housegallery2

=HOUSE GALLERY organization stuff=

A small gallery & cafe round the corner form the college. http://www.house-gallery.co.uk/ They are interested in putting on shows of student work. They charge rent. Usual sort of price. Dan Fone (current pt second year) is friends with the owners.

NEXT MEETING - WEDNESDAY 12 NOON THINK ABOUT WAYS OF GETTING PEOPLE TO FEEDABCK IN TO YOUR WORK, EVEN IF IT'S JUST VIA ONE QUESTION PLEASE SEND NOEL YOUR PIECE TITLE AND/OR JPEG IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY SENT IT TO ME PLEASE PAY YOUR MONEY IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY
 * HEADLINES**

Hey everyone,

first off, we had a meeting earlier about ways of dealing with this feedback thing. we decided thet we should go one of two ways. either we should have lots of different kinds of approaches to feedback, which may confuse the pants off of people but will hopefully be a lot of fun. in which case we need a lot. at least five. or we should use only one method of feedback and stick with it. for me, the whole show feels ludicrously diverse. it's already confusing. in that context it makes sense to have as many feedback methods as possible. i have an old canvas i can paint with blackboard paint. we have the wikispace. we can put sheets of paper in there with different questions on. john williams' mada tv is an ideal opportunity for feedback. tim is planning on putting in a fold up walking slug man (leaves a trail) that people can make themselves. bob will have cups that people can draw on. this way is more work but we'll learn more from it. i'm tempted to bring a small cheap printer in to the space on wednesday and everyone can do at least one basic kind of feedback there and then. the rest can build up after that.

attached is the proposal document i've been yomping on about for ages. it's missing a few titles. i've cut down a few bits of text that were too long. i hope none of that bothers anyone. i'd like to actually show it to becky at least a day before the show starts.

if anyone hasn't sent me their jpeg and piece title could they now send it to noel ng (you may as well cc me too). her email address is noeltmng@mac.com. there are about three people on there i don't have titles for yet. could they also send those on to noel? this is so noel can do the labelling to go next to each piece. there is practically no time left so please do that as soon as you can. we decided to print all the labels on acetate in the same kind of style as the flyer. i think we'll nail them in to the walls with tacks. consistency, see. innit, yeah?

i've tried adding another (more technically focused) paragraph into the wall poster writing on a few occasions but it always comes out feeling like pretentious crap. if i think of anything before wednesday then you can be sure i'll write it. otherwise, it's all open to change so if anyone feels like suggesting a change then please suggest it.

we're going to have a meeting in the space at **twelve noon** on **wednesday**. we can start putting things up then if we wish. in some cases it might be a good idea to get things up as soon as possible in case of problems later on. there's nothing in the space at the moment so we have a bit of flexibility here.

noel and i found three plinths and put them in the mada room earlier on this evening. there is one knee high plinth already in the gallery. so we have four to work with. so that's one hassle out of the way. i'm tempted to cover the edges of the plinths with brown tape and paint over them though. they look a bit shabby to me as they are. they're not the ones we made for last year's show i might add. i'm sure the mada craftsmanship was better. shall we touch them up as we chat at the wednesday meeting?

if you haven't paid yet then please pay me as soon as possible.

finally, could each person pay a ten pound deposit for the walls? this is to make sure we won't do a runner without tidying up the walls properly. obviously this won't happen. but nonetheless, the deposit is standard procedure and we'll all get the money back.

right, i'm utterly knackered. my computer/wifi have been gypping me about all evening and i'm not a happy puppy. so if i sound short that's why. it's unintentional. and sorry for the long email again. so i'm off to bed.

hope you're all good, dan

Hey everyone, > If anyone has anything to say about it then by all means say it. Don't be shy. > I'm happy to throw five or ten quid into the kitty for booze. Feel free to do the same according to how much you care about free drinks. > I'm currently chewing my way through the other definitions of feedback. > They'll get written down when digesting has been done. Comments welcome as ever. > I'll stick the proposal doc up as soon as I've got everyone's pics. > It is actually quite helpful seeing everyone's work in one document as you get an idea of how stupidly disparate our work actually is, like some kind of cultural white noise or visual feedback, which leads me on to... > It's just a way of getting people to look at your work in another way really. I think that's about it. Hope you're all well,
 * We mainly spoke about floorplan earlier, which is detailed in the attached gif.
 * Simon has sent the flyer off to the printers.
 * Kenji said he'd check out getting window and wall stickers done at lcc. He'll be working with Simon on that.
 * There was a general consensus that it was worth getting insurance. I'll make a couple of calls about this tomorrow.
 * Insurance and other (printing, window sticker etc) costs mean there'll be nothing in the existing budget for free alcohol.
 * I'm going to have a finished version of the wall text done for Tuesday.
 * I don't have everyone's picture and wall text yet. Please send it to me.
 * Methods of feedback. Can everyone please think about ways that people can feedback in to their and other people's work. The more we have the better. Every piece will ideally have an accompanying feedback opportunity, which can be a sheet of paper with a question on it if you want.


 * Latest Fliers.** ..

Apologies I haven't been able to work up so many options for this stage, but I think we need to finalise this for printing tomorrow if nothing else. I'm happy to look into this. It may be possible to do it at college, but I would say in terms of quality and getting it done, we'd better off using printers.

If you can e-mail any thoughts that would be great. Also, Dan and Tim can you proof read this for me. I always let one or two mistakes slip through, no matter how hard I look. I'll print at home tonight to check on readability.

The main issue is the text in the middle. I think this one could work, but we'd need another line under "blog. wiki. photo... just flesh it out. It feels a bit random otherwise. I'm prefering this one (below). The design feels more balanced with the full body of text and I think the paragraph is well written (by Dan). It gives more breadth to the whole show without sounding pretentious or clever and the wiki link at the bottom works perfectly in this ocntext. My only worry would be the reference to Web 2.0 at the top, might this make people think that all the artwork is web based? Does that matter? Thoughts back to me and dan asap, please. Sorry I keep giving everyone short notice on these, but if we don't go to print tomorrow, we risk having no flyers until the start of next week.

Another email from Dan - 24/11/08

Hello there campers!

First off, could everyone please send me their jpeg and piece of writing to go on the wall/in the proposal doc immediately, presuming you're sitting in front of your own computer. I'd rather have it with us on Thursday morning so we can all see a little bit of where we're at. It will also mean I'll be able to give it to Becky. Thanks. I've only had about four so far. Thanks if you have sent it.

I've just written a first draft of a piece of writing to go on the wall of the gallery. The bit about asshats is an expression of my own feelings about internet chatrooms and can be disregarded. If anyone would like to suggest modifications then please please do.

"As digital artists we're interested in prototypes. They're probably more integral to our process than they are to that of a painter. The main thing each work here shares beyond being produced by a digital artist is its unfinished status. It's a prototype, and needs feedback to help it on to the next stage of its development. This feedback process is itself a fascinating one, and is at the heart of this show as artwork in itself.

The developments of Web 2.0 over the last few years mean the internet is becoming more and more of a social medium. User feedback and participation are integral to the landscape in which we're operating. Increasingly, I find myself reading comments following newspaper blog posts as much as the posts themselves, looking for the comments which have received most positive tags from other users. Part of the beauty of this is that the authority of any one opinion is never set in stone. If we apply this logic to art, instead of being an object frozen for posterity, it becomes a starting point for a conversation, a spark.  

That's really what we're presenting you with in this show: starting points for conversations. We'll be documenting it all and asking for as many different modes of feedback as we can get. The more that gets said, the better that conversation will be.

Let's not just sit here calling each other asshats though, huh. "

See you on Thursday at 10am. Please bring your £25 if you haven't paid already.

Hope you're all well,  Dan

Update email from Dan - 18/11/08

Hello everyone,

First off, the next meeting is scheduled for next **Thursday 27th November**. Can we say **10am**? We're having it at the gallery so we can talk about space and placement issues. The cafe shouldn't be too busy at that time.

Hi All, here's the flyer I've done for the House Gallery show. To me it's the clearest and perhaps the least cliched of the designs I did. I'm assuming that we can finalise this now, although I do need to tweek some of the info and data and we need to write some blurb to fit the space. Any objections should be with me by end of play tomorrow.
 * Flyer**




 * Who goes where in the space and in what week**

John Williams - MADA TV - Could be floating between weeks. Will possibly need a screen. Perhaps should talk over screen partnering with Simon? Esmerelda - ???
 * Week 1 - Begins Thursday December 4th**
 * 1) Wei - Interactive fashion show (
 * 2) Jerry- Urban hip-hop (Projector) (Cubby hole) Will use same projector as kenji
 * 3) Simon - Motion Graphics in the City (Screen/Plinth/Wall Space) (Anywhere)
 * 4) Bob - Polystyrene cups, peep!, a film, other bits from the interim show if any (Floor Space/Screen)
 * 5) Nicola - Photographs (Wall Space)
 * 6) //Tim - Screen by window showing movement traces of activity downstairs (Screen/Projector) (Upstairs Window)//
 * 7) //Dan - All questionnaire goes online. (Providing own screen and computer. need a plinth)//
 * 8) Moshe - Glen Gould Jam (Screen) (Back Wall) will use same projector as katrin
 * Week 2 - Begins Thursday December 11th**
 * 1) //Tim - Screen by window showing movement traces of activity downstairs (Screen/Projector) (Upstairs Window)//
 * 2) Kenji - 1pixel x 1pixel (Projector) (Cubby hole)
 * 3) //Dan - All questionnaire goes online. (Providing own screen and computer)//
 * 4) Zai - 2 music pieces, looped DVD, headphones, some visualisation of music. (Amp/Speakers/Headphones) (Small Windows Downstairs) - //could potentially show in both weeks//
 * 5) Isaac - Shadow/Lights Installation (Lights) - may use cubby hole
 * 6) Sharon - Digital Transparencies (Wallspace) (Light near stairs) - //could potentially show in both weeks//
 * 7) Andrew - Looped Videos (Three TV/DVDs) (A corner somewhere)
 * 8) Katrin - (screen)
 * Others as yet unplaced in a week**

Tim and I are in both weeks in part to give the whole thing a bit of continuity and also because our work will be more interactive. This doesn't have to be the case but there was a general consensus that a bit of continuity was a good thing.

We need information for labels to go next to work. Information needed is: Name, Title of Work, Description and Price if it's for sale. Not sure if people were being serious about price, mind. That's probably because I never think of selling my work, though.
 * Labels**

I've not received many. Please send me a jpeg and a couple of lines about your work if you haven't already. I want to send this proposal thing off to Becky in the next few days. Thanks if you have sent it to me.
 * Information for proposal for Becky**

Please give me your £25 as soon as you can. I won't be in college until the meeting next Thursday now, so if you haven't paid already give it to me then.
 * Money**

One thing has occured to me. The gallery is not insured for artwork. In the seven or eight years the gallery has been open this has never been an issue. With the work most people show it's just not relevant. I'm wondering now though, with the cafe being open and the space being more visible in the area, that people will see any screens we have as an invitation to break in. Does anyone know anything about getting insurance? Is it possible to get insured for a fortnight? Could we cover this in our existing budget? If we did this we wouldn't have much left for beer and wine. Okay, I just had a quick look and found these companies: [|http://www.hiscox.co.uk/ events/] and http://www.artscope.aon.co.uk/ They look pretty good to me and it looks like we can for about a fiver each. I think it'll be worth it for peace of mind as much as anything. Or does anyone know of any better way of dealing with the problem?
 * Insurance**

I think that's about it for now. As ever, feel free to add anything I may have missed. And please send me some information and a jpeg about your work in the next few days.

Thanks,  Dan

Update E-mail from Dan - 13/11/08

Hello all,

So, we had a meeting about this exhibition yesterday. We talked about a fair few things. Here's a list. I'm going to stick it all on the wiki in a minute. Some parts of this are me thinking aloud, but hopefully these bits are pretty obvious.

It seems that next Tuesday 18th November is likely to be a good day because Wednesday is an exhibitions day. Can we say 16.00? I'd rather not have it in the middle of the day if possible. I'd prefer to have more unbroken time to stare at my computer.
 * Next meeting**

Everyone agreed that as a development of the prototype theme a good thing to do would be to make a running theme of feedback. We'll provide people with feedback forms printed out in the space so they can comment on the work. I think we were all fairly well agreed that we don't like those comment books you get. This will be more focused on constructive feedback and comments that will help us all to progress in the next stages of our enquiries. We considered a few methods of feedback, with a view to this being a part of (the contemplation of) the work of sorts in itself:
 * Name and theme - FEEDBACK**

A page on our wikispace that people can use (this will come with instructions) A flickr page or group A table in the middle of the gallery covered with paper and pens A blackboard/flipboard that people can draw on and photograph (good contributions can go on the wiki) A straightforward form for people to fill out. Spoken and uploaded on to wiki or blog

I think it would be quite nice to play on web 2.0 things here. I like the idea of photographing (or recording - Zai, how easy would it be to have a minidisc or something that people could talk their feedback into?) really non digital things and putting them online as part of the show. Perhaps the invigilator could keep a show blog (on the wikispace?) and as much of the work as possible can go on that. This would be a useful way of widening the reach of the show, keeping the whole thing moving and will reflect a bit of the way the internet affects our lives generally.

I don't think the thematic consistency is likely to come from our work combined. It will come from the way we ask the viewer to approach the work. We need to make it clear that we're dealing with a particular set of theoretical questions as digital artists. This will need to be introduced by a piece of writing in a prominent place. I'm quite happy to write this, though everyone else can obviously chip in with edits or add points. The completion of the show as a whole will come in the feedback we get from our audience, then. A very digital art, web 2.0 idea. As ever, if anyone has any issues, doubts, additions or questions about the above, feel very very free to say.


 * Who's going to be showing in it?**

Week 1 - Begins Thursday December 4th
 * 1) Wei - Interactive fashion show (
 * 2) Jerry- Urban hip-hop (Projector) (Cubby hole)
 * 3) Simon - Motion Graphics in the City (Screen/Plinth/Wall Space) (Anywhere)
 * 4) Bob - Polystyrene cups, peep!, a film, other bits from the interim show if any (Floor Space/Screen)
 * 5) Nicola - Photographs (Wall Space)
 * 6) Tim - Screen by window showing movement traces of activity downstairs (Screen/Projector) (Upstairs Window)
 * 7) Dan - All questionnaire goes online. (Providing own screen and computer)
 * 8) Moshe - Glengould Jam (Screen) (Back Wall)

Week 2 - Begins Thursday December 11th
 * 1) Tim - Screen by window showing movement traces of activity downstairs (Screen/Projector) (Upstairs Window)
 * 2) Kenji - 1pixel x 1pixel (Projector) (Cubby hole)
 * 3) Dan - All questionnaire goes online. (Providing own screen and computer)
 * 4) Zai - 2 music peices, looped DVD, headphones, some visualization of music. (Amp/Speakers/Headphones) (Small Windows Downstairs)
 * 5) Isaac - Shadow/Lights Installation (Lights)
 * 6) Sharon - Digital Transparencies (Wallspace) (Light near stairs)
 * 7) Andrew - Looped Videos (Three TV/DVDs) (A corner somewhere)

As yet unplaced in a week but have said they want to be in the show Esmerelda Moshe Katrin John

Could everyone place themselves in a week and/or put a brief sentence next to their name describing what they're going to do. Also, could you write any technical requirements next to your name. It would be good of this could go up before Monday. If anyone wants to pull out of showing anything, please say before then as this well effect the money we all pay. If you want to pull out after Monday we'll still want your money. We need to get all of this set ASAP. Max number in a week is nine, leaving eight in the other week.

Does anyone have a simple two minute film to show? If they do, perhaps we could make a loop of a few films that show for the whole fortnight.

Simon has kindly offered to design this. We''ll print it at college if possible as we'll only need 100 or so a6 flyers, one sided in black and white. We may end up getting them printed but don't anticipate there being a large cost due their being tons of us and the simplicity of the flyer. Due to the number of us showing, we won't have all of our names on the flyer, we'll just have MA Digital Arts.
 * Flyer**

Becky has given me the phone number of a place called 'All Types of Stripes'. She's never used anywhere else, so no comparisons are available but she hasn't had any real issues with them. Apparently they're better if you give them a specific file as opposed to just the information, which I can't imagine being a problem for us. Simon, can we use a pared down version of what you do for the flyer?
 * In window sticker**

We all quite liked the idea of having the space full for the private view, with the work from the first week staying in the space while the work from the second week comes in. Becky is happy in theory for us to have a private view on the middle Saturday while the gallery will be open anyway and for us to have some screens or other work in the main cafe space. This is in part because the cafe is usually quieter on a Saturday. The possibility also remains for a middle Friday (12th December) private view, which, looking at the front page of the wiki, seems to be the way people are thinking. I do prefer the idea of doing it on a Friday myself.
 * Private view**

Payable, I guess, to me. If you're here in London, which most people are, then cash will be easiest. I now have a receipt book. Don't give me any money without getting a receipt. I don't want to end up in a position where I have a fistful of other people's money but have no idea whose money it is. I'll then pay the gallery from that. Online people can pay by either by a cheque in the post, I guess. Though you can also bacs it to me if you label it HOUSE GALLERY SHOW - FROM 'YOUR NAME HERE'.
 * Money**

Because we're planning on giving wine and beer away at the private view, we decided to add a few quid on to the cost of the show overall, which will bring more people to the private view, lured by the promise of free booze.

With 16 people, two weeks showing at the gallery will cost £15.62. We decided at the meeting to set the cost at £25. Any surplus money will pay for free beer and wine for the private view and printing of a flyer if we pay to get it printed. We have to buy wine and beer direct from the gallery at the normal over the counter price if we want to give it away at the private view. Wine costs £8 a bottle. Beer costs £2 a bottle. The gallery has this policy because it's the only way to make money from private views. If everyone pays £25 we'll have £152 extra to spend on flyer printing, window sticker and, crucially, booze. If £130 of that goes on alcohol, we could buy 10 bottles of wine for £80 and 25 bottles of beer for £50. Is this enough?

For last year's final show everyone used a company called q7db. Here's the link: http://www.q7db.co.uk/ Apparently they're the cheapest place in London. For screens at any rate. It's cheaper if more screens are hired. Not much use for projectors though. If we want to project things we should see if we can hire some from the college store or just buy a projector. As said earlier, please add your technological needs to the list above. Please do this in the next few days if at all possible. If we can get as many of these details set before the next meeting as possible that would be good.
 * Screens**

Simon and I had a chat with Becky about this show. She made a couple of suggestions. The key one was that it would probably be helpful for both us and her if we could make a simple proposal in pdf form clarifying what the show is doing. My own experience of working at the gallery would suggest that this is true. Could people please send me a jpeg of their work and two or three lines describing what they do. I'll make a page setting out the feedback idea unless someone else wants to do it. I think it's pretty well described above though. It mainly needs a little presentation. I'll send it out to everyone here before sending it to her. I'm ccing Becky on this email too by the way.
 * Chats with Becky at the gallery**

Can we have a cut off date with opting out of this? If anyone opts out of the show after Monday can we agree that they still have to pay the £25 regardless? If we don't do this we'll never be entirely sure where we are and it'll only be unfair on everyone else. It shouldn't be relevant anyway but it's good to get it set.
 * Before Monday please...**
 * 1) Add your name to a week. Max of eight in a week.
 * 2) Add your technological needs next to your name.
 * 3) Add a sentence describing what you're going to be exhibiting, also next to your name.
 * 4) E-mail me a photo and a very brief description of your work. Please note that Becky and I usually piss ourselves laughing when we read the more verbose statements. It really doesn't need to be impressive.
 * Finally**

Thanks everyone and, of course, please let me know if I've missed anything,

Dan

Update Email from Dan - 08/11/2008

Hello everyone,

Suddenly there are lots of people who are either definitely signed up to be part of this show at the house gallery or who are saying they might be a part of it. The theme of the show is Prototype, because we're all in the middle of things and prototypes are probably more important in digital art than other art (Is that right? Answers on a postcard to...). Anyway, I like the idea of exploring prototypes, even if that's mainly by sticking a load of them in the same space. It makes sense to set this as the name as well, I think.

The people I have as defiinites at this stage are:

1. Me 2. Tim 3. Nicola (Tim, could you forward this to Nicola? I forgot to get her E-mail address) 4. Susan 5. Andrew 6. Simon 7. Kenji 8. Bob 9. Sharon 10. Moshe and Katrin 11. Jerry

Possibles are:

12. Esmerelda 13. Wei 14. Susana

If you're here as a definite and want to be a possible or the other way round please let me know very soon. If you want nothing to do with the whole show please also let me know. I'm going to say Wednesday is the absolute cut off point for signing up. After that we'll move on to stage 2, being the bit where we make it all happen.

I've e-mailed Becky to ask about the possibility of having the week before in the event of us having more people than ten or so taking part. She's said we can have a third week for 350. As it stands, I've asked to have the gallery from the Thursday 4 December - Thursday 18 December. The week prior to this is also available. That way we could have three separate shows over the course of the three weeks but it would all be under the one banner and show title. This probably won't make it much cheaper in practice but it will mean that we have flexibility. The flexibility comes in curation, I think. We can group similar work more easily if there are three weeks of different things. As it stands the cost will be 25 quid or less.

Meeting A meeting next week would be a good idea. I've agreed on Wednesday of next week (being the 12th November) with a few people. Shall we say 1pm? We can have it in the gallery or in our seminar room. I have some questions that some of you may or may not want to consider before Wednesday.

Screens and other technical kit - Do we want to rent some? Where from? Where are the good places? Does anyone know? Or can we get any from college? I have a dinosaur screen and computer myself but am pondering finding a better alternative if we can find some for a reasonable price. In the long run, I need a projector anyway. I might just buy one. But excuse me, I am thinking aloud. If the work you're planning on showing is on paper or similarly tech free, well, that's just dandy for you isn't it. Anyway, if anyone has questions about tech stuff I'll get back to them after Wednesday, I guess.

Invigilation - If we're going to have all of this equipment in the gallery, do we want to invigilate it? Ordinarily, the cafe staff are upstairs so no-one can easily run off with anything but if we've got laptops or flat screens down there we may need to be a bit more vigilant (or chain things down?). I'm happy to invigilate two days out of six per week for however long the show's open. I think the idea of invigilation opens up new possibilities. We could have running projects for the duration of the show. If someone's down there all the time with a laptop they may as well be active, right? This strikes me as fun in the context of testing something. I'm thoroughly aware that people may not have time to even think about extra work at the moment so the key point is: no pressure. Also, it's just an idea. It may be impossible.

Publicity - Do we want a flyer? I've never personally had flyers printed before (I know, that's shocking). Where is good? I know plenty of people I can ask. ie - Becky at the gallery among others. Do we want a sticker to go in the window declaring our names and field of practice? If we want these things we'll need them pretty sharpish. I'm happy keeping it all low key myself but saying that, it wouldn't hurt to get some practice with flyers and that kind of thing.

Private View - Do we want one (or two or three if the show is split?) Do we want to give people free booze? If some people care about free booze and others don't how will we pay for it? If we give people free alcohol we have to buy it from the gallery as this is the only way the gallery makes any money from private views. This means we can't just go to a cash and carry and buy twenty or thirty cheap bottles of wine. Sorry. If we don't give alcohol away the gallery will sell it at the private view at a reasonable price (I think it's two quid for a bottle of beer or glass of wine).

Early Christmas leavers - If anyone is likely to be going home for Christmas before the show's end we'll need to make arrangements for looking after the work over Christmas. This is not necessarily a problem but will have to be discussed.

Show content - Could I get an idea of what people want to put in the show? That way we can start thinking of how it might all fit together. Do we want extra writing to accompany the work? I'm reluctant to have artist's statements where none are needed but some basic explanation might be good. Or might not.

If anyone has anything to add on to this lot, please please let me know. I should probably stick all of this on the wiki page. That would be the sensible thing to do. I'll do that in a minute. Please don't feel like this is all my thing and you can't chip in. It's everyone's show after all.

I think that's it for now. Hope you're all having a fine weekend (Do any of you have weekends? Do you remember them?)

Dan

=TENTATIVE SHOW SUGGESTION=

Dan is tentatively organising a show at the House gallery for Late November/December 2008.

"i'm half assuming not everyone will want to be part of it. so we probably won't need to go that small. also, we can have it for two weeks, so we can split it. but yes i meant second years. i'll ask about the possibility of getting the last week of november as well to spread it out more.

i'm not desperate to make this a pt second year thing specifically but it strikes me that it would work to call the show 'test' or 'prototype' or something because of what unit 2 is about. that would immediately give it some kind of curative structure and would give us all enough flexibility too.

i've tentatively told becky to put us in for the first two weeks of december as it is.

i'll chat to becky today about pricing and will send out an email to everyone with more details. feel free to ask more questions if you have any. " (dan)

If you're interested, please add your name below:

Dan Fone Tim Pickup