Final Show: #CrouchHillBanbury

Despite the recent Periscope app update which now allows permanent archive of Broadcasts with chat, I made the decision to allow auto-delete after 24 hours.

The ephemerality and impermanence is an essential component of my work and process, highlighting the concept of dynamic socially created space.

Traces of previous broadcasts are now no longer visible as they were previously

Paradoxically, the events below are heavily documented through Screen-shots from the Broadcasts, created within the 24 hrs before they became unavailable……

it’s really hard to let things go…especially when you need evidence of your process….

 

John Ruskin – Work:

15th July

I read aloud from John Ruskin’s lecture ‘ Work ‘ delivered at the Working Men’s Institute Camberwell in 1865,( which is now the South London Gallery……..?)

to link my location on Crouch Hill in Oxfordshire with Camberwell. This also served as a point for further reflections on work, labour, art and relative positions in contemporary society.

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There were 130 in the Lifestream audience at one point and generally retention was better with people usually sticking it out for a while on each brief Scope.I’m finding the stats interesting to analyse despite not searching for ‘Likes’.

I decided to leave the tent up for the duration of the Show, over the weekend and for the rest of the week until Tuesday evening.

I wrote a note to explain and left it in the tent. I left contact details as well, out of courtesy.

Often, teens camp-out and sometimes just leave the tents.

I didn’t want it to be damaged, removed, offend someone unnecessarily or occupied by another person!

Martin Fiennes – Broughton Castle:

16th July:

Martin’s parents are Lord and Lady Saye and Sele.

William FIENNES (1st Viscount Saye and Sele).The only son of Richard Fiennes, 7th Lord Saye and Sele, he was educated at New College, Oxford, and succeeded to his father’s lordship (barony) in 1613. English politician and promoter of colonization in America. He was a Puritan in religious sympathy and a leader in the House of Lords of the opposition to James I and Charles I.

I invited Martin to Crouch Hill, where he spoke of his visions for the preservation of areas of countryside, whilst accommodating the need for housing into the future. He also talked of  his imaginings of the Puritan and Royalist troops, noisily riding up and down past the foot of the Hill along what is now a busy B road, prior to the siege of Banbury Castle, and the Battle of Edge Hill in 1642.

It brought the past alive for a moment or two, and changed my visions of the present.

He was surprised and amused by the 249 viewers.

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Dozing in my Tent:

17th July

I just started to broadcast  and lay down in a warm tent for a doze…showed the sky to  over a hundred people…Strange, this periscope business…

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33 comments! and a surprising number of viewers.

also found a note when I opened the tent…. it said ‘PLEASE DON’T ‘

I wasn’t sure what they wanted me not to do?
Stay….? Go…?

Some dog-walkers came past and had a chat

Paul Mobbs (@ramblinactivist) :

17th July

I’d invited Paul to talk as he has a deep knowledge of the Quaker Civil War history of the area and an involvement in peace activism in contemporary conflict.

He forms a link from this final work to my initial investigations in Croughton , the Reading Room and RAF Croughton.

In fact, when he arrived he didn’t want to talk about those topics at all but lead a popular walk around the Hill discussing local geology and its implications.

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Edith Eisler, 

18th July

This was the anniversary of Edith’s death in 2011. A  violinist, teacher, noted musician and critic.This is  a recording of her playing Hindemith 

I told the story of how my father became friends with Edith and her family during WWII, following their movement from Vienna to Britain.

Also their subsequent correspondence whilst my father found and located in Japanese POW camp in the Far East, and following his release.

This family correspondence continued, even following my father’s death.

Her kindness has enabled me to pursue this Post-Graduate study.

(Along with a Vice- Chancellors Scholarship from The University of the Arts London).

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iChing and Philip K. Dick

19th July

I am interested in the link between subjective evaluation involved in Divination practice and ritual with the binary code which underlies all things digital.

See this article here in The Guardian

and this J Proteome Sci Comput Biol. 2012; 2012(1): 3. Published online 2012. doi: 10.7243/2050-2273-1-3

I had hoped to use yarrow stalks from the Hill but the season was late and there were few available.

I’d also thought of using Glo-sticks but their popularity at the Public View put paid to that…everyone wore them home..

So I used the cards I’d used in previous broadcasts.

The whole event became ludicrous…more so than other Scopes, as Tia and Purdy, the dogs belonging to my ‘assistant’ were in playful mood.

In the end one of the dogs, Purdy, selected one of the cards…

I read from Philip K Dick, the visionary writer, who cites the iChing in The Man in The High Castle.

His alternative outcome from WWII, and the implications, are  worth re- considering now, I believe. The sun set, the moon was almost full.

In total with Louise’s simultaneous broadcast of the event, there were over 750 viewers..

???!!!!

These were the cards selected.

4 Meng: INEXPERIENCE

Humbleness and sincerity when comprehending will increase knowledge.

9 Hsiao Ch’u GENTLE RESTRAINT, HOLDING BACK

Dense clouds suggest postponing the action till after the rain.

56 Lu: THE WANDERER, THE TRAVELLER

The steadfast and persistent traveller will have good luck.

Make of that, what you will….

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UAL Summer Show: Camberwell College of Arts, Wilson Road, London SE5 8LU

20th July

I went to the Final Crit with my cohort at Camberwell. Saw many of my colleagues and enjoyed seeing the Show.

It was odd walking into an exhibition containing my own work but where I had delegated set-up to colleagues. They had displayed many of the bowls around the building but as these are now empty they had been removed.

The last remaining had been give a plinth, two bowls placed one inside the other with a top light in a dark space. It looked tremendous! Donald Takeshita-Guy had been mainly responsible and is keen on developing his curation skills.

It worked really well

Later, Clara and I met with the collective of artists to talk about plans for our residency in Norway in 3 weeks time. Very exciting.

Little Venice Studio  with Clara Duran, Keir Williams,  Dave Meckin, Alice Helps, Joe Fairweather-Hole

and then…..NORWAY RESIDENCY and Neptune Developers Camp, Melbu, Nordland

Neptun Introduction

and as Manuel from MAFAD said

” So long and thanks for all the fish”

Its been amazing,  Thanks Jonathan K!

#CrouchHill Banbury #Public View #Camberwellual

Louise messaged me this photo of the yarrow emerging on the morning on the Public View…

Better late than never…

Some of the people who had been involved in the events, gathered over the evening at the summit.

Several of us were broadcasting the event via Periscope and others who had been involved but couldn’t be there in person ‘hopped on’…

Some people managed both- to be there at a distance and then join in person…

 

Some of the sharing paraphernalia…

People brought Champagne and flowers

 

 

The Covenant of Salt, ‘Twitter’ chocolates, and Mystic Writing pads were enjoyed by many… even those who claimed no artistic talent!

Games had unexpected winners..or no winners at all depending on the play.

People were Periscoping people Periscoping people Periscoping ………etc

 

Clara Duran was taking photos of the Summer Show in Camberwell at the same time, and watching proceedings on Periscope on Jonathan’s phone ( see later)

I hadn’t realised that they had also announced Clara and my Residency Award in Norway  at the award ceremony.

 

Here are images of some of the group’s work : Clara, Tristan ( our work has some similarities..) Pete ( who I have still never met!), Pascale, Donald, Yvonne and Sharon

SIMULTANEITY:

Some examples of the simultaneous images taken and simultaneous events ( if the clocks on our phones and cameras and image files are to be believed ) in Camberwell and on Crouch Hill.

 

19.41

 

19.46

 

19.53

 

20.14

Below are some screen shots which show the involvement of the Periscope audience when I went to find Clare Carswell, who also took many of the documentation photos – Thanks Clare)

She had been following proceedings on the phone but then drove to the Hill to try to find us.

I had thought of putting up signs but it would have changed the event and the Happenstance element for people who hadn’t had direct invitations

Also it was fun to see people randomly wandering around, getting lost, finding each other, talking to strangers, and eventually finding us at the summit!

 

‘ I’ve never seen so many Lost People!’ – Thanks JimStr

People made it to the top, physically and via our Live streams.

 

Drawing time is Catherine Lette,  who was documenting her visit to the Summer Show Private View in Wilson Road, Camberwell and simultaneous experience of Crouch Hill, Public View and some of my work in the process

The Screen shots below are from my Stream

 

These are from Catherine’s @drawingtime phone and stream

 

These are from Sharon Bertram’s

 

Here’s an example of chat during the stream…Anything from dog snacks to Brexit

Which at least gives it some time-reference.

Importantly, people  visiting the Show did seem to be accessing the Periscope Broadcasts at least via the Twitter feed from the Username on the Chocolates!

[EDIT 21st July:  There were large numbers in the LiveStream Audience by the end of the Show – over 700 for the last broadcast ]

 

Finishing with some amusing screen shot showing middle-ages people whth Glo=Stick necklaces.

I’ll never forget wending our way down the Hill carrying the tent etc, winding through the woodland in the dusk, Glo-necklaces bobbing up and down in the distance…Sadly not on the Broadcast

 

The event went well with some good interaction and a reasonable audience in both ‘locations’, from 30- 159 on the stream…not that I’m counting! ( Ha!)

 

Loss of Katch

10th March -20th March: Various continuing activities #Crouch Hill

1oth March 2016 

In Shutford: Looking at maps of Crouch Hill and other landmarks; Madmarston Hill, Jesters Hill, The Roman Road,…talking about mule walking, archaeology ….and looking at Claire Winfield‘s continuing Hazelford work, The Inheritors

 

The Inheritors series Claire Winfield (2015)

12th March 2016

More map discussion….Can’t remember who with and don’t recognise their hand… Veronica…possibly….?

13th March 2016

I went up the hill in the sunshine, with Louise and the dogs, as usual but this time she had downloaded Periscope and Twitter… so instead of ‘Scoping on my behalf, via my account she could ‘co-Scope‘ as an individual witness… see image of me reading with the dogs nearby

She trialled up on the Hill to test signal strength etc and see what it was like. I was just making notes and thinking…

Later, on the way down we walked back down the field, as it was dry enough and looked closely at the new boundary hedge… considered it’s meaning… and then also pondered the advances of the building plot at the bottom of the Hill in what we call ‘the horses’ field’. It won’t be long now before the work starts….I don’t think we Scoped these ponderings…. can’t remember… maybe they are in my Katch Library on my Youtube Channel….or maybe not…

They were exported when Katch closed, by the and not in date order.. so they are difficult to locate and I haven’t filed ordered/them…

I deleted a couple which I originally thought irrelevant, even process-wise.. but then kept the rest… just a little bit random…

What to save… What not to save…

17th and 20th March 2016

I went up with my new ‘Pop-up’ tent to try it out. The Popping-up and the Popping Down!

Just to check practicalities. Not as easy to get down as it looks. Much laughter. All Scoped….

5 live viewers and 3 Replay on the first day!!! Why?! Also bumped in to some passing dog walkers and explained ( briefly) what I was up to…and a little about Periscope ..here 

 

The Inoperative Community and Allan Kaprow ‘Hello’

The Inoperative Community at Raven Row 

This is an exhibition of experimental narrative film and video  made since 1968  addressing ideas of community and the changing nature of social relations. It reflects the overlapping and entangled histories of  cinema, video and television. They all describe the destruction of community, the limits of activism and leftish subcultures. All of them use narrative to explore these issues.

Because there is fifty hours of material, any visitor can only  see a fraction of the works, but can make connections can be made between the works.
it was fascinating just wandering from room to room, staying sometimes ( rarely) for a complete work but just ‘browsing’ and not feeling as is this was a ‘bad thing to do’.

A bit like watching Periscope Streams! I couldn’t really do it justice as I had to move on to the Lecture at Whitechapel. I had no idea there would be so much. There were timetables so you could check what you were actually seeing and schedule in other visits.

I loved the confusing, fragmentary nature of the total summary narrative that you are left with, and the remnants of the powerful individual storylines from the individual works . Interesting.

I particularly enjoyed Luke Fowler,  Johan Grimonprez,

 Anne Charlotte Robinson Selections from 5 year Diary 

and Lav Diaz Melancholia ( 2008)

 

 Electronic Superhighway

I visited this exhibition after seeing The Inoperative Community and going to the James Bridle Lecture. Trying to squeeze far too much into my time. By the time I got to this exhibition I hadn’t got time before it closed to look closely at everything, and Boy! was there a lot to look at! I browsed around and ended up making Vines of bits of Naim June Paik’s work Internet Dream and some of the other works….but even managed to get those on the wrong axis, I was so tired….interesting though

Also good to see Lynn Hershman Leeson, whose work I saw at Modern Art Oxford in Summer 2015 and Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T)  John Cage and Robert Rauschenberg.

 Here’s a review of the whole show from The Guardian

Allan Kaprow Hello 

Of all the works in this significant and somewhat overwhelming exhibition I kept returning to this., Allan Kaprow Hello. Probably because of the elements of human interaction.
Kaprow created  this interactive video happening in 1969 for The Medium Is the Medium, an  experimental television program with five television cameras and twenty-seven monitors connecting  four remote locations over a closed-circuit television network.
Groups of people in the various locations  were given instructions to say on camera, for example “Hello, I see you”  seeing their own or a friend’s image. Kaprow acted as a director in the studio, the picture suddenly switching randomly so that there was not only the process of communication , randomness and chance,
Kaprow  was interested in the idea of  ‘communications media as non-communications‘, the most important message  being the idea of “oneself in connection with someone else”.  Hello  was a the disruptive way that technology mediates interaction by  metaphorically short-circuiting the television network,  and  demonstrating the connections made between actual people. Kaprow did suggest a global form of Hello, interconnecting continents, languages, and cultures in one huge sociological mix, much as Periscope operates today  demonstrating contemporary simultaneity.

(Adapted from: Kristine Stiles and Edward A. Shanken , MISSING IN ACTION: AGENCY AND MEANING IN INTERACTIVE ART) and Gene Youngblood: EXPANDED CINEMA, 1970, [PDF /4.6 Mb] pp.343-344

 

Allan Kaprow, Hello, 1969 Filmstill | ©

Hello Allan Kaprow 1969, 4:23 min, b&w, sound

Legal implications of Live Streaming – choices and dilemmas

Legal and ethical implications of Live Streaming as Art work

This article in Computer World about the legal risks of Live stream expresses some of my concerns about using the app for my practice.

As well as the issues around broadcasting from sensitive locations such as The Edgehill Battlefield Site/ MOD Kineton  there are ethics and personal community responsibilities around that, particularly at such a sensitive time.

• I’m especially aware of the need for Release or Permissions Forms when taking photographic  images  of people out heir work within community and gallery arts practice.
• If I stream from a location and hope for the ‘stumble upon’ public to ‘come into my stream’ within that  location I will have to let them know why I am doing, as the images from the stream will be used at the very least for documentation purpose, but also for public viewing possibly in an exhibition setting. Even people who simply pass through, in theory, are affected by this, especially as I am ‘making work’ and am not just a casual Periscope user.
• If I inform people that they are being streamed will this make the work ‘more theatrical’ and less intimate, more an artwork … effects I am trying to avoid:  ‘separation’ between  audience / participant/ maker Periscope.
• Do I need to have photo permission/ release forms available at each Stream to as people to sign…clumsy but legally stronger…display a sign...which then warns people approaching that ‘something is happening’..so some of the contingency is removed..Much to consider.
• There is also the issue that it is essential that I Broadcast my location , this is an essential part of the work... but makes others in the stream possibly more identifiable.
• What about people who I can’t inform, because they are not close enough but still identifiable, children for instance...I guess I’ll just have to delete these and not use the footage. Otherwise I can see myself chasing after people along the road or the hill waving forms and a Biro…a piece of work in itself! What about if they just appear without warning and end up on my stream

I remember being told about  Gillian Wearing’s renowned work, ‘Signs that say what you want to say and not signs that say what someone else wants you to say’ (1992-93)  and  how this caused some ( ?legal?) difficulties when some of the people photographed found their images widely distributed, displaying their personal feelings to a wider public.

 ‘Signs that say what you want to say and not signs that say what someone else wants you to say’ Gillian Wearing (1992-93)

Things have moved on a pace since then, in terms of methods of distribution and attitudes to it…from one extreme of needs from signed permission to animate photos on Snapchat and other social media.

Lots to consider.

I may be erring on the side of caution because of the necessary restrictions within my community work, but best to be aware and think it through.

 

Tutorial with Jonathan Kearney 29.10.2015

My tutorial started with a brief review of my trip to Manchester/ Salford and some discussion about ritual, collective memory and elements of affect and place… not exactly a psychogeographic experience as there was ‘drifting’ within parameters of the prescribed event but certainly a degree of playfulness at times despite the reason for the visit. An interesting coexistence…

I chatted about how my perceptions of this sort have event have extended since discovering other considerations of ‘place’…. and how not all my thoughts and experiences could be expressed on my blog. When personal expression of thoughts may affect others some perspicacity and editing are necessary.

Luckily I had a short burst of temporary clarity last night and this morning before my tutorial so I was able to focus on a few ideas I may use to follow through and other considerations.

These have become clear though the work I did last year , in particular The Reading Room event and the process of writing my research paper as well as the content of it.

Time to focus down-

1. The theme of broadcast from an agricultural and media point of view…(short discussion of underlying ideology of ‘We Plough the Fields and Scatter’…strangely the Jehova’s Witnesses came to the door around this time!…Hmmmm)
2. Returning to Old Work and locations but seen in light of new perspectives and increased awareness of old perspectives
3. Continuing with work from earlier in the MA.
4. Making digital involvement more explicit or ubiquitous in the work ( actually I didn’t bring this up as a point but had it on my list and it was addressed anyway during the discussion.

Lessons learnt from past work –

1. Risks of becoming too close for objectivity if working within communities ( this affects my ability to act autonomously as an artist,- my responsibility- not theirs, but a trap I easily fall into for reasons I won’t discuss in this brief ( -ish ) post.
2. Layers of time/space and space/ time need to be extended beyond literal representations displayed through layering in 2 and 3D and even beyond filmic ( +/- performative ) understandings of 4D.
3. The absolute imperative of Contingency which is not a part of for e.g. Shona Illingworth’s work…
4. Understanding and planning for my own personal physical and cognitive limitations and their unpredictability and building that into my practice and display methodology.
5. Only feeling able to address a local audience is ‘cutting off my nose to spite my face’. I will be able to address both a local and gallery ‘white space’ audience possibly simulatneously.

Jonathan’s responses were encouraging

1. Revisiting old work can be positive – (  I will reassess  it in the light of new information – space)
2. Restrictions and practicalities can lead to a positive way of working.I can adapt my methodology to document and display in a variety of areas whilst making the work and after the event. He suggested building a collection of small pieces of work over a period of time – which suits me and I guess I have worked this way before but without realising what I was doing!This is exactly the same as when I was doing my BA but now I understand it at a different level of consciousness…a bit like what happens in ‘therapy’ where you realise something that you have always known.. just at a different level …
3. He introduced me to Periscope and Storify ( think he had mentioned Storify before… or someone did but for some reason…????…. I chose to ignore it… which may serve my purpose better than Twitter, Snapchat ( though I still like it’s temporary nature) and Vine – by building my documentation into my process. I steered away from this before after my tutorial at tutorial with Dave Charlesworth in March . He suggested I should work in film which could be projected bigger rather than mobile phone footage. He was right . I have developed some..limited… skill in this area and will use it too but  for longer static takes  for different approaches to the space. Jonathan discussed how most shots are 20 seconds long! This could be used to build up content. I guess I did a bit of this in Michaelmas last year..
4. He pointed out that I do not need a large audience and that is true. Small actions are significant. I discussed how I want to act as a catalyst of action which becomes embodied in others as form of documentation. This documentation is then contingent in subsequent action and so in itself….
5. He say that I need a way to provide visual access to my deeper thoughts… I can’t remember what he suggested regarding this as I interrupted with ideas about using performative writing… but we agreed that sometimes this can be a bit ‘navel gazing and  impenetrable’ ( though I find it opens doors of thought when I read for example Yve Lomax- even if I’m not sure what she is talking about…). I think that some of the text I have used has a performative quality so maybe stick to that…and use some of it as my own process of arriving at work… rather than being part of the work itself.

He also suggested I watched the latest Camberwell lecture by Lucy Orta about her social intervention/ participative work. Which I did…very interesting and a topic for another post later…