Seminar
I missed this weeks seminar due to an emergency, from what I heard they were planning the student lead workshop in week 9. My idea for that is hopefully something to do with Birds of Prey. I would love to bring my bird in and show him off, by realistically I don’t think that would happen. Unless we did a field trip to an actual field and I flew the bird in front of people.
I had my second tutorial this week with Caitlin. We discussed my project and finding links for why I chose Birds of Prey and how my dad links to it. Artists I have researched and experiments I have taken and what has motivated me.
| Tutorial 2 – fill in this document during and or after the 30 minute individual tutorial | |
| What ideas have you been exploring in the last 2 weeks? Installation birds of prey – projected image, multi wall multi wall, sounds of training the birds. Birdman the film. Exploration into hobby. Simplify life. Material that’s available. Draws on first person lived experience. What is the value and significance to you to document this. Careful curatorial thought – supporting narrative objects that support the film | |
| What aspects of your experimentation so far have been helpful, productive and successful? | |
| What aspects of your research so far have been helpful? Lots of artist research: John CageRobert BarryJanet Cardiff Marcus CoatesLook into documentary – IDFA Institute | Discover the Power of Creative Documentaries | |
| What aspects of your research so far have been helpful? Welsh walk-in centre Everyday life, normalcy SaturdaysLooking at other artists. Remember to explain how they inform your own creative ideas and practice. Leave time to analyse and discuss the artists whose work interests you. | |
| What aspects of your Online Notebook posts so far have been helpful, productive and successful? Up to week 1 & 2 Get up to speed with ON postsThink carefully about why focussing on birds – big part of childhood and shared experience, familiar and fascinated, being different – not average childhood experience.Why are birds interesting to you? What motivates you about this topic? | |
| What 3 steps do you need to take next to move your project forward? Filming birds and recording dad. First person footage preference – not found.Loads of creative experimentation with film footage and sound recordingsGet hold of projectors and test set up | |
| What are the main points that you want to make from tutorial 2? Catch up on ON (include reflection, experimentation and research in your posts)Experiment / make / play / practice!Interrogate your creative motivation – why birds, why birds of prey, why your dad? Gos hawk / father / predation / power / status – what is the connection between these two symbols and characters? | |
| Extra Notes: | |
Research
This week I researched the Artist Marcus Coates and his exhibition ‘Conference for the birds,2019’.
Marcus Coates is a contemporary artist and ornithologist living in London. His works, including performances and installations that have been recorded as video art, employ shamanistic rituals in communication with “the lower world”, and contrast natural and man-made processes.
Conference for the Birds celebrates the lives of the birds Thomas Bewick depicted in his wood engravings. His book ‘A History of British Birds’ first published in 1797 was a comprehensive guide to both the appearance and behaviour of birds. In the birthplace of Bewick, in one of the two rooms his family inhabited along with his seven siblings, we are surrounded by seven large bird heads, 3 dimensional renderings of his prints. We hear these seven different bird species discussing their lives with each other. The birds, played by wildlife experts, discuss topics from migration to predation, with each species speaking about the challenges they face day to day. By exploring the lives of the birds that Bewick studied and depicted, this artwork attempts to reveal how we, when speaking from the position of another animal like a bird, rely on subjective experience to relate across to this alien perspective.
The exhibition is currently open in Croome court, where people are invited to sit amongst the sculptures and listen to the birds, played by wildlife experts, discuss topics from migration to predation and challenges they face day to day.
Project
This week I spent my time flying my bird and going through photos I have already of them and my dad with them. I looked into why I enjoy flying them, it makes me feel peaceful, it comes naturally to me since I’ve been doing it since I was 4. It is a hobby I can do with my dad and bond over. I discussed with Caitlin how the bird reminds me of my dad, there is composure and confidence and silence to the bird, but he’s still a predator and could literally rip your arm off if he wanted to. Kind of a bit like my dad, he’s got this strong presence and it’s beautiful to watch but I also know he has a temper and doesn’t tolerate bullshit.
I’ve trained many birds in my lifetime, some we have given names to. We had a goshawk called Mort, a peregrine falcon name Loki, a harris hawk called Bellatrix, another goshawk called Lars. We are currently training a goshawk, who when we got tried to kill my mother which me and my dad found really funny and to this day still doesn’t like her, so she called him Little Fucker, LF for short.
