to spoil it by over-analysis and being overly critical. Or indeed critical at all. So maybe that will be a weak spot of my journal.

Another thing that I know I haven't done "to specification" is reviews. I have written only two reviews, I think, as a result of sitting down after having come to the decision to write a review. I do, however, have significant other review-type-text that hopefully will fill the void, if it can be distinguishsed from general musings.

Lastly; a bibliography.

The one text that I'll mention (again) is Brian Eno's A Year with Swollen Appendicies. I don't think I've used any material directly from it, but as I previously stated it has been a useful tool for generating confidence and, to an extent, has probabl been the largest influence on my style of writing.

Otherwise I haven't looked at any literature to find out about things or gather inspiration. As you may have correctly presumed, WikiPedia is generally my first port of call regarding pretty much anything (particularly anything that, should be, factual). If WikiPedia itself doesn't satisfy my curiosity I would then revert to traditional web searching using Google (althought depending on the subject this is sometimes my starting point). To catalog my browsing throughout the writing of this journal would result in a list of thousands of unconnected websites, and not really mean anything useful.

Incidental 3- my good friend David, from my hometown/school classes is having an interview for Interactive Arts today. It would be so good to do some collaborative work, were he to get on.
Other sources are the television and the Guardian. I've never previously got into reading a news paper (apart from the Metro, but does that count?), but with a little practice I've learnt my way around this particular one and enjoyed reading it a lot, as well as doing the "quick" crossword whenever I can - normally being shamed by my wiki-saboteur friend Matthew.

Breakfast time now I think, then after David's interview I can go home, relax and catch up on yesterday's missed sleep.

Conservapedia

2007-04-22T17:22:00.000Z

Created to combat the, alledgedly, anti-USA and anti-Christian WikiPedia, Conservapedia.com has this about Dinosaurs;

Dinosaurs were created on day 6 of the creation week approximately 6,000 years ago, along with other land animals, and therefore co-existed with humans.

Oh dear.

How time comes together

2007-04-22T14:59:00.003Z

I like the concept of time, and every piece of work I do has lots of dependency on time. Music and photography in particular. I also like its fluid-ness, and the immense value of looking back at things with retrospect. I suppose that's why I decided to try and do a project based on it.

So far, at least, my time exploits haven't come to anything tangible. I tried to suggest that some of the images I presented at my half year review had their artistic basis in representing a moment of time, but its more true that that was retrospective thinking after each image had been captured. As an aside, I really like thinking of taking photographs as, in a literal sense, actually capturing the beams of light that are creating whatever it is I'm photographing. Maybe its the hunter gatherer in me coming out.

I do however, have several on-going pieces of work that are spawned directly from my time project. Its ironic that they're taking me more time to complete as I initially guessed they would or maybe I am simply still suffering from procrastination-fever.

Fresh Air. I think this moth had just emerged from a cacoon.

Sensible, sensible

2007-04-20T23:11:00.000Z

I subscribed to Artists News today. What a sensible thing to do! Immediately I'm inspired and encouraged about the wealth of opportunity out there.

Emailing a Saltaire based gallery about a photography exhibition and there's an intriguing commission for a public space in Coventry.

Innovative, exciting and experiential, it should engage with both adult and family visitors. The piece must also evolve during the exhibiting period either through audience participation or as phases.

I figure my audio installation for the end of year show would fit in with this perfectly, so I'm going to try and follow this up.

Autotalk Patch, at present. This is a shot of the "finished" Max/Msp program for my Autotalk installation, for the end of year show. Getting pretty complex!

Thoughts from a year ago

2007-04-19T10:23:00.000Z

About this time last year I was feverishly trying to put together a portfolio (from nothing, diddly-squat) to get me through my interview for Interactive Arts. The ideas that I eventually presented to Tony, all stemmed from the writing on these envelopes. I'd forgotten most of them, I should really pursue them.

One of my favourites, comes from the concept of attaching a bucket of paint to all the taxi's in the city. Each with a hole in the bottom, slowing leaking paint, and eventually tracking where all the taxi's go. Hopefully creating something aesthetically pleasing to look at.

Not possible I know, but maybe using GPS, similarly to how Adele Prince worked in Nottingham.

Its also really nice looking at these and seeing how my thinking has developed vastly in the last year. Although, importantly, I'm very aware that my referencing to other artists, and indeed knowledge of other artists could do with improvement. I hope during the networking activities that I'm going to undertake next year will help improve this.

Singing Ringing Tree

2007-04-18T21:02:00.000Z

I visited Tonkin Liu's "Singing Ringing Tree" - which shares its name with a 60s children's TV programme - near Burnley in Lancashire. Its supposedly an architectural kind of installation.... thing. I'm trying to write in a frustrated manner; because I often get tempered by coating simple works with layers of meaning and complexity that are beyond their worth. I don't want to just sound anti. I really love the Tree, its one of the coolest pieces of art that I've seen in a while, and I think this is how art should be done. But I would really love it if things could just be appreciated for what they are rather than smearing wonderful things with a veneer that (in me at least) encourages suspicion.

Can you feel the noise? When I visited the tree (in February) it was blowing a gale, and despite having a spattering of beautiful sunlight, was desolate. I think it added to my experience though, despite limiting it to a few fleeting minutes before I lost the use of my fingers. There are some wind turbines in the valley behind the tree in this picture. Its an interesting contrast, the use of the wind to enthral and inspire in the Singing Ringing Tree and capturing its power for industry and commercial use.

The tree's party piece, is the noise that is created by the wind blowing through the tubes. Aesthetically, of course, it looks both "cool as fuck" and carries much beauty - in my mind at least. But its the haunting noise, coupled with the location high on a moor in Lancashire, that really evokes strong feelings in me and made me feel affected by the tree.

Apart from writing from a critical point of view, I'm really interested in work, that like this, is in a public place and for anyone to enjoy. I should think of things I could do in this manner.

Casts. It never crossed my mind until just now, but could these be guns? I've probably been thinking about it too much.

Artistic Landscape. With these two pictures I kind of see the links to architecture more. Imagine a block of flats built such as above.

Run from the Wind. It was cold.

Button Action (required)

2007-04-17T14:59:00.000Z

I spoke to Daniel Staincliffe again, in a chance encounter in the studio at University. It turns out he's probably saved me some time, we're both trying to figure out the best way of having "a button" attached to a computer, in its most literal sense. One of my plans was to dismember a computer keyboard and try to harness the power of just one of the buttons - but Dan has tried this approach already and it is plagued with problems.

I suggested (another of my plans) maybe doing exactly the same but with a mouse instead, its much simpler inside and only has two buttons in the first place rather than 102 on a keyboard. He just said "Why didn't I think of that?" so hopefully it is going to turn out to be a good (working) idea. Fingers crossed, because if it doesn't work I'm going to be a bit stuck.

Action required, by me, to test it out!

Showing Off

2007-04-16T16:08:00.000Z

Despite having the first obstacle of handing in my journal in a few days, my head is filled with ideas and mulling over exactly what I'm going to do for my end of year show. I've definitely put my eggs in the Max/Msp audio installation basket, but I really want to represent my other activities from throughout the year.

Autotalk installation, Max/MSP program so far.

Ideally I would like a whole room to myself, with large speakers strategically positioned for my audio installation. Then I would pepper the walls and any other surfaces with printed photographs taken throughout the year but with gaps in the photos to project video work in. Over and above that I do have some interactive audio and video things that I'd love to make publicly accessible.

Having accepted that I don't have the time, space or funds to do that I've decided to explore the possibility of making a photograph trail from the foyer of my University building up to the studio and exhibition area. Arranged in chronological order it would very simply recount the last year of my life through all (that's several thousand) the photos I've taken. It would link really nicely with my Time video piece, which uses all the photos taken from when I started University to the Winter.

Need to check out how they could be attached to the building, if I would be allowed, how much all the prints would cost. Et cetera.

Things since the end of 2006. Self-described.

Bringing anarchy to a Wiki

2007-04-15T16:49:00.000Z

A Wiki, is a website that allows its users to add, edit, delete or change its own content. WikiPedia (http://www.wikipedia.org/) is a free encyclopedia that functions in just this manner.

My friend Matthew spent some time earlier this year deliberately trying to sabotage WikiPedia. I think it came about out of boredom, and mainly focused on changing entries subtly so they included a reference to goats. For instance doctoring the page about US president George Bush so the first sentance read; George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current U.S. President, serving from January 20, 2001 and he is not a goat.

All of Matthew's edits were reversed, usually within minutes, sometimes seconds and occasionally taking a little longer. So the system works. Matt (and my) IP address (the thing that uniquely identifies computers on the internet) was relatively quickly banned from making edits for a week. Apparently there are actually many people that spend incongruous amounts of time editing WikiPedia, and indeed have become addicted to it. Bizarre.

Initially I thought maybe doing the same as Matthew could constitute as a work of art somehow, but then remembered that WikiPedia is invaluable to me as a research tool and is one of the few resources that out-and-out trust what it says. This comes down to the ethos of WikiPedia editors and its rules and regulations, two of which are;

Neutral Point of View: All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV), representing fairly and without bias all significant views that have been published by reliable sources.
Attribution: Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a publisher of original thought. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is whether material is attributable to a reliable published source, not whether it is true. Wikipedia is not the place to publish your opinions, experiences, or arguments.

Much as these rules create a brilliant resource, they (purposefully) prevent people from using WikiPedia as a forum for original thought or self-promotion and it is enforced strictly. Again, I agree with this whole heatedly, but can't help but think its not fair that all the successful artists, musicians and writers are on WikiPedia and may derive promotional value from that. Whereas anyone unknown or aspirational can't get onto the resource, because nobody knows who they are and nothing is published elsewhere about them. Catch 22.

I created a WikiPedia page about my Dad, to see if his credentials were enough to allow his page to be left on and not deleted. So far this has worked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_lindley has been live on WikiPedia for a few weeks now, despite containing a warning that "this article lacks information on the notability (importance) of the subject matter". So not perfect. I could probably put something on the page that would give it some kind of importance, though I'm not entirely sure what. I should put he is father to aspirational artist Joseph, which would maybe get my foot in the door.

I came across a kind of paradox that will, potentially, allow me to achieve my desire of having my own WikiPedia entry. I guess the reason I want this is that is feels like a sign that I would have arrived as an artist, if the WikiPedia editors think that I have the required notability. How it would work, is that I systematically sabotage WikiPedia, but work to a rationale. Realistically I think it would have to involve an aspect of networking too, for instance getting multiple other people to help me as the task is too big for one. Otherwise I could write a computer program to do it. If I can get around the constant re-editing by the WikiPedia monitors, and alter something sufficiently thought-provoking or controversial, enough times and involve enough people; ultimately I could evoke so much interest that I could then get media coverage (even if it is local) or better some sort of comment from a critic. This in turn should constitute relevance and notability enough that my page on WikiPedia would be allowed.

It may seem a bit ridiculous, with that long explanation, but I really think it would work and if its done in the right way it could actually have artistic merit.

Picasa excellence and picasa annoyance

2007-04-10T11:28:00.000Z

I've been using Google's image organisation and editing software for a few months now, and I must say its largely made my life much easier.

Somehow, however, my Picasa library just got deleted. This means I now have to load in my 20-odd-thousand photos again, and I've lost various albums I've put together.

Oh well, I guess I should try and utilise having a "fresh" look at my pictures.

Cornerhouse Copy Cats

2007-04-10T08:55:00.000Z

On reading the Cornerhouse's website, I've discovered that they're just commencing with a project entitled Bitmapping (see http://www.bitmapping.com/)

The idea basically comes down to a game of consequences, but rather than using words images will be used. And rather than using paper, mobile phones (and their attached cameras) will be used. The whole thing will go on for about 3 months, and as each picture is sent it will be printed and displayed in the Cornerhouse Cafe.

Its brilliant.

However it's also rather frustrating for me that I came up with precisely the same concept. I guess that, if nothing else, it at least means I'm thinking along the right lines!

Rewritten Why's Alive

2007-04-07T19:19:00.000Z

I was quite disappointed at my poetic efforts with writing about "To ask why is to live".

This is a rewritten, and still rather dark version, but I'm happier with it. I really like thie ending passage;

Battlefields and pavements are playgrounds
Middle men and junkies doss like
Doll
Why are they, they?
What makes their folly?
Whats the point?
Where's the sign?
What's my name?
Why's today?
Why is alive
To ask why is to live

This is the whole thing:

Inkling for Recording

2007-04-02T10:15:00.000Z

I've got a deadline, of September, to complete a professional-sounding recording of an album's worth of my musical material. I had the same deadline last summer, but missed it, so I can't really not do it and come away feeling un-aggrieved. So I'm gonna do it. So far this year I've hardly spent any time with my music, mainly focusing on more University-aimed work. But I have the Inkling. And I'm sure its gonna be good, so I'm looking forward to it.

Nice Swiss Writing. Note from Leo, the guy who runs the record label who are going to put out my album. He's a lovely guy, and I think his handwriting is cool. Also I like the style of putting "Best, Leo" at the end of an email or letter.

I'm going to try and get a Variax guitar, which is a clever "modelling" guitar, hopefully giving me an expensive sound for not very much money. We'll see...

Listened to Hot Chip's second album, The Warning, for the first time properly. Its cool. Not quite as much character in parts, as with the first album, but it makes up for it with ingenuity in other ways. Really cool!

Hi-Fi. Play Station 2 based karaoke. Really good fun. This photo probably needs some audio accompaniment.

Lemurs & Genius

2007-03-31T17:07:00.000Z

I've written about the Jazz mutant Lemur a couple of times in previous posts, its an interactive control system for computers. Discussing it on a chairlift in France with my brother, he said he'd email me a link to a control system he'd seen. Similar to a sequence in the film "Minority Report" with Tom Cruise.

Its a system where you fully interact with a screen, using gestures (even body movements) to control a computer that then shows the result on the screen. It really can't be described properly, but I suggest you take a look at the video which is online here; http://multi-touchscreen.com/perceptive-pixel-jeff-han.html

The best thing about it is that the whole system was put together by a boffin and "about a ton" of hardware in his bedroom. Anything is possible!

Space Invasion. I found this rather unique key in my old house. I've always wondered if it was brought to earth by an alien race invading our planet. Maybe.....

The End is Nigh

2007-03-29T18:05:00.000Z

It feels to me as if something is coming close to an end. I can't quite figure out what it is, is it the impending hand-in date for this journal? Or is it the now ever-constant coverage of global warming that's getting me down? Or could it be the ever-dwindling student loan in my bank account combined with a scarily low number of days before the end of my University year. It all seems to have just sneaked into my consciousness without much prior warning.

Ending. Owned by my friend Fred it is memories of this guitar that are my first memories of any guitar. It seems to have been around for ever and I'm sure has inspired many; well at least me and Fred. This is a ritual burning of it, after it was rendered useless by a short drunken Scottish man.

I'm currently on a skiing trip in Vallandry, a small alpine village near Albertville in southern France. I've been here a few times before, but not for 3 or 4 years. Nothing has changed though, except here there is, too, a new-found awareness of global warming issues. The risk of the skiing trade disappearing has just jumped from nothing, to everything (in the property investors minds, anyway).

Climate change is a serious issue, but as it is patently clear; we've created a big problem. We now have to tackle the problem with gusto - I can't think how better to put it! Believe it or not, when I phoned up my school friend Lindsay when I was 13, really distressed about the fact the world was "going to fuck up" imminently, I reflected (at the time) that I was overreacting. I guess I wasn't really.
Unforgiving Mountain.

I just read in a newspaper that British Airways looses 23 bags out of each 1000 they load on to a plane - the worst in Europe.

Compliance. After jumping through hoops, doing obstacle courses, burning enough fuel to power the city for a day and a financial outlay equal to a small country's national debt; I finally received my valid UK passport. It was ordained with this insightful label.

I'm on holiday with my immediate family - a Christmas present to to us all from my Dad - and also with my auntie, uncle and two of their friends. Its quite a giggle and definitely a stark contrast to my cleshay-ridden and wholly student-like existence. Without going into too much detail describing my friends and family's background; being on holiday with such a concentration of knowledge and intellect, that is rooted in such different methods and concepts to that of my peer group, is very uplifting. Inspirational in a way.

Last night a conversation arose about sudoku, it turns out my auntie is an avid player, while my uncle doesn't really play at all. I'm quite a fan of sudoku, despite the huge amount of time it takes me to complete even an easy grid. Its a real art form. Apparently, this is the number of combinations you could have for a 9*9 sudoku grid.

Six sextillion, six hundred and seventy quintillion,
nine hundred and three quadrillion,
seven hundred and fifty two trillion,
twenty one billion, seventy two million,
nine hundred and thirty six thousand,
nine hundred and sixty.

Its definitely one of those things where the actual number doesn't matter. You just know; its a lot.

I also read an amazing article in the New Scientist last night (New Scientist makes excellent holiday reading, although I forgot this week and had to borrow my brother's copy!) that talked about number patterns just like sudoku. Mathematicians in the Europe only discovered these magic ways of arranging number in the last few hundred years, even though the Chinese have been aware of them for over 4000 years. Fancy that. It turns out that these magic squares, which are the same as sudoku squares, are actually invaluable tools for writing computer error-checking codes. By utilising these squares, a computer or electronic circuit, can transmit a message over an extremely "noisy" wire and actually decode it at the other end. By using the square, a computer can convert an extremely poorly transmitted message with missing or incorrect characters in, such as; " e i br n rox he zlay uog" into the correct message "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog".

The same kind of techniques are used already for the Internet, digital TV and CD/DVD drives, but by utilising the sudoku squares scientists can transmit high-bandwidth digital signals over electric power lines - the hardest thing to send a message through because of the extreme high voltage and crudeness of the lines. Its quite an odd thing to write about in the context of art, but for one it gave me that warm feeling I get when I see a movie that I really love, or an inspirational piece of art work, or listen to an amazing piece of music. But secondly, the point that really grabbed me was that mathematicians discovered these number patterns some time ago, but never really understood them and just thought of them as a game. Now they're being used at the cutting edge of technology to do something truly influential. The article included the sentence "maths can, once again, be seen as an art form." I think that's kinda cool.

Origami by Joe Gilardi. This is a dollar bill, creased, folder, cut up and put together again in this form. Another musing I arrived at whilst reading the New Scientist was the crossovers that exist between high-level mathematics, magical illusions and art; they're rife. I doubt I could be a magician, but it'd be cool to explore any artistic magical possibilities that arise.

During our conversation about Sudoku, however, my uncle (a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author) raised a question of what it is to guess? Also how to distinguish between this and an estimate. I wish my alcohol-impaired brain could remember the exact context of the question; it was to do with the human way (as opposed to a computer) of completing a sudoku grid- almost everyone makes assumptions that they're not sure of in order to see if they're correct. Just like guessing a word in a crossword; you may be wrong but even if it is it may well lead to some other correct answers. I thought it'd be cool to do some work reflecting on humans ability to guess and estimate. I'm sure that most guesses are actually more informed than the "guessee" thinks at the time.

Irrelevant Pomp. I created a WikiPedia page for my Dad... it says it "Lacks Relevance". In fitting with that sentiment, here is a photo that lacks relevance, but one that I think captures the spirit of an instant in London.

Fourtet Contest

2007-03-29T15:07:00.000Z

Well my entry didn't win the Fourtet video contest on Italian media website, qoob. In fact it received quite critical comments! However, I am still pleased with the result and it seemed to go down okay in my half year review.

The standard was very high, and the winning entry - although not my favourite - was very slick. It used still photographs of six people in a line, each with a percussion instrument, and all set against a white background. As the music progresses each person becomes animated perfectly in time with the beats of the song.

Consider copying the technique with a different subject
The video also used wide aspect, like a cinema screen - try it!

Use Case

2007-03-27T23:55:00.000Z

In software engineering and system engineering, a use case is a technique for capturing functional requirements of systems and systems-of-systems.

Each use case focuses on describing how to achieve a goal or task. For most software projects this means that multiple, perhaps dozens, of use cases are needed to embrace the scope of the new system.

This would be a fantastic method of ideation. Rather that using a use case to desribe how to achieve a goal or task, use it to describe how to a respresent a subject artistically or describe how to create a particular vision.

Ain't half clever these software developers.

Incidentally, I discovered that Edinburgh University's Informatics department, have a person employed specifically to inform the staff about and create digital art. How good is that?

Technorati

2007-03-22T19:51:00.000Z

Technorati searches blogs, millions of them, this one included. Its in competition with Google and Yahoo et al.

Very useful tool, should use it more. Advantagous over WikiPedia in its basis in opinion and thought, rather than pure facts and citations.

Having just written that I decided to use it, and vaguely entered some search terms. It yielded relevant, interesting and useful results immediately. Brilliant! I discovered the Arduino board, which is a little electronic circuit you plug into your computer via USB, it has a number of connectors, which you can plug just about anything into. On the Arduino website there are many examples of interactive installations people have put together using the Arduino - and it interfaces seamlessly with Max/MSP which is also interesting. Potentially knowing of it will allow me to follow up on some of my more challenging concepts.

I discovered the Arduino after landing on a journal belonging to a student in a similar position to myself, also studying in England. He and his friends were trying to utilise Arduino and Max/MSP to create a self-contained installation that takes shadows cast by the sun as input and outputs audio and video. It sounded good, if a little far fetched. I've enquired as to the outcome.

Adele Prince & Mars Bars

2007-03-20T15:17:00.000Z

Adele Prince (an Interactive Arts graduate) came to talk to my group this week. She has been very successful with exhibitions, commissions and winning an innovation prize from the Yahoo! website. Through her various projects she has also attracted a lot of media coverage. Her success alone was enough to keep me attentive, but as it turned out I really enjoyed the presentation and her work definately aroused my interest. Most of Adele's projects seemed to utilise the web, with more recent work reflecting the changes in the how the internet is used and having a distinctly Web 2.0 feel about them. One of her latest works, involved being tracked via GPS, which updated her position on a map on a website, and being given instruction via mobile phone - very technology heavy! This web-centricity was particularly interesting to me; as many of my ideas and things I'd like to do involve the same kind of things.

One commission that Adele showed us, was for a train station in Linconshire. How she created her work (which was a video installation) was to travel the length of the trainline and alongside it. But she did this by foot, taking photographs at 5 minute intervals throughout (the whole journey took several days). With the journey complete the photographs were Adele's source material, along with video footage recorded by her boyfriend who was following her on a bicycle. The end result is displayed on two video monitors housed within the station ticket office. I really liked this concept, its the kind of self-involving art that I really like. I guess there is something of a likeness to post modernism with exposed self-referencing, that really gets my juices flowing. With this piece I like it that there is no certainty about what the images would be, but together they can be directly relevant to the subject.

Another piece of work she talked about (my favourite I think) was her "Lost Something?" website. This was born from Adele collecting lost items from the street, and cataloging the item, where it was found, and when. Eventually all these items were compiled and uploaded onto a website. People can log on to the website, check the list and see if their lost item is there. Launched in the late 90s Adele still recieves many emails per week with regard to the lost items on the website.

Adele seems to have been prolific since leaving University, with further projects including Lost Something and another web-based affair; Trolley Spotting. Trolley Spotting is an online database (with maps & images) chronicling Adele's journeys around various cities to find trolleys. It is true that trolleys turn up in many odd places!

I'm enticed by the all Adele's work, and it is very reminicent of a number of my own concepts - I couldn't help but feel there was something missing for most of the projects. Like a "missing link". Of course this is just my preference, and I was exceedingly excited to see someone doing things so similar to some of my aspirations. Also her success speaks for itself.

The presentation did make me think back to discovering the Bookcrossing.com website. On the site, you register your details and you're then given a serial number. You print the number in a book, which you then leave anywhere you like! The idea is that someone else finds the book, which as well as the serial number has details of how to get the website. They then register the fact that they've found the book, where, when, how etc then once they're finished with the book they are supposed to leave it somewhere else. Thus you get a large network of people sharing books with people using the Internet as a medium for tracking it.

There is another website called WheresGeorge.com and another called PhotoTag.org - one tracks US currency and the other disposable cameras (and then shows the pictures taken with each camera). The ideaology seems very similar to that of a lot of mail artists, but in this case making the most out of the internet.

When I discovered these websites (about 3 years ago now) the concept of each struck a chord with me; and I started trying to wrack my brains to figure out something similar that I could set up myself. The lost something idea was one that came to mind (I was unaware Adele had done it!), but I decided it would only really work as a self-contained thing if the lost objects were posted on the website by its users, rather than just me, and that this would constitute a massive programming task!

The thing that really turned me on about BookCrossing (which, incidentally, is now a word in the Oxford English dictionary!) was the fact that the people interacting with the site were giving each other a gift. Even if it is to a complete stranger! I like this idea of not being able to control something, but engineering conditions so the "art" actually evolves by itself (plus its always nice to get something for free, from another person). The concept is quite similar to Dave Gorman's book Googlewhack Adventure, which is an amazing book. I think it qualifies to be called a work of art.

Mars Bars! I think the reason I chose Mars bars was that it rhymes, and I liked the phrase "Mars bars go far.."

My plan is to create a replica of the BookCrossing system, but modified so that Mars bars are the subject, rather than books. I will start with, say, 100 Mars which I will release through a variety of methods - each of them tagged with their own serial number and instructions. Whoever finds or recieves one of the bars, is instructed to log on to the website and record the fact they've recieved (and eaten!) the chocolate they are then requested to purchase a replacement chocolate add a serial number (provided by the website) and release that bar.

I would love to create this chocolate giving network, see how far it can spread, track its progress, ultimately see where it takes me and see where it takes the Mars bars.

Later on, I had two thoughts; firstly I was worried about the legality of using the Mars company's trademarks but then that led me to thinking how valuable it maybe for the company. I wonder if I could create such a thing and sell it to Mars as a viral marketing technique or simply tell Mars about the project and see if they would give me a nominal sponsor to get it off the ground.

So I'm extremely grateful to Adele for rekindling my interest in this kind of project and very pleased to have been made aware of her work, which I'm going to be watching with a keen eye. Maybe at some point we could join forces! Its funny how things work together, I started doing my first computer programming in ages with Max/MSP last week, and now I'm thinking about doing a whole load more.

Autotalk

2007-03-18T19:00:00.000Z

Trying to think of a name for my Max/MSP based voice recording/playback invention. Autotalk is my favourite so far, I think it kind of gives a feeling its been dreamt up by some zany Germans. Der Autotalk.

I really liked the Singing Ringing Tree near Burnley and part of that comes from to fact it is out there and available for the public this made me think about making an Autotalk installation in a public place. I've got dreams of installing 100 microphones and 100 speakers in a public space somewhere. A modern day confessional? Or it could even be counselling, where the counsellor is completely passive. Cognitive behavioural therapy, eat your heart out.

Infact would it be a good subject for the installation... pose the audience the question what should this be called? Then record the answers.

Depression. This photograph came about purely by chance, but the result I feel is saturated with meaning. Narcotics consumed, utilising packaging from prescribed anti-depressants.

Max/MSP Project (continued)

2007-03-06T14:52:00.000Z

This project was inspired by watching a programme on BBC2 - "The Grumpy Guide to Art". I found it pretty amusing, but if I can imagine in some frames of mind I would have thought it rather depressing - even though I know that isn't the point.

My inspiration came from Sir Gerry Robinson's comments about people "talking bollocks" about art. As an issue, I think its one that idealogically I sit on the fence with; although I'm often frustrated (even angered) with over complicated and non-contexural analysis of art I also love diversity in work and acknowledge that with that comes a natural caveat for over the top, nonsensical anaysis. I must admit (here and nowhere else) that Sir Gerry actually said this at the end of his little section; "its probably a brilliant name for an installation, 'Talking Bollocks'". Having got the nasty mental image of a the literal meaning of that out of my head, I immediately knew what I wanted to do; create an installation to explore the issue but to try my best to avoid a biast viewpoint.

I want to create a space that consists of a central piece of physical work. Viewers of the work are invited to make an audio recording of their thoughts and the piece. Each recording left is stored on a computer and will actually be played back into the same space, in real time. So overall you will have a piece of work to view, as well as (potentially) hundreds of different view points being played out of speakers at you whilst you are looking at the piece; and then (if you want to) you can contribute you own opinion.

It feels like my explanation is not as good as the idea I have in my head. I guess the only way to find out is to create it and try!

I'm a little apprehensive, not because I lack faith in my concept, but that I've been here lots of times before and then discovered I don't have the skill/tenacity to actually get it done in the available time. Must be positive.

Max/MSP Project

2007-03-05T14:18:00.000Z

I mentioned in a previous post a thing called the Lemur, that can be used with Cycling 74's Max/MSP. To explain a little, the Lemur is a kind of "control surface" that can be utilised in many different bits of software on PCs and Macs. Control surfaces roots are in computer-music, they were developed in order to allow computer based musicians to have a hands on way of controlling their entirely digital synthesisers. With a digital synthesiser as well as playing it (with a keyboard, just like a piano) there are seemingly endless parameters that can be changed whilst in use, to change the sound of the synth. Many of these controllers simply manifest themselves as a keyboard with an array of knobs, switches and buttons available however in the last few years, new technology has started to allow for much more inventive and intuitive options for controlling parameters. The Lemur, is a box with a touch screen. Using software provided with it you actually design your own interface with any type of slider, knob, button, switch, dimmer, button or display you can imagine. As well as this, it is a new type of touch screen, that allows you to touch it as many times as you want. So you can have (for example) 4 fingers spread out, each on its own touch sensitive slider. You could drag each slider up and down at a different speed, in a different direction. I'm afraid my explanation isn't quite comprehensible so look here; http://www.cycling74.com/products/lemur

The Lemur is made by a company called Cycling 74 - who's 'flagship' product is Max/MSP. Max, once you install it on your computer, does nothing. Max doesn't have a set purpose or function, rather it allows the user to create their own program to do whatever they want; it just provides a framework for doing that. Its rather like a computer programming environment (eg C++, Java or Visual Basic) that specialises in maniupulating and controlling digital media. With Max/MSP and its various add-on options, you are given a toolkit for doing literally anything you could imagine with sound and music, video and images, and because you can utilise Java from within the software anything else that you might want to do with a computer. It is an extremely powerful tool.

As an aside, the software was originally brought to my attention by a friend of mine, Matt Donkin, who used Max for his 3rd year show for Interactive Arts. Matt's project consists of a music keyboard, and a monitor. The two are linked via Max, and if you play notes that are in tune with one another, the monitor displays "tuneful" graphics. If you play random notes, then nothing very pretty is displayed. It's an interesting idea. Most "visualisation" programs (such as you get with most computer-based media players) simply process the sound to extract the beats of the music. That is then the basis for displaying graphics to fit with the music. The problem is that the graphics are mostly randomly generated, the only thing that links to the music is the beat and that is often sketchy at best. With Matt's project, it is the very notes themselves that create the image. Also the image that is created is intrinsically linked to the beat of the music, for the same reason.
Autechre's Max Patch. Autechre are electronic artists, making forward thinking music mainly using Max/MSP. This image illustrates how complicated "Patches" (Max programs) can get.

I think its really intesting how finding out about a tool, such as this, can actually inspire someone. I guess it applies to me more than, perhaps, a sculptor; just because my work exists almost entirely in the digital realm. But I think anyone can derive inspiration from such things
. I'm sure there is an argument that an artist should have a concept, and then find the tools to create it, but I feel its just as valid to see a tool and then come up with the idea as a result of knowing about it. Such utilisation of the available resources and tools is one reason why Moore's law (the idea that computing power will double every 18 months) has proved to be correct for the last 50 years and why advances are made so quickly. I suppose that my thinking comes down to this: If there is a way of doing something; someone will do it!

I'm currently developing an idea (that I will write about tomorrow) that will almost certainly be made possible by using Max.

Berliners, Ideas & Remixology

2007-02-28T16:30:00.000Z

I've been to Berlin, and returned, despite having an extremely dodgy passport. I'll write about it further at a later time, but I've completely fallen in love with the place. With the atmosphere, the people, the "way things work" as well as the rich artistic and cultural feeling that seems to spread from each corner of a block to the next. Since being there and returning I think I've been riding on a wave of positivity and free flowing ideas - a much needed boost.

Trickles on Monument. The full title of the monument is "The Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe"; it was one of the places in Berlin that affected me greatly. Opened in 2005 the monument is made from 2,700 stone slabs near the Brandenburg gate, arranged into geometric lines and rows, but each stone is slightly 'awkwardly' set in the ground, creating an uneasy contrast. An amazing places that I recommend anyone visit.

Whilst abroad I discovered the saga of naming my University course "Interactive Arts" (apparently the advent of that name brought significant extra funding - at the time). I thought it would be cool to set up some kind of forum (more of a list though) whereby students can record what they would refer to the course as, at any given time that they choose. The result would be an ever evolving list of creative titles or labels - potentially a fantastic source of inspiration. A bit silly on the face of it, but I think it could be really useful. Digital or paper?

Another thing I thought would be interesting to do, would be collate everybody's photographs of Berlin and arrange them so that any photos of the same object or place are grouped together. It would be really nice to see all the pictures together, but also interesting to look at different individuals points of view. Probably logistically impossible.

The last idea is also probably impossible, but I'm trying to rationalise it and figure out a way that it could work on a relatively small scale. I'd like to create a system that would (ideally) have screens visible on all the extreme surfaces of a room. The easiest way to describe it would be to have a box room, with a desk and chair at its centre. The walls, ceiling, and potentially floor would have all their surfaces covered by screens. Next a location is chosen; it could be at the top of the Eifel tower, or Everest or in the centre of Bejing - anywhere. Now pre-recorded images & sounds are played from loudspeakers, and shown on the screen. The idea being that the person sat at the chair has a 360 degree audio-visual experience of what its like to be in that place. Far reaching; but I'm looking at it on a much smaller scale, using TV screens and my garden.

Also discovered an interactive control pad - the Lemur - which is another thing I'd like to create my own version of. I'm not sure I have the technology skills required though (the Lemur is made by one of the most forward looking, and advanced, technology houses in the world; Cycling 74). Its hard to explain, but you can watch a video of it in use by following this link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O70FrnH2JU

Made friends with Dan Staincliffe in Berlin, really like his work, check out these games; http://www.piczo.com/danielstaincliffe?cr=4&rfm=y

Dan's Pigeons. One of Dan's photographs taken with a mechanically triggered camera.

Entry or writers block?

2007-02-27T21:02:00.000Z

I've often thought of writing critically about things in my journal, but then avoided it because I think the content isn't relevant enough, or I can't do it justice. I mentioned this in a journal workshop with 3rd year students, and the girl I spoke to simply said I should write about the inability to write.

So I'm giving it a go.

Mostly my reasoning has been routed in not thinking I, myself, am qualified to write about a particular subject. And in some cases I've just become frustrated by my own pompousness or submersion in doctoring my subjects with colourful language. The final convergence of thought that has put me off has been just thinking the subject matter is uninteresting; this includes topics such as Neighbours (the TV soap), children's animation Charlie & Lola (which I saw at the Bradford animation festival), Google's image editing software Picasa, Anthony Gormley's Another Place, and so on. Of all those things I have opinions of them all, which to some extent I think would be useful for myself and others to consider. But maybe not quite as much as other topics and more to the point I believe that writing about other more obviously important things will probably leave more of an impact on the reader, or audience.

At this juncture I'm tempted to think this entry falls into the pitfalls I mentioned as reasons for not including several entries. I think my upbringing and frequent dinner table philosophical discourse as a child has left me with an avid appreciation of paradox. This in turn I think is fed by my own paranoid tendencies to think in circles.

It would be interesting to explore peoples' cognitive processes in a work of art. In my case, here, thinking self-referentially, but it would be excellent to explore some common examples of traps. Maybe look at common dreams as a source?

Clean Sheets

2007-02-15T20:11:00.000Z

Its a bit odd, for someone with a bed as unpleasant and messy as my own, but I really lust after the feeling of newsly laundered sheets that are freshly put on a bed.

Maybe I should have them more!

An ex-colleague of mine, Matthew McArdle, said he irons his sheets so they're perfectly smooth.

Rotten Apples

2007-02-06T09:59:00.000Z

Why does the iMac keyboard that I use to type not have a delete key? What is up with that? Backspace is fine, but I need to delete!

Incidentally - running Windows on MacOS seems to be a real reality now (if thats gramatical?) Maybe I should get a Mac next time I get a computer. In 2050.

Ideation

2007-02-04T11:25:00.000Z

Remember you can do it.

And this is a good lesson.

Just Finishedness

2007-02-01T23:01:00.000Z

I can't quite remember why I wrote this. But I like it.

Brian Eno

2007-01-26T11:28:00.000Z

When I began to write my journal in earnest, I decided to follow a favourite route for producing something good. The starting point for this was searching the University library for "art" and "journal". This yielded two results, one was spurious, the other was Brian Eno's A Year with Swollen Appendices. This was quite a find, as I'd only days before been reading about Eno and I was really interested in his work. This I think was largely due to his status as a ex-Rock Star with Roxy Music, record producer for people including U2 and Talking Heads, as well as a highly influential recording musician and working artist. Pretty much everything I aspire to be.

It turns out from reading his book Eno appears to be something of the metaphorical anal retentive. But despite this he writes easy to read and entertaining prose, about things that normally would (appear to) be very personal to him. The insight into a successful and intelligent man's life and the anecdotes and stories that go with are one thing, but seeing how his he produces his work and thought processes is another. I've used the book as a resource to dip in to as and when I feel like it, or feel like I need it. The point being I've always come away from it with a confidence that Eno's thinking (I don't think at least) isn't too far distant from my own style and methods.

Currently I owe £4.50 in library fines. Worth every penny.

Word

2007-01-22T22:21:00.000Z

pettifogger: a petty, unscrupulous lawyer; also, who quibbles over trivia.

Who would have thought?

Write about Matt's word program idea.......

Fourtet Video Contest

2007-01-22T00:30:00.000Z

I just had a look at Fourtet's website (http://www.fourtet.net/) - there is a competition currently running to make a music video for one of his tunes, which I think I will enter. The competition is run by an Italian website, that I had not previously been aware of (http://it.qoob.tv/) but it seems to be pretty good; it seems to be a social networking site (see MySpace or Facebook) but completely centered around the arts. Each user of the site can upload their own images, videos or pieces of audio/music and then any other members can rate, review and comment. On its own its not that amazing, but the actual quality of the work seems to be relatively high.

Fourtet (aka Kieran Hebden) is a creator of music, in one form or another. I actually have a personal connection to him, which I guess has influenced my opinions quite a bit, but nonetheless he is probably my favourite modern musician. Which is quite a big deal for me.

I will write more about Kieran soon, but for now I must work on the video for the competition.

The tune is called "A Joy" so I'll have to do something around that I guess.

Jarvis. To suit my current vocation of doing a music video to "A Joy" here's Jarvis, having some Joy.

Things to Do:

2007-01-21T19:15:00.000Z

I've fostered my procrastination for this particular task for some time, despite it being requisite for the journal; making a weekly plan (weekly. . . !)

Photography

Print some more photos using the Mac suite at University
Find out if I can get access to the Manchester University print room (this will allow me to print up to A1 at high quality, currently I can only print up to A30
Transport my framed prints into University for my review in February
Enquire about showing those prints at the Link gallery
Restart my daily regime of taking photos of my face, bedroom, ash tray, kitchen, garden (I've let this slip recently, but the videos would be excellent for VJ purposes)

Continue refining library and further develop my understanding of the software that I'm using (OpenTZT; http://opentzt.sourceforge.net/)
Animate my Romanian doll
Create some more digital psychedelic backdrops for overlaying natural images on top of
Look at animating my motorway time-lapse images for VJing
Prepare my time-lapse videos for review in February
Set up my web cam for recording time-lapse again (I would like to position it looking at the street, but I need to purchase a longer cable and set up a mount!)
Put together comprehensive plan of what I need to do to prepare my VJ 'set' for my review

Time

Compile a display of time-based photographs and video pieces
Look at different presentations of my 'Time' material

Music

Complete "Diamond Apologies" track (should only require some more vocals and maybe a high synthesiser line, could consider recording Bouzouki but it may make it too busy)
Revisit other recently recorded tracks (Lifeline & other forays into electronic based music) and look at adding more acoustic elements
Put together live set of "finished" material ready to show to Leo
Supply Fred Baker (http://www.myspace.com/fredbaker) with recordings for his professional adjudication & input
Buy new guitar strings (again!) - Martin, extra light seem to do the trick
Book the sound suite at University for mixing down of my tracks using the monitoring system

Other Things

Sort out passport!!!!
Write to Granny and send some photographs
Identify something good to review (maybe write a review of the Joe Columbo exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery?)
Print photographs taken at the weekend
Have a go at making a video for a newly recorded track
Decide upon some good music for my VJ demonstration
See if Paddy still needs me for the Victoria Hall gig in Keighley
Send of release form & DVD to LocalPoint TV
Hassle myspace.com more to see why I can't post anything to it & try to put new recordings up there
Ask people if I can do remixes for them
Canvass opinion of local shops for sellings my prints

Having written this it seems highly likely that not all of these will be done and will appear in a future to-do list!

Matt; taken at the weekend on another excursion to Chorlton Water Park. I can't deduce any particular message or meaning from it - but I like simply like the aesthetics of the image. I converted the original from colour to black and white and increased the contrast in the image to bring out his silhouette. I really like the detail that you can see in it, down to the curls in Matt's hair.

Back it up; Rhymes with f _ _ _ it up

2007-01-15T02:45:00.000Z

Crude I know. I feel entitled to be crude having deleted a good 15 hours of work on a piece of music. I have no idea how it happened, but on returning to it, its not there. File recovery programs haven't recovered anything- simply reassured me that I was so stupid in the first place.

Oh well.

Sorry Leo! (the Creaked Records man)

Undesirable Webs

2007-01-13T19:45:00.000Z

Despite my 'love' of the web and the internet - it is my primary source for doing, well, pretty much anything! - the bigger and better it all gets it simultaneously develops more and more shit flying around it.

My first ever comment on my journal/blog was this (since deleted, thankyou very much);

"Tshhhhh."

The VJ Low-down

2007-01-12T02:17:00.000Z

Note to self:

This requires quite a lot more than this to put in to words and convey its breadth, realistically, but as a pre-cursor it is fit for purpose; It would be best to have a distinct set (set of visuals) for each mood or musical genre that you might encounter; straight-4 dance music, funk, deep house music, ambient, indie etc.

This has natrually come about anyway from putting together my "visual library" so far - but putting it in words I think will help put my thought processes in order!

Flesh out this idea with a proper concept - has been added to to-do list!

Good Vibes

2007-01-06T22:28:00.000Z

"Good Vibes" are a thing that I crave from time to time. I wrote a song about a succession of these feelings that came about over the course of a weekend in the summer of 2005, you can listen to that on my MySpace page here; http://www.myspace.com/josephmymusic. I don't know why it is that when I'm discussing, thinking about or being critical about the arts, I always start to talk in terms of a concept as abstract and non-specific as vibes. Generally I'm very logical and like to see things in fairly black and white or clear cut terms. I guess its probably a requisite skill that you can see shades of grey when trying to analyse something that doesn't necessarily have a beginning and end, or a correct "answer", even a particular meaning or reason for existing.

Well really this is all an aside, and not really worthy of being a journal entry. I began writing this just to try and put down in words a good feeling that I've gotten from at least getting this far with my journal and regaining some ground lost through November and December. I think my elation has been augmented further with a feeling that my writing is progressing. It has been some considerable time since I've written anything structured, for that matter writing anything anything at all; apart from note-taking and scribbling lyrics down. Reading my initial post to this journal and contrasting it with my Pan's Labrynth review- I'm sure there is progress there. Good vibes.

I must exhibit restraint (a good title for image-based-work maybe?) for if I were reading this as a third party even more objectively (than I write it) I would almost definately think the author were being smug.

Beach Party at Benicassim, in Spain at the FiB (Festival Internationale de Benicassim) festival in August 2006. On the final night there is a free beach party thrown by the organisers to say thanks to the locals for putting up with thousands of drunk English people (amongst many other nationalities). This is a shot of the sea filled with revelers. If I were less intoxicated I could probably have gotten some better shots, but I am still very fond of the depth in this picture and of its encapsulation of movement and atmosphere (or Vibes).

Pan's Labyrinth

2007-01-05T19:02:00.000Z

I went to see the film a few weeks ago, and felt it would constitute a good subject for a journal review. I was drawn to it, with the preconception in my mind that it would be solely animated, and that it would probably be inhibited by being a modern fairy tale, which I generally have distaste for. Now, its safe to say that my preconceptions were wrong, but also completely unfounded. Firstly I got the facts wrong, the film is not animated. It does include sections with digital animation being combined with film, but largely it is (or, at least, appears to be) a live-action movie.

Ofelia; as played by Ivana Baquero, in trouble after going on a critical mission inside the trunk of a dead tree. She has wrecked her new clothes, bought by her wicked step-father and will be in trouble.

The central character is Ofelia, a young girl who's mother has married a man (not her father) who is a captain in Franco's army after they have taken Spain in 1944. This situation eventually brings the girl and her mother much pain and strife. This is the first parallel to a "standard" fairy tale plot-line. Twenty minutes into the film after the scene has been set, and with fairy tale promise but also an extremely dark and sinister overtone; Ofelia finds a gateway into a mystical world filled with fantastical creatures, stories and monsters. Here perilous evil and potential haven stand side-by-side, if only she can fulfil the tasks set to her by a Fawn, the first creature she meets.

At this point in the movie, the directors obvious intentional showcase of the contrast between the stark reality exhibited by the setting of the film with authentic fairy-tale concepts becomes evident. Simultaneously the contrast (but also seamless blending) of the digital animation and effects, with the live action filming and Ivana Baquero's natural performance (as Ofelia) works with sublime effect.

The exposition of pure conflict is generally what fantasy is about, but in this film I was taken with quite how well the conflicts were presented. Parallels are obvious between the mystical fantasy world Ofelia has discovered, and the world that her and her mother actually inhabit. In both places Ofelia must confront her fear, drawing on her own bravery and strength.

Ofelia's mother (bearing the commander's child) falls gravely ill with pregnancy complications and Ofelia is constantly bullied and resented by her step-father. He is a man obsessed with ruthlessly hunting down and killing all of the resistance fighters who are hiding in the nearby hills; on more than one occasion you are shown quite how brutal he can be with plenty of blood and relatively crudely used gore- for want of a better word. However this doesn't detract from the film at all, and if anything makes the other sections seem all the more real.

Eventually Ofelia ends up in the Labyrinth and discovers a Fawn. Despite his slightly freaky (but definitely intimidating) appearance, he appears to be her friend. The Fawn tells her she is the lost princess of a secret Kingdom, and that she can return to take her throne and the riches that go with it. She only has to perform the three tasks he sets her, without fail and without questioning him.

Ofelia meets this creature whilst completing one of the tasks set to her by the Fawn. Intensely creative costume and presentation. This particular beast's voice is deep and harsh, I would commend the voice artist and audio engineer equally. Very scary!

The two parallel worlds, only joined together by Ofelia, form the basis for the rest of the plot to unfold. The plot continually confronts you with unexpected twists but is still easily accessible and simple for the mind to move along with.

I think because of the sensibility and intense emotion being conveyed in the film, it does feel like it takes quite a long time to get you from beginning to end, even though it is only two hours long. Again though, for me this is a big plus rather than anything negative, and adds to the over all effect.

To sum it up I think its an excellent piece of cinema and is certainly a film that could be watched several times without decaying its affecting qualities. Unsurprisingly this comes from all the pieces of the jigsaw coming together perfectly; excellent live action cinematography which is uncomplicated but exquisitely presented. Digital animation to the quality that most people have come to expect thanks to the explosion of that particular medium. Ivana Baquero's Ofelia leaves a bitter-sweet taste in your mouth, but all of the key roles are delivered with tactility and finesse- something I often find abundant in European cinema and lacking in Hollywood pictures. Topped off with an original concept and plot line the whole thing comes together faultlessly.

Ofelia talking to the Fawn, who is her guide. This shot stirs memories of the Alien films.

Being in the position I am - experimenting with film and animation (amongst my other exploits) - watching a successful picture of this ilk I am both inspired and awestruck. It somehow seems impossible to imagine being in a position to create such a work, but there's only one way to find out, and that is to try. Hence I came away from the film totally satisfied with my cinema going experience and with a drive to create a narrative based film with a similarly intense reality come fantasy texture.

Fraught Thoughts

2007-01-04T16:02:00.000Z

These words were written to be used for a piece of music that I wrote called Last Thoughts (you can download it from here; http://downloads.josephmusic.me.uk/joseph-lastthoughts.mp3). I don't think I will actually use them for their intended purpose. My writing style comes about in an almost 'stream of consciousness' manner, both for "journalistic" writing and poetic writing such as is below. These thoughts are as they came out of my head, unfiltered. Although it wasn't a conscious decision at time of writing, I think the source for these thoughts is my awareness of mental illness. Various friends, family and people close to me have suffered from all kinds of mental illness and it is something close to my heart and head.

Originally, the piece of music I wrote these words for, used a (very copyrighted) Bob Dylan speech, "Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie". The audio recording I have is (I believe) from Guthrie's wake, and is extremely moving, and in my opinion a magnificent piece of wordsmithery. The text can be found here http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/guthrie.html but the speech should really be heard from Dylan's own lips.

Some Thoughts

Twings and Twangs are simple sounds but in essence they're pure,
I'm lost in thought as we wonder along a path,
Ringing echoes of muffled tones - Bob Dylan in my ear,
Distored sounds images and faces come out of nowhere to create something real,
Physical and gutteral - a feeling?

But these arent real, they dont exist, its a digital fortress to pilfer a title,
Girl I want you here and I want to be there with you, to steal my own line,
And now I am- a little,
A vital thing is that I have comprehension.

An evil face can be deceptive and often decieves,
With deceipt so far that our naievity is revealed,
On occasion so little comes into focus even though we look at the same blades
Of grass in the field and a swan on the lake.

I know there's tangibility there and I know your nightmares aren't really real,
They're reflections of our dreams and reflections of sounds we might not even know,
But combined can swing to nothing or funky flare,
Pain not destroyed by pleasure,
Purity not derived from just an essence of some good feeling and,
Innocence not lost through being insightful.

Floated on the sea of a life in a new world thats lost in the ocean,
Just a pindrop in the Universe,
Pictued on my wall paintings of your soul,
Not a metaphor.

This is not a war or a battle of wits, but,
I'll fight the fight with you,
Everything is more solid now and safe, we're all safe
In some thoughts.

A suitably phsychedelic collage of shots taken from a car dashboard. Taken on a small apeture (f22~) with about 30 seconds shutter time. I love the effect of taking shots of motorways from a fixed point and wanted to look at the same kind of shot but from a moving vehicle. I'm trying to give the pictures (althogh still) their own essence or sense of movement. I am also going to look at using this type of material and giving it more life (enough that it could be used for my VJ projects) by some form of digital manipulation. At the moment these shots are as they were straight from the camera, apart from putting them in this collage.

God! (blasphemy?) I do Have Problems

2007-01-04T01:43:00.000Z

I do have problems with the pleasure and (I suppose it is) business crossover. This was never a problem working with computers. . !

To elaborate, when me and my girlfriends artistic desires and tendancies collide. . . . . . . . there can be fire.

Bed time now.

Outside The Astoria. This is my lovely girl friend, Caiti. One of the few photos I have taken using a flash that actually looks good. I must do more work on improving this skill. NB- this was taken after walking out of an 'Animal Collective' (http://www.myspace.com/animalcollectivetheband ) gig in London. Although amazingly creative recording artists, their live performance was a terrible mess. Just too much experimentation (with music and/or drugs, I suspect).

Focusing on Reflections

2007-01-03T23:56:00.000Z

Focus on reflections
Hear the dimensions
Twisting the light rays
Turn around their vibrations

Focusing on reflections but still deep and
Deep-still, in tensions
That across my temples extrapolate
Unfortunate thoughts and now
Times are gone

Fred & Matt by a Tree, on a trip to see a Installation de Feu at Platt Fields park, Manchester. It was an exceptional event, virtually all of the installations (it was like a mini-festival, with many different things to see) being based on fire and involving fires of all different types. The best art event I visited last year (2006). The picture brings back good memories of that for me. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, it was semi-posed but basically taken on the spur of the moment. I chose this image because I think the ghostly effect is sympathetic to the words above.

What I Like

2007-01-02T22:09:00.000Z

Artistically I'm kind of inept in many ways. I'm a novice at having to look at things from an artistic angle and then having to critically analyze it. I do enjoy it though, even if I (well I think I do...) end up at rather cynical and negative mutterings towards a lot of the populist (I presume its populist) work I've seen in commercial and non-commercial galleries I have visited.

Recent exceptions are a furniture exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery of Joe Columbo's work and Ben Hall's Wild Britain exhibition at the Manchester Museum. Joe Columbo's embodies the swinging sixties. Eccentricity flows throughout his work and designs that have now become some modern design classics. Without going to heavily into it right away the exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery comes highly recommended. Ben Hall's exhibition in contrast is a straight up photography show. I'm not an expert in the field, but his are some of the most evocative and inspiring photographs I have seen in a gallery recently- vibrant colours throughout and thoughtful composition. I was also slightly 'chuffed' to see that all of his work exhibited here is from a digital camera. See http://www.benhallphotography.com/

I'm particularly impressed with the technical skill required to take this shot, as well as the photographer's patience and vision for getting the shot. After having watched all of the BBC & David Attenborough's Planet Earth documentaries I'm even more in awe of the wildlife film/photography brigade. Maybe key to his success, Hall studies the animals he photographs extensively prior to attempting a shot. I wonder if this is possible with humans?

My tendency in art appreciation, is toward enjoying and liking pieces that (deliberately or not) evoke some kind of emotion in me. Sometimes it is explicit, and you can see what the artist is trying to do. Other times its not and everyone will come away with a different feeling. This withstanding it is definitely what I look for in art works, of all kinds, and also what I aspire to produce myself.

Bob Dylan, Don't Think Twice, It's Alright:

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It don't matter, anyhow
An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don't know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm trav'lin' on
Don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road
Still I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin' anyway
So don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal
Like you never did before
It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal
I can't hear you any more
I'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' all the way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I'm told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don't think twice, it's all right

I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
But goodbye's too good a word, gal
So I'll just say fare thee well
I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind
You could have done better but I don't mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don't think twice, it's all right

These words, in combination with a beautiful piece of acoustic guitar playing, make probably my favourite of Bob Dylan's songs. Its not a protest song, its not political - and I'm not trying to say Dylan's more political works are better or worse songs - but for some reason, this is always the one to make me feel the most. I'm not even sure what the feeling normally is, but I always know it's there.I took this shot on a day when I went to visit Crosby to see Anthony Gormley's "Another Place". I was interested in the piece after its extensive coverage on television. The timing of my visit meant that it was an extremely windy, wintry day and the tide was up so few of the figures were accessible - however I think this probably added to the experience. I really like this photograph and feel that even though I am 'bouncing' off Gormley's art it does have its own merit autonomously.

Procrastinate Daily

2007-01-01T18:27:00.000Z

"journal - a daily written record of (usually personal) experiences and observations" - according to WordNet Search on princeton.edu - http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=journal

That is what I am meant to have done. For the last, say two months, at least.

This is a shot used in a film me and Bryn made during the early part of the University term. This is the sex-pest "Abu" who featured in the film, as played by Bryn. I think the blurriness of the photograph compliments its devil-like qualities. Since putting the film online I have been contacted by an American TV station (Localpoint TV) who are hopefully going to broadcast it. You can see the film (at rather degraded quality) here; http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=josephlindley

On the whole I have tried and failed to write my journal, so far, but I have cultivated an amount of determination from my procrastination.

This, I do believe, is one (possibly the sole) advantage of procrastination.

I must have a genetic disorder, to suffer from the condition as badly as I do. Rarely does a day pass when I don't have pungent desires teasing my senses, seemingly whispering at me to get on and do some of the number of tasks that I internally classify as "work".

On our first University outing in the Science & Industry museum. Focusing on reflections; to describe the photo but also just a rather satisfying flow of words. Maybe I will use it in a song.

At the moment those work tasks are split between my various artistic activities directly spawned from my degree course, producing an album which is already late for a small Swiss record label (www.creakedrecords.com the Director-of-which, incidentally just called to arrange a meeting in January- exciting!), on-going photography and some cash-cowing (so to speak) designing a couple of websites for my cousin and her friend (who are both journalistic-types on the larger than life, upper class, Hampshire equestrian scene - an amazing beast). My University work is top of my priorities but as I have only newly been forging out my own methods of working artistically for the last few months, it is sometimes the hardest to gather momentum. Having said that I often only start proper work on such projects, as with the music or the websites, if I have been cheered up by other successes, and vice-versa. That seems to be the key for me satisfying my urges and overcoming my procrastinatic (is this a word?) tendencies - balancing the success and momentum of different projects with each other, to achieve overall progress. Having written that down, I think has turned a pattern of disconnected and unrelated thoughts into a tangible philosophy. Hopefully for people other than my self, if said others, can scramble through my occasionally scrambled prose.

Photograph of scratches whilst working on "Scratches" project (see below for more information), (vintage) macro lens borrowed from University.

Current University projects include:

VJ Project, evaluation of VJ software that is available (including learning how to use the software and understanding the principles) and also building a 'visual library' to be used for VJing. Includes many sub-projects.
Time, this has spawned from the VJ project; work exploring representing and simply showing time passing through photography, video & animation pieces can become part of the visual library for the VJ Project.
Classic photography, experimentation with printing and framing (or other presentations) of my digital photographic work that I have been doing since becoming a camera-owner half way through 2006. As well as having gotten promising results and feedback so far, I have been working on both subtle and severe digital manipulation of images to create dramatic effects.
Websites, I have various interactive websites that I either have in development or would like to produce at some point. These include an online version of the paper-and-pen game of consequences, my website about scratches. Scratches was a "one word" project given to me in the first few weeks of University. The piece of work I presented was a sound-based piece with many noises playing simultaneously - all of which were scratching noises. I also took some macro photographs of the many scratches I see in the world around me. But my final piece of work for this project is the website. The website will just display the progress of a mail-art based thingy, where-by an object is mailed around. Each recipient scratches the next story (or not-story if they don't want) into the object which is then mailed on again. At each point a digital photo will be uploaded on the website for all to see, also a map of where "scratches" has been. Eventually the object will be obliterated and cease to be, but will be preserved digitally. The idea was to represent human life on earth, its evolution is slow, but has taken us far in artistic, social and technological progress - which is what allows us to create and appreciate projects such as this. Eventually however, we will destroy our habitat. In terms of the whole of human history that time is very close to us now. That is why I want destruction to come eventually, but to celebrate our progress by saving it on in digital format for anyone connected to the web to see. Unfortunately, I have (again) procrastinated! I have created a website, with some horrible drivel written on it (which if I ever take the project further I will change) this can be seen at http://scratch.name
Sound and Music projects; as well as independently (from University) working on my music, I would like to explore further sound-art based projects. I was intrigued and interested by an artist who came to present his work and talk about himself at one of our lectures at University - his name has eluded me presently. He had several sculpture works that involved an element of sound, from scratching a record to amplifying the sound of a pin-dropping- all very inspiring for me. I think I probably wouldn't focus so much on creating noise-touting-sculptures, but maybe it will be something to experiment with to test the water. I would definitely like to refine my scratches sound project to a point where it could be performed with some visual element as well as the sound (and without pushing near-by lecturers to complain about the noise!

So that's all of me at the moment. I know its the wrong thing to do (starting at the end. . . ?), but at least for the sake of writing this I have written the present first and next time I write I will write about the past.

Sign Parody; I like the sentiment, I took this shot in a squat in the Northern Quarter of Manchester's City Centre. The people living there were operating a gallery, where anyone could go and exhibit their work (often the canvass they're working on is part of the building itself). Also hedonistic parties, DJs and so on and so on. A cool thing, in my opinion. Unfortunately I wasn't really affected by any of the work I saw, the biggest impact on me was what the squat stood for and the fact that (at that time, at least) it was working and existing. Everybody there has now been evicted. Until next time. . . (both the squat, and me).

Nietzsche Quote

2006-12-28T17:39:00.000Z

"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star." - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

This quote has been stuck to my parents' kitchen wall ever since I can remember. Whenever I see it I feel rich.

What's a Metaverse?

2006-12-27T14:59:00.000Z

I became interest in a project called Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) - initially just out of curiosity. Broadly, the idea is a whole virtual world, with residents, money, shops, houses, businesses and so on.

I tried it out, and lasted about 10 minutes before I was inspired enough to leave. This is because, the actual second life, the one that exists is little more than a so called-Massively Multiplayer Game (such as World of Warcraft). The major difference is there is no game element underpinning the thing, so essentially the whole experience is dull.

However I really do like the idea. Utilising the Internet (in particular) and technology to get many people interacting, playing, creating things are the exact projects, games or works of art that enjoy and also represent an area that I would love to have a role in.

Simulated reality is the idea that reality could be simulated — usually computer-simulated — to a degree indistinguishable from 'true' reality. It could contain conscious minds which may or may not know that they are living inside a simulation. In its strongest form, the "Simulation Hypothesis" claims we actually are living in such a simulation.

This is different from the current, technologically achievable concept of virtual reality. Virtual reality is easily distinguished from the experience of 'true' reality; participants are never in doubt about the nature of what they experience. Simulated reality, by contrast, would be hard or impossible to distinguish from 'true' reality.

Practical or not, the idea raises three vexing questions:

Is it possible, even in principle, to tell whether we are in a simulated reality?
Is there any difference between a simulated reality and a 'real' one?
How should we behave if we knew that we were living in a simulated reality?

An interesting aspect of Second Life is the parallels to social networking dedicated websites, like Facebook.com or Myspace.com. These websites take the lion share of internet hits, if you disregard key areas like email and pornography. They're a modern (internet enabled) phenomenon.

Maybe it would be possible to create a non-graphical virtual world that would seamlessly link with sites like Facebook and Myspace. I used to play an internet game, where you were the leader of a planet and had to use your resources to live and expand your empire. Planetarion I think it was called. The game takes place in real time and had about 500,000 participants all existing on their own planet, invading other solar systems, amassing hundreds of space ships. The point is, it was very successful and absorbing, was "real" to extent (there were real people playing it) and took place outside of the graphical world. All that was required was numbers and figures representing how your world was progressing. Maybe I should explore a text-based, socially-networked Metaverse (more Metaverse reading on WikiPedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse and also http://www.metaverseroadmap.org/)

I really enjoy all of the philosophical ponderings that are born from this subject.

The philosopher Nick Bostrom investigated the possibility that we may be living in a simulation. His argument attempts to prove the disjunction of three hypotheses (that is, that at least one of the following three propositions must be true), that:
either

intelligent races will never reach a level of technology where they can run simulations of reality so detailed they can be mistaken for reality; or
races who do reach such a level do not tend to run such simulations; or
we are almost certainly living in such a simulation.

At the time I thought the concept behind the Matrix was inspired, with hindsight its obvious that the writers had plenty of back-thinking to turn to for inspiration.

Ask why? Live

2006-12-23T20:10:00.000Z

My girlfriend Caiti said to me, very profoundly for her intoxicated state at the time, "To ask why, is to live" and whilst counting traffic last summer I wrote some words that were meant to reflect that sentiment. I ended up with something that was pretty heavy-going and not very good reading/listening - I don't think. But I'm still in love with the turn of phrase, it rolls from the tong beautifully and is full of philosophical meaning. I guy I used to work with would refer to it as "a poser".

I used a few sections of these words in a bouncy dark dance track, with a highly distorted vocal track. It sounds pretty good I think and may well end up on the album. There's no way you could tell its me either.

"Why is alive; why survive. To ask why is to live"

Learning Agreement: "Classic" Photography

2006-12-12T10:58:00.000Z

I've become very aware of my (lack of) bank balance recently, especially due to the proximity to Christmas.

On a trip to Chorlton water park (South Manchester) and various other expeditions I've been over the last two months, it struck me I could possibly make some money selling prints of my images. I haven't a particular speciality in my photography.

I'd like to explore different kinds of subject (nature, architecture, people etc) and different techniques. I'd especially like to experiment with different types of lens (zoom, macro and wide-angle) and also with the different ways (and costs!) of printing and framing photographs.

Goose; This image is a turning point, looking at this I thought "I could sell these...." This has had some digital manipulation, post-exposure, to increase the contrast in the image. However I think I took this a step too far, when printing the image looks too unreal.

Learning Agreement: Time

2006-12-10T19:29:00.000Z

Whilst working on my VJ project I've become very interested in different ways of taking photographs over a period of time, as well as representing time with photographic methods. Combining the two is a goal but I'm not quite sure how wide the posts are.

Yankee Sleeper

2006-11-27T21:43:00.000Z

I went back to Yorkshire for the weekend, on my return I found this note in my room. Turned out "the crazy American" - whom I've never met - had slept in my room.

By all accounts I was relieved to have been away. She sounded quite a handful, my friends and sister all ended up and a very dodgy Belle & Sebastian disco in Salford... or something.

She is from a town in the mid-west called "Normal" and thinks that the Trafford Centre is the biggest mall in the world.

Excellent!

Social Networking

2006-11-15T15:00:00.000Z

Utilise networks on Facebook or Myspace to create something. Simple!

Nice Box

2006-11-12T10:49:00.000Z

Too right!

Learning Agreement: VJ Project

2006-11-06T19:19:00.000Z

This is my first learning agreement and covers something that may break into various smaller projects.

I have really enjoyed making music videos, mainly to my own music, but I would like to explore "Visual Jokey-ing" which is, in essence, making a music video live or on-the-fly. Its not quite that simple though, VJs normally exist at music events or in clubs, and often the aim is to create someting to help people feel at one with the music they're listening and/or dancing to. I have no experience of this but would like to explore it.

Never-never Land, Abu & Mr Bukhari

2006-11-02T16:58:00.000Z

Over the last 2 or 3 weeks, we've been set group tasks. Firstly we had to decide on a name a place and an object, then basically we were asked to flesh out the situation we had created with back stories and further information.

From the notes we (Bryn & Johnny) made in the initial session, I came up with this as a concept:

Mr Bukhari is thinking:

They never understand. They never understand. I am never understood. I understand them though. Why do they never..... I should have some tea. Its the right thing to do. Tea and a cigarette, then I'll be able to think clearly. They NEVER understand, the simplest thing! If the light goes out you fix it. No sauce means no sauce- I understand! Why... they never! Bloody Tuesday. Tuesdays, if I write a sign, why do they never read it? Sign read. Read sign.

I think its a sign. Why would the almighty decree it, if it were not a sign. Never does a thing happy without a good cause. Never. I told her that and she never listens to a thing I say. "Never does your lip move without good grievance" is what she said. Never a useful thing. And they're never easy, never move without a problem, never do they clean behind the sink at 22 or the downstairs utility on the avenue. They never get 200 quid though. Huh.

I never think clearly these days. I used to never be angry, I'm sure, never now though. Well, I never. Those happy slapper, little posh girl with bloody miniskirt. They underestimate me, they never get money back and got once in life-time, never-again chili kebab sauce. . . Huh.

Tea good though! I need my tea. Why people never know that I take 8, and black. Stupid bloody people. Understand.... never you do. Why I never have tea when its needed and it always last never long enough for me. I never going to explain myself again if they never understand me, never explain. Only to Mr Bukari, he is the only one that will understand my never land. Why is he never here any more? What size are my shoes?

Pan to shoes and then up to a fast-boiling whistling kettle that has been silent until then. Maybe it should be visible throughout, but the sound only becomes audible right at the end. The full story is this; Mr Bukhari has been talking over the noise of his kettle constantly boiling. He has slowly descended within himself and become mentally ill, taken over by his own anger, temper and contempt for his customers, his friends and his family. Shot from "within" Mr Bukhari's head, so hold the camera to some one's face looking out. Throughout we can cut in relevant clips to the things he is talking about.

We never actually filmed this and it didn't go any further, but I'm still quite fond of the idea, despite its obvious use of ethnic stereotyping I think it could become an evocative short film.

The name Mr Bukhari was my initial contribution- it is the same name as my landlord. However, my own Mr Bukhari is an excellent landlord and doesn't share any of the fictional one's character.

Robin Hood's Bay; It was my birthday on the 21st October, this is one of the two cards I got (both from my parents, albeit on separate occasions). I really love the image, one reason is that the place is familiar to me (Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire) and invokes many childhood memories and the other is the aesthetic qualities of the image itself. This is actually a photograph across the bay, amazing.

As a second part to the video project I wrote about above we had to do exactly the same thing as before but use somebody else's words rather than coming up with them ourselves. We ended up with Abu Baker, Amsterdam and a pair of shoes. Having failed to complete the previous task me and Bryn were extremely keen to get this done (unfortunately we failed to hook up with Johnny and include him, I think this was down to his work commitments).

This is my initial idea for the concept, but again we didn't use much of this in the final product.

Abu in Amsterdam
[the name is meant to be Abu Baker, not Abu Craig]

Fast opening sequence, showing some running [pan from the chaser’s feet to the person being chased] (chasing "the victim"), traffic, city scenes and finishing on the canal (which is the scene of the crime). Focus on a pair of shoes (maybe could get the same red shoes that Aliyah and Emily used).

Fade into the interview room.

Concept notes;

Abu Craig is a suspect in the killing of a prostitute and a mob boss in Amsterdam. The police have been tipped off anonymously that the man behind the incident was called Abu Craig, the mystery caller also said “He’ll know Cecila”. They have no further information in relation with the matter, no witnesses or anything else that be constituted as evidence. The police are basically run by the mob, and they’re after someone’s blood to avenge the death of the leader. They’ve tracked down all the people on their intelligence network of the name Abu Craig.

The real story is that a group of Russian gangsters are trying to muscle in on the crime revenue to be gained in Amsterdam, particularly interested in people trafficking and importing large quantities of cocaine and heroin. They think that by killing a particular Dutch mobster they can unsettle the community so much that they’ll be able to move in without too much of a fuss. They murder the boss and throw in a dead prostitute to add to the confusion. At the crime scene mysteriously there are a pair of red high-heeled shoes. These turn out to be the shoes that the Russian boss’s wife was wearing the night she slept with Abu1. His wife is called Cecila.
The middle of the film is comprised of interview footage of several people, all going by the name Abu Craig.

Abu1 is from Birmingham and turns out to be the man they’re after. He is being framed by the Russian mafia who are the real culprits. The only reason they picked him is because he once slept with one of the bosses mistresses many years ago and has no other connection to the incident. He did once meet Abu4 in Camden during the 80s. He will cooperate fully with the police.

Abu2’s girlfriend lives in Amsterdam and he lives outside the city. He’s always thought it would be cool to be a drug dealer but doesn’t have the connections. Apart from petty things he’s never committed any real crimes so has nothing to fear from the police.

Abu3 studied economics at Oxford and went to public school. He doesn’t have a shady side at all. He is however not accustomed to being in police interview rooms and so is a bit shaken by the whole thing. He doesn’t want his girlfriend to find out that he slept with a prostitute (who called herself Cecila) when he was in Amsterdam for a business trip. He used to enjoy wearing women's clothes, and did have a pair of shoes similar to those at the murder scene.

Abu4 is a drug dealer from London (this is how he met Abu1, in his early days he pedalled 10 bags of weed in Camden). He was in Amsterdam trying to do some underworld networking to find someone to import dope directly from the Netherlands to London. So, understandably he is quite edgy about the fact the police have called him in (he doesn’t know it’s purely because of his name). Although he failed to make any business connections as he had intended, he did manage to pick up quite a bit of the underworld gossip. He has heard about the district the incident happened in, and knows it is where most of the mobs major deals go down. He knows the Russians are trying to shake up Amsterdam because they’ve been pushed out of a lot of eastern Europe since the fall of the USSR.

Abu5 is nothing to do with anything. He is an part of the Saudi royal family (so therefore incredibly rich) and is disgusted he was arrested on landing at the airport. He came to Amsterdam for kinky sexy and sexy drugs, and he’s not ashamed about shouting it out loud to the police just so long as they let him go. He wants his Ambassador. He has a fake passport with the name “Clarance Richardson”.

Interviewer: Confirm your full name please.

Abu1: Abu Craig [repeat for each Abu we interview]

Interviewer: Were you in Amsterdam on Tuesday of last week?

The idea is that the responses aren’t scripting (as they’re written here) but we will record the response to all of the questions here after actors have been given their background information.

Abu1: I went through Schipol on my way to Birmingham. I have my tickets still in my brief case.

Abu2: Yeah.

Abu3: Yes.

Abu4: I’m not answering any questions without my lawyer present.

Abu5: This is an outrage. I came to see vice and colours. Let me out of this shit hole now! I want to see my Ambassador. There will be repercussions if you do not co-operate.

Interviewer: Excuse me sir but I must insist things are quite different to that- if I were in your position I think you should be cooperating with me!

You are familiar with the Vondelstraat area?

What was your business in Amsterdam?

Do you know a woman called Cecila?

Have you ever met a man called [dead guys name]?

Do you know who he is?

Do you take drugs?

Have you ever used a prostitute?

Have you ever met [prostitute’s name]?

Would it shock you if I said she was dead?

Did you drink or take any drugs that night?

What were you wearing last Tuesday?

Are you the real Abu Craig? What other names do you use?

What is your business? How do you make your money?

Would you like me to call a lawyer for you?
etc etc
[continue contrasting different reactions to the same question until the truth is clear, or a version of it. Whodunit style.....]

These are some of the notes from a brain storming session me and Bryn did before filming. Click on them for larger images.

The film we finally made was about a British Tourist who was named Abu Baker. He is on a visit to Amsterdam, claiming that it is a "pleasure" visit, his motives are never clear. Although its not immediately obvious, the film tries to convey a sense of Abu's obvious guilt. I play the police interview and Bryn is playing Abu.

I was really pleased with the end result. Bryn plays the guilty man really well, especially as the whole thing is entirely improvised. Mixing the video footage we took (in student halls) with shots of Bryn walking around the darker parts of Manchester city centre, the film achieves a prolonged sense of dread and uneasiness. All of the non-interview shots are sequential still photographs that have been animated. The whole sound track of the film is encompassed with a huge reverb sound, so the relatively few words you hear sound distant and haunting. In addition the entire video has been processed to have a dramatic aura, the makes the dark parts and as black as they can be and the bright parts are unnaturally vivid.

This is the first non-music video that I have filmed or edited (let alone both), but I'm extremely pleased with the end result. Having said that, I was happier with a previous cut (that was nearly two minutes shorter), but unfortunately due to a brain-malfunction I deleted that version. I feel that where the film really comes into its own is where the animated sections are cut in (and the timing of when they're cut in) and with the extremely fast digital zooming and panning onto Abu's nervous twitching and guilty eyes. I'd really like to make another film, maybe (definitely) less black, but using the same techniques. I'm also really pleased with managing to fuse "proper" video and animated photographs. Most of my films use photographs as their basis but having the possibility of using video and photos is the next area to explore is something to relish.

You can view the end result (at degraded quality, unfortunately) on YouTube here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7O7xRmJz6A

This is a shot of Bryn (playing Abu) walking along a canal near Deansgate locks in Manchester. We chose the canal because of the obvious parallel to Amsterdam. Fortunately there were some CCTV cameras there which fitted nicely into the eventual plot. Also I feel the lighting and colours contribute well to the general feeling we were trying to achieve. This is one of the still photographs that were animated and cut into the video at appropriate moments.

As a result of posting the film to YouTube I've been approached by a television broadcaster based in the United States, requesting a copy to include in one of their programmes. This has come as an unexpected, but welcome bonus!

One, two & three; Lectures so far

2006-10-31T21:05:00.000Z

The first three lectures of my University career were reassuring (that I'm not completely out of my depth) but also re-emphasised the fact that nobody can do well without serious thought and effort. I've made very few notes from each lecture but I feel as though I have come away having consumed what I was supposed to.

The first lecture in the series seem to be putting the task of learning to be creative in context. The main point I took away with me was that experimentation is a key asset and only by practicing can you actually move yourself forward in your creative ability. I think playing these two quotes off against each other will produce an effective working strategy without constraint on scope;

"The more I practice the luckier I get" (Gary Player)

and;

"Chance or guess work can sometimes produce better work than systematic procedure. But you can't depend on them" (the Universal Traveller)

Learning in this style is completely new to me (my 'A' level subjects included Maths, Physics and Computing) but it has had a significant impact on my thinking. Thinking of creativity in terms of the mind at play, or the ability to be spontaneous and surprising, as simple as it is represents a step forward for me. Previously the majority of my success has come from systematic experimentation until a satisfactory result is achieved, now I can continue to do that but also expand upon it significantly. My thoughts on the subject are still rather chaotic though.

Intrigued by the Alvin Toffler book, Futureshock. I should read it.

I came away from the second and third lectures having had the slightly chaotic feeling, that was swimming around my head after the first lecture, calmed down completely. A system behind the chaos has been clearly defined, what it is to be creative or to improve ones creativity is now much more tangible for me.

Gifted? I snapped this during a lecture. It is a doodle on somebody elses hand out. I guess it is phsychedelia?

Since the lecture I have been working on jumping the synaptic gap and indeed, I think I've succeeded with a few things.

In addition to the Interactive Arts lectures I have the option to attend another lecture each Friday (on changing subjects, literature and media based, it seems). Bill Rob is wholly excellent at delivering his lectures.

The first was about the use of various systems and techniques in writing. Specifically exploring what was the first novel to be written, and how it represented a shift in popular writing.

Although completely out of my depth, missing a lot of the references and language that Bill Rob was using, I can see the value of attending these lectures; it was very inspirational. Also Bill Rob's amazing delivery and ability to articulate his points with finesse, gives me an idea of how I would like to be able to perform, should I need to to be my own advocate for my art.

I love my Mum!

2006-10-25T13:02:00.000Z

My Mother is excellent. Whenever I speak to her about some creative work I'm trying to do, she seems to produce infinite different concepts to mine, both in line with them and completely disparate.

Fortunately I generally know what I want to do, and then do it, but if I were stuck it takes a weight off my shoulders to know that my Mum would back me up with a wealth of inspiration.

Birthday Notes. My birthday card from Mum & dad, on the first page is a selection of words copied from Roget's Thesaurus relating to "Scratches" - one of my first University projects. I didn't use any of it in the end, but as contextual research I think its priceless.

Review: Chris Clark's Body Riddle

2006-10-17T15:07:00.000Z

Starting with natural jazz beats and sweet tinkle noises, Chris Clark's Body Riddle swiftly develops deep electronic stylings. Clark carries the style and quality that I've come to expect as given from Warp records (other artists include Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Jamie Lidell & Jackson, to name a few). I think the first track, Herr Bar, sits as an exposition of what is to come.

The record rises and falls in an organic way, always with electronic soundscapes sneaking into the fore but with "real" sounds ever present too. Exceptional production and crafting of the music is evident throughout. The 3rd track, Springtime Epigram, marks the end of the beginning with a slow and calming 90 seconds. Herzog, follows on and slowly crescendos into a glitched and harsh but almost anthemic synthesizer led medley. It really draws you in, and sets up the listener the first really beat heavy and punchy tracks, Ted.

Clark's website. I like the "written" menu.

The remaining six tracks take you on a musical journey that, to my ears, just feels right to listen to. With dark and bleak industrial sounds on tracks like Vengance, and the sinister title Matthew Unburdened is matched by a seemingly not-to-be trusted array of sounds. Haunting horns and magical beats at the end. Sporadic, uneven, but perfect.

Penultimate track Night Knuckles I think is one of those classic tracks that somebody is going to play to me in 20 years time and it will still do something special. This track is constantly in development throughout, almost like a variation on themes in classical music. Consistent throughout the track is another sweet "Tinkle" sound that blends blemish-free with the rhythmical elements and space-like background noises flesh the whole thing out. Its a stark contrast with the final track, which is a return to the darker, slower end of Clark's spectrum.

Really, very, good.

Scratch Notes

2006-10-12T20:36:00.000Z

Notes from thinking about what to do with the "Scratch" title.

I went through a lot of different things before arriving at the web project that I started and the audio work that I actually presented at University.

Its a really good example of how you can have many, completely separate, but all equally valid ideas from a word or subject that initally may mean nothing.

Below the heading "Scratch That" (in the image above) is where I decided to scrap all of my other ideas and make something with scratch sounds.

Note to Emma

2006-09-30T02:30:00.000Z

Digging through an old drawer, I came across a notebook with this page in it.

I used to live with my sister in Keighley where we grew up, an existence saturated with Emma wanting me to do more in the house.

In the note I'm trying to explain that I will put the dish washer on at some point, eventually. We'll get there.

Its so lovely to remember those times now. I'm still really close with my sister, but looking back those times seem like the golden age in a way.

First Thing!

2006-09-25T18:05:00.000Z

The first proper work we have been asked to do this year was to make a film showing the journey of an object around Manchester. To elaborate; in groups we were all given an object (seemingly random things including: a ball, plastic elephant and tape) and asked to document its journey to a set of specific locations, including galleries and museums around the city centre.

Unfortunately I didn't really get into a group (not that they weren't welcoming) - and I'm still not sure why. I ended up making a short film on my own, so as to not be totally lacking when we were asked to show our work. Using a Kanye West cover of "Fly Away" (I love the song) I put this together; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUr_xfrulWE

I used pictures taken on that day with my digital stills camera. This is the first time I've converted an entire film to black and white and added "old cinema" style effects; I think it does work really well despite it being something of a cliche. I would do it again, if it felt right. Also drawing on my experience of making my own music videos, and matching changes in image to key beats in a phrase or a bar, I think I managed to add to the film's view-ability. I did try and make it much looser than my previous beat/image matching, mainly due to the jazzy nature of the backing music.

Self Portrait; this is me playing at taking pictures in a distorting mirror, at the Museum of Science & Industry. Maybe this is a representation of my emotions at the time; red, distorted, squashed, reflective.