Open Casket - full body impression, some disappointment... Should I retry, or forward fix?

I'm fast running out of time to get 'open casket' into a state where it can be moved out of my daughter's bedroom, as she will soon be returning from university. I therefore decided to bite-the-bullet and have a go at a full cast.

I did a couple of test runs using a wet sheet. I had tried putting a blanket between the foam and the final sheet, in the hope that the impression of the polystyrene balls wouldn't show through. This was the case, but the final impression seemed very shallow and a bit unclear so I removed it again. The final sheet impression was good, but at that point I sort of lost my nerve... Getting in and out is very difficult without causing big creases where I inevitable swivel my bum, despite my attempts to fire myself vertically upwards like a sandhopper! 

The polystyrene balls are doing a good job of moulding to my body, so I decided to try simply laying a sheet soaked in plaster onto the existing impression

Handling such a large piece of fabric, soaked in 3kg of plaster (1l water and 2kg dry plaster) was tough, and not having to get into it made the whole process a lot easier, as it was already starting to harden as I was smoothing it out. 

All that said, I can't lie... I'm not very happy with the impression. I am trying to tell myself that it IS indexical, in the sense that I've used the plaster-and-fabric to record the shape left in the polystyrene beads, but it's not rich, interesting mark I was hoping for. The overall shape is really weird with very rounded shoulders and a small head.

I think I have a frustrating decision - do I forward fix using some sculpting plus a layer of PVA-soaked fabric to hopefully smooth things out? Or do I attempt a true 'indexical mark' using a second piece of foam, cut to more of a 'grave' shape and filled with polystyrene balls? I guess the 'correct' but distressing answer is 'both'... Attempting a second piece of foam is complicated by the fact that I don't have a base-board, so I'd have to cut the shape into the foam as an outline, and then fill it directly on the floor, meaning balls will go EVERYWHERE when I lift up the foam (successfull or unsuccessful). 

Of course, unless the impression above suddenly looks amazing, the perfectionist in me is going to force me to flood my kitchen floor with balls :(

Open Casket - lessons-learnt from first test with plaster, plus PVA-and-fabric covering experiment

So... Catching-up on a bunch of experiments I did for open casket... I've been busy in the evenings with the blog curation and with a job application, but during the day I have been able to do a bit more... Creepily dedicated readers will recall that in the last updated I did a full-body test using a damp sheet and got a pretty good impression. I decided to do a partial cast next: 

The impression came out quite well, although the dimpling from the polystyrene balls showed through. Some lessons learnt:

• Although the fabric covered the entire width, it pulled back significantly from the edges due to the impression, so plenty of extra fabric will be required
• I made up 0.25l water (0.5kg dry plaster) but this made too much plaster for pillowcase sizes piece so need less than you think!
• Presoaking fabric in water prevented premature setting of the plaster when it came into contact with the dry sheet, allowing a much smoother covering of plaster
• 30 mins was enough curing time to hold the impression when I climbed out
• Getting out without swivelling is really hard
• Even small pieces of plaster soaked fabric are hard to handle. Hard to avoid wrinkles. 
• May be hard to smooth out (tends to stick to everything)
• The polythene over the top of the plaster tends to stick, and tends to create off wrinkles

To give me more control, and to smooth out the shape rather, I decided to experiment in covering the plaster impression in a layer of fabric soaked in a 50:50 water:PVA mixture.

PVA cover test - want to have more control over shape and smooth out marks from polythene. I made a small beaker of each, and that was more than enough to soak another pillowcase-sized piece. Again I pre-dampened the fabric, although I suspect it would be less important since the PVA is very unlikely to cure on contact.

This definitely to smooth out the fabric and give a more 'fabric' impression, so I think I'll do this for the final run - it also means I can position the fabric as I wish.

Unit 3 Assessment

Learning Outcome 1

Present evidence of a body of work that demonstrates a systematic enhancement of your knowledge and understanding. (AC Realisation)

Although I feel that, in some ways, I am still at the start of a life-long journey, I also recognise that my art-making has been completely transformed over the course of the two years, in terms of the art itself, the way I make it, and the way I think about it.

When I joined the MA, I was very focused on the technicalities of image production. I thought of my work in terms of isolated ‘projects’ and those projects had a clear, quite linear flow. I was, if I’m honest, a little disapproving that everyone didn’t have a neat flowchart for how they made art! The work itself was almost exclusively landscapes, and was very focused on an application I had developed that allowed me to manage composition manually, while adding detail to elements algorithmically. My wife's death had disrupted this practice somewhat, but it felt quite ‘established’.

Over the course of the MA, I have come to think more-and-more organically about the artistic process, and to see each piece of art as being part of a bigger practice, and that practice as being an extension of my everyday life. My research paper clearly played (pun tots intended) an important role, as did direct experimentation, especially around the time I created “Awkward Thoughts”. It’s also interesting to notice how angry I was when my own success deviated from what I considered the ‘correct’ process! Ironically the image in question is still one of the best things I have done, and I am proud to feature it in my 5-minute video. This more organic approach has particular born fruit around what I loosely term ‘Rivers of Silver’, the work that relates to my face casting. The largely speculative decision to make a mould of my face directly enabled ‘Undeliverable Letters’ (my submission to the RA Summer Show), ‘Beneath the Frost’ (the ‘frosted face’ I included in my UAL portfolio submission), ‘Mask for the Bereaved’ (which I exhibited locally), and the melting ‘ice faces’ that I included in my 5-minute video. I have many other ideas for it, including continuing my project to photograph it outside!

Looking at my early posts, I see myself expressing a strong need for external validation, and for feedback on my art. Although I pushed myself to take risks when I created “Wish You Were Hear” for the interim show, and I was very happy with the result, I still clearly felt a deep unease around how it might be received by UAL. Although it wasn’t, in some ways, a major work, again I feel like “Awkward Thoughts” was the start of a turning point where I began to focus more on what I wanted to say, and less on whether it might be judged to be ‘correct’. ‘Mask for the Bereaved’ took this one step further, where I created something that I feared might be considered ugly, but I stood by my belief in it. I not only exhibited it, but observed some very muted reactions to it, and was excited to discover that I didn’t ‘care’. I think I need to explore this further, but I think that while I care about the viewer in the abstract, in some senses, I only care about myself as the viewer. The final show is a priority right now, but I am looking forward to getting back to my plaster cubes, despite knowing they are weird, ugly, and perhaps unfathomable!

Related to the discussion above, my relationship with meaning has changed over time. I would like to tell a neat story, but I feel that it is still in flux, and is one of the areas I am most keen to develop. Some of my pieces are ironic but still quite literal, some lean heavily on symbolism, some tend to magical realism, some are quite intuitive and profess no meaning. I don’t feel this represents a lack of awareness, really the opposite, it represents an on-going struggle to establish what feels ‘right’ for me. The struggle between the rational ‘Tomgos’ and the emotional ‘Tathos’ has been a huge part of my journey, and one that feels more nuanced, but less resolved, than ever.

Coming into the MA without a BA, I acknowledge a real vacuum around technique. Most of my art prior to the MA was digital, and mostly focused on algorithmic art. An early recommendation by JK to read ‘Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ triggered an unexpected interest in making physical objects. Somehow ‘unleashed’, I have sampled many different media over the course of two years, both physical (plaster and epoxy, wax, print, book art, paper mache, glass, sketching (kinda)) and digital (rendering, 3d scanning, AI). I am increasingly interested in the idea of making art that blends the digital and the physical, for instance scanning a physical fabric mask to virtually set it on fire for my 5-minute video, laser cutting a design based on a real hole, or my final-show piece where I plan to project digital ripples onto the physical surface. I’m excited to also play with the 3d printers I was given by a friend!

The area that I am most actively developing, is one I almost fear to name: aesthetics… Although I showed an awareness of the term as early as May 2024, I considered it almost synonymous with beauty. The book “On the Aesthetic Education of Man” has begun to give me a broader, more nuanced, sense of what it can mean, although it is still something I struggle with. I feel I have developed steadily from mere awareness of aesthetics, to the aesthetic being something I want to control, albeit I struggle with how to do so. I no longer equate beauty with aesthetics, and believe that there is no absolute standard for beauty or taste. I feel I still have much to learn in this area.

Learning Outcome 2

Synthesise and critically reflect coherently on your process whilst providing evidence of an active, independent and/or collaborative practice. (AC Process)

Although I would have strongly rejected the suggestion two years ago, I think I have been trying to make sense of what happened to me when my wife died. My job, and my status as a co-parent and a husband, were core parts of my identity. Losing them destroyed a lot of what I thought I knew about the world, but also enabled me to see things that had always been there, but I’d been too busy to notice. The world is impossibly rich, and most of the things we worry about don’t really matter!

The urge to share this new way of seeing is what underpins my process. Consequently, my process is very introspective, perhaps claustrophobically so. It centres on thinking, noticing, and reflecting on things that are mostly happening in my head. Each thing I make is an attempt to offer a ‘statement about the world’ that feels true to me, and a way of seeing that goes with it. I do not claim to do this with any skill, but the recognition that I fall short is what excites me, it is the reckless thrill of recognising a task as impossible, and trying to do it anyway. The belief that I might improve slowly over time, is what keeps me throwing my heart against the wall.

My process is about balance. When we attempt to balance something physically, we decide how we want to place it, we attempt to place it, we feel if the balance is off, we adjust the placement, we feel again. Just like physically balancing something, conceptual balance is not achievable in a single attempt. Finding balance is about thinking, trying, reflecting, adjusting, and trying again. My process is therefore very dependent on prototyping and experimentation. I see experimentation is about exploring how things behave in general (what-if questions), prototyping is about exploring how they behave in context (solving for a specific outcome). Annoyingly, I haven't tagged my posts with ‘prototyping’ or ‘experiments’ as I’ve gone along, so I’ve just tagged some examples from unit 3!

One element that I am trying to balance in this way is the dichotomy between authentic personal experience, and relatable universal human experience. I explore these through the archetypes of ‘Tomgos’ (rational intellectual Tom) and ‘Tathos’ (emotional spontaneous Tom). Tomgos makes art that is cold, conceptual, but seeks greater ‘truths’ in the service of others. Tathos makes art that is hot, emotional, immediate, but also self-indulgent, cryptic, and self-serving. My process is to take advantage of their natural dispositions by allowing Tathos to lead and inspire the work, but allowing Tomgos to reflect, critic, and guide the work. The ideal is to create work that is raw and honest, but is also a clouded mirror in which others can see themselves dimly reflected.

Another element I am seeking to balance is what I consider to be three competing qualities of the work, that I term ‘semantics’, ‘technique’, and ‘aesthetics’ (note these labels evolved over time and they are referred to as various things at various times, but the characterisation is the same). By ‘semantics’ I refer to the meaning and motivation behind the work, essentially what the work is trying to express for me. By ‘technique’, I mean the physical and practical limitations on the making process. By ‘aesthetics’, I mean how the work engages other people, essentially what I want them to see, feel, and notice. For me, semantics is the most important, but the work must be feasible and engaging too. As I iterate, prototype, and evolve the work, I seek to make trade-offs between these different qualities to give the best overall balance between them.

The urge to share a perspective and way of seeing the world is what underpins my process, but it is not what drives my practice. My practice is driven by simpler, more quotidian, more self-ish, things: the meditative peace of deep reflection, the joy of making, the comfort of having my art around me, the thrill of sharing a piece in an exhibition, unexpected adventures excused by art, and interesting conversations with thoughtful people. I have so many things I want to try, so many things I want to explore. When I reflected on why I make art, I concluded that art was simply part of a life well-lived, and I believe that conclusion will fuel my practice for however many years I have left.

Learning Outcome 3

Summarise and evaluate your overall progress and formulate a constructive plan for continuing Personal and Professional Development. (AC Communication)

To quote Jonathan, I think I have been on ‘quite a journey’. I think he meant that in a ‘voyage of the dawn treader’/’The Hobbit’ sort of way, and hopefully not in a ‘stuck on the M25 for 6 junctions after a lorry spills its load of 4 tonnes of cherry tomatoes at rush hour on a Friday’ sort of way. I guess time and Waze will tell.

Overall, I have learnt a huge amount about myself, about art, and about what I want to do with it. I still have large holes in my knowledge of art history and the contemporary art scene, but I feel given my unusual background, I am closing them steadily. I have a much wider sense of what ‘art’ is now, and a much more organic sense of how to achieve it.  I am still ‘young’ as an artist (although sadly not as a human) and I think my practice will continue to evolve rapidly for some time. However, I feel I have found a mature sense of what I am trying to achieve, and a maturing set of tools to help me on the journey.

I have formulated a plan for my immediate next steps. I am also surrounded by a growing ecosystem of people who can help me on that journey - "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together". I don’t know where I will go longer term, but it will be fun to find out. Remember, life is a journey, not a destination, so wind the windows down and avoid the M25.

Thinking about life in a post-MA world :-/

I admit, I need to think about this for my unit 3 assessment, but I think it's good to record my thoughts here more generally, for what might be difficult days ahead. I started the MA at a time when my world had been turned completely upside down. As well as purpose, focus, and a distraction, it gave me a sense of identity - I was a CTO before, now I am an art student. Things have changed a lot since then, and I am increasingly adjusted to the new normal, but I need to be careful when the MA finishes, and the new normal is upset again...

When I gave up work, I told myself I would take two years, and then find a new job. I figured that it would be significantly harder to find a job once I turned 50. I think that plan still stands, but I'm coming to see that I am probably going to have to take a more 'creative' and 'portfolio' approach to work - it's going to be very difficult to look after my daughter and work for someone else. While that sounds brave, I'm in a very lucky position to have a big safety-net. I feel I don't want to work to make huge sums, but I would like to work to make enough money to cover my (fairly modest) out-goings so I'm not actively losing money each month.

After my initial childish, burn-it-all-down, protest, I am sure that I do want to keep my art practice going - I've made art as a hobby for years, but I want to do that in a more focused way. Something JK said keeps coming back to me - when I commented on how amazing Fi Carruthers work is, he said something along the lines of "well, it takes 20 years of practice to be able to do that". It really helped me to think of my art making as practice, and to embrace the growth mindset of "if I keep doing it, this is something I will only get better at".

Broadly then, I think I need to think about the following buckets:

• How I find short-term ways to make money
• How I explore more exciting ways/longer-term ways to make money
• How I maintain my art practice, and what that means

If you are reading this because you want to know what I intend to do for my art practice, then skip the first section, but the medium term options are probably still relevant.

How I make money short term

I need to explore some flexible ways to make money. I don't know what that means in practice, but I think it means I need to explore more traditional jobs that might still allow me to look after my daughter. In practice, this probably means working in a school, or work that is part-time. It could also mean short-term or gig work. Following a very enjoyable trip to Medway School of the Arts, I applied there to their 'talent pool', but I don't think anything will come of it - I'm a bit of an odd-ball and there are probably much better qualified candidates - shame as it has a wonderful feel.

More exciting ways to make money in the medium term

Broadly there are three strands to this - retraining, saleable art, and the book.

Retraining

I am thinking of taking further training in two areas - psychotherapy and AI. An eclectic mix, I admit! I think either, or both, could be interesting...

Saleable Art

I have always been very dismissive of the idea that I could make art to sell. The art I currently make is definitely not the sort of thing that people would want on their coffee table... BUT... actually a lot of the themes of my art could be packaged in way that could be more appealing, especially if I am focused more on making the art saleable. I'd aim to make work that I want for myself, and see if other people are interested.

The Book

I have been mulling over the idea of working on a book since I started. I think it could be a great way to meet people, to learn, and hopefully to produce something of interest to other people. It could, of course, also lead to consulting or conference work... My aim would be to write something about the intersection of art, business, and technology - probably something around the relevance of artistic thinking to business leadership in the era of AI...

How I will maintain my art practice

And so the most interesting question... I think the aim here is to keep making art, to keep getting better, to keep connections with the art world, and to embrace art as part of a life well-lived. I think there are a bunch of elements to this.... 

Thinking, perhaps, in terms of what I might loose when I finish the MA:

Time

This is a biggie... Lack of time was, is, and likely will remain, the biggest impediment to making art... My current lifestyle gives me a huge amount of freedom, and justification, to send time on art... And art consumes it all and comes back hungry... I think my decision that I'm unlikely to have a 9-5 job will help, as will my willingness to live on a bit of a shoe-string. I think if I can incorporate art into some of the ways I make money, that will also help justify the time.

Getting my art seen

I think success for me as an artist means that I make art, that I enjoy making art, that art enriches my life, and that some of my art gets seen. The last of these is important to me. I think it should be an explicit goal to make sure every major piece gets exhibited at least once. I guess that will mostly be open calls, but getting closer to the local art scene has also improved my chances of getting in to exhibitions. I'd also love to run an exhibition of my own, some day.

Reading and research

I still have a lot to learn about art and researching is (perhaps) an area where I have struggled. I want to read books, but I feel like reading competes with making and writing... BUT I do actually read a lot of other things - several dozen articles a week online - I need to keep that up. I'm also better plugged into things like Art Forum, and I have an insta feed filling with interesting stuff. Hopefully with the end of the MA, I'll re-discover more 'long-form' learning like reading and video. 

I also got into quite a good rhythm of going to (mostly smaller) galleries - I need to keep that up as much as time and family commitments permit.

Artistic support

One of the best things about the MA is having people I can talk to about art. Sadly there has been a lot less of that than I hoped, but the Dead Critics has sort of saved me there. The Dead Critics is perhaps one of the best things to come out of the course, and it has definitely kept me sane at times... Going forward there is no reason why I shouldn't still have the Dead Critics, for a while at least... Getting involved in the local art scene has also helped me to see that these types of groups tend to be quite fluid - they form, the break apart, they reform in new ways, they stop, they restart etc etc. I suspect the Dead Critics may be like this - we may loose people, but we may regain them, we may choose to stop but some of the members might find another group to join.

Getting involved in the local art scene has been hugely rewarding for me in terms of people and connections. The art world seems very driven by who you know, but conversely is filled with generous people willing to share their knowledge and their connections. It is also, I think it's fair to say, filled with quite a few tossers who just want to drink free wine and feel important... Like anything in life, you sort the wheat from the chaff!

I want to maintain, and maybe deepen, my involvement in the Sevenoaks Visual Artists Forum - the two artists who run it are amazing, generous, and humble, people, and I think that rubs off on the group. There are a few other local groups (when you find one, you slowly learn of the others!) which I should also try and get to know. 

I'm slowly getting to know local artists, and that has been very rewarding and fun - I've had the chance to do things I'd never get to do otherwise like installing a sculpture in an abandoned golf course rumoured to be littered with unexploded ordinance - I suggested we record the install, and if we detonated any, we should posthumously release it as a performance piece called "The colours within", which I found hilarious but nobody else seemed to find funny...

I've been also trying to worm my way into local art institutions. So far I've had no real success, but it could be another way to get to know people, and to experience art and art conversations. I should strive to maintain my connection to Central St Martins too.

JK did a session on 'support structures for artists', I wonder if this is what he was getting at?

The art of Frank Kunert and the null point revisited

 I get daily article from Colossal, I don't read them every day, but I enjoy them because they are quite image rich, and they are quite small and bite-sized. When I feel like reading something quick, and I don't have time for a massive art 'meal', they are like an art 'snack'! This article about Frank Kunert's photographs of miniature sets caught my eye. In particular, this image:

It struck me because it reminded me of the null point images I was trying to create for a while. I've never been able to pin down what makes an image a 'null point' image, but this image has it in spades! Looking through his art, a few of him images have it to some extent, but none scream it like this... 

Naturally I've been trying to work out what it is that makes it have a 'null point' quality. I think there are a few elements that are contenders:

• The absence of people, but with strong indicators of human presence - this seems to be a key element, but is not enough on it's own
• The strong sense of identity in the human presence, it's clearly someone's space, and is clearly precious or important to them
• The indoor setting, with a fairly contained view, but with the strong implication of other spaces - the fact that you can almost but not quite see out of the window
• The lighting - there's something about the soft shadowy interior with strong illumination from an adjacent space
• The grime - something about the grimy windows and walls speaks of human habituation on the fringes

I wonder if some of this relates to my childhood? I was a very solitary child, and spend a lot of time in rather dilapidated spaces.

I think once I'm done with the blog summary (which I need to do, eek), I will have another play in Blender with some of the elements above and see what I discover!

Everything is indexical - musing on piss flowers and dead foxes

 I feel like I'm getting really good at clickbait titles, but unlike most articles with clickbait titles, this one does relate directly to the things in the title. Of course, my brain is now rushing off thinking of clickbait titles "They pissed in the snow, this happened next!".... "They found lemon snow, they never expected this!" anyhooooo....

The DCS were chatting this morning about an upcoming exhibition featuring Helen Chadwick, and discussing her notorious "Piss Flowers". I'd vaguely heard of them, but Catherine shared a link to a Tate article about them. While I still find them a bit gross (as is the intention, I think), I was charmed by the broader meaning of love, sharing (both romantic and bodily), and transience. Indexical marks have been on my mind since the tutorial, and I was struck that the flowers are indexical.

A few months ago, I shared an entry that likened art to the 'fire' not the 'ashes' - wow, ok, over a year ago... And I was reflecting that, in a sense, I'm saying that all art is indexical - or at least, that I think of all my art as being 'indexical' in the broadest sense. The objects I make are not 'the art', they are the indexical marks from 'the art', which is the non-physical phenomena that they represent... 

Maybe... I think there is something interesting and useful in this idea, I can't quite wrap my head around what my head is trying to tell me!

All of which brought me back to my dead foxes. I learnt a lot making a two part mould to cast them, but never really got them to work, and sort of lost the will... But they sort of floated back to the top of the stew, and now I'm thinking about 3d scanning and 3d printing to make recordings of random 1m square chunks of interesting ground... And it struck me that maybe I should revisit my poor little foxes? Roadkill is very indexical - in the literal sense of smooshed blood and skin, tyre marks etc, but also in the more metaphorical sense of a nocturnal adventure undertake but never completed - the indexical 'mark' of what should have been, and wasn't. 

I love the word 'smooshed'.

The idea of 3d scanning the (perhaps-not-so-) recently departed remains of foxes makes me feel a bit yucky, but I think that's maybe even more reason to do it. It would be sharing death literally in face, but also recognising and memorialising what was life.

I don't have time to get to grips with 3d scanning and 3d printing in time, but I honestly think that perhaps the roadkill sculptures are what I 'should' have exhibited in my final show.

Starting on on-line 'Showcase'

 I was a bit underwhelmed by the UAL 'Showcase' platform - it seems a bit clunky, and the fact that it's only live for a year seems, well, a bit 1990s. Nevertheless, I thought I should take every chance to promote my stuff. 

tl;dr; I kinda got into it, and it made me want to dig up my unloved website and get it into a presentable state.

I was a bit unsure what to put as the 'main project', given that Open Casket is unlikely to be photographable until the final show - it will be finished before, but unless I rent a space to photograph it in (which maybe I could! I live next to a community hall that would work at a push), then I'm not going to have decent images till after the deadline. In the end, I plumped for my 'frosted face', which I better give a name to, and come up with some words to describe! 

I added "A Month in my Head" as a second project, and used the same text as I just submitted to an open call. 

I have to admit, even at this early stage, it actually looks a lot slicker than I had expected. I'm actually quite enjoying it.

I've had a half-finished website at https://www.tomgrey.net/ for a while - I should really dust it off and finish it - I think I worried too much about how to sort my stuff, but now I'm not expecting to sell it, I think I can worry a lot less and focus on informing, not selling...

Full-body impression test for Open Casket

 Today I finally got some time to do some more tests on open casket (tentative final name "Gone"). I put a double thickness of sheet over the foam/beads and climbed in. I did a literal 'dry run' first, but the result was unconvincing. Next I tried spraying the sheet with water first, so it was damp. I'm still not happy, but I'm a lot happier:

Smoothing down the areas that are not under me seemed to help a lot as it gives a much better contrast between the body and the surround. I could do this to a limited extent before I got in, but having a second person  to do this while I'm lying there should give even better results - hopefully they could also smooth the slightly weird raised edges around the limbs. Tucking the sheet underneath the board definitely looks neater and makes the thing look more integrated. Adding more beads might give a shallower but more natural looking impression too (some of the edges are still quite square)

In general, I think/hope that the shape will only improve with each attempt because the beads will continue to settle more into the right shape... But maybe I'm just being naive!

Next thing to test is plaster-soaked fabric, for a small area. I'm hoping it will take the shape of the body better, and maybe show the beads less - that was also an issue - the beads are showing through in places as a fine set of bumps.

I'm also interested in whether I could somehow 'flow' the plaster on afterwards? It would be great to be able to repeatedly test/tinker and then 'freeze' the best result... I can't see that working though as I think the plaster will sit on top of the sheet, even if wet, and not bond to it... But it's worth a quick test.

Unit 3 Video

 "Final video"? Five minute video of my work, summarising it (kinda) for unit 3.

Five Minute Video almost done - lessons learnt?

 The five minute video is almost done now. I've been going at it pretty hard for the last few nights... I wanted to extract some lessons learnt, but maybe it's too early? Maybe I need more perspective? Maybe it's because my daughter, anxious about school, is tossing and turning and chattering away nervously to herself? Even from the next room, stuck upstairs because she won't settle if I'm not nearby, I can feel her anxiety prickling my skin like static. However, I think I should try - I don't want to post the lessons at the same time as the video...

Things what I have learnt from making my first 'art' video:

• Shoot more footage than you think you need - you can always trim it down and pick the best bits, but if you don't have enough, you can't make it longer.. Well, you can sometimes get away with doubling stuff up, but it's better to avoid the problem in the first place
• Movement is important - video needs movement, even if it's just a bit of zooming/panning in a static image. Sound can help the illusion of movement when there isn't any.
• Sound effects add immersion - simple sound effects, which might go unnoticed, significantly add to the immersion into the video - silence is unnatural, and ideally there would always be some sort of relevant background noise (which makes the use of silence more deliberate and effective)
• Transitions are important - I'm sure they teach this on video 101, but I've not been to video 101, so I learnt the hard way - my video started as a series of fragments with pauses between, it still is a bit, but working to bridge those gaps will keep the thing moving, save for those moments when you WANT things to stop. You can bridge with footage, transitions, but also with sound e.g. let the sound from one sequence bleed into the next
• AI is amazing - I've done a bunch of cool stuff with AI, including all the narration
• AI is not amazing - but the sequences it generates are short (and financially expensive!) so it can contribute to the feeling of disconnected snippets
• Traditional filters are more powerful than you think - they might end up being labelled 'cheesy' but I was surprised how much interest and atmosphere you can generate with simple filters like 'de-saturate' and 'posterise'
• Band pass filters are great for cleaning-up audio - most of the tracks featured hiss and hum and traffic noise. The 15 band filter was great for massively reducing this without wrecking the audio - my technique is a bit brute force - just keep removing bands till the problem sound goes away, and then start carefully adding them back in until it returns, starting from the furthest from the 'problem' band.
• Start long and overworked and edit down - like my static art, sometimes it's easier to just check a lot of stuff in, see how it looks and then start removing as much as possible until you can't remove any more
• Shotcut is powerful but buggy - I've learnt a tonne about Shotcut, and I'm amazed how well it has stood up to some fairly heavy editing, but there are some odd bugs that surface sometimes - you just need to keep a close eye, save regularly, and be prepared to re-do stuff if you have to
• Keep it simple stupid - sometimes the simplest sequences are the most effective - some of my favourites are just a video of me huffing up a hill with a voice over