December 24 2009

Today I met the man that I’ve seen almost everyday (on my way to work) sitting on the same bench by the River Trent.

I had wrote about seeing him further down my blog during August- October 2009, when I was gathering recordings from the River Trent (Nottingham) and River Soar (Leicester).

It’s Christmas Eve, so feeling festive and a tad whimsical I thought it would be a good idea for me to change my usual routine of power walking my way through town and be late for work.

I had to remind myself to grab a mince pie and a cup of coffee, I’m not particularly fond of either but I thought that the man on the bench might be interested.

As usual, I made sure that my recorder and microphones were working and was all set up and ready to go…it does sometimes feel a bit sneaky recording conversations with people when they are unaware of it.

The man has a name and it begins with a ‘D’, he lives in a care home in Nottingham, but used to live and work in London and Manchester in a seal foundation factory and more interestingly as a doorman for Playboy and for a punk rock club in Manchester.  He feeds the ducks everyday, chain smokes, drinks Fosters and when it rains he sits in the crown court.  His wish (which he shared with me, without any prompting) is to plant a tree in Hyde Park or St James Park in London to leave behind some kind of legacy.

The recording was taken today and will be added shortly.

Adrianne Tolentino from Lasalle College of Arts created her own fantastic version of our animation. We love it.

Another version of our animation created by Adrianne Tolentino

We have completed the final puzzle. Lost in the City at the National Museum is such a long exhibition, after our trip to Japan, we still have time to include the animation sequel and documentation of our community workshops into the existing installation.

Our mission is accomplished, we have managed to bring FT4 back home!

Documentation of 4th Fukuoka Triennale art workshops

Joo Choon Lin and Chun Kai Qun

From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green

Stop-motion animation and diorama installation, 2009

Lost in the City, National Museum of Singapore

The paintings out in the world on the floor,site Specfic so to speak,,

On the floor means people can walk around to take a look.

This was part of a presentation I made to a non  art group and the feedback was very positive

At the 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, we created a sequel to From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green, titled Part Two: The Rebirth. The combined animation  was exhibited as an installation with its miniature setting.

In the sequel, a creature named Planter rejuvenated a destroyed land with the help of over more than 600 old toy figurines.

From Green To Brown To Black To Brown To Green

Stop-motion animation

11:32 mins

The completed installation was exhibited at another venue of the Fukuoka Triennale, Renovation Museum (Reizensou). It consisted of a miniature landscape where most of From Green… Part Two: The Rebirth was filmed and also the animation itself, this time in its entirety, with Part One as well.

Joo Choon Lin and Chun Kai Qun

From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green

Stop-motion video installation

4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale

2009

]]> http://fromgreentobrowntoblacktobrowntogreen.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/art-workshops-sound-recording/ Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:16:17 +0000 chunkaiqun http://fromgreentobrowntoblacktobrowntogreen.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/art-workshops-sound-recording/

The sound in the animation was recorded from voices of students making sounds of struggle and victory.

We were involved in art workshops with about 300 students where they created miniature trees and attached them to toy figurines they had brought. The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum also provided simple materials for the workshops, mainly beads and decorative items from 100-yen shops. The materials were laid out in buffet-style and the students would queue up to select their favourite items. The trees were made of painted twigs and branches found in the local parks.

From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green

Art workshops

4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale

2009

For the art exchange programme at FT4, we had two art workshops with about 300 students in total. We decided to create a continuation to the animation shown at the National Museum of Singapore. This part of the animation was titled From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green: The Rebirth. Essentially, the students would help us create miniature trees and then attached them to toy figurines that they brought to the workshops. We would then study all the works made by the students and try to develop the animation around them.

As mentioned above, each toy figurine carried a tree that was made by students in the Art Exchange Programme workshops. In the art workshops, students were encouraged to use simple and expressive methods to create the trees, as each individual had a unique approach, the students were also creating a representation of themselves in the form of the trees. We also thought that it was important that the students could see the little effort they spent in the workshops could amount to a greater cause.

Very much often, the actions that are taken to save the environment, are often minor adjustments to our daily activites, such as taking the time to sort the trash, and we do not know or are not able to envision how much help they can really be.

The making of From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green. The animation was filmed with very lo-fi DIY-style blue-screen technology.

Part One: The Destroyed has its setting in the parks around Singapore such as the Botanical Gardens and Fort Canning Park. In the animation, the creatures are going about their daily routine, playing hide and seek, police and thief and getting busy with genetic mutation, until the arrival of excavators and big trucks bringing about an end to their joyful lives.  One of the creatures managed to escape, surviving to fight another day.

Artist/Director/Sound – Joo Choon Lin

Artist/Producer/Editor – Chun Kai Qun

From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green, Animation stills, 2009

The installation is sited at a staircase rotunda, it is a rather challenging space, and I think we are the first to create a work there. As construction is rampant in our city, we have chosen to replicate a construction site in the National Museum. These trails of development are always around us  and  we wonder if our everyday behaviors are subconsciously affected by them. The installation will  also be on site for a lengthy duration, probably leaving people wondering when the ‘construction’ will ever be done.

Joo Choon Lin and Chun Kai Qun

From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green

Stop-motion animation and diorama installation, 2009

(Image by ChrisP. Courtesy of National of Museum of Singapore)

From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green – Wasteland (Details of diorama)

(Image by ChrisP. Courtesy of National of Museum of Singapore)

We decided that parts of the project needed to be accessible to students and so we used an animation to form the backbone of the project. A rather general narrative was developed and that being a land being destroyed and the students needing to help salvage the situation. The art workshops that were organised for the students then felt more like an important mission that they were a part of and their efforts amounted to a greater cause.

In the style of Choon Lin’s previous animations, where she usually worked without a fixed plot, and then incorporating materials and objects that she seen along the way, as the animation progressed, From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green featured artworks created by students, and they influence the making and development of the animation.

Sypnosis of From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green:

Part One: The Destroyed tells the plight of creatures when their land is being developed and Part Two: The Rebirth shows how it is being rebuilt with the help of hundreds of recycled toy figurines that is collected around Fukuoka.

Here is a breakdown of the project:

The backbone of the entire project

• Animation titled From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green (Part One: The Destroyed  and Part Two: The Rebirth).

At the Lost in the City exhibition, National Museum of Singapore

• Mainly an installation which altered the environment of the exhibition site, perhaps in the rubric of relational aesthestics.

• From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green (Part One: The Destroyed).

At the Art Exchange Programme, 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan

• From Green to Brown to Black to Brown to Green (Part Two: The Rebirth).

• Art workshops with local junior high students where they created simple artworks using over 600 recycled toy figurines collected in Fukuoka. All the artworks were featured in the animation, and voice recordings of the students were also used as sound effects in the animation.

• The animation was filmed on a miniature landscape that was constructed in Fukuoka. This landscape along with the toys were installed in a room where the animation were projected.

Situationist International head honcho Guy Debord defined psychogeography  in 1955 as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”

Another definition is “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape.”

December 2009

Come down to The Independent Art Centre on Humberstone Gate on Saturday 12 December 9pm- 2am

Click here for further information on Stench V

PVC & Stench presents…

Stench V – A night of live electronics to rewire your mind.
A sonic line up from some of the UKs finest electronic labels:

Mrs Jynx [planet mu]
Threep [bathysphere]
Myoptik [ping-discs/pvc/centrifuge]
Roy Of The Ravers [centrifuge]
Wassim [centrifuge]
Felis [Kontakt]

Only £5 for a night of spectacular visuals, fine sonics and interactive multimedia at The Arts Organisation Leicester.
68-70 Humberstone Gate, Leicester, LE1 3PL.

www.stench.org.uk
www.thecentrifuge.co.uk
www.planet-mu.com

Another opportunity to loan a pair of headphones and MP3 player to listen to the binaural audio recording made especially for Humberstone Gate!  Sit on one of the benches opposite the Independent Art Centre and have a listen…

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk (left), NASA astronauts Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott; along with Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, all Expedition 21 flight engineers, share a meal at the galley in the Zvezda Service Module of the ISS. Photo taken October 12, 20

I thought about her question when I came across this interview of astronaut Nicole Stott by science fiction writer Bruce Sterling for the magazine Dwell. It’s one of the best interviews I’ve read in a long time, with both parties fully engaged and committed to the task. Plenty of things I had never thought to wonder about, like what does the International Space Station smell like?, and what kind of plugs do they use up there? But most fascinating to me were her reflections on her corporeal reactions to outer space. Check out these teasers and then go read the interview. And then tell me what site-specific work you would make at the International Space Station.

“As I’m floating in front of my computer right now, basically just holding myself with one foot behind a foot restraint, the way your body just naturally floats up and down is very similar to the roll of gentle waves on a ship. Interesting because it’s your body in zero gravity that’s giving you the sensation; it’s not anything that the space station is doing.”

“In addition to the way our bodies adapt, there are also interesting reactions to the way our bodies interact with the zero-g environment that we can feel if we pay attention. One of the most interesting to me is that while I’m still and floating I can feel the reaction, or maybe better described as a motion through my body, from something as slight as my heart beat. My heart beats and I can actually feel like the space station is moving around me because of it, when in fact it’s really my whole body gently moving in response to it and not the station motion at all.”

Wow, right?!

http://www.artichoke.uk.com/

the people that did the spider in Liverpool have created a four day festival of light in Durham recently

Andy and I will be showing our collaborative installation ‘Question and Respond/Respond and Question’ as part of Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich’s work, ‘The Bank of Reason’, for the 1 mile ² project at the Collective Gallery. For more information on this please click here!

The work will be in the Collective Gallery on Sunday 29th November between 1-2pm and then at the Scottish Storytelling Centre the following week on Sunday 6th December between 1pm-2pm. These will both be happening between other interesting things which are detailed on the Collective Gallery’s website.

Hope to see you at some of the events/talks!

Nat

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Right now, I’m taking this site-specific art class at Boston University, taught by Hugh O’Donnell. In the class, I’ve begun focusing on PoS as a collaborative drawing performance piece.  I gave myself several new conditions that I must draw the portraits under:

The next couple of points are optional, depending on the circumstances (at least for now):

I more than encourage anyone who is interested in this project I’m designing to follow my bullet points.  If you do, please send me a picture of your drawing and/or video of your performance, and I will post it on the blog with credit to you.  The purpose of the PoS project is to get other people drawing- as much and as often as possible, sharing with strangers.  Drawing isn’t lofty, and everyone can do it.  I hope to use this project to teach others how to see/draw.  Please do the same, and tell me about it!

Binaural Audio Installation and Textile Hanging, December 2007.

The Upstairs Gallery, The City Gallery, Leicester.
Collaboration with Cat Preston

MA Fine Art Nottingham Trent University graduates Lucy Stevens and Cat Preston collaborated on a five- day exhibition at the Upstairs Gallery of The City Gallery to combine traditional textiles with binaural audio recordings.

Using the Upstairs Gallery of The City Gallery as a host, the installation allows visitors to interact with the physical environment by touching the textile hanging and moving through the shadows produced by the delicate and carefully cut flower design. Preston responds to the beauty of the traditional feminine craft and its endurance of creation, creating a textile divide within the gallery space.

The space behind the textile hanging invites the visitor to listen to binaural audio via stereo headphones. The spot lights and shadows act as a enclosure putting the visitor in a position of complete physical and mental immersion. The binaural audio was gathered on site at The City Gallery and from other locations, including Bridgford Park and the Nine Ladies Stone Circle to give a sense of transportation from inside to outside and much further away, as if accessing Stevens’ different memories all at once.

*Please listen to Conscious Void via stereo headphones.  Approx 3 mins

Binaural Audio Installation, July 2007.

MAzing group exhibition, The Arts Organisation, Nottingham

For this particular binaural audio installation I felt it was important to produce a recording that was site specific and reflected the location and the events that took place. Not only did the location cater for art lovers but also as an entertainment source. I found myself in the audience of an Arabic Shimmies and Shakes belly dancing event.

The binaural audio takes the listener on a journey through the evening, as they experience a collection of audio including jangling skirts and jewellery bouncing off dancing belly dancers, a man talking loudly on his mobile phone, people from the audience whispering, talking and helping the host remember the names of the performers and a DJ who (no matter how hard he tried) could never get the correct song to each performance much to the annoyance of the belly dancers.

*Please listen to Bellytastic via stereo headphones.  Approx 5.30 mins

Binaural Audio walk, July 2007.

Feast MA Exposition, Nottingham Trent University

Visitors to the exhibition were invited to borrow an MP3 player and go on a guided walk. With the unsettling preamble: ‘I usually only hear it at night’, the narrator takes the listener on a journey, directing them down steps, round corners, through doors, to a dark space where ‘ the air feels heavy and damp, making it hard to breathe’ and where a moving black shadow appears just at the edge of vision. The narrator’s superstitions (‘I try to avoid the white tape on the stairs’) and fears (‘we’re being followed…’) are reinforced by sinister music, strategically placed, and by the ambient sounds of accompanying footsteps, of doors opening right on cue, of drilling, banging, a gasp of fear, thunder, running water, the echo of a voice, a brief, muffled commotion and then, the narrator’s voice stops – silence – until another voice, as if over a two-way radio, announces the discovery of a dead body.
Listening to the recording, our awareness is heightened at the same time as it is bemused, disorientated: the particular qualities of binaural recording create a 360- degree experience of sound which blurs the line between fiction and reality, so that we are thrown off-balance, unsure what is ‘live sound’ and what is recorded: prey to our own imagination.

- Deborah Dean, Visual Art & Exhibitions Manager, Nottingham City Museums and Galleries

*Unheard Sounds is a site specific binaural audio walk, to be listened to at the Bonington building at Nottingham Trent University.  Please listen to Unheard Sounds via stereo headphones.  Approx 5 mins