Land Strategies and theCommons

Begun the Skype collaboration with sound artist, Peter Barnard. This can be heard at http://youtu.be/RLcztSRUNw0 .

Initial problems with Skype, difficulties of videoing the space problems with uploading the conversation have, for me, tended to overshadow what will be an interesting collaboration. However, this is our first contact and it is exciting to begin something new. His viewing of the space has purely been through a grainy video seen at the last moment so to come up with any response is remarkable.

At the moment, I will be responding to his ideas but those ideas came from what was written in this blog. I think that collaborations are always hard especially at the beginning. There has to be a starting point and that comes out of discussion. But nowadays that discussion does not have to be face to face. Not only will this collaboration be borne out of this blog but it will be conducted without face to face contact. Whilst the Skype video facility did not work, it now seems more interesting to conduct the collaboration without any visuals, it takes away any preconceived notions of our characters created through our appearance. Thus, it will be an honest discussion and working relationship that is based on a mutuality of ideas.

I perceive a successful collaboration to consist of open, honest discussions and equal working partnership that is supportive but allows space for intelligent critique.

The collaboration earlier this week with Michael Hobson set the tempo for the residency aims.

Part of this residency, called theCommons, aims to be a collaborative space. This is the current list of collaborators with more to come, an exciting time!

Michael Hobson January 13th, 14th, 27th Sound work inspired by the notion of sound as a haptic response.

Michael is a singer and guitarist currently based East Midlands. Solo musician, vocals, guitar 1973 to 1974, Band – Oakenshield, lead singer, rhythm guitar, percussion, frontman 1974 to 1975. Band – Peep o’ Day lead singer, rhythm guitar, frontman, songwriter 1975 to 1977. Duo – lead singer, guitar, songwriter 1977 to 2000, Solo musician 2000 to present day.

Peter Barnard January 30th at 6.30pm Skype discussion. www. peterbarnard.net

Peter Barnard’s practice as an artist involves a broad range of different disciplines ranging from video work, sculpture to site-specific sound installations. Through this body of work Barnard explores how the use of sound affects the way certain objects and spaces speak to the viewer on both a psychological and ontological level through hearing. Using subtle modulation with digital tools, elements that are found within auditory phenomena are purposefully isolated and expanded – calling into question the functionality of sound as an aesthetic experience as well as instigating a more intense listening process on the audience’s part. This correlates with elements of minimalism found within Barnard’s sculptural works that also references architectural archetypes which respond directly to the viewer’s presence within a space. Peter Barnard also adopts a highly experimental approach to creating video works as they reflect his interest in the soundtrack acting as parallel text to the narrative of the moving image.

Chen Yizhong February 4th 5pm – 7pm Skype discussion. Chenyizhong.weebly.com

hen Yizhong (born 1986, Chongqing, China) is a visual artist who works and lives in Chongqing. In 2012, he received his MFA degree from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. During his MFA studies, he was an exchange student of Prof. Michael Brynntrup’s Filmklasse in Hochshcule für Bildende Künste (HBK) Braunschweig, Germany. Chen works across different media, including painting, photography, video and installation. He uses his personal experience to explore the present and history, time and space, and uses his works to address various issues between individual and public. Currently, he is working on a series of interventional photography work. In the global background and extreme, rapid development circumstance of China, he builds a flattened space which compresses reality and illusion to question the meaning of change.

Louise Garland, Monday February 3rd, daytime. Spatial intervention inspired by our mutual love of found knots.

Garland engages with the philosophical belief in the continuum of life. It examines the nature of our existence, linking the personal (especially from a female context)with the metaphysical, with references to the collective notions of archaic symbolism. Garland incorporates found materials and objects into her pieces.there is a an alliance between the familiar and the unfamiliar as the deconstructed materials reinvent themselves, whilst forming a seductive quality to the surfaces. the works are rigorously composed through the use of measurement, geometry and mathematical calculations often found in nature. Garland presents us with thought provoking and sometimes witty configurations of both our existence and greater consciousness.

Exploring possibilities with sound and projection (until I fused the plugs). The sound collaboration with Michael Hobson has created a new dimension to the space. It is designed for a dark space where the shadows are not meant to be eerie but to complement. Whilst the result is not perfect, it is a beginning. http://youtu.be/BxVSIh-9HwQ The image shows the projection of the Niagara Falls image viewed at the end of the tunnel as if that was the reality of the space.

A lovely early morning breakthrough and a feeling that I have managed to make a step forward marrying older ideas with new. Using projection and a found slide, projected through the rubber (bicycle inner tubes) strips onto the wall beyond. The slide is of Niagara Falls but is dominated by a couple talking in the foreground beyond which is a road and a vehicle and, eventually, the falls themselves which pale into insignificance. They are not even noticed on first glance and could almost be a made-up backdrop as in victorian times. The ideas that this has all generated has inspired me to writing again.

The discourse between object and space continues. Using the found light, which works with the aid of a wooden clothes peg, a tunnel has been created that provides the focus for the light. In itself, it has little illumination, being designed for car headlight vision, however, by making that the sole object in the space and placing it at my eye line height, it becomes elevated into perceived brightness. Not quite Eliasson’s Weather Project!