Rae Story
17-31 January 2015
Brisons Veor is captivating.
Ever changing sounds and sights of sea and sky surrounding gave me the illusion of being on a boat.
It was awesome. Reminiscent of the children’s book The Maggie B.
I thought I might get to BV and just want to rest for two weeks, sometimes I find that when you stop the pace of working life, you just need to be still and it can be good to honour that. However, I was really energised by the immersive quality of the place. I brought sound recording and photography equipment as well as some chinese ink and rice paper. On my first morning, sitting in the upstairs studio with the lights off I watched as the dawn slowly coloured the room. There is a fascinating transition from night to day in which the world shrouded in darkness is slowly coloured in with first light. What took my attention on that first morning were two small pieces of stained glass placed in the window at the far end of the studio. Their colours appeared more quickly and vibrantly than the rest of the room’s colours and the transition was both beautiful and fleeting. Soon the whole room was bathed in gentle morning light and the stained glass still shone out but the moment had passed. I wondered whether I could capture this transition from night to day in a meaningful way.
So every morning I woke up early to set up my camera to take time lapse images of the studio balcony door. I worked each day to refine my cameras settings and edit the images into short films. I also attempted to capture the soundscape of the upstairs studio, which despite the lovely new double glazing still reverberated with the turbulent wind. During that first week I made and refined a number of films in this way. I also used time-lapse to record my own process of listening to the rock pools using Hydrophones made by Jez riley French and that film is accompanied by a changing soundscape that reflects the images.
It was such a beneficial opportunity to have this time to work on the full cycle of the artistic process of observing, recording, creating and refining. I have learned a lot about what I need to be able to do this, and how much it can inform my group-based practice, I hope to be able to give myself this kind of opportunity again!
1) Brisons View : A processed image used for digital postcard with soundscape sent to friends and family
2) Still image from my short film : First Light
3) Still image from my short film : Sounds from the Sea Edge; a remote corner
4) Rae : listening at St Helen’s Oratory
5) Rae : editing images and sounds in upstairs studio Brisons Veor
