Getting into it - Photo project 2012

So it is time again for a new photographic project. The idea that has been brewing for some time is an extension of the looking at reality of a place, however instead of trying to find an objective reality, this time I want to use photography to look at views that would be unfamiliar from a human perspective. I'm not interested in photoshopping my images beyond some gentle cropping as it is the idea of the camera as a true medium, if that makes sense, that interests me more, certainly when a photograph is the end product, rather than a painting.

Perambulation: 28th Oct 2009

One thing I do know about photographing is that an unusual angle is often more interesting than shooting from human head height. The Perambulation project reinforced that in me, early photos of fungi are from above with me standing or only leaning down, later ones might even have me spread eagled on the leaves and I think we can agree which are best.

Perambulation: 6th Oct 2010

I like the idea of manipulating reality using camera angles. Of going more extreme than that to produce images that might not be immediately known what or where they are. Predictably my life is all over the place already and it's only just 2012 so for now I either have to be flexible about when and how often I get these images or I have to be flexible about where.

Perambulation: 29th Jan 2010

So,

Option 1: a full 365, time fixed like Welcome to Simons Wood, of where ever I am that day and time. This would be looking more of a subjective reality of my life rather than a particular place. It is interesting, but why would I want to complicate it with the challenge of finding unusual angles.

Option 2: a project like Perambulation, 6 days a week not time fixed. I'd probably stick to nature as my backdrop but might find a few other ones here and there depending on what I find interesting that day. It has the potential to be interesting but feels like it might be a little unfocused and I know work will get in the way massively.

Option 3: probably a 52 although I am tempted to define it as twice a week rather than once. Not date or time sensitive but would focus on one place or one type of place. Certainly won't be objective in any way.

Perambulation : 1st June 2010

For those of you with long memories the seed for this idea has lasted over a year and was known once as Secret Project 3. (Secret Projects 1 and 4 were revealed to be my Postcassettes and my foray into Printmaking. Both now on the website. Secret project 2 ran into technical difficulties.)

I'm going to go with Option 3 although Option 1 might become it's own project one day. Mainly because after the restrictions of Welcome to Simons Wood I feel the need for a relaxed project with the potential for large creative output. I also wanted a project that would challenge me as well as not interfere to much with work. 

Perambulation: 26th Aug 2010

 

Photos: some examples from Perambulation, plus below, the first image of the project.  Find it on Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noblueskies/sets/72157628733339427/

Photo Project 2012: 5th Jan 2012

 

Welcome to Simons Wood Reflected

So it's that time again where I try to reflect on the years photographic project.

So if you missed it, some background. I was attempting to work on a follow up to the previous years project Perambulation, looking at the reality of a place and trying to recreate it through photography. Using a strict set of rules, I tried to capture a specific view throughout the year with an aim that while it might not be possible to create a truly objectively real and complete view of a place it was possible to be more objective than the Perambulation project.

Week 1 - 20th November 2010

Rules
 1. As from the previous project, there will be no post production editing of the photographs. With the exception of cropping and resizing for the internet.  
2. The camera will be set to scenery mode, and the only setting on it I can change will be the white balance to the appropriate weather conditions (either cloudy or sunny)  
3. I will go out when I should, no matter the weather at the time.  
4. I will go to the same place and take a photo of the same view  
5. I will go out weekly, Saturday at 12pm.  
6. I may change the day (but not the time) if life conspires to make Saturday impossible. The day should be as close to Saturday as I can make it and I should make every effort to do it on a Saturday.  
7. I will attempt to do this for a year.

Week 5 - 18th December 2010

It's been an interesting year. When I started I thought the lack of creative input would damage the project. It was very strict, almost verging on the scientific, and while that lent focus to what I was trying to achieve, it became routine and required little thought.

Routine tasks are part of life, and while my photography may have suffered from a lack of constant creative input, it did become familiar and comforting in a strange way. I would look forward to my weekly walks with intrigue as to how I would find the pond and take interest in all the smallest changes. 

 

Week 20 - Saturday 2nd April 2011

Practically it was easier to deal with than the Perambulation project, which was good as I have been far more busy this year than last. I didn't cheat once, although I did have to change my day far more often than I would have liked.

As a realistic view of the place? Certainly it is a realistic view of that years worth of Saturdays. Any years worth of Saturdays? Maybe. As a realistic view of that place throughout the year? Probably not. I seemed to get a high proportion of grey days which, I promise you it is not indicative of where I am. The rules I set in place certainly helped to make it a more realistic view of the place it did not create an utterly realistic view. But I went into this knowing the restrictions.

Week 21 - Saturday 9th April 2011

So what to do now with the project?

This is something I will have to think on, but much like the Perambulation project I think film or a book would be the best way to show them. Obviously 53 images are easier to deal with in a gallery setting but I like better the idea of a more fluid image progression either through an AV (which you can already get through Flickr slideshow) or a book. Of course a book is still planned for the Perambulation project so hopefully I will get around to it. I'm not entirely sure who would want to buy it though, but as a record and exercise it's a good idea.

Week 32 - Sunday 26th June 2011

I'm looking potentially at two photographic based projects next year now. One will be short term if it is accepted, but I will talk more on that at a later date if it is to be realised.

As to a year long project, I feel a more creative approach is needed, to explore my photographic skills more if nothing else. So this one will probably reflect Perambulation more than this one. I might also lift all geographical restrictions, but keep a date/time one. All in all, I'm still too deeply thinking about this current one and all the other artwork I have going on to have found time to focus my thoughts, but over Christmas I will be.

Week 50 - Saturday 29th October 2011

Photos: A selection of images from Welcome to Simons Wood

Back from the East - part 3

After leaving the fens region I had another stop on my holiday to make.

Travelling from flat Fenland to the Suffolk/Essex borders was an interesting experience. First of all I really enjoyed the drive, even though I was constantly getting lost or being redirected due to road closures. It almost felt like the fens weren't going to let me go for a while there. Secondly I chose to drive via Theford Forest and after days of huge skies, it was a revelation to be amongst trees again.

Dedham Vale nr East Bergholt

 

It was really nice to see trees and hills again, apparently I had been unknowingly missing them. Though I would soon enough change my mind. After quite an extensive drive I arrived at my second home away from home, which would be mine for two nights. A Travellodge on the A12.

I had initially decided to stay in a Travellodge for this part of my trip for two reasons:
1. It was really, really near where I was going to the next day.
2. Having never stayed in a B&B before and yet knowing how many horror stories there are out there I wanted somewhere where experience told me I could be sure of a clean room, clean sheets and a decent shower.

Public footpaths East Bergholt

It was very convenient, only 5 miles from my location for the next day. However, it was also on the A12, which I had somehow forgotten was a busy road. All in all it wasn't nearly as nice as the other Travellodges I had stayed in and not as nice as where I had just come from. But enough of a grump, back to the real story.

After a passable night's sleep I went down to start my Constable adventure. I had grand plans for the day, wanting to try to spy out as many of Constable's views that became paintings as I could, hopefully with an intention to paint them myself. I certainly wanted to get a photograph of the Haywain location as well as take in one of the walks on the map. 

Row boats on the River Stour, Dedham

Deciding to start in East Bergholt I had a mooch around the town and started on one of the walks from my map, one that covered as many of the painting views that I could. It was a pleasant walk, but far longer and intense than I was expecting. I got mildly lost a few times, which is often fun but by about the halfway point I was very tired and quite footsore. Unfortunately it was a circular all or nothing type of walk so I had to keep going. Right at the end of the walk, apparently within spitting distance of the end, I seemed to get very lost, which was quite scary as I'd been going for about 4 hours at this point and really needed food and a sit down. I'd almost gone very wrong a few times before then, but somehow had made the right call, this time I didn't and ended up on footpaths my map didn't know existed. Happily after a lot of reading and a lot of guessing I ended up back at the car.

Many of the painting views were possible to work out where they were but impossible to get to, due to land having become private over the intervening years or time encouraging the growth of trees and bushes. But I found and photographed a few views on my walk and saw many great modern views.

After the immense walk (which I had never expected to take that long) and fuelled by a jam doughnut I still had the main focus of the day to do. Slightly regretting that I had not done it in the morning as the sunshine of the morning had become a cloudy and cold afternoon, I headed to Flatford mill.

Footpath through grounds of Langham Hall

It was really pretty around there, it was just a shame that I was too tired and grumpy not to appreciate it more. I did get some good images, especially as this place seems to have changed little since Constable's day. Boat-building near Flatford Mill was easy to spot, even if the dock was no longer dry.

On one hand it was a good job that I was so grumpy, to top everything off the spot where Constable painted the Haywain is behind a big “Private” sign. The buildings belong to the National Trust and the Field Studies Council and are used for residential scientific study. Indeed while I was there there were many students doing research by the pond. Needless to say I ignored the sign and took the photo anyway, which I hope most people do as it seems ridiculous to have the the most famous landmark in that area behind a private sign.

Flatford Mill

My day complete I went back to the Travellodge and then headed home the next day.

Back from the East - part 2

On the day I went to March (another of the 4) it was annoyingly grey and dull. I took a number of photos but the clouds showed no sign of breaking. March was interesting anyway with many fab buildings including a museum and a pub called the Ship Inn right by the canal. It also had a wrought iron and gaily painted memorial (I think for the queens silver jubilee) that was called the Fountain. It didn't seem very fountain like, until I found out that at some point the fountain bit that should sit in the middle of the structure had been sold many years ago to someone in a neighbouring village, and was currently sitting in their garden. 

 

March Museum

I also went to Whittlesey (the last of the 4 major fen towns) on the same day as March. The grey day didn't help all the grey stonework. But there were many interesting things to see, including the buttercross which is used as an undercover bus stop mostly, but still seems to be a hub of town activity. Also a pair of impressive churches and a pub by the canal called the Hero of Aliwal. After Whittlesey I trekked up to Thorney to check out the abbey, or rather the remains of it, which is mostly some buildings that are now private houses, the impressive church and a big and inaccessible field. After Thorney I took decided to go even further north and check out Crowland. It had started to rain so my day was looking less and less good for photos. This was until on the horizon I saw the monster that was ruined Crowland Abbey.

St Andrews Church, Whittlesey

I was really taken aback by Crowland Abbey, I was driving along and it suddenly loomed up and proceeded to play hide and seek with me behind trees and houses. It doesn't have the most delicate of profiles either, so it was quite a shock to appear so suddenly. It didn't even look ruined until I got to it, where you can see that part of the abbey has collapsed away. This has been a theme throughout the fens, the churches and cathedrals are some of the most ornate I've ever seen. Tiny villages have churches that date way back and far outstrip churches in my locality. 

Crowland Abbey

I went back to the B&B via a number of interestingly named farms, Gothic Hall Farm and Malice Farm. Other places I visited included; Welches Dam a RSPB reserve, Upwell, Outwell, Manae, Three Holes, Welney, Pymoor and Flag Fen, a Stone/Bronze Age reconstruction village.

Welches Dam RSPB reserve

All in all I had a lovely time. I can only praise Sean at Woodlands B&B in Witchford, near Ely for making my first stay in a B&B and first holiday on my own a good experience. I saw many new things, including a barn owl in the wild and many strange and interesting things. I really enjoyed being in a place where the countryside was only a stones throw away and where you often felt like the only person in the world. I also learnt how much I enjoyed just driving around, racing down empty roads, splashing puddles and getting mildly lost. I had hoped that it would sate my desire for the VW camper van and the idea of doing this on a much larger scale, in the end it only heightened it and after about 24 hours home with a good meal in me I wanted to be back out there.

Storm and sunshine

However home wasn't to be my destination for a few more days.....

Back from the East - part 1

Back from my holiday a few weeks now and it was quite an experience. I didn't get the best weather, but I think I made the most of the sunshine I had. What I did get was a similar experience to last years “Summer Holiday” to Southwold, which I was kind of expecting. The Fens are hardly a great distance from Southwold and they both share some pretty flat ground. I wasn't sure that that would have the same effect on the weather and as I'm no meteorologist, I'm still not. What I do know is that on more than one occasion, I had days where it was bright sunshine with immense black clouds on the horizon. To be honest it's probably the flatness of the land that does this more than anything else. I could see the weather coming, when my usual experience is of a place with more hills and a lot more trees.

Middle of nowhere

Having the fun of driving around the M25 and the M11, I got into the borders of the fens on Thursday lunchtime. Having been sunny all the morning, it clouded over by the time I got to my destination. It was in fact so sunny on the drive that I actually got unexpectedly burnt and developed a bit of a truckers tan. This I didn't see as a particularly good sign for my weeks weather. However it soon cleared up and I got lots of photographs of Ely.

Ely Cathedral

 Ely is pronounced Eelee, and named supposedly for the large quantities of eels that were once caught in the marshes around the town. Before the fens were drained, the area was mostly marshy and underwater land with a few drier islands of slightly higher ground where people lived. As such there are many depictions of eels around the town. While not one of the 4 Fenland major towns I was aiming to visit, it was very near to where my B&B accommodation was and has an amazing cathedral.

Ely eel sculpture

Wisbech (pronounced Wizbeech) is “The Capital of the Fens” and was an odd place to visit. I say odd because due to weather patterns I went on a Sunday to try to get this potential photo hotspot on a sunny day, and like many a Sunday in many a place it was dead quiet. It also meant that I stood out a lot as a tourist and got plenty of funny looks. However from an uninspiring wet and grey start, the sun came out and I got some really useful photos. Of all the tourist sights in Wisbech, the gardens of Peckover House (a NT property) were a real treat. Not only were they beautiful to look at but full of really interesting nooks and crannies, including; a cat cemetery, a tiny wooded hut with amazing stained glass windows and a Victorian Orangery. The abundance of flowers also meant there were lots of insects and I could indulge my passion for stalking butterflies. They also had a couple of honeybee hives, which were wonderfully busy if quite scary to try to get close to and take photos.

Tame Peacock butterflies at Peckover House

I visited Chatteris twice while I was away. The first time I got drenched within 5 mins of stepping out of my car. I got so wet that I just drove all the way back to the B&B to change and wait for the worst to pass. Luckily by about 3pm the rain seemed to be going away and this time, dressed in my waterproof trousers and still slightly squidgy leather jacket, I took another stab at it. By the time I got there however it was blue skies, sunshine and mid twenties temperature. Chatteris didn't seem much like your usual tourist destination even though it is one of the 4 major towns in the fens. It certainly had a small town air and I felt very out of place. However it has a gorgeous church and an interesting graveyard.

Broken Tomb in Chatteris church graveyard

Once the rain had stopped I also took a trip to Stonea Camp, which is a prehistoric camp that was at one point entirely razed for farmland. Its earthworks have since been rebuilt and was home to many grazing sheep when I got there. It also allowed some impressive views of the surrounding land and the rainstorms that were coming and going. Be warned, the road to the camp is one of the most challenging and scary I have been along. Basically single track with ditches either side, I wouldn't want to meet anything coming the other way. Much of it is not tarmaced and obviously has some heavy farm traffic moving along it. It also has some huge dips and bumps, a real adventure for my little VW polo and one that had me fearing for its underside and wishing I had a 4by4, although I was very proud of my car, managing it with no apparent issues.

Stonea Camp

Photos from my Flickr feed, more at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noblueskies/sets/72157627135849157/

Part Two: More of the Fens.

Into the East

Plans are afoot!

At some point last year I found out that Flatford Mill where Constable famously painted his Haywain was mostly unchanged since Constable's time. As an artist that cites Constable and the Romantics as influences in my work (the very notion of the idyllic landscape influencing tourist memorabilia, including postcards) I was intrigued by this. The idea that this kind of place remaining unchanged seemed not only wonderful in modern Britain, that to my mind is losing much of it's heritage but also fitting to the romantics idea of celebrating the English landscape.

I decided that I wanted to recreate the Haywain and produce the same view in my own style. How exactly this will look remains to be seen but I did decide to go visit Flatford mill and see for myself.

This led to wondering how many more of the scenes in Constable's paintings have remained basically recognisable to this day. I found an amazing little map on the internet based on ordnance survey that shows not only the area of Dedham Vale with close ups of the key locations but also recommended walks to explore Constable country but also the location of where Constable stood to paint his pictures.

At the same time there are plans afoot to go to the Cambridgeshire fens region. What the reason for picking that region is I will reveal later when things are more fixed. I am however compiling a list of tourist hotspots that I should visit.

Since both areas are relatively close to each other I decided to split a week in both locations. On the 15^th July I will be off to Ely and staying a few days in a B & B there, taking visits to the surrounding countryside and towns. Doing my usual thing of exploration, buying postcards and getting tourist imagery and photographing anything and everything. I will then be off to Constable country staying in a Travellodge for a couple of days and exploring Constable Country using my exciting new map.

Spring has sprung

Or at least I think it has. Where I go for my weekly walks I see very few signs that spring has arrived. The largest is probably the return of the geese and while I've seen the crocuses come and go the pond seems slow to become green. However the sun is feeling stronger and the smell of spring was almost in the air the last Saturday I went out.

Week 13 - 12th February 2011

Spring may come slow to the pond but I know it well enough to know that while I don't see the snowdrops and daffs that festoon other places (places I walked around last year), there will be hordes of bluebells soon enough.

Also the biggest change, while I can't say shows for sure the return of spring, is a welcome return of sunny days. After weeks of winter and Saturdays full of dull cloud, now I have had many Saturdays with at least partial sunshine.

Week 14 - 18th Feb 2011

This is proving to be an issue currently, however. I love the sun but it seems that it is making taking my photos difficult, since for the time being I have to take my images directly into the sun. Either I get blue sky and silhouetted landscape or I get bright white sky and slightly darker than it should be landscape.

Week 15 - 25th February 2011

I knew when I started that I might have this issue but hopefully when full spring/summer comes along the sun will be overhead enough not to intrude as much. I'm afraid that I picked one of my favourite views rather than one that will always photograph fairly accurately. Maybe this just shows that to attempt to get an objective truth of a place you have to be completely objective picking your subject. But surely this would negate the other aspects of a place/view, your love of it and the emotion that it inspires, without this does it cease to be art?

Week 16 - 5th March 2011

Meanwhile enjoy a selection of the latest few weeks photos. 

Week 17 -  12th March 2011

 

Happy New Year - New Photo Project update

It seemed appropriate to post this update on the new perambulation project in New Year.

Well, first of all I have recently made a decision about its name. Maybe predictably I have chosen a variation on “Welcome to....”. In this case the currently “Unnamed Project (perambulation v.2)” will now be known as Welcome to Simons Wood.

Week 1 - 20th November 2010

Since starting the project I've been glad there has been as much change between weeks as I've had. The snow and ice so far has subtly altered the view, which is welcome to a project that I expected might show unnoticeable change between some weeks, especially in the winter.

I still worry that later in the winter, when the ice goes and is replaced with grey damp February days, it will start to look very similar week to week. However this is part of the experience and just as important with regards to the “truth” of the place.

Week 2 - 27th November 2010

While I think so far it has been successful, considering it has so far followed the rules I set, it is missing things that the previous project had. It makes my walks almost more of a chore doing it once a week than doing it everyday and this is not because so far all my Saturday's have been grey.

Week 3 - 4th December 2010

The main issue seems to be motivation and enjoyment of the process. With the new project all the creativity of finding the photo was over in the first week. Going out with the prime purpose of getting the same view as the week before has it's own challenges but they are nothing compared to the challenges of finding a new one everyday in a variety of places.

Week 4 - 11th December 2010

While I go on a walk after getting that photo and look for other images, I don't have that pressure of finding a shot to put up everyday. As such I find it harder to see photos or find the enthusiasm to do something like find an unusual angle or go off the beaten track. As such this current project is not helping me to improve my photography either.

Granted I do enjoy seeing how the view has changed week to week, but it's like I want instant gratification. Maybe this is because I know exactly where that days photo will come from, rather than having no idea. As such the walk down to the view is not as enjoyable.

Week 5- 18th December 2010

I am also going on less walks than before (walks in addition to Saturdays expeditions), especially now it is greyer and colder than before. I am also generally really busy and since I need not upload a photo everyday.... well there is a distinct lack of motivation.

Week 6 - 25th December 2010

All in all I don't think this will impinge too much on the current project but there is a loss of enjoyment around the whole process which I miss and in the New Year may have to try to get back somehow.

Week 7 - 1st January 2011

Sound

So a little more about my sound art foray.

Before I start, I need to name the project. Please feel free to leave comments or tweet me with your ideas ( @noblueskies ). Currently running around my mind is some variation of Welcome to.... or Greetings from.... but all ideas are welcome. The individual tapes have names but they are pretty uninspiring and intentionally so, no need for the entire project to be like that.

So some background on what I learnt when creating the “Picture” side.
(If you've not read my previous post about this you may need to http://noblueskies.blogspot.com/2010/12/secrets.html)

I found that I was both extremely aware of every sound it was picking up and yet feeling very exposed and impotent. Not wanting to get any trace of myself on the recording meant I could say nothing, nor move and not be too near to the recording device just in case I made an inadvertent noise. I'm still not sure why I didn't want to get any of me on the tape, mostly I think it is for purely personal reasons as I can't stand to hear myself. But after listening to my first recording I realise that apparently this extends as far as occasional noises, not just speech. 

When I got to Virginia Water that first day I found it was very busy so I placed myself a little off the beaten track with my recorder on a stump and me on a nearby log. I wanted to avoid having anyone too near me, in case they tried to talk to me and I wanted to record the wide variety of noises not just people chatting. Unfortunately I seemed to become a little bit of an attraction for kids and dogs as I sat there watching the world go by. I got so irrationally pissed off that there was all this really loud close noise, but really it was exactly what I wanted and I was just responding to a loss of control that I hadn't foreseen.

However I then got caught up with this family that after messing about right near me, with their children almost crawling over me to stay on the logs (being unable to say anything as the tape was on). Then one of the adults starting shouting about the boy and that he was going to pee his pants, over and over. There's freaking out about loss of control and there's 10 mins of irrelevant and in my mind (rightly or wrongly) crude and overpowering conversation. At this point I stopped the tape and attempted to start from the beginning again, I'd been going for all of 15 mins.

However I decided that I would try to record while I walked around (not realising quite how much I would cringe listening to it back, hearing myself). I rationalised that as it was autumn hearing someone walk through the leaves would be appropriate. It probably was but not for this. Listening to it back I realised that while appropriate to the season it wasn't appropriate to a “picture” side of a postcard.

The picture is taken in one place, as such the recording should be a stretch of time in the same place, not moving through a number of pictures. So I resolved to return another day, relocate myself and record for the entire time, no matter what happened. In the end I picked a well known view (well worth a postcard) at Virginia Water Lake. There are still some things to work out but it was a lot better.

Pictures in this post were all taken that day. Though none are of where the recording took place I still felt that 1 it was a really nice day photo wise and I should show off and 2. you all deserve some visual relief when reading my writing. 

 

If you like my photography you might want to follow me on Flickr if you have an account.

http://www.flickr.com/noblueskies

Secrets

I think I have been really blessed, since leaving University I haven't experienced any long term artists blocks. I know that for many of my peers they find they find times of utter inability to produce new work. I've not really encountered that as yet. Maybe it is because the obsession with postcards is only becoming more pronounced just when I thought it would fizzle out. From just producing my paintings and the occasional drawing I have found myself producing more and more drawings recently, devising installations and finding ideas for secret projects that are potentially all  postcard related.

As many of you might have noticed on Twitter or Facebook I have been talking about secret plans again. This time last year when I was talking about secrets it was the elephant I was creating, this year I have currently 4 secret projects. I actually had to write them all down so I could remember them all!

However unlike the elephant none of my secret projects this year are dependant on an outside company so, if I wanted I could just reveal all. However for many of them they are in early stages.

But I promised to reveal one this week on Twitter, and I stick by my promises. So here's a few hints about them, in reverse order:

Secret project 4 is printmaking based. Currently nothing really at a finished state. Still many in the way of assumptions about materials and processes to get what I want. So not a lot to show but if things continue to go well there will be something to talk about in a few weeks.

Secret project 3 is photo based and very undefined. What it's relationship is to postcards is unclear right now. It probably won't get looked at further till some of the others are established or finished. Also since I currently have a photo project on the go this may be a long time secret.

Secret project 2 is a collaborative piece and online. It will only get going if I actually get on with some work for it a quit being a freeloader.

Today however it is Secret Project 1 that I will reveal.

I wanted to spend a bit more time on this project before I revealed what it was all about, however I think that I will not be able to do any more work on it until the spring/summer so I will talk about it now.

Secret Project 1 is a foray into the world of sound art. This is an area I know very little about, but it is also a project that has been planned for about a year and thought about probably for longer. It is also a project that will not easily be described here on the blog as it is very lo-tech and intentionally not image based. Some of you may have heard me talk about it previously but it's been a while and I now have a better understanding of what it is and why I am doing it.

Most simply it can be described as sound based postcards on cassette tapes. It came about one day while I was thinking about the Internet and the digital revolution, realising that like many things cassette tapes were going the way of the dinosaur and that saddened me. I can of course see the need for things to progress (as many of you may know I embrace and love new technology) but the first music I ever bought was on cassette and I continued to buy cassette tapes well into the 90's when CD's were at their height. I am also a fan of owning a hard copy of things. While technology like MP3 and the Kindle are great, there is no substitute for owning an actual CD, DVD or book. There is just something psychologically right about being able to touch your possessions rather than see them in a digital and disembodied form on your computer.

The digital conversion of letters and postcards is also progressing. Letters certainly are being replaced more and more with email. Even postcards have their e-counterpart. With social networking these days you need only update your twitter and facebook statuses with an image taken then and there on your iPhone and uploaded with a message. It's quite a bit easier and faster than buying a card and stamp for all your friends and family and writing a message 100 times. I hope this doesn't kill the postcard, it seems so impersonal compared to the postcard (which is if you think about it a fairly impersonal or at least open way of communication anyway) and as I said it's really nice to own a physical thing.

Finally the physical similarities between postcards and cassette tapes were not lost on me. In fact this was probably one of the prime reasons I started thinking about tapes as a medium. Both have two sides, and while postcards have a clearly defined picture and reverse there was no reason that the definition couldn't be enforced by me on the tapes.

It was really hard to find blank cassette tapes! But the other month at the tail end of the autumn after 6 months or so of aborted attempts I finally made it out and recorded the “picture” side of the postcassette. Then I had to go back the next week to rerecord. (The whole recording really requires its own blog post, to explore the event and give more depth to the project so that will have to wait for another day). While out I made notes about what the message side should read and then later when I got home recorded the message side using an open source text to speech editor. I did not want my voice on the recording and wanted something with as mechanical a sound as I could. I am still interested in subverting postcards you know! What better way than keeping the two sided quality but removing the easy visual clues and personal nature. Now if people want to imagine being at this place they have to use the text, speech and sounds and try to guess what that place looks like.

Unfortunately it does also mean that this an image light entry. Just the one below of the first cassette in, I hope, many.

Snow!

To celebrate the snow here are a selection of my favourite snow pictures from last years Perambulation Project. More photos/info here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noblueskies/sets/72157622935946910/ and here: http://noblueskies.blogspot.com/2010/11/perambulating-my-thoughts-on.html