Vectis Presentation

This is a video version of a presentation I gave this Tuesday on the subject of Vectis as part of my MA course. It explains a lot of the thinking about the work, including giving a more clear idea of the thinking behind the re-imagined Winter section. A full script follows after the cut.

The Final Stretch

It may seem that I have dropped off the face of the world in the last month or so. This is not so. I have, however, had little time to be working on this blog. I have always struggled, in my academic work, with the problem of the extra work that it takes to adequately record the process of creation, and I've fallen off the wagon a bit here. Basically, I have been too busy actually finishing Vectis to write about finishing Vectis. Now, however, I am nearing the endgame, and I can make a progress update.

I have made a great deal of progress, and in the process made many changes. The fourth section (Winter) has undergone a complete overhaul in its layout and contents. The original idea I had (a succession of photographs of the coast) never quite gelled together; the seasonal structure gave me a limited number of pages in which to realise the concept, which could very easily occupy a whole, larger book. There was no way to present all the coast in such a way. Furthermore, the actual process of walking and exploring the coast proved to be too great a task given my time. It didn't seem like I would be able to do the process any justice; I was also not entirely sure whether it would fit in with the rest of the book. Instead, I decided to resort to a completely different idea, making instead two virtual journeys; not the endeavour of a flâneur but of a robinsonneur, one who travels without moving. One of these journeys is visual (a procession of heavily treated aerial or satellite images), one textual (a procession of the names of settlements around the coast), though both are composed aesthetically on the page.

As well as making much other progress with the content, I have also (I believe) sorted out the problem with the bleeds, which was down to Indesign incorrectly exporting the bleed settings. I have sent off for another black and white test printing, which should arrive some time in the next few days. If my fix has been successful, I should be ready to have the book finally printed, in colour, some time next week.

More selected poems and images.

The work ploughs on, with some major tweaks in the overall content and layout which I shall hopefully be able to go in to more detail about later. In order to keep things moving here, here's a selection of some of the more recent poems and images from the book.

Completed spreads

It's time to give a peek inside the book. I'm very close to being in a position where I can send a version off for test printing, and I've taken a few screenshots of some two page spreads, with a couple to show recent changes.

History essay: As If There Were No Other Island

It is finished! At last...or at least, a first draft is finished. In other news, I have made a (to my mind) major change to the book, excising the third walk from the Autumn section and expanding the space given to the two remaining walks in size, in order to create something a little more cohesive. If I wasn't so enamoured of the lovely landscape pages in this section, I would consider running both walks together in parallel, one on the right hand page of a spread and one on the left. We'll see if there isn't some possible solution along those lines. But anyway, time now to delve into the past...

Some more poetry

This week gone has been mostly about writing, and a bit of drawing. The poetry for the Autumn section is becoming very interesting, allowing me to make associations that I have been struggling to make otherwise.

The Channel

The channel surges like a bellows

Pumping daily oceans;

The heartbeat of the earth

Artery clogged, failing.

Calcification, ancient lands submerged

Sunken bells tolling and toiling

Dunwich, Lyonesse, Blackgang

Disappearing world…

Floating world…

Donated by the grateful people of Japan.

See then this:

A great wave

Rolling across the infinite Atlantic

The distant tropical drumming;

Wireless communication.

Cliffs like teeth.

The wires running through them

Ready to be pulled

Out, taut, off.

The bones of time revealed.

Expanding outward

The circle, the centre

Contracting inwards,

The centre, the circle

Wheel and web

Coast and network;

A boundary of nothing.

A house on the borderland.

A gate on the bridge.

A line in the sand.

But still, the great wave

Tomorrow I shall be making the second of the autumn section walks. This will mark the completion of more than half of the photography.

Worth a Hundred Pictures?

In the 'Autumn' section of Vectis words will be entwined (more on this to come) with the images I've gathered. I have come to decide that the text in the second section should be in the form of poetry that returns to and explores in other ways the themes developed throughout the other written sections of the book. I am writing the poems as a cycle, jotting down various phrases and images, trying to assemble something. Here is a first taster:

Under This Bridge

The world is browning

Where once it was blue and green

Soon it will be time for sacrifices

To recall the sun to the earth

But the memory of its warmth

Lingers still

And yes, it was under this bridge I sat

Sun to my face, Circle a to my back

And smoked in another life

Reading the signs in the ground

Knowing I was not the first

And sure I would not be the last

Is that not where happiness aims?

Is that not faith?

Not to be the first or last

No glory or tragedy

But quiet persistence

Cyclic law, and the mystery of the word

Maps for the first section

Are finally finished, and only a day late too! Unfortunately, Bayimg appears to be going through one of it's temporary blips, so I'll have to use up some of my precious Blogger storage space. Images after the cut.

A slow week.

Posts to this blog have been rather sparse over the last week. Partly that is to do with other drains on my time; mostly it is to do with the kind of work I have been doing for the book, much of which is tedious and unspectacular. I have set myself a small task list for the week, which I have mostly accomplished. By close of play tomorrow, ideally, I will have:-

• Organised all the files for the project on my computer, and made multiple back-ups (this is done)
• Finished the excel spreadsheet laying out the book and laid out the skeleton of the book in Adobe Indesign (this is done)
• Have all the primary photography for the first section completed (this is almost done)
• Have 10% of the book in a completed or almost completed state (this will amount to 37 pages, and will probably be done)

 The last part has been hampered a little by my choice of what to tackle. Mostly this week, apart from doing the above tasks and chipping away more at some of the written portions of the book, I have been at work on the final versions of the maps that will accompany each of the walks in the first section. I hope to have all of these finished by this time tomorrow; I should have realised from the time it took me to create the large Isle of Wight map that these would be time consuming, but the results will, I think, be pleasing. I have also been working on a number of other images, much helped by the fact that I have made provisional choices for base photographs for all of the first walk. One image is complete so far:

Overall, I am feeling much less anxious about the final deadline than I was this time last week.

A map and a picture

Not much to show, still putting together the page by page plan of the contents. I realised I would need a good map of the island, almost before anything else, so I put this together, which took a lot longer than I expected:

Some experimental images.

Working towards a style for the images in the summer section, particularly. I've used a variety of scanned images of hand-made textures, scanned in to the computer, combined with heavily manipulated photographs and over-drawing. Images after the jump.

Recording a Walk

I have decided to use three different methods to record the walks in Vectis. I could have chosen any of a huge variety of others, but I am constrained somewhat by the considerations of the medium. The method must fit into a book; so, for example, audio or video recordings would not be appropriate (although I have taken audio notes, and may incorporate audio somehow; perhaps a soundtrack to listen to whilst reading the book? A download perhaps; it needs some thought). 

The method I've been thinking of for the third section (the coastal walk) is of taking photographs facing along the coast in opposite directions (so that one is in the direction of the walk, one looking back), and placing these photographs on opposite pages. To explore this concept, I decided to employ it to rccord one of the shorter walks, from my house to Carisbrooke Castle and back. I decided to take a photograph every 70 paces, as this was roughly the length of the path from my back gate to the road. 

Spring, season colours

A spring picture, based on a new photograph; and an idea towards a unified colour scheme for the four seasonal sections. Perhaps a little twee? Perhaps there should be something more counterintuitive at work?

 

Seasons Don't Fear the Reaper

The idea of structuring the book around the seasons has suggested to me the possibility of using the year as a model for the book. 2012 is a leap year, consisting of 366 days; since the majority of the work takes place in this year, It would make for a book of that many pages, plus a number of extra pages at the beginning (pre-numbering) for contents and so forth; say 7, if we're going for calendar correspondences.

The book shall therefore be divided into four sections. I'll work based on the periods between solstices and equinoxes:

Spring: 21st March - June 20th:  91 days

Summer: June 21st - 20th September: 91 days.

Autumn:  21st September-20th December: 90 days.

Winter: 21st December-20th March (Including 29th Feb): 90 days.

I have been trying to set the structure out in various text files and in indesign, but I think I'll have to make a physical model of the book in order to be able to get a real sense of how this all pans out, whether this is a good idea and whether any fudging will be necessary

I will also need to pick up the pace a little on the first section, though I have photographs, sound recordings and notes on all three of the first walks; the season draws to a close. One of the interesting things about the actual making of Vectis is that, due to the writing and other considerations, the first section shall probably take the longest to produce in terms of post-production, though I already have almost all the material I need on hand. I shall be walking all three routes again in the next few days, before moving out.  Already autumn's chill is in the air. The 21st is the first day of autumn, and will be time to begin considering the longer range walks.

To See All is to Condemn All: Prisons & Panopticism

One of the most notable features on Walk 3 is this muckle great thing.

Her Majesties Prison Isle of Wight.

Islands & Icons

So, the Isle of Wight.

First, some notes on terminology. These are terms I shall be using throughout the rest of the proceedings, that I have touched on before. The Isle of Wight is always, by it's residents, simply called "The Island". The rest of the UK is "The mainland". People who were born on the Isle of Wight (and, depending on the level of severity in play, had both their parents also born on the Isle of Wight) are 'Caulkheads'. The origins of this term (like so many) are unclear, but probably have something to do with the traditional local industry of caulking the seams in wooden ships. Other long-term residents, especially those who grew up here, are 'Islanders', people who have moved over from the mainland more recently, or are over here on business, are 'Overners' (short for 'Overlanders'). Tourists are 'Grockles'. The difference in respect accorded to an overner vs. a grockle is probably distinct just from the sound of the two words.

So, what is the Island? Where is it? Why is it?* 

Some Early Images

Now that I have a graphics tablet, work can begin in earnest on making images. First, here's a couple of images I made a few weeks back based off of an early morning photoshoot of which you've seen one photograph already (as this blog becomes more established, I will upload all the work, except perhaps the vast bulk of raw photographs, I have so far done for this project, reformatting it as necessary). 

As you can see, images  are probably the area that needs the most work...

Walks & Walking: an outline

So, Vectis is an artistic project. Its final outcome is intended to be a book. The subject of this book is the Isle of Wight. The methodology is psychogeography and the method is writing, drawing, photography and walking. 

I've always had a suspicion that it's a bit dodgy to talk about 'methodology' when you're creating something purely artistic. It seems to have a whiff of a mis-appropriation of scientific terminology, implying something more rigorous than you ever really end up with in art. The term I would personally like to use in its stead is 'motive'; since methodology is the 'why' (opposed to the 'how' of method). Motive, to my mind, implies that even if the project is a failure, there might have been something interesting in its conception. It also allows you to potentially draw more terminology from the world of crime. Walking is part of my modus operandi.

Thinking With Portals

First things first, know that I cannot resist the opportunity for a pop culture reference or a quick pun. Is this a failure or an asset? Personal stuff, art.

Whilst the conceptual and verbal development of Vectis continues apace, one area where things just haven't been moving forward much is the visual sphere. The main reason for this is the tragic demise of my trusty old graphics tablet. Despite being knocking around the family for 11 years, it's only in the past year or so that I've really come to use and now, I realise, rely on the device. The particular style of illustration that I want to incorporate into Vectis (clean, bold yet also somewhat subtle) relies pretty much on the use of such a device. Thankfully, I will have saved up enough money to purchase a new one by...tomorrow. So that's alright then. 

In the mean-time, I have been laying the groundwork for the illustration by taking photographs and doing sketches along the walking routes I have planned (I haven't talked about these yet, I think, in any concrete detail, and should pencil that in as a topic for a post pretty soon). Looking through these photographs just now, I have begun to notice a small fascination developing with a particular visual theme (photographs after jump):

Book introduction: Every Black'ning Church Appalls

This is the current draught of the first chapter/introduction of Vectis, as it stands at the moment. It is not the absolute first draught, of course. It retreads, somewhat more airily, themes discussed in my last post, and may be significantly re-written before the project is finished. I am still not sure about such apparently important matters as tone. It is the longest non-fragmentary piece of writing currently extant, however, and will probably be one of the longest passages that does not closely inter-relate with visual imagery.