Touching base.

It's been a while so thought I should probably update this page. Been tremendously busy recently so I've had little time to devote to this project. I've submitted a DVD of the current films for exhibition at the Digital Art Showcase on Friday 24th April in Carlisle.

Since last posting here I've made a couple of new films, re-edited most of the existing ones and remade one entirely. The list currently stands at:

1. Open doors (re-edited & extended)
2. Watch rain from a window (re-edited)
3. Make a blue food (redone)
4. Have an idea at night (re-edited)
5. See music
6. Walk at night
7. Watch a sad film
8. Meditate with a candle (re-edited)

There's currently ideas for ten new films on index cards, but I haven't got round to making them yet. I'll need to go away for a few days to shoot some of them, so just waiting for the weather to clear up for that.

By the conclusion of this project I'd like to ideally have around twenty films. Once other commitments have been dealt with - university paperwork and the design of the degree show catalogue - the film-making can recommence.

Make a blue food (part 2) (film)

Meditate with a candle (film)

Have an idea at night, then think better of it in the morning (film)

Watch rain from a window (film)

Open doors (film)

Make a blue food (film)

#64/2 Look for a blue food

This congealed mess is a blue fried egg. It looks truly foul. I wonder whether I can varnish it?

Also made blue ice cream, which is very nice (perhaps nicer than normal ice cream? It has a minty taste for no readily apparent reason), blue pancakes, which tasted exactly the same but were a colour straight from a Dulux bathroom collection, and blue tomato ketchup which I can confirm is absolutely appalling.

Film of the blue fried egg hopefully coming up soon.

#64 Look for a blue food

The wonders of food colouring. From left to right: fresh orange juice, cloudy lemonade, milk.

Project regeneration, Doctor-style.

The project is being rethought slightly. The focus will be moved from me to other people carrying out the experiments, which functions twofold. First: the films become more interesting. They're mining the same vein as one of my earlier works, A moving family portrait (2008). The audience's responses become a significant part of the content of the film. The need for an audience - which will doubtless be ever-changing - means a subsequent change in location, with each film being located in different surroundings. Secondly, the focus is pulled off me completely, allowing me to either film the responses or to take on a less prominent role.

I am currently envisaging these films being recordings of a series of lectures. I will lead them, directing the audience with the assistance of a slideshow, through a number of experiments that can easily be conducted as a group. My current thoughts are to carry out a trial lecture at university, and restage it in various places: the Digital Arts Showcase, to be held in April in Carlisle, is one. Schools and church halls would be rather interesting too. I presume I would need a cameraman (or, as the case may present, woman) to assist in these.

This doesn't mean that every film will take this lecture-based form. Simply that the ones that I had planned to perform myself will now be carried out by a group who are eminently more watchable than I.

I ordered a copy of July and Fletcher's Learning to Love You More, which I need to pick up from town tomorrow. Let's see how the pros do this: and then I'll have a go.

#1 Call yourself

This one is closely related to #77. Sitting in a quiet room, calling out your first name until you feel a sense of someone else calling to you. Admittedly felt a bit of a fool doing it for a bit, but it does give you an odd feeling when you suddenly disconnect from being the speaker. The sense of without is felt again.

Within you and without you. George Harrison was bang on the money there.

#77 Listen to a recording of your voice

Slightly strange experience. Having made a few films and recordings over the past couple of years, this isn't as effective as it perhaps ought to have been: I've pretty much gotten used to the 'two voices'. Yet the cassette player further distorts the sound, so that the voice you hear on tape is even further from the one you hear yourself.

The issues this experiment explores: self-image, identity and seeing yourself from without is more interesting than the task itself. It would be far more interesting to listen to recordings from when you were a child (I don't know if I have any at home; I used to play with cassette recorders a lot when I was little, but I think the tapes have since been thrown away). That crosses into territory explored by some of the other experiments, so I'll leave it at that for now.

#94 Think about what other people are doing

An experiment looking again at the incomprehensibility of numbers, this time relating to the number of people in the world. The starting point is the notion of being cut off, of feeling alone. With so many people in the world we cannot ever be truly alone. It also explores the nature of coincidence: with six billion other people also on this planet the surprise felt by a sudden coincidence is somewhat diminished.

There's some interesting parallels here between the experiment itself and the various media with which I am presenting them to you. The Twitter feed, located at the top right of this page, is an extension of this particular experiment. At present, Twitter has around fifty-five million users. Each 'tweet' gives the reader an insight into what any of those fifty-five million people is doing at this precise moment in time. A window into everyone's private world. How cool - and slightly terrifying - is that?

In other, more technical news, it seems Premiere Pro doesn't like MPEG files with .ac3 audio, so I'm currently getting a fix for that. Slightly annoying but if it gets resolved easily no harm done. Also need to experiment with the microphone on the camera - this experiment was conducted outside, and the recording includes lots of exterior noise.

#22 Counting to a thousand

Conducted the first experiment tonight, which took around twenty minutes. Probably could be done quicker and having a drink to hand would be wise. It's interesting to see the fluctuations in the recital, the peaks and troughs. Also how something so apparently straightforward (we all know how to count) is surprisingly difficult when actually performed. Not sure if I have gained a new way of looking at the world, but I will concede that a thousand is a big number.

Still need to figure out how to do the 'debriefing'. The camera battery was almost flat so I didn't have time to discuss the experiment afterward.

Another problem arises: I need a better tripod. The footage seems to bounce and I'm not sure why - it coincided with the movement of the chair I sat on, obviously, but it still moved when I was static. Either get another tripod or weight this one down. Might have to put the chair on a mat of some sort too; it's incredibly loud when moved.

Regarding the running order: once completed, the one hundred and one films will be presented in the order stated in the original book. I've chosen to shoot them in a different order, mainly for simplicity (common themes, settings etc.). Each experiment carries its original number to aid cross-referencing.

Beaten at my own game?

Back from a trip to the Baltic in Newcastle and thought I ought to report back. As is so often the case, as soon as I come up with something that I think is interesting, it turns out to have already been done. I've not even got round to filming yet.

Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July's Learning To Love You More is represented at the gallery. It currently comprises seventy 'assignments' including "Record the sound that is keeping you awake" and "Grow a garden in an unexpected spot". The dedicated website is well worth a look, truly fascinating stuff. Just bloody typical that it's so close to what I want to do.

It provides food for thought, though. I originally planned to conduct all the experiments myself. I hadn't considered having other people participate - although the videos were planned as lectures to encourage people to think about the issues at hand. A variety of people would certainly be more interesting to watch, plus it takes the limelight off me.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the blog / journal for my latest art project, to be exhibited upon completion in Carlisle in June. Provisionally entitled '101 Experiments', it is based on Roger-Pol Droit's 2001 book 101 Expériences de philosophie quotidienne. The book describes a number of experiments designed to question our perception of the world and everything in it. It is my intention to conduct every single experiment, to be visually documented online, thereby allowing the audience to follow this unique philosophical journey. Part experiment and part lecture, each film will explore some of the ideas behind the original source material.

I also intend to use a variety of current media to chart the progress of the work. I have set up a Twitter account, located at https://twitter.com/richardwainman which will be updated on the fly during the course of the experiments; this blog will continue in parallel to the Twitter page.

The first films should hopefully appear within a week or so, initially available here. My aim is to create a dedicated website where everything can be accessed in one place, but that will come later.

Please leave any comments you may have by using the form below.