My Residency in Banff, Alberta, Canada

There’s been a bit of a gap as things have got even busier in the work up to the Open Studios next Wednesday(25th).
Following the last post there has been some progress, but not in all areas: I still feel really behind with the live run, mainly due to waiting for a component to arrive, which has halted the progress I could have made. The component is an AV digital converter, which would mean that I would be able to connect my own (good quality) bullet cameras via the recording device to the small computer I’ll be carrying when I’m running(!). Using web-cams would be more straightforward and would eliminate the need to carry my recording device as the recording could be made at the receiving end. However, the picture quality so far has been pretty poor. I may still buy some better quality webcams, if I can find any that are the right shape to wear.
I finally did a couple of tests on Wednesday and Thursday to test coverage using the mobile network and using the Banff centre Wi-Fi network. Both work and have their limitations. The mobile network allows me an extended coverage so I can venture further afield, but we are limited with the streaming software we can use. The Wi-Fi network needs an open network and so limits me to devising a run around the Banff Centre site, which has coverage in most buildings on the site. I went around the perimeter route I had run earlier in the week to test where I was getting Wi-Fi coverage and Dominic found a way of making a recording from his end so we could see where I was going out of zone. We also tested whether when I did go out of zone, the streaming would shut down entirely, or whether it would just freeze or go blank and pick up again once back in zone.
The latter happened, which is promising, as I had always envisaged something like that happening, which says something about the failure and limitations of technology. I like that concept.
I finally solved the issue regarding where to show the projection of one of my recorded runs. Following my despondency on Tuesday evening I had a chat with Edwin (one of the technical coordinators). He suggested I show in one of the screening studios and we had a conversation about me making some frame supports that I could cover in paper and suspend from the tracking system just below the ceiling. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided against it. The screening room just didn’t feel right- it’s far too big and I would lose all sense of intimacy and immersion (it would also be at least a day’s work to make the screens). I felt I was trying to make something fit a space it really wasn’t suited to. I looked at the projection in my studio again- it wasn’t as small as I’d thought.