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Friday, March 21, 2003
I've decided I'm going to try and keep my blog going but maybe now as a weekly or more occasional thing...
A lot of (random) people have come up to me since I'm back and said they'd read my Japan blog, I'm pretty surprised. I know this is public but I didn't imagine anyone outside of friends and family would actually read it.
Me and baby Mae Sadie
This week has been crazy from war to birth in a matter of moments. on Tuesday 20th at 1am My friends Anne and Mark became parents when baby Mae was born. I always forget just how tiny new born babies are - Sheil and I are god parents and we went to see them all when they got out of hospital.
Baby Mae
Managed to appease Mae when she was crying by showing her a fabulous new Gucci bag in this months Elle. She stopped crying immediately she clapped eyes on it, (it may have been to do with my finger pointing at it, but I like to think that she is a chip off the old block). She is gorgeous.
The proud parents
The same day Mae was born saw the start of the war. I feel incredibly frustrated as an individual; I don't want this war but am not sure what I can do to express that. I've been looking at
Michael Moore's web site. His open letter to George w is really clear about his objections.
The TV coverage is mesmerising, as a media spectacle it's really interesting. The swingometers have been dusted down from the election and reformatted for Iraq, day 1, 2 etc. I've never seen so much use of night vision camera and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the video footage was additionally pixilated to give it that real rough and fresh, in the field look.
Kept thinking about Chris Helson's 'The act' which was part of (this time last years) TV Swansong, which I followed as part of my mentoring with Pope and Guthrie. As his live broadcast for 20/03/02 he followed the lead news story on the 19th and flew to be on location and re-report the story. He ended up a mountain in Peru locating a lost Inca city that had been hazily told by BBC with some inaccuracies. If he had made the project this year he would have been reporting from most likely Baghdad, the smoke rising behind him as he broadcast on videophone.
Stop the war - Barney not Bush
Stop the War - Market Square
I went down to the Stop the War protest in Nottingham's Market square on Thursday. Mainly to stand and be counted. There was a big Broadway turn out and a lot of photographers and press, although I didn't see any footage on the news. It was a fairly raggle taggle affair. Some great banners - techies against the war but it did seem a bit hopeless.
Stop the War - Market Square
A great speaker from the Stop the war coalition seemed to focus and bring people together but it just didn't seem enough. I don't really know what the answer is, maybe Trampoline or Radiator festival could stage a multi media televisual protest to get the press.
Usha with her doves of peace
Going away to Japan has given me time and perspective to think about what kind of work I want to make and in which direction or area I want to focus my energy. It's essential to continue the commercial practice of Ruby in order to make a living, as well as being an enjoyable and satisfying part of my work.
The main decision I've come to is the kind of artwork I want to make. Making Home-Maker was such a luxury, I've written about this before but so much of my time is taken up with admin it can be months before I actually get to make any work. The area I want to develop is Non-linear or interactive documentary. This sounds so simple but has taken a great deal of thinking to come to this statement of intent. I think that much of my previous work fits into this area and is where I want to go in the future.
I'm excited by the possibilities of making video / film for broadcast and like the clarity and support of the production process, however I'm frustrated by the pinned down-ness of it all. In contrast artists film and video is much freer in terms of narrative and pace but I often find it frustrating viewing, production values are often less and some pieces could benefit from a ruthless editor.
I want to make something that falls in between these two modes of practice. I like the idea that a story can be non-linear, told in an order controlled by the audience, revealing small parts of the story a bit at a time. So my plan is to develop work that can be shown in more than one way - on TV / cinema but that can also translate to the web / gallery or site. Watch this space.
I'm hopeful that the changes at the arts council will mean that it will be easier to make work. From what I've seen so far it seems to be more artist focused which I think can only be a good thing.
I think I am suffering from Art Fatigue. I went to the Interludes exhibition and Artist film and video selection by Anne Bjerge Hansen at Angel Row Gallery. My website When was the last time you said I love you? had been selected for recommendation by the artist and I was looking forward to seeing new work from the region.
Some films were great - my favourite was Manhattan, which was a split screen showing the opening sequence of Manhattan by Woody Allen on the left with a frame by frame reconstruction on the right filmed in London or Bradford (I think). But some made me feel very jaded and lose the will to live - a 10 min film of a man on a bus turning a torch on and off. The artist was purposefully oblique and Anne Bjerge Hansen said she included the film, as it was intriguing. I think being purposefully unclear is not mysterious it's tiring, I can't be bothered to think about what the artists means if he can't be arsed either.
Nottingham clouds
I'm dying to see some exciting new work - at the moment I'm sticking to the cinema and TV, it's more fun. Went to see Adaptation last week, which is fantastic. Took these photos of Nottingham from the top of the Cornerhouse. Have got used to carrying my wee camera with me all the time and think Nottingham looks beautiful.
Nottingham clouds
On Saturday I went to see Revengers Tragedy which was introduced by the director Alex Cox at Broadway. My friend Tim hosted the Q+A after the film as he has interviewed Cox before and is a big fan.
Alex Cox with his cohort Tim Cunningham
The film is strange, the story is an adaptation of a play by one of Shakespeare's students (I can't remember his name) and had great performances from Christopher Eccelston, (who I have a teenage crush on), and Eddie Izzard. The most distracting thing however was the costumes. I imagine that the budget was low but they were really distracting - kind of camp but in an Etam / New Look kind of way. I wanted more camp, more over the top, saying that Derek Jacobi put in a great turn as the Duke who was the spit of Chanel Boss Karl Lagerfeld.
Alex Cox as a speaker is really entertaining and articulate. He spoke about his Site and Sound article in which he criticesd Alan Parker's proposals for the Film council and the British Film Industry. It's refreshing to hear from a filmmaker whose heart is very much in the regions, rather than London.
Fake Tony
Lastly, Kev sent me this site Lookie Likees which has a perplexing array of look alikes. I've been wondering whether Tony ever uses this guy like Sadaam does with his impersonators.
posted by Jeanie Friday, March 21, 2003
