Sunday I was determined to have as a day of rest as I have not given myself time off really until now. (I was also feeling the effects of a few beers following the trip to the baths the night before). I’d forgotten that the clocks were going forward and I managed to drag myself out of bed to catch breakfast before the 9am cut off point, only to find I was too late. Had to make do with a mediocre breakfast wrap from the Kiln Café instead.
I was desperate to do my laundry as I hadn’t had a chance until then, so I took myself down to the basement, hoping to have a browse in the library to pass the time. Unfortunately, I forgot it doesn’t open until 5pm on a Sunday. Instead I lazily read the local paper and tried to catch up with this blog. It was great to have fresh clean clothes again!
When all was done, I took myself into town to get provisions for the evening’s social event. We organised to have a dinner between us , with everyone making some sort of contribution in food and wine. There is a kitchen/lounge in the basement of the hall I’m staying in, which is quite well equipped with an oven and other cooking implements, and a long table with plenty of chairs- a perfect setting for such an occasion. I’d promised to make a ‘mousse au chocolat’ (my mother’s recipe), so I had at least to get chocolate and eggs and of course a little cognac for flavour. Also bought a bottle of wine to add to the drink contributions.
I ended up of course, buying many more things in the supermarket as I also needed to stock up on energy food like cereal bars and bananas.
I stopped off in the dollar store on the way back to buy some postcards (yes I will send some eventually) and a rather kitsch thermos mug with a photograph of a Bear and the slogan Banff Rockies on it.
Dinner was great fun and a great success- we had a fantastic meal of samples of roast chicken, salmon, sweet potato mash, roast potatoes, carrots and beans, followed by my chocolate mousse, which thankfully turned out well (after much egg-white beating). And of course much wine was drunk. We ended the evening (some of us), watching a screening of the Manchurian Candidate (the original better one with Frank Sinatra).
Got back and sat in bed to catch up with the Blog until 3am, much like I’m doing now. Tomorrow I’ll only be a day behind and I can tell you about today’s activities. For now though it’s goodnight.
Now it’s got really busy, it’s really hard to keep this blog up, but I’m determined to do so.
Saturday was a really active day. I tried a full-length recorded run wearing the camera kit I have brought with me to get some footage to show for Monday’s studio visits.
I set off quite early as I had arranged to meet Kate at 2pm to try out the climbing gym and I would need time to recover. I decided to do a revised version of the run that included the Vermillion Lakes Road. I’ve figured that I’m much better off trying to run at as low an altitude as possible. Rather than cross through the town first, I followed the Bow River and Fenland trails from the start.- it’s much more straight-forward. Weather was fairly mild, but a little overcast so not great for filming, but as this was a first test I wasn’t too concerned.
I haven’t worn this kit for a little while so I had difficulty in adjusting the belts I wear with the recorders in them. I started recording and managed to make my way to all the way to the start of the Vermilion Lakes Road, before realising that neither of recorders were on any longer. It was a bit annoying after having already run 4km, but since this was a test, I let it go. I switched them back on and continued my route.
I checked halfway to see if the recording was still going. All seemed well and I continued my route back to the start. I didn’t find running much of a problem and I seemed to be able to manage my breathing a lot better. I managed without too much difficulty to complete my route, only slowing at the end after climbing up the hill back to the Banff Centre.
I was excited about seeing what footage I had and immediately checked to see what I had before doing anything else. I checked the card from the left cam and was pleased to see I had a complete recording. With the right cam I wasn’t so lucky- I’m not sure what happened but there was nothing there.
I had enough time for a hot bath and some soup before going down to meet Kate for the climbing wall intro. It was great fun, though tiring especially after my run. Erika, my room-mate came too. Didn’t really have the right shoes but managed to have a go and get a sense of what to do. I really felt it in my arms the next day, but I’ll definitely go again.
Saturday evening was rewarded with a trip to the Banff Hot Springs. These are located half way up Sulphur Mountain. Unfortunately the actual original springs are no longer active, and it is now a mineralised substitute, but it was great to be out in the cold air in a hot pool under the stars.
The trip to see Guy Maddin’s film on Thursday evening was well worth while. It’s a personal account of the film-maker’s relationship with the place he grew up in (Winnipeg- a City in Eastern Canada, known for extreme cold winters). The event was marked by Guy himself, performing his personal melodramatic narration to the film live, followed by a Q & A. Shot almost entirely in black and white, this film, is an homage to the nostalgia of film itself, and to ‘film noir’, with the live voice-over reminiscent of early film police thrillers or silent movies. The only criticisms are that I thought it was a little long and a little (unnecessarily) repetitive in parts. I would like to see some of this film-maker’s other work. Because of its personal connection to a Canadian city, this film is going to mean more to a Canadian audience. I wonder how it would be seen abroad.
Friday was a studio day. Good to get a bit of consolidated time, but still need to crack the technical thing. Had to go into town to get some materials from the hardware store and graphics shop. I’m surprised that there isn’t better provision for art-materials here. Stopped by the liquor store to stock up on wine and beer. The wine here is very expensive- you can’t get anything for less than $8.00 (£4.00), for some very mediocre Canadian wine.
Arrived a little late for the organised thematic discussion on the question of Audience. This turned out to be a little frustrating and disappointing. I had hoped for a more critical and philosophical discussion around this. Instead, the agenda was much more market-driven and very narrowly considered around the specifics of ‘New Media’. I mentioned that I was concerned that there seemed to be this separation between what was ‘New Media’ and what was other Art, which was not very helpful. Shouldn’t we be talking about our work as art more holistically, rather than by using narrow definitions like New Media? I deliberately do not define myself in this way and feel very uncomfortable about considering myself like this as I see myself as an artist who uses different media to make work. My work is not defined by the media I use, but by the ideas.
Later, I finally managed to get a more in depth chat with Robert about trying to make some headway with the live thing. This was more useful, but he still needs to do a bit more work. I also talked to Kenny, who is a lead programmer and who will help me specifically to figure out some things using mobile networks in the first instance. I’ll have a more in depth meeting with him on Monday.
The evening ended with a screening of the excellent Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica film ‘Videograms of a Revolution’, showing the Rumanian revolution of December 1989 in Bucharest in a new media-based form of historiography.
On Thursday, I organised myself to do another run. I had it in mind to do the ‘Spray River Loop’, a trail that follows the path of a subsidiary river. I wanted to get this run in early as there was an organised trip to see Guy Maddin’s ( a local film maker) film ‘My Winnipeg’ at the University of Calgary later on. I woke up to a flurry of snow, which didn’t seem too bad. I’m quite used to the cold by now and quite well prepared for it. I was actually quite glad to see some fresh snow as I was concerned about running on anything too icy.
When I set off it didn’t seem too bad- I made my way down to the river site and across the bridge to follow the trail. This is a popular one with the cross-country skiers, so quite easy to follow the tracks (or so I thought). Once I was on the trail, it became very tough going. It was snowing steadily and the snow had settled very quickly, so it was much deeper than I thought. I found it very difficult to run through (like running through mud or wet sand). Also, the cold made it much more difficult to control my breathing and very soon I had to keep stopping every few hundred metres to catch my breath. However, I persisted and wanted to see it through. The route itself was fairly straight-forward, following the river upstream, so a little undulating, but nothing too extreme under normal circumstances. I didn’t have to check the map to find my bearings except at the half-way point to loop round.
The half-way point was marked by a small bridge so it wasn’t too difficult to keep on track, but I was really starting to be affected by the cold and to feel quite tired. I started to follow the trail back downstream and all was fine (apart from continued breathlessness) until I had the choice to continue the trail slightly higher up above the river, or to move down alongside. I thought if I moved down to a lower level (and altitude), it would help my breathing. All so far so good until I somehow lost the trail and found myself running in the middle of a golf-course!
I tried to keep calm and continued on, thinking that I would eventually get back on track. The problem was that the snow had covered the marked route. Finally I found an adjoining road and started along it, before realising I was heading off in the wrong direction. For a moment I thought I was lost and was a little alarmed (I was also very tired), but I figured that if I followed the path of the river back I could find my way. Luckily I did. This is definitely the hardest run I have done so far. Very slow. Got back in time for lunch and a long, hot bath.
Apologies, I’ve got really behind with this. I’ll have to update this in a few posts if I don’t want to leave anything out. (will add pics later). Now we have our studios, things have started to get busy.
Wednesday started with presentations from the peer advisors, Nina Czegledy, Willy LeMaître and Kate Rich. All very impressive. Nina and Willy’s work is very technology dependent and oriented – Nina works alot collaboratively with scientists and other artists on global digital projects that are very much on the ‘New Media’ circuit; Willy’s concerns are particularly vision and process oriented with modernist tendencies focussed on the question of appearance, so his work relies heavily on the processes of technology and its effects.
Kate’s work is less driven by technology itself and more conceptually oriented. Her work is socially and politically motivated and uses the tools of technology in the world around us to infiltrate social and cultural infrastructures and networks. I found her work the most interesting, particularly her love of sports as a ‘mechanism for survival in the cultural realm’ (her words). It was refreshing after seeing so much work that is heavily dependent on technology, to see her involvement in outside tree-climbing activities- where there is no use of technology at all! I’m with her there.
Following the presentations I made an appointment to see Robert, the technical line producer for the programme and the main point of contact for anything technical. I think he has a lot on his plate, trying to sort out everyone’s needs. Although there are other staff to liaise with for more specialist concerns, Robert seems to be the person who initially coordinates everything and tries to solve things in the first instance. I made an appointment to see him at 4pm, but because of having to answer to everyone’s needs, he didn’t get to me until after 5.
I am still no nearer to solving the live thing for my project and Robert admitted he also need to do more work/research on this. He asked if I could do a search on live Mac/streaming software (although I don’t really know what I’m looking for), and I also mentioned my concerns in relation to getting data from my GPS device so I can print out routes that I am running and track my progress in real time live.
Nina came by beforehand for a chat. Because she arrived late, she had not seen the artist presentations and wanted a sense of what people are doing. She was very encouraging about the live development of my project and was concerned about how it might be shown. I am quite clear that it should be made into some sort of event that is known about and that begins and ends at the centre (the New Media Institute), possibly outside. I am also clear that I will be working on some recorded runs in addition to the live output.
