working the shells

i’ve found a shady spot in the house near the window through which i look at a day so hot even the sky looks white without cloud.  our puppy is sunning herself and the children have all finished for half term and have come home making lots of noise.  at donnington park the racing world is paying tribute to nicky hayden by doing what he lived for.

tomorrow i’ll be showing as part of the derbyshire open arts weekend.  not something i’ve done before i’ve found it incredibly useful to focus on and make new work for.  it’s come at a time where i’ve been feeling happier in myself and been doing things differently when i work from home.

today i’ve been doing those last minute things, completing the most recent skulk of foxes and making guides for the digital drawing machine.  i’m loving my feeling of no care in the world as i really don’t know who is going to turn up and interact with the works.  something within me has definitely shifted and its for the better.

my latest experiment with the non linear film format is also viewable on line and is called experiment 14.  the images above are screen grabs from the evolution of the film.  within the work i’m experimenting with sound within the format, image creation with the preview images, text and authoring for a museum context.

i wanted to make time to write this post when there is so much going on around because soon we’ll be into june.  next week i have an interview for a work position over the summer and this is another part of the feeling of things are getting better for me and i wanted to share this with you.

wherever you are and what ever you do this weekend i wish you a glorious time with continued optimism and progress.

i’m supporting a poorly back today by cleaning cupboards and catching up on housework in the kitchen. an at home day.  my view through the window fills me with great joy.  a monochromatic blue sky backs a splendidly fluid vibrant tree, illuminated by crisp may sunshine.  may the fourth be with you too.

my rest and writing is now being further supported by a resting puppy.  she’s picked up in my pain and has been providing suitable encouragement for me to take it easier today.

my post today evolves around an emerging interest in drawing machines.  initially only digital however a chance remark in a discussion has led to consider an analogue version for outdoors.

the time before a forest school session is becoming my research time.  a rope stretched between two trees forming the foundations.  yesterday i left the arrangement up for the children to discover and i was gently surprised what occurred when the first few arrived and saw it.

working with one of the volunteers helpers we co-produced a set up where the sticks hung in a different configuration to what i had been considering.

the volunteer began hitting one of the hanging sticks and i was lit up by the resultant movement.  the analogue drawing machine research was instantly simplified.

there’s an opportunity in august for the analogue drawing machines and i might admit to feeling i should say i will do it and then work out how to !

more pressing is the digital drawing machine.  i’m going to show it at the end of the month at the derbyshire open arts weekend.  i’m also going to be showing my non linear linear clock.

the digital drawing machine has taken shape quite nicely thank you very much.

something i played with yesterday was the date and time stamping the drawings and how they can be added to a slideshow.  despite my bad back i made good progress : )

reflecting about how the drawing machines feed into my practice i’m really rather happy.  on the face of it they are enjoyable and i hope engaging works as they offer opportunities to be questioned.  as i go about researching how to realise them i start to see glimpses of intellectual concerns and let these form waves of thought  i ride for as long as i can stay with the wave.  the machines continue to and so does my enjoyment of making them.

the house is quiet save the odd piece of noise forcing its way through the double glazing from the road and the ubiquitous internet hub timer.  my nose it tickled by the smell of a fresh coffee waiting patiently for my attention.  i get myself comfortable to compose some words of recent events.  the silence is punctuated by a dreaming puppy.

undeterred by the sudden sonic interuption i begin to order my thoughts in an attempt to work out where to begin my storey of the last few days.  i decide upon an order based upon most impact with other people.

this list is headed by yesterday at derby silk mill museum.  ahead of their third conversation was the auderv of a catch up session with friend and forest school for men idea supporter.  in an open and honest conversation we made some progress with the idea.  this morning i’ve written this up on the mhfe website.

the main course in the mill yesterday was their third conversation event “stewardship and sustainability”.  before this arrived an unexpected taster of the non linear film made for the museum.  still in its draft stage, the museum has it being shown on a large plasma screen complete with touchscreen.  i got really excited at seeing it.  the sizes and resolution of the images working really well and i learnt something about user experience too.  the pre-release version of the film is available to watch here >>>>>>

onto the main course of last night.  once again sue ball did a brilliant job of leading us through four very diverse speakers as we explored sustainability and stewardship from both practical and academic viewpoints.  the hour worth of presentations took me on a journey of scale of thought.  from manageable through to …

a moment please as i’m not sure how to put into suitable words where our last speaker took me to.

i savour my coffee, observe the sleeping puppy and muse my blank thinking.

at the event last night our fourth speaker took us into the realms of the green agenda finger pointing “should” paradigm.  i first experienced this while a student and even back then couldn’t resolve the pardigm into anything acheivable.

with the presentations complete we moved into q&a.  i sat and listened as the questions explored greater amounts of psychologically unsettling topics.  once again i started to experience the aspect of the green paradigm that in my opinion keeps it from becoming something that is adoptable because it simply becomes too large, too scary and too difficult to do anything positive with.

i resolved to ask a question.  my heart raced and i waited for an opportunity to construct the question i needed to ask to release the personal tension and angst the discussion had created.

i introduced my question as “i have a project”.  i felt the immediate attention of the room upon me. using the internal nervous energy i forged ahead with my question. “i have a project” i continued ” it’s not going very well so i invite the panel to help me. ” my heart was thumping in my chest by now.  “what advice can the panel give me about the words i can use to encourage our teenage daughters to spend less time in the shower at home?”  the room simultaneously broke out in laughter. from the back of the room i heard the exclamation “yes!”

a hubbub started and several conversations were suddenly happening at once.  my heart began to calm and i continued to talk.

the event closed still with the hubbub happening and mr smith of smiths of derby came over to me and shared his thoughts on the question i had asked.  we shared stories about clocks and i listened to the storey of the 18th century clock that took 4 hours to do a complete revolution.  of course relative to the standard one hour revolution, it wasn’t readable and didn’t catch on because adaption to a four hour revolution wasn’t popular or on trend.   my thinking and research for a linear clock has had an unexpected boost.