All of this week I spent on generating a rough first cut of my moving image piece. To be precise, I worked most of the time on the audio edit endlessly re-listening to my collection of interviews. Over the last few weeks whenever I was in Gainsborough I did not only get involved with the everyday of this beautiful yet delicate network of communities at x-church, I also made a point of asking questions about how it is to live in Gainsborough. As my mind has a way of its own the conversations meandered and the interviews became more of a journey then a box ticking exercise. This was nice for me as everybody said so many interesting things that somehow related to what it means to be a resident, my current bone of contention. Yet working like that also produced an awful lot of material and handling 17 hours of recording is like taming a nine headed hydra whilst being rather like David and not Hercules with limited time and no budget. Yes, I am quietly pleased that a rough cut now exists. Not so pleased am I about its length. At the moment it weighs in a little over two hours. This is quite a lot to listen to for my future audience. When cutting the material it felt like a significant reduction after all my hydra had nine heads and every time I cut off one it grow two more. The audio track will also be combined with footage, footage that mostly stems from a long afternoon filming whilst being driven around by Marcus Hammond in his white van in Gainsborough. Through this I saw a lot if not all the locations that people at x-church had told me a about. Driving around was really fascinating as somehow the different places that had filled my imagination over the last few months suddenly became tangible. It was also a bitter sweet experience as the visual realitysometimes seems to reverberate so little. One of my interviewees said that not what surrounds us or what you own counts but what really matters are the people. I partly agree though I still can’t help but be in love with engaging with all aspects of the visible world. I have also to admit in respect of my choice of vehicle for filming that I have a quiet affection for this kind of utilitarian vehicle not only because of its bad reputation. After all I grew up with a white van and had the privilege from early on to enjoy a view given by its vantage point.
As my residency comes to an end you might wonder what happens to the relationships I have built with people at x-church. No, this was not my last visit, even though this project needs to end because I simply have get back to my PhD. As they all know I will return and my next visit will be for the opening of Chateau Marcus and Salon Slum end of April.
Having worked on taming my hydra all week is also partly the reason why I only will find time now to write about what else happened at my latest visit. This will be in my next post.
This post was first published under https://loosespace.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/the-hydra-of-my-recordings/
