The pregnant pause

 Def.: A pause that gives the impression that it will be followed by something significant.
Wiktionary, Open content dictionary

One thing that has been distinctive about this project is the ‘pregnant pause’.  I do programming and stitch out stuff, I revise and stitch again.  I attach PCBs (printed circuit boards) and press studs and at that point I put samples in the post or deliver by hand and then I wait;  I wait for feedback, I wait to find out if the samples work, I wait for success or failure.

Sometimes they work and sometimes I am asking too much of the materials or technique.  For example I’ve spent a month trying to programme the stitch to attach Brendan’s GY-85 chips.  I’ll find out some time next week if we can finally get a pair of them to show movement of the wrist.

It’s a very different way of working for me.  I am used to playing visually to develop work; to have an immediate ‘thing’ that I can reflect on.  I’m not used to having function as the driving force.  And what a cruel mistress she is.  There is no room for error or fudge when you need to make 4 different electrical connections in less than 10mm.  I have frequently had to be precise in my work; that pieces are level and square or an exact size to fit in a site specific space, but the precision in this project has huge implications to an artefact’s success.

This is not a complaint, more a statement of fact.  This has always been a developmental and experimental project.  I am so far out of my comfort zone that I cant see the shore anymore.  But that is good.  I have had to learn about basic circuitry and conductive materials and so in turn learnt a little about the potential of what these materials can do.

So there is a bigger pause going on as well.  I don’t know how much this will affect my future work.  I will have to wait and see.  I don’t know if it will be successful or not.  I don’t know if this is a new direction in my work but I am more aware of the technology that potentially would allow my work to change or interact with its environment or audience.

The Staffordshire Hoard

You might be familiar with the Staffordshire Hoard, the biggest find of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found.  As part of the outreach project for the new Staffordshire Hoard Gallery at Birmingham Museum I worked with fellow artist Zoe Partington and Cerebral Palsy West Midlands.  Zoe also worked with a number of visually impaired residents from Focus Housing to make audio descriptions  The aim of the sessions I worked on was to produce tactile responses to the collection; quite a challenge when the pieces are so small and the detail so tricky to see……but then that was the whole point in the outreach sessions….to make the collection accessible to more people.

We worked on acetate film to draw or trace our versions based on photographs of the pieces underneath.  We also coloured and collaged them.  The sessions were light hearted with people dropping in and out, finishing off each other’s work or concentrating on a single piece over several weeks.  The drawings were all scanned and then I tried to combine work into a series of 11 images that were printed onto cotton velvet or drill.  I then machine embroidered or free motion quilted them to give tactile detail and these pieces of fabric were made into pages for a tactile book incorporating a press button that would allow an audio description to play.  You can see the pages under construction with the electronics in the photo.

Zoe also added tactile stencils so you can ‘feel’ the pieces.  You’ll find the book on the Mead Table in the new Staffordshire Hoard Gallery in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery