Microphones and Condoms

Our experiment consisted of a metal bin filled with water, a 50p HMV microphone bought at a car boot sale, a Fostex tape recorder and a condom. Messy work as you can imagine,

We started by washing out the condom, drying it and putting the microphone inside it. We then tied it at the top so that it was water-tight and dunked it in the bin of water. Banging on the side of the bin, we compared the sound it produced with the microphone both in and out of the water. When it was out it sounded weak and tinny, but once submerged in the water it had a deep, powerful sound with a strong emphasis on bass. A sound clip of this can be heard below:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

The three of us are extremely happy with the results and we intend to further investigate how we can manipulate the sound with effects pedals etc.

Thames wander

After looking at some great pictures of the grimmer end of the river on the Derelict London website we decided to go out to the area and look for old rusted metal and other potential materials.

Although we didn't find much, it was still interesting to go to this area that I would have otherwise never have visited. We were a little underprepared however, with no gloves and little to carry back materials in than Faysal's suitcase. A lot of time was also spent walking through housing estates as the river bank was not as large as we had hoped and the tide was in. Near the dome (or as it is now known, the 02) however, we encountered two small workshops. One of them had two old guys working on some metal, they offered us whatever we wanted out of a pile of metal piping/scaffolding which will be useful, but we could not carry much back. They had some great looking rusty barrels but there was no chance we would have been able to transport them.

Next door to the workshop was 'Dad The Mirror Man' an old eccentric south londoner who made mirrors with his daughter. He showed us his welding skills and really tried to help us out with collecting materials but didn't really had much to offer. The project seems to be drawing us towards these eccentric old guys which is helpful and potentially gives us ideas for character development.

Another really interesting find was a sculpture which was seemingly built spontaneously with no obvious artist name or commissioning company in sight. It was made up of rubbish that probably had been found swept up by the river. It was unusual and had that 'stumble upon' quality that our installation will hopefully achieve.

***IMAGE***

It was mostly a pretty horrible affair, with the cold weather, general uncleanliness of the river and heavy lifting. Next time I'm wearing a jump suit, wellies and taking big strong bags.

Lewisham

Spoke to Elizabeth Mitchell from Lewisham council, she informed me that inviting artists to make use of spaces in the borough is something they are currently looking into however it is a long process. She said that the best thing would be to do some legwork and check out the area, if anything comes up of interest she can locate the landlord or determine whether it is owned by the council itself.

We intend to go on a walk in the area soon to see if there is any potential spaces.

Wandsworth Chapels

Spoke to Justine Kenyon from Wandsworth council about 3 disused chapels she felt could be of use to us. At this stage she explained that it is still a very new concept to the council and will be the first time they have done anything of this nature and in coordination with the landlords of the chapels.

It sounds very promising and we have one chapel in mind which is based in Putney Vale, it has no electricity but is apparently very derelict, run down and has a lot of character. We could easily use a generator for electricity, but this may be expensive. Depending on whether the council will be covering rent, it may work out ok though.

We have a viewing on 9th march of the chapels and will be preparing for this over the coming weeks.

Further Emails: Tower Hamlets

Hi Andy,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you. It's tricky to guarantee use of any empty spaces in the borough as the management of such spaces isn't really within our remit.Additionally, Tower Hamlets was not one of the boroughs that received funding from central government to support empty shops schemes which makes moving forward with the whole 'empty spaces' agenda a little more difficult. However, you could try contacting Toks Osibogun, the head of Corporate Property Services. If you identify an empty building that you are interested in, Corporate Property Services may be able to help order to ascertain whether it is owned by the council with a view to obtaining permission either from the private owner, or from the facilities management team (possibly). There may however, be health and safety implications which make this impossible without taking up a proper lease (should this be a viable option).



There is one potential space, the old Peugot showroom on Mile End Road, which may be available, depending on when you wanted it, for how long, and what your budget is. Other suggestions include contacting the Live Art Development Agency for their advice, contacting Toynbee Hall, contacting the Head of Performing Arts at Queen Mary University (via the switchboard), and looking at the venues section on our own website (see below).



We are logging details of all proposals/empty space enquiries as this is an agenda we are interesting in pursuing and supporting. If you do manage to secure a venue, please keep us informed as we would be delighted to help profile any arts-based activities and exhibitions in the listing pages of our website, www.towerhamletsarts.org.uk.



Regards




***Note***

The Peugot showroom will probably be a little too modern but we intend to check it out

WON!

Won this interesting viewer/tele-cine screen.

The way it works is you project into the side of it and it displays the image on screen, a wonderful bridge between the VHS and super8mm we are using. Depending on the quality it could also double as a crude way to create homemade optical prints, meaning we can edit footage and loop an optical print of the results rather than looping a multi-spliced length of film. Chances are though, it will probably not be good enough.

I have found instructions to build an optical printer if it becomes apparent that we will need to do this however, http://www.city-net.com/~fodder/s8mm/optprint.html

This screen will feature in the installation itself as a way of containing super8mm by avoiding large projections and the need for screens to project onto. We realise the space will probably be limited so it is important to keep the piece concise and contained in this way.

Another item won is a super 8mm editor, a Prinz Oxford 800. This could be easily motorised to either rotate a loop, or as we are planning, move a reel of film forwards and backwards in a loop. Again, the screen will work to our advantage within the installation space.

Riflemaker

Riflemaker are currently in the process of installing an exhibition and had a few pieces by their artists in residence on display on the ground floor.

Of particular interest was the motorised flip book by Juan Fontanive. The piece displayed a bird in flight over a series of individually hand painted small-scale images. These were attached to a rotating motor that worked as a flick book, creating the illusion of movement.

The piece felt charming and magical, with a DIY aesthetic that invited the viewer to become aware of the simplistic working method. A small pin was used to keep the papers in place and the motor was left exposed allowing the inner workings and construction of the piece to become just as integral as the image it produced. In our installation this will be a key reference point in the build and design of a suitable praxinoscope.

Wellcome Collection

Visiting the Wellcome collection was a great insight into the collections of a great eccentric, Henry Wellcome.

The exhibition we mainly had in mind to view was 'Identity' which is an exploration of 9 unrelated individuals (two of which are twins) throughout 8 separate rooms. We thought that exploring unusual lives would help us in our character development. The exhibition was interesting and I felt that I learnt a lot from it, including the notion that 1 in 8 people start as twins in the womb and this explains the sense of loss that many feel in life. It is small factoids such as this which can be potentially developed into interesting aspects of the project.

The exhibition as a whole, however, did not prove to be as useful as we had hoped. However interesting, it focused less on personalities and other character defining features and was more interesting in the historical and the factual. Fair enough for a museum I suppose, but not exactly what we were after!

The permanent collection, 'Medicine Man' was extremely interesting. It was a complete jumble of curiosities, you could really feel the erratic nature of an eccentric collector through the exhibit. We all thoroughly enjoyed the weird objects on display that varied from a fully preserved mummified body to a box of glass eyes, from a Hieronymus Bosch painting to a lock of King George III's hair!

The expanse of unusual and obscure relics, beliefs and other strange objects displayed had a distinctive aesthetic, they fitted together in the exhibition in a similar way we intend to implement in our installation. The research carried out by our character will be from a variety of unusual and curious sources, enhancing his eccentricity and adding to the fantastical nature of the machines and blueprints.

To do: Testing

We got together and wrote a to-do list of experiments and testing we need to do in order to fully secure the feasibility of what we are trying to achieve.

1. VHS Loops - How are we going to do these? Will it work? How to make the loop sculpturally interesting yet functional
2. Microphone Waterproofing - What microphone to use, How to ensure it is completely water-tight. Try sending the sound through an effects pedal.
3. CCTV Camera - We obtained an old cctv camera at Wimbledon car boot sale and have not yet tested it with a monitor to see if it works
4. Monitors - How to attach the monitors that were given to us by Dennis to VCR's as they do not have scart sockets
5. Ageing tests - attempt different methods of ageing materials e.g rusting metal and yellowing glass
6. Test sensors in low-light conditions
7. Praxinoscope - Design and prototype
8. Experiment with sound recording - re-recording cassette tapes, recording through other materials/in different environments

Praxinoscope

An idea for one of the machines is based around an old animation device called a praxinoscope. It involves a series of pictures on the inner side of a spinning cylinder, with a mirror in the centre which simulates the movement of the image.

http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/collections/toys/html/exhibit11.htm

We feel that it would be great to try and install one inside a machine and encourage the viewer to peer inside and view the animation. At the moment, we have the image of a boat in mind. We will place a small amount of water in the cylinder also to accentuate the imagery. The idea is that it is a representation of escape, the transcendence that our character seeks through his quest for the meaning of these machines. This will be backed up and referenced to in the research visible in the installation room.

Eccentric Lives/Peculiar Notions

Got my hands on this book recently, it's full of really interesting case studies of eccentric people. Hopefully it will guide us in the development of our character.

Jeremy Daly

Came across this useful video on Vimeo by user Jeremy Daly. Here he has constructed a looping machine out of a VHS camera, VCR and a digital projector. I love how he has utilised the time delay on the recording from the camera to the tape head in the VCR. It creates a sense of echo and brings the participation of the audience into the work but in a subtle way, all they need to do is walk past and they probably remain unaware of their influence on the piece as the image is projected after they have left.

We are hoping to construct similar looping mechanisms in our piece, perhaps not using a camera as such, but taking advantage of the sculptural aesthetics of tape loops. One thing that Daly neglected however is health and safety, if we are to create a similar looping device we will have to ensure that the VCR is not left without a shell or protective casing as it is vulnerable to people touching it and receiving a nasty electric shock!


More experiments with Vhs Tape looping from Jeremy Daly on Vimeo.

WON!

Won a few cameras on Ebay. They take 110 and 126 film, 110 is still fairly available at a decent price although we may have to fork out a bit more for the 126, would be worth the experiment though.

Instamatic 50

Instamatic 155X

Halina STB Flashmatic

Kodak Ektralite 400

Vivitar Point 'N Shoot

All of these cameras are amateur and were used for snapshots in their day, each with their own aesthetics which we intend to experiment with. 

VHS Generation Loss

This video shows the gradual degradation of VHS tape as it is re-recorded over and over again. This will be a great method to manipulate footage and make it seem beaten up, old and even detached from reality (which will be a great way of exploring our characters inner thought processes).

Interesting Toy

Stumbled across these instructions on how to convert an old fisher price movie viewer into a super8mm viewer!

http://home.pacbell.net/mnyberg/super8mm/super8_41.html

Could be fun and relevant to the project as a way of displaying the super8mm footage. I will be keeping an eye out for one of these toy viewers, although I have a feeling they were mostly available in the US.

110 film development

I found this resource for 110 film development which could be useful, they develop and print 24 for £4.99, so not too bad.

http://www.110processing.co.uk/index.htm

Superstition

I have found a useful resource for various superstitious beliefs. They are presented on the website in alphabetical order so we can reference these in relation to various parts of the research, blueprints, machines etc.

http://www.corsinet.com/trivia/scary.html

Ice House Detroit

Flavorpill sent me a link to Ice House Detroit by Gregory Holm and Matthew Radune. It involves using disused property to create an intriguing ice sculpture. The manipulation of the space and the juxtaposition with the urban landscape and non-snowy weather adds to the curiosity of the piece.

Hopefully the reaction to our piece will be similar to this, as if stumbling unexpectedly from one world to another.

Currently Reading:

'The Cabinet of Curiosities or Wonders of the World Displayed; forming a repository of whatever is remarkable in the regions of nature and art' (Limbirds London)

http://books.google.com/books?id=2Y4AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&client=safari&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false

An extremely unusual book I stumbled upon during my dissertation research. It was published in 1824 and is an insight into early research into the obscure. The handwritten notes on the particular copy published on google also add further insight with notes including such observations as 'parallel world' and various underlining, highlighting and scrawling suggesting a previous reader applying these unusual studies to their own research.

These sorts of areas of unusual inquiry and the notion of a Cabinet of Curiosities is key to our installation. We will be including a similar variety of obscure sources in our characters research, displayed within the installation. In the same way that this example is crudely marked by a reader, we will mark books and other sources as a way of relating them to the three machines and blueprints.

Reply: Pretty Vacant

Hello,

Firstly, I just want to say that I love that sample of work - brilliant!

Secondly, I can think of the perfect place - Volte Galleries in Wolverhampton. The Gallery is actually the old railway station, and its a beautiful blue brick period building. It is essentially a shell which is how its been kept as a gallery (complete with crumbling plaster, bare-brick walls and abandonned fixtures and fittings). You can see a few pictures here http://www.prettyvacant.org/previous-exhibitions/ , and theres also a few on google if you're interested (try searching "wolverhampton low level station"). We are hopefully going to be working there sometime in spring/summer to develop a mini arts festival (though this is still at talks stage). Though i suspect that's a little too late for what you want it for anyhow, so I can suggest that you contact Antoinette Alleyne (removed) who is currently the manager of the gallery to see if she may be able to help you out.

Hope that helps, Gemma (& Charlotte) at Pretty Vacant

***NOTE***

Although this email is very positive and could be a possible contact for the future, Wolverhampton is obviously too far for the purpose of the major project.

Reply: Wandsworth

Hi Andy

Thanks for getting in touch. Before we can effectively respond to your request we need a little more information such as –

Where are you studying and what kind of work – themes, media etc. do you want to make?

What sort of space - large, small, covered, not covered?

What sort of 'infrastructure' - electricity, water, parking?

Will you have insurance in place?

What funds do you have to cover costs?
Thank you

Justine Kenyon

Arts Development Officer

***NOTE***

We need to research insurance, my dad works in an insurance company so hopefully he will be able to assist us with this

Reply: Lewisham

Dear Andy, James and Faysal, Thanks for your enquiry. Lewisham Arts Service is working in partnership with the Economic Regeneration and Town Centre Management teams to coordinate an integrated strategy for artists seeking to use empty properties within the borough. The guide will be available online soon. My colleague Elizabeth Mitchell, Arts Special Projects Officer, will be able to help you further. She can be contacted at (taken out for privacy). Do let us know how you get on. Best wishes,
Cimeon Ellerton
Arts Assistant
Lewisham Arts Service

Emails

We have sent a few emails enquiring about possible space to the following councils:

Tower Hamlets

Brent

Hackney

Wandsworth

Lambeth

Lewisham

Southwark

and the following organisations:

Pretty Vacant

Measure

We have also been in contact with landlords advertising on Gumtree, however, none of these could offer us a space until nearer the time.