PRERETROSPECT #17 THE MATHEMATICS - PART FOUR

The last major set of calculations left to do was working out the scale from A1 map to real life, and applying it to the distances previously measured.

As 40cm on the map = 700m in real life
700 / 40 = 17.5

DISTANCE IN  REAL LIFE SCALE

1cm on A1 map = 17.5m in real life

DISTANCE IN REAL LIFE BETWEEN COORDINATES

Distance on A1 map (cm)   x   17.5 (scale above)

That one is pretty obvious I know, but I'm getting a tad OCD with documenting everything these days.

PRERETROSPECT #16 THE MATHEMATICS - PART THREE

Once I had all the results for photos between points, and distance on the A1 map between points, I could work out the time in real life that should be spent between each point. As it is known that there is 13 seconds between each photo, this calculation is more for the time I should be at each coordinate. As well as then allowing me to double check the calculations later on.

TIME CALCULATIONS BETWEEN EACH COORDINATE (IN REAL TIME)

FORMULA:

NO. PHOTOS BETWEEN                  (1 PHOTO EVERY                       (60 SEC 
EACH POINT                     X    13     13 SECONDS                /    60      IN 1 MIN)     =     A

                                                       

PRERETROSPECT #15 THE MATHEMATICS - PART TWO

The next step was then to create an A1 scale of the net and axis, to correspond with the aerial view of the farm created. This was done in the same way the smaller nets were created. As I manually plotted the coordinates and connected them in order, I was also measuring the distance on the A1 version travelled e.g. 1 - 2 = 4cm. This means that I can correctly scale up the distances to real life later, as well as working out the distance between each photo - both on the A1 version, and real life.

DISTANCE BETWEEN PHOTO POINTS ON A1 MAP


FORMULA:

DISTANCE BETWEEN COORDINATES     /     NO. PHOTOS NEEDED BETWEEN    =   A
ON A1 MAP (CM)                                            THE SAME COORDINATES
                                                                        (RESULTS FROM PREVIOUS POST)

PRERETROSPECT #14 THE MATHEMATICS - PART ONE

This is where it all had to get mathematical for a few days. I hope it has been made fairly clear.

Sunrise = 6.30am
Sunset = 7.30pm

Therefore length of day = 13 hours = 780 minutes = 46, 800 seconds

If shooting a 2 minute pixilation animation at 18 fps there would have to be 3, 240 frames/photos in total
(180 x 18)

Chapter 33 of Dharma Bums = 1834 words
= 1.8 photos per word, rounded up to 2 photos per word
(3, 240 / 1834)

If a day is 46, 800 sec, then each word of DB = 26 seconds in real life, rounded up from 25.5

So if 26 seconds = 1 word, and there is 2 photos per word, then I would need to take 1 photo every 13 seconds.



The first thing I needed to find out after this was how many frames/photos would therefore be required to be between each coordinate chronologically (how the nets were formed).

PHOTOS NEEDED BETWEEN EACH COORDINATE

FORMULA:

DIFFERENCE IN                            (SECONDS PER                                (1 PHOTO
WORD COUNT             X          26  WORD OF SOC)      =    A     /     13   EVERY 13    =    B
BETWEEN POINTS                                                                                 SECONDS)

                               

PRERETROSPECT #12

As previously mentioned, I was playing with the idea of turning the mental journeys taken during streams of consciousness, into physical ones. This proved harder than expected to crack. In the ideal world, I would have translated the SOC in Dharma Bums into the exact place chapter 33 was set. Obviously funding was a major issue. But if anyone reads this and wants to back it, by all means do. I'm only half joking by the way.

Location became my first focus as I couldn't vision how this physical journey could occur without first knowing the setting/what I was to be working with. It the hit me, I should take this project back to the place where I started using/noticing my own streams of consciousness. Thus not only giving the journey a location, but also bringing it back to the personal angle that Preretrospect stemmed from. But where was this? For those of you who know me, I'm sorry for stating the obvious, again. For those of you who don't, this is the farm and countryside that I grew up on. Whenever I needed to clear my head, think, or organise my thoughts back into their colour coded boxes, I would go off wondering around for hours. Even now I find that I need to get a fix of this every so often or I can't properly process anything. Ironically, it was while visiting this place again that I finally managed to sort out where I wanted this project to go.

Just to clarify - by farm I meaning working farm. Both my parents are farmers.

As this project has a heavy process and data based grounding, I started off my taking a google maps image of the fields on my farm, and directly overlaying the net of Dharma Bums onto it. I chose Kerouac as chapter 33 is when the protagonist removes himself from everyone, taking a job as a watchman in the mountains, and using the time to think. A more extreme version of what I do on the fields I'm using.

I lined the two up (photo and net) as if the original axis was over the entire farm section. The grid lines were added, so that each square represents 100m x 100m in real life. The reasoning for this will become clear later. 

As preretrospect is a time based piece I wanted this to be a strong element of the work. The simplest way of showing this would be to use sunrise and sunset. So that therefore not only the time of day, but also shadows, sun position and available light contribute to illustrating time passing.

PRERETROSPECT #11 ARTIST INSPIRATION

I forced myself to have a hiatus from Preretrospect to try and gain a fresh perspective on the project. As can be seen in previous posts, I had essentially reached a brick wall. By spending a couple of weeks doing small projects, catching up on reading/exhibitions, and helping out with unrelated projects to my own work, I successfully induced the 'shower effect'. I'm not sure if that is a legitimate psychological term, but I use it to refer to the way in which distraction by mundane/unrelated activities clears your mind - often leading to the solution to a problem you were stuck trying to solve. Apologies if that is academically incorrect. But before I post about the breakthrough itself, and the work that has since proceeded it, here are some of the contributing artists/exhibitions/books which helped me get there. 

JOHN MAEDA

John Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He is one of those influences which you are never content knowing enough about. Especially as I am a firm believer that you should always try and uncover what inspires those who inspire you. What has been the main connection to Maeda for me is the way that his work is also heavily based on the process, science, mathematics and data. However all of his work ends up being visually interesting and aesthetically pleasing. As I was finding myself getting so caught up in the theory behind Preretrospect, it really helped finding someone who continually managed to bring back their work to a visual place. He helped restore my faith a little. Check out Maeda's work HERE.

JOHN BALDESSARI

In particular Baldassari's, California Map Project, 1969, really resonated with me. Here Baldessari re-visualized the landscape based on a drawing that we all know and recognize - a map of California. There are two different versions of place represented. He also meddles with the land to create his letters which are so far from the original scale of the map "alphabet," it can't help but be seen as comical. 

NEAL FREEMAN

Left: Identically Named Places Connected (USA). All identically named places (cities, towns, village) in the United States connected by a line.

Right: United Kingdom, Centered. All of the units of the UK Census (output areas), horizontally and vertically centered. Commissioned by Northampton Arts as part of the exhibition "Census and the art of capturing data."

Above:

1-3
All the Streets, Centered. All of the streets in selected cities, horizontally and vertically centred.
1) New York 2) Chicago 3) Los Angeles

6) Skyscrapers over 100m connected in height order. Chicago, 239 buildings, tallest: 442m.

5-8
Public Schools in Order, 2006. Straight lines drawn between public schools in numerical order.
5) Queens, 167 schools, 2 - 226 6) Staten Island, 41 schools, 1 - 69 7) The Bronx, 144 schools, 1 - 396 8) Brooklyn, 241 schools, 1 - 811

Slightly frustratingly I only came across this work by Freeman in the last few weeks. Although both our work has created these net like images there are differences. The obvious one being that my work is focused on mental processes. Whereas Freeman's work that seems visually similar, concentrates on physical places/objects. However, I found the way in which he has manipulated the original data/nets by centering/rotating them to a interesting and refreshing approach. It helped me to look at mine own work past the shapes that the data created.


DAVID HOCKNEY

I went to the David Hockney exhibition, A Bigger Picture, at the Royal Academy without expecting it to massively influence Preretrospect. As it turns out I was wrong. Hockney's collection of paintings entitled Tunnels, is a time based collection. He revisited the same place in Yorkshire at various points throughout an entire year. Keeping the frame the same, and painting exactly what was in front of him. Now although I do not have a year, or even a month that I can dedicate to this piece at present, it got me thinking about time on a smaller scale. for example, if you did the same thing many times during one day, you would still have an obvious contrast due to light levels. 

The other part of the exhibition that I was drawn to was Hockney's multiple camera film pieces. I don't think that  by splitting up a canvas into multiple ones will add to my work at all, but I shouldn't necessarily limit myself to a singular final piece. A triptych might even work better. Especially when you consider the past, present, future element to this project.

EYE FLIRTATION

To raise money for both the Illustration Work In Progress Show, and the CSM BAGD Degree Show, we've been holding zine/print sales at uni. My contribution for this was the top typographical print, based on the image above which I found years ago. The actual print has been screen printed in some delightful 90s colours. I'm talking hot pink gradient into orange, 90s sunset style. I still need to get a decent picture of it. But once I do I'll upload it. 

Also, this has inspired another project for me. I haven't quite got the proposal smoothed out yet, but it is very nearly there. I'm pretty excited about it. Will be good to have a change from the Preretrospect one. 

PRERETROSPECT #10 GETTING SCIENTIFIC

After being stuck for ages on how to visualise the data in the 2D sense, I got thinking about ways that I could take the data, put it through a process, and then leave the outcome to chance. I thought this might be easier by working out the averages of each of the streams of consciousness. Apparently I'm also a glutton for punishment when it comes to this project. 

I then lined these up with the pH scale. Made some litmus paper and home, and dipped it in the corresponding pH for average. Although it was pretty fun to do, I didn't like the results at all. This then lead me on to thinking of other scientific processess, hence I ended up on Chromatography. I then proceeded to plot the coordinates on blotting paper, dipping the end into water, and letting the process do the work for me. Here were the results:

From top to bottom;

Ulysses, The Dharma Bums, Mrs Dalloway, Ulysses, Mrs Dalloway, The Dharma Bums

Although I'm pretty into the way that these have turned out. It still isn't doing my original concept any justice. I feel like I'm on the verge of working out what the final outcome is, without quite managing to grasp it. I brought this up in my last tutorial, and everyone agreed. After going round in circles for ages, we came to the idea that it might be interesting to turn the mental journey into a physical one for the final piece. Now, in the ideal world I would go to the place in America where chapter 33 of The Dharma Bums is set. Then plot the stream of consciousness net onto an arial map of it, physically retrace its journey, whilst documenting it on the way. This is slightly unrealistic to say the least. So I now have to think of a way of translating this into a more manageable idea, without losing any of its integrity. As this is an on-going project for me, I think the best thing to do is to take a little break from it. Then come back to it once the Work In Progress show is out of the way; with fresh ideas. Watch this space for any updates. 

PRERETROSPECT #9

Just to make it easier to see the comparisons between the three steams of consciousness. In order from left to right:

Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums

Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway

James Joyce - Ulysses

PRERETROSPECT #8

Just been playing about with a couple of different ways that I could present the previous nets and data. I have come to the conclusion that I do not want my final result to be a piece of info graphics in the slightest. However, I am most likely going to have to present a piece of side info with the final thing to help explain it. That's one of the problems I have encountered with such a heavy/conceptual project - finding a way to be able to explain the entire thing to someone in under 10 minutes. Most likely without my supervision to be able to help. 

This lead onto the inevitability that I am going to have to create a process book. Taking the most important/interesting pages from my sketch books, and mammoth preretrospect folder (no joke, there's about 100 double sided A3 pages in there), and curating them into another book. Thus visually showing my thought process, enabling the viewer to be able to get a glimpse into my mind. I can't show you any of it yet, on account of the fact that it isn't finished yet. And it only will be once I have put this project to bed. I will upload images of it once it has been completed though. Until then, here's the type of aesthetic I hope it will encompass:

These are from Land Route by Kasper Andreasen & Louis Luthi, which is a companium volume to a permanent installation made by Andreasen for the museum of Literature in the Hague. Check more from the book out HERE, along with some other book inspiration. 

PRERETROSPECT #6

Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums (brilliant book by the way, ended up preferring it to On The Road), and Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway, received the same treatment.