Working from the digitized 35mm film footage from the collection my project developed from my initial reactions. Initially my research conducted of spending time watching and re watching the films provided by the The Expatriate Archive Centre, taking screen shots/stills from the footage, compiling and arranging the images. Partly this was done as a way of understanding the content of the footage and breaking down each part almost into storyboards of key images. Viewing them as a stranger i enjoyed the process of getting to know these characters, experiencing snapshots of their lives through these silent flickering images. As time went on it became apparent that there was far more footage than I could feasibly work with within the time frame I had allocated myself and some editing would need to be undertaken.
Alongside this project I was also developing work for the exhibition, which ultimately became ‘Antenna Yagi’s Fracture Radio’ The exhibition brought together the distinct practices of myself and Mark Lyken, incorporating found electronics, discrete sounds and ceramics for our collaborative exhibition at The Suttie Arts Space Aberdeen. The work facilitated conversations between found electronics detached from their original environment and fabricated ceramic artifacts; lost origins and invented meanings were explored along with the fragility of the human condition and the animal world. Hiding in plain sight objects and sound quietly conversed while referencing their environment subtly in material choice and finish.
As a result of working on these projects simultaneously I found some interesting crossovers in working with mediums unfamiliar to me, sound and film alongside those more familiar, ceramics and print (as well as forms that were different to what I would normally work from) Deciding to edit my selection of images to those that were black and white sat in contrast to the bright colourful work made for ‘Antenna Yagi’s Fracture Radio’. Editing the images down to black and white was also a way of focusing the content.
This had a further effect on the finish of the final forms, which ended up being white black and grey referencing the use of black and white stills as well as the device that would have been used to capture them. The forms themselves became exclusively based on the camera devices that would have been used to capture the footage. The material choice (slip cast stoneware and porcelain) references the geophysical/geological themes I had originally considered to inspire them. After sourcing said cameras forms from a local market I proceeded to make multiple piece plaster moulds from them to ultimately be used to slip cast in stoneware and porcelain, alongside this stills were being selected for printing.
