The Residencies
Periodic updates from the journals of the artists involved in this project. Back to residencies
Strandtown PS, Strandtown, Belfast; Andrew Livingstone
Mill Worker
Written by artist Andrew on 8 March 2004
The image shown is one of the many characters that have been created to narrate the children’s story through video animation. Plenty more work needs to be done before we bring all the elements together for our performance. Back drops, machinery, ships, trucks and people will all be brought together by the children to create their video work.
Holographic linen
Written by artist Andrew on 8 March 2004
Following our visit to Conway mill in Belfast on a very cold day, where we had heard stories of small children working in the mill with no shoes in the middle of winter, we put together this short video piece using digital puppets made by the schoolchildren.
Animation Preparation
Written by artist Andrew on 8 March 2004
Today we began work on our animation project a lot of work had been done in the classroom with the teachers in preparation for today. I called into the classroom briefly on my processing day to see how the classes were doing, lots of creativity was too be seen, and the children filmed themselves discussing the work they were making.
We began the session today by laying out our story backgrounds and revisiting our story so we got the correct sequence, then we moved on to creating figures and parts to narrate the story. Using the video and computer the children arranged the work in front of the camera and filmed the sequences, they enjoyed this as they could see where the previous shot was taken, and where they were moving the next shot to. Lots of hands on today from the budding new film makers, Nick Parks watch out!!!
Orla and the Scanner
Written by artist Andrew on 8 March 2004
Well the weeks are flying by and today we had a visitor, Orla from Kidsown, to see how we are doing. The morning started fine and all the children had their collages scanned onto transfer paper in preparation for our digital ceramic tiles. Each of the children got a tile and drew around their favorite part of their digital design, then the image was carefully cut out and then soaked in water. The transfer was then placed onto the tile and the backing removed, next the tricky part, all the air bubbles had to be squeezed out, a lot of carefull manipulation as to not tear the transfers. A few torn transfers were reported but on the whole it was a success and was to be repeated after lunch.
The afternoon began, a major hiccup, no transfers they all needed to be scanned 30 of them, in stepped Orla who took some of the children to the computer to scan the images in, (what a saviour), I promised that the next time she visits we will have all the scanning done, Thanks Orla!
So the tiles were loaded into the kiln at the end of the day to complete the process.
Collages for Digital Transfers
Written by artist Andrew on 20 February 2004
Today we had a much warmer day in the classroom working with the information we had gained from the visit to the mill. Using our rubbings and other material including magazines and fabrics, we interpreted images we had remembered from the mill visit. Using colour and texture we built up our images which were then scanned into the computer in preparation for our digital transfer images.
Conway Mill
Written by artist Andrew on 20 February 2004
This week we left the classroom and headed out to a mill. The classroom was so hot almost tropical, then on stepping outside the cold air would have snapped you in two. We boarded the coach, everyone excited about our trip, once again in the warm. We arrived at the mill and had a very informative tour we pointed out to the children that the workers would have come to work in their bare feet on a day like today, lots of scrunched up faces!!
After our tour we took rubbings of the building including the walls and floors and also made sketches of things we had seen to be used in future work.
A great day was had by all even if it was just above freezing!!
Expressionist Sound
Written by artist Andrew on 20 February 2004
We began the session this week by viewing various clips from the film Titanic concentrating on the dock scenes and the loading and boarding of the ship. The clips that we viewed were then discussed remarking on sounds that were heard from the movie. Within the classroom we imagined how we might interpret these sounds using our hands and feet on different surfaces, to mimic the different levels of the boat. The next exercise was to listen to the soundtrack from the film Titanic and react to the sounds with colour onto paper, the various changes in the music were recorded by the children and the teachers. An example from the exercise is shown.
Second Residency Begins
Written by artist Andrew on 18 February 2004
The second residency began this week after the christmas break. The children and the school were eager to begin again so as a starting exercise we revisted the first residency to refresh our minds and were amazed at how much we had acheived.
The children then began to display the group scenarios they had worked on based on small sketches about linen, this was a great start point to the new residency.
Removing Threads
Written by artist Andrew on 19 November 2003
Well what a creative day we had this week. The classroom became silent as everyone concentrated on pulling their threads. We began with hessian which has a wide weave so we could practice our techniques, soon this was mastered so we moved to a tighter weave linen. The practice of drawn thread work goes back many generations and I had shown the class images from the linen day at The Ulster Folk Museum where I had taken photographs of old pieces of work made using the drawn thread technique. We worked on a number of pieces using this technique and the first ones made from hessian were dipped into liquid clay and formed into moulds, these will then be fired in the kiln revealing our linen designs.
We had a number of visitors at the end of the day, including an interview with the local newspaper and a visit from Marie from BELB who was amazed at the skills of the children. We are aiming to use some of the designs featured in the image for future works.
Label Trappings
Written by artist Andrew on 12 November 2003
Today in the class we had a discussion about our package which we are going to export and what sort of things it might contain, and how it might look. We began by making transparent labels depicting both the recipients and the senders address. The labels were created using linen, fabric, oil pastels, tissue, thread, paper etc.. which were placed into laminte sheets then fed through the laminater (this process caused great excitement), the resulting artworks are going to form part of our package. The image shown is one of the laminates showing the web site address of the project overlayed onto a digital image of the children’s self portraits.
Linen Self Portraits
Written by artist Andrew on 5 November 2003
After our half term break everyone was really excited about working on our project again. The teachers had been busy again since I last visited and I had to make a special visit to Courtenay’s Cafe which is a permanent fixture in the classroom, the sign for the cafe was made by one of the children during the half term break(the cafe is a resting point at the harbour from where our linen is exported) you can eat your lunch here and tell stories of your journey to distant shores.
In the classroom this week we discussed an interesting idea which we are creating to send to a school in Cavan as part of our export theme, there are many elements to the package we are creating and we decided to begin by making linen self portraits of ourself to include within the parcel. The children made clothes from various pieces of fabric then a digital image of their face was added to complete the image. The image shown has been manipulated using photoshop.
Following linen up the Lagan
Written by artist Andrew on 24 October 2003
Digital still image overlayed onto childs drawing
This week we all enjoyed a boat trip along the Lagan following the route that linen would have taken many years ago to get to the port of Belfast. Everyone was wrapped up warm as it was a chilly day as we set off from the Lagan Weir. Our guide on board was Derek who gave us some interesting facts about the river and buildings alongside, he also showed us images from many years ago depicting old boats and buildings surrounding the river. The children were asked to observe the journey recording sight, sound and smell which we used later in the classroom. In the afternoon we asked the children to imagine they were a parcel of linen on the boat and the corner of the parcel had torn so they could see out, the children then drew images of their journey. The image shown is one of the children’s drawings overlayed with a digital still image taken of the journey on the boat.
All hands on the bleach green
Written by artist Andrew on 13 October 2003
Today we layed out runs of fabric just like on the bleach greens but due to the rain we had to come indoors, it’s a pity because the fantastic lawns around Strandtown Primary School would have been ideal for recreating the bleach greens. As we now had a hard surface underfoot we couldn’t peg the fabric out so we taped the runs of material to the floor, then with 30 eager children began to put down our designs with fabric pens. The images were developed from excellent stories the children had created with their teachers about a journey as a bird following a package of linen from Belfast across the ocean to another country, details of all the things they encountered on the way were then expressed on to the fabric, including images of sights, sounds and smells that are associated with the journey.
"If I were an item of linen" - Impressed clay
Written by artist Andrew on 7 October 2003
Since my first visit a lot of activity has been happening at the school including a visit from a man who worked at the shipyards in Belfast, he gave a very interesting talk to the children. In preperation for my visit the teachers and children have been very busy collecting information and undertaking some very interesting work.
This week we used clay and had a very enjoyable day the morning class made pieces of work based on their drawings titled “if I were an item of linen what would I be” (see picture), the afternoon group made pieces of work based on modes of transport from years gone by.
The pieces of work made today will be used in a piece of work next week (you will just have to log back in to see).
Woven Drawing
Written by artist Andrew on 7 October 2003
Well we kicked off our first day at strandtown on Monday, the children and teachers had already visited the lisburn linen Museum the previous week so we were off to a great start. I began by giving an introduction to my work showing images to the children then we had a discussion about what the class thought an “artist” did, some very good responses were given including painters, sculptors, graphic designers to name a few…
As a start point to work we asked the children to close their eyes and take themselves back to the museum visit, we asked them to trace their movements through the museum and choose an image that interested them. Using drawing as the first exercise the children made large drawings from their chosen memory of the museum visit a section of their drawing was then translated onto strips of card which were then woven to produce a collective piece of work.