Monday 28th February

With still no reply to my e-mails from Jess Green (a member of the student union), further plans have not been able to take place in our group as we have a number of questions and ideas which need to be discussed with Jess herself in order to get a better understanding of what we are working with; we have also been wanting to visit the space again as a group to set spaces and become more aware. And so after a lecture this morning, a few of us from the group visited Peter Appleton at his office and explained our concerns and a phonecall was made to the Union. Jess was in a meeting at this point and so we are waiting on a phonecall back in order to arrange a meeting. I myself am getting worried with the whole process now as the dates are getting nearer, but Peter said not to as everything is sorted. We just basically need to get our decisions together and get on with it. In the mean time, I am going to put together designs for leaflets and posters for the advertisment of our group exhibition which will be mass produced when finalised; ensuring that as many people as possible will see the event and hopfully be interested enough to visit the venue. It was also mentioned that the Student Union have a radio station and so further advertisments for the exhibition could be anounced on air...alongside our own facebook invites and individual invites to friends and family.

Paulette Brien

I found the lecture this morning 'On the Outside', lead by the director of the 'International 3' gallery which is based in Manchester really interesting, and definitely helpful; especially around this time with us planning our own exhibitions. I was inspired by Paulette Brien's passion and knowledge of art and the professional industry she works in; most definitely giving me a better insight and understanding of the role of the curator and the research and planning behind a major exhibition held in a venue, such as the 'International 3'.

She talked about the process the gallery takes on how they come about selecting artists; listening to the individuals desires alongside the work itself, making sure the certain works reflect strongly with the venue and theme throughout the organisation, and showed us a number of the different past and present art works exhibited in the gallery; it was interesting to see how the work varied and was presented in the space and the structure of the shows. It was pleasing to hear that they too approach artists to exhibit in the 'International 3'; visiting art fairs and studios to find new and old artists who are trying to get their work out there, who are motivated by the limited opportunities in the competitive art market.  

She certainly got me thinking about my own work and desires after graduating from university, and how I may approach galleries in the future. Also making me realise that I need to learn how to talk about my work more in depth and the reasoning's behind why and how I came about doing it; making it clear to the curators who need to know the information in order to discuss the work further. I suppose I simply need to become more confident in myself and my own practice, questioning my own concept. Like Paulette herself said "In order to develop as an artist, continue your practice, keep developing and keep asking yourself why". This final straight to the point statement gave me a more positive frame of mind towards the end of the talk.
To end the session we spoke in groups about our works and plans for our upcoming exhibitions and what we hope to achieve from them. It was interesting to hear her response to our ideas; especially the positive feedback as she is the role we as students are eager to impress.

I left the lecture thinking a lot about the different art fairs Paulette spoke about which I will definitely be researching into for future visits as they sound really inspiring although I don't understand how I haven't come across them previously. I would like to get thinking more so into getting my work out there and seen, working with more people with similar interests. My upcoming exhibition is definitely a motivating start.

http://www.international3.com/artist.php?A=8

Monday 21st February

Today we had another group meeting with the addition of two more students who have joined our Student Union group and so there is now eleven artists showing in the exhibition. Both of their works link strongly with our theme of 'self reflection'; keeping a flowing connection between all of our ideas. This deffinately works for the better as more pieces shown in the exhibition will make it a little more interesting as a whole. We briefly discussed what everyone wants from the spaces and what exactly we were planning on doing for the show; getting more involved and sharing ideas with each others works. We also discussed possible titles for the exhibition, advertisment ideas and how we would go about putting these together.

After the discussion, I e-mailed Jess Green (a member of the Student Union) suggesting a meeting with the group to have another look around the building so that we are all more aware of the spaces we are working with and to also share recent plans and ideas; getting as much information together as possible at this point. Hopefully the meeting will take place this week so we can start getting everything together ready for the show in April.

The Student Union

A few problems have come about recently with the Student Union and our upcoming exhibition because of available dates. On first deciding on using the Student Union, the 24th-26th of March was said to be the ideal date for us to hold the exhibition, which was agreed upon by a member of the Union. Although we recieved an e-mail this morning stating that these dates were no longer possible due to meetings taking place in the rooms and basically said that the only dates available were the 4th April. This date is not an option for us as a few members of the group are on holiday, it also wouldn't be the ideal date as its the spring break and the majority of the students in the area will be going back home...etc, and so there would be fewer visitors for the exhibition. (To be honest I was a little dissapointed and angry at recieving this as they came to us very eager to work with the group, getting our hopes up and so we dropped all our other plans and stopped looking at other venues as it seemed set.)

However, I visited Peter this morning before my assessment and we contacted Jess Green (a member of the SU) explaining our concerns as a group and the problem with the dates. She took note of this and moved a few things about for us and so now the venue is available for us from the 21st April- 28th April (which is the date of our final assessment), which is leaving it a liitle late but there is no other alternative. It is also Easter weekend on the saturday to the monday and so the building will be closed, and so we will all set up our works in the spaces on the 21st and 22nd, and have a two day, two night exhibition from the 26th-27th April. Giving us one day before the final hand in of our work and docmentation.

Assessment Point One (Practice and Publication)

First of all I want to start by saying that I took some great pictures of the finished piece for the assessment, purposely for this post but because I am such an 'idiot' I accidental deleted them whilst arranging the order and so all that can be shown for now is just the act of me setting the strips up as I have now taken the work down *sigh*.

However I feel that the assessment overall went well; I basically explained how I am going to set the work up in the room for the exhibition, (obviously to a much larger scale than shown today taking up the whole space of the room) along with the sound piece and other factors. In the exhibition, the room will have no main light on like it did today but will have separate spot lights around the floor of the room; in my opinion creating a stronger illusion focusing more so on the pathway leading the viewer through the piece, whilst keeping the room quite dark. Also, today I simply played the sound piece from my laptop but for the exhibition I will have transferred this media onto a small mp3 player with three speakers hidden in each corner of the space as I don't want any of this seen by the viewer, or by myself! It wouldn't look particularly great. I also mentioned a recent idea of incorporating the ticking sound of a clock, either incorporated into the sound piece or standing separate on its own but still hidden. This came to mind as time has a majour part of my eating pattern, making me feel anxious at times. I feel embarrassed writing this as its stupid but it's out of my control. the mind is a powerful thing, over ruling the body; being the main focus point of this project.

At the minute I am feeling very confident about my work and the exhibition as I received some great feedback from both Miguel and Peter, especially from the incorporation of my sound piece, which was said to work perfectly together with the set up of the visual; because of the link between the words, order and the repetitive process whilst also creating a strong contrast between the delicate paper strips and the more obvious effects from the sound.

Tuesday 15th February

As my assessment is tomorrow, today I set up a selection of the strips in the studio ready for the morning; giving an insight into how my work will be presented in the exhibition space. Although this took much longer than I had expected and so didn't end up leaving the building untill 9.30, without finishing the presentation of the strips however it gave an idea as to how it will look.

Friday 11th February

Again we met up as a group with Peter to discuss the progress of our plans and Individual works. The Student Union is still our first option at the minute and plans and ideas for the space are looking good although we are still waiting on an agreement to the dates we suggested on holding the three day exhibition.

My work itself is still progressing, I am continuing with the process of the cutting of my text strips, keeping them in large plastic bags untill the set up of my work will be taking place. I also recently decided on incorporating the black and white grids of photography of myself from previous development to cut into individual strips alongside the others. And so today I printed off 300 copies of these to begin cutting, although I will be using much more as the room is a little bigger than I originally thought.
My sound piece is also complete, although now I need to figure out how I am going to play the piece in the room without speakers or wires been to visible or the sound been to quiet. I will be transferring the media to some kind of hardrive or a disc but either way I will have to buy the suitable equipment. Ideally I would like some kind of surround sound so it's not coming from just one part of the room, using seperate speakers, Otherwise I would most probably use a small CD player or device; hiding it in the corner of the room.  

Robert Morris

'Box with the Sound of It's Own Making',
1961.

Robert Morris is an American sculptor, conceptual artist and writer. He is regarded as one of the most prominent theorists of Minimalism, but he has also made important contributions to the development of performance art, land art, the Process Art movement and installation art.

The sculptor once created a piece of art by recording the sounds of himself building a nine-inch walnut cube containing a three hour recording of its actual construction; the racket of the saw and hammer and the quieter moments of measurement and fitting. When he was done, he put the tape recorder inside the box, pressed play, and sealed it. He called this piece ‘Box with the Sound of It’s Own Making’.

I found this piece particularly interesting because of it's simplicity. I like that it is what it says it is without having to think about the process in to much depth. He has had the desire to assign meaning to the unfamilair and unconventional, it's a concept of originality, logic and reason; being a great example of 'minimalism art'.

I can see why Miguel thought of this piece in the discussion of my work as our approach to creating the work is quite similar; both using the process as a definition to its meaning. Alongside the incorporation of sound, obviously my edited recording is completely different, however I have also included the sound of cutting into this; the repetative process in my work.

Group Crit

I always enjoy the group meetings; not only for the interesting feedback always received from the group and the tutor about your own work, which in most cases gives you that little bit of confidence with a push in the right direction. But I enjoy the insight into everyone else's work, listening to what they are doing or leading towards and how they go about doing it. Its interesting to see the range of ideas and different opinions given for each piece of work and can sometimes give you an idea or introduce an artist that you never knew existed.

I basically explained to the group what I am doing at the minute with this project and how my work and ideas have developed from the last discussion; including the latest addition of my sound piece and the basis that my installation will be taking up the space of a room, inviting the viewer into the work. I then went on to explaining the space in which we will be holding our exhibition, which at the minute is 'The Student Union' (although still may change as we are still not completely happy as a group with the space) and the problems we had with our first choice venue, 'The Wolstenholme Project'. I simply went on to discussing my work in a broader narrative and what I hope to get from the exhibition.

Miguel was very positive in response to my ideas and what I am aiming to put together for the final piece, adding that he has no doubt that the work as a whole will work great in the exhibition. He also introduced me to the artists 'Steve Reich' and 'Robert Morris', who came to mind when listening to my sound piece. The works he talked about sound very interesting and could link well with what I am doing and so I will be looking further into these later. He also made me think about the audiences response to the work and how it is a crucial part to the end of the project to gain some understanding and knowledge of the viewers interpretation to the work and what they get from it instead of me assuming that they understand and agree with my reasoning's behind the installation and how I have gone about doing it.

One on One with Juan: Blog

As I am all upto date with my blog (incorporating all information and progress on the different things I am doing and looking at) there isn't much else I can involve into the posts I am adding daily. Although Juan made me think more so into questioning myself and the work that I am producing; having a deeper engagment with my reasoning. As I stated to Juan, I know myself exactly why I am continuing my work and ideas in this context, but have chose not to add too much information as I like the idea of the viewer making their own interpretation when they see the work themselves. Also with the subject matter been personal, I find it quite hard to write into my reasoning behind the work in depth, knowing full well people will be reading my posts.

On my journey back home from my meeting with Juan, I began to think about the work I am producing, questioning myself and the reasonings behind my ideas. I decided to base my work on this subject matter which is leading to an exhibition and so I need to begin to talk more indepth about my reasoning alongside the work itself.
I suppose in a way I decided upon this subject initially to help myself...help me overcome these mind control issues which are effecting my body physically aswell as mentally, and to basically try to understand why it has become an issue in my everyday life. I have realised recently that I find it much easier to talk about the problem from when I first began this project and I feel better in myself, and so I know already that it has been a positive act confronting and admitting the issue. From the project I hope to achieve a better understanding, getting to the route of how this vicious cycle began and to try and get back to a 'normal' state of mind.

Nam June Paik

I found 'Nam June Paik's' collection at the Tate Galley fascinating; although the limit of 30 minutes in the exhibition is most definitely not enough time to explore all of the works presented and so I will be visiting the show again before it closes on March 13th.

'Video artist, performance artist, composer and visionary: Nam June Paik (1932-2006) was one of the most innovative artists of the 20th century. Tate Liverpool, in collaboration with FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) present the first major retrospective since the artist’s death, and the first exhibition of Paik’s work in the UK since 1988. Nam June Paik at Tate Liverpool showcases around ninety works from all phases of his career, many shown in the UK for the first time, alongside a rich selection of documentary materials from Paik’s performances and early exhibitions.
The exhibition celebrates Paik as the inventor of media art.  At a time when television was still a novelty, Paik foresaw the future popularity of this new and exciting medium.  Thought provoking works like TV Buddha (1989) explore the clashing cultures of east and west, old and new, while Video Fish (1979 – 1992) considers nature versus the man made featuring both television sets and live fish in aquariums.
With artworks ranging from scores of early music performances and Paik’s involvement in the Fluxus movement to TV works, impressive robot sculptures and large-scale video installations; Tate Liverpool’s exhibition will both entertain and inspire.'

 On entering the first room, the piece to automatically catch the eye was the 52 Television sets piled up creating a video wall 'Internet Dream 1994'. Representing the channel suffering culture, awareness of developing technology and the amount of information it would offer; this piece definitely draws the viewer to stand and stare. I found myself in a trance almost, staring, trying to take in every image, every colour which flickered across each individual television set. After viewing all of the works presented for the exhibition I came back to this piece, still eager to gain my own interpretation of the work, this I am still unsure. 

Paik said: 'I did not consider myself a visual artist. But I knew there was something to be done in television and nobody else was doing it, so I said "Why not make it my job?"'
This statement inspired me alone. 

I would have to say my favourite piece in the exhibition was 'One Candle 1989', a closed-circuit installation with candle, camera and five video projectors.
Despite the works lack of mystery with the technology that produces the image, it retains a spiritual and medative feel. I love the combination between the old and the new; the old showing a candle, one of the oldest sources of light and the new being the technology itself. The primary colours of red, green and blue projected onto the wall creates a contrast with the warmth of the flame itself, making me question how to interperet this. It was deffinitely a relaxing environment, making me feel instantly warm (wether this was psychological because of the 'large flame' I don't know) in comparison to the flickering of the bright images and colours in most of the other works which created a different reaction.

'Untitled, Tie Drawing II' didn't particularly catch my eye like majority of the other pieces did but it almost immediately made me think of  the 'anthropometries' (body paintings) works of Yves Klein who I researched into previously in my development. Whilst Nam June Paik created the markings in the piece by soaking a tie in ink; juxtaposing the convensions of action paintings. Yves Klein used the naked body of women, using them as a human paintbrush....creating similar looking markings.

The interconnection of natural and technological collection of works were exciting, especially 'TV Garden 1994-77'. The installation with 60 television sets and 260 plants and diverse materials created an immediate wow factor, which stole most of my attention. The sound played throughout the space was pretty weird, making me cringe almost but I liked that. I liked that it was kind of bizzare and random incorporated with the plants and imagery flickerering on the screens. The idea alone inspired me the most, keeping me thinking about the piece even now.

From visiting this exhibition I suppose it made me think more so into technology in art and other ways in which it could be used, maybe even in my own work. I also started thinking further into exhibition presentation, on how to make the works flow throughout. The show deffinately inspired me in general, although hasn't particularly pushed me to change the work I am producing at the minute.

Tuesday 8th February

Today we met up as a group again at the Student Union with Jess Green (a member of the Union) to view the space which is available for us to hold our exhibition. The space is ideal and deffinately has the potential for all of our works together or seperate; with extra room for anyone else who wanted to join. The area of the building we are interested in is a large space with long corridors, seperate small rooms, (which is perfect for the Installation I will be putting together) and a large middle space joining the rooms together, with plenty of wall space. The whole area links together quite nicely, flowing our works from one another and is a great size, although as the space is usually used as working offices it looks a little commercial....not what you really want for an art exhibition; and so a few members of the group are a little wary of what to do. Obviously Wolstenholme would have given a much better atmosphere but with that now out of the picture due to limited availability and there lack of acknowledgment towards our proposal, the Student Union is the next best thing. It is okay for what we are hoping to achieve from our exhibition but it is what we do with the space that matters. We are all creative students and if we think positive, plan and work together with our ideas then I'm sure that we can put together a great show; 'Introducing art to the SU.'

Above is the room in which I am planning
to use, although all of the furniture will be
removed from the roomand I will be
 blocking off the windows with white
boards as I will be adding my own
source of light to the room. Adding to the
presentation of the work itself.

Jess seemed eager to work with us and was very interested in each of our works and what we wanted to do in the available space; making us feel more comfortable with the venue. Although each of our plans and ideas may change slightly to fit better with the space itself.

We also mentioned the dates in which we were hoping to have the exhibition (24th March- 26th March), alongwith a few days prior to this in order to set up our works in our chosen spaces; but as the rooms are used as offices for meetings, it was stated that it may not be a deffinate although shouldn't be a problem as things could be re-arranged to fit our timetable.   

Basically all we are waiting on now is an e-mail from Jess with the date information. After that we can start planning the exhibition properly alongside the development of our individual works.

Friday 4th February

As planned, another group meeting with Peter took place today to discuss progress with the exhibition venue and our individual works. We have decided against holding our exhibition at the Wolstenholme venue as the dates the space is available isn't a possibility for a number of the group members and so we have moved towards our second option; the Student Union. This space is also ideal, although our meeting at the Student Union to visit the space and discuss plans isn't until Tuesday and so we couldn't explain what we want to do with the space we are now hoping to hold our exhibition. However dates were discussed and due to assessment dates, easter holidays and trips four members of the group are taking; possible dates are limited. And so the appropriate date for the opening of the exhibition would be Thursday 24th March- Saturday 26th March and hopefully we will get the space from the Monday to begin the set up of our works.

Sophie Calle

After a discussion with a member of the Royal Standard Group, I came across the artist 'Sophie Calle', whose work and ideas instantly made me relate to my own. Not by how the work appears to the eye but how she thinks and uses her personal experiences and feelings to create the work; inviting the viewer into her own life, as I am trying to do with my own.

Sophie Calle is a French artist who works with photographs and performances, placing herself in situations almost as if she and the people she encounters were fictional. She also imposes elements of her own life onto public places creating a personal narrative where she is both author and character. She has been called a detective and a voyeur and her pieces involve serious investigations as well as natural curiosity.

Putting her own private life on display whilst getting involved in others’ lives, Sophie Calle began by photographing people in the street (Filatures parisiennes, 1978/1979) or sleeping in her bed, including actor Fabrice Luchini (Les Dormeurs, [The Sleepers], 1979). Then she hired a detective to follow her, and afterwards compared his report with her own account in her diary (La Filature [The Shadow], 1981). Since then she has continued to represent and show her own life and the lives of others, making use of chance happenings according to rules she sets herself, in an abundant and multiform body of work, somewhere between the photo-novel, private diary, confession and travel diary.

Calle's work is very much tied up with a process. Her art unfolds as she goes through each stage of preparation and execution. She says that the form of the final product - the thing which the gallery viewer actually sees - is the least significant part.

La Filature - The Shadow
In 'The Shadow', although Sophie Calle knew she would be followed and photographed as she went about her daily life in Paris..."...These works had involved me so much in the act of following that I wanted, in a certain way, to reverse these relationships. So I asked my mother to hire a private detective to follow me, without him knowing that I had arranged it, and to provide photographic evidence of my existence."...She had no idea which day the detective would be following her. She kept an itinerary of her own movements and wrote a description of what happened each day as well as making a series of photographs of what she saw herself. These two contrasting points of view of the same period of time - the detectives' report and photos and her own diary and self-portraits - were exhibited as the final piece of work.

Sophie Calle has often written about her own life as if it were a fictional narrative but she has also been featured as a character and her own art activities have punctuated the narrative in "Leviathan", a novel by American writer Paul Auster.

Wolstenholme Projects

An e-mail was recieved from a member of the Wolstenholme Group, basically apollogising for the confusion and late response to the e-mail and proposals we sent and that it is possible for us to view the space as a group to discuss our ideas further. Although the dates the space is available isn't ideal for the group as three members will not be in Liverpool. This has been explained to the Wolstenholme group and so we are hoping something can be arranged for another date as we are still wanting and are eager to hold our exhibition at their venue. If this is not a possibility; we will be sending our proposals to our second option which is the Student Union as again the venue and space available is ideal and much easier to organise around. This will be discussed further in the group meeting with Peter tomorrow morning.

Student Mentor

I have had the opportunity to work with the Royal Standard group with the first year fine art students as a student mentor. This is a great experience for me to get involved with to gain knowledge on art groups outside of the university and working in a proffesional environment and as I worked with the Royal Standard last year in the same module, I can relate well with the project and hopfully help the students with there works and ideas for the upcoming exhibition.

Yesterday morning I met up with Rick Creed and two members of the Royal Standard group where we disscussed plans and whats expected in the project. A theme of 'Radical' has been set for the exhibition, getting the students to become involved and think more so about the area that they are working in; creating a debate with different opinions and interests. After the sharing of notes and Ideas, we met up with the group of first years working on the project where we sat and discussed what each individual wanted to achieve from the project, each idea was different which was interesting; leading to a disscussion on what everyone thought 'radical' meant. I took this opportunity to get to know the students a little, taking the time to listen to what they had to say and answering the questions they were keen to ask. Getting a little more involved we each individually spoke about what we are interested in and the art we are working on at the minute; setting five minutes each to show us around their spaces and what they hope for their development. This was really interesting to simply listen to, just like our groups in the second year, the individual works are so very different, creating different opinions and making it easier to share ideas.

I will be meeting this group once or twice a week to discuss the works and plans of the students; whilst sharing my own ideas and then later look more so into the exhibition space and how the works will be presnted. I am deffinately excited about this opportunity and am looking forward to getting more involved with the organisation and meeting more people working in the art industry; it will also be interesting to see if anything has changed from when I exhibited my work for the project last year.

Second Audacity Workshop

This weeks workshop seemed to be much more progressive as I have become more confident with the software; and after asking Peter a few questions about certain tools I was able to edit my recordings in the way I wanted and put them all together. After spending my day playing around with the different sounds and settings I have completed my first draft of the soundtrack which will be played alongside my final piece in the exhibition. At the minute it is five minutes long, however this will be edited and added to further once I have produced more recordings throughout the week. I have already decided that I want this played quietly; making the viewer listen more carefully as to whats included, although I'm not sure whether to play the sound from a number of speakers (hidden of course) or from just the one. Again, this will be experimented with.