For two months now I've been working on the Sheep Stings animation. Initial attempts with the crystal growing kit that was given as a gift at Christmas didn't quite work out to my satisfaction, so a second version was made. I've since decided to add to my Norwegian sheep, a Swedish disco sheep, a Danish Lego sheep, and an English pixellated sheep, and together they will form Apparatjik, or Apparasheep, whichever, so I hope that if this is successful it will support my other work with them. 

Swedish sheep

Danish sheep

British sheep

Appara-sheep?

I can't do any more work today, as it's being edited on son's laptop, which he takes to school, so will do final bits tonight to submit tomorrow. It needs shortening slightly, and music / sound effects, so won't take long. 


I was pleased that someone purchased one of my Red Arrows Valentines Cards yesterday :-)


I also spent a day re-editing my old Illustration degree storyboard for the Ray HarryHausen project brief here. I never usually receive enough votes to win anything on here, but still I go for it!


Apparatjik aren't accepting any more submissions for their album now, and I had planned to finish the half-made disco track in Garageband, but unfortunately suffered a really bad headache and gave up. 
I've contributed a few tracks anyway, here's "Don't Sue Warhol's Banana!" and "Signs Of Daydreaming", and Superpositions/The Particle is due to be added to Frequency Festival's website / blog sometime as well.


The Orange case has gone to court, so we're waiting to find out if we're successful in our attempts to stop capitalist greed from completely ruining our livelihoods. An article in a mobile magazine highlights the issue, however, someone has taken images from the Facebook group to use with it, without my prior knowledge or permission, so I've sent the editor an invoice. I later thought that maybe I'd over-priced it a bit, but the extra is for the inconvenience, and because it's dated November last year.

Looking forward to attending Open AIR: Effecting Change in Colchester on Saturday, should be an exciting event!

Christmas pressie creations

I've obviously been off work over Christmas, however, I still made these Borges inspired plant pots for little sister's Christmas pressie:

Text is from "The Garden Of Forking Paths"

Sticking things to pots is my attempt at Grayson Perry - style creations.

This birdhouse was given Gaston Bachelard quotes for little sister's fiance's Christmas pressie. They've just bought a house together, so hoping these make useful but arty additions to the house!

I was pleasantly surprised that Apparatjik uploaded "Don't Eat Brian Sewell's Banana", but what amused me more was that it received 160 listens in 6 days! 

Since then, I have uploaded a track called "Blackbirdmon", which is a version of Gzmo with Olivier Messiaen's Chants d'oiseux as performed and recorded live in Lincoln Cathedral by Charles Matthews for Frequency Festival back in October, and which I edited in Garageband. It's currently on page 2 in the link, but may move as more tracks are uploaded.

I'm working on something new at the moment for them, and plan to continue the animation next week.

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. 

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:

I didn't get around to illustrating Borges further, as I was invited to some events for Frequency Digital Arts Festival, for which I've blogged here and here.


I've also been busy organising other things, and was accepted for Cash For The Community funding, so I've been promoting this.


This week I attended an AIR Insights event at Surface gallery in Nottingham, went to look at a potential empty shops space and discuss plans for that, and applied for Bend In The River for a new animation project, all the while following up trying to source funding for the Apparatjik project.


So I've obviously been busy, and my inspiration for illustrating Borges has given way to an offer of a free stall in the indoor market for the Christmas Market, and catching up with people again now that I have a new phone. Well, not new. I bought a handset and have a SIM only contract for a fiver a month, with the lovely Virgin mobile so back to normality as we get the court case going against Orange. 


Steep Hill has been awarded the best street in the UK accolade, so I've been doodling it for new Christmas card designs. 
Next week I've been invited to AIRTIME at University, and an EMVAN meeting amid preparations for the Christmas Market.

distractions

Despite my best intentions to follow up my Borges work with illustrations, I stupidly looked at Twitter and spotted an animation award asking for submissions, and found myself inspired to work on that instead. My ability to focus is subverted by the Orange fiasco, which has been ticking away in the background for nearly a year now, but which didn't raise it's ugly head until recently. It's causing a great deal of stress, added to which, with eldest son having embarked upon his G.C.S.E's and the passive stress I'm getting from that means that most of the time I spend convincing myself that the squirly stomach will go away, and that I'm not pregnant!! 
Laugh you might, but once I thought I was erroneously putting on weight, went to the doctor's to discover I was 5 months' pregnant. Experience (and stress) makes me slightly paranoid about these things occasionally. Considering I do not currently have a boyfriend, and spend most of my time avoiding the lustful advances of men (!) it isn't feasible I could be anything of the sort. 
Needless to say, the good news is that Ofcom are taking customer complaints seriously, and I hope that soon there will be a resolution to this issue, and that I'll receive compensation for the time and stress of dealing with them.


I sent a formal complaint 2 weeks ago, which Orange haven't replied to, yet they continue to send me bills for a service I'm now no longer able to use. 
As soon as this is over, I'll be going back to Virgin and will never take out a phone contract with Orange again. 


In other news, I'm working towards initiating artist-led projects for the LAN in Empty Shops spaces, and it's looking positive, but will know more next month.

Orange / Excell / Ofcom scam

 I'm unfortunately engaged in a dispute with the corrupt mobile phone company Orange.

In August 2010 I was tricked into a cashback redemption contract via a company called Excell Communications, which went into administration in Dec 2010, and which no longer exists, leaving me with an extortionate contract that Orange refuse to nullify.

I was assured by Excell Communications that I would pay £15 a month, but have in fact had to pay £25 a month and more since the company went into administration. Worse than this, my time is being wasted by having to scan in bills to send to a company called Midland, who have been paying the cashback amounts... until now. What I wasn't aware of, and what wasn't explained to me, was that I have 12 months left of this no longer valid "contract" for which I'm expected to foot the bill to the tune of £62 - £63 per month. I wasn't made aware that the cashback arrangement was only for 12 months.

I obviously don't have that level of income to pay for this, so I have no intention of paying any more money to Orange, and will outline how corrupt their company is to be working with cashback merchants such as Excell Communications.

I've contacted Ofcom, but I've learnt that Ofcom are in cahoots with Orange, in order to make a lot of money causing people to go into debt this way, and doing nothing to help people that have fallen foul of these conmen.

I used to get briefs from Orange during my degree, so I did what any good illustrator does, and illustrated the situation as accurately as possible.

I should point out that Orange have already taken down other people's blogs for speaking the truth about this issue, so if Orange wish to silence me, I will not be bullied into taking down my own blog. If Orange co-operate and the matter is resolved without any more corporate greed or gaslighting, then all vexations will be removed, but until then, I will continue to fight as is my human right to speak the truth. 

If Orange pass on my details to a debt collection agency, then this image will be put up for auction on Ebay, where a large proportion of people will see what a greedy company they are.