Angel Meadow – audio and new layouts

Audio is proving quite tricky. I wrote a spoken word piece, practiced reading it, recorded it in Manchester with my sister (reading to someone sounds better and my accent remains authentic when I am up North) and I was happy with the results. I collaged other sound pieces with it, including the general outside sounds of Angel Meadow plus the sound of children singing in the distance. The song they are singing is ‘The Big Ship Sails on the Alley Alley O’ from the film ‘A Taste of Honey’. This is a kitchen sink drama from the 1960s which was filmed near Angel Meadow. The song also refers to the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal, which runs close to Angel Meadow via the river Irk. I felt this gave the narrative interesting layers and connections.

 

However, feedback was not so great. The tutor felt my delivery was not good enough for a degree show. I think maybe it comes across in the sound piece that I am not very comfortable listening to the sound of my own voice. He liked the words and the background sounds. We discussed maybe putting the words onto the wall or in a printed booklet. It feels very late in the day to change my plans, but I must try. I had an interest in spoken word and I was encouraged to go down this route by my tutor. In hindsight I feel I lost time by pursuing this practice when I wasn’t comfortable. I know it’s good to go out of your comfort zone but it is also a skill to know when to stop!

I also feel, after being encouraged to try everything and not be afraid of failure, it now seems there is a standard that must be reached for the degree show which I was unaware of. Surely it takes many years to become a quality spoken word performer and I am surprised that this standard is expected now or it gets dropped.

The decision to be made is, do I get someone else to read the words (an actor or performer) or do I drop the idea and print the narrative?

 

Anyway, as well as solving the narrative information I need to work on the layout. I brought all my items into the studios at uni and worked on various layouts. Feedback was, get bigger, messier and make the viewer work to see what is going on it each vessel. I understand this. I kept reverting to a tidy, photographic display which would suit Instagram. Everyone said this looked good but I don’t think it displayed the narrative well, it’s about the 40,000 people who died and were buried here.

 

I plan to bring in more items of furniture, bigger items and more books, clues and sub stories (possible idea; maybe some tights with potatoes inside. This was an old remedy in Manchester which my gran swore by to fix a sore throat). These elements could add interesting layers to the narrative.

 

Finally, I did a painting session with Karen David, my tutor at the start of the year. She left to teach at Glasgow School of Art. It was great to get her take on my work and she really encouraged me to be confident in showing just one piece. I am now considering doing this for the marking – just showing Angel Meadow and bringing the film, the prints and necklace in for the degree show which is open to the public. This was the advice I was originally given, which threw me in to turmoil. However, I now see why and the benefits of being confident with your editing.  

Stacking the timeline with red thread - too instagram friendly

Inside cupboards - too nicely displayed, no thread

Spreading out the objects, more to be added, making the viewer work to find the narrative 

(using black thread)

Different angles, so the viewer has to walk around the objects to see what is happening.

The plan is to bring in larger items and create more of a display. Karen advised to think of it as a museum or in a collectors collection. How would they display it. It's a new angle, after avoiding the 'museum' look. I have had many differing views and advice from all tutors - its now time to decide what I what to do using the valuable advice I have been given.