maddygingerfmp

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Install in studio, love how it turned out. Next to an alien friend. Think the scale of the picture was a success, as it seems like some kind of window through to a room or something.

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the two office spaces I didn't end up using, due to spacial, light and electrical issues. I needed a plug nearby to have the monitor running, but equally the ability to take wide angled pictures and turn off lights.

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Peer Review 15/5/21

I wanted to discuss with someone else how I should effectively present my installation on Tuesday given that it has both digital and installed elements. We had a conversation and decided it was best to not bring in the table if it couldn’t have the monitor on it, as it wouldn’t portray my message effectively. Instead, we decided together that in order to portray the atmosphere of the room that I wanted, I should print out the images of the installation large scale on the poster printer and have that be what I put up in studios. I really want the exact installation and lighting of that moment to come across, and for the installation to be done justice.

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More extra pics of installation- love the way they turned out. Fish eye and dark combination is effective in making it atmospheric I think.

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Just darkened the room a little bit to make it more obviously a night time shift... think the blue light may be a little too much? Will experiment a bit more and then see.

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Some of the pics from the shoot. I found a space on 4th floor I thought I could use- but it was unable to be used. Experimented with a different space. I tried both harsh light and dimly lit spaces and decided the dim one was preferred to the lighter one. It works with my idea that this is the viewers first shift- and it is logical that this would be night one since newest workers usually get the antisocial hours. I also experimented with a fish eye Lense, as I want it to appear to be being viewed by a person- despite being digital. I took some without too, but I think the fish eye is effective as it gives a more 3D perspective somehow. I think I need to introduce some form of blue light into this scene to make it colder.

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Example of first page of the Casual Worker Contract I made- specific to my gallery. I decided to make this impersonal in regards to naming the viewer, so they felt as though they were truly the guard and not taking on a character. They ideally should feel like they are just taking on the role. I also made another one using a name, but after printing off it made me realise the first option was the best.

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video links

Thought I would put links to all my progressions of videos and audios I have made so they are easier to find when I need them. I often go through my blog to look at old versions, so it’s easier for them to all be in one place.

https://youtu.be/2uritIGVK5A A poem reading

https://youtu.be/lDtRlZfVt4E emails to the Saatchi audio piece

https://youtu.be/x9nwJUa_OhA security in the gallery first try

https://youtu.be/ZoIGrO5mvMs security video first try

https://youtu.be/b-0mS89UBM4 security video second try

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Updated my video, decided I definitely want this playing on loop. Although there isn’t a lot of content to make the video long, I think having it on a loop is a useful tool to make it monotonous and dull- like an instructional video would be. I also took the advice from my crit and removed the red text, leaving it white only. I think this makes sense, as red was too abrupt and clashed with the rest of the video. 

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Charney, N., 2009. Art and crime. Santa Barbara: Praeger/ABC-CLIO.

Read an interesting article interviewing new security director for the Tate in 2009. Learnt a lot about the way museums/galleries are restructured to separate visitor levels from security levels. I wonder if security are on each floor?

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Thinking back to an old tutorial

Thinking back to my tutorial with John Walter and how he advised me to build characters. I think I have made strides with making a personal desk, but also keeping the viewer in a non-involved role aside from reading and looking at items on the desk. John suggested in our tutorial a few months ago that I should build characters by thinking about activities they participate in in their day-to-day average life, so I’m wondering how I can make the viewer become the role of security guard through items they view. How do they discover what they are like?

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Made a zero hours contract to place on the table... edited it so it applies to ImiTate Galleries. Need to consider what the audience’s role is in this- are they involved or just reading through the contract?

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Death of chef at Tate Modern puts new focus on long hours

I have extracted a few sections from this article to think about. 

“Nathan Laity, 23, from Penryn, Cornwall, worked at the Tate Modern, London. He had told his mother, Tracey, that he had worked 27 days in a row and she believed he was regularly working more than 12 hours a day. Laity died in his sleep of sepsis, a form of blood poisoning, on Mother's Day, the day after his last shift.”

“The working time directive states that workers should not work more than 48 hours per week unless they agree to opt out. However, it is quite standard for employees to agree an extension to these hours.”

http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.kingston.ac.uk/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=a1cd0b3f-d9a3-4f56-a11e-a6f4be61c4be%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=50294791&db=buh

 found on icat

Really heartbreaking story, shows how company’s (such as Tate) employ long- hours culture as a norm in order to succeed. Also read about the story (

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/mar/26/death-nathan-laity-restaurants-chefs   ) although it’s more of a commentary on the culture of chefs, the Tate is still referenced here.

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Tate's modern picture of success marred by staff losses and financial shortfall: [FOREIGN Edition] full text

IT WAS the anti-Dome, the glittering triumph of Britain's millennial year. Tate Modern gave world-class art a new home and lured millions of visitors.

But as the gallery prepares to celebrate its second birthday, the Tate is facing an unprecedented financial crisis. Only the blockbuster Andy Warhol exhibition saved the Tate empire - which encompasses galleries in Liverpool and St Ives, Cornwall, as well as the two in London - from sliding into the red in 2001.

Now, with the announcement that its long-serving director of collections, Jeremy Lewison, is the latest top-level member of staff to quit, questions are being asked of the leadership of Tate's cerebral director, Sir Nicholas Serota.

"Perhaps some of the trouble lies at the very top," Louisa Buck said yesterday in the normally restrained academic publication The Art Newspaper. "While no one doubts the achievement of Sir Nicholas Serota in the masterminding and delivery of Tate Modern, as well as his adept handling of the relaunch and rebranding of Tate as a cultural monolith, there are many rumbles that his powers of delegation often leave a great deal to be desired."

Mr Lewison, who is leaving for a freelance curating career, is among a clutch of senior departures in the last 18 months.

He follows Iwona Blazwick, who was made director of the Whitechapel Gallery last year, Lewis Biggs, who left Tate Liverpool to organise the Liverpool Biennial, and Lars Nittve, who left Tate Modern to run the national gallery in his native Sweden. Insiders claimed that Sir Nicholas allowed none to thrive because of his fierce controlling instincts.

A Tate spokeswoman said yesterday that change was normal in an organisation of more than 600 staff. Mr Lewison had worked with Sir Nicholas for nearly 20 years and Mr Biggs in Liverpool for 13. Most of the departures were to prestigious career-building appointments, she added.

More serious is the Tate's acknowledgement that even with its phenomenally popular new gallery, its finances are perilous. Sandy Nairne, the director of national programmes, has admitted privately that it is "operating at an unacceptable level of risk".

Jane Morris, editor of the magazine Museums Journal, said: "It certainly looks as if the Tate will be in for a difficult time next year."

The key to the crisis lies in funding. Although the Government coughed up an extra pounds 8m a year rather than see Tate Modern charge visitors, the extra cash comes nowhere near the estimated pounds 17m a year it costs to run the gallery.

The last projected budgets given to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport showed that trading profit from the Tate's restaurants, shops and publishing must rise from pounds 1.5m in 1999- 2000 - the year before Tate Modern opened - to pounds 5m in 2003-04 to balance the books. Ticket sales, sponsorship and other income must rise from pounds 6.4m to almost pounds 13m for the same period. Now that the gallery is up and running, these targets look possible, but they have not been achieved.

The Tate spokeswoman said Tate Modern was already achieving a pounds 4.5m-a- year trading profit and almost pounds 12m in ticket sales. But she added: "Grant- in-aid is not forecast to increase and our high level of self-generated income makes us vulnerable to economic downturn."

The Tate will be helped this year by its enormous show on Picasso and Matisse, which is likely to rival the Warhol exhibition. Warhol brought in pounds 300,000 more than expected and saved the day financially. But the gallery is yet to secure a blockbuster for 2003- 04. Up to 12,000 people a day pass through Tate Modern, with 25,000 on bank holidays, but only a third, at best, visit the paying exhibitions.

The Tate is not alone in feeling the squeeze. The British Museum has announced cuts of 15 per cent and galleries including the National Portrait Gallery and the Wallace Collection are having to tighten their belts.

Ms Morris said: "The trouble is that politicians like the prestige of these big lottery projects, but seem unwilling to fund them properly. The core grants of museums up and down the country are slowly being whittled away."

DEPARTURES ART EXECUTIVES WHO WANTED A DIFFERENT VIEW

Iwona Blazwick

Ms Blazwick took over as director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London last year after four years as head of exhibitions and display at the Tate, helping to prepare for the launch of Tate Modern. She had worked at the Institute of Contemporary Arts for six years and as an editor for the Phaidon Press, where she devised two acclaimed series on contemporary artists and themes and movements.

l Jeremy Lewison

Mr Lewison has spent nearly 20 years at the Tate. Since 1998 he has been responsible for the gallery's acquisitions. He has also set up groups to involve private collectors, and worked with Patrons of New Art, the Tate's contemporary art support group. He is an expert on Ben Nicholson and has written books on Jackson Pollock and Sol Le Witt. He becomes a freelance curator and writer in June.

l Lars Nittve

Mr Nittve was the director of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen until he joined Tate Modern as its first director in April 1998, two years before launch. He had previously been a judge for the Tate's Turner Prize, and curated exhibitions on Warhol and Andreas Gursky at the Louisiana. He left Tate Modern last year to run the Moderna Museet in his native Sweden.

Illustration

Thought I would save this piece of text on my blog as it’s a very interesting look into the characters who run Tate and departures of executives. Sometimes a big corporation like Tate feels faceless, but there are people. at the top. Considering the hierarchy of my company with real company’s hierarchies in mind.

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scan of Crit notes, was interesting how people gave me feedback on what role you have to play in the piece. Is it a new job for you, or have you been there for a while?

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CRIT SETUP FINAL CRIT- was really happy with how it turned out. Will upload my crit notes that I took of people’s responses. Key points were make video longer and add either more/less to the desk to make it personal/impersonal whatever I see fit.

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Tate faces protests over impact of job cuts on BAME staff

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/26/tate-faces-protests-over-job-cuts-impact-on-bame-staff from 2020

Realised I hadn’t put this on my blog, despite the fact it’s pivotal to my work at the moment.

“Many of these colleagues will be amongst the lowest-paid staff on the Tate estate, with some at risk earning little more than the national minimum wage, and in some of the most diverse teams across Tate,” said the union.”

“On the job cuts, Tate Enterprises, the institution’s commercial arm, has said restructuring is a result of ongoing social distancing regulations and “an inevitable drop in visitors in the coming months”. An ongoing consultation is aiming to “retain as many staff as possible” while “ensuring the long-term future of the business”.

Need to look up a contract to place on my table, possibly zero hours, with a few clauses that highlight the injustice in the gallery/museum sector.