Thursday 28th November
Jo has been focusing on site-specific filming and alternative caffenol processing using seawater, as part of thinking about working across multiple locations; Greenwich and Cornwall are linked by the sea and using seawater in her practice brings that experience to her work in the studio. The fishermen, who make nets in the cellars of Porthmeor Studios, were very helpful about shoving the door open to the beach after the sand build-up during the recent storms, and she managed to fill her buckets up with seawater without getting too wet….results were encouraging and the negative was projected in the studio the next day (still below). Jo also hosted Ruby, a teenage work experience student from the RIO Gamechanger programme and her support worker; Ruby documented our meeting with the Tate team, in preparation for our Walking The Universe activity this Saturday 12.30 Porthmeor Beach (part of Tate St Ives Winter Festival) and also her experience of being in the studio.
Justin and Jo have also been working on sharing residency outcomes at the event on Saturday using stickers with QR codes. They have also been working on bringing together sound and visual ideas around the planets, looking at the ways in which sound and digital and analogue projection work together, using original and found film footage alongside thermal imaging of speech and sounds. Justin has also been working this week on developing short sound pieces based on Nasa’s electromagnetic recordings from around the planets.
We also had a really interesting (if wet!) research walk with our enthusiastic and weather hardy participants, Walking The Universe through St Ives.We started with a research talk from the artists who were joined by astronomer Carolyn Kennett to talk about our collaboration with her and the science behind the event. We then went into town to pace out the distances between the sun and the planets across 600 metres with help from Carolyn (and a trundle wheel), documenting our planetary ‘stations’ with mobile phone photography. Back for tea, cake and a studio visit.
Thanks again to SWCTN and the Porthmeor patrons for the opportunity to develop our practice at Porthmeor Studios during November.
