The dissertation is now ‘done and dusted’ and only needs to be bound. The the last element in this module is a presentation on the subject which will be given some time before Easter.
Now working on the final show alongside a proposal for a commission. The latter is taking more time than planned but it is getting there…it will of course contribute towards the ‘Creative Futures’ module if it comes to nought!
My final show is about ‘testing affectors of the sublime’ as proposed by Edmund Burke. Currently there is one site-specific installation, one micro-environment and a double-ended vitrine enabling a comparison of beauty vs sublime’.
The latter is based around the appearence of secession found in road-underpasses under differing lighting and soundscapes. This piece is the most advanced, with the glass-tanks sourced and the ‘support pillars’ constructed and currently being painted. I am producing an “architectural model” aesthetic, resulting in simple physically identical environments differing only by light quality and intensity and the degree of haze.
The Research Module assessment took place yesterday and everything was ready in time, with just a couple of dramas on the way. Having put up a ‘roof’ over my space to reduce light levels for video, my first effort was not right. After pondering over it that night, I decided to re-make it, getting over the ‘mis-fit’ issue and the ‘bad look’ of the original covering material. The new cover is white unwoven polyester with a PVC back. The other problem was the micro-media player destined for ‘stone in a sea of fog’which refused to play the video file. This was returned for a refund but I still needed a media player. I ended up using a small Philips DVD player which to great relief performed without a hitch.
I am now getting back to the dissertation and currently working on the neuropsychology aspects of emotion and memory associated with experiences of the sublime. It raises some interesting questions about whether our experience of the sublime can vary according to our emotional memories and would the first encounter with an artwork which triggers a sublime feeling be the most intense experience. This would seem to be in contrast to repeated exposure to a beautiful work where it seems it takes longer for the sensation of beauty to diminish.
Apart from the enjoyable festivities, Christmas proved to be a good time for dissertation research. One of my Christmas presents was a new book on the sublime* published in 2011 which I had not been aware of (a present from my daughter). It was a real page-turner…as sad as that might sound given the time of year. It took the subject into areas, which to my knowledge, have not been tackled before…great stuff. I have also now written an extended outline with references for the dissertation. The plan is to ‘grow’ this outline into the final document. It now feels like I have a ‘handle’ on it.
On the studio-side of things it is the time for getting a light-control ceiling panel constructed and into place, the electrical runs tidied away for the projector and floor piece and getting photographs printed and mounted. OK for time at the moment, January 16 is the deadline for the assessment.
* Hofmann R and Boyd Whyte I (2011) Beyond the finite Oxford
fog intervention at 4 different sites as part of my assessment
The formative assessment of our Research Module took place on Monday this week with feedback on Tuesday. Normally I would have recorded the space yesterday, but I had planned to do a gallery-dash in London. I particulary wanted to see Gerhardt Richter and Tacita Dean. The Richter show was a tour-de-force with some of his work I was aware of and other real gems I had never seen before. I found his glass pieces unexpected and particularly beguiling. Tacita Dean’s, Turbine Hall piece was a gentle and nostalgic paean to the medium of film. Sequences were “threaded through” an image of the end window which I felt tied it beautifully to the site…very satisfying From Tate Modern I walked along the Embankment to the Hayward to see Pipilotti Rist’s show at the recommendation of a friend. Wow, I have not seen video presented in so many diverse ways at the same time. The presentation approaches drew you into her works and I was very pleased I went to see it. From there I went on to the John Martin exhibition at Tate Britain. I had been really looking forward to that but I found it strangely underwhelming. There was a repetitiveness about the works which in some way became rather tedious. Also, I don’t think the hang was helped by the rather “cheesy” AV show on the big tryptic, I would have much preferred to have seen them without the hubris.
Tomorrow is the “last day” and I will record the Research Module material and that will be it for this term.
The video and the finished object for ‘stone in a sea of fog’ were united for the first time on Monday of this week. The push was to get photographs of the complete piece so that they could be sent to a 2012 Open Competition, closing date of December 5. The E-entry went in earlier this morning and the entry fee was paid over the phone…now breath.
The meeting of the video monitor with it’s new container went without a hitch. The multiple measurings and re-checkings as the piece was built really paid off. The fit was exactly as planned. The lead is also looking good and will continue to darken as it oxidises, but it is getting a great sheen already and the interior vertical walls of the piece now ripple and glow with a soft reflection of the horizontal video image. I was just going to say that this was the critical point but that isn’t true. The real heart-stopper was the application of the lead-bead to the seams, the final construction act. I hadn’t anticipated too much in the way of problems with the 8 middle seams but it was the corners where I was anticpating trouble. However, after well tooling the lead on the inside and outside corners into its flat profile, the bead went on without any drama…magic.
Now back to the dissertation and getting stuff together for the formative assessment in the last week.
