Mentoring with Bob Levene
21.09.09
I had a really useful mentoring session with Bob Levene in her studio, having posted her a DVD of my work. We discussed problems I had come across trying to fit into particular genres, and came up with methods of making a piece of work to show in two or three different contexts (eg theatre/gallery/film festival). The most apparent one was something I had touched on in the past (but without much determination), and that was performance-to-camera. It would suit the exploratory/science demonstration elements of my work, and would mean that I had an object to send to galleries or experimental film festivals which was still performance, but didn’t rely on re-performing the same piece every time.
Another discussion point was this: I am interested in the simple physics of sound, especially in relation to human experience, and I expressed concerns that I was acting as a second-rate scientist. One of the most useful things Bob said (and I am paraphrasing: don’t quote her on this!) was that obviously art practice is also a form of research, and to bear in mind that a few hundred years ago the arts and the sciences were both forms of philosophy. We also discussed the possibility of going to talk to a scientist to find out how they formulate ideas for experiments. I might see if I can arrange something within this Escalator period.
When I arrived I noticed a pile of books, many of which I had. One in particular was “The Audible Past” by Jonathan Sterne, which I had bought a few months ago but still not read. That can be no. 1 in my list of things to do. She also gave me a few projects to look at, and then a list of weblinks. I’ll aim to look at all of them before the next meeting.
Task No.2 was to simplify my wordpress site: it does the job, and lists all my recent projects, but the wordpress bits (RSS feed, Login, etc etc) are too prominent in that layout. I will redesign it to a two-column site, and make an effort to put more of my videos on Vimeo and embed them. That will overcome the issues I have had with trying to represent sound-based work using photos and a sound clip!
I think Task No.3 can be to develop a performance-to-camera. I might re-work ‘Cans’, which was filmed live, but had an additional stereo soundtrack to turn it into a more accurate document. I could play with the scale of the screen a little more so that it was just a headshot. Part of my reason for doing this Escalator project was that I find I only have time to work on things that have a specific performance date (or financial obligation!), and that it means I perhaps don’t develop my work as thoroughly (with experimentation) in between times. This performance-to-camera could be a good start.
