Tues 15 July. On my way to the Dream Café in the town centre I see ripe cherries on the pavement. Parts of Basildon were built on cherry orchards and there are remaining trees camouflaged by landscape designer Sylvia Crowe's interplanting. The cherries are small and taste sharp; they are difficult to reach – years of no pruning. English cherries discussed on Food Programme just this weekend. Gordon is logging data on cafés in Basildon. Food is emerging as a theme. The Dream Café has waitress service and v. affordable meals. It’s busy.
We talk families and weekend events; and what further arts training we need – short courses for skills or longer immersion? A bit of dreaming.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand basic media process. I play around with taking sequential stills/short videos on my low res camera – people walking in and out of shot in the market and town square. One sequence works – find I’ve been filming a young woman conversing on a mobile while people move in front of her. Later play around with pixilation.
Tues 8 July. Arrive at McDowells Pie and Mash Shop at 10am in driving rain. Its green doors not open till 10.30 so we retreat to Esquires cafe in Eastgate mall for cappucinos. Light and airy. Marble and glass encapsulation. Weather outside.
Gordon has been reading about café life. We talk about Max Beckmann, his use of space. I have an old catalogue to look through. We look at what a drawing tablet might do. It responds to pen pressure – biggest plus. I have borrowed a small camcorder and we wander up the mall and out into the town square with it. Short bursts of people's legs passing. Some interesting framing with furniture, doors, shadows.
Later I find I cannot download the footage from the camcorder. Frustration with not understanding technology basics; not having a manual, more like. Turn to noise making and editing sound.
Tues 22 June. Tea x 2 mugs at one of the outdoor cafes in Basildon market. People at two nearby tables get to know each other while their dogs warn each other. We discuss recent experiences of being in the art world and the continuous process of finding out/ re-establishing approaches; “keep doing to find out”. I talk about exploring processes to develop work. Gordon takes a step back to consider motivations and philosophy.
We film passers by from the cafe table with a laptop’s inbuilt camera. Can’t see the screen properly because of strong sunlight, but the results are OK for editing. Some discussion about Google Sketchup for describing spaces. Then we walk out to the first houses built in Basildon: generous gardens and living spaces. Later in Eastgate shopping mall I spot a shop mannequin with light red eyes.
Tues 17 June. Coffee in Costa’s to kick start thinking. We have yet to decide most of the parameters of the project – apart from working in Basildon and combining the hand-made with digital/virtual. We would like a web site to play with the material that comes out of the project.
We walk out into the town square which is reshaped by building works and has a wind break awning at its west entrance, then on through the rectangle of the market. Round to St Martin's Square with its adjoining enclosed garden and the concrete space of the church. Gordon remarks on the number of distinct spaces there are. We walk away and up Clay Hill Road to where housing starts and look back on the town. There, rising, are the backs of shops and offices. They divide spaces for people and transport and stand like contemporary city walls.
