Day 3 @ The Chinese Arts Centre
Finally I bought ‘Linda’ my friendly computerized voice today for my video piece I am slowly putting together. I got the final translation through today and enjoyed listening to the audio then had to work out how to digitally record it. Thinking as I do all around the houses I eventually recorded it on an edirole, which my friend had kindly lent me. The best audio quality with no atmos interference was in the bathroom, I had heard that a lot of musicians have done this is in the past and it worked. I am struggling to edit anything in the residency space at the Chinese Arts Centre as we are still prepping the walls and have lots of random stuff around us. We have put up Phil’s spreadsheet wallpaper on one wall and the door it looks fantastic although we hadn’t planned in prepping time and it is eating into my making time. Tomorrow I plan to work from home and crack on with sequencing the sound with the video. Phil and myself have been making up our own invitations that has taken up most of the day but I think it was worth it. People like to have something to take away with them, which an e-invite doesn’t offer. I managed to give out 50 last night at the Chinese Arts Centre, art auction and everyone really appreciated them. I have so much to do next week and we plan to have the space fully prepped by tomorrow. There are certain things I just cannot do such as physically marking out my performance in the space for the spoken audio tour until we finalize the installation. We intend to have another video piece of me running through the performance without an audience, a bit like a ghost.
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The Golden Ticket
This morning I have been re-thinking how to plan the tours of the gallery and feel that I need to simplify the instructions. Originally I wanted to have ticketed spaces on the tour and communicate that you can also observe the tour, this is too complicated. I thought that I could bring this into the performance by giving selected individuals golden tickets to go on tour. I bought these golden envelopes in the arts and craft shop in China Town and they are used to burn in religious ceremony. I find it strange why you would want to burn such pretty paper and the man in the shop got a bit irritated with me as I kept picking things up and asking “what is this for?” and he just kept saying “it’s just for burning”. In the shop there was a mini concertinaed changing screen and small sweet like objects made from pastel coloured cardboard that I want to buy. I have been editing my video of the magic show and I am now waiting on translation. Yesterday I managed to find a green sparkly dress in a vintage shop and put a £10 deposit on it, I pick it up on Saturday. I’m feeling a little bit frustrated, as I have no money and am waiting to get paid at the end of the month; there will definatly be nothing left in the pot for Christmas presents this year. Writing the blog is giving me the structure I need to develop the work ready for installation next week. This has been an unusual way of working towards a residency as usually I am not sure what form the work will take. However as the residency is so short and we want to maximize the opportunity into a show rather than an open studio has meant developing a clear vision of what we want before we start.
Computer Love
This week I have been researching how to create a computerized voice. I want to use this audio style and live translation of the Chinese New Year, TV Gala show video in my performance at the Chinese Art Centre. The simple way of doing this would be to pre-record my voice and edit it over the top of the video, however I feel this could be a good opportunity to create something live from the material. I have been looking at using a vocoder pedal which requires attaching a mic and a musical instrument such as an electronic keyboard. A different option on the market is a keyboard which has a mouth attachment that operates in the same way as the vocoder, simpler to use but much more expensive. It was suggested to me to use ‘text speak’ on the computer were you simply type in the words and it replays back in a computerized voice. I love this and have been playing with the voice and writing different scripts for ‘Linda’ to read. Linda is a voice I downloaded which sounds very similar to what I heard in China a computerized, English translation, void of emotion. Ideally I would like to use the keyboard as I see the potential of it as a prop which gives the impression that I may play something musical on it. However the voice sounds more like a musical instrument, which is not the effect I am looking for. The ‘text speak’ function on my computer is the right tone and the laptop is also an effective prop. I envisage sitting behind or to the side of the audience tapping away on my laptop, I could also try and lip-synch to the sound. In the video the female presenter wears a green sparkly evening dress and I like the idea of wearing something similar creating a duplicate image.
30 years of Japanese Fashion
On my recent trip to London to see the family I had a free day and I visited Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese fashion at the Barbican. This exhibition is the first in Europe to show avant-garde Japanese fashion that challenges ideas of beauty, function, ultimately elevating the work into art. As I entered the ground floor gallery was divided by banners of white fabric and clothed mannequins stood on top of plinths. My favourite on this floor was Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garcons piece from the autumn/winter collection 2000-01 which I like to call the flame. The skirt piece was constructed in a honeycomb formation from translucent fabric, which appeared to be glowing under the lights. The edges of the fabric look so soft and fragile it amazed me how the piece was actually standing.
Up on the first floor the designer’s collections were individually set in their own spaces with sound, sometimes video from the catwalk shows which the clothes had featured in. I was blown away by the presentation of Jun Takahashi, Undercover, autumn/winter collection 2000-01 each mannequin is completely encased by the clothes in an almost fetishistic manner and placed in front of a wall covered in matching fabric. I love how the clothes wear the person rather than the person wearing the clothes which I feel reflects our obsession with brands and consumerism, a worrying glimpse into the future perhaps? Last but no means least was Issey Miyake’s most recent collection 132 5, which is made from recycled fabric which emerges from flat packed polygons into wearable garments. The curation and display of the work throughout was really impressive particularly Issey Miyake’s work that had the polygons placed at the front like mathematical drawings and then behind, the mannequin wears the garment. Video was used extensively from interviews with the designers, documentation of the catwalk shows and ‘how to’ animation. Large scale lambada framed prints hang on the walls of Kawakubo’s designs which have been photographed by Naoya Hatakeyama that document the bold, simple shapes in a two dimensional image. Please follow the link below for more details:
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=10771
