Macc Lounge, Wave-Field

A long day in the Macc Art Lounge today, a very cold and quiet day, with 10-20 visitors or so, which is a typical Thursday. Spoke to a few people and the artists. The creative output and choices were in hanging some new abstract paintings. Almost all of the paintings in the shop are abstract or landscape, this is what sells in a commercial setting like this. People are broadly looking for decoration of the right quality and price, the artist, and the investment in the art itself, is a secondary factor.

Returned home and went to the first evening of Wave-Field, some musical see-saws in the Lyceum Square. These are fun, they are simply see-saws which light up when used and play sounds. It appears to have been thought up as a clever idea, with no artistic value or comment; the creator is (apparently) an architect with little interest in art itself. This is interesting in a field where hyperbole and all sorts of nonsense is written about art. Of course, this writing is important. No writing about the artistic content does not mean the art is meaningless.

There are many things Wave-Field could be about in an artistic sense; the saws, in a row, made me think of digital sound waveforms, and this was reinforced by the strange electronic sounds. The installation is sold as an interactive social experience for strangers or friends, but well, every and any see-saw is that. It made me think that a plain see-saw could have been called an art installation a few hundred years ago. Ultimately though, any creation always reflects the personality and emotions of the creator (or group of creators, a group can have a personality and emotion); so even the coldest and most technical construction can be touching and 'be art'.

This is a strange creation. It's steel and plastic and LED lights; as steely as something from a 90s Star-Trek series, or a Paul Verhoeven film. The sounds are curious digital squalks and squelches like a robot's belchy intestinal sounds. The writing speaks of social interaction, but it feels strangely alien, something like Marvin the robot (he wasn't an android) from the BBC Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Perhaps, Wave-Field is about alienation, a seeking to connect with humanity in a digital world. Perhaps the see-saws are bones or nerves of hope.

There is probably an element of this being the result of a new type of art that is not there to satisfy the artist, or to touch an individual, but crafted for a strange amalgam of public service, practical entertainment, spectacle. Perhaps this process is the alienating force, but Wave-Field is not a warm beast, it's a buckled, silvery conduit for communication, a clonky, imperfect, social medium.

Confession

More work on Burn of God. The progress is Sisyphean, achingly slow, but I have about 30 minutes made now. The album is strange, includes speech, prayers and I'm not sure if I even like it. Perhaps this is a good thing, as all of the best art, music in particular, takes time to like. I must complete it anyway and must fight, must do my best. I will certainly learn something, and already have made great strides in learning vocal production techniques. I've added a lot more vocals in the past week. The key to singing is to use as little breath as possible, and no tension above the waist. The abdominal muscles control breathing for singing because they are fast and responsive. I can understand the similarity between singing and piano playing. I am still very much learning.

Here are the lyrics to Confession, a fast rock, drum-n-bass, Prodigy; rip-roaring ride of a song.

Confession

Listen boys and girls we're gonna find out your sins today
The eye of God is on you
Watching everything you do

Go there to that solemn place
bow your heads and pray
think of all your bad deeds
and beg forgiveness from
the priest

Jesus is giving
Jesus is kind
Always keep Jesus in your mind
Jesus will cure you
Of everything naughty
But if you try to hide
you're gonna get caughty

Oh...

Listen!

Enter the confessional, kneel upon the floor
everything is secret there
every word is like a prayer
tell the priest how bad you've been
tell him every sin
he'll write up a prescription
a punishment to save
your skin

Sigh, Programming

One of those wasted, pointless days when something old and computer related gets updated, instantly destroying your old work. Today I updated my websites to use the latest PHP version. There are only a few changes, mostly to the database access code and the shopping cart systems.

But, I have 7 websites (my main art site, IndieSFX, Lost in Flatspace, Pentangel Books, Cornutopia Software, Cornutopia Music and Bytten Reviews) and each has several pages, sometimes several hundred. My main art website has over 1000 pages alone (not counting one page that can show several things; my painting page for example can show any painting, if I counted all of those as separate pages, my site would easily be 2000 to 4000 pages large). Each page that accesses a database needs updating and that means hundreds of lines of code that need changing, all just to stand still and produce a website that was, at best, exactly the same as it was before. This sort of nightmare situation is something every programmer must simply tolerate. Perhaps my years of doing things like this was training to work for no reward!

Fortunately, I have created a program that can search and replace a specific text stream, and search for it across a folder of files and, also fortunately, I tend to use the same code across each site, so I've used this to batch convert all 3000 or so files and, in each, search for the five troublesome lines that need transforming. Then I needed to make a few changes to the shopping cart, but this had to be done by manual search and replace in each file.

It's taken all day to get back to where I started, but now everything is updated to the latest version. A few odd symbols now appear on my site; characters like é and £ now need the correct HTML, but these are minor issues. Apart from that no creative work was done and it's been a frustrating day. I hardly feel like an artist. I must rush my music through, but it feels like I'm pushing through a thick soup that goes thicker as I push harder (a dilatant colloid?). I must work at it, work harder, push against these forces.

Framing

Framing today, a simple matter of measuring the artwork, sawing the pine framing with a fine-toothed veneer saw, using 8 exact cuts. One mm too long or too short would make the frame out of line, so generally these cuts need to be 0.5mm accurate. Then distressing the surface with a wire brush, sanding, staining, gluing, clamping and stapling the frame. Leave 24 hours to dry.

In the mean time, measure and cut a backing board from 3mm MDF. Mark mount-board for the spacer, using the frame recess as a guide, cut an aperture to make the width of the spacer 7mm or so. Laser-print the labels, adhere one to the rear of the artwork stating title, medium, date. Then measure glass using the recess of the frame, score with your Toyo glass cutter and snap.

Next day, unclamp the frame. Mark holes for fixings; mirror plates or D-rings, by measuring the appropriate distance down and using a scratch awl to mark the centre points, then drill with a 2.5mm drill. Varnish the frame, sand and retouch, revarnish, or paint if needed.

Once dry, polish the glass with glass cleaner or methylated spirits and assemble in the frame, followed by the spacer, painting, backing board, removing dust as you go. Check the image from the front for dust and that all looks well. Apply pins to hold the painting in. Add optional framer's tape all the way around the edge to form a dust seal (I tend to avoid this stage because it can look messy and make disassembling the frame awkward and damaging). Apply the second label to the back. Screw in fixings, tie nylon hanging cord, apply masking tape to loose ends of the string.

Prime Numbers, Macc Lounge, Ears

Yesterday began early with the launch of Future Snooker, this involved a few technical clicks plus several basic messages and emails, and a newsletter sending. This had to be complete before 8:15 when I had to leave for the Macc Art Lounge, to help set up the shop. It seemed to take hours to set up but I had an enjoyable time in the fragments of retail space, and spent time getting to know the abstract artist Diane Nevitt. Both bus journeys took nearly two hours on this epic day.

In the evening, I noted down some millisecond timings for my new 'choroleight' audio effect. Audio effects need prime numbers because otherwise delays will reinforce. This made me think that prime numbers are essential for every digitisation and every quantisation process, and are probably vital in quantum mechanics for this reason; the primes might constitute unresolvable infinities, and the non-primes something more concrete, a better, more attainable area, due to this reinforcement.

Today was a full day, and began at 8am with programming the audio effect, which sounds amazing, I'm so pleased with it. Then a long bus trip full of the drama of an olde worlde ocean voyage; a 15 minute breakdown in the middle of the road, a bus switch-on-and-off-again, then a winding country lane flowing with a slow trickle of traffic, a horse and cart at its snake of head.

The day was mostly spent hanging work; a large cluster of paintings to hang on every space. John Eastwood, John Gardner, Ché Finch, Clare Allan, Brian Law and Diane Nevitt were all present or visited during the day, and the shop looked sparkly and ship-shape at the end of Saturday, and a trickle of visitors popped by too, with a two small gifts and one art sale today. Here are some of us at the end of the day:

I left just after 4pm, and at home guzzled food and responded to Future Snooker duties (the game was launched yesterday on Steam, this involved a few technical clicks plus several basic messages and emails), then off to a friend's party and some lovely relaxed social time. I have a totally different personality at every party and today was quiet and enjoyed chats with one or two friends. The music was too loud. I must state for the first time that, since excessive earache during childhood, my hearing has been sensitive and painful to even moderately loud noises. It's somewhat amazing that I should have become an audio engineer when my doctors predicted hearing damage back then, but perhaps this has made me take care of my hearing that bit more. We somewhat sadly left early due to the noise, and my tiredness, it has been a long day.

Now to rest my aches. Tomorrow I will brave the freezing rain to urgently make a new frame for an older painting.

Art Lounge Setup

A good but long day setting up art at the Macc Art Lounge. Little time to work on Choraleight, the new audio effect I'm developing which sounds very like multi-layering many vocals and uses a chorus of voices based on prime numbers. Ché invited Deb and I to perform there, to launch Deb's book and add a party atmosphere, so we are booked to put in a Fall in Green show at the Macc Art Lounge on December 14th.

I'm back there tomorrow all day, but I'll have to remember to launch Future Snooker in the early morning before I go, and might get behind a little on those essential game developer duties. I've also heard from the Euston Station staff about a separate book signing event in November, will await developments.

Things feel rushed, but I like this high-energy mode, I tend to drive myself crazy with only one mere job. Soon I will miss Burn of God, so much keep working at it and set myself a tight deadline. The immediate events due this month are the Rainbow Arts performance night on the 21st, the Cirque du ArtSwarm night on the 23rd, Carol Finch's book launch on the 30th (which will include a Marius Fate performance, and my 800W sound system and electronic instruments). The 30th is also a launch day for a new shop opposite the Art Lounge, so it would be good to be in Macclesfield and still get home in time to set up the P.A. system and instruments etc. at the Memorial Hall. I fear this is an impossible ideal.

Onward.

Art Lounge Preparations

A busy day, starting with preparations for setting up work at The Macc Art Lounge. The last time I was there was in 2016, where I visited Macclesfield just about every week to help staff the shop, and took part in every exhibition. Here's photo from back then.

The shopping centre was undergoing renovations at the time and the use of the Lounge space was on a rolling contract. Throughout the year, the brilliant managers Ché Finch and John Eastwood were never sure if the space would be in use, and certain that the place would close at the end of 2016, but the deadline kept being pushed back at the last moment. Amazingly, the shop has kept going since. I asked to return in autumn 2017 after being told that I would 'always be welcome' back, and felt hurt not to even be replied too, but I feel pleased to be asked back for November and December.

I've no idea how much space I'll have, so I'll bring a selection of paintings based on how many I hung last time, and a range of prices, mostly in the lower bracket with a few 'showcase' paintings. One big change since 2016 is the framing, I've re-framed most of my paintings so they look much more stunning than before. The Sunset with Rose Petals, for example, now has glass and a black and gold gloss frame. I'll also show a Richard Dadd print; I've sold five of these limited edition prints at the Art Lounge in the past.

As well as packing work, price lists and labels need to be made, hanging tools packed and the day documented for future reference.

Not much time today for other work but I managed to buy presents for my mum and aunt's (they are twins) birthdays. I'm also toying with a new chorus effect which uses eight voices that rotate at specific frequencies. This is a distraction; I know I should get back to music, but for some reason I am a little unmotivated.

I'll visit Macc at least once per week until Christmas, a long and somewhat costly bus trip both ways, but this will be a change to my routine and I'm rather looking forward to it. Since the end of the monthly 'Mash' nights, I've hardly been to Macclesfield and I've gradually lost touch with any artist friends as there is no art community here, except any I might build myself.

Brother

Here is my poem for the Nantwich Speakeasy I wrote on Monday. Kevin Emson and others pointed out how close to a war memorial it was, but that was pure accident. I had in mind school friends, the generation we are lumped with at random, and must sail with through life.

Brother

I rest and recall childhood
a land of mists,
misremembered hills of moss
and lost voices.

The comrades there,
pushed together to train
to survive the seas of a hard journey
towards shrouded monoliths.

With jingle bells we trot together
bemused at the younger and older ones.
Equal gifts are unwrapped
for our fun.

I turn, and find myself alone
among the stone.