Walking

Wednesday the 8th October Today I walked from home into Dartmoor village, which is about 8km. Mainly long straight roads; I detoured into the verge and bushes, then spent along time in the pine forest plantations which run parallel to the road. I recorded sounds, took photos and collected things as I went. In the forest I made some videos and collected lots of pine needles to use on the 35mm used film I got yesterday. The forest is strange, they usually scare me, but I started of having fun, then went in deeper and began to get a little anxious spinning round the perfect rows of trees. On the final kilometre I was continually attacked by magpies, it was like being in 'The Birds' as they swooped straight for my head screeching. As paranoia and panic set in I was convinced it was one bird following me and franticly tucked in jewellery and hid my shiny lenses thinking that's what it was after. I ended up running the last stretch backwards, waving my arms and cardigan in the air and shouting. Scary stuff. Back at the museum I began laboriously sticking pine needles to film with splicing tape. I find it hard to visualize what I will see when its projected, I seem to get in a muddle when I try and think to technically about the spacing: how may frames a second, whether the lines will go up and down or be solid, and whether the optical sound will work. I will keep experimenting with some more scavenged bits of nature, and try and borrow a projector from Clinton next week. I am annoyed that I can't upload my videos on my computer because the camera didn’t come with a fire wire: a brand new camera and no fire wire! I rang up cannon to try to get them to send me one but they weren't having any of it, and apparently my imovie might not be new enough to work in HD. I hate imovie. I'm also a bit annoyed that this is my 5th day of blog entries but I haven't found an Internet connection capable of uploading them or any images before I finish this residency. It's so slow. Maybe no one will ever read this. Curious. So no video editing tonight, I might be going into town to play cards. The game is called Yuka, I think, which I thought was either a root vegetable or somewhere it Mexico, my chances of winning aren’t looking good.

Tuesday the 7th October

Tuesday the 7th October Fun day good day people day. Went for a quick walk along paddocks before breakfast, followed by loyal sheep dog. Beautiful morning light, hits the trees perfectly here. All the wood is so translucent it takes on the colours of the sky: this morning a troublesome blue, turning a heap of deadwood such a cold blue. Drove to museum and did a little bit of rearranging, then on to Portland. Karl Hatton the arts councillor for the shire had given me some contacts that might have film equipment to borrow; my first call had put me onto Clinton who runs the local film club in Portland. I met him at the arts centre, which is part of the Arts Company Inc where I will be staying in a couple of weeks. What a dude. A welcome relief. An excitable lover of film that I manage to keep away from the surf for a couple of hours of film tech foraging, without even trying which shows his enthusiasm for film! He basically had between the arts centre and his house every format of film equipment you could ever desire and the kind of no bullshit motivation for the arts every town needs. I left with some massive reels of 35mm films, a proper old school viewer, splicer, tape, a box full of mini canisters of educational films and a little bit more film knowledge. Its good to know I can get all the tech I could need where ever my work goes, so I can go back and get projectors or 16mm format stuff. Fantastic. A very happy bean. I visited a few op-shops whilst in town to no avail. Then with the guidance of the out-of-the-way helpful locals located and picked up some sewing bits and tracing paper to start stitching weather maps. I burned through the countryside, bouncing along in my little automatic, ye-hah, back to Dartmoor and the museum. A little bit more rearranging of the furniture was done, and I've now got my space pretty much organised and full of tech and artefacts to play with. Which I did. Driving home I had to stop and take some photos the smoulder sky overwhelmed me. Slamming on the brakes, hitting the grass and leaping the fence to be out in it. Made my heart rush for the earth, the kind of fix I've been after. To top it all a rainbow tried to emerge, but due to the heaviness was just a solid block of colours behind one tiny little tree: bizarre and stunning. I regretted not having my proper camera with me, but it made me realize how I have to get more savvy with my digital SLR as it was frustrating not being able to get the shots I was after: what was in front of my eyes. All fired up on nature I m going to walk to the village tomorrow, gathering and filming on my way. Planning an early start as it always a magically lonely part of the day. Whoop yeah. Happy motivated bean.

Monday the 6th October

Monday the 6th October First day of proper work. Discovered a box of old film equipment in the garage waiting to go to the museum. An exciting find of a super8 camera and projector, an editor, project a scope, and reels and reels of old footage- along with lots of silver backs, small creatures a little like woodlice that like to eat paper. With the museum keys in hand I set off into town laden with my finds. Dashing in and out unloading as the weather constantly changed; glorious sunshine, rain and swirling gusty winds, sun rain sun rain sun rain sun rain sun rain sun rain sun rain sun rain The museum is cold and musty, overflowing with memorabilia, farming machinery, documents and furniture. I headed to the side room, which will be my workspace and began attempting to rearrange things and scatter my newfound tech between power points. I managed to get most of the tech to work, if not very smoothly and was able to watch some of the footage. The opening scene a sequence of people emerging from a tent, a continuous flow like a caterpillar. It made me smile to imagine someone discovering the joy of the stop motion technique. The rest of the film was mainly an ozzie rules football match, and lots of children running around outside. I tried another reel, excited by the box's label of 'Ned Kelly' thinking I had stumbled upon a historic gem. More football! Rummaging through the desk draws I found a stack of old family photos, dating roughly from the 70's, square shaped with cutely curved corners. Using the project a scope- a simple design of a light bulb and angled mirrors- I attempted to project 'boy with cat', one of my favourites of the families shots. It was pretty fuzzy but with a darker space and better projection surface, it could be a winner! Having strewn camera equipment and film everywhere it was time for a break. Outside into the daylight and wide-open street, I headed to the shop/greasy spoon/internet where I was greeted by a Hoover and a few locals chatting. Smacked up on the net and a few cashews, back the 100 yards to base. I discovered a super old singer sewing machine, 1950's radio, two 'brownie' cameras and some old typewriters. I'm keen to try and transfer the maps and weather charts from the collection of Commonwealth yearbooks to fabric and stitch/embroider them. Hopefully by next week the museum will be organised enough to start having coffee mornings or afternoon tea's, so I can try and recruit some sewers and get some more maps and stories of places to explore. With the editor I have been slowly feeding through bits of film punctured and stitched by the sewing machine, and cellotape with museum fluff, and dirt and leafs from the veranda. Watching the strips on the editor is completely different; it gives the viewer more control as you can slow down, stop and whiz through the images. There's also something clinical or archive like about the little screen they appear on- this process of careful watching and note taking is curious and an element I have enjoyed exploring live within previous performances. The typewriters need a little tinkering and maybe new ribbon. I have made some text just as indents; it's satisfying to bang out writing. The idea of writing as leaving a trace, from simply running fingers, touch, being, traces through air, movement through land, an "unconscious inscription": and that connection to the notion of longing, historically "the longing mark, or impression, left by the mothers desire". This natural human yearning is an element I try to comprehend through my work. Always writing whether in text or action. Reading 'On Longing' (Stewart, S) and discovering a multitude of tech and bizarre artefacts I'm drawn to the thought of narrative generating objects and how what I already understand about these objects will effect how I utilize and interact with them. With this residency, place and time as a new context for me I feel my immediate reaction has been to search for stories, before I begin to generate my own through personal response. However I am aware that as I am doing the discovering of objects and items I am already creating a narrative, as it cannot be an independent thing, my perception and interpretation always taints things. As for gathering information through story telling, again as the situation for this to happen is so preconceived and with my processing of the information I will carry with me assumptions and memories to the places I visit.

The video attatched is actually a sonic performance, but I can only upload videos, so its in a video file- just so you know thats why the screen is black!