Feedback from the Hangout Group on A Day In The Life

Feedback on The Second Draft of a Day in the Life

Having completed the second draft of my new project on A Day in The Life of my mother I shared the work with my fortnightly peer led Hangout Group.  The main points from the discussion are listed below:

• It worked well using my daughter to record the video as she 'became my mother'.
• Using my daughter's voice made it sound real and compelling.
• Several members thought that using my daughter really worked rather than my own voice.  This person felt a connection and found the work very interesting.
• One member of the group felt that the work became more confusing with the addition of a voice.  This person felt that my voice worked better as the female voice was flatter; there was no pause for reflection and it's freshness jarred somewhat.  This person also felt that if a voice was going to be used then there were two choices: a) no intonation at all and deadpan or, b) the opposite - illustrate the words by how they are spoken.
• Someone else suggested that the female voice was preferable but that it should be a performance.
• Perhaps use different voices or, as suggested by A Day in The Life group member in a different forum, try choral speaking with myself and my daughter.
• One member suggested that there could be different uses for the work.  I agree with this and intend to produce a version for family consumption as well as one for the art/academic stage.
• A general comment was there was a lot going on in the images and they were, perhaps confusing.  People were not sure which element to look at as none were prominent.  It was suggested that the map layer was the most distracting.  However, one member of the group felt that having several themes throughout makes it complex and makes the viewer work.
• One suggestion that I like is to produce the work as a video (with or without voice??) and have different elements coming to the fore and fading to allow another element prominence as the presentation proceeds.  I like this idea and can see it in my minds eye but it will need some research into technique.
• There was a suggestion that not only were the maps distracting, but the roads being all at the same angle/parallel lines was too.  As someone else suggested this could be resolved by changing the orientation.
• Overall people feel that this is a very rich project.

So where do I go from here?  I was very pleased with this hangout and it has given me much food for thought.  Despite the divided opinion I am still of the view that my daughter's reading of the words is the way forward.  I do, however, wonder if her rendition is rather flat.  In her defence, though, this was nearly done on sight.  I would like her to absorb herself in the full text and come with me to visit all of the locations and 'have a drink with her great grandfather' in the Star and Garter.  I would then like her to rehearse the reading and record it again.  I am also quite take with the idea of us sharing the reading; I don't think that the choral speaking idea would work.

I like the idea of producing the video and having different elements come to the fore and fade, but I am not totally sure how to physically do this yet.  I will try it with the Proshow Gold software first and if this doesn't work look elsewhere.

What I am very keen to do is to take out the maps and print the images with just the remaining two layers.  I will then print long narrow strips of map and use these to link the images together to reference the idea of journey.  This comes back to an original idea my wife and I discussed.  The work could then be exhibited in this way on a gallery wall as part of a larger exhibition.

I also like the idea of producing a physical collage with prints of my mother's writing, map sections, archive photographs and my own and, even as has been suggested other objects that are mentioned in the writing such as bottles of pop, tins of herrings.  I can see some of the images being cut out to be used in the collage in much the same way as I did digitally with the first image in the series.

With either of the last two ideas the work could be presented as a concertina artist's book.

There is much food for thought here and I have lots of ideas to play with.  I now have a deadline:  Grimsby Minster has nee booked for our group exhibition on A Day In A Life for mid January 2019.

Memory

Memory is a Construct

At a recent virtual meeting of our fortnightly Google Hangout we had a fascinating prearranged discussion on the subject of memory being a construct.  The session began by two of the group giving a brief resume of their thoughts on the subject which was then opened up for general discussion.  The following bullet points highlight my main points from the session:

• Oxford dictionary defines memory as the faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information.
• Memory is a construct.
• We cannot trust that what we remember is true or actiually happened.
• Memory changes with every retelling.
• It is seeking to come to terms with something that we perceive happened in the past.
• If memory is a construct, perhaps we can never come to terms with it.
• Memory is very slippery.
• Memory has connotations of the past.
• We can construct any version of the past that we want to.
• Memory can be conscious or subconscious.
• It may be more interesting to look at how the present is constructed rather than the past.
• There is no present, only the past and the future.
• Our memory and identity are one and the same thing.
• Memory operates in analogue.
• Memory cannot be replayed like a video.
• Memory is malleable but can be suggested.
• Memory is affected by photographs.
• What we remember depends upon who we are talking to about it.
• Memories are frail and so, therefore, is our identity.
• A photograph is a conservation with memory.
• A photograph can provide the structure for memory.
• Read A. R. Hopwood The False Memory Archive.
• The moment we try to recreate an experience we create a construct.
• Photography and social media affect memories.
• The link between photography and memory is being loosened through the use of digital and social media.
• Digital photography is less inherently linked to memory,
• or human response to memory is changing.
• We unconsciously respond to a photograph as real.
• The evidential aspect of a photograph forms the basis of memory.
• Two people may remember the events in a photograph differently and so have different memories.
• Through social media  we generate a collective memory.
• The ubiquity of digital photography/social media is depersonalising memory.
• Before social media we had a collective memory that was mediated by the media of the day: newspapers, news programmes.
• Is there a mediation of memory today??
• Opinion divided from yes it is mediated by the software to no human mediation.  But social media algorithms are constructed by humans.
• Short term memory lasts only a few seconds.  It may be deleted or moved into the lont term memory.
• The Memory Illusion by Julia Shore.

All of these points are personal opinion and not necessarily factual.  However it was an illuminating discussion and has given me much food for thought regarding my project on my mother's Memorable Day with her father in 1930.  This was written in the mid 1960s when she was in he early to mid 40s and so her memory will almost certainly be a construct.  An will that memory be of one day or an amalgamation of more than one?  Are they solely her own memories or are they prompted by her father and family memories?  Are they prompted by photographs that have been lost to the family archive.  And how has my interpretation of her writing made it my memory?  I have recreated the journey and taken my own contemporary photographs and by selecting selected portions of my mother's text to fit my own and archive photography I have constructed my own memory of the day.  More importantly I need to use these reflections on memory to further develop my own project.

Diary Of The Progress Towards My Exhibition And Its Realisation

Diary of the Progress Towards My Exhibition and Its Realisation.

As I began to work towards the exhibition of my major project as its publication, I kept a diary of progress.  As I leaf through my day book now it makes fascinating reading (for me anyway) as I reflected on what went well, the problems and their resolution and the glow of satisfaction when it all came to fruition.  For posterity ;-) I reproduce it here.

Friday 5th January

• Rang the wood yard regarding the wood to be used for the cover of my hand-made artist's book.  It is ready and needs collecting.

Monday 8th January

• Drove over to Wragby to pick up the wood.  It is beautiful and satisfying;
• Experimented with a design for my advertising flyers;

Tuesday 9th January

• Visited Cleethorpes Library to check on the possibility fo holding a preview event.  It should be OK but the opening hours may change owing to cut-backs.  I need to return at the beginning of February to double check;
• Visit the picture framers.  All OK;

Wednesday 10th January

• Delivered the wood to the bookbinders.  Ideally it needs to be only 1 cm thick.  Rang a local joiner/kitchen fitter who thinks he can do it.  He will collect it over the weekend;
• Ordered paper for exhibition prints and artist's book;

Friday 11th January

• Paper arrived;

Monday 15th January

• Began printing for the exhibition.  Rang the framers to check on the border width he needed.  It should be OK but framer away on holiday until 31st.  Need to check when he returns;
• Rang the joiner but the motor on his saw has died.  He will take the wood to another joiners;
• Slight concern over the colour of one of the images in the print;

Tuesday 16th January

• Have decided the print is Ok after consultation so continued with printing.
• Second joiner unable to cut down the size of thickness of the wood.  Rang bookbinder who decides that we will go ahead with the wood as it is;
• Experimented with the text for the book printed on vellum and made trial prints for the book with and without a white border.

Wednesday 17th January

• Took the wood back to the bookbinder.  Revised the text printing and decide that images are best without a border.
• Purchase more vellum for printing the text to continue trial and buy a white gel pen to experiment with white handwritten text;
• The bookbinder suggests printing in draft to give a grey look.  This works.

Thursday 18th January

• Worked on the Shul video and got it to a stage ready to share with the Hangout Group next week; or thought I had!!!
• Succumbed to full blown flu, cancelled a talk to Grimsby Camera Club and took to my bed.

Sunday 21st January

• Worried now that flu is holding up progress so temporarily rose from my sick bed and worked on the Shul video and emailed it to the Hangout group with my thoughts.  Received a very encouraging email from one member.
• Completed printing my original BOW images ready for framing;
• Completed printing images for the book.

Monday 22nd January

• Produced a second prototype for my advertising flyer/poster;
• Completed design for a business card.

Saturday 27th January

• Edited Bewildered Images for including in the exhibition taking note of comments from the Hangout Group.

Sunday 28th January

• Made final choice on Bewildered images and printed them.

Monday 29th January

• Edited the introduction to the work as an artist's statement;
• Collated advertising flyers;
• Collated press release;
• Used Sketch Up software to trial maquettes of Cleethorpes Library and hanging of the exhibition.  I had made an early visit to the Library after booking the room in 2017 to take measurements;
• Completed exhibition prints.

Tuesday 30th January

• Trimmed the prints;
• Made a first decision on final framed image size.

Wednesday 31st January

• Took prints to picture framers and paid a deposit of £145;
• Visited library to double check gallery dimensions;
• Completed maquettes of library now that I had checked dimensions and was certain of framed image size;
• Took part in OCA Hangout to discuss the video.

Thursday 1st February

• Updated video following yesterday's Hangout.
• Began to work on Assignment 4.

Tuesday 6th February

• Completed and submitted Assignment 4.

Wednesday 7th February

• Posted Assignment 4 on blog;
• Took part in OCA Hangout.

Thursday 8th February

• Took business cards to printers
• Bought frames for images selected by Linda Ingham for an exhibition in The Steel Rooms Gallery, Brigg.

Monday 19th February

• Picked up cards from printers.  Very pleased.

Friday 23rd February

• Picked up pictures from the framers.  Absolutely delighted;
• Ordered hardback sketch book for visitor book and mirror plates for hanging.

Tuesday 27th February

• Mirror plates and visitor book arrived

Wednesday 28th February

• Painted mirror plates white to match the wall;
• Lined out visitor book.

Thursday 1st March

• Bought screws for mirror plates;
• The bookbinder has the book ready for mounting images and text.

Friday 2nd March

• Begin to attach mirror plates but screw heads are too big!!!
• Go to bookbinders to mount images and complete book.
• Visit Screwfix to buy new mirror plates.

Sunday 4th March

• Paint new mirror plates;
• Discovered that we have two of one image and one missing!!!  Aaaaggghhh!!!

Monday 5th March

• Printed and reframed the missing image;
• Began to attach the mirror plates but damage a frame!!!
• Rang the framer who was happy to reframe that image.

Tuesday 6th March

• Returned the damaged picture to the framers;
• Bought more foam board for mounting statements etc;
• Bought bubble wrap for protecting the pictures in transit;
• Completed attaching the mirror plates.

Tuesday 13th March

• Collected reframed picture and attached the mirror plate;
• Remeasured the library wall to rectify a mistake.  I had omitted to add the door to the calculations!!
• Ordered wine glasses from Tesco for preview event;
• Printed all text/labels and attached to foam board.

Wednesday 14th March

• Completed attaching text to foam board and made supports to enable the labels to be freestanding.

Sunday 18th March

• Collected glasses from Tesco and bought food and drink for the preview.

Monday 19th March

• Hung the exhibition in the morning.  This went really well with thanks to help from friend and one time art college technician;
• Exhibition opened in the afternoon;
• Preview event from 5.00 - 7.00 pm.  This went exceptionally well.  I was delighted with the way the work was received and the fact that degree colleagues came from as far afield as Nottingham and Holmfirth.

Thursday 22nd March

• Nearly 90 people have visited so far;
• Three framed prints, several mounted ones and many cards have been sold;
• Takings of £300 so far are going to offset the cost of mounting the exhibition;
• There was a slight hiccup on Wednesday afternoon when an art group use the gallery space but this was overcome and it added to the number of people who saw the work.

Saturday 24th March

• Family members came from far and wide to see the work and help to take the exhibition down.

Saturday 7th April

• Assignment 5 completed and submitted.  After a week away following the exhibition sitting down to write up this assignment was a great way to relive and reflect on several months hard work and its very pleasing resolution.

Tuesday 1st May

• Received the written Tutor report today following a feedback via Google Hangout.  This went exceptionally well and was a very pleasing and positive conclusion to the project.  However we discussed ways of further developing this project especially Bewildered and also some new work that I have in mind based on some personal writing by my mother.  Robert says that this would be perfect to add to my submission, even as work in progress, to show evidence of sustaining my practice.  I have already begun work on this and shared early progress with my Hangout Group.  Reflecting on the study visit to view John Stezaker's work has given more ideas to help with both this and Bewildered.

Assignment 5 Tutor feedback.

Tutor feed back was via Google Hangout and I felt that the discussion was very positive.  The main points are:

• In the conclusion to the story where I mention the possibility of using Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes as a project to investigate the fact that landscapes hold memories.  I suggested that it could be done as part of a holiday.  Robert suggested using the word project rather than holiday;
• I had misinterpreted Robert's comment in Assignment 4 when he said: 'But this has to be answered at some point within the work wouldn't you agree? Or could you just present 'bewilderment'......I'm not saying it isn't, the process is also part of the resolution.'  I interpreted this to mean that a set of images solely on Bewilderment would work.  Robert meant, though, that it wouldn't be possible to present Bewilderment without a resolution; there has to be some answer;
• In view of the point above, it would not be a good idea to present a set of bewildered images for assessment;
• It would be good to present Assignment 5 as a booklet;
• The installation images are good and could be presented for assessment either as part of Assignment 5 in the booklet or, perhaps, as some sample prints.  These also illustrate (as does the assignment itself) how the Shul project has developed to incorporate Bewilderment.
• There was a discussion around the idea of landscape and memory, including Simon Schama's 1966 book;
• This led onto a discussion of Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes and my mother's writing on her Memorable Day.  A day out with her father on his bread round round delivering bread baked earlier in the morning by horse-drawn baker's van.  This was written in the 1960s, but took place in 1930 when she was eight;
• The above is evidence of sustaining my proctice and it would be good to evidence this in my assessment presentation with sample images of both family archive and my own contemporary imagery and text (scans of my mother's handwriting;
• A further discussion is to take place before presenting the work.

Tutor Feedback on Assignment 4

I received my feedback from my Tutor for Assignment 4 yesterday.  Again I was delighted with it.  He feels that exhibition preparations are going well and he is pleased to see that I continue to share and interrogate the work.  The addition to the project (Bewilderment) was well received. "I wholeheartedly like the development of your thinking in response to Robert Macfarlane's Twitter post on the word bewilder."  He has given me some food for thought on the question I posed at the end of my artist statement: We then have to ask ourselves "Do we turn back or forge a new path"; it is easy to become bewildered.

Having given me much food for thought on my blog after Assignment 3 I made some of the changes that Rob suggested and he now feels that it looks a lot better thankfully!  He is, however, unsure of the header image as he feels that it screams landscape painting to him, whereas my work is so photographic.  Rob has suggested chapter 2 of Landscape, Natural Beauty and the Arts as reading to help me select a better header image.  I have ordered this from Amazon and eagerly await its arrival.

I can't believe that my next assignment is my last ever.

Final Feedback on the Shul Video and the Final Version on Vimeo

Yesterday I shared the updated version of the Shul video with my Peer Led Hangout Group.  It was received very positively.  Comments were:-

• it is now an accomplished and complete piece of work;
• the use of text is much clearer and gives a a small insight to the artist's intentions too;
• the quality of sound is so much more clear;
• there is a clear distinction of footsteps walking through leaves mud and water;
• an overall impression is one of a very effective, relevant and contemporary, art-based video installation;
• it looks and feels very complete and professional;
• the audio has improved too;
• the sound track is much improved and I felt that I was doing the walk;
• the black background works;
• it made me feel that someone was about to step into the scene;
• a big step forward.  The text is better and feels more suited to the work.

In case I should get too carried away with such positive comments, there were also a couple of critical pointers to be taken into account:-

• the images are now, perhaps a tad too small.  I it possible for there to be a compromise?
• the sound fades at one point and then suddenly comes back;
• perhaps the soundtrack should fade a little early at the end of the show.

The these last points were easy to resolve and I have now done that.  The link to the final version is here.

Further Development of my Video

Following the previous feedback on the video presentation of my work  I have carried out further modifications:-

• changed the background back to black
• reduced the size of the images slightly so that the black background now appears all around the image
• reduced the size of the font and linespacing/justification
• edited the text slightly
• redone the soundtrack using a dedicated sound recorder to capture the sound rather than my phone.  Actually I think I have improved my skills with the software which helps a great deal
• set the master volume to be used with headphones which is how it will be used in the exhibition.  The volume may have to be adjusted to suit personal preferences.  This will not be a problem in the exhibition as I shall set it up for the machine being used and viewers can further adjust as necessary.

The Vimeo link to this version of the video is here.

Bewildered. Feedback from the Hangout Group

Yesterday I shared this post on a further development of my Body of Work project with my peer group hangout colleagues at our fortnightly session.  I was delighted that the response was largely positive, although, as was to be expected there was a lively discussion over what worked and what didn't.  For convenience at the moment I had divided the images into three related groupings and labelling for identification.  The groupings were: impenetrable woodland that one might find at the end of a path, thick growths of trees with no discernible path and abstract images.  I enjoy abstract images and have posted them in my blogs from time to time, but up until now I have have not had a reason to use them; one group member referring to them as 'tricksy camera club shots'.  I know that tutor, Clive White, probably feels the same.  To a large extent so do I, but I feel that no technique, whatever it is, should be used for the sake of it; it should be for a reason and should fit the concept.  In this case I have chosen to use these images - ICM multiple exposures - because I feel they do portray the concept of bewilderment or bewilder: perplex, confuse; to lose in pathless places, to confound for want of a plain road (Samuel Johnson); from the word "wilder", meaning "to lose one's way, as in a wild or unknown place.  (First usage, 1613). For more on this see this blog post.

I was, therefore delighted when one of the group commented that the abstract images were his preferred ones.  He enjoyed the sensation, emotion and ambiguity of these pictures.  He felt that set 1 and 2 followed on naturally from the BOW project.

Another colleague didn't like the third set describing them as 'tricksy' as mentioned.  He did, however, like the idea of the word 'wild' - he was not sure whether to use it as a noun or verb; he enjoyed the ambiguity.  He felt that set 1 worked the best (minus 1a).  He felt that these images had the most narrative potential.  He liked the fact that the viewer was being held back from something or indeed had been given something to consider.  They were coherent in their incoherency.  Again he felt that the square format worked as it did not naturally fit into the landscape genre; it doesn't conform.    He felt that set 1 was not offering a journey, but a discourse into the viewer's subconscious.  He enjoyed the fact that the viewer had to 'work' at them and they fitted the concept of bewilderment the best.  He felt, as did others that it was 'beautiful imagery' but he thought Section 2 didn't work  as well as set 1, they were too signified, especially 2b.

Another member of the group commented that the images were high quality and beautifully crafted as the group had come to expect of my work - very flattering!!  He thought that perhaps they were representative of how I was feeling as I approached the end of the degree course (which applies to all of us) in that we were at a crossroads and had to decide what to do next - bewildered, in fact.  He felt that the second set didn't work so well for him as they were too obvious.  He thought that the abstract images were interesting but to be wary of using them as they could be seen to be like images to be found in hotel bedrooms or dentist waiting rooms.  Praise indeed!!! Point taken.

Yet another member enjoyed the abstract imagery, but agreed with someone else that my original project Shul stood by itself and I shouldn't feel pressured into adding to it or including another body of work in the exhibition.

A fifth member of the group suggested that set 2 were pleasing images but didn't fit the concept and he was not a lover of the abstract style.  He felt that the first set suggested someone lost at the end of a path in the same way that someone with dementia may be lost and confused.  I hadn't thought of that aspect.

All felt that this was an excellent starting point for a new phase of my work and it is ripe for exploration.

Again lots to think about here, but a very pleasing hangout.

Tutor Feedback on Assignment 3

I received my tutor's report on Assignment 3 on 7th January and, by and large, I was delighted with it.  He begins by saying that "This has been a successful assignment Mike and the unit as a whole seems to be playing to your strengths."  I have to say that I am enjoying being a part of the art world beyond the life of a student and, although hectic, preparation for my exhibition in March is exciting.  Robert goes on to say that "the text reads fluently and Assignment 3 is another informative and highly readable report of your recent forays into the art world."  I was congratulated on the success of our Open Studios event and for the associated press coverage.  On the subject of my reporting on the work of Harriet Tarlo and Judith Tucker, he commented that, "It's refreshing to see such a range of contemporary practice in your log."  He went on to say that in a separate post I could dig deeper into what it is about their painting and writing that attracts you, other than you are working in similar areas.  This I shall do.

On the down side Robert commented that he finds my Blogger site quite clunky.  He feels that the layout seems basic and the typeface too small.  He points out that menu items move when you click on them on the menu bar and the header image seems rather uninspiring.  Tags, he says, would help visitors locate things while Wordpress provides a 'like' button for visitors who want to register that they have read and liked a post but don't want to comment.  He suggests that in terms of the quality criterion and taking my practice forward generally, it would be good to have a look at this over the next couple of assignments.

In response to this I have begun to change the blog posts to a larger font which, although quite time consuming, is straightforward and I shall complete the task.  I have changed the header image and also the other image on the homepage.  I have also changed the title on the header to make it, perhaps, more like a photographer's blog than a student's.  I agree that the menu items appear to move when you click on them.  They actually become smaller but move upwards, thus indicating which tab the visitor is on, so from that point of view I think that this is useful.  However I have noticed that level 3 colleague Hazel Bingham has the same menu tabs, but hers don't move.  She is going to let me know how she set this up and I will experiment. 

Robert suggests that Tags would help visitors locate things.  I wonder if this is the same as labels.  I notice that there are labels at the bottom of my posts which when clicked will take the viewer to the appropriate page.  On Colleague Yiann Steven's (Yiannitsa) Wordpress blog there are Tags at the bottom of her page, but these function in the same way as my labels.

I discussed this with my Hangout colleagues yesterday and the general feeling was that I had too much work on my blog to convert it to a Wordpress one, although Yiann has sent me the instructions to do so, warning that it is a complicated process.  I have also read on student forums of the problems other students have had with Wordpress so have always stuck to Blogger.  The Hangout Group suggested that I experiment with different Blogger templates which I may do.  In the meantime, I hope that the changes that I have made will make the site less 'clunky'.  For BOW assessment I provided the assessors with a written guide (hard copy and digital) to my blog with links to the posts that I particularly wished then to see.  I intend to do that again for SYP assessment.

Work on the Video of My Work

As part of my exhibition I am considering a video of the work.  The reasoning behind this is that when I am out walking in woodland it is an immersive, reflective experience and I want to go some way to reproducing this in the exhibition.  In an ideal world I would use a separate darkened viewing room with surround sound.  As this is not possible I intend to show the video on a laptop using headphones, although someone at my portfolio group suggested that I use a virtual reality headset.  First though I have to get the video right.    I have worked on various prototypes, but the one that I sent out for feedback as part of assignment 1 and to my tutor is here  https://vimeo.com/216371001 .  As part of the feedback from assignment 1 it was suggested that I change the black background to one that was sympathetic to the colours in the images.  My tutor suggested that a white background would be safe.  He also suggested that I try to make a sound recording of my own to go with the work.  I had downloaded some a free sound effect of someone walking from the internet, but Robert felt that using my own recording would add a lot of value to the work.  I had already tried recording my own footsteps in an even earlier prototype, but I had made the mistake of wearing overtrousers and all that could be heard was the swishing noise emanating from them.  I had also had an older smartphone then and the technolology has since improved.  

Changing the background to white was fairly straightforward so I then set out to experiment with my own recording.  I used my current smartphone and having research in the internet downloaded an app called RecforgeII which allegedly does a better job than the built in voice recorder that came with the phone.  On advice from a colleague in my peer hangout group I also down loaded Audacity onto my PC to edit the sound tracks.  I was delighted with this and not only did enable me to edit out poor quality sections it also allows me to blend tracks together.  In this way I have been able to use my footsteps as the main sound with the sound of rooks and jackdaws calling in the background.  Having got to this stage I saved this version to Vimeo.  The link to it is here: http://www.vimeo.com/243641946

I am relatively pleased with what I have done in that I have made some improvements.  It was easy to change the background and I have proved to myself that it is possible to record my own soundtrack.  I was pleased with the recording of the rooks and jackdaws and the way that they come through in the video and I am delighted with the ease with which Audacity works as an editing tool.  However, I am less pleased with the quality of the footsteps track.  Although I had the volume adjusted OK for my PC and the level I have my volume set on it, when I used headphones the sound was far too loud and harsh and there was a background rumble/hum on parts of it.

At this stage I shared the work at our fortnightly peer group Google Hangout and later that evening I also shared it with a local portfolio group that I have been invited to join.  I asked the two groups if they would consider the background suitability, the sound quality, the text and the time for which the images were displayed.

All felt that the video was an excellent alternative way of presenting the work and it could provide the immersive experience for which I was seeking.  One member of the OCA group felt that the white background worked OK, but generally there was a feeling that the black would be preferable as it keeps the viewer in the experience more whereas the white takes one out of it.  White is too much like a gallery wall.  Another member pointed out that the white background only worked with a 16x9 monitor and if it was viewed on an older style 4x3 there is a black region beyond the white anyway.  People also agreed that it would be better to have the background above and below the images as well as to the sides in order to frame them better.  In the evening the portfolio group who seem to have an RPS/camera club background definitely felt that black would be better.

It was generally felt that the text was too large and in some instances lines tended to merge into each other top and bottom.  It was also felt that I needed to look at the line breaks and perhaps left justify rather than centre the text.  It was also felt that I only needed to fully reference Rebecca Solnit in the body of the text and didn't need the date of the quote in the credits.  The Arial font worked well. One interesting point made for the text would be to begin with the word Shul as that is the most important. i.e Shul is the Tibetan word for track rather that The Tibetan word for track is Shul.  I agree with this.

Some felt that the sound was fine but two agreed with me, especially when listened to through earphones.  One person thought it would be a good idea to employ a sound recordist (if I could find one).  Alternatively try a separate sound recorder rather than the phone.  One person recommended an Olympus digital sound recorder and a member of the Portfolio Group has offered to lend me a broadcast quality machine with which to do the work - a fantastic offer which I shall take up.

The length of time for which the images were displayed was felt to be fine.

All in all the general opinion was very positive and the project was well worth persevering with.  I have lots of great ideas to ponder and alterations to make and, hopefully, some better equipment with which to record the sound.

Assignment 2: Response to Tutor Feedback

I was delighted with the feedback from my tutor for this assignment.  It took the form of both a Google Hangout and a follow-up written report.  I thoroughly enjoyed the hangout conversation with Robert where we could explore avenues that, perhaps wouldn't have been covered in just a written feedback.  

In both the written and verbal feedback Robert felt that the proposal was thorough.  In the hangout we discussed the various ways of displaying the images.  We both agreed that printing on aluminium and acrylic would be prohibitively expensive.  Robert also felt that mounting on foam board would need to be professionally done for the size of my images.  Hanging using bulldog clips would give the impression that it was a work in progress.  We both agreed that having the images framed would be the preferred option and we also discussed how presentation is also part of the signification of the work.

Robert thought that developing the work by producing a hand-made book was going to work and the idea of considering a wooden cover indicated that every part of the work was being considered.

Developing the work through a video was also a good idea.  Robert had seen my prototype and I discussed with him the suggestion made by Emma Roberts, gallery owner and curator at Steel Rooms Gallery, that I should use a background colour for the show that was sympathetic to the colour of the images.  Robert made the suggestion that white would be safe.  He also suggested making my own sound recording as this would add a lot of value to the work.  The video is something that I have been working on since this feedback and I shall be producing a blog to deal with it.

It was pointed out that an exhibition of framed prints could be an end point in one way, but it would be good not to be too solidified.  A sense of play and freshness would be generated by considering new images and experimenting with a book and video.

I am in the process of developing a website which Robert had looked at.  He liked the text/image balance on the front page although he agrees with me that it needs quite a bit of tweaking overall.  He pointed me in the direction of Cargo Collective who he has his site with and recommended the site of OCA tutor Andrew Langford.  My website is still a work in progress and something waiting to reach the top of my 'to do' list.

Robert also mentioned the work of Mat Hennek which might interest me.  It is on woodland, although he said that my work is less of a typology than Hennek's which pleased him.  I agree with this point.  Although both of our work features trees and Hennek says that his is the result of numerous hikes in the USA and Europe, his work is more about portraits of trees whereas mine is as much, if not more, about walking itself.  I happen to be walking in woodland for this body of work, but I have left it open to develop the work as walks in other types of terrain.  In fact I have photographed my walks along the Viking Way, Wolds Way and Cleveland Way long distance footpaths as well as walks in the mountains of The Lake District and Scotland.  That said I find his work pleasing.  The link to his work is:  http://mathennek.com/works/woodlands/

 All in all a very satisfactory feedback and I feel well-placed to work towards my exhibition next March.

The Old Ways, Robert MacFarlane

I have already read Robert MacFarlane's The Old Ways but for some while have thought the it was particularly relevant to my body of work and so decided to read it again with the body of work in mind.  Nicholas Lezard tells us in The Guardian of 2 July 2013 that 15 authors made it their book of the year in 2012.  Lezard informs us that MacFarlane prefers the @the wilder and woolier environment' and his second book The Wild Places (blog link here) tried to get as close to wilderness as is possible in the UK.  MacFarlane is more interested in paths and passes rather than summits he tells us.  We are told that this is a book about walking including the paths of the sea - this I found especially interesting and pertinent coming, as I do, from a coastal environment.  Lezard continues 'It is illuminating to be told that before the Romans came, there was an extraordinary amount of sea traffic around the British Isles and Europe, which helps account for the remarkable genetic similarity of people from various coastal regions extending from Orkney to Spain. He helps us understand what it is to see the water as as criss-crossed by routes as the land, partly by describing what it feels like to sleep in an open boat where the only navigational aid is the Pole Star.' MacFarlane actually mentions in the book that it is a good idea to turn our mental map upside down and instead of thinking of the land as criss-crossed by roads, paths and tracks, invert the idea and populate the sea with paths and the land as empty.  The above then makes sense.  I find this fascinating, especially living on the edge of the major seaway of the Humber and to think of all the traders passing up and down the river reaching far inland, along the coast and across the North Sea.  I can sea links here not only with my body of work, but also with the project I completed on flotsam and jetsam for PWDP.  Opportunities are also opened up for developing my body of work and linking it to past work.
Lezard tells us that he particularly enjoyed the way that MacFarlane coined the word xenotopia to describe an uncanny landscape.  There are paths that are not paths but xenotopic places recalls the chapter on the Broomway a contingent path along tidal sands between Wakering Stairs and Foulness in Essex.  Said to be the most dangerous path in Britain, it vies for fame with that across the sands of Morecambe Bay.  This is also pertinent to my home environment with the tidal sands and mudflats of the Humber being equally etherial and dangerous.

Writing and walking are great companions says Lezard and reminds the reader of Iain Sinclair and Will Self deal with the topic of psychogeography.  He suggests that The Old Ways is a first-rate addition to the genre.

I particularly empathised with the idea of walking The Old Ways , ancient routes that go back into the historical and even prehistorical past.  Like MacFarlane I am sure these pathways carry memories and they are certainly Shuls (the title of my body of work).  I am salso taken by how in his other books as well as this, MacFarlane sleeps out on the trail and in the woods, something I have in the pipeline.  I have have spent my whole life from an early age camping but have always had the sliver of material between myself and the world, something I intend to address.  I am also taken with his penchant for experience his environment at night, something I have begun to do and also to try to record photographically.

This book also reminds me of a family favourite of ours The Dark is Rising sequence of books for older children/adults.  The Dark is Rising itself refers often to paths and trackways especially the 'Old Ways' and has been mentioned by MacFarlane on his Twitter feed.

Below are my highlighted notes from the book:-

• The compact between writing and walking is almost as old as literature - a walk is only a step away from a story, and every path tells. P.18
• The Sierra Club was founded in 1892, inspired by (John) Muir's convictions that the walker's bodily contact with the wild world benefited both the walker and world, and that 'going out.........was really going in'.  P.20
• Many references to landscape and memory.  Page 22 when writing about walking Holloways with Roger Deakin.
• Reference to Bill Brandt photographing the Pilgrim's Way in 1950.  Not especially known for his wilderness photography I have referenced him on several occasions for this aspect of his work and have a book The Land edited by and featuring him on Twentieth Century Landscape Photographs.  P.24
• To (Edward) Thomas, paths connected real places but they also led outwards to metaphysics, backwards to history and inwards to self.  My feelings exactly but how to record this photographically is my current challenge.  P.26
• In non-western cultures, the ideas of footfall as knowledge and walking as a mode of thinking are widespread, often operating in particular as a metaphor for recollection - history as a region one walks back into.  P.28
• These traces - which include place names, stories, songs and relics - are sometimes called by the Apache bike' goz'aa - 'footpints', 'tracks'.  To the Thcho people of north-western Canada, walking and knowing are barely divisible activities: their term for 'knowledge' and their term for 'footprint' can be used interchangeably.  A Tibetan Buddhist text from around 600 years ago uses the word shul to mean 'a mark that remains after that which has amde it has passed by': footprints are shul, a path is shul, and such impressions draw one backwards into awareness of past events.  Reference the title of my body of work also landscape and memory.  P.28
• Yet Richard Long - who once walked thirty-three miles a day for thirty-three days, from the Lizard in Cornwall to Dunnet Head in northern Scotland - signs off his letters with a red-ink stamp that shows the outline of two feet with eyes embedded in their soles, gazing out at the looker.  Footfall as a way of seeing the landscape; touch as sight - these are notions to which I can hold.  And me.P.29
• The journeys told here take their bearings from the distant past, but also from the debris and phenomena of the present, for this is often a double insistence of old landscapes: that they be read in the then but felt in the now.  The waymarkers of my walks were not only dolmens, tumuli and long barrows, but also last year's ash-leaf frails (brittle in the hand), last night's fox scat (rank in the nose), this minute's bird call (sharp in the ear), the pylon's lyric crackle and the crop sprayer's hiss.  P.33
• Chapter 5 discusses sea paths as previously mentioned.  I have written a not to myself on P.94: Link coastal pathways to BOW.  Coasts look outwards to seaways as well as inwards to ancient trackways.  Just inland from our coast is the ancient trackway of the Bluestone Heath Road now sadly a tarmacked road.
• One of the reasons I enjoy being with Finlay is his ability to read landscapes back into being, and to hold multiple eras of history in plain sight simultaneously.................  P.147
• Wave-surged infralittoral rock, tide-swept circalittoral rock, micro terrains of lichen and moss.  ref. my work on micro landscapes.  P155
• My note: Landscape and Memory and us - whole page!  P.193
• 'No hay camino, se hace camino al andar' - 'there is no road, the road is made by walking'. P.236
• Mostly Miguel talked about trees, introducing me to individual specimens as if to old friends............. Reference The Long View.  P.247
• Landscape is still often understood as a noun connoting fixity, scenery, an immobile painterly decorum.  I prefer to think of the word as a noun with a hidden verb: landscape scapes, it is dynamic and commotion causing, it sculpts and shapes us not only over the courses of our lives but also instant by instant, incident by incident.  P255
• ........and as I neared the city it felt like an allegorical journey: to have crossed a pine-forested mountain range on a series of ancient paths, sleeping out on the wayside, under a vulture-filled sky, and then to be entering on foot a walled medieval city seen first from a mountain summit, levitating from the baking plains. Describing a walk from Madrid to Segovia.  P.256
• 'What was it Kerouac said?' asked John just before we all headed to our tents. ' "Let us sleep by rivers and purify our ears." '  P.275
• In the Living Mountain, Nan Shepherd describes the conversion in her relationship with mountains that she experienced in the course of her life. ..................Circumambulation came to replace summit-fever for Shepherd; plateau substituted for peak. 'I believe that I now understand,' she wrote in the last paragraph of the last chapter of her book, 'in some small measure why the Buddhist goes on pilgrimage to a mountain.' Reference The Long View - walking to trees rather than bagging summits.  P.279
• The light and the path were Ravillious's signature combinations as an artist.  Research Ravillious and Nash.  P.297
• (Edward) Thomas loved the historical synchronicities of the chalk: the ancient path lines that were echoed in form by yesterday's plough furrows.  He liked the evidence of human mark-making and tampering over milenia - tumuli, long barrows, chalk-pits, dew ponds - testifying to a landscape that was commemorative, tending to the consecrated.  P.309
• Edward Thomas's 1916 poem 'Roads'. Read/Research Edward Thomas.  P.311
• Helen (Thomas) thrilled to the atavism of what she called 'the ancient ways', the sense of being connected by footfall to 'history and tradition'.  Thomas taught her how to walk differently: 'with her body, not only with her legs', feeling the landscape as she moved over it.  Landscape and memory.  P.312
• Thomas is often described as a poet of place, but the volatility of plave fascinated him more than its reliability.  P.324
• He's a collector, too, mostly of flowers and eggs.  Reference my egg collection made when I was a young boy 50-60 years ago!! ;-( P.334
• Song is vital to Thomas: he is involved almost from the start in the English folk-song revival led by Cecil Sharp.  P.237
• Connection of Thomas with Robert Frost. The Road Not Taken.  P.342
• How hard it is to erase a path. (even on the battlefield of Arras.  P.351

Lezard, N. (2013) The Old Ways; A Journey by Foot by Robert MacFarlane, The Guardian, [online] available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jul/02/old-ways-robert-macfarlane-review [accessed 15.11.17]

Common Ground, Rob Cowen

Following his move to London to the outskirts of Harrogate Rob Cowen finds himself in unfamiliar territory.  About to become a father for the first time, disorientated, hemmed in by wimter and yearning for open space he ventures out to a nearby edge-land.  Over the following months he discovers its many layers and lives: animals, plant and human.  As the birth of his child approaches his relationship with this space where human and nature meet becomes increasingly profound.  This is a portrait of people and place through time and an exploration of the common ground we share with the natural world, the past and each other.

I found this a fascinating read and it has many connections for me: with my own interests and my work on walking and wilderness.  It inspired me to explore and photograph my own local edge land more full over the summer and early autumn.

Below are my main points from the book.

• A feeling of being alive and in the moment. P.5
• Perhaps because of the proliferation of those myths, mine was the last generation to lay claim to the edges in a meaningful sense.  A great societal shift indoors was already in motion.  P.5
• Together they encircled the unmistakeable form of a holloway (ref MacFarlane).  This exuded the same mysterious gravitational pull of all ancient paths; I was drawn into its high-hedged heart, aware I must be tracing footsteps sculpted over millenia. (ref BOW, walking, Macfarlane's The old Ways)  P.7
• For many years I had sought and written about wildness encountered in the more expected places: the rarified national park, the desolate moor, the distant mountaintop, the sweeping coast but I'd forgotten that there is something deeper about the blurry space surrounding us all where human and nature meet.............Enmeshed in every urban edge is also the continuous narrative of the subsistence of nature, pragmatic and prosaic, the millions of things that survive and even thrive in the fringes.  P9
• There is a depth that comes from revisiting a place relentlessly.  P.9
• Once upon a time the edges were the places we knew best.  They were our common ground.  Times were hard and spare but the margins aorund homesteads, villages and towns sustained us.  People grazed livestock and collected deadfall for fuel.  Access and usage became enshrined as rights and recognised in law.  P11
• Humans a re creatures of habit: we still go to the edges to get perspective, to be sustained and reborn......clouds, hyper-real TV shows, 3D films, multiplayer games, online stores and social media networks - these are today's areas of common ground, the terrains where people meet, work, hunt, play, learn, fall in loce even.  P.12
• You see, I still believe in the importance of edges.  Lying just beyond our doors and fences, the enmeshed borders where humans and nature collide are microcosms of our world at large, an extraordinary, exquisite world that is growing closer to the edge every day...........nature isn't just some remote mountain or protected park.  it is all round us.  It is in us.  It is us. (weeds growing out of the pavement down our road).  P.12
  
• Most people don't even notice such things, but just look around you.  The moss-swollen pavement crack, the rosette of a dandelion defying a driveway or a gutter-growing sow thistle, these are glimpses of what lies beneath and beyond.  The deep past and the far future.  P15
• A long, rectangular block of masonry and concrete, green with algae, was almost entirely consumed by bare vegetation.  P.19
• The railway's closure in 1964 heralded an unglamorous downfall.  Unneeded, unnoticed, I found it shut off, shackled and destitute, left to the plumes of dead Oxford ragwort and buddleia that bristled from its cracks.P.21
• The red fox....However, unlike many rural mammals in the UK, which have seen a sharp decline brought about by hunting, modern farming methods and the privatisation and monoculturism of land, the fox has adapted to whatever environment we have thrust upon it, sticking for the most part to its own set of territorial rules.  P29
• This centuries old (scots pine) tree begs to differ.  With its resplendent poise and beauty, it is the very essence of wildness and craggy moor, a poster boy from the ancient Caledonian Forest.  P31
• Perhaps, but the edge-land provides a mental and physical transendence greater than I've felt in any gallery.  P34
• The corrals or 'parks' were therefore prime spots for the hunt, carefully maintained and policed by 'Foresters', the local workers who lived on and around the land.  These men enforced William's brutal forest law over the rest of the community.......P122
• It's a fact that never fails to jolt my brain: the idea of private ownership of land as we know it today is only a few hundred years old.......Britain's patchwork of farms, fields and woods today is an almost entirely privatised plave, three quarters of which is owned by the wealthiest 1% of the population.  P126
• They knew of equinoxes and solstices and rejoiced in those heady high points in the wheel of the year.  The felt a sense of belonging difficult for our removed minds to comprehend or understand............Everything changed with enclosure.  P128
• Wealth would be made from the land...............Many thousands were dispossessed and the peasantry reduced to selling labour to a rising class of tenant farmers who, requiring far fewer men to manage sheep no longer needed their work.  P129
• Our profound alienation from the earth continues.  We're the landless and listless, so estranged from our planet, so removed from the decision-making that governs it, so isolated from each other and the life we share this world with that we're seemingly unable even to come together and prevent global human and environmental catastrophe.  P.135
• There is that rich smell of wood from the houses, the clean linen aroma of detergent swilling down our drains.  Our tangle with the lnd is a messy business.....  P136
• There are voices today that call for 're-wilding', the rmoval of the human hand from the land altogether......vanished species reintroduced......trees spring up over sheep-cleared hills.....part of me craves this too; I want to believe that this could only be a good thing, but there are nagging doubts: where are we in this picture?........................ ..........................................................................  P137 Whole page relevant
• It is a paradigm for where past realities meet our now mediated existencies.  Perhaps there's something in that.  Of course we have to live in this modern world, but we must get our boots dirty too.  We need to slip between these semi-permeable states, for just as we need our homes and X-rays, we need the intimacy of nature, the empathy and the sense it brings of our participation in a larger, living world.  Crucially we need to be in in order to connect on this physical, emotional level, down among the soil and the stems.  P.139
• .......the sublime where you least expect it; when you most need it.  P. 195
• That feeling of being fully in the moment and fully aware the moment won't last. (Over Owler Tor Sunrise)  P.204
• Right now I can sense something bigger in the curvature of the horizon, the birdsong, the unearthly crawling of insects and the immeasurable flowers.  Something exquisite, enriching, frightening, indifferent, immortal.  And I realise it doesn't care whether I'm here or not.  Nature/the planet is indifferent.  ref Gaia.  Also talk by Ray Mears, 2.11.17, on caring for the environment: "Whatever we do to damage it the planet will rock on.  It is the ecosystem that we depend on that will cease to exist.  The planet has managed perfectly well without the dinosaurs"  Also a point made in my CS extended essay: "We may be the first species to orchestrate its own extinction."  P.204
• We project all we are and all we know onto landscape.  And. if we're open to it, the landscape projects back into us.  Time spent in one place deepens this interaction, creating a melding and meshing that can feel a bit like love.  Again Ray Mears: "Being involved in bushcraft  is a way of connecting with the landscape.  P.205
• Town-bruised, town-battered, the birth of the edge-land has been a messy one. P.223
• ......the first hurdle was trying to understand who had responsibility for this liminal space.  P.230
• No what happened was largely a letting-go, an end to the human interference or management, aside from the few still-worked fields (my edge-land) and the council's yearly cutting of its hay meadows. (Ref George Monbiot's vision of rewilding)  P.233
• .......being written only three years after the clean-up, it testifies to the speed and sponteneity with which nature had reclaimed the ground. (Rewilding)  P.234
• All I can think about is how I don't want those men hacking away.  How I don't want them interferring, cutting down things that they don't know or care about.  How I don't want any part of the edge-land, my edge-land, to be ruined.  And how I can't do anything about it. (Ref The Horsefield -my edge-land and the possible building of a new stadium for Grimsby Town on it.)  P.248
• Thanks to my mother and father the fringe had always been a mysterious and wild adventure playground, a refuge, frontier and portal since childhood.  P250
• It's moments like these that make you think places have a memory of their own.... ..............It's hardly a theory, more a feeling born of so long spent outside, but what if landscapes somehow become repositories of personal and collective memory?  What if traces are imprinted or stored in an imperceptible or intangible way and the land itself retains the culture of the place?  Then what if when a certain set of stimuli is triggered, a kind of molecular union occurs between that place and a person whereby memories and experiences are passed on like the sting of a nettle? (My feelings exactly and for some while I have been wrestling with ways to represent this idea of landscape and memory photographically.)  P.270

The image below is of my local edge-land The Horsefield.