ARTISTS TALKING

# 45 [16 January 2007]

The Hidden Landscape
Have just uploaded my first video of 2007 and discovered that there is a whole sub-culture of videos on YouTube devoted to mushrooms! View it on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYQ2ac5KXD4

or my videoblog:http://www.annshaw.co.uk

# 44 [15 January 2007]

Moral dilemma in video-making

Using your family and friends as raw material in making videos is tricky. You walk a thin line between exploiting them or turning them into an "art video".

Bill Viola -http://www.billviola.com - never had any qualms in this area: he regarded his family as grist for his artistic mill and filmed his wife giving birth and his mother dying.

 Well, the reason I bring this up is that my project is far less emotionally fraught but it crosses over cultural boundaries between East and West.  Over Christmas I had two students staying (Shanghai and Hong Kong) and between us we made a short film - well 18 minutes. They have agreed I can put it up on YouTube. (After I cut it back to three mins max.) In fact they are quite looking forwrd to seeing it on YouTube...but I feel a bit squeamish turning what was an informal family occasion into a film for the world-wide web.

# 43 [15 January 2007]

IPhone

Aren't we all longing to get our mitts on one?...y'know what I mean...and we have to wait until the end of the year! I'm talking about the most hyped gadget around: IPhone.

Come to think of it I am going to New York in March...maybe I can buy one then.

# 42 [13 January 2007]

You Tube

Phone call 9a.m. yesterday. "Can we send a photographer around?" It's the local newspaper. They want to do a piece on my videos on You Tube -http://www.a-nunedited.co.uk/projects/youtube.com 

Frantic panic to tidy the place up. The young photographer uses Audacity so we get to talking about podcasting. Some weeks ago I contacted them for help with tracing all the folk I filmed in The Changing Room gallery. The video piece is now several years old but the participants never got to see the finished result- until now thanks to You Tube. It would be good if I could put names to all the hands. ( My tutors at Glasgow School of Art used to nag me  for not "finishing off" work properly and I guess this is another example, well I am trying.....)

# 41 [11 January 2007]

Podcasting

OK this is reckoned to ultra cool , the most zeitgsty stuff around, and I was very nervous about moving into it.

 I have still got too many memories of struggling with html and web design to view another "learning experience" as yet another battle with new technology .

But last night at the Electron  club in Glasgow's CCA it was a possible experience and I am sold on podcasting. This is story-telling brought into the 21st century and yes I am going to take my laptop with me to Wales and start collecting some oral history there.

The whole evening kicked off to a good start, something I took as a very good omen,when I walked in and found people seated around a huge round table with Apple laptops ( mostly) .

  I was in Apple country: intuitive, safe, arty,graphic , music.

At the end of the evening we had all made our first podcast and uploaded it to the net. No small achievement!...thanks to John Harris, Michelle Kasprzak and Simon Yuill.

# 40 [10 January 2007]

So Apple are launching the iPhone! great news..it's not due on the European market until the end of the year but it will combine a mobile phone, internet access, IPod music and video playback features.

In 10 days time I am going to Wales to do some research for my online book and the thought of being without my computer for the best part of the week is making me nervous. Yes I could take my laptop but the places I am going to are remote with no internet access.

# 39 [8 January 2007]

Huskies galore!

Yet another guy in North America has signed up for my video on huskies.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h46JzGrSD7M

This is another example of what Chris Anderson author of 'The Long Tail' ( and editor of Wired magazine) calls the niche market. www.thelongtail.com

This little video - very old footage shot over 10 years ago in analogue during a stopover in Alaska en route to Japan was put up on the net 5 months ago. Its had 670 "hits", which is modest but the interesting thing is that it continues every week to attract new viewers. Its the "long tail" effect and it applies to everything digital.

And that's what makes it so exciting for the future .

All things digital have a different mode of culture and commerce, no longer dominated by mass media,cultural gatekeepers, Box-office hits and top-seller lists.

# 38 [6 January 2007]

Podcasting Workshop
Have been meaning to get into podcasting for some time so I am delighted to see that the Electron(http://www.electronclub.org)

 club based in the CCA(http://www.cca-glasgow.com/) - Centre for Contemporary Arts- Glasgow are organising a free evening on Wednesday January 10th.

# 37 [5 January 2007]

Missing Welsh history

Beginning to regret having jumped so eagerly into the project to write about the 40 missing years of Welsh history in Craig-y-nos Castle. It looks like being much more time-consuming that I envisaged. Both the BBCWales online site

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/abercraf/pages/annshaw.shtml

and Carole Reeves from the Wellcome Trust for Medicine are proving to be extremely helpful. On the other hand I am going to use as many tools of new technology as possible to speed up the research.Hopefully the end result will be an online collaborative effort. Charles Leadbeater, (www.charlesleadbeater.net)

 a leading  writer on innovation and creativity, is already pioneering this approach to writing books. He has just published his latest book online and is asking for contributions before it goes finally into hard copy.

# 36 [5 January 2007]

http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2007/01/adopt_an_artworkfor_free.html

I I love it!...adopt an artwork for free!  Why are all the best ideas soooo..simple! This is the answer to all those pieces of artwork lying around. Well, it's a thought.

I love Artsjournal(http://www.artsjournal.com)