Poetics Of The Motorway

Went to quite an interesting post-launch of In the Company of Ghosts: the Poetics of the Motorway, 2012, edited by Andrew Corkish at Beakonsfield yesterday evening.
I find it interestigg as I attend more and more of these, that very often it is a way for panelists to indulge themselves and enthuse about a subject about which they are passionate, without, what I would argue, ios the important thing to include us, the audience, who do not know as much, but by being there could easily be enthused and informed more.
No sonic references!

Mapping

Looking at some Google maps of the Canning Town area, I find there are some interestingly diverse locations there. Having recorded for two days there this week, I am thinking that there might be some way to work within a restricted, or at least defined area. Perhaps look more deeply into the diversity of on area, comparing and contrasting the sonic and filmic qualities.

Isle Of Dogs Skip Hire

Had a great day today at the Isle Of Dogs Skip Hire depot in East London.
I was given permission to record and film for a couple of hours. It is amazing the amount of rubbish they receive and distribute from there every day. Hundreds of tons of Tower Hamlets' rubbish was there today as the borough cannot cope with all the extra pressure from the Olympics.
A wonderfully noisy, hectic and stinky day indeed.

Project

Began filming and recording for some experimental pieces this week around industrial parks, scrap yards and edgelands.

Bruce Lacey

 A retrospective of Lacey's work was at the BFI last night.
Mostly supported, thinly, by an audience with grey hair and a couple of well informed 30 somrthings.
Bizarre, English surrealistic fun and games abounded with some wonderfully awful sound design and highly inspiring ideas of hand-held camera work and the realization that technology must not get in the way of a good idea.
Bravo Bruce.

BFI

BFI membership is proving to be a wise investment. Not just getting me off my arse and out into the real world, but more importantly, the amount of documentary/independent/artist films is proving to be quite a stimulating affair for my work.

Of Time and The City

Got some great ideas from watching Of Time and The City by Terence Davies yesterday.
It's amazing when one gets into something, how there is already an established practice.

Edgelands

Marion Shoard was the inspiration for the poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts to write Edgelands. Here is a link to her 2002 essay.

Topic Idea 3: The Edgelands

This book and its ideas were very useful to me for the BA project. It looks at the strange areas at the edges of urban sprawls.

Topic Idea 2: The New Towns of England

Basildon, Harlow,

Britain From Above

                                     
Today was the launch of a new website, www.britainfromabove.org.uk, and as the name suggests, features thousands of aerial photographs of Britain taken between 1919 and 1953.
I've only had a browse today, but there are some really amazing and deliciously bland images to help with the project.

Swandown

Looking forward to this exhibition at Dilston Grove next week.
Another case of crazy coincidences; I was put on to Andrew Koetting by my tutor, John Wynne and have been exploring Sinclair's work just this past week, and now they have a joint exhibition in South London.

Non-Place 2

An example of what I do not want to do.
I like the fact that the topic interests them, but this is pretty superficial and tabloid in its use of banal questions and a non-conclusion. I'm sure they could have made something of this if they'd narrowed down the focus a bit and worried at that for an answer. I hope they continue with their work.

London Orbital

I found a lot of connections to my research in this film by Christopher Petit and Iain Sinclair. It is a documentary, connected to but not of Sinclair's book of the same name.
Working similarly to Kieller's Robinson films, this is great film commenting upon contemporary culture and politics through topographical movement and history.
Filmed without a crew, it has a very personal feel to it and creates a believable and intriguing narrative.
A real must for repeated viewing.

London Sound Survey

An article in this month's Wire magazine reminded me of this great site that I hadn't visited for months.
Geographically it is ideally suited to one part of my project.
http://www.soundsurvey.org.uk/

The Individual.

Reading this week to keep my presentation work up-to-date, I realized several occurrences of the idea of the way in which many of us are becoming less social animals and more individual.
I relate this particularly to my research on personal smart media. Gone for many, are the days of interaction on a journey, for example. Sealed up with in-ear headphones, a mobile that cuts into your music, a personal playlist and GPS to help you when you get a bit lost and don't want tho have to look at landmarks.