Duncan of Jordanstone

I have been included in my university's exhibitions departments press release, take a look….

Well i haven't blogged in a while, mainly because editing the sound in my worm film has been harder than i first thought! Since the sound from my original footage was faulty and i was out of time to go digging for new worms to re-shoot i had the crazy idea of re- creating the sound of worms moving on a bed of feathers by rubbing feathers against paper myself. It was raining on my way home and the pavement was covered in worms! I queried running home to get some sort of container but thought making the sound myself would be alot less hassle…so wrong!
I have found it is extremely difficult to edit snippets of sound perfectly in sinc with the movements of the worms! So i have spent the last day and a half in the computer suite painstakingly watching the movements and matching sound! the outcome seems pretty believable.
So now i have the film ready i have the technical issues to deal with. As i am boarding my projection into the fake wall i have to build a projection box the right dimensions, make sure the projector doesnt get too hot, find away to turn the projector on once it built into the wall (find someone with long arms!)
hopefully this will all commence tomorrow! meanwhile my third year helper has done a fantastic job cleaning the filthy floor and i have three of my four walls ready, after ALOT of effort sanding off the giant rainbow!

Farewell studio!

I have had yet another day when i have not touched my final drawing. Third years moved out and the art school was buzzing as we all moved into our new spaces! after about ten trips up and down the stairs i finally got everything into the new studio and only just made it to the office to swap keys!

Along with moving a years worth of artwork, furniture and junk i spent the remainder of my day in the IT suite doing more editting. My original footage of the worms wasnt load enough so i had to somehow 'recreate' the sound rubbing feathers against a piece of paper with a massive microphone…. Anika Rice stylee!

The various piles of easels, desks and chairs are slowly piling up in corridors which means people are slowly finishing up practical work and moving out of their spaces!! This is making me panic slightly as I still have one drawing to finish and really hoped to get a full days work on it today but have ended up spending the day everywhere but in my studio!
After my tutorial I ended up in the workshop making a handout rack out of mdf, so after a pretty bad attempt at cutting a curve with the bandsaw I did the whole 'wash dishes badly' routine… the trick in our workshop is look puzzled and scratch your head and from somewhere a man will appear and do it for you! Some girls may be slightly offended by this (and I'd normally be one of you!!) but with one day to go until installation I was more than happy to throw in my towel and admit that girls cant use hand-tools if it meant saving some time! So now, thanks to John, I have a rather nifty piece of joinery!
I then ended up in the IT suite re-editing my worm/feather film AGAIN, this time with sound. I'm a bit concerned how it will turn out. I have filmed worms moving around on a layer of feathers, its bizarly therapeutic to watch. The worms wriggle and squirm in a rhythmic fashion. The patterned feathers they lie on bunch up and shove to and fro. I love seeing the different textures of the two and the questions it raises narratively with the worms embracing and thriving upon the remains of a previous adversary. I intend to build the dvd and projector into one of the walls of my space and drill a viewing slot. Hopefully this will give the impression of looking into a box of worms… I'm excited to see how it turns out… hopefully it will be great!

well there's only 4 days until we move into our degree show spaces! went to check mine out today and not only is there a rainbow painted over the floor but also a large wall drawing/doodle drawn in PERMANENT MARKER ahhh!

It's also quite a rude drawing and im slightly concerned no matter how many layers i paint over it you will still be able to see it… and my little drawings will be defiled!!

looks like i'll have to pull my sleeves up and put some elbow grease into it!