I have waited years to have the time to finally learn how to animate using Flash. Last week the garage was cleared and I now have time. This week I joined a workshop at Adobe head office with CCC students and found out that the ‘Flash Plugin’ is to be discontinued. Flash is yesterday’s technology so no need to learn it. Now where did I put my old shadow puppet materials.
Part of the day was spent in a workshop with Kim Noce (animator and film maker) looking at ‘Adobe After Effects’ and how it is used to create animations. It even has a ‘puppet tool’ which works in exactly the same way as the card shadow puppets I used to make in story-telling workshops for pupils and teachers, although cereal packets, cotton and cellotape was cheaper.
The point of this story, however, is the discussion with Kim about different approaches to the process of making work. Kim works everything out in advance, storyboards and prepares it all before starting to animate. But it was interesting to hear her explain that the RCA advises their student to just start. How does that work as animation is such a complicated process? But, after all, that’s how I improvised the stories with shadow puppets and primary children.
“One morning a …(giraffe, fairy, guinea pig) was walking along the road. He was called …? And he was feeling …?”
Anyway it prompted me to look up the RCA animation course and below is the showreel from current students – more interesting stuff about how, and why, work is made. Do we allow students to improvise anymore?
The exhibition of Vermeer and other 17th century Dutch genre paintings at the Fitzwilliam Gallery (Cambridge) is fascinating. An explicit presentation of the domestic realm of women and the home 300 years ago. This exhibition defines the private areas of the home essentially the sole preserve of women, illuminating their role and place. Outside can be seen the street and the public places (of men) which are glimpsed through windows. What is surprising is the fact that the pictures are so accessible, empty sparsely furnished rooms but completely recognisable. It is strange to note the filled chamber pot in one picture and to reflect that I do recall the same in my grandmother’s house in the 1950s (outside loo and chamber pot). Vermeer, personal history and sexual stereotypes is not what I had anticipated. Over the road Fitzbillies provides a wonderful menu for lunch, or cake.
I hardly ever go to Aylesbury these days, but just found myself there with time to kill. In the museum I found this small, but beautifully formed, exhibition of Japanese armour from 1600 to present. Couldnt help but speculate how it could inform an art, craft, design, technology project.
Virtually attending a webinar about new media, creativity and art kidnapping was a fascinating experience. This was the webinar for the Click and Create conference (the conference has been postponed and will be rescheduled next year). The two speakers illuminated, informed, and remodelled, my digital landscape.
Blast Theory:Nick Tandavanity talked about a group of artists who have been pioneering the use of new media in investigating and experimenting the complexities and ambiguities of our digital world and in doing so discovering new metaphors and media to inform our lives. They use the new opportunities of emerging technologies and the way that these change options and behaviours – games, GPS, smartphones etc. Artists have always been early adopters. Impressionism owed much to the invention of the metal ferule for brushes and a new ‘flat’ brush.
Blast Theory projects, unlike the ‘happenings’ and ‘performance art’of the 60′s abandons the notion of a passive audience observing artists and their works. The work is a collaboration between the artists and other participants, or players. Perhaps it reflects our times, when ‘reality TV’ encourages us all to be media participants queuing up to be observed, recorded and broadcast. The merging of game theory and practice with the artists search for meaning and metaphor is fascinating. It is also probably much closer to the lives of young people than it is to mine. In all good artists residencies the artist gives us, teachers as well as students, permission to play (for me this was always the main point- never skills workshops). Blast Theory does just that it gives us permission to play with the new technology. Its liberating and important because it is essentially about creativity.
To find out more about the work of Blast Theory, and kidnapping, go to the Blast Theory website. Their work often uses advanced technologies: but as it is all about ideas it must be scaleable for school use.
Digital futures: Mark Shufflebottom talked about the all pervading and immersive quality of the digital landscape we all inhabit and shared some of the extraordinary work from students on the digital media course at Bournemouth. We enjoyed the fusion of video and animation in Three Dreams of Black. Mark talked about the nature of digital media and the nature of students who join the course. It became clear that schools are often unaware and consequently unprepared to support and encourage students to enter this field. It was intriguing to note the blend of skills and characteristics students need. Mark explained that the sophistication of ‘computing/software’ has led to an expectation that it is all menu driven and intuitive – but its not. Programming and maths are required as well as curiosity, creativity and visual divergent thinking. I guess we still think in subjects, Mark seemed to be talking about learning styles and passions.
In the discussion we noted opportunities (greater school autonomy to pursue relevant curriculum structures and experiences) and threats (eBac, Ofsted – the ways that schools are measured, compared and judged). My inclination is to believe that headteachers will be the real key to innovation or atrophy, not government or Ofsted.
As to the webinar, I guess the main point was that it was easy. The technology was unobtrusive and the pedagogy is becoming embedded both for presenters and audience. When the technology hiccupped it was just dealt with – sometimes the chalk broke, but it didn’t stop the teaching.
I visited some old friends the other day. Both now teach in a Prep school in Wiltshire. I was really impressed by this sculpture in the school grounds. Done quite quickly by some students plus Simon and a parent. It was built from thermalite breeze blocks and rendered. Easy to work and a great way to make big solid sculpture. Thought I would pass on the idea. Well done Simon.
Continuing a theme tenuously about technology. I saw the revival of Marat/Sade at the RSC this week. An iPad featured discreetly alongside the android phones used to control the inmates of Charenton asylum. Unfortunately that was as modern as the play got. It really felt like the product of a 1970′s student theatre group reunion, getting together after 50 years and deciding to do one last play. All shouting and showing off. A curious choice for the RSC Xmas pantomime.
It seemed shallow, predictable and rather cowardly. It is an important play which deals with competing ideologies, social change and self determination. This production failed to touch upon the self promoting, sexualisation of pretty much everything and confined itself to nothing more sinister than a flabby (in many ways) evocation of old men flashing on Sunday afternoon. Irritating rather than shocking and the iPad didn’t really help. A sad reflection of the legacy of Peter Brook.
The previous week I saw the Pinter ‘Homecoming‘, also at the RSC. This was much better and had all the surreal edginess of the play. Well acted, intelligent and focussed on the text. I am glad there wasn’t an iPad in sight.
David Hockney at the Royal Academy 21st January – 9th April. The exhibition will include a display of his iPad drawings and a series of new films produced using 18 cameras, which will be displayed on multiple screens.
The other day I was in Highgate for a small concert of electro-acoustic soundscapes by Laurence Casserley, Simon Desorgher and Evan Parker. Laurence has been a pioneer of digital/electronic performance since the 70′s and has developed his own instrument (digital signal processor) which absorbs and digitally reworks the acoustic sounds produced by the other players. His instrument being an iPad. I took a quick video to give a sense of the gig and the iPad. I found the work mesmerising and could not avoid thinking of some parallels with visual artists who do collaborate, share and overlay each others work using new technologies – even emails.
We did a project in Bucks using a digitiser to generate digital collages which were sent to Flickr at the end of the day, these were picked up, and worked on by a school in New Zealand (their day time) and republished for us to see the next morning at breakfast. But other collaborations are easy to find (or google).
A few days later I was at a lunchtime concert. This time of Russian, Polish and Ukrainian songs by Dvorak, Rachmaninoff and Chopin sung by Tatiana Soloviova at St Michaels Church, Oxford. That afternoon I heard that Damon Albarn had produced much of the latest Gorillaz album on an iPad. Today I heard that Steve Jobs had died.
(Much of Laurence Casserley’s work has involved collaboration with other art forms, including poets, eg Bob Cobbing, and visual artists, including Colourscape artist Peter Jones. He is a Director of the Colourscape Music Festivals, presenting contemporary music in the unique environment of the Colourscape walk-in sculpture. He also collaborates with Peter Jones on sound/light installations.)
Warhol at Bexhill. When I first saw Warhol’s work (Tate 1968) it was exciting, incisive and challenging. Culturally a very long way from Bexhill. Now the De la Warre gallery is showing a major exhibition of his work and it is still exciting, incisive and challenging and in Bexhill. The works have an immediacy and physical presence which I had forgotten due to the decades of seeing only reproductions of this iconic imagery.
Really good video / installation exhibition by Catherine Yass at the De la Warr pavilion in Bexhill. But almost as good a Banksy on the beach – which the council has protected with a perspex sheet. Is that to miss the point?
I do like digital sculpture which is often, but not always, projections onto sculpture (objects) providing an animated skin. This month I have seen an extraordinary animation projected across the front of the Liver Building in Liverpool and last week a charming projection of bees onto a behive in the Hastings Museum. The latter to celebrate the work of local artist Angie Biltcliffe who died recently. They make an interesting contrast in scale. But in schools with blackout in drama studios it would be interesting to see what could be done with sound, projectors and sculpture (even dance). It should be possible to map the projection to the sculpture as well as playing it on walls.
I was in Liverpool to see the Magritte and stayed to hear an open air concert and see the projection. The new sculpture at Liverpool Tate is really interesting but I found the Magritte rather silly.
