Three days behind with the blog so lots of catching up to do. Saturday was a fairly quiet morning. I had it in mind to do another recorded run in the afternoon, so took it fairly easy. It’s a shame that the library here isn’t open on a Saturday, as I would have liked to go there then. Went up to the theatre building to book some tickets for the evening to see ProArteDanza, a Canadian contemporary dance company. It’s great to take advantage of things like this that are on here and as artists we get a discount.
My run in the afternoon retraced the route I’d taken previously to Sundance Canyon, via the Cave & Basin and the Marsh Loop Trails. I didn’t leave until around 3ish as it was a little overcast in the morning and I was waiting for it to clear. Turned out to be quite a nice, mild afternoon. The warmer weather has started to melt some of the ice and snow, so it was quite slushy in parts; in other areas the snow was still quite compacted –easier to run on in some ways, but very bumpy, hard terrain. I’d forgotten that the route there is on a very slight incline so it was a little hard going as I neared the canyon site and downhill most of the way back, which was a lot easier. I even picked up a little speed. I like this route as it’s quite varied through forest pines and the purple/brown/ ochre colours of the marshland plants are particularly beautiful. On this route I was more or less the other side of the Vermillion Lakes, and so the mountains were also very much in view.
I managed to do a complete run without stopping and also got a complete recording on both sides. A successful day. Got back just in time to have a long bath, dinner and get to the theatre. I wore my special ochre velvet slacks for the occasion.
The performance was very mixed and varied- mixing contemporary with classical in both the music and the dance. It was very dynamic in parts, mainly in pieces that had the younger dancers and slow and considered in others, showing great strength and endurance from the older dancers. My favourite pieces were the one using Gavin Bryars’ ‘Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet’ and Handel’s ‘Lascia Ch’io Pianga’. Great, very moving music, which had older members of the company performing in pieces full of slow tension and experience. Very moving.
We finished the evening with a few drinks in the posh dining room bar for Ruth's (another of the artists), birthday. I sampled a highly recommended gin martini- fantastic but very strong! One was enough.
Today was much warmer at -4 in the morning, which is mild for here. I was toying with going in to Calgary to seek out some mini web-cams. I’m looking the possibility of working direct with these as they can plug straight into a computer without the need for an intermediary device. If I’m having to carry small computers now, as I run (light as they may be), I need everything else to be very light. I haven’t got to the level of those army guys who run marathons with huge rucksacks. The only thing is, there are only a few buses a day. I knew I wouldn’t make the 9.45 as I had to have a quick chat with Kenny before the weekend. The next bus wasn’t ‘til 12.45 and it’s a 4hr round trip. This would mean getting back after 7pm or even later. I really didn’t want to spend the rest of the day on a bus, with a shorter stop in Calgary. Besides, I don’t need the cameras yet.
Instead, I decided to go out to take some still photographs along yesterday’s route with a medium format camera I’ve borrowed from Goldsmith’s. I’d been told that there are bikes we can use here for free, which would make it a lot quicker and easier. After finally locating them and getting hold of a lock, I set off bike in hand with the camera. There’s a steep slope down from the Banff Centre to the Bow River trail. I decided not to cycle down it as the bike was a bit precarious. It’s a bloke’s road racer with drop handle bars (which I’m not used to), and had only one set of gears working. It give me a chance to begin photographing from the start of the route as I walked down, taking in the Bow River Falls and the fantastic Bow Springs Hotel. This vast hotel was built in the 19th century for the railway workers. It’s amazing and very grand (very expensive too), with imposing character. Reminds me of the hotel from ‘The Shining’.
It was great to take time to stop and to look at the scenery properly (only thing is, there’s a tendency to take too many similar photos- I have to be more ruthless and selective- there are only 15 exposures in a roll of film). As time went the wind started up and it began to get quite cold. Standing still to take photographs and to change film didn’t help either. I forced myself to carry on to the end of the Vermillion Lakes Road and made it nearly all the way before it became too much and my finger and toes got too painful and I could no longer feel them and I headed back (it’s not worth getting frostbite for art). Was very glad to have the bike for speed. Now about to go off for a quiet evening by the fireside with wine and a film.
Mixed day yesterday. In the morning tried another recorded run to the Vermillion Lakes Road. It was another glorious day, but still pretty cold: -13 with a wind-chill of -25 but sunny. I needed all the layers I had on.
The sun made a difference to the whole run and to the recorded footage -much better contrast and much more colourful. I’m looking forward to taking some still photographs. Managed to do the run non-stop, which I’m very pleased about- I must be getting used to the altitude. Quite slow though and my breathing is erratic and heavy. On the way back I overshot the Fenland trail and found myself almost joining the highway. I turned back, but it probably added 2km to the route.
Got back pretty exhausted around midday which gave me a couple of hours to recuperate before meeting Kenny at 2. We decided to do the testing on the ground floor of the building where the New Media Institute in based and where I have my studio. The AVDC converter (which takes the feed from my recording unit to the computer), only runs on mains so we had to use a 100ft lead to get enough slack to allow me to run freely. It looked quite a sight and rather odd! We managed to get the live streaming to work in the end through ‘i-chat’, but the picture quality particularly on the receiving computer was very poor. It was really disappointing after all that, but I wasn’t entirely surprised as i-chat is very basic. Kenny suggested I research other live streaming software, which when I got back to the studio I remembered I already had- a week ago! I remember speaking at length to Robert about using VLC, which is a media player that also supports live video and audio streaming (apart from it doesn’t do it for Macs, I later found). It seems that most software for this only works with PC’s- I’m beginning to realise that if I want to take this any further when I get back to London, I’m going to have to invest in one (or 2 if I still want to work with both eye views), of those tiny ee-pc’s, especially since the way we’re going (at least for these current tests), it looks like I’ll be running with them!
I was a bit done in for the rest of the day following my run and probably dehydrated. I had a splitting headache all afternoon and evening. I went to an informal concert of contemporary classical music with flute and percussion. It didn’t help. Later, Bruce, one of the other artists, hosted a Flusser night. This was an introduction to the ideas of image and media theorist Vilèm Flusser, followed by a televised interview with Miklós Peternák. Turns out that Bruce is a Flusser expert as he has been working on the archives in Berlin. Must read more of Flusser’s work.
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Started the day today with an indoor run on the running track in the Sally Borden Recreation Centre. It goes around the perimeter of the viewing gallery above the basketball gym. Quite a nice idea, but the circuit is not very long- only about 100m. However, I managed to make myself do 100 circuits (10km) as I wanted to keep a feel of running a certain measure of distance. I may do some filming there- in any case -we talked about doing some initial tests using a lengthy extension cable. I also need to keep up my training and was concerned I might not get out again today to run outside as I was due to meet Kenny to continue where we had left off yesterday. It was very boring run going round and round- I had to make myself keep going. It was also too warm and the atmosphere was very dry. I didn’t seem to have any altitude problems though or shortness of breath. Not bad since up here we are at 1500m. Must be getting used to it now.
I met with Kenny after 1pm to go into Canmore, the nearest bigger town, to try to find a USB video capture device that will connect to the computer and that I can connect my cameras to. Edwin the line producer for the residency came with us. He wanted to collect some things for a film he is shooting in the next couple of days. We also wanted to find a larger mobile ‘phone store to get some information on mobile ‘phone internet connection. It will be easier for me to use kenny’s ‘phone in the end whilst I’m here as the cost of increasing the capacity of my own ‘phone or buying one here, is too prohibitive.
Canmore is a strange sprawling town- really spaced out and flat and made for driving in- a real car town quite industrial and surrounded by mountains.
Got back to Banff around 3.30 to try some initial tests on the running track with my cameras. I’d got hold of some very long extension leads in the morning as the capturing device we were using has to be plugged in. After getting all the kit up there, none of it worked! (it seemed that east my PDR recording unit wasn’t recognising the capturing device). Went back to the studio and realised that the unit will stream live video to the internet via the capturing device, but it is unable to record at the same time. It’s looking increasingly likely I’ll be using webCams to do this- much simpler and less connections, but I’m concerned about image quality. Now I know what the problem was this afternoon, we’ll try again tomorrow with the PDR units on standby.
Ended the evening by attending the Ed’s (another artist) screening choice: Lucky People Center International, an extremely rare anthropological documentary from 1998 with the common thematic of dancing running through it. Great film.
Ended the evening last night feeling really frustrated and with the sense that I really wasn’t getting anywhere. Various options are being proposed but nothing concrete is happening. This development of my project is really very new to me technically, so when I research various components, I really don’t know what I’m looking at and if they will work. It doesn’t help that I haven’t really seen Robert and Kenny together. They have both talked about different things that don’t always coincide. We need to have a conversation together and to lay our cards on the table to figure out a viable way forward.
In desperation I emailed them in the early hours to request this and copied to peer advisors and other staff. I don’t want to get annoyed because everyone has been very helpful, and I still feel very privileged to be here, but the technical staff are spread out very thinly amongst us and so have a lot to deal with. It’s not their fault, and they are very good, but they don’t really have the level of expertise in relation to my particular project. Meanwhile time is ticking on…
It was still very cold today (about -17), but very much brighter and sunny. I was determined to try and get a run in. But what with trying to make progress and another scheduled discussion forum bang in the middle of the afternoon, it wasn’t going to happen. The good news is that Kate took on board my email plea and was very proactive in getting this meeting going with Kenny and Robert in her presence (although Robert wasn't around). She was very good in trying to pin down a means of moving forward and how we were going to do that. I feel a lot happier, but I’m still having to wait for various bit and pieces. The way forward is to do a rig that is as simple as possible and to test it in the locality. This will mean only using a single rather than a dual eye-view in the first instance, but at least I’ll be able to see if something works (soon I hope!). I had been all ready to do another recorded run, but this meeting was too important to miss. I will catch up with Kenny again in the morning so that we can proactively sort out what I need to buy/order. I may need to forgo my own bullet cameras in favour of some small web-cams as these will directly stream to the internet without the need for a converter. It looks like either way, I’ll end up carrying a lot more than I had anticipated (they are talking of me carrying a computer!), which is a little worrying, considering the distance I hope to run. Initial tests will be on campus, both indoors and out, to see immediately if the system works. I really hope we can have something going by the weekend.
