I'm a final-year student on the photography degree at UWE (part-time-ish, butterfly-minded, pedantic!) and this is my blog for art research and things that catch my eye, whether for my uni projects or for any other reason If you'd like to contact me, ask me anything!
How Smartphones Have Changed the Way We Experience Photography
Smartphones have not only changed the way we make photos, but also the meaning and purpose of photography itself, an exhibition curated by photographer and film maker Henry Jacobson at the Center for Photography at Woodstock shows.
A guide to my online work for my final uni project
The electronic work for my Final Project is in various places. On this blog, everything tagged with Final Year relates to it, but especially
Research for this project only
The water strand
Chasing Pigeons
Photographing Feelings
My installation preparation
All the commentary on my own films
Longer pieces of writing
Elsewhere:
Pigeons photos on flickr
Underfall photos on flickr
Photographing feelings on flickr
Lots of my film on vimeo
My flickr in general - and my various albums of photos
My ongoing Palimpsest:Sublimation project, that I contributed to throughout this project, and my writing about it
I deliberately haven't put all my film into the vimeo, or submitted it all for assessment, because there are days worth of raw material there, and Shawn said it was too much to look at - and actually, the various videos give a good example of it.
My Preparation for Self-Directed study module, and the Self-Directed Study module I started but didn't finish both very much informed this work, also being about the Harbour and water - I was approaching it from a different angle (ha!) but that was about exploring the city through the city's water, and in retrospect, fits perfectly into the Psychogeography approach. And my second year Places Project, from the Beyond the Frame module, was also important, especially the research/experimentation with sound, and the research on installations (there's more in my sketchbook from that project, including lots on Bill Viola)
More research I've done for previous projects that is also relevant to this one:
Previous research on Place
Previous research on installation
When I was considering my pigeons book, I was informed by previous research on words and pictures
It's been a strange week, putting up the installation. I got into the room for the first time last Wednesday, and it seems HUGE without the computers etc in it. I had Vik helping me, so on Thursday we blacked out the windows to make it light-proof, and hung the computer monitors, and checked out the films in situ. It was strange seeing the films up - they looked too slow, but I knew they'd look different once I had them opposite the big film.
I then was waiting for the screen, which was meant to be delivered on Thursday, then Friday, and the Monday. On Monday I couldn't get through to the screen hire people by email or phone, so I went for a back-up plan and borrowed a screen from the media centre. This screen wasn't "perfect", but perfection is impossible, and I thought it was far better to have something than wait - problem solving!
(The other Monday fun was that all the covering over the window had fallen down - so with the help of the technicians I can up with a new solution - the beauty of starting early meant I caught this problem before the show, and my second solution has plenty of time to fall down and be changed, just in case!)
Once I put up screen and projected the film, everything changed again. I had been prepared to re-edit all the films, but despite an attack of nerves, it works well. I've moved the screen and worked out the angle/size etc 100 times - 1000 decisions about how much space to put around the film, how to move the screen slightly to change everything, how much room to have between the wall monitors and so much more.
I asked Paul Jones to come and calibrate all the monitors, and help me get the best out of the equipment (he said I'm the first student to use the HD monitors "properly", using the keystone-angling to project diagonally) and to get the colours right.) and to help me get the ideal focus.
One thing I hadn't realised was how the monitors change the look of the slideshow films - once they were all sorted out, they have an interesting, slightly noisy view close-up, but I really like that, it adds a feeling a of analogue to the digital, and a kind of texture. There's an optimum position to see them from, and then they change slightly when you get "too close" and I like that - it reminds me of how it was, seeing the pigeons in real life.
I've taped down the wires so they are hidden - and I've been struggling with thinking about whether I should try to cover the plugs in the room - I've tried hanging black sugar-paper over them to try to hide them, but it makes them more obvious. I was worried about this, but I've made peace with it - my work is about the spectacular in the everyday, so it's fitting that it's not the perfect white-cube space.
One of the things I spotted was that because I started so early, my mind is trying to play tricks on me, trying add doubts and freak-outs. I could see this objectively, even as I was freaking out. I made sure I started as early as possible, so I wouldn't have any nasty surprises (like the screen!) and if the by-product of that is that I have last minute stupid anxieties, that's ok!
It's been a little bit hard doing this without a peer group, and friends on the course to hold my hand, but I've needed to do this solo, I think - and I've had some great feedback from other students, Liz, Paul Jones, the technicians, and of course, Shawn!
In an ideal world, I would be hanging my monitors for my pigeons films on the wall, drilling the monitor back-plate into the wall. But Paul Jones told me there was pretty much no way I'd be allowed to drill into the wall (it's a complicated wall!) and suggested I hang from the picture rail. So, I made solutions!
I worked out a way I could hang the back-plate onto wood strung between two hooks - I thought two hooks would be much more stable than one, and also be more likely to hang evenly. Finding the hooks was fun - I found a couple in photography, but the person "in charge" of them told me they were "more precious than gold dust", and only come from a specific company. But because I've been around uni for a long time, I know a lot of people, and had some fun scavenging for them, until I found 6 of them.
Vik cut out the wood and built me the objects from my inept designs and conversations - now I just need to slot the monitors on and put them up.
Really bad laptop photography - working out that the projector needs to be at a slanty angle - and can sit on the bench! I'm solving endless problems just by trying things out!
Came in to do a "final" build because I've been dreaming about how the installation should look - again. Been trying to think about whether I should have two water films and the pigeons - two films at a right angle to each other, one the very calm scum piece, the other one of the erupting water pieces. It's funny, as soon as I put up the frames to show it on, it felt wrong - it's one of these times where things that look one way in my mind look completely different in real life. I love those, they interest me. It makes the space seem so much smaller. It's a space full of compromise anyway, but I think just feeling it with the space, without the films, one extra would make it feel smaller and cramped - I'd FEEL the compromise, if that makes sense?
I need to stop thinking - it's that weird limbo where I'm almost finished, but not quite, and my brain is trying to sabotage me. But that's ok, I can recognise that and remain in control....
One of my many set-ups recording ambient sound on at the outflow - very directional mic, trying to get sounds of the path (it sort of worked, see the sounds dvd 2 for what came out)
Tascam, gun mic, and wire to the headphones on my head. Laying the mic down to keep it perfectly still.
This is a description of just one of the films, but it is indicative of the process
Piece 1 – different waters – made on 21st-22nd January
I find it very hard to document my editing decisions – it’s very much a case of living in the moment, and going with what feels right. Of course I analyse it as I go, and make a hundred decisions, but I can’t stop and record it all, because that breaks my flow.
I made this piece with the idea that it would be part of an installation of films – I was picturing having this, and some of the individual pieces – or maybe this piece, of lots of clips of a minute-and-a-half, and another piece of clips of 3-5 minutes in length, and then one or two longer pieces in a film, with a soundpiece over the top.
For the long piece, I made it in stages. I had already made mini-films from each day’s filming, cutting a little section of it and putting it onto Vimeo, so I could access them at different times and places, and see them in different ways. This was very important to me, as it meant I could send them to friends, ask for feedback on twitter from friends and the anonymous twitter contacts – and it was really useful, seeing what people liked, or didn’t like from them. I got feedback of everything from people think they were just horrible, why had I wasted their time with that? through to people really loving them, and saying they’d watched the erupting water and the scum films over and over. It’s a little bit frustrating with Vimeo, working within the weekly uploads limits – but sometimes that gap was very useful indeed, because it gave me a bit of distance. Throughout the project I’ve been uploading to Vimeo and Flickr, and that slight remove of “distance” helps me see the work differently – that’s been interesting. I’d look at them in different ways, and send them to people.
Once I started thinking about the film of all the waters together, whenever I had time, I’d do a different edit, going through each day’s filming and watching everything, and just marking them with stars and notes on Bridge. I did this in coffee shops, uni, the City library, and I did it in sections, so I didn’t get too overwhelmed with it, or blasé – I wanted to approach each set of films separately. I was really disappointed that the camera I’d borrowed from uni had a sensor mark on it, so a lot of the films couldn’t be used.
Once I had this first cut, I went through them more carefully, looking at my 4- and 5-star films, to see how much repetition there was – so I might not use the very best film from one day’s shoot if there was something unusual or different about another film in the day series. I made notes about these (Book 3, pages 55 & 56), and then, once I had the selection, I slept on it, and looked at it again the next day.
I made the film in iMovie, stripping the sound, and faded each film to black. I chose anywhere between a minute to three minutes of each film, depending on the material – I wanted at least a minute, and for most to be around a minute and a half. I tried out a couple of different things – having specific lengths, trying to make a “narrative”, but it felt most right when I let the film dictate the length. Some of them really benefit from having a long section – others are interesting in context, but didn’t need much. I was struggling between wanting each piece to have meditative aspects, but also moving between pieces. I was making it imagining people walking through it, if it didn’t grab them, or maybe stopping to watch it – or turning to look at something else, turning back and seeing this on.
Things I’d found interesting about the editing (book 3, page 57)
I’d started out wanting to document the places where the two waters met, but during the editing I’d become drawn to the smaller/closer details – I think this was maybe because the wider shots had so much going on in them.
The more I looked at them, the more I liked them. I worried that I’d lost objectivity on this
The impossibility of documenting the process – ultimately I chose things because they felt right, and they felt like they worked together. Even after 6 years at uni, I still don’t have a vocabulary to describe that, but I’m happy with that – the editing zone I get into
It was also about how the films work together – I had pieces I thought I HAD to include, until I saw them in context, and pieces I didn’t like so much until I pieced them together
I wanted to use more of the rain shots, because getting rained on, or having to stop filming because of rain, was a big part of the project! But they didn’t look good – I hadn’t realised how much seeing raindrops is because of the light and shadow and closeness. I’ve been trying for the perfect rain-on-puddle shots for years, but I’ve seen rain so differently – so much is about angle.
I made a list of questions to discuss in my tutorial with Shawn (book 3, page 57)
Technical questions
How long to leave between transitions –I’d gone from everything from 2 seconds to 10 seconds, and played with fading for longer. I wanted there to be a distinct break, but I know because I know the material, I was maybe not the best judge
I’d presented it chronologically, because although I’d looked at making an abstract narrative, I liked the elements of randomness in the chronological order, because that felt in line with my philosophy of the things you randomly come across in the city
What to do about the pieces with sensor marks – possible to edit them out somehow?
What to do about the jumps in white balance the camera made, as the light changed on windy days with a lot of cloud movement
How to document the decision-making
Aesthetic questions
Should I focus more on the places where the waters met, which was my initial idea? I found I preferred the more abstract ones
Should I include the bits with birds flying across the screen/settling on the water etc? My instinct was “No”, to keep it abstract
Should I use the ones with the very sparkly water?
What kind of sound-piece to use?
10. How to incorporate this with the pigeons work?
11. Had I lost the plot completely?
The conversations were really useful, and the most affirming thing was Shawn saying that the content was good enough, I needed to work how to show it. I took the answers (see book) and edited a final version:
3rd draft of my original river film from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
I'd wanted to try to see if 2 films next to each other would work, so I used the scum film and one of the erupting water ones from Christmas Day. I really want to use more than one water film, but I can't work out how that would work - and I know I've got to be careful, one of the things that is driving me is definitely thinking maybe I should be showing how much work I'm doing - which is crazy, I KNOW that's not what art is about - but it's worthwhile being aware of that. So this is what it started out looking like (terrible iPhone video ahoy)
Installation experiment - 1st May from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
I do love the erupting water video, but when it was next to the scum film, it detracted from both of them - you couldn't get lost in them. I was talking to Shawn, and wondering if it was because they were too big - so I made the erupting water fil smaller, and then laughed, because next to each other like this, it worked so much better:
Installation experiment 2 - 1st May from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
I liked this a lot more - but I got a couple of other people to look at it, and they agreed that they preferred it when it was the scum film by itself. I can see that - I'm just longing for a space where I could show them both, at a good distance from each other, so they could both be in - I need to work on a proper show for this work. It's definitely got to be just the scum film, and as big as I can get it.
Above is the film-ette of the Chessels wheel - I tried 2 iterations of this film, this one, and the one below, with the houses in as context - I prefer this one, there's something about the texture of the sky, taken with the Olympus XA - while the colours of the terrace are added, it loses something - and it's obvious from the chimneys and the aerials that this is a domestic setting. I like this a lot (although I liked it as a set of photos too) - this is one I'm definitely having in my final installation
140226 - pigeons film 21 (Chessels longer) from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
I shouldn't be taking any more photos for the project, but I love how this wheel turned out - it's with the Olympus XA, pocket-sized, with aperture setting - I think these are around f8? I like the texture of the sky, and how dark the birds are against it. Going to make these into a slideshow-film.
Terrible photos of another iteration of my installation - this time trying a different combination of pigeons films opposite the scum film. This is a horrible representation of what it was like - and kind of illustrates the problem I've been having documenting the installation experiments. I do a ton of work on them, experimenting with placements of films, editing films as I go etc, but because I'm in some art zone, if I stop to write things down, it becomes very hard for me.
I think this is the right iteration - but I'll swap sides for the final piece, so even though I black out the window to the office, the screen will cover it further.
I tried some sounds with this, but I didn't like what I had - they weren't right, so the plan is to make more sound pieces over the Easter break - not just recording the Chocolate Path site and the river, but also record some walking pieces.
My first attempt at mocking up the installation - using the FOBAR kit to build a three-sided "room", back-projecting onto sheets of paper. I had been imagining this for a long time - the back "wall" would have the film with lots of short (under 2 minute) clips:
3rd draft of my original river film from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
Then on the left hand-side it would have another film made of clips about 5 minutes long, of more violent states of the water, for example:
Christmas Day River 1 from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
and the right-hand side would have the long scum piece
140325 - final scum film from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
I was pretty disappointed - I'd been imagining this 3-walled "room" for so long, but it didn't work at all, it was too much, and felt a little bit claustrophobic. So I pulled up the "back wall", and had the 2 films facing each other, and suddenly it felt a lot better. It was one of those times when I had to start building to really see it - and I was really pleased I'd started making mock-up installations early on.
I showed it to my friend Jodie, and to Jim, and to random students waiting around, who all agreed. Jim said he liked the abstractions better - the more abstract, the better, rather than the pieces where the two waters met, and I definitely agreed with that. It felt good, though - the scum film definitely worked - if nothing else, it's a huge weight off my shoulders to know that if all else fails, I can just show that!
Outflow 10th February 2014 - changing light on Vimeo I've been feeling that usual February SAD for the last few weeks - partly because of the endless storms, too windy to film or shoot in - so going to the river today was blissful. It took me about 3 hours to get out of the house, then taking the walk in little stages - the sun came out & I was reading my the Harbour feeling dazed by how beautiful everything is, the winter shadows, the tips of the trees bright with colour. When I got to the river, the sun had gone in, and I wasn't going to film, but I set the camera up, and was so happy I did, because the different thicknesses of cloud whipping in front of the sun in the wind - and the huge, blue-grey rainclouds massing - made the light of the water change continually. I have a 12 minute piece that goes through so many different moods and shapes, I want to use it as a full piece maybe. The way the tension under the surface changes, and the light makes it look so different every minute. I love it. I stood and just felt it, this meditative moment, so very happy I was out, and that despite what else I'm feeling, I still love and believe in this work.
Outflow 10th February 2014 - changing light 2 from Sarah Connolly on Vimeo.
A seven-year-old girl named Charlotte has taken LEGO to task for not only making more “boy people” than “lego girls,” but sending the former on adventures while the latter “sit at home.”
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