ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [6 March 2007]

Ok, so this is how it all started: I had this vision of eyes blinking... many, many eyes placed next to eachother, just blinking. Blinking was to me a sign of a moment at first, moment(s) that are usually taken for granted... moment(s) that we do not pay attention to because of various entanglements with past or future.Then, it occured to me that "closing eyes" as an expression has also some connection to this idea.
At the same time I heard that the buliding in which I shared a studio with Annie Davey is about to be demolished and that all of us have to move out by the end of October this year. That's when things started to click together. It was the end of the building, the end - eyes closing - the end. At the same time it became obvious that since all of the artists in the building are mainly visual artists - it had to be our eyes... Our production is directly affected by this change.
Then, I approached SPACE, who are managing the building with the idea of making an outdoor video installation that marks the end of the building. It was a move made in Cairos - "the right moment". They were more that happy to hear about this as they believed there has to be something done that raises awareness of this trend - closing down artists' studio buildings.
Later, FREEFORM, a public art organisation also based in East London, expressed their interest in supporting the project. Which brings me to present and the current state od production:this is a self funded public art project with strong in-kind support. It makes me a bit worried, but also it raises great determination to make this project happen. Right now I'm working on pubilicity, which makes me super stressed as I never did it before. Finally I have dates confirmed for projections: 23rd - 29th April. Luckily enough, friends help :)

# 2 [12 March 2007]

yesterday i started shooting - robert bramwell-jones was the first to "blink" for me. although i had my doubts about the level of collaboration on this project, robert proved to be great artist to start filming with - he pointed out some things i havent been thinking about... meaning of "left" and "right" in this project and how can that be used in reading of this piece... thanks robert :)
today, i'll continue filming + still working on press release, artwork for postcard... one thing is still not clear - opening night... but should have that sorted out by 21st march.
and, yes, i'll be washing a lot of windows for easter holiday :)

# 3 [13 March 2007]

third day of filming - i love working with artists :) everybody i filmed till now was great. i'm not doubting collaborative side of the project anymore!
thanks to: annie davey, vasiliki gkotsi, robert bramwell-jones and frixos (have to get his last name).
tomorrow, i'll be filming two more artists, one moved out of the studio already, i'm not sure if the ohet found something yet.
so far it is about half of the people i filmed found studios or some suitable arangement... i wonder how the rest are doing... we'll have "the building" meeting with Anna Harding and Fiona Furness of SPACE and talk about this project and the idea of open studio day(s) as last chance to mark the end of the building... i will on the other hand try and get SPACE help out with opening evening :)
i made a new picture last night to depict the idea... after talking to annie today, i've been thinking about editing a lot... the projections will change every night. so far i have some maneuvering space and just wondering how similar the final output will be to what i'm imagining now...

# 4 [20 March 2007]

working for money takes up my time... but it has to be done :) i'm teaching at the university of westminster on BA graphic information design. besides working on my installation, i'm trying to develop strategy for teaching software in art/design... not easy.
marketing is moving and i'm very happy about it. next issue of computer arts will have something about the project... great! thanks kdd!
postcards, i'm waiting for the meeting tomorrow to get final confirmation and finish artwork for postcards. want to send them to print on next monday... annie agreed to play some records at the opening, that will be wonderful :)
now i need start thinking about net curtains, washing windows, extension cables...

# 5 [28 March 2007]

as march is coming to an end i was supposed to eccelerate towards final confirmations and start of production. unfortunately, i hurt my back last saturday so everything was brought to a halt. well, not everything, SPACE let me know yesterday they have projectors available a week earlier that initially planed - i will do everything possible to get them to re-confirm for the 23rd to 29th. it will be quite a job to get everybody else say yes to switched dates... it is quite a problem when you are working withought a proper budget and just hire equipment - this will be a great lesson to learn for the future.
also, with this compications i am not sure if i can pull out the private view - my intiial idea was to have my ex studio-mate, annie davey, playing some records and drinks just before the projections are switched on, on 26th april... four days into the installation... but now i'm monitoring sunsets and on 26th sun sets at 8.10 pm. the building's location is such that it doesn't have any barrier in front - so as long as there's daylight, the projections are going to be hardly visible... and that's nearly 9 pm... i'm not sure how to get people come to private view and wait to get dark???!!!
also, there are plans to do an open studio weeken 18th to 20th may, and i agreed to help with designing a postcard invite - Frixos asked me if i'd be interested to put one of the images of the installation to the postcard, which brought me to the point of reconsidering printing of my own postcards... now, with new developments in dates... i might drop printed invites and only send email invite to various mailing lists and use open studio postcard to promote 205A morning lane installation (a month later that it is happening)...
video, i cant think about it now, there are several techocal issues i need to resolve... like how to do a loop that will play for 4 hours without actually making 4 hours long video loop...
one good new is that yesterday i went to meet with Free Form's Dan Barker, IT support guy, who was very positive about installin the installation and even offered some boards to mount projectors. we discussed how to test projectors (ther will be 10 differnt projectors, so we have to test them all in order to get the best possible projections), how to fix net curtains.
it will be okay, artists of morning lane studio buliding were very supposrtive last week at the meeting and agreed to help with aditional filming, and maybe i get some of them help me with installing things... fingers crossed :)

# 6 [30 March 2007]

my apologies for typos and lowsy spelling.
i think that "rocky road productions" describe the curent state of affair in the best possible way... well, it's not all so bad but there were some changes in number of projectors i'm getting from SPACE, which called for new round of figuring out who to approach to replace the missing projectors... luckily enough, my old friend and collaborator Alexei Blinov came to resque with one projector. i still need one more. its getting a bit complicated now and i'll have to keep tabs on who's projectors i'm using for which days...
started working with video. at this point i'm just going through the material i filmmed so far and playing a little to see what have i made so far. btw, i completely forgot how much time it takes after effects to export a quick time movie... although, i dont think i'll use it for the piece - it's just for experimentation. so it'll be a final cut work - editing and finding the best loops that will work out well together. i'm looking for synchronicity, for movements of eyes that are similar and that will, when combined as different lenght loops, produce "pulsation".... we'll see...

# 7 [2 April 2007]

errr, just wrote everything i had on my mind for this entry and then i did not upload it :( and it's lost. well, next time copy and paste into text editor as this media is super unstable...

so, i reflected on the stuff i bought and what else needs to be bought - i'll go in about an hoeu to see alexei's mount to idetify what i need to fix projectors to a ceiling and i still need to buy, probably some adhesive tape to fix curtains i bought yeaterday.

i'm very gratefull to everybody who helped - already made credits list for my web site - i'll upload it closer to the event... it was a meeting with frixos and vasiliki this saturday at the building, that reminded me how many people selflessly helped the project so far :) thank you all.

then, i wrote about postcard - digital version is finished and now i need to make a list of people who i'd like to invite + to send it out to several mailing lists... that should help marketingwise. i decided not to print invites... we'll see but i'd like to have printed material next time. for private view i'll have A4 press release and postcards will be sent by email.

video is moving slowly - there's still no click, but it is maybe because i did not do a test with two stripes of eyes to simulate the projection. also, have to remind artists about new shoot next week...

# 8 [3 April 2007]

email teaser is out: this week one opened eye, next week one closed eye, the week after that full invite and then a day before the private view a reminder... oh, have just heard some publications are going to write about the project - both online and in print. heavy fires of marketing, it's got to be done :)

fliming, more filming next week... have to be careful with light! the material i have filmed so far has different light from eye to eye... i'm not sure if this will prove to be problematic since the building has a streetlight right in front of the facade... which means a lot of uncontroalble light and low contrast as a result... hm. i think i dreamed last night about low lumens projectors... so much about hopes and fears for this project :)

now, quickly move to postcard design for open studio weekend 18th, 19th, 20th may - frixos and i gave it a name: OPEN END - in interactive narratives, there is an option of open end - an end that is not determined, that is not the end at all :) i like this word play, hopefully it will be welcomed by everybody involved in the open studios.

# 9 [6 April 2007]

on washing windows

i developed a special technique for this task: soak and scrub :) and it is as hard as i thought it will be... i was washing windows today in alistair kendry's studio. because the windows are very big, some of the artists painted them over so the amout of light it not overwhelming... hard manual labour is sometimes quite interesting... it gave me space to think why do i wash windows on a building that is scehduled to be demolished in less than couple of months...

it is not my intention to make a sterile screen... but the paint that covered some of the windows was really in the way of creating two lines of projections. i'll leave the rest of the windows as they are... it is nice to see trace of artists existance in the building.

there's one more studio which windows are painted over... that's tomorrow and maybe one more afternoon...

in the meantime, i'm waiting for an insurance company to give me a quote. i'd like to insure all the projectors and dvd players... fingers crosse di'll be able to afford it.

# 10 [11 April 2007]

on insurance

it is because i am going to borrow 10 projectors and dvd player and put them in artists' studios for a week and have a private view on 26th april, i decided i will insure the event - and guess what, i will have to pay for public liability and event property cover and still have to sleep in the building! because the insurance company is not covering in case of theft in unattended space... of course i dont have money to pay 24 hour security and all the equipment i got for free from various friends - i cannot live with the idea that something can get stolen while not insured - and still i have to stay in the building over night for a week, just because there is no other way for the time being...

on the bright side, eveything else is coming up really nicely: rob worley of free form is making sure i'll get the boards for the projector/dvd mounts. today i finished filming artists' eyes. windows are clean :) still have to buy hooks and chains for mounts. from sunday, i'm fixing screens. from wednesday, projector mounts... just sent short version of press release to several mailing lists and everybody seems to be very excited about the project :)