An Arts Council funded project this new work takes the British Engineerium, once an important Victorian pumping station as the driving force to explore our industrial heritage. Instruments of Power (working title) will explore shifting attitudes towards the machine, steam and working life.
Emerging from the National Maritime Museum, one of four females in a lecture room full of men, I wondered why the sphere of engineering is still predominantly male. I had a fascinating day. The Electric Horology Group was 40 years old and to celebrate gave a day of lectures on Electric Time, superbly chaired by David Rooney (former Curator of Timekeeping at the Greenwich Observatory)
Questioned later about whether I was confused by the breadth of research possibilities, I had to confess that the day’s lectures felt like a leisurely and stimulating day out, rather than ‘research’. Looking at everything from synchronizing time in workplace clocks, to measuring the fractions of time in firing ballistics and thinking about the role of the quartz crystal I was completely absorbed. It has fed my imagination (for this and a future project.) In thinking about the point that time came into our homes outside of the mechanical ticking on the mantle I have found a missing jigsaw piece for images for the film.
All I have to do is add them now! Uncontrollable excitement followed Friday’s arrival of the editing software on my doorstep. Swiftly followed by the frustration of the pop up box telling me I do not have the correct system requirements to load it. (I have!) With my tip top IT adviser away for the week, I am left with the frustration of trying to work out new ideas with the Pritt again, until his return. It has ruined my week’s plans.
After making a mock up the publication, that will accompany the work, I found it easier to approach a writer last week regarding his writing an introduction. Having him agree, I now have to work how to phrase what I am expecting from the piece. I want to save his time and my disappointment. It could be a longer job than I expect. And now on the top rung of a ladder that is stretching towards an exciting funding opportunity- I should really research alternatives, should that ladder topple! (Now an experienced owner of many a rejection letter, plus I have kind of mentally allocated the funds already)! So I am not bereft of things to do but have dithered while I wallow in the disappointments of technology failure again today.
HOUSE tour weekend!- and until half an hour before the talk I felt fine. My thoughts in order, studio tidied and all those little tasks cleared up -and then my nerves kicked in. Ladies and Gentlemen…this was the first public airing of the film so far. I felt exposed. For a moment I wished I’d opted to discuss the series of stills instead. That would have been so wrong. My vision for the project is there and strong and I was glad to hear in the feedback that it came across that clearly! From both our talks important issues were raised around artist’s practice and in various ways validated all our different backgrounds and ways of working. Phoenix Brighton and HOUSE provide a chance to visit an artist’s studio and immerse yourself in an artist’s methods in a way that a simple Open studio doesn’t. A welcome and valid experience for artist and audience.
Making a decision this week about which software to use for the film (much deliberation, googling and phone calls)- and getting the definitive quote for print costs has set straight my budget. I managed to borrow equipment from a local community centre last week. No deposit, no charge, no fuss, no questions, just a trusting friendly face offering a community service. A reminder to broaden where I look for support! Organising the materials for the publication has been prompted this week after confirming the contributing writers and finding a glimmer of hope for additional funding.
Next? Camping, then counting down days to a mid June Symposium where I get to meet lots of eager cog enthusiasts.
All my steam has been channelled into getting a storyboard drafted out for the film I have decided to make. With production costs (not covered for this by the Arts Council funding) I set myself a deadline to get it sketched out clearly and ‘sold’ to the Engineerium to coincide with a grant deadline. All that done and tensions rising as some of this pent up steam escapes as joy, some as confusion. The building and plans still in flux.
It is been an absorbing time. I have nosedived into it most days, – coming out dazed at school pick up time hypnotised with that plinky music and dancing images.
The way I work is adapting more readily now to suit. Always an advocate of cut and paste I do revert to collage wherever I can as a thinking process. In fact, in cataloguing my entire life. This storyboard was costing half my funding in glue sticks as I shuffled and pasted photos and drawings, and wasn’t allowing me to think quickly enough. So I’ve opted for the path of a moving storyboard. Paste, playback and delete with ease- on screen. Rough and ready but finding the right mood.
Collage is a word though that echoes through my entire practise, and beyond. A simple realisation. This time I am pasting images together in a linear way as opposed to overlaying them.
Perhaps a good route into the talk I am about to give as part of Brighton Festival’s ‘HOUSE’ studio tours. After Easter disruptions and time with technology studio time has been left out of routine for too long. Be good to reacquaint myself with its four walls and reception of FIP that I can’t get at home.
A respected on line source of music provided an ideal, and easy, option for the sound .
Luckily, after deciding to switch off last week- with some easy viewing telly, I realised how popular! A BBC tour of rural Spain. A Channel 4 house search in France, in one week! Firstly I didn’t think my choice of music was so ‘travel’ orientated( although I had decided it was more jaunty than I was looking for! Secondly, The work needs to be unique – Plan B is confirmed. I have two professional contacts (cost an issue but funding application pending) and two colleagues that could be open to negotiation! So making a list of genre, tempo, mood and words to describe what I want to achieve with the sound. Not the mood of a European ‘sejour’ thats for sure.
My excitement about the work is building up like the pressure of steam waiting to be released.
The Beam Engine started yesterday at 11am to an audience of six. It got going seamlessly with grace, elegance and an almost silent whirr. The building filled with new smells, sounds and sights of coal and steam. Left alone with it I lost myself in the hypnotic motion and gentle power and filmed it and thrilled in the boiler’s flames and steamy spaces. Working for the first time in over 4 years.
Sipping tomato soup, from Peter, to warm up- and celebrate, I studied a ‘man going to replenish the fire’ in a 1712 engraving. It made me consider the engine as a whole, not just the individual moving parts. More filming until the power went on the camera (now on shopping list: extra battery pack!)
A problem with working site specifically in a building that has ever changing plans, with work that is shifting equally as fast, is that identifying the right spot to show it. I liked the space we explored in January, but light was an issue. Now the sound has developed a new direction I’m not sure if that would work. The room I thought would be roped off now won’t have to be. It is a distinct possibility, but is it right. And the plans I’ll see in a few weeks may offer further possibilities in rooms yet to be built!. With such flux I have to just focus on the work and stop feeling so desperate about the location, for now. After seeing Mining Review, Number 11 (1949), I threw another idea that wasn’t right into a basket this week. Satisfying!
Next week I meet with my Peer Review Group. We are going to work on a group project and with my days and increasingly my evenings being swallowed with engineering influenced thoughts it will be refreshing to be distracted down a new creative route.
