Friday 16 December 2011

Sheep, dreams, animation and sound art

Yesterday I was disappointed to discover I hadn't been successful with the Bend In The River commission. However, feedback was that the curators liked something better. So my career balances on the whims of curators' preferences. Saying that makes it sound even more ephemeral than ever, but having attended the AIR Insights curator's talk at Surface gallery recently, I know what I mean! I will apply again another time, and go and see this work they liked better when it's shown in March.


I have other projects to do, and am making an animation for a competition deadline in February. The set is coming together, but have run out of resources for the time being. So leaving it until after Christmas.




This is for Sheep Stings and Harryhausen animation competitions respectively. I plan to make a simple stop motion animation, referring to basic animations I used to make during my college days instead of doing the work set by tutors!

Meanwhile, I couldn't resist becoming involved in Apparatjik's new project 
An invitation to create sound art or attempt to become some kind of pop/rock star by remixing their album would be better if Magne didn't make it sound as though he wanted "fans" to work for free while they all sit around drinking glogg. But then, they've already put a lot of effort into creating the stems and given them freely for us to play with, Apparatjik is truly a situationist attempt to break the normal paradigms between musicians and "fans", whether that's in an economic or creative sense, either way, it seems something is happening, and it isn't as if we get nothing in return for contributing to their projects. We get free music created by them, and being able to input into the creative process of such high profile musicians, as an artist myself, is a creative exchange with merit. 
I love working with them, but I did point out the irony of asking us to work for free while he (Magne) has been hanging around with Damien Hirst! I don't have the funds to go to Oslo to attend the private views at his gallery that I've been invited to. 


I would LOVE to see Magne's current show at Stolper and Friends. It's called "Echo" and looks really good.


Apparatjik are planning to tour again next year - London is on the list, and London is easier to get to than some of their European venues, so hoping to meet with them and share ideas to work together properly.



And what was I inspired to create?? 
Well, it so happened that my cousin has lived in Denmark for a year now, and seemed to miss English eccentricity to the point of sharing on Facebook a link to the Sewell Sampler, with snippets of Brian Sewell, the art critic recently mocked by Vic Reeves during the Turner Prize.


So I have created this bit of mischief:


Which has made Apparatjik's Don't Eat The Whole Banana rather more fun!


I do plan to create something properly. Have a play with sound art. The animation might need a soundtrack anyway ;-)


God jul and Merry Christmas, see you in 2012!


Update!


Here are all the tracks I made:


Superpositions/The Particle - Hello if you've come here from Frequency blog!
This is Apparatjik's "Superpositions" with added sounds recorded from Alex Posada's The Particle at Frequency Festival, plus a sneaky bit of Philip Jeck ;-)


Dot Comma S.H.I.R.K.A. Dot 
Apparatjik's .,,. (Dot Comma Comma Dot) remixed with classic 1980s Franco-Japanese anime Ulysses31.


Blackbirdmon
Apparatjik's Gzmo with Olivier Messiaen's "Chants d'Oiseaux" played on Lincoln Cathedral organ by Charles Matthews at Frequency Festival, and re-edited.

Don't Sue Warhol's Banana!
Apparatjik's "Don't Eat The Whole Banana" critiqued by art critic Brian Sewell, and then re-edited to relate to an article about Andy Warhol's Banana

Signs Of Daydreaming
Apparatjik's "Signs Of Waking Up" with a few cuts from unreleased A-ha tracks from the CD that came with "The Swing Of Things: 20 Years With A-ha" by Jan Omdahl. Some might recognise the riff from "Go To Sleep", and a reference to Philip K Dick. 

Wednesday 7 December 2011

I've been busy with a number of things, mainly being distracted by invitations for events and discussions! I've been to Nottingham for an AIR Insights meeting, then an EMVAN drop in session, and I was recently invited to talk at AIRTIME at Lincoln University. I had to leave early, as my son was having his braces fitted at the dentist! Between all of this, I've been trying to organise things that seem to be taking a lot longer than I'd like. I wrote a proposal for Bend In The River and sent that, to do animation in X Church, but have no idea when I'll find out if I was successful, and it'd be useful, because there are a wealth of animation competitions out there that make me want to do animation again! It's like some kind of instinctive urge, and I have no idea where it comes from, other than some really dodgy stop-motion experiments we did when I was 17! Yesterday there was a HarryHausen competition in my inbox, then Tessa Farmer's animation at the exhibition A Blind Python With Jewelled Eyes has made me really want to get on with making animation again: