FMP Week 5-6

7 April

LSO concert – Mozart piano concerto 25and Mahler’s 5^th symphony; sold out

During the Mozart, which I wanted to skip, I came up with a slew of ideas for presentation of my photographs: using the old LSO programmes in which I’d drawn.  I had had an idea during the last project to present them all attached in a sort of quilt, but I’ve realised I could put my photographs in the programmes, giving them a musical context for viewing.  Exhibiting the photos on their own would mean the viewers were necessarily making associations along those lines, thus eliminating the main purpose of the pairings.

I will attach the programmes by different methods such as sewing, weaving, weaving with sheet music or tickets, punched holes and string, or other ideas.  I will incorporate the photo pairings into the programmes by finding ads to which they share similarities, etc.

I found an extra programme, which I took home for experimenting.

8 April

I started experimenting with ways of connecting the programmes.  I didn’t know if the paper was sturdy enough to be stitched, but I have enough extras that I tried it out.  First, I used a needle to poke even holes into the paper.  An ‘X’ pattern of stitches varied between sets of 1-6, representing the most standard time signatures in common orchestral repertoire.  Each set of ‘X’es is outlined with a straight line, representing a bar line.  When the seam was finished, I was pleased to know that the paper was indeed hearty enough to not rip when suspended.

11 April

Woke up at 5:30 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep.  But, right when I woke up, I came up with a winning idea for my final project presentation.  I spent the next 6 hours finalising pairs and placing an order for a 21 cm square photo booklet from Jessops.  The booklet is 1cm larger than LSO programmes, so I will present it alongside programmes, or in front of the quilt backdrop I thought up on the 7^th.

With expedited shipping, the order should be delivered by the 17^th or 18^th…in the nick of time for turn in.

12 April

Bought some supplies for putting together the programme ‘quilt’ and began coming up with additional concepts for attaching them in my sketchbook.  One of these was weaving.  I used the two programmes from the concert on the 7^th for this method.  Before diving into (and potentially ruining) the actual programmes, I practised in my sketchbook, first cutting the paper to size (20cm square).

It worked, though the strips would need to be trimmed rather than simply cut into strips, as they otherwise bow out rather than forming a perfect square.

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17-18 April

Went to uni (Camberwell Wednesday and Chelsea Thursday) to finish printing things and return my library books.  I wish I would have spent more time at Chelsea this year.  I think it would have increased my productivity and encouraged me to look through books.  On my way in on Wednesday, I was held up by Thatcher's funeral procession, so I walked up to Ludgate Circus in case I could see anything.  I heard all the hubbub as her coffin passed on the gun carriage, but couldn't see anything but the feather on the hat of one of the members of the procession.  

I would like to think my final evaluation is a good summary of how I managed myself over the course of the project.  Of course, there are things I wish I could have done better, or would have done more of, but I have developed my practise quite a lot since I started out last autumn.  Here's hoping I take my own advice on future projects (keeping one sketchbook dedicated to each project, actually updated a journal or notating sketchbook, etc...)

Here are some of my favourite final pairs:

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