Update Monday 2

Busy day but not a lot to show for it.

Tutorial went well, just becoming familiar with the images from the bus and noticing the reflections.

Went to Sculpture dept and had a quick word with John. He said come back Wednesday and he should be able to say if there will be a window of opportunity to do my see-saw, otherwise I may have to take it elsewhere.
Felt a bit sad at the idea of going elsewhere as there is great understanding of arty projects in the college workshop.

Spent a lot of time on the video, but didn't get far.

At least I have an idea of how to transfer the camera files to .mov files which can be used in Final Cut Pro. Found I had nearly forgotten everything I learned before Christmas. Need to root out the leaflet I got from Julia.

Re-learned enough to do some editing, but it is taking ages.

Well, I can endorse myself for effort if not for success

Update Monday

Well the presentation went fine, and I got lots of good comments.
While talking about my imgaes, the thought struck me that all around me was calm and peace, so my conclusion is that the chaos and confusion are literally 'all in my head'

Friday the broadband was still down - from Wednesday, so I phoned UTV first thing. It took them until 1700 to get back to me. And after nearly an hour talking to the techie and trying numerous things, he said either a simple rest and re0boot would sort it out, or else I might need a new ROUTER.

Well, I did the rest and reboot, but it didn't work, and then tried another router lent to me by my daughter. that didn't work either. Everything seems to be working - power light is lighting, Windows says ethernet is working, and the DSL works with the phone. It's all a mystery.

In between all this, I edited the footage I took on the 123 bus , wrote the first draft of my essay, and this morning burned the video to DVD.

Plan is as follows:

1. Find out how to speed up the cars video, finish editing it.
2. Find out how to do the original idea of video-windows in the still image
3. Try again to talk to Edward Murphy and/or Pat (John Lane School)
4. Read further into history of NCAD in library. possibly get copy of book

Short Tutorial due at 1130

3RD YEAR SEMINAR PRESENTATION

It's Thursday and its 1140 and the seminar is in a little over two hours or so (possibly later, but I can't really depend on it.)

What I am planning is to show three things:
Alco Flick-book











Pic a Pick - the project I did in the Sculpture Elective in January









Student Dilemma - what I'm working on at present.







I think I also need to prepare a slide show for projection


Will hardly have time to prepare video to show. Might use the one I made this morning

INTERNET Problems ....

Having awful problems
first there was the matter of time, watching the DVD's on Monday, both in college and at home
Then there was a slow link in the college wifi which wouldn't connect my Mac laptop
I waited hours for the promised visit from the Techie guy, who never came.
Eventually I plugged in the wire, and started to create a post. When I tried to download a picture from my Mac, Google wouldn't let me do so.
I tried over and over, with no success.
Eventually went home, where broadband sat down last night
Then This morning, I tried broadband again at home, again no connection.

Now after one machine with no wifi, I'm on this one which is, as one of my fellow students remarked piquantly 'as slow as an old person with constipation - in fact anyone with constipation (let's not be agiest). Now its telling me that it can't connect to Blogger to save all this - obviously there's a jinx of some sort around! Am going to try to save it as a doc somewhere. Here goes.

Well, would you believe it, it worked - not only did the line re-activate, but Blogger saved it, and I also managed to saved it to Text Edit.

Reflection on TUTORIAL

Today's image shows the blue skies in Dublin as I set out on my journey to Venice August 2007

Talked a bit to Cliona about my final (six week) project called Bipolar Balance. She Ok-ed the idea, and will get Anthony to phone Philip so I can go formally to the Sculpture dept to see about getting help to make the 'equipment' for the performance.

We also talked about the blog, and she liked the raindrops photo on my last entry. She suggested I could get it printed. I like it myself. I think it fits in to both the theme of inner conflict/dilemma, and also Bipolar Balance. The combination of rain, dark skies, brilliant sunshine, starbursts, and rainbow prism reflects the positive/negative aspects, and the unpredictability of a lot of my life.



I think I will go the library to get another book for the media essay. But first I want to get another image to put on this page. I like the way images break up the text. Best of all, I like images that somehow develop the text.

INNER CONFLICT continues....

I should be working on the essay, but am 'ski-vving', looking at pictures on the internet.

Inner conflicts are always characterized by arguments or struggles between different parts of ourselves.

says Sam Tutton on his Primalworks blog in 2003.



Well that surely describes what this STUDENT DILEMMA project is about.

In fact the inner conflict is so 'hot' that I robbed myself of sleep last night thinking about what I might put in those little 'windows' (if that is the idea I finally go with).

There would be three windows:

Essay One Window
Essay Two Window
Studio Work Window

IDEAS I had as I tossed and turned, unable to sleep:
Photos:
Photos of me making video

Using video helmet
covers of books I am reading

Videos of

Video of me making self-video
Journeys within college
Sliding doors, going in and out
stairs,
elevator inside/outside
Shuffling papers
Typing on keyboard
Reading newspapers folding and unfolding
Experimant with bag of ice on head (like it showed in comics)

Then there is the matter of allocating the beads/marbles into different coloured jars

Just thinking that maybe the background photo might change if the little videos seem to require this.

Sounds - natural sounds of what is going on, but also vocalizations to match what I am feeling, sighs, groans, wails, etc.

NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY - I need to get back to writing that essay!
No playing TETRIS till I have at least a few hundred words written!

FLUXUS at YouTube

NOTES from the YouTube movie Desert of the Real with the voice of Guy Debord (I think)
This quote is from the "About this Video" section. There are also some interesting comments under the movie.

Fluxus is an ATTITUDE. It is not a movement or a style.

Fluxus is INTERMDEIA. Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect. They use found & everyday objects, sounds, images, and texts to create new combinations of objects, sounds, images, and texts.

Fluxus is EXPERIMENTAL.

Fluxus works are SIMPLE. The art is small, the texts are short, and the performances are brief.

Fluxus is FUN. Humor has always been an important element in Fluxus.

Fluxus is about MODALITY and the DIS-UNITY of art.

Fluxus is ALWAYS CHANGING, so it doesn't always have to be this way.

Fluxus is NOT an art style. (

I've added capitalization for emphasis.

Towards a new Laocoon

Interestingly, there was an exhibition last year 2007 called Towards a New Laocoon held in The Henry Moore Foundation. Works are by Eduardo Paolozzi, Tony Cragg and Richard Deacon.

I wonder ...

I wonder if I use the idea, could I put the photo in the foreground, and the little videos/animations behind this with a transparent background.

And am also wondering whether I might be able to animate Laocoon itself - imagine those serpents writhing in lurid colours ....

Another IDEA for Student Dilemma

0930 - working at home as the internet connection in college yesterday was unstable.

Just found a small 'noise video' on You Tube. There is a photo with a tiny video in a postage stamp in the corner.


I am thinking that maybe I could use the Lacoon image as the photo, and do three tiny videos (dealing with Studio, Essay 1 and Essay 2) and have the three playing at the same time to indicate the difficulty of giving attention to three things at once.

Laocoon statue

This is information about the Laocoon statue in the concourse. I think they are struggling with multiple serpents like I am struggling with multiple challenges of doing studio projects and essays at the same time.

Ah well, I nearly .....

I thought I was going to get a start made, but by the time I got my computer registered, and my NCAD email sorted, and then had some discussion with fellow-students about the project, it was too dark to take anyu pictures.

Well, there is tomorrow ....

BETSY-WOW - more than a COW

Just to let people know that there are other 'Betsys' beside cows - Betsy Trotwood is a character in David Copperfield; Betsey Ross sewed the first American flag; Betsey Johnson is a fashion designer, Betsey Stevenson is a business woman; there are lots of other Betsy's also, but the one that is me is BETSY-WOW, which is what my Dad called me when he was in good humour.

THURSDAY Feb 14 not in love with this project YET

These are the ideas I have so far:
Student's Dilemma - illustrating the tortuous effects of juggling time between writing essays and doing studio work in the proportions of 20%/80%IDEAS:

Performance with 100 marbles being shared between three jars (1 large, 2 small)
Sound of rope being twisted tightly
Projection of distortions of pictures of Lacoon statue, on the statue
Interviews
with students
with tutors
with admin staff
with Dept of Educ
with EU office

LISTENING TO TALLAGHT
Portrait of a town by sight and sound.

Photos, Video and sound recording fading to black as each scene changes, with the sound lasting longer than the image

MAKING STRANGE
Strange views of a strange place.

Select a small location, not previously visited by me, make photographs as if taken by an alien, or a small child

BUS-STOP FOLK
Who uses this bus-stop anyway?

Photos taken at regular intervals (say two minutes or so)
Run as animation showing people waiting and then boarding the bus

VBLOG

1 minute video of myself each day - saying something I might be too shy to talk about in the class.

SUPER BLOG

Create a blog that might be really interesting to people to read, not just the class.

ARCHIVE OF THE ORDINARY

Photograph a number of elements of my life that would normally pass without notice.

Cliona suggested it would be OK to do several small items to start with and then to go with the one that grabbed my interest most. Think I might do this.

PS the picture at the top of this entry shows the reflection of a CD projected on the wall by a digital projector (Oct 2007)

THE PROJECT 1

Now that I have an idea of how to write a post, and how to post a photo, maybe I can get down to expressing my thoughts about the project.

Already, I have been letting my mind float, and have about eight ideas that I could follow up.

Well I need to make a decision soon, and time will pass quickly.

So far I am thinking that since THE EVERYDAY means different things to different people, so long as the topic I choose is relevant to SOME, and not just to ME, that should be OK.



Is this everyday? the sun shining through the fan in the computer I am using?

Before I look up the dictionary meaning of the term, I will review what the word EVERYDAY means to me:

something that comes up everyday
something banal (everyday as opposed to special on Sundays)
Something durable and hardwearing (everyday shoes as opposed to fancy dancing slippers)

The Dictionary says:(http://www.onelook.com/?w=everyday&ls=a)
adjective: found in the ordinary course of events (Example: "A placid everyday scene")
adjective: commonplace and ordinary (Example: "The familiar everyday world")
adjective: suited for everyday use (Example: "Everyday clothes")

Our brief asks us to 'INTERROGATE THE EVERYDAY'
Interrogate - ask questions in a robust fashion - in other words, don't be fobbed off with easy answers.

Will have to think some more about this.

More Blogger explorations on Wednesday

Am going to try to add the image again



AT LAST!
Better post it quick before it disappears

WHAT AN ADVENTURE IN BLOGGING
No doubt it will get quicker, but here is hows today's saga went.

It's just past noon, I've just walked back from the launch of the community art project launch of the piece directed by Louise Walshe, one of the tutors I had in the Sculpture Department.

I thought I woudl be able to put pictures up when I got into college, but no luck so far. - Ah, I've just found out how - its that little icon at the top of this space.
Well here goes.

45 minutes later, the picture still hasn't appeared, I got a failure message, very efficient, but no address to send it to. Am going to try and find an email address - NO LUCK!

Eventually found a link to a form in FAQ and sent it there.

can't post a picture

Well so much for easy edit.
I have a draft Welcome page written, but can't find how to post it.

Neither can I find how to add a picture

Will have to learn more when I'm not so hassled.

Welcome to Betsy Wow Art Page

Welcome to Betsy Wow Art Page.
Today is Visual Culture Day so I won't write much.

Yesterday, we started a new project in Media which included setting up this blog.
I didn't take any pictures, but here is one I took a while ago.