Comic Jam at Cathedral Fesitval

The comic jam, run by Allan Dotson, was filled to capacity today, only partially due to the rain (I noticed that some of the other indoor activities were not as crowded). I created a comic which begins to create ambiguity between my multiple meta-narratives.

Canister green screen mishap

Geremy requested Canister to perform in front of a green screen for a project today. Geremy took the images for this stitched photo together. It seems that part of Canister's body must have been lost in the time/space vortex through which he is so fond of travelling (see video example)

Cathedral Festival parade

Holiday Monday; beginning of Cathedral Festival. William dressed up and walked with the small but dedicated steam punk club who then held a workshop in the Balkwill Centre. William and I actually spent more time in Allan Dotson's comic book jam room where I made a Canister comic.

Allan and Jana

Met with Rob this morning. Passed a new 1 Tb external firewire 3 drive to him for use in Rerun.
Made a movie with William and his friend Griffin this afternoon.William is recovering but not completely yet.
Allan and Jana came over for supper. After supper we played a round of the game that Allan had demoed for the game class last week. It's called Mechaton, designed by D. Vincent Banker of Lumply games, downloadable and played with Lego, dice, and a hex-grid map. We had a very nice evening.
 

drip drip drip

Just when the end was near, there is water leaking in the bathroom by the toilet. By the time the specialist toilet plumber arrived and determined that it was the shut off valve to the toilet and not the toilet itself, it was too late to bet a new valve so this is put off until tomorrow. It also requires removing the baseboard (which George managed to do without damaging it) and perhaps cutting the wall. I spent the day in the house, getting my grading done and submitting "Rerun Amok" to the $100 Film Festival.

rerun rerun

I can't recall if I wrote about this, but my SSHRC proposal for my "Rerun" research program was turned down (actually, it received what they call a 4A which means it was approved but didn't have a high enough rating to get money). It was suggested that I could apply for some university money to help develop the project further. The deadline is next week so I was thinking that I would write this application between other duties this week. Late last night I realized that the application will require signatures from the department head and the dean and they both want it a week in advance. Therefore, I spent most of today drafting it.

Three days to Halloween

It's like waiting for Christmas but without anyone trying to pretend it is about religion. I am going to try to create my film loop for my window based on this image this year:

Three days to Halloween

It's like waiting for Christmas but without anyone trying to pretend it is about religion. I am going to try to create my film loop for my window based on this image this year:

Reflecting

Today I spent too much money. Bought all the episodes of Poirot tv show on dvd as well as a small sliver extremely overpriced plastic to protect Margaret's new Ipod.
To cap it off, we went to the Mercury for supper (Margaret paid since I was griping too much) and I took this photo of William reflected in the glossy formica tabletop.
I also updated my website in a few places, added a page for the new Dunlop show as well as my "Rerun Amok" and "All the Boys are Called William" projects.

No Story Too Small

Today the Dunlop Art Gallery show on artist trading cards, co-curated by Margaret, opened at their Sherwood branch. The show looks really great. A couple of people who have seen other ATC shows in gallery also pointed this out as these cards often don't get the respect of other art, probably because of the non-hierarchical and non-commercial philosophy behind this movement. The display cases are actually quite simple but definitely elegant as they give the cards room and light.William missed the opening because he went to a swimming birthday party. He was wrecked when I picked him up. Later we discovered that he has a fever of 101 F so I went to my mom's church fowl supper alone.

coming into focus

As the summer comes to an end, I finally start coming into focus. Erik and I finished the main part of the A/B rolling of my 35mm "Grain" film today. I met with a new student. I got some solid work done on my SSHRC application and returned to the archives to study more footage for some tests. Here is a test that isn't working out for me although Erik suggests that I can strengthen the lines using the Path tools in photoshop. I couldn't get it to do what I needed it to, but perhaps I can live with having lost two hours of my life on Monday trying to create it

Artist Trading Cards

Margaret has been involved with artist trading cards (ATC) for a few years now. It involves creating works of art the size of traditional trading cards such as baseball cards (2.5" x 3.5") and then trading them one for one with others who have also made work. The idea is for people to feel free and brave with creating new work and at the same time putting aside ideas of commodification by trading and never selling. The collective meets once per month with the sessions open to the public to come in, bring or make work while there, and trade. About once per year I made a set. They have a call out for narrative cards in this style/genre for a gallery show so I constructed a series of photo collages involving me as the robot with the bucket head set inside stills from old educational films. This connects in many ways with the "Rerun" project I've developing (in my head). I got these cards done and packaged up with artist statement etc today. Here is one of the six of them:

Out in left field

I went out to the farm for the first time this year. I scraped some paint off the "cottage"; it seemed like I 'd not scraped any at all last fall. It is very hot and humid and nothing seemed worth taking a photo of. I didn't pick up the camera even once. Some days are like that. If I had picked it up, I probably would have taken dozens of images. When you carry a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Here is another image from yesterday:
It is part of what I hope to be a narrative series of artist trading cards I need to finish this week. I hadn't planned on Erik appearing as "The Nemesis", that was William's idea (and costuming).

research day 2

Worked with Erik again today. He is interested in something called a slit scan which is the creation of an artificial shutter for a camera which allows you to expose the frame one portion at a time over a longer than normal period. We built one out of a pineapple tin, some black wrap, and a cut up dvd case. Here is Erik holding the device:

Our results were not great but that was more to do with our lack of an slr camera and substituting of my "red camera" which has no manual control on the shutter length. Here is one result:
We also talked further about my Rerun project. Erik pointed out that he thinks that we are going about the project in the wrong way and I assured him that he was absolutely right. The right way would be to plan, to previsualize, and to pre-determine the overall structure before jumping into the production of minor details. I have a strong aversion to doing things the right way so we are charging blindly ahead (except Erik who has decided to open his eyes).

research day 1

Erik started with me today. We talked, did some preliminary thinking about "Rerun", looked at the 3D scanner again, and developed some film. I invited Berny hi to join us and develop some film too as I won't be able to join up with the Filmpool's film frenzy this year so he'll need to take charge. We dried the film outside but it had grown so cold that the drying war very slow and painful on our our hands. I finally processed two rolls I shot in September 2008 of macro close ups of grasshoppers; it will be important to my fall episode of "Grain".