ARTISTS TALKING

# 11 [10 March 2009]

Sunday I was determined to have as a day of rest as I have not given myself time off really until now. (I was also feeling the effects of a few beers following the trip to the baths the night before). I’d forgotten that the clocks were going forward and I managed to drag myself out of bed to catch breakfast before the 9am cut off point, only to find I was too late. Had to make do with a mediocre breakfast wrap from the Kiln Café instead.

I was desperate to do my laundry as I hadn’t had a chance until then, so I took myself down to the basement, hoping to have a browse in the library to pass the time. Unfortunately, I forgot it doesn’t open until 5pm on a Sunday. Instead I lazily read the local paper and tried to catch up with this blog. It was great to have fresh clean clothes again!

When all was done, I took myself into town to get provisions for the evening’s social event. We organised to have a dinner between us , with everyone making some sort of contribution in food and wine. There is a kitchen/lounge in the basement of the hall I’m staying in, which is quite well equipped with an oven and other cooking implements, and a long table with plenty of chairs- a perfect setting for such an occasion. I’d promised to make a ‘mousse au chocolat’ (my mother’s recipe), so I had at least to get chocolate and eggs and of course a little cognac for flavour. Also bought a bottle of wine to add to the drink contributions.
I ended up of course, buying many more things in the supermarket as I also needed to stock up on energy food like cereal bars and bananas.
I stopped off in the dollar store on the way back to buy some postcards (yes I will send some eventually) and a rather kitsch thermos mug with a photograph of a Bear and the slogan Banff Rockies on it.

Dinner was great fun and a great success- we had a fantastic meal of samples of roast chicken, salmon, sweet potato mash, roast potatoes, carrots and beans, followed by my chocolate mousse, which thankfully turned out well (after much egg-white beating). And of course much wine was drunk. We ended the evening (some of us), watching a screening of the Manchurian Candidate (the original better one with Frank Sinatra).
Got back and sat in bed to catch up with the Blog until 3am, much like I’m doing now. Tomorrow I’ll only be a day behind and I can tell you about today’s activities. For now though it’s goodnight.

# 12 [11 March 2009]

Yesterday was bitterly cold- -24 and a wind-chill of -30!. Hoped to go for a run but it was far too cold and very overcast. We started off the day with studio visits, which were scheduled for the whole morning. This was an opportunity for everyone to go round each of the artists’ studios in turn to see what they were working on and to get some feedback. Each visit had a scheduled 15 minutes. It was great to get a look at what everyone had been doing and also quite daunting.
I managed to download the footage I had taken on Saturday and to get hold of a projector to project it onto the wall of my studio to get a sense of the experiential aspect. This really made a difference. I got some very good feedback- people particularly liked how the sound worked with the rhythm and sound of my breathing, along with the rhythm of the moving image itself. I couldn’t really say much about the development of the live thing, apart from that I had had a few conversations and various things had been flagged up that I would be talking about with Kenny and Robert later in the day. There were a few questions about the live aspect and the reason for it, which for me has very much to do with the performance of running a durational run. There something about being out there trying to do this run NOW that I want to be able to share with others as I’m doing it. There was also talk of how the footage would get shown and how one could get a sense of the liveness. For me, the liveness becomes like a scheduled programmed event that people know about and that takes place once at a particular time. I still intend for the live relay to be transmitted and projected onto large screens, possibly outside and `I also intend for there to be some recorded runs and for the live run itself to be recorded.
There was a suggestion that using wi`fi networks might be particularly interesting because of the occasional loss of signal that could create its own rhythm with the piece. I agree, as long as it is not lost entirely.
I managed to speak a little to Robert and to Kenny at some length in the afternoon, - we managed to test that we could relay an image from one of my cameras direct to a live internet video stream via a conversion box. We were also able to test a relay from computer to computer. We then looked at possibilities of live transmission using video transmission/receiver devices. On the surface this seems like a better option but for the range I need, it is very expensive. Kenny left me to do some more research around this and I got completely bogged down by it all. All this technological research doesn't feel very productive or creative.

# 13 [11 March 2009]

Ended the evening last night feeling really frustrated and with the sense that I really wasn’t getting anywhere. Various options are being proposed but nothing concrete is happening. This development of my project is really very new to me technically, so when I research various components, I really don’t know what I’m looking at and if they will work. It doesn’t help that I haven’t really seen Robert and Kenny together. They have both talked about different things that don’t always coincide. We need to have a conversation together and to lay our cards on the table to figure out a viable way forward.
In desperation I emailed them in the early hours to request this and copied to peer advisors and other staff. I don’t want to get annoyed because everyone has been very helpful, and I still feel very privileged to be here, but the technical staff are spread out very thinly amongst us and so have a lot to deal with. It’s not their fault, and they are very good, but they don’t really have the level of expertise in relation to my particular project. Meanwhile time is ticking on…
It was still very cold today (about -17), but very much brighter and sunny. I was determined to try and get a run in. But what with trying to make progress and another scheduled discussion forum bang in the middle of the afternoon, it wasn’t going to happen. The good news is that Kate took on board my email plea and was very proactive in getting this meeting going with Kenny and Robert in her presence (although Robert wasn't around). She was very good in trying to pin down a means of moving forward and how we were going to do that. I feel a lot happier, but I’m still having to wait for various bit and pieces. The way forward is to do a rig that is as simple as possible  and to test it in the locality. This will mean only using a single rather than a dual eye-view in the first instance, but at least I’ll be able to see if something works (soon I hope!). I had been all ready to do another recorded run, but this meeting was too important to miss. I will catch up with Kenny again in the morning so that we can proactively sort out what I need to buy/order. I may need to forgo my own bullet cameras in favour of some small web-cams as these will directly stream to the internet without the need for a converter. It looks like either way, I’ll end up carrying a lot more than I had anticipated (they are talking of me carrying a computer!), which is a little worrying, considering the distance I hope to run. Initial tests will be on campus, both indoors and out, to see immediately if the system works. I really hope we can have something going by the weekend.

# 14 [12 March 2009]

Started the day today with an indoor run on the running track in the Sally Borden Recreation Centre. It goes around the perimeter of the viewing gallery above the basketball gym. Quite a nice idea, but the circuit is not very long- only about 100m. However, I managed to make myself do 100 circuits (10km) as I wanted to keep a feel of running a certain measure of distance. I may do some filming there- in any case -we talked about doing some initial tests using a lengthy extension cable. I also need to keep up my training and was concerned I might not get out again today to run outside as I was due to meet Kenny to continue where we had left off yesterday. It was very boring run going round and round- I had to make myself keep going. It was also too warm and the atmosphere was very dry. I didn’t seem to have any altitude problems though or shortness of breath. Not bad since up here we are at 1500m. Must be getting used to it now.
I met with Kenny after 1pm to go into Canmore, the nearest bigger town, to try to find a USB video capture device that will connect to the computer and that I can connect my cameras to. Edwin the line producer for the residency came with us. He wanted to collect some things for a film he is shooting in the next couple of days. We also wanted to find a larger mobile ‘phone store to get some information on mobile ‘phone internet connection. It will be easier for me to use kenny’s ‘phone in the end whilst I’m here as the cost of increasing the capacity of my own ‘phone or buying one here, is too prohibitive.
Canmore is a strange sprawling town- really spaced out and flat and made for driving in- a real car town quite industrial and surrounded by mountains.
Got back to Banff around 3.30 to try some initial tests on the running track with my cameras. I’d got hold of some very long extension leads in the morning as the capturing device we were using has to be plugged in. After getting all the kit up there, none of it worked! (it  seemed that east my PDR recording unit wasn’t recognising the capturing device). Went back to the studio and realised that the unit will stream live video to the internet via the capturing device, but it is unable to record at the same time. It’s looking increasingly likely I’ll be using webCams to do this- much simpler and less connections, but I’m concerned about image quality. Now I know what the problem was this afternoon, we’ll try again tomorrow with the PDR units on standby.
Ended the evening by attending the Ed’s (another artist) screening choice: Lucky People Center International, an extremely rare anthropological documentary from 1998 with the common thematic of dancing running through it. Great film.

# 15 [14 March 2009]

Mixed day yesterday. In the morning tried another recorded run to the Vermillion Lakes Road. It was another glorious day, but still pretty cold: -13 with a wind-chill of -25 but sunny. I needed all the layers I had on.
The sun made a difference to the whole run and to the recorded footage -much better contrast and much more colourful. I’m looking forward to taking some still photographs. Managed to do the run non-stop, which I’m very pleased about- I must be getting used to the altitude. Quite slow though and my breathing is erratic and heavy. On the way back I overshot the Fenland trail and found myself almost joining the highway. I turned back, but it probably added 2km to the route.
Got back pretty exhausted around midday which gave me a couple of hours to recuperate before meeting Kenny at 2. We decided to do the testing on the ground floor of the building where the New Media Institute in based and where I have my studio. The AVDC converter (which takes the feed from my recording unit to the computer), only runs on mains so we had to use a 100ft lead to get enough slack to allow me to run freely. It looked quite a sight and rather odd!  We managed to get the live streaming to work in the end through ‘i-chat’, but the picture quality particularly on the receiving computer was very poor. It was really disappointing after all that, but I wasn’t entirely surprised as i-chat is very basic. Kenny suggested I research other live streaming software, which when I got back to the studio I remembered I already had- a week ago! I remember speaking at length to Robert about using VLC, which is a media player that also supports live video and audio streaming (apart from it doesn’t do it for Macs, I later found). It seems that most software for this only works with PC’s- I’m beginning to realise that if I want to take this any further when I get back to London, I’m going to have to invest in one (or 2 if I still want to work with both eye views), of those tiny ee-pc’s, especially since the way we’re going (at least for these current tests), it looks like I’ll be running with them!
I was a bit done in for the rest of the day following my run and probably dehydrated. I had a splitting headache all afternoon and evening. I went to an informal concert of contemporary classical music with flute and percussion. It didn’t help. Later, Bruce, one of the other artists, hosted a Flusser night. This was an introduction to the ideas of image and media theorist Vilèm Flusser, followed by a televised interview with Miklós Peternák. Turns out that Bruce is a Flusser expert as he has been working on the archives in Berlin. Must read more of Flusser’s work.

# 16 [14 March 2009]

Today was much warmer at -4 in the morning, which is mild for here. I was toying with going in to Calgary to seek out some mini web-cams. I’m looking the possibility of working direct with these as they can plug straight into a computer without the need for an intermediary device. If I’m having to carry small computers now, as I run (light as they may be), I need everything else to be very light. I haven’t got to the level of those army guys who run marathons with huge rucksacks. The only thing is, there are only a few buses a day. I knew I wouldn’t make the 9.45 as I had to have a quick chat with Kenny before the weekend. The next bus wasn’t ‘til 12.45 and it’s a 4hr round trip. This would mean getting back after 7pm or even later. I really didn’t want to spend the rest of the day on a bus, with a shorter stop in Calgary. Besides, I don’t need the cameras yet.
Instead, I decided to go out to take some still photographs along yesterday’s route with a medium format camera I’ve borrowed from Goldsmith’s. I’d been told that there are bikes we can use here for free, which would make it a lot quicker and easier. After finally locating them and getting hold of a lock, I set off bike in hand with the camera. There’s a steep slope down from the Banff Centre to the Bow River trail. I decided not to cycle down it as the bike was a bit precarious. It’s a bloke’s road racer with drop handle bars (which I’m not used to), and had only one set of gears working. It give me a chance to begin photographing from the start of the route as I walked down, taking in the Bow River Falls and the fantastic Bow Springs Hotel. This vast hotel was built in the 19th century for the railway workers. It’s amazing and very grand (very expensive too), with imposing character. Reminds me of the hotel from ‘The Shining’.
It was great to take time to stop and to look at the scenery properly (only thing is, there’s a tendency to take too many similar photos- I have to be more ruthless and selective- there are only 15 exposures in a roll of film). As time went the wind started up and it began to get quite cold. Standing still to take photographs and to change film didn’t help either. I forced myself to carry on to the end of the Vermillion Lakes Road and made it nearly all the way before it became too much and my finger and toes got too painful and I could no longer feel them and I headed back (it’s not worth getting frostbite for art). Was very glad to have the bike for speed. Now about to go off for a quiet evening by the fireside with wine and a film.

# 17 [17 March 2009]

 Three days behind with the blog so lots of catching up to do. Saturday was a fairly quiet morning. I had it in mind to do another recorded run in the afternoon, so took it fairly easy. It’s a shame that the library here isn’t open on a Saturday, as I would have liked to go there then. Went up to the theatre building to book some tickets for the evening to see ProArteDanza, a Canadian contemporary dance company. It’s great to take advantage of things like this that are on here and as artists we get a discount.
My run in the afternoon retraced the route I’d taken previously to Sundance Canyon, via the Cave & Basin and the Marsh Loop Trails. I didn’t leave until around 3ish as it was a little overcast in the morning and I was waiting for it to clear. Turned out to be quite a nice, mild afternoon. The warmer weather has started to melt some of the ice and snow, so it was quite slushy in parts; in other areas the snow was still quite compacted –easier to run on in some ways, but very bumpy, hard terrain. I’d forgotten that the route there is on a very slight incline so it was a little hard going as I neared the canyon site and downhill most of the way back, which was a lot easier. I even picked up a little speed. I like this route as it’s quite varied through forest pines and the purple/brown/ ochre colours of the marshland plants are particularly beautiful. On this route I was more or less the other side of the Vermillion Lakes, and so the mountains were also very much in view.
I managed to do a complete run without stopping and also got a complete recording on both sides. A successful day. Got back just in time to have a long bath, dinner and get to the theatre. I wore my special ochre velvet slacks for the occasion.
The performance was very mixed and varied- mixing contemporary with classical in both the music and the dance. It was very dynamic in parts, mainly in pieces that had the younger dancers and slow and considered in others, showing great strength and endurance from the older dancers. My favourite pieces were the one using Gavin Bryars’ ‘Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet’ and Handel’s ‘Lascia Ch’io Pianga’. Great, very moving music, which had older members of the company performing in pieces full of slow tension and experience. Very moving.

We finished the evening with a few drinks in the posh dining room bar for Ruth's (another of the artists), birthday. I sampled a highly recommended gin martini- fantastic but very strong! One was enough.

# 18 [17 March 2009]

Was determined to have Sunday off.  Decided I would spend the day visiting 3 of Banff’s main museums.
Set off with Flossie, a Canadian artist  who has lived in Australia for a long time.
We walked to the Cave and Basin Museum (site of the Banff original hot springs), following the trail. It was snowing lightly and the ground was very slippery with the ice underneath.We came to the Museum via the Marsh Broadwalk Trail, where we saw 2 of the smaller hot springs steaming away amongst lush green and white algae. It’s quite unique and beautiful.
The first thing we noticed was the strong smell of the sulphur as we walked into the Museum, coming from the interior pool in the cave. The Basin is a long disused outdoor bathing pavilion, which used to be the largest in Canada. Unfortunately due to persistent structural problems and low attendance, it was forced to close in 1992. There is also an adjoining mineral pool, which is now home to a rare species of snail. Despite the history of this site, I was a little disappointed: the display on the 2nd floor seemed a bit tired and didn’t go into enough detail.
Second stop was Banff Park Museum (Western Canada's oldest natural history museum). Now this was really worth a visit. When you step inside, it’s as if you’ve stepped back in time into a 19th Century eccentric explorer’s collection of stuffed animals, birds and insects. The rooms are wood-panelled and full of glass display cases that house the collection, which spills out onto the top of the cases and onto the walls of the building. It’s amazing. It was developed in 1895 by Norman Sanson, a former soldier and local meteorologist, who became the Museum’s curator and who went out and personally collected many of the specimens. Everything is here- mostly animals from the locality, but also some that have no relation to the area, but came to the Museum through trading networks.
Last stop was the Whyte Museum (of art, culture  and history of the Canadian rockies). This was founded by local artists and philanthropists Peter and Catherine Whyte. Saw quite a stunning exhibition of landscape photographs by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. They were obviously shot with a large format camera and showed amazing colour and detail. These documentary photographs focus on humanitity’s impact on the planet, capturing images of the land altered by mankind. Despite this they have a certain ambivalence and it’s difficult to know what the position of the photographer is regarding this.
Spent quite along time in an exhibition about the Luxton Family, local pioneers responsible for putting Banff on the map. It was quite fascinating, not least because of the three generations of women in the family who were very active and the strong ties the family had with the Indians in the region.
Finished the day with another group dinner and a screening of ‘Man on Wire’.

# 19 [18 March 2009]

St. Patrick's day. Feeling pretty despondent. Had a frustrating couple of days. Kenny and now Dominic, who are helping me, are finding it difficult to make progress quickly. Although they seem to have spent some time trying to push on, things are not as straightforward as they seem. I had hoped to move on to the next stage by now, which is to actually start to test the range and signal outside. This will help me determine my route and how far I can go for the live run. I also need to practise the route. To get a feel of it, I went out yesterday (Monday) late afternoon and did 10 laps (14km) around the perimeter of the Banff Centre. It was hard work as it includes a steep climb, but it was great to see 2 deer watching me each time I went round!

Yesterday we also had a brief meeting about the Open Studios next week. I’m getting very nervous about this as I am nowhere near where I would like to be and it’s difficult to plan ahead. As well as the live streaming of the run, if it ever works, I’d like to show one of the recorded runs as a 2-screen projection. It should be straight-forward but I can’t seem to find a space that will accommodate it. My own studio space is too small.
We were told about other spaces that we can use if we need to. The problem with these is that most of them are formal single-screen projection studios. Although they have great systems within them, they are difficult to adapt to more than one screen. Other suggested spaces don’t seem suitable either: ‘The Other Gallery’ is a small ‘L’ shaped gallery, where it's possible to show 2 projections, but only far apart. My screens need to be at right angles to each other to get that sense of the view from each eye and of immersion. Using the corner of a room would be fine as an alternative, but can I find one? The only other space is an empty studio which has large skylights and an open top (unfortunately Greg from our group had to leave abruptly at the weekend for personal and health reasons).
I’ll make a point of speaking with someone 1st thing tomorrow as I’m really concerned and a little stressed. Spent most of the afternoon and evening today trying to make a go of it in my studio and was fairly optimistic at one point. I blacked out my window and its lovely view and covered it with a large sheet of white paper cut to size. It looked great. The adjoining wall has already been covered with paper, so it looks fine on the surface. Unfortunately, I can just get far back enough to project an acceptable image size onto the window screen, but not onto the adjoining side wall, even using a mirror. Feeling low and over-tired. Hope tomorrow's better.

# 20 [22 March 2009]

There’s been a bit of a gap as things have got even busier in the work up to the Open Studios next Wednesday(25th).
Following the last post there has been some progress, but not in all areas: I still feel really behind with the live run, mainly due to waiting for a component to arrive, which has halted the progress I could have made. The component is an AV digital converter, which would mean that I would be able to connect my own (good quality) bullet cameras via the recording device to the small computer I’ll be carrying when I’m running(!). Using web-cams would be more straightforward and would eliminate the need to carry my recording device as the recording could be made at the receiving end. However, the picture quality so far has been pretty poor. I may still buy some better quality webcams, if I can find any that are the right shape to wear.
I finally did a couple of tests on Wednesday and Thursday to test coverage using the mobile network and using the Banff centre Wi-Fi network. Both work and have their limitations. The mobile network allows me an extended coverage so I can venture further afield, but we are limited with the streaming software we can use. The Wi-Fi network needs an open network and so limits me to devising a run around the Banff Centre site, which has coverage in most buildings on the site. I went around the perimeter route I had run earlier in the week to test where I was getting Wi-Fi coverage and Dominic found a way of making a recording from his end so we could see where I was going out of zone. We also tested whether when I did go out of zone, the streaming would shut down entirely, or whether it would just freeze or go blank and pick up again once back in zone.
The latter happened, which is promising, as I had always envisaged something like that happening, which says something about the failure and limitations of technology. I like that concept.
I finally solved the issue regarding where to show the projection of one of my recorded runs. Following my despondency on Tuesday evening I had a chat with Edwin (one of the technical coordinators). He suggested I show in one of the screening studios and we had a conversation about me making some frame supports that I could cover in paper and suspend from the tracking system just below the ceiling. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided against it. The screening room just didn’t feel right- it’s far too big and I would lose all sense of intimacy and immersion (it would also be at least a day’s work to make the screens). I felt I was trying to make something fit a space it really wasn’t suited to. I looked at the projection in my studio again- it wasn’t as small as I’d thought.