It's a quick one as last week was supposed to be. Short and sweet, swift and speedy.
Personal
In terms of personal, the house hunt is still on and starting to gain momentum, driving lessons still going and my bell pepper plant is starting to ripen into a beautiful red hue, and nothing really much of interest has taken place.
I also have an interview next week regarding an assistant facilitator job with the lovely Z-Arts, I am really hoping I can join up with them as it would be an incredible and useful step in improving my craft and skills, as well as being a wonderful place to do so whilst helping and assisting others. With it being only 2 hours a week also I revolve it around my other work and life also.
I took part in an interview for a radio show to help them connect with a target audience, that was pretty fun, and apart from that and an upcoming show which I'll be lighting there is nothing much I can talk or show you.
(Also, didn't get the t-shirt printed they were closed due to illness, not fun.)
Bury Exhibition
I saw a new exhibition in the Bury Gallery and Sculpture Centre called Evolutionary Love:
"We are excited to host the 2020/21 recipient of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award, Dean Kenning. For ‘Evolutionary Love’, Kenning has produced a series of semi-autonomous, interactive creatures - robots - which crawl and drag themselves around the gallery." (Source: https://buryartmuseum.co.uk/Exhibitions)
In this exhibition, we saw these robots cobbled together with chipsets, servo-motors, cameras and exposed battery packs and circuitry with melted plastic, foam and wax on a baseplate to hold things together. From the looks of things, each other the 4 robots, had different personalities and human qualities in how they explored the terrain, interact with other robots and people, and the way they walked. The cameras mounted on the robots was streamed to various screens around the exhibition space, giving viewers the opportunity to see from their perspective on a ground level.
I found I took quite an interest in observing them, with the idea of seeing how this new form of faux life sees and processes the world around them, and how they interact, for example, one of them would display human attributes to shyness/ nervousness, pausing and then shivering when interacting with a person/ robot. What I found really intriguing was after a while of our interaction, when it was alone and out of the way of everyone, it could be seen dancing, a common guilty and embarrassing pleasure of humans, dancing when no ones watching.
Others, had fewer limbs, with two limbs one robot lumbered about the space, although it looked a lot more difficult for it to travel, it did so with what felt like solid intention, how this translated to me was the idea of ambition, regardless of form. Such as how Paralympians, who would be thought to not or ever be able to take part in sports due to their disabilities, are performing trials of skill at a professional level through their drive and ambition.
The one moment I felt wasn't intentional, but a really intriguing touch was one of the robots that ran out of battery, it came to the end of its lifespan in a way. Looking at it and sharing the space with the moment you saw from its perspective on the screen stutter, and the movement of its legs become rigid and struggled, and the last few blinks of the stream from its perspective stutter, it went black. I had a laugh to myself about how in the space of 30 minutes, I grew attached and curious into these robots existence and how they explored the space, without knowing that the inevitability of ourselves, a lot like these robots, will lose energy, will slow down and inevitably stop, and no longer see, explore, move, feel. The other robots continued on their way, with no reconciliation of the passing of the other. Overall, I found through these robots that there was a lot that we could see to reflect on through them, and how we see than we can discover more about ourselves and our own bodies physically and spiritually.
SLR
Phew, canister #2 was a success! This roll of film was souped, which is the act of submerging the canister in liquid and having it alter the outcome and the look of the film when taking pictures. I used a mix of red wine, paracetamol and olive oil, hopefully, to get a good mix of waves and dots and an altered colouring scheme of the film.
I am still learning the methods and skills to practice gaging light intensity and what ISO to use, as some of the photos I had didn't get printed due to the lack of them being caught on the film. Anywho, here is a highlight of the outcomes, from my personal favourites to the mistaken photos.
Clowning devising
I'll keep this short and sweet as I've not got too much yet, but I am developing ideas for a solo/ duo clowning piece focusing on the ideas of money, love and the fine line between them. This will be done through a character, an ex-millionaire businessman, corrupt and conman-Esque, always looking for an angle. After a very poor choice in crypto releasing his own 'clown coin,' he lost everything, apart from the ragged clothes on his back, business ideas, and a bin full of stuff.
I want to explore different styles of clowning through this, such as classic, tragic and more experimental/ contemporary styles to make it more engaging. I want people to also share a love-hate to, or an idea of a complex character, one you want to see succeed even through ridiculous or unsavoury ways, or an arc change of being money-focused to following love.
So far I have a good idea on an opening video to set the world and back story, and an opening piece full of energy and classic comedia dell'arte styles and formats. In time, when I have space I would love to start devising and seeing what does and doesn't work.
Anywho, that will do for today's micro update, not as micro as I wanted, but somewhat.
Catch you for the final update of 2021 next time, cya.
Peace,
- S (05/12/21)