deriveproject

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Blog summary - Key photos that show my contributing work to the Unit X Project.

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Blog Summary

Throughout the course of Unit X I have engaged with people and practices outside of my own artistic discipline, culminating in a group-led event under the context of the 'Derive'.  The initial events as part of the program gave me the opportunity to meet new people and witness their art practices. Although my group was made up from Fine Art students, I had not worked with these students prior to Unit X, and had also done collaborative work with Interactive Art Students. Our group contribution to Unit X was the 'Do it yourself Derive' event, where we created a derive route which exhibited artworks created by members of the group. The work was placed directly within the city in an attempt to engage the deriveurs with the practice of 'looking'. This gave them the active role of 'derieveur' rather than the passive role of a spectator. Through seeking our artwork, and using the kit we provided the walkers opened themselves to the happenings of the city around them, many finding their own 'artwork'. In return, they provided us with a complete 'Derive Kit' box which told their experience through the notes, ephemera and images they'd collected on the route.

My work initially involved collaged paintings but I moved onto using matchbox pinhole cameras to collect imagery whilst going on group derive walks. It then became the next logical step to provide the Do it yourself Derive kits with their own pinhole camera. I contributed  'coke-can' cameras, so the deriveurs could collect a photograph of a significant part of their journey. The 'coke-can' camera became an object of intrigue, many couldn't believe how it worked or that it could be created out of pieces of rubbish. I also created the box and publication that went with the event. During my tutorials with Jo McGonigal she has frequently raised the question of 'Where is the art?', suggesting that artwork may not be the end product or a physical piece of work. I find this very true of the 'Do it yourself Derive', as although I have produced artistic photography through use of pinhole cameras, for me the art was the event itself. My work was based around providing an event that would be exciting, intriguing, and leave the attendee with an experience. 

As a group, I feel we got along well together with very few disagreements or difficulties. I interacted with certain members of the group more than others for the majority of Unit X mainly due to the split of the tutorial groups. However, in the final weeks we all pulled together to create the kits and organising the event. We kept up consistant communication through a Facebook group, which I think was a more effective form of communication opposed to the group blogs. As I did not exhibit artwork on the derive walk I took it upon myself to produce work towards the event, making coke-can cameras, but also volunteering to create the boxes and publication. 

My personal highlights of Unit X have been the collaborative events; as previously mentioned, the 'Do it yourself Derive' walk, but also Wittgensteins Kite Project. I did not expect such an eventful day from the trip to Glossop, but I thoroughly enjoyed flying kites on the hill and was impressed by the events set-up by students that followed. I regret that I did not take more time to join in on the group events leading up to the Kite Project such as the kite making workshop. 

I was not sure what I wanted to gain from Unit X, other than trying something 'different' and perhaps ending up in working collaboratively with other students. Despite certain doubts I have had throughout the unit (as I expect many to have had) I have thoroughly enjoyed the events and feel very positively about the event created by my own group. 

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A little video SJ put together. Includes my very unenthusiastic looking introduction to the Derive group. Mard.

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SJ has dissected each post-derive box and has created these images. They show in detail each group's collection of ephemera, notes and experience.

It is likely that we will exhibit the boxes lined up as seen in the first image, with photos of the contents displayed around the box. This is limited to how much space we get at the exhibition which is still undecided. If we are limited in space then we will display the three more complete boxes displaying the contents within. I shall add the pinhole photos for the exhibition after I have processed the negatives on an enlarger.

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In the end I did not display any work on the walk, I decided instead to focus on what I could contribute to the event. I also hoped that the developing of the pinhole cameras would provide some interesting material post-event.

However, as previously mentioned there were a few mistakes. I had not informed the group of the pinhole camera's single exposure. I expected many of them to come back over exposed. It was quite the opposite; many came back completely under-exposed, as if they hadn't been used. This confused me as many seemed enthusiastic to use the pinhole camera. The only explanation I can come up with is that the photo-paper slipped over the pinhole, blocking out the light, or they did not expose them for nearly enough time.

I am disappointed by this, as I feel part of the magic has been lost, as many people were amazed at the concept a coke-can camera. However, for the exhibition I might follow the same route with my own coke-can cameras and create more images for the exhibition. I wouldn't be lying that they were the original derive images, I just don't want to ruin the magic. 

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The day finally arrived! After many sleepless nights of preparation and organising we managed to pull it off.

I had arrived with the expectation that not many people would have come but there was a crowd of 20+ strong. Everyone seemed to really engage with the concept of the Derive, actively looking for the artwork as well as creating and finding their own.

The boxes when returned were varied but did not disappoint! Most had filled it with notes, objects, and ephemera. 

There were a couple of mistakes, quite a serious one on my behalf of not informing the walkers that the pinhole camera's contained one exposure only and was not for multiple use! I told most of them too late as they had been happily snapping away at every opportunity.

As predicted (but still a shame anyway) it began to rain mid-walk, and we had suggested at the beginning that if the deriveurs did not want to do the full half and hour walk then they could loop round at Deansgate and half the walking time with still viewing most of the artwork. Unfortunately due to the rain many opted to do this, with only a few people soldiering on to do the full route.

However, I felt the event was a success that surpassed my expectations. There was even cake at the end.

Above are a few photos of the event showing use of my contributions; the box and the pinhole camera. I was lacking in a camera on the day so these are borrowed off Ray. 

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My final task in contributing towards the event was making a small publication that would contain the map, a brief introduction to the concept of Derive, and examples of our work.

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Ray created a nice little hand-drawn map to give to the deriveurs, with some help from Shaun (King of Photoshop) we tweaked it a bit to incorporate the route. We had to change it to cyan as it was difficult to see the route over the red.

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Finally settled on a route. We had difficulty choosing one as we had to accomodate the specific needs of two of the group members; Ray needed an area with found materials to build sculptures and Jenny C wanted to incorporate the canals within her work.

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After sourcing some plain shoeboxes for the derive kits I decided I wanted to create an illustration for the lid for a professional presentation. By now we had decided the items going inside the box:

Ray: String - so the deriveurs can create sculptures out of found objects on the route Sarah-Jane: Tinbox - to collect an item of intrigue Jenny C: Tinfoil - to fill/wrap in/around everyday objects Will: Cloth templates and charcoal to create marks Jenny M: Envelopes and notes to record comments/thoughts  Myself: a pinhole camera to visually record a significant moment on the Derive.

A map/publication would also be added.

I decided a nice decoration would be to illustrate the contents of the box on the lid. I made large ink drawings, scaled them to size on the photocopier and silkscreened them onto the lid. This was fairly last minute, so Shaun kindly drew two of the images; the masking tape and the string. I do not have as much patience for detail as he does.

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A time to have a bit of leisurely sketching. Drawing geese and ducks in the park.

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The making of the coke-can cameras. I have had to make 10 in total, one for each kit.

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Coke Can Camera

I've been thinking on what to contribute to the 'Do it yourself Derive kit' (as it's now called). I'm definitely going to contribute an aspect based on my work with pinhole photography, but the matchbox cameras hold a few problems.

Mainly is the expense, with the film costing around £4 and a further £4 to develop, not to mention the time it would take to scan the 35 exposures. The number of exposures also pose a problem; having so many seems to take the intrigue away from the mechanism. This is why I have decided to use a home-made pinhole camera.

The design is based on the can-camera used by Quinnell in his solargrams. Quinnell uses drinks cans as a makeshift pinhole camera, he uses these due to their hardiness as he leaves the camera exposed for months at a time before retrieving it.

I have used this camera before, and feel it holds some intrigue as an object in itself.

See above.

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Another video my 'kite' features in. This was a collaboration between Roger Bygott and Chara Lewis, the editing of my kite make it looks like some menacing black entity.