There has been two very busy and up and down weeks, but have to say things are progressing for the better now.
Is amazing how now I am actually starting to feel that I am being a part of these place and starting to get to know people…would be almost good if there where extra 6 months to this residency… By the time you get to know these place I would be living which is a shame.
Well I still have 4 months left.
I am happy to say that I have had a successful application to the ACE for extra funding to help with the production and the succsesful delivery of the exhibition and its publicity.
My recording sessions with the men choir have also been great and in the last two weeks we have managed tocover all the recording I need.
Originally I wanted to record the boys as well but these has proven very difficult so slowly the idea has been changing and developing in slightly different direction. Which in fact is brilliant because the idea has progressed and now shifted and I will be recording four amazing Ladies which will be singing different piece but still very similar to the one the men did.
Now I am organising and getting all these booked, which sometimes is a small task, making sure the Cathedral is booked for after Evensong, the most quietest time, making sure everyone knows about it and getting a date when everyone can be present.
The last few weeks have been very busy and exciting with contacting and meeting particular individuals and expertise to advise and work with me on the project.
Starting from Mr Barry Embling, working at the Forest of Dean and expert on Highnam Woods, who will be working with and helping me with the setting of the life broadcast/recording from the Woods to the Cloister. We are also in discussion of organizing couple of public evening visits to the Highnam Woods, for visitor to experience the beautiful sound of the Nightingales.
Mr Gareth Harris from the Cotswold Water Park, who spend generous amount of his time with me at the beginning of the development of the project and helped me to construct the idea of which bird sounds I could use and put me in touch with other experts from the County.
Mr. Michael Smart and expert on the Severn Vale, has introduced me to other professionals that could help with the project, for example Mr Andy Lewis from the North Cotswold Ornithological Society, has already been in touch and we spoke regarding collection of bird images and further species for Cotswold Hills, and the Bird Atlas which is being developed and printed. Mr. Smart has also introduced my project to the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to support the project through their knowledge and advice, and possibly use this exhibition to assist their publicity and make audiences more aware about ecology and birds.
Mr Smart has also introduced me to contact the WSRS – Wildlife sound
Recording Society – to see if they could help with all the bird song recordings.
With initial phone conversation with Mr Roger Boughton from WSRS, has proven to be of success and followed a meeting with Mr Phil Riddett last Saturday in Brighton, where we discussed the project and the possibilities.
Mr Riddett has initially send an email to all the WSRS members to seek the recordings and the offers have been coming in and so far there is 51 recordings, which have been posted to me to work on and developed in parallel with the human voices.
Looking back in history the Cloisters and its gardens use to be the only place, within the monastery at the time and now as a Cathedral, where the silent monks could talk and have a conversation.
The work I am developing is based on Thomas Tallis’s (ca. 1505 – 1585) remarkable 40-voice Spem in alium, which work challenged the Striggio's 40-part Ecce beatum lautam.
The installation will consist of 40 individual sounds, played by 40 speakers.
The idea is to have 24 speakers that will play recorded sound, 12 speakers that will transmit live sound from the Garden of the Cloisters into the Cloisters and 4 speakers that will broadcast live sound from a nearby woods (2km air distance), again into the Cloisters.
The 24 single pre-recorded sounds are collections of human voices and bird songs. I would like to use the natural layout of the cloister and the idea is for each of the four sides of the cloisters to represent the four main natural areas of the Gloucestershire county: Forest of Dean; Severn Estuary and Vale; Cotswold Hills; and Cotswold Water Park, with sounds of typical birds from each area.
At present I am working with the Gloucester Cathedral Music Director Adrian Partington and recording the boy’s and men’s choir singing Gregorian chants used by the Monks back in time, in groups and as individual voices.
Once the sounds of the birds are collected then this will be matched with the human voices and developed into Gregorian chants.
I am just back from Macedonia, where I when for a week to see my family and also to find out how things are developing with the Venice Biennale. I am not sure If I said this already in my previous pages, that I have been put forward and proposed through the National Gallery of Macedonia to represent the country in the next years Biennial, with my project “Butterflies in the Stomach’. I met with my Curator from the National Gallery and she told me that is only three of us in the final shortlist and now I am waiting for the final outcome, which should be hopefully the end of this month or next month. Is very painful and I am trying no to think about it…. Macedonian Magazine Forum did a brilliant three-page interview about my work and my progress in England. And Macedonian paper called Vreme (Times) also publicized an article about my proposed project for the 53rd Venice Biennale.
Now back at Gloucester and things are moving very well, slowly planning the work for the final exhibition in April. I’ve been having lots of meeting with different people and working through the ideas. Tonight is my first night where I’ll start with the filming/photographing the ground floor of the Cathedral and will be testing the light and the sound in the space.
Very cold day out here in Gloucester, I am trying to work out if it is colder outside or in my house/studio. Trying so badly to worm up that I am using all my energy at the moment.
Very productive week already: On Monday I had a meeting with George Moore who runs the Wired youth music project out of the Guildhall and is in a band called Big Blue Sun. Thanks to Pat Roberts, Visual Arts and Media Development Officer at Gloucester Council who put me in touch, I met with George who’s very interested in getting involved with the sound piece I am hoping to produce in the cloister of the Cathedral. We also when to the Guildhall to see the editing equipment and was so brilliant that in 10 min I was signed in with a password and now I can use the equipment. Is brilliant, George is also lending me one of his hand recorders so I can play and try different things until I get my own little recorder.
Yesterday I when to Stroud to visit the SVA (Stroud Valleys Artspace) http://www.sva.org.uk/ Very interesting space that has been designed by Tony Fretton who’s also designed ArtSway, Camden Art Centre, the Lisson Gallery; SVA provides workshop space for local artist and has an exhibition space.
And today I am working in my studio and working out how to use one of my new tripod heads which I bought few months a go but haven’t had the chance to use it. It is a panoramic manfrotto head, very complicated but beautiful piece of equipment.
