Reuben
James Preston
Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
Sept 2004-2005
| Semester 1 Diary |
| Semester 1 |
| January 2005 |
| 14th My studio is ready and all the documentation is completed. I have even writen a little booklet about my pieces. After talking to PLL about how to display my endeavours I decided to go for a studio/installation type look. My desk will have copies of all that is needed during the assessment as well as the pieces themselves and odds and sods - a working desk. Ihave used clues and pointers as well to reference my pieces. A bit of a mad week getting everything together, labeling and making decent DVD and CDrom cases. Semester 1 assessment page shows the whole of my space in several forms - click here to enter. |
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| don't forget the dodecahedrons! It is finished - stage 1 |
| 11th Henry tells us what we need to do - we have top write a self assessment too and have all our previous documentation to hand. I am deciding to put this on hte website so that I can reference it anywhere and also so you may read it too if you are interested. Documentation page is here. |
| 10th Assessment preparation week. just a day of clearing out rubbish and waste from my studio as well as printing digital work for display. Also a day of collecting together and filing notes and sketches from the semester. |
| 6th The day of the varnish. I spent all morning planning the layout of the varnish and the afternoon applying it and removing the tape. A bit of a nerve racking experience - quick drying vanish does funny things sometimes. Pics below. |
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Finally the battons are glued in place for the hanging of the piece. A couple of days to dry and then ready for action. |
| 5th The big day for the electrical wiring of the UV bulb. College permission is needed for such adventures! Bulb all in place and working beautifully with the infra red sensor. I am I am Iam now has three states: daylight, night time when it floureses and night time when you get near to it. |
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| The blacklight bulb 26w energy saver type |
| 4th January Happy new year! The last few days have been getting together the Final Outline for my research proposal. I have been working rather hard on it and it was handed in this morning. Now I need to apply myself to the use of the little union jack stills because PLL and I had talked about he use of them in everyday situations. After the work on the Formica competition I am working on using them for writing paper and envelopes. |
| December 2004 |
| 29th My mind is on the assessment now. How will I present my work? It needs some pondering. I have been working on some competition pieces too for the 2005 Formica competition. I have four entries which I have based on the Union Jack Stills from the DVD I made. They seem to work quite well although it is choosing a category to enter them in which I am finding difficult - is it classic, retro, contemporary or avant-guard? I am sure I shall decide. I have to get them printed A3 sized and mounted on board. Costly and time consuming. |
| 28th Back from a few days away and my mind is planning how to present all my work for the assessment in the week beginning 19th Jan. Our semester end on Thursday 22nd Jan, then it all starts over again........ I have made some stills of the website piece which give a flavour of the performance! |
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| The choir certainly enjoyed making the piece and I was even invited to their Xmas meal. We did have a laugh and like most filming it was the out takes which were funniest, although if they sing 5 gold rings again I shall die from laughter. |
| 22nd The libray has
failed me again so I sent off to Amazon for a copy of a little book
based on one man's 20years work on the phonological development of
colour terms. A fab little book based on his PhD and he has shown
that non of 54 of the world's main languages has more than 11 words
for colours. Lots of other interesting stuff as well which I shall
be saving up for my seminar. I have been advertisinf my christmas website piece in chat room and free notices and the like. Also I have made a flier. |
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| 18th Research proposal is now in - Alleluia! I am now getting nervous about he seminar presentation. The books I have managed to get hold of on the philosophy of colour are getting increasingly complex especially once one starts thinking about where the colourliness of colour is; on the surface of an object, in the mind of the viewer....... and also since I have read more from Mahnke about the visual impact of colour on our betabolic system I reall am beinging towaonder how to begin the writing of my assignment. |
17th The Shirley Bassey piece is coming along well. See pic below. Have got the UV bulb now just need to get the wiring in place. Maybe after Xmas. |
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| 14th After 7 coats of
varnish I have now decided that the varnish needs to dry thrououghly
before I embark upon the tricky business of working out the union
jack form in grey varnish. I am goin to leave this until next term
now. I am concerned that unless it is perfectly dried and cured when
I put masking tape on it may peel off. Much time is being spent currently getting the Final proposal for the research project into place. This has been a trying time with trying to get texts and references correctly formatted and especially because I have found what seems to be an excellent paper about colour-music machine but sadly, for me, written in French. I have tried the online translation machines but the English they generate is clearly inaccurate - and I don't really want to pay £150 for the translation which is what one company quoted! I may carry on the search in English. |
7th
The last week has been spent at some very fascinating lectures on
Derrida and also Rowland Barthe. I have been varnishing the Union
Jack piece and also started a new piece based on the song 'I am
what I am'. Some picctures of this pieces development will follow
shortly. I am finding that the research project for the philosophy
unit is taking most of my energy at the moment and is ectremely
demanding interlectually. Because I am concerned with colour I am
trying to do my research around the areas of colour and music with
a focus on the aesthetics of each to see if I can draw together
some rigorous philosophical framework to undergird my practice.
Well I guess that all sounds a bit 'art school' speak and I guess
it is but I am keen to get into the theory of my art as well as
the making. The Xmas web based piece is now viewable and a link
is here. You need to visit this piece during the 12 Days of Xmas. |
| Twelve days of Xmas piece this is not live now but can be accessed and you can choose a day to view |
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| The last units of colour are being placed |
| November 2004 |
| 29th Just had a rotten week because I have been full of cold and cough. It laid me in bed for 4 days and I haven't really achieved much during the past seven days except for feeling washed out and shattered. Whatever the bug that was going around it has knocked me for six. This week I hope to be up and around again and getting back on with my work. |
| 22nd
This week just past has been a long week of exploration in the library
because I have to write my outline proposal for the piece of research
I am planning on doing. The prospect of the piece feels a little daunting
to say the least. I have been wading through copies of The journal
of Aestitics and various other philosophy journals. The language is
hard to understand at times and then a break is needed in the German
market which has just been erected in the streets outside college
- a very welcome break. The Union Jack piece continues to come along slowly and I an pleased to report its progress below stage by stage. The greatest difficulties I am having at the moment are in dealing witht eh video editing software which is proving to be irksome. I need some help so I shall have to get sorted by the end of the week. |
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| 15th Time races past and the Union Jack piece is beginning to take good shape - pic below. My mind is very much focussed on the theory elemnet of the course at the moment because I have to hand in a written proposal for research by the end of the month. I am thinking of researching something along the lines of the ways in which colour is/can/has been in the social space....the aesthetics of colour in the public environment. OR I may decide to look at notions of aesthetics in the realm of the internet. At the moment I am undecided which way my interests are going to take me most. |
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The set of dodecahedrons
are now completed and hanging around my studio space. They sound
pretty curious to listen to because the sound moves from shape to
shape. |
| 11th I
can not believe it is over a week since I added an entry to this diary
page. Time seems to be zooming past me. I have had several tutorials
with various of the staff and also visiting artists. The week has
felt rather like a roller coaster. The Union Jack piece is coming
along slowly and I have been having one or two difficulties with the
paint. The blues do not like the surface of the undercoat and I have
had to work on the refining of my painting technique to overcome these
difficulties. The pictures below show some of this. The Project 99 piece has taken a lot of my time and energy just because producing 99 of anything is time consuming. The final pieces are now ready for sale. The Union Jack video/projection piece has started to take shape although I am having to learn to use a new piece of software to enable this piece to be completed which slows up the process a little. Finally on this update is a word on the Xmas Dodecahedrons which have now been printed and are in the process of production. The images below show something of my work over the past ten days. |
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| 1st A good long day in the studio today - acheived loads which is very pleasing. The board for the union jack peiec is now sucessfully cut and undercoated twice ready for the planning work to start tomorrow. I have also read lots today and done plenty of reserach looking up Parkett which I now feel I ought to subscribe to if I am going to get anywhere with art professionall. I have been trying to get a xylophone on Ebay for one of my pieces but we shall have to see how that goes!. Below are a couple of pics of the studio. |
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| The sheet for the Union Jack piece and the studio space generally. |
| October 2004 |
| 28th
Thursday What a long couple of days. Yesterday we had some very good
lectures. One from Ole Hagan who is a visiting artist to the college.
He works in video and 3d and is considering the 'sense of self'. In
the afternoon we had a group criticism tutorial which was somewhat
nerve-racking because a student has to present their work and then
someone is picked on by the tutor to pretend to be the artist and
talk about the work as well as answer questions from everyone else
- guess who got picked? Yes it was me! The student had made a triptych
in video. I made a valiant attempt to read the work. Well back to my progress. I have been planning the construction of the Union Jack flag piece. I have done an analysis on the score - a four part piano setting and I have been experimenting with creating the grey overwash of the the Union Jack form. Here are a few images of my work to date. |
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| The analysis sheets for the piece. Basically bracking down the patterns of where all the nots of the same colour are to be located. |
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| Preparing some test pieces for experimenting with the grey wash |
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| Developing the method for the grey wash - working on lots of test pieces using PVA and varnish mixed with acrylic paint. |
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| Experimenting with the development of a grey wash to be used in the Union Jack piece |
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| Me in my studio space - notice the dodecahedron pieces hanging in the background. |
| 26th A very early start today - I can get an enormous amount done when the studio is empty and the college is silent. Oh what bliss! Here are some images of the Project 99 piece which I have constructed and following are the images of the studio at the moment and also the Christmas bauble which was the first idea for the Project 99 piece. |
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| 25th Very productive day indeed, one of those days where you feel you have acheived more than the last few added together. I have been given some superb clear plastic sleves to put my Project 99 pieces in ready for sale - they look fabulous and I am pleased. Also worked hard today on the Union Jack ideas and I have come up with a digital image to work from - see below. The piece will be painted on board or canvas although I need to do some experimenting to get the grey shading right over my colour version of the National Anthem. I have also found out about a lot of competitions which I am thinking about entering. |
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| 24th October A heavy week especially with the philosophy lecture series. I have been working on research work mainly looking up the work by artists of 1990s forward. I have also been working on the Project 99 piece as well which is now completed. Tuesday was spent taking photographs of outer city shopping areas and then manipulating the images to fit onto the dodecahedral net. Looks quite good but no picture yet to show you. |
| 18th October A busy day with the construction of the dodecahedron shapes. I printed two on A4 sized paper as test pieces. They can be seen below. The polyhedra look quite stunning and I am pleased with their final manifestation now I have to think about how to show them. I have a feeling they need to hang on thread from a beam. The pictures were taken with some very glitzy fabric behind them because we decided in the studio they have an eighties feel to them and they are worthy of a preston xmas tree! Good news is I have been asked to create my piece for the Project 99 which means I shall be spending tomorrow on the bus traveling around shopping areas of Birmingham collecting images of many different shopping areas. I have decided to be very snobby and correct and exclude Solihull! |
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| Xmas 2004 |
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Video of the piece 2.4mb |
| The Xmas 2004 piece was based on twelve Christmas Carols, one being represented on each face of the dodecahedron. I actually used the book of carols that both me and my mum used to try and play on the piano - my mum was considerably better than me. |
| 15th I am startoing work on an idea I have had about inclusion and I think that I shall be using a Union Jack. Before I write about that I have fininshed the Xmas Dodecahedron which I have been working on and when I get it printed out I shall put an image of it on the site. Each ofthe faces of the polyhedron is based on a Christmas Carol, as before using my Musical notation to Colour system. I am going to give them out as baubles for people to decorate their homes and trees with. Back to the Union Jack idea. This has come about because of my reading about Felix Gonzalez-Torres who is like me a man who struggled with being a gay guy. A lot of his work has been written about as a statement on the position of lesbians and gays in US social structures. As I have been pondering this it has made me reflect on how I feel I fit in with, and feel about being British; this has been focussed for me around the legislative changes of last December both in protecting L&G people and also alienating them further in religious organizations. I have also been reflecting on why I feel uneasy when I see a Union Jack flying and why I feel a bit embarrassed to be British and also why I would be happy to go and live somewhere else if I was in a position to do that. I am aware of the influence which certain political organizations have had on hijacking the Union flag so I want to create a piece which asks questions about belonging in Britain today when we are so 'multicultural and pluralistic' and how I can feel as if I belong in that Britain and feel proud to be part of it. I am using the National Anthem music and the Union Flag as starting points to see where I go with it. As things develop I shall put images on here for you to view. |
| 13th The day after and its mad with new terminology to cope with and learn how to use. Well its new for me distinguishing between 'modernity', 'moderism' and 'modernisation'. Very interesting but hard to get your head around especially when all the writters seem to have different ideas, to say nothing of what 'postmodernity' is. Well it does get the grey cells going and makes you think outside of the boxes which we normally reside in during the process of just living. Today also saw us looking again at more details of research methodology which reminds me of the huge unit we did on research methodologies when I started the M.Ed way back in the early '90s. Dr Aaron was interesting this evening when he was lecturing about performance art - we were considering the artist as the subject in performance art and also the role of the artist when she/he employs people to perform for them. Finshed early this evening at 630pm because of the football match which the butch guys on the course wanted to watch at the pub - some things never change no matter where you are! One rather strange thing happend today - I received some fan mail! WHen I returned to my studio this afternoon someone had left me two photographs with a message written on them saying they think I'm wonderful! Very flattering I have to say, just hope its not a sad joke. |
| 12th D-day for the hand in of our proposals for the term (or semester as they like to call them here because they are longer than a term). I have said that I want to work on the 'form' of my work in terms of its interactivity and accessibility. Basically how people can approach my work when they see it. This all came about because of my tutorial with PLL (my tutor Peter Lloyd Lewis a world renowned video artist) who questioned the accessibility of my work. I hope to look at issues around how people can contribut to my work.... making it interactive in some way. I have a few ideas I want to work with but Ill show you those as they come to fruition. Here are a few more pics I have taken for you. |
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My desk space
now I have painted it |
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me and my desk |
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A course colleague
William who paints with oils |
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The colour reference
cards from Dulux I have been using |
| 11th October And it feels like time is just disappearing beneath me as I get to grips with the course. My days are very long and my energy levels low by the time I get to teh weekend. Mondays are spent doing research and getting stuff sorted in the studio and a 630pm lecture virtually kills of the day with Philosophical Asthetics. All very interesting but very hard going at 630 after a long day in the college. Tuesdays are spent again in the college with a 5pm lecture on Sexuality and Gender - I have opted out of this though because I am doing Sign Language at Dudley College at 7pm so it makes it very difficult for me to get there. Wednesday is a head exploding day usuall. Last Wednesday we spent from 1130am until 630pm in the same room with odd loo breaks and coffee top ups. It was the day when we all had to present our work so far. Sadly it wasn't too well managed and although 10mins was one's alloted time slot some took 30mins! Hey ho as we say. Dr Aaron someone takes us for a lecture on Performance art and the performative' at 5pm on a Wednesday and it was very revelatory to me indeed last week. He is a good speaker and I did actually begin to feel at home because we had to take our own notes and not just follow handouts. All my years at York paid off in those lectures about N dimensional matrix multiplication!! Thursday was a studio day as was Friday. William and I went to the IKON gallery on Friday evening and watched a talk about the installation piece they have there at the moment. The artists had travelled across from Germany. The piece is called Switch.expander edited and addresses issues of mas global expansion and what I perceived as the rat race. I had to admit that it was a bit beyond me in parts but well worth going to because I got to hear from the artists themselves how they developed their work. Some how I am just not very good at keeping this diary uptodate mainly because I have been so tired when I have got home each evening. Never mind I shall try and do better I promise. Here are some pictures anyway. |
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My Studio space
at the start of term |
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Just to prove
I am actually there! |
| 7th Oct I have had a very busy day getting my new scanner to work. I have decided to scan all of my Dulux colour charts to make a projection piece out of. I am not quite sure where this is going yet but I am running with it as they say. I have put a pic of the colour charts all stuck in my studio space above for you to look at. |
| 1st Oct How time flies! A very heavy week all in all which is why my diary is late. The evening lectures are a bit of a killer and 1.5hr to 2hr feels a long time to do philosophy lectures for although I have been out of education for a few years it has to be admitted. All in all a good week. My tutorial with PLL went well considering all that was against us regarding technology et al. I am really beginning to appreciate the government's plight of trying to get resources into educational establishments. You near enough have to pay to breath here. ANy printing off the internet is 5p a page (Walsall was free) dittoo photo copying IT equiment is bookable by the hour which is okay until one realises there are going to be over 400 students after the very limited number of machines - no wonder the staff look angst ridden. My work though trying to forget the resources issuses is at a bit of a pause. I am reading about relational aesthetics which means the way in with art is about relationships between people. The writing is challenging and does make you stop and wonder what on earth you are doing making pieces any more. I am doing a lot of research around people working with installation and interactive type pieces but find myself questioning what I have thought about in relationship to my colour work. I am keen to keep the utilisation of systems as a focus for my work, but how is the question? My quote for the week is "Art is the place that produces sociability" written by Nicholas Bourriaud. Finally on the update of this week I have completed a new projection piece based on Land of the Fathers. If you want to view it click here and it will open in a new window for you to watch. Have a good weekend. |
| September 2004 |
| 27th The
last few days have been spent on working towards the completetion
of the landscape projection piece, based on the Land of the Fathers
piece. The finished projection can be see by
clicking here. I have used the landscape picture and also the
actual images made by the coloured fields. In the projection the fields
begin to 'sing' and the work towards the generation of the image shown
to the right. Using a fading technique I then remove the real landscape
to show only my coloured fields. These in turn fade as if music disappearing
into the distant landscape. The piece lasts for about 3 and a half
mins. I have not used Powerpoint before as a tool for creating my
art so this has been something of a trial piece. There seem to be
speed implications in using PP and it 'struggles' with some of the
large image file sizes. I am sure these difficulties could be overcome
using a more powerful machine. There was sadly rather a lot of mundain house-keeping activities to be completed: council tax, banks, libraries....... It is also our first lecture tonight on Philosophical Aesthetics. I have been trying to get some of the text from the library unfortunately there are copyright issues with some of journal articles which have been put in the library for us to read. |
| 23rd A bit worse for ware after the departmental drink session for the enrolement. We had induction to the library and also the workshops and the Health and Saftey talk. We will be learning to use all the machines in the workshops on Tuesday next week. |
| 22nd Enrolement
day I had a lift into the college this morning and I have been reading
the course handbook to try and get to grips with all that is required
of me over the next 12 months. I took a break to visit the Bank and
also the new Ian Davenport exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Brum.
Huge canvases and he uses bought paint - like me! I have seen a few
of his pieces before and they have a delightful luxious quality to
them. I am going to have to go to some of the talks and events they
have organized. A little bit or snooping around and I have found another exhibition that I can send some of my work into. One at the Ruskin Centre between 11-20 Oct I shall have to drop them an email and see if I can get Event No 1 shown along with a development of Land of the Fathers which I am currently working on. |
| 21st Today was sortoing out money day and studnet loans company calls - boring stuff |
| 20th The day has come for the start of the MA. A little nervous and very exicited I arrived at Margaret Street with my fistful of passport sized photographs ready to meet my new colleagues. There were only 8 of us at the meeting and we think there are going to be 10 of us altogether as full time students. The part time ones will make up about another 16 or so. Having received my studio space (pic below) we were given an introductory talk by Henry. The course handbook was given out and then we just began to get to know each other. We all headed off to the pub for a drink before returning for 6pm and the introduction to our theory units for the year. I was comforted to discover that others were feeling as nervous as me and also a little daunted by the prospects of the essays and seminars et al.. |
| August 2004 |
| 27th The past few days have been spent working on the new Welsh Piece (Click here to view it larger in a new window) The piece was inspired by a trip to the Breacon Hills for a couple of nights away. The countryside is fabulous and a very welcome break from the city. As I stood on the hillside I was just captivated by the pattern of the fields upon the hillsides. Although I know they will have changed over the centuries I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the idea of the hills telling of their national identity. This was fueled by the work of the Welsh Tourist Borad taking every opportunity it could to propogate the wonders of Wales, its heritage, legends, history and economic struggles. The piece is based on the score of the Welesh National ANthem and attempts to show the hills siging in honour of their nation. |
| 21st I
have had another rewrite on my application letters. Also received
a form back from one of the charities I wrote to and I am inelligible
- I did notice that the petrol station is wanting evening staff so
that might be a possibility if all else fails. I have decided that
this page needs some pictures to cheer it up a bit. I shall have an
experiment next week. Lots more work on this website - I am now ready to receive online donations using PayPal. All I have to do now is find people who will give me donations! Had a brilliant discovery today, saw an add asking for greetings cards designers so I have been diggin around from teh set which I created as a project at Walsall - very irreverent some of them were but I have sent off a set to see if they are interested - it could be some money for next year! I will put the images on here when I get opportunity. My computer is playing up today because it says that its hard disc is full - machines why don't they just know what is useless now. Spent a few hours coaxing it back into action. |
| 20th All
the paperwork arrived today from the UNiversity about starting the
MA on Monday 20 September. I have to be there at 2pm in the afternoon
- eek I feel nervous now. More work still to be done on sorting out
this website. Today I finished writing my application to the Michael Holland Memorial Fund for a bursary to pay my tution costs for the year at BIAD. I have spent the last few days on this because they want statements about my practice and career aspirations and a selection of visual material. I have updated my MA application CDROM because it shows my work in a clear and elegant way. I hope it will suffice and get me an interview. I always dread doing these sorts of things because you need to mention the right people and methodologies....... Ah well I live in hope! Having the tuition fees paid would be super. |
| 18th Website panic day. CGI scripts that don't work and Perl programming I don't fully understand. Again Mart has come flying to my rescue and will be invaluable over the coming months as this site grows ever larger to accommodate the Year's worth of notes and developments. ALso had to put a lot of thought into teh bursary application. These applications are so tricky to write. |
| 17th A day at the galleries. Having stayed at my God Son's in Tottenham and discussed additions to their church website I have a day to myself in London. Tate Modern, Hayward and a few others I did as well. Tate Modern was ok except they were having a move around and rehanging a couple of galleries. The show was of the American Painter Hopper, a comprehensive retrospective although there were far too many people to enable you to get as much from the exhibition as you should for the money. The Luc Tuymans exhibition I enjoyed more - he has a very earthy style and leaves far more to teh imagination. The Face to Face exhibition was very good at the Hayward - looking at the notion of the portrait being outdated and meaningless nowadays with all the digital things we can do to photos.....bought the catalogue as well veru good and hardly any people so you could ponder the work. |
| 16th Yippee I have finished the digital construction of teh FourHands piece. Well the first mockup of it is now complete. I have spent about 8 hours getting all the notes together using my tool which I created last week. I ended up having to analyse the scrore bar by bar inorder to make the file sizes manageble on my computer. I hav to include it on the CD of my current work. It is quite amazing to think the piece will be 2m tall and 177.5m long when I get it printed. Now all I need is to find someone to sponsor its printing and find a place to hang it. |
| 16th Had a frustrating day today. The digital mockups of Four Hands just aren't working. I think I am going to put all the notes into the 'primary octave' then the balance will look better I think. |
| 15th More work negotiating this website space for not a lot of money. Mart has been a super star in getting me sorted out on this space. Well done Mart and Thanks. |
| 14th Today has been an extremely busy day. The tool I have developed to help me in the production of large scale digital mockups of wall paintings is working well. There are one or two extra features I would like to include but alas ny Java programming isn't up to those yet - making head nor tail of 'The Complete Java Bible' is doing my head in most of the time. I am having trouble with a few of the data types and knowing what I am passing to functions...... However, the results of last weekends work have been very profitable and I know have an invaluable tool at my disposal for creating digital images of my wall pieces, it'll be handy for my canvases too. |
| 7th The prospects of a bit more graphic design work coming my way - well another CD case to design. Yippee it all adds to my money pot for next year. Graphic design work and commissions available please see my commissions page! |
Reuben
James Preston, rjp@reubenjames.co.uk Tel: 0121 686 0459 Mob: 07971 895897
Copyright © www.reubenjames.co.uk 2004
Copyright © www.reubenjames.co.uk 2004