Research appeal
The local papers have picked up my request to interview people connected with Craig-y-nos. While it has resulted in a few people e-mailing/phoning me these have all- with one exception- been ex-members of staff.
The Wellcome Trust are being very helpful with background material.
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
Have had a request from someone who wants to buy a copy of my video of the Argyll & Sutherland Highland Regiment marching through Stirling. Have also had a request for a copy of Adelina Patti singing "Home Sweet Home" in my "Singing Ghost" movie.
These raise all kinds of issues: how much do I charge? do I offer a "Directors cut" version- lots of unedited footage, and what about copyright issues in the "Singing Ghost"?
Had a publisher on the phone this morning before 9 o'clock wanting to commission a book. We discussed it for a while and it was agreed I would get back to him after I return from Wales.
Two local papers in Wales are carrying today my appeal for my project "The Lost Children of Craig-y-nos" and e-mails have started to roll in to-night.
The Hidden Landscape
Have just uploaded my first video of 2007 and discovered that there is a whole sub-culture of videos on YouTube devoted to mushrooms! View it on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYQ2ac5KXD4
or my videoblog:http://www.annshaw.co.uk
Moral dilemma in video-making
Using your family and friends as raw material in making videos is tricky. You walk a thin line between exploiting them or turning them into an "art video".
Bill Viola –http://www.billviola.com – never had any qualms in this area: he regarded his family as grist for his artistic mill and filmed his wife giving birth and his mother dying.
Well, the reason I bring this up is that my project is far less emotionally fraught but it crosses over cultural boundaries between East and West. Over Christmas I had two students staying (Shanghai and Hong Kong) and between us we made a short film – well 18 minutes. They have agreed I can put it up on YouTube. (After I cut it back to three mins max.) In fact they are quite looking forwrd to seeing it on YouTube…but I feel a bit squeamish turning what was an informal family occasion into a film for the world-wide web.
IPhone
Aren't we all longing to get our mitts on one?…y'know what I mean…and we have to wait until the end of the year! I'm talking about the most hyped gadget around: IPhone.
Come to think of it I am going to New York in March…maybe I can buy one then.
Ann Shaw is an artist/writer based in Scotland working in new media. As a journalist she campaigned and wrote about many social and medical issues. She is a feminist and founder member of Falkirk Womens Aid, active in the trades union movement and former member of National Union of Journalists Equality Working Party, and founder member of Forth Valley Open Studios.
