Starting today and running until the 23rd of April, 10 Degrees North-East of Basecamp brings together artists with studio space at SVA for a group show, part of the Site festival here in Stroud. For this I have been window dressing. Do come along to the ‘opening’ on Saturday evening, and there is live poetry on the last day. Hope to see you there.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who made it to our performance Score for a Flautist the other evening. Really enjoyed the event and good to hear your comments after. Tadek and I are ‘debriefing’ tomorrow in the pub! There is more to come, I am sure…
Final preparation for tonight
Making the last changes to this evening’s performance. Final notations: Tadek’s and mine. Now getting nervous! Would be great to see some of you here this evening.
Heath Robinson & vinegar
I’m preparing a piece of video for the performance on thursday evening. Every ten minutes I film for two. However hard I try, I always end up producing some Heath Robinson setup for filming: bits of cardboard precariously balance to block out reflections! A bit embarrassing, since the gallery is right next to the photography department here at the University of Gloucestershire with its professional studios. Oh well! I have no idea how long it is going to take for this piece of chalk to dissolve away, but in the meantime the gallery is nicely filling up with the smell of vinegar.
Teaching Oliver to breath
Today I am experimenting with a computerised reading voice to turn some of the highlighted text into sound. Let me introduce Oliver, the name of the voice that I am using. I like the way that he misreads some of the words, so I have to respell them in such a way that he reads them correctly; also how his pacing is completely wonky. What is missing is breath. I am placing hyphens all over the place just to give him the chance to catch his breath and pause between two words, rather than slurring them into some ungodly conglomerate. I am not surprised: just like any of the technologies that I use, each one has its own quirks and you end up doing pretty non-sensical things just to get something usable out in the end. Breath Oliver!
Finding some structure
It was one of those days: Tadek’s car blew up so he couldn’t make it, so I had to get on on my own. I’ve started to put together some structure to the score, and it looks like there are going to be five different elements: computerised voice (called Oliver), prerecorded sounds, live ‘foley’ sounds, speaking voice and live looped flute (oh, not to forget the visuals). Well, we see if I can get all this together in time. Next need to film those CO2 bubbles.
Looping the chalk
This morning Tadek and I have been working on the ‘Score for a Flautist‘, getting our heads around the loop station (on the floor with the green lights) with which we can layer sounds into a complex soundscape. It’s new territory for me, allowing music into my work. It can be so seductive. So I am trying to work out the right balance of music and other sounds, such as the voice of Thomas Henry Huxley, whose words are highlighted in blue on the wall. Well, a few days to go yet before the performance: exciting times!
