Drawing to Music 2

So we decided to try the drawing to music for a second time. On this occasion, I was drawing straight onto a Wacom graphics tablet, which was then projected onto a wall through a projector. Then we filmed the thing on the webcam of Ergina's computer. The quality isn't that fantastic, but this should give an idea of what we were doing. This video is of the third drawing we did, a bit more lighthearted than the other two.

Pig

Spent most of yesterday drawing a pig using some of the techniques I learned in my illustrator workshop a couple of weeks back

Drawing to Music

Something I've wanted to do for quite a while is improvise a drawing to music. Actually, this isn't hard to organise, since you just have to switch on a stereo and start drawing. But it's a different thing if you are doing it with a live musician. The idea is that both the musician and the artist draw inspiration from each other and form a proper improvisational group in different media.

I was drawing in ink with the dropper from the top of the ink bottle on white paper. Ergina was using a keyboard set to 'electric piano sound'. For the first occasion, we didn't want to do anything elaborate, so unfortunately the sound isn't recorded. Next time, we hope to use the house projector (currently being mainly used for Streetfighter IV) so that E. can see what I am drawing, rather than just my movements. Then we can record the music and drawing simultaneously and I can post it up here.

These are the pictures from the first session:

Picture 1: Ergina made quite random, atonal sounds on the keyboard. Occasionally these would cluster into themes, like light, short trills, or slower, darker riffs. I ended up matching the force of my strokes to the sounds I was hearing. The theme of the picture just came out of nowhere, as marks started coming together.

Picture 2: I asked Ergina to do something different, and play with chords (the first piece had been entirely single notes. This resulted in more of a 'mood' piece, with one particular ambience, which I would describe as quite melancholy, hence the rain and sad theme of the picture. There were no individual sounds to match my pen strokes, so I was freer to draw at my own pace.

Isotype

Isotype (V&A)

I stumbled across this exhibition at the V & A - it only occupies 2 smallish rooms, but is really fascinating. Isotype (International System of TYpographic Picture Education) is a system of showing complex information in pictorial form. It was originated by Otto Neurath in Vienna in the 1920s and was quickly exported to the newly formed USSR and to other countries, including Britain.

Isotype involves creating a self-explanatory chart, in which images represent items (such as workers, cars, factory outputs etc.) but without increasing the size of the image for the size of the output. Thus one ‘man’ image might mean 50 workers, but instead of a bigger man for 100 workers, two men would be used. The beauty of this approach is that information is not only easy to understand, but also easy to mathematically convey, without the need for lots of figures and so on. 

Isotype developed into a whole system, and because everyone at that time loved the idea of simplifying everything and making it more mechanical, it was only a short while before the makers of Isotype met the makers of BASIC (British American Standard International Commercial) English, which had reduced the dictionary to 850 basic English words. The resulting work: Basic by Isotype is no doubt a classic, but costs £858.85 on the internet, which would be represented by quite a lot of little round coins on an Isotype chart. 

Isotype spread around the world and has had immense influence in graphic design and information design. My favourite chart in the exhibition, which I can’t find on the internet, sadly, was the one which depicted animal lifespans by using a long curvy line from the top of the page to the bottom. At the start of the line was a mosquito (the most dangerous creature on earth) and midway was man. Right at the end of the line, as if winning a very long race (150 years), was the tortoise.

This exhibition had some really fascinating exhibits, and I think anyone would find it interesting. The ability of Isotypes to convey information in an interesting and accessible way does half the work for the curators, really, so very little extra information was needed. I did wish, however, that the gift shop sold reproduction charts etc.

JEM by Frederick Pohl (1979)

Bit of a strange book this, and by a unique author. How many writers did their most famous book sixty years ago (Space Merchants, 1952), was still putting out really good books 30 years ago (Jem, 1979) and is still going in 2011 with a regular blog at the age of 81? That’s Frederick Pohl, the last surviving dinosaur of the Golden Age of science fiction.

Jem is the story of the colonisation of a planet - the planet Jem, to be precise.  It’s an odd novel. For a start, it doesn’t have one central character; rather, the indirect narrative viewpoint shifts throughout the book, from Danny Dalehouse, the nearest thing to a hero of  the story, to the ruthless, ambitious and thoroughly unlikeable Marge Menninger, but also to sundry other minor characters, including, with mixed success, three of the alien species to be found on the planet. 

It’s no mean feat to imagine an entire planet and populate it with three distinct species of alien that are entirely believable, but Pohl does this without breaking a sweat. I loved the description of the balloon aliens’ language, as well as the psychology of the Krinpit, who call humans ‘Poison Ghosts’, since they aren’t good to eat. The colonisation of Jem is described in a way that is not only highly plausible, but also, in a sense, tragically inevitable. I would argue, however, that the lack of a central protagonist or group of protagonists makes the narrative rather disjointed at times, and means that the story lacks a proper narrative arc. You could argue that Tolstoy does the same thing in War and Peace, but Fred Pohl isn’t Tolstoy. Without a strong central character to root for, there isn’t a proper narrative arc - it’s just ODTAA  - One Damn Thing After Another. 

That criticism to one side, Jem is a highly enjoyable sci fi novel.Regular Pohl readers will recognise his obsession with political alignments of the future based on the scarcity of earth’s resources. They will also recognise his strong satyrical tendencies, as man’s propensity to rivalry, greed, and ultimately, destruction, are transplanted to an alien planet. Jem is quite shocking, actually, with the casual brutality of man's treatment of alien races, both for the purposes of 'scientific research', and also, survival.

It’s quite common, I think, for science fiction writers to fall in love with their own ideas, and forget that, at the end of the day, they are still telling a story. Also, many sci-fi writers find it difficult to sustain an idea over the length of a novel, without the concept getting out of control. For this reason, I think that the short story format is the best for science fiction, and I would recommend anyone who wants to read Pohl to begin with his short fiction before venturing as far as Planet Jem.

Man at Sink

Sometimes I just have images sitting around in my sketchbook with no real idea what to do with them or why I drew them in the first place. Sometimes I hope they will coalesce into a story of some sort.

King Lear LIVE!

Cultural Experience no.21593

King Lear at the Donmar Warehouse, Covent Garden
Displayed live in HD at the Richmond Curzon Cinema
Derek Jacobi in the title role

It took over an hour to get to Richmond from East London. Compared to Hackney, it seems like a quaint village about to be taken over by vampires in a Hammer horror film. The Curzon Richmond is down a narrow lane opposite a pub staffed by a woman with no voice, another horror element thrown in for free.

We collected our tickets and took our seats. We were treated to a 10 minute documentary with interviews with the cast and director about what an epoch-making event it was to transmit live theatre AROUND THE WORLD to HUNDREDS OF CINEMAS so that EVERYONE COULD ENJOY THE MAGIC OF SHAKESPEARE. Looking around at my fellow audience in the cinema, I was dismayed to see the average age was at least 55, and that Shakespeare was dwindling in popularity among younger people.
Then the live camera showed us the audience in the Donmar Warehouse LIVE, picking their noses, kissing, laughing... Most of them were young people, for some reason. It was like one generation watching another, in HD, live, as an anthropological research.

The play started abruptly, and I think I have been conditioned by cinema going to expect adverts, build up, titles etc.

The set was bare, distressed boards, like a fashionable restaurant these days, with almost no items like tables, chairs etc. This had the effect of focussing on specific props like: a throne; a map; the stocks.

The acting was excellent, especially Jacobi, and his fool, who were far better than the rest. Gloucester also good. Lear is a play of fantastic, overblown emotions, and this cast carried it off. Goneril and Regan were very convincing in their flattery turning to exasperation at their father's antics, and then sternness, and then finally cruelty and madness. There are themes of justice in Lear which are quite pronounced: when does just (as in righteous) revenge and tip into unjust revenge, and then, well, just revenge...? Edmund begins the play as the neglected bastard, and we feel his pain at the cruelty of his father. Likewise the partiality of Lear for Cordelia at the expense of his other daughters strikes us as unfair. So to begin with, we take the part of the villains, but become increasingly uneasy with the volume of their actions. Firstly with Edmund, who is basically pretty unprincipled, and then with Regan and Goneril, whose realpolitik starts to look extremely unattractive. Another theme: Edmund and Edgar, the brothers are both man stripped bare of all trappings of civilisation. The first as an ambitious animal, willing to do or say anything to get power. The second, hounded out of his life becomes a beggar, but for Edgar it is compassion that separates him from the beasts and ultimately redeems him.

What is pleasurable about Shakespeare is the depth to which he works on his themes and language, so that at every level - character, plot, language... the themes resonate back again and again.

The climactic scene of the play in many ways, is where Gloucester goes to the top of Dover Cliffs and throws himself onto the ground, believing he is committing suicide. He did this, and then froze for 15 seconds. Then he carried on. Lear enters, talking to himself. Then he freezes. It goes black. Then Lear is on the other side of the stage, in the middle of a speech. We were experiencing technical difficulties. A voice came on: the performance would be suspended until they fixed their satellite.

It was an exquisite embarrassment. All over the world, football matches are broadcast without a hitch, week in, week out. The epoch-making broadcast of King Lear to cinemas ALL OVER THE WORLD is marred by technical difficulties. Typically British.

The action started again, from the beginning of the scene. You couldn't help feeling sorry for the actors, who had to do it all again - all the pacing gone, the climax botched, as well as the audience in the theatre. From one point of view, it was useful as an illustration of the problems of broadcasting theatre 'live'. Theoretically, you can't just 'do it again'. It is done, once, and the moment has passed. Try to do it again, and you ruin it, as they did.

I think by the end of the play, most of the audience had forgotten the fiasco, and remembered the play. It will probably cause the producers to have a good think, however, lest they turn more tragedy to farce in the same way.

Website Design

I had a session with the most helpful Adamina Turek yesterday to help with designing my website. It turns out, unsurprisingly that I have been doing it all wrong.

I had used a tutorial  (http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/dreamweaver1.shtml) to build my website on dreamweaver, which was very useful as far as it went. But when it came to uploading a web gallery, I had used Adobe Bridge (again following an online help page) which worked on a couple of browsers, and then broke forever.

Adamina instructed me that websites are usually designed in Photoshop first, which is exactly what I am doing, and then 'built' on dreamweaver. This obviously saves time in the design stage and a lot of messing about with coding.

There appear to be several levels on which you can design a website: using HTML code, which is a direct interface, using Dreamweaver design mode, which is a simple interface for non-experts, and CSS (cascading style sheets), which allows for complex stuff to be done quickly. Adamina has recommended a workshop if I wish to learn any HTML or CSS. I may do this, although I am not a programmer, so don't want to study more of this than I need, as I don't have that much time!

Review of Ringworld

One of my hobbies is posting overlong reviews that nobody will read on Amazon for books nobody has heard of. The latest is 'Ringworld' a sci-fi novel by Larry Niven.

What the Tanj...?

First of all, a disclaimer and an apology: I didn’t get very far beyond page 100 of Ringworld, and so my review is of those pages only. My sole motivation for getting that far in the book (aside from pride - I rarely put a book down, once I have started) was to get to the Ringworld of the title, and see what that had to offer. By the time we reached Ringworld, however, I so thoroughly hated all the characters, and most of all the style of the writing, that continuing wasn’t even an option.

Ringworld is the most annoying book ever written. Although it is ostensibly about a giant alien artefact which is explored by the heroes, for some reason the author does everything in his power to take this quite exciting premise and, page by page, scientifically syphon off any element of fun. 

The first aspect of the no-fun is the characters. Ringworld's characters consist of: a giant cat from a race of warriors (ludicrously) called “Speaker to Animals”; a hairy Clingon, if you will. Speaker has the tedious characteristic of taking everything anybody says as an insult. You can imagine how quickly this gets boring. Then there is Nessus, an unconvincing alien with 3 or 5 heads ( i cant remember), who is terrified of everything. You can imagine how quickly this gets boring.  Next up is Teela - a vapid girl whose only role is love interest for the hero. Ah yes, the hero, possibly the flattest character in all literature, including Anna Karenina after her train accident. He is called Louis Wu, he is 200 years old, and beyond that, there is nothing you could say about him. I think actually, we have, just now, dwelt on his personality for longer than the author did when thinking him up, that’s how thin he is.

No Fun part 2 - the pace. The first 40 pages is spent meeting the characters. They all agree to go on a mission to find the Ringworld (a mysterious alien artefact which there is a picture of on the front cover). Unfortunately, the artefact isn’t reached until page 100 or so. This would be justified if the journey to reach the artefact was loaded with an ever-increasing feeling of suspense, or if disaster met the expedition at every turn. Unfortunately not. In fact, the journey to Ringworld goes exactly to plan. It is true that the book surprised me in this respect. In fact, if you are expecting any excitement or drama in the voyage to the Ringworld, the author cleverly confounds your expectations by giving you 100 pages consisting of the four ‘characters’ described above airing their party quirks in place of personalities, whilst they change spaceships, discuss flight trajectories, express mild surprise at each other’s cultural differences and heat up TV dinners. 

No Fun part 3 - the prose. Amazingly, considering how bad the characters and pacing are, the author’s real weak point seems to be writing prose. Here, the writing is as flat and lifeless as a Volvo care manual, only a good deal more irritating. The irritation comes from affectations such as the decision to use the made up swearword ‘Tanj’ to add an element (I suppose) of verisimilitude to the future scenario. “Tanj!”, exclaims the hero, every couple of pages, “What the tanj!” You can imagine how quickly this becomes boring. Tanj is irritating, but not as bad as “By the mist demons!” (page 80). Aside from the Tanjing, I also found irritating (as another reviewer has here commented) the immature and prurient attitude to sex that seems to pervade the novel. It is cringingly embarrassing to read a paragraph where the characters talk about the ‘straddle position’ before the author fades to black. In Ringworld sex is so important it has to be mentioned, nearly all the time, but it’s always a joke or comes with a raised eyebrow, and ironically, for a book whose title could easily come from a top shelf publication banned everywhere but Sweden, sex is ultimately something so terrifying it can’t be shown. I’ve no problem with not showing sex, but then why bring it up in the first place, in such a sniggering schoolboy fashion.

It is niggling things like this that make Ringworld such an uncomfortable read. It belongs, no doubt, in the same category as Arthur C Clarke’s ‘revelatory’ style of sci-fi, where most of the excitement and suspense derives from delivering small revelations that beg yet another mystery to be solved later on, as in “Rendevous with Rama”. In that book, Clarke’s skill at storytelling makes you really care what the biopsy of an alien crab will reveal about the species that built it. In Ringworld, Niven seems to have achieved the opposite. He takes an interesting concept of an inconceivably big piece of engineering encircling a star, and manages to kick all the fun out of it, so that by the time you get to the artefact itself, you no longer care what the tanj is inside it. 

I wish someone would reply to my review and convince me that I should hold on and read the rest of the book because it gets a lot better and fully justifies it’s great reputation. If so, could they please tell me on which page this acceleration of pace occurs, so I can be sure not to miss it.