Filing

I love filing, and organising, and finding more efficient ways to store data. I order everything carefully, my room, living spaces, and equipment are always highly organised with thought and care behind each thing. I think it's the job of humanity, and the job of life itself to organise, tidy and order, blessed at the cleaners and the archivists, for they are doing the ultimate job of life itself.

It's the last day of the year, so I've spent it filing my computer data; amazingly I've made about 100Gb of new data this year, which is about 20% of everything I've ever made in 30 years; of course this is the problem with my recent fad of video. My games take months (or years) of work yet can be tiny, only a few Mb in size. All of my 1000 or so catalogued paintings have 300 dpi scans, most with photos of the work in their frames too. That data, my music albums, and my videos take up the three bulk lots of data.

Each album has 600 dpi artwork now (for CD format, so 600dpi at 12cm), plus the final music in 32-bit float format, stereo (I could export in 6-track, if I really wanted to mix such a thing), plus takes of any vocals, recordings, sounds. I want to be efficient in storage, not duplicate anything or store too much. Most of my old albums have hardly any information, and no recordings, but as I move more and more to vocal work or other live work, each album is bigger and bigger. The Modern Games takes up as much space as my first ten albums put together! I rarely keep outtakes unless I'm sure they will be useful, it's not efficient.

With video things get bigger. I currently keep enough source video to recompile a 6000kbps final file. Anything more than that would take up too much space at the moment (although, over time, storage methods get cheaper and cheaper, keeping pace with growing data sizes, my new action camera is hugely wasteful with big resolution and a high bitrate for very poor resulting video; there's really nothing to be gained by keeping a full quality copy of its output).

Last night I began to think about how much space a modern digital feature film might take, and the answer was a lot. I also thought about long term archiving options for digital data, which would need to be as strong, and as physical as possible, rather than overly technical or dependent on too much technology (which can become obsolete quickly). Digital data can be very susceptible to deterioration because one bit out of place can really whack a number out.

My solution was a stainless steel, or ceramic, disc (ceramics might be more resistant to heat changes, but may be more brittle). The information would be encoded in physical pits or peaks, like tiny holes and tiny mountains, burned by laser. The pits would be horizontal lines, and form a spiral groove, or perhaps constrained by another valley to make a literal groove, so that if deformed, like a warped vinyl record, the data could still be read. The identical binary digit would be encoded again, in inverse (so a 1 would be encoded as 0) on the opposite side of the disc, this time spiralling from the inside outwards in a second groove. This would limit the effects of groove damage, so at least one piece of data would survive if a groove were damaged.

The bits would be read by comparison with its twin. Say a mountain represents 1, a pit 0. An ideal disc would measure a mountain in the primary groove, and its valley twin, at the ideal height or depth, and so read a 1. The useful part about having twins is that if point A was higher than B, it would equate to 1 (or if A lower than B, 0) no matter what the actual height was; the data is determined by the relative height, so if the entire disc were distorted, the data should remain intact. The reading mechanism would need some sort of key starting point for both heads, and other key details to keep in sync.

The system is like using an analogue vinyl record to store digital data, where even severe distortions will not affect the relative information quality, and having two copies of the data (similar to D.N.A.) would serve as a second check.

This should make the system far more resilient to damage than a CD or hard drive. You could probably take a blow torch to half of the disc as still retrieve data.

Today's filing has taken all day, one of many full days I spend each year merely organising files, filenames, packing and sorting. Archiving is enticing and addictive (as Leon Vitali knows), but creation of new work is the important thing. I think they're both important parts of the same job; digging, shoring up the tunnel...

Eagles and Crystals

More work on the Eagle Interceptor video today, a few segments re-filmed. I expect it will take another full day but tomorrow will be a day of end-of-year backups. Here is one still; quite a few interesting effects in this one.

I also made a simple video for the relaxing, ambient piece of music The Crystal Garden, from the experimental album, Pi. Pi was a trivial piece of work and I don't want to go to great lengths over the videos for those tracks. The best track is probably The Clockwork Harpsichord, so I aim to make a video for that.

I'm starting to get tired of these videos now, and don't want to get too obsessed with making lots of videos for each album. I must remember that future work is the important thing, but also that these videos are art too, and must express my abilities. Onwards to 2020, and eternity beyond!

Eagle Interceptor

Day 1 of filming for Eagle Interceptor. I began by thinking of everything connected with the feelings and images in the music; located an eagle in some free wildlife footage, then made a list of things to film. I went to the park and filmed some 'flight' over the fields by merely running, and took my new action camera to test too. I recorded about 20 clips overall, some movement over fields, and some quieter parts too, various parts to use.

Here's a still from the action camera:

I also recorded some time-lapse clouds with my Brinno TLC200, a good but not exceptional camera, it's rather grainy. It is, however, the best time-lapse camera available, and easy to use.

The flight didn't work as well as it should. It's difficult to get right because I didn't want to include houses or fences or anything non-natural. I also kept the camera low, which made it impossible to view what I was filming. The action camera was disappointing in quality; it had tearing and was jerky, probably due to the way the films were assembled, from top to bottom, a technical restriction. It meant that everything would have a shaky and jerky look, no matter what. The best results from it were using the waterproof case, a test show under a stream. This might be its only use, but for £15, it is worth owning.

Generally, my trusty DSLR produced the best results. When I won the Cheshire Open Art competition I wanted to spend the £1000 money on an investment in my art, and this camera was that. It's amazing how useful its proved to be over the years. A Canon 1100D, the most basic model Canon make, and I know people with far fancier equipment who do nothing at all useful with it, yet I use this almost every day and have made countless films with it. It's probably better than the tools Ingmar Bergman had; what more do I need?

Most of the films I took were not useful, but I assembled what I had, then filmed myself playing the music, with audio playing to synchronise it. I then put any old thing together while listening to the music, to make a full first draft of the video.

I have that now, and will refine, refilm and keep polishing what I have. What I'm missing is some glorious, soaring gliding image for the chorus... I'm using my time-lapse footage for that but it's not quite enough...

I'm keen, as ever to finish this and move on. So much to make and film.

The Lost Princess

Back to work after the Christmas break, continuing where I left off with The Lost Princess video, a relaxing and dreamy piano tune, relatively easy to make a video for in these bleak months.

I need more videos for some of the faster tunes, for Animalia, or Bites of Greatness, or The Twelve Seasons. This is more difficult. I've bought a two-year old action camera in the sales for £15, a good deal; most of the criticism of it comes from the very poor manual and on screen English, which is awful. I can't set white balancing either, it seems to be locked to sunlight, which is slightly easier to cope with than 'automatic', as I can fix it in software with consistency. I had hoped to attach it to my tiny Hakasee drone, but the drone can't lift the weight of the camera. The drone has a 640x480 camera itself, but the video quality is really poor, even in bright light, and the flight itself is so jerky that it is less smooth than walking or running with my DSLR, so the drone is of almost no use as a video tool.

I must try to focus on a piece of music for a video... Eagle Interceptor would be a good choice perhaps, but this music seems to demand flight or movement... it's too dark today for any outdoor filming. Perhaps I can find some indoor filming to do for another tune. I have about eight or ten videos on my list so far... must try to get them done quickly. I feel I'm slowing due to indecision. In such circumstances, it's best to do everything rather than worry about deciding.

At times I feel like a friendless eccentric. I'm largely cut off from other artists, am not part of other groups. Even if only partly true, my work, and the quality of it, is the important thing. My creations will be my only legacy, and I, at least, must care about them, and try to do my best, for humanity, each day.

Videos

More video work over the past few days, finalising Pioneer yesterday, and half filming some scenes for The Lost Princess from Music of Poetic Objects, but with each video I want to push things differently, further somehow. I've also programmed and then captured a video for the main Flatspace theme, so two videos for that album are now complete.

Have spent much of today visiting friends on this Christmas Eve.

I must try to get videos done for some of my better albums that lack them; The Spiral Staircase, Animalia, The Twelve Seasons, Bites of Greatness. I might work on something for The Infinite Forest too, but perhaps wait to remaster that work. A video for Life Beyond Mars would be nice too. So much work to do!

Video Work

A nervous energy filled few days. I woke at 5am yesterday, and, wide awake in the darkness, thought about future projects. I reminded myself how few music videos I had, and how that I've got lots of good tunes or songs, such as most of the Bites of Greatness album, that have no videos. Pandora, Jellyfish and Trax are all fast and catchy tunes of that sort that define that album, yet largely unheard, and no videos! The only track that does have a video, Jarre's Party, is one of the worst tunes (I named it after the weird bendy sounds which sound a bit like Jarre's in Magnetic Fields 5).

So many other albums lack videos too; many of the great tunes on Animalia (the Mice video is old and grainy), or The Twelve Seasons, which lacks videos for any of the primary Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter tracks. Those three albums are all very much in the Jean-Michel Jarre mould of my first period of music, and at least need to be heard or discovered - and people listen and find music on YouTube nowadays. As a result of this I became full of energy before my trip to Macclesfield, and started by reprogramming Flatspace so that I can use the game intro itself as a music video for the title music for the Flatspace soundtrack album.

Then, a freezing, 90-minute bus ride to a Macclesfield to invigilate at the Macc Art Lounge. I sold a small miniature, and two of the very few remaining copies of Songs of Life (there are only about 6 copies left from the 100 print run, I'm extremely unlikely to print any more of this edition). These were my first sales, so far, at the Macc Lounge, so a good day. In the evening, I invented a new cocktail of Cranberry Juice and Warnicks' Advocaat, which I named a Fruit Salad as it looks and tastes like the famous sweets.

Today, working on new music video plans, and filmed a wintry video for Snow, also from The Flatspace Soundtrack. So many music videos use ancient footage (even I am guilty!) and no footage of the artist at all, but I'm determined to film as much as possible, and make the videos as good as possible, given my limits on time, budget and equipment. I can't spend a month per video, though I'd love to. A day would be ideal, or a week or two if needed, for a new song. The video must be art too. I've put together some space footage from NASA and ESA for Pioneer from my first album, Arcangel, so will work on that tomorrow.

Here's a still from the Snow video. This decaying leaf from the garden looks fabulous. It's a perfect video to film on solstice day.

The Palace of Skeletons

Work on the Skeletons song today, and a second one to follow it. The music interestingly explodes into a chaotic soundscape including a real stereo recording of being inside a beehive, then an explosion and bells. This dies off suddenly into a song about being alone in the universe. The drama and strangeness of this album is unlike anything before, which is good. I need to keep working on the earlier songs, but now the first three sections are complete. I need an ending about unity, joy.

A ballroom in the palace of skeletons I watch you dance and glist The banquet is rotted and bad The starving bones look on with avarice and I look into your empty eyes your gaze seems familiar it is me!

Rick Wakeman

Still working on music. I've got about 4 pieces in progres for my next 'skeletons' stage, but none are that inspiring, too tuneless, although the mood and imagery are about right. I'm playing guitar more and more and feel the need to use and include it, it feel pleasurable to do so because it is new.

I went to a Rick Wakeman piano performance last night which was technically inspiring. His right hand seems to do about 75% of the work, his famous ornaments, like musical filigree, complimenting each note. I feel that this is easy to do with practice. It is my timing that is completely inaccurate by comparison with trained pianists. Expression is about tearing apart accuracy to create contrast, but the accuracy must be there when needed.

David Lawton advised me to take some time away from my music, and sometimes I feel tempted, that it would be efficient, but I've never managed more than a day or two away from a project, and even on those short gaps am constantly thinking about it. In practice, I must work constantly until the job is done. Stopping is a fear, a fear of dying without achieving. Every day must be art.

As I said to David, I prefer to whip myself into action with a tight deadline... imagining far bigger ambitions to make my troubles seem tiny and easy... remembering all I want to do in my life, not merely this month. Then, these little bumps will be easy to overcome. Another trick is to inspire yourself with bad art, you can only know about your own abilities by seeing, hearing, how bad other so-called artists art. Exposure to both the best and the worst are important; both can be inspiring. The best to aspire to, the worst to give us confidence in our abilities. Problems can arise if we confuse the two..!