FFaF becoming a success

Logo design for Creative Transit

And about bloody time and all...The FFaF is getting it's bootie on. We had a meeting at the Nexus Art Cafe on Wednesday (of which I instigated) and had a quite professional chat about logistics, promotion etc. I got the chance to see the others that are exhibiting within the group that I am involved in at the Uni. They were particularly quite and didn't really budge any ideas but the air was broken and spirits were lifted, so to speak.

We have two spokespeople to head our group of exhibitors but we really need three. Three is by far, the lucky-the magic and the simply divine...number after all. Isn't Pi not 3.14159265...π (sometimes written pi) a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius... Thanks to Wikipedia...

So we have had the task of naming ourselves Creative Transit. I do like the Transit bit but find the Creative bit a little obvious but I will go along with it for now... Nobody has put in any effort for the logo design so what you see above is the first hand-rendered logo design that I have come up with and I think we will be going with it...

Start from Scratch Exhibition

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These are two examples of how I am choosing to display the Polaroids
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The Start from Scratch exhibition is on the 10th September...a few weeks before I start back at University. The FFAF exhibition is sometime early October, so I need to finish off the sound/movie piece and hopefully the monoliths lighting will be fitted. I've been to the printers for the SfS and they have ballsed up the prints so they don't look like polaroids anymore...they WILL be mounted though but within a frame and not whiteboard mounted like I wanted...Hmmpfff. I need to go to A2 size for three polaroids and A2 for the digitals as well...more costs but what can you do...'eh.

The big meeting for the FFAF is tomorrow at 4pm at the Nexus Cafe and what a palaver it was getting that sorted out. I'm glad that I had my influence upon the 'tri-force' of spokespeople... it is better to influence from the sidelines then be a constant barraker, I suppose.

On the two examples shown above; these may be not shown due to space limitations but they will be on hand to show and tell...

spread thinly for economy [part two]

The Free For Arts Festival exhibition is back again. We've been given quite a good space in Piccadilly, in the middle of Manchester. It's a lot better than the space that was offered previously. I'm exhibiting my light boxes but need to get on with the wiring work as they are left untouched in my studio. I've studied Physics and worked in a Dye Laboratory for five years so I must have simple knowledge of earth, live and the other one. And some reprints of my Road-Side projects WILL NEED TO BE finalised.

So, there are three definite exhibitions happening from 10 Sept-18 Oct. I have the aforementioned FFAF, Start From Scratch and the Sound exhibition that is on the periphery to the FFAF.

1:Monoliths in Light-sculpture...Free For Arts Festival
Roadside Markings Diptych-A2 digital prints

2:Roadside Markings Triptych-A2 reprinted Polaroids...Start From Scratch

3:Captured Voices-looped digital recorded train conversations...Sound Exhibition

That's three of my ongoing projects that really need to have an end point. The reprints are going to be easy, I have selected the winning [money] shots and I know where to go to print them. The looped voices are done, just need to record to CD and try to record visuals...I HAVE an 8MM piece of film that is only about a minute long but incorporates trains and stations so I should give that a try. The elephant in the room are the monoliths, I just need to pull my finger out and get cracking.

As previously stated somewhere in this blog, I now go to a Camera Club where trips are planned and photo opportunities are announced. A few weeks ago, a sojourn was announced, a trip to see a Las Vegas [style] Spectacular. I took my chances and took my Polaroid, my Lumix and my trusty Makita. I arrived an hour earlier and had a nice chat with the band leader and with this I was awarded with the better camera angles and photo opportunities within the performance.

My camera skills aren't the best in the bunch, a lot of amatuer-pro photographers come to this club...very trainspottery. You just have to do your best with what you have got in this world. I took at least 150 digitals, 10 Polaroids and 30 filmed photographs. Some are really good and some will need work and retouching. If the band uses some of my photos, they'll be copyrighted sure enough, I might get some more work out of it.

the new PX70FF colour range from The Impossible Project

original shot taken at 15:00 and scanned at 16:00 (11:08:10)


original shot rescanned at 18:00 the following day (12:08:10)


original rescanned using colour restoration (11:08:10)

Hey...at 09:30 on 11 August 2010 a package was hand delivered to from Mr U.P.S.. It had the familiar clear tape with the moniker of [THE IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT]. I ordered this package on the 5th August and with problems with Paypal and some 'sending limit' that is put on accounts, I had to but the contents of the package through other means. The contents that are in question is, of course, PX70FF COLOUR 'POLAROID' FILM.
They have brought out the first flush of SX-70 colour film amid the hoohah of difficulties of their monochrome Silver Shade series still needing to be ironed out. The monochrome sets are still extremely erratic and very temperamental but it takes guts to bring out the colour series. I say colour but they are more like the original Polaroid line, TZ Artistic. The TZ range have a very aqua-greenish tinge to them but that is a colour I really admire.
The new Polaroid-esque films developed over time. I have done an experiment with my first photograph (above). I took one yesterday at 15:00 and scanned it an hour later and then scanned it again today at 18:00 hours. There is a definite overall change to the image. It has more depth and is getting a more of a blue-tinged hue. I really like the outcome though. My fingers and toes are crossed that they don't go down the route of the first PX600FF and have a completely ruined image. Thanks goodness for WWW.POLANOID.NET a website dedicated to Polaroid and Instant Photography. I have scanned and uploaded all my PX600 and PX100 shots and they are in their original state...but only online.

Possible Diptych for Exhibition

These are digital photographs and I am considering either submitting these to a Huddersfield exhibition or the Free For Arts Festival if that gets itself back into gear.

I am really happy how the Road-Marking project is going and it is becoming very philosophical and graphic based in a Warhol-Pop Art kind of way

Triptych for [Start From Scratch]

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Part One of Triptych
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Part Two of Tripych
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Possible Part Three of Triptych
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exhibitions

The Free For Arts Festival has fallen through and I'm not happy about it at all. This bloke from this shop has left and his replacement has given the organisers a hefty £1000 bill. So it is off and we need a place to exhibit. I wanted a chance to show off some work in `manchester' but with half the people on the course not interested in doing anything for it, the organisers are not that keen. We have to involve [outsiders] to pump up the numbers but with being on an ART course, you'd think they would be MORE interest.

So it is OFF, for now.

After going to Beatherder and meeting a graffiti artist, I have landed a lush place at another exhibition in Burnley called [Start From Scratch] which is essentially a Graff-Street Art festivally kind of thing. It was a really good piece of accidental networking and with the powers of FaceBook, we tracked each other down. He is part of a large collective of creatives and this may be the foot in the door that I really need.

I am showing three reprints of my Polaroids enlarged to A2 size and displaying a few of the originals. I am then hopefully be selling other smaller reprints to recoup my costs. I'll sell the A2 reprints for at least £25-£30, which is pretty cheap really for original art, they'll cost £13- to print [each]. There is authentic excitment here on my part, I have a theory and concept that is being ironed free from wrinkles and will BE developed even further.

The concept is in a nutshell that we bypass mini pieces of interesting compositions in the world and consider what we fail to see as just mudane and uninteresting ephemera. I have always found beauty in what is walked past and not notice. It may be the spiritual side of me or just the creative thinker...I dunno, but... We were (as mentioned below) given an assignment for the Summer and I have chosen to concentrate on this ROAD-SIDE MARKINGS idea and it is really paying off.

Holiday in Seatoller

It's been awhile since I've shown my face around here...I've been busy with my Uni's Summer Project, Been on holiday and started my new band with Annie[Logue]. We are called [OTAKU] which I gather is Japanese or Chinese for the obssessed. I am a manic Manga and Anime fan and I think the name fits well. It has a good punctuation and offers itself up to many interpretation on many levels.

The music that we do is very acoustic based with me on the guitar, bass and sometimes baking vocals and Andrea doing the singing duties. We both studied Contemporary Music together for three years and had a band called The Arcade Superheroes and after a long sabbatical, we got in contact with each other again. It has been great catching up again and we have both matured alot in the process. So, since about late December, we have regularly jammed and wrote songs at least once a week (she lives about 20 miles out of town and it takes about one and half hours to get to her house) and developed a strong 13 song set. The set list comprises of half original material and the others are covers. I'm practising Walking on Thin Ice at the moment (by Yoko Ono) and she's learning a song called The Sandman Calls (one that I've wrote. We have a gig of sorts tomorrow night (Wednesday) at a barv called The Emmott Arms in a village called Cowling. I can't wait...I love the buzzz of performance be it music, acting or artie.

I was kidnapped by Andrea for a week, last week and we went to a little place in the Lake District called Seatoller. It's a sheep farming hamlet and is really ting. The campsite was surrounded by hills and crags and mountainous trepidation. I really enjoyed this holiday. We played music, went fell walking, a lot of photography and general relaxation. I had the chance to hang of cliffs and I took the chance like a bull to a red rag. There is an old slate mine called 'Honister Pass' and that's were this [Via Ferrata] was situated.

Via-Ferrata means Iron Road in Latin and is where climbers train before going to the Alps and other climbing places. It was hard going though. I have a irreversible heart condition called Dilated Cardio-Myopathy which means that my heart is ready to pop but I have medication so I am stable. I had to sign away a disclaimer before I could go onto this adventure. I really enjoyed it, before the illness I was doing all this stuff anyway but...yeah a little reckless. The image above is the group at the summit I'm the one in the dead centre (with the glasses).