I have been thinking a lot and this text How can I make art…with all this going on? sums everything up. Understanding the how’s and why’s and, even, the what’s of the way that one makes work sometimes gets really muddled. But now, I am beginning to see a way through. There is still the awful, heavy weight of world woes, mostly of our own making, but I am getting a perspective.
Detail of A1 mind map - in progress
Creating mind maps always works for me. This one is A1 and gives me lots of opportunity to fill in spaces as I go along. The answer that I have come up with is to create a self-directed, mainly home-based residency, The Quiet Residency. Developing a fluid plan –
1. It includes the fact that I am only 6 months into my plan to not make new work for a year. This was part of a way to not add things to the world, to use what I have and develop work that is already in the world in some state or other.
2. To think of my creativity as inclusive of music, writing etc. not limit my output. To have thinking as a major activity.
3. To try and do 12 projects, one a month.
4. Slowly, quietly,
5. To begin yesterday (that sounds relevant In an odd way) by kicking off with a live recording for Reveil of early morning sounds for their broadcast. So the residency (not sure it should be called that) began at 04.44 precisely on Sunday May 5th, 2024.
Sunday May 5th 2024
Today is the day for the live broadcast for www.soundtent.org and their Reveil project timed to coincide with International Dawn Chorus day. Reveil is a 24hour series of early morning sounds that begin in the UK and travel westwards before returning to the UK. It will be archived at www.soundtent.org/reveil. Not wanting to be the one who messed up, I set the alarm for 3.45am and after coffee, went outside and set up the equipment. Perching on the jetty by the side of the boat, my home, I fumbled in the dark trying to locate the slot for the lead, desperately trying not to drop anything in the river. I put the Zoom on a tripod so it wouldn’t pick up any sounds from the jetty itself which is wooden and creaks a lot. This also meant I couldn’t fidget which I do a lot. Using the XY mic form the Zoom and a parabolic dish in input 1 with its own mic, I streamed it through my Android phone. Timed to begin somewhere between 04.44 and 05.23, I sat and watched the light creep in. At one point, a tiny white feather floated down from the tree above and into the river. Around 5am, there was much more bird movement but also traffic and planes.
The time before sunrise is called civil twilight, when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. Before this, there is astronomical twilight followed by nautical twilight. This is all new to me and researched it on timeanddate.com, a really informative website.
Monday May 6th, 2024
Further listening to bird sounds sent to me by Louisa Chase, a lovely and fantastic artist working with the natural environment. She recorded nightingales at Knowlands Wood near Barcombe, East Sussex as part of her Arts Council funding. The patch of ground near my boat is covered in docks, thistles and nettles, which while they have merits in themselves, are not very good for walking around barefoot. My solution is to keep cutting them down until they get tired and give up whilst leaving some areas untouched. I have also planted some marsh marigolds, hemp agrimony and yellow flag near the water mint to try and encourage a natural environment. There were quite a few small round beetles that looked like a drop of oil, not sure of their name maybe mint beetles although I think they are mostly found in the south of England. Very eye-catching though.
The next few days I will be working so will have to store up my thoughts but hope to keep on working on this drawing which began as an illustration of art practice, its one continuous line that winds, twists, flows and is rarely linear.
In Progress, and might be for some time