Making a Whole Room Camera Obscura - BBC Video

Photographer Abelardo Morell (http://www.abelardomorell.net) turns the room of Venetian palace into a gigantic camera using the ancient technology of the Camera Obscura, as featured in the new BBC series 'The Genius of Photography'.

Creating a Room Camera Obscura is part of my PhD Art Practice. 

The Frailty of Memory

There comes a time when the function and frailty of memory becomes a preoccupation. Forgetfulness is perversely accompanied by an increased acuity of distant memories. Nostalgia becomes a way of life… a fleeting reflection… an ethereal glimpse of something familiar through the mind’s eye… fragments of memory like shards of mirror… a vision barely visible through the broken glass in the window of time.

 The digital projector is employed as a modern day Camera Obscura to explore Barthes notion of the ‘Punctum’ and the ‘Noeme’ (that-has-been). The projected image starts with a familiar image that could be carried in the wallet or reside in a well worn family album. The image is initially vivid, nostalgic – the ‘Punctum"’ – but with the passage of time, it decays, leaving an enduring memory – the ‘Noeme’ (that-has-been). This work considers one of the earliest attempts to explain visual memory, by considering the analogy of Plato's wax tablet, Freud's mystic writing pad and even the modern computer, all of which consider memory as layers.

This is a video taken of my graduation project. In a blacked out space the animation, Fading Memory as seen in my previous post, was projected on to a translucent screen made from tulle behind which was a further much darker version of the image an acrylic sheet so this was also semi translucent. When the animation starts the second image is virtually invisible (difficult to capture this in this video)  as the front image decays more light falls on the back image and as the viewers eyes adapt to the darkness the back image is slowly revealed. 

This installation which was part of my BA (Hons) Fine Art & Professional Practice final show, endeavours to portray the durability of the Photograph compared with the fragility of memory.

Fragments of Memory

It is the end of the penultimate semester and we have the first half of our Final Assessment so I have been burning the midnight oil finishing off my various projects and getting my sketchbook up-to-date.

Through both my dissertation and fine art practice work continues to explore the aesthetic aspects of decay, memory/remembering, nostalgia and melancholia. I am interested in exploring the ugly as compared to the beautiful using decay as the metaphor. I am endeavouring to explain my enquiry through the visualisation of the concept of perception and how this relates to memory and the emotions of nostalgia and melancholia.

I am considering the manner in which the eye converts visual information into memory, how the brain perceives this information and how this information is subsequently retrieved to form part of our emotional and aesthetic experience. My enquiry considers the modern science of neuro-physiology, neuro-aesthetics in the response to art and the aesthetic experience. The work employs a combination of video and still images arranged in multiple layers to create visual complexity challenging the perception of the viewer to recognise the familiar within the unfamiliar.

The following video is one of the 3 video works I have on display. The other 2 have to be viewed in-situ as they employ partly silvered mirror as the front element of the work, this makes videoing the work difficult.



Fragments of Memory

This video makes use of appropriated stills from Bill Morrison's film "Light is calling" and part of Michael Gordon's sound track. Morrison's film is based on "found footage" of decaying film. I have reworked the film incorporating into it my own images, mainly nostalgic family photographs. The video explores the notion of fragmented memory and the often confused narration associated with the effects of Alzheimers disease.

This work is for academic purposes only and recognises the original authors copyright no breach of which is intended.

Frieze Art Fair 2009

My first visit to the London Frieze Art Fair was interesting and inspiring. Here is a video clip courtesy of Art Review which shows a few of the bits you may have missed, well I did.


Find more videos like this on artreview.com


By the way you can subscribe to Art Review and read the whole magazine online saving you a small fortune in subscription costs.

Scratching the Surface by Vhils - Video

Even if you are not into the Street Art of Vhils this is a cracking example of the video makers art and well worth a watch.

Music - Gustavo Santaolalla Work by Vhils http://www.Vhils.com/

Sketchbooks Part 1

This semester we are looking at sketchbook compilation and construction. In this Video Norman Travers explains to the group three different styles of exemplar sketchbooks from past foundation students. The emphasis here is on drawing.



Here are some shots of pages from the scrap books to give you an clearer idea of the content. Click on the image to enlarge.




In the two pages above, this idea of breaking an image down into small sections and then redrawing, painting, recreating them was used as one of the exercises in the 2nd Drawing assignment. In this sketchbook the author used the work of artist Marlene Dumas as inspiration.








I acknowledge the copyright of the authors of the work shown, Norman Long, Catherine Mortimer and Ian Rothwell.

Art in the Age of YouTube

One of the growth areas of the Internet is streaming video not least in the art world. There are sites covering exhibitions, gallery shows, artist interviews, art world events, etc. The quality of the output can be a bit variable and maybe dependant on the quality and speed of your broadband connection. Top of the pile is probably BBC iPlayer with Google Video at the other end, there are many in-between.

There are also sites either specialising in art video output or who include a significant content on their sites. One of the more interesting dedicated sites is NewArtTV others include VernisageTV, LXTV. The art magazines ArtReview and ArtInfo both have significant video content on their websites. The current streaming video phenomenon of the Internet, YouTube includes a number of dedicated art channels one of which is operated by the controversial character James Kalm. An exciting find was a YouTube channel under the name of deepsofnight which contains lots of goodies including Robert Hughes's Shock of the New.

The association between art and streaming video is only scratching the surface of the mediums potential, we are watching this space with interest.

The Power of the Mid Life Crisis

How may of us harbour an unfulfilled desire to write a novel or direct a film, quite a few I suspect. How many of us actually do anything about fulfilling that dream, very few I am sure. Well my kid brother, Johnny Parker, driven by his mid life crisis has taken the first steps down the road to fulfilling both of these dreams. The novel is still in the incubator but the film has just hit a computer screen near you. Beauty and the Butcher a humorous tale of unrequited love was written and directed by Johnny.

The tale follows the theme "Beautiful Beautician loves Hunky Butcher but can she overcome her shyness, her loathing of meat, competition from the cocky Estate Agent and a mountain of cruel obstacles to get to the man she adores?" Does she, well you will have to watch this very accomplished first effort at creating a short film.

View the video below or follow the link for a Hi-Res version.