what i am at: lately i have been trying to gather my thoughts and get some kind of structure on my contextual study. have been under the weather a bit too but have continued to gather and make but just didn’t get around to posting til now ….
video and print: one of the areas i though i would continue to explore before deciding on which works to include in the exhibition was an idea i had to combine still and moving image – again all referencing my current preoccupation with how i frame the landscape – define it edge, where does it start and end and also how do i translate the landscape from experience, capture and recapture it and new experience.
gathering: i instinctively went out to sandymount early last saturday. i think i knew that the horizon of the sea would work well with what i was thinking about in terms of deciding the frame and edge of the image. i also felt that the constant movement of the water would be interesting against its still image. i gathered short videos and corresponding stills to play around with. i also edited my still to the 16:9 ration of the video – or at least i thought i did!
printing:in my previous experiment, i had printed a bit map of a landscape in black on a transparency and thought i would screen print the separate layers of colour as a next step. as i have only 2 screens big enough for the scale i needed i just did the black and cyan layers. i worked quickly enough because i wanted to just get a feel for what could happen.
printing on transparencies: i recently bought an a3 printer and a3 transparencies to explore scaling up for the video scale. i really didn’t expect the screen printing ink to set on the transparencies and thought i would test out its possibilities even if the ink was wet but it turns out the ink does set although sticks to the screen and i need to be careful lifting the screen.
printing on muslin: another idea i had from my last experiment with transparencies and video was to print on some kind of cloth or netting – again i’m not sure exactly why yet but i was interested in seeing the video projection pass through the image on a more textured surface. i bought a couple of meters of muslin to try out and i like its texture and the hand printed feel to the image on the cloth as the ink sits on top of the material and bleeds a wee bit at the edges.
testing together: so today i tested the video projected on/through the transparencies and the cloth. i first tried separating the printed layers and then brought them together and just mounted them on the wall which works in its simplicity. i feel the still image against the video where birds cross the image and the waves move in patterns is starting or trying to do something which is making it all the harder to decide which stays and goes in terms of the exhibition. ‘contemplating a mountain’ stays for sure and then perhaps this one with wall mounted prints and a projector?
with transparencies
with muslin
some rough testing
some notes from tutorial with NM (13.03.20): had a lovely chat with NM and feeling positive about having more questions than answers and also about the likelihood of a digital exhibition. some notes … in discussing my exploratory work, NM asked me to consider how the sound relates to the visuals of my work and how this in turn is experienced by the audience – as the visuals layer, could the sounds layer also? NM also asked me to try and articulate what i mean by ‘frame’ – is it about the experience within the frame or the border and edges and, if so, how can this come into focus for the audience – through physical boundaries to the projections, through use of scale within a physical space etc? NM also asked me to consider how the gaps in the visuals and the blurring of the visuals (especially using the fabric as screen) might be echoed in the soundscape. my process was also discussed in terms of the impetus to ask questions without being able to articulate/ verbalise it’s answers. NM suggested that these experiments could develop into a series or collection of work rather than arriving at a singular piece of work with a definitive answer. He also suggested that the digital exhibition format using multiple screens, fade in and out of pieces, varying scale etc could resonate and be very suitable to the work. so the upshot: follow the work through exploration. try options as they arise – be responsive. don’t be worried if you don’t (pre or post) know answers – follow the questions, answers can be the experience rather than the explanation – these questions can be your statement rather than your answers. continue to explore knowing why you are going rather than where you are going, in terms of outcomes. allow audience to bring their answers to the work.
elaine crowe 
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