Monday 10 December 2007

Chalfonts imagery review


Online Breeze meeting with year 12 from Chalfonts Community College. In response to my visit and online meetings, these students produced a series of abstract, experimental photography which they are developing further within Adobe Photoshop. This post illustrates with screen shots, the use of power point images being viewed within the Adobe Breeze platform. The power point file of student's work was uploaded in preparation for the meeting by class teacher Mr Hodgson, the file was then controlled by all participants online. Web cam images of myself and the class can be seen in the top left hand pod in the corner of the screen. This pod has been minimized compared with other meetings taken place online, to allow maximum viewing of artwork in the centre of the screen opened in what's called the share pod.

Meeting plan inserted into the Chat pod, centre left of screen:

>Recap on what we did a few weeks ago when we met Clare online and discussed using light and filters to make abstract images
>Crit student work - random sample
>If time discuss the way they could use image making to expand upon or develop their ideas for the current project

Curriculum info inserted into Note pod, bottom left of screen:

A01
Record observations, experiences, ideas, information and insights in
visual and other forms, appropriate to intentions.

A02
Analyse and evaluate critically sources such as images, objects,
artefacts and texts, showing understanding of purposes, meanings
and contexts.

A03
Develop ideas through sustained investigations and exploration,
selecting and using materials, processes and resources, identifying
and interpreting relationships and analysing methods and outcomes.

A04
Present a personal, coherent and informed response, realising
intentions, and articulating and explaining connections with the work

Screen shots from meeting showing student's developing imagery:










Clare's studio view, work in progress



Work in progress, textile piece Thread Wood, 1.8m x 2.2m

Displayed here with back lighting (using over head projector) to accentuate surface marks. Work makes use of abstract mono type print, paint, onion skin dye colour, applique, hand stitched on multiple layers of recycled cotton and wool.

Other artwork seen in clip:
screen print fabric samples on cotton (designs from photography of origami + other 3d paper exercises), fabric dye experiments with onion skin colour, food colouring, tie dye, origami constructions, mono type printing onto plastic and paper, A2 black and white drawings referencing Thread Wood composition

Some still images:



Origami fabric constructions with naturally dyed fabric, hand-sewn

Developing composition, fabric screen prints pinned into surface


More images viewed in gallery>>>

Friday 7 December 2007

Waddesdon 2nd Visit

I made my second visit to Waddesdon Year 12 group a couple of weeks ago. Having met the class as a group both online and on my first visit, this session I was able to talk to students individually about their current project. With self directed briefs such as urban environments, students have been building up sketchbooks and starting to move onto large scale work in paint, fabric, collage and photography.

I was able to follow up in depth and in person, a dialogue started online with two of the students from the group. Both have been looking at urban environments and researching a variety of 20th century artists such as Hopper and Blake. Research also includes their own documentation of urban life through photography and drawing. This is where a clear distinction takes place of interpretation and personal perspective of a theme, scattering sketchbooks styles far and wide.

One student was looking at how to fuse visually, urban and rural scenes, trying to suggest a gradual/subtle move between the two. This student had begun to work with fabric and paper and stitch, taking references from research from my own textile work. Looking at how to use a variety of surface, mixing hand dyed/washed fabric and painted fabric. We talked about using stitch to combine these layers as well adding detail to the surface to suggest shape and texture. Also being aware of the use of materials, maybe natural, rough fabrics like hessian and wool for rural depiction and lighter, shiner, smoother fabrics to suggest modern architectural details.

Another student taking a big influence from atmospheric painter Edward Hopper, had experimented with ink washes, flood lit city scenes, areas of light and dark, city perspectives and solitary figures. I liked how this student was using contrast in medium. Watery backdrops were combined with graphic, sketchy, outlined, illustrative figures.

Having the opportunity to support students in their work in progress, I become aware of the clear recall I have from my own tutorials while at art college. There are were a few, impacting comments made years ago, which always spring up when reviewing my own or other's work.

-the importance of unique, original use of colour, mix every time. Being careful where colour is sourced from, creating where possible my own coloured surfaces and combinations rather than relying on ready-mades, (from coloured paper to bottled paint). This can mean building up to decisions on colour rather than dictating from the start. Through the use of layers, (paint, ink, transparent papers, fabrics, types of fabric eg, synthetic dyes differently to natural), adding and removing colour, mask out areas, paste over the top, white wash and build up again.

-perfecting a new technique. Don't settle for first attempts at a new process. Learn through doing, over and over. For example, one of the students I met from the year 12 group was trying ink washes for the first time on a large scale. The results were great, bold and confident with some interesting effects. Even if this quality is achieved on first attempts, its essential to go back do more of the same. The learning curve is enormous as you teach yourself, and can begin to predict results rather than simply test.

And one thing of many I'm taking away with me from meeting all these students is annotating sketchbooks! Something I've relied on my memory for, looking back at old sketchbooks, I can recall methods but never in precise detail, This group explain themselves on every page and will have precious, lasting resources as a result.








Friday 30 November 2007

Waddesdon meeting with Year 12


I met with the year 12 class from Waddesdon School online last week. This is the same group I have been in contact with since the beginning of the project. The computer at the schools end has the web cam embedded into the top of the screen, which was positioned facing the class. Students had gathered into a group to ask questions and have a look around my studio space, their first view of the space as a group.

The main theme to be discussed, in relation to the student's own project work, was abstraction. How is abstraction used in my work? How do I develop work through abstraction. A question very relevant to the way I handle imagery, extracting information in the form of shapes, textures and colour of interest. Selecting areas from a range of imagery and fusing together on a new surface, using fabric, dye, print and stitch-at the moment. This can change. Often I extract detail from digital files using Adobe Photoshop. I can copy and paste areas onto a new file, creating a new composition. This can be printed and Incorporated into my other fabric constructions.

Other questions from the students revolved around actively making work, what inspires a piece of work, how much time is spent on each piece, what price do I sell work for. How do i make a living? What career advice would I offer new artists? Getting tricky, these questions.

I'll meet a few students from the group this week, to view and discuss their work in progress.

Tuesday 27 November 2007

Online meeting with The Grange


I met with about six year 10 students last week using Adobe Breeze software to broadcast our web cams and record a 'meeting' between my studio and the school art room. One student at a time talked about their ongoing project work and held up examples of artwork to the camera. They asked questions about ways to develop imagery further, resolving work towards a finished piece, practical questions about fabric dying and assembly of work.

We had a problem hearing sound from the school's end, though students were able to hear me. The Breeze platform has a chat facility, so students typed their questions and comments for me as well as using visual signs to the camera, lots of thumbs up and nodding going on. This was quite an unusual way of communicating, a bit disconcerting but I think overall, a successful session. The process was slowed down and allowed for thinking time for both participants. Students were very prepared and focused about what they wanted to gain from the meeting, and responded really well to suggestions and questioning of their work. I wonder if the students even felt more comfortable working in this way. In a busy classroom, maybe they were grateful for a quiet approach to the meeting.

The sound problem is temporary and will no doubt be a useful meeting to compare with those later on in the project. I will have to the chance to meet other students from the class this week.


Sunday 25 November 2007

Winslow School 2nd Visit



This visit enabled us to develop the ongoing experimental image making project with Piscasso's Ipod group. We looked at other low tech constructions that could be made and then photographed. In this part of the project, we had been looking at origami. Between my visits I had recorded a demonstration of print and origami process to build a box shape using Adobe Breeze software to record my own 'meeting'.


This resource was then viewed by the students at the school and used to build their own printed box shapes, which were very successful. Students had made several attempts with different sized paper and printed textures.

On this second visit, I was able to see their origami work and find out how easy the demo was to follow. Feedback seems to be, the format of videoed origami instructions are easier to follow as a group, being able to pause and catch up was helpful.

Building on these origami skills, we made paper angels in this session, linking the artwork with possible seasonal outcomes. Every student made their own angel, helping each other with each stage of the process. Using the same methods as in my last visit, students then experimented with ways to photograph these angels and also their origami original boxes.

What became apparent was the ease in which students combined both these shapes and developed their own narrative for the image making, helping creative decisions of colour and composition. I think the choice of a familiar, non-abstract origami shape influenced this response. Students happily invented the angel as a character, placing him in the origami box (now boat), on the water (white fabric), near a waterfall (bubble wrap), suggesting water current (printed textures on box/boat) and back lighting all these layers.




A possible next stage to the work will be to develop these origami images in Adobe Photoshop. Discussions with teacher Mrs Epps has brought up the usefulness of the previous recorded demonstrations. As a lead into my third and final visit of the term, I will produce a Photoshop demo, dedicated towards Picasso's Ipod, which can be viewed in the school's own time, but in preparation for further practical and digital work in the next visit.


Wednesday 21 November 2007

Chalfonts 1st Visit

Intro talk with Year 12 students from Chalfonts Community College

Last month, my final intro school visit was to Chalfonts Community College, where I met with year groups 10-13. Chalfonts runs a GCSE Digital Art course along side the traditional art and design and graphics courses. It will be interesting to see how all these students relate to the virtual residency project.

My afternoon began with an introduction talk with year 12, about my work and use of processes. This incorporated student and staff questions. On discussions of light activated work, (fabric imagery I back light and photograph), one student inquired about using photo sensitive paper to make abstract marks onto, literally, drawing with light, which was a highly relevant connection to make between my own process and that of the student's. I look froward to seeing those experiments.

I also met with year 10 and a group of year 13s soon to be deciding on art college applications. It was encouraging to see the number of students thinking about taking art into higher education.

Activities carried on after school, with an open to all art group. The session on this day was to try out some experimental digital photography. I demonstrated some light installation ideas with which to take photographs and offered a selection of fabric, plastic and lights. I encouraged students to prepare their surfaces (to be used as filters) before taking photographs, for example, cutting into acetate sheets, painting onto plastic folders and melting wax onto fabric. These surfaces would then be placed with objects and further layers to be photographed with back lighting. By preparing surfaces by hand to as a first step, students will beable sure of achieving unique and personal imagery, not to mention extraordinary results. It was a very inclusive activity, with staff and students experimenting together in creating the imagery.

Some images of the session:








Tuesday 20 November 2007

The Grange School visits

I've visited the year 10 group from The Grange on two occasions now. A class of about 18 students at the beginning of their art and design GCSE course. I've joined them a little way into their first project which is self directed. They have the opportunity to create and develop a range of imagery through photography, printmaking, painting, drawing, digital media and fabric work. The outcome to this open project is a constructed fabric/paper piece or a series of manipulated digital images.

My first visit with the group involved an introduction to my work, a talk through one of my project sketchbooks, focusing on the use of materials, experimenting with surfaces and approach to photography. The students had already completed a practical session on experimental photography and produced an impressive selection of sophisticated, abstract images. Using similar methods in my own work, students had photographed objects and surfaces with directed lighting and filters. For example, one student had drawn/indented into a sheet of tin foil, marking the surface and creating a new texture. This foil was sculpted into shape and photographed with controlled lighting directed at the new surface. The results I'll post up as soon as I can. But this work is a good example of the transformation of material which can take place and most importantly, doccumented by the students.

Image of indented tin foil

I think the high level of photography has created a new challenge for these students as they have to develop and build on their imagery. Many have started by using the photography as a reference in mono type printing. Lines, shapes, colours found in the image are extracted and mimicked on paper, acetate and fabric through one off prints. The students used a printing board, coated in paint/ink, scratched through with a mixture of mark making tools eg pencil, stick, bottle top, pen lid, cork etc. I've previously recorded a mono type print demo using Adobe Breeze software, here's a link to this which is covering the same techniques the year 10s have been practicing.

Mono type print demonstration

A further stage in development, means this printed material becomes new subject matter to be photographed using the similar lighting and arranging experiments as before. The prints can also be layered up together to be photographed or scanned so work becomes digitalised. Further editing can take place using Adobe Photoshop. The students are reaching this stage when I meet them for a second time last week.

The final stages of the project include bringing all this experimental work together. How to fuse digital imagery with fabric and paper, how to deal with changing scales, making decisions on successful imagery to be developed.

We began the lesson looking at the group's sketchbooks on a central table. Reviewing together areas of interest, explanations of technique, successful and contrasting work. I had the chance to speak individually with students, looking more closely at sketchbooks, which are revealing a range of interests and styles.

One particular student had maintained a very consistent approach to her subject matter, which was a grandfather's clock. Its a positive aspect of the project I think, that students have the freedom to choose objects of personal interest and significance. This student had photographed the clock face at various angles, focusing strongly on the decorative hands of the clock, cropping the image closely around the hands, altering the understanding of the subject matter, beginning to abstract the information from its source. The resulting images were referenced in mono printing, drawing and paperwork. The next stage saw paper cut-outs of the hands, suspended on string and photographed, capturing the shadows and delicate paper edges. These hands have taken on a new dimension in this group of images, that of unusual, irregular and sculptural shapes.



I will meet some of these students online tomorrow, who have prepared questions relating to their own work and the technical issues that are arising as they conclude their project.

Thursday 8 November 2007

Chalfonts Community College Meeting

Photograph of screen during Adobe Breeze meeting using webcams, left hand side is my studio, right hand side are Chalfont students in the art room

My first online meeting with year 12 students from Chalfonts Community College. Quite something to be allowed into the classroom via the computer screen. Bit of a test for sound and vision today but all successful, the plan is to be able to share and discuss digital artwork online which the students have been developing over the last few weeks.

Wednesday 7 November 2007

Printmaking Recording

Example of print sample photographed with back lighting

Here are some links to recordings I've made about mono-printing, demonstrating the process and describing how print relates to my textile work as a whole. I use print samples as surfaces to photograph, creating new imagery, and also to assemble together to form large scale patchworks. Samples are cut and re-stitched onto various dyed fabrics.

Some of the audio from this recording is causing a bit of trouble. Words and sometimes whole sentences are missed. Something I will be trying to remedy as this project continues. The last section, part d, is nearly all without sound, a good one to fast forward and just get a general feel for work in progress.






Textile construction including printed fabric

Tuesday 6 November 2007

Origami and print demo for Winslow students


With some trial and error, managed a recording from my studio. My first demonstration online, dedicated to the Winslow School group called Picasso's Ipod. Feel more than strange, chatting away to myself like this, plenty more to follow.



Part 2 demonstrates the setting up of the origami shapes ready to photograph. Example of images viewed from link to Picasa Web Album:




Monday 5 November 2007

Waddesdon School 1st Visit

My next visit was a return to Waddesdon Church of England Secondary School. This school had been the home to my first studio space since leaving college, as part of the Arts Council South East Setting Up Scheme. I arrived at the start of a year 13 art lesson with Head of Art, Mr Berrett. Listening at the back of the class I was struck by the air of calm and professionalism about the room. The 20 or so students listening intently to a talk about researching artists and relating information towards individual work, finding links, inspiration, ideas to try. Actively delving into an artist's work selected by students themselves, to aid own visual responses, taking responsibility for their own art learning.

With this introduction, I came over to the class with my sketchbooks, fabric samples and slides to explain my own approach as an artist. I talked through my journey from college to now, examples of finished work, for commission, exhibition and for ongoing development. The students were keen to look through sketchbooks and ask questions about method and use of material. I shared experimental techniques, using back lighting, continuous surface embellishment, using low tech materials, encouraging a sense of play with these familiar materials, eg newspaper, clingfilm, bubble wrap. Creating own subject matter, from scratch, to photograph, to scan, to draw from, to deconstruct.

These discussions continued into the afternoon as I was able to meet students individually, and talk through their current work. This term sees the start of their self directed project, a daunting task allowing a freedom of subject matter, medium and scale. The students individuality was already very clear, demonstrating influences form a whole range of styles and techniques. What struck me most was the ease at which these students were merging ideas from new media artists and old masters.

It's an area which stimulates my own practice greatly. This merging of new and traditional media, combining painting, drawing, photography with digital imaging, animation and sound. The scope which exists for students to visualise their ideas is enormous. Because of this great choice, the level of research and development must run deep to secure a strong and consistent visual identity.

Wednesday 31 October 2007

Winslow Primary School 1st Visit


The first round of my school visits takes me to Winslow Combined Primary School on 28th September. Winslow is a quiet, gentle village, just south of Buckingham. Here I am working with Mrs Epps, the Deputy Head and AST in art. I meet the Year 5 and 6 digital art group called 'Picasso's Ipod'. This is an extension project for these students, showing a particular interest and strength in art and design and digital media.

I have brought my bag of tricks, sketchbooks, fabric samples and slide show to introduce myself and my work to this enthusiastic, bright group. My plan was to present examples of finished work and also the beginnings of a new body of work, in which these students might be contributing. The session would aid the students in creating their own unique and exciting imagery using digital cameras.

To do this, I set up lights and filters in the darkened IT room. Lamps were placed under desks to create a mini studio and translucent fabric attached to door frames and lit one side, acting a s a large light canvas. I pinned into the fabric (our light canvas) a range of objects and materials, which became illuminated and diffused by the use of lamps and filters. The resulting affect can be captured with photography. An atmospheric and never ending exercise I wanted the students experiment with.

The first steps were to create subject matter with which to photograph. As an ice breaker, I handed out sandwich bags to each of the 12 students in the group. Clear, disposable sandwich bags, easy to manipulate and sculpt with. I use the word sculpt to encourage a sense of value and reverence to the material. The students took to this really well, first manipulating the plastic with fingers, tying knots, stretching and poking. Some blew air into the bag, some trapped plastic and fabric scraps inside, used string to tie in different ways and suspend their new object, lots of action words, investigating the material by touch in the way one might explore by sight in the form of drawing.


These new objects were pinned and hung around the temporary dark room using the classroom furniture, movable lamps and a range of translucent fabrics and papers. Students were very calm and considerate of each other's space, sharing cameras, helping each other out to hold things in place. There was a very particular scientific air about the room. Low voices and an urgency to see something work.

I really enjoy creating imagery this way and have developed habits, styles and definite understanding about fusing light and object together. Its always interesting to observe somebody new interpreting the exercise differently. With limited resources ( an important creative restriction) an infinite range of imagery can be created. For example, photographing an object placed behind fabric and back lit will create a very different effect from an object placed in front of fabric and front lit. The results are surely objective to what's most successful. I had to consciously hold back from stepping into a students experiment, suggesting alternatives. I did try to encourage as much experimentation as possible, so students would observe for themselves what methods they deemed successful.

As an extension to the exercise, students delved into the resources and began selecting their own materials and constructed new objects to continue photographing.

I have been fortunate enough to work with Mrs Epps on a number of occasions on sessions like this. Its great to see how the Winslow digital photography kit has grown. We used about 6 or 7 digital cameras, easy to use and with a large storage capacity on the memory cards. The students had used these cameras before and were confident. The sort of imagery being captured really gained from getting close to the subject matter, zooming in and cropping the picture by eye. This was quite demanding of the students and again a tricky one not to over influence a student's own judgment.
To end the session, all imagery was uploaded onto a computer and using the smart board, the group reviewed their imagery as a slide show on Windows. This encouraged a sharing of ideas from the activity and a chance to view their own work in a completley different scale from the camera's display. We discussed what was successful and what other options there might be to try for next time. I think the group left feeling slightly surprised and I hope encouraged by what they were able to accomplish.


Experimental Photography Kit:

- a range of translucent fabrics, cottons, netting, packaging material, bubble wrap, tracing paper, acetate sheets, greaseproof paper, net curtains! Any material which light can shine through and be used as a layer to photograph (once suspended)

-apparatus to hang fabric from, eg door frames, desks, chairs, easels, door handles (use a washing line to cross the room)

- pins, saftey pins, masking tape, string, blu tak

- a selection of lamps and torches, overhead projectors (offer a great light source and acetates placed on top can vary imagery further.)

- extension leads

-computer access to upload images from cameras. Good size storage space allocated on school computer.

-optional, for students to have their own memory sticks to save and access their own work.




Tuesday 30 October 2007

Quick Studio Tour


A quick 360 degree turn in the space, testing how links will work, have posted my first YouTube clip:

(its the same clip....just on the giant You Tube)



Monday 29 October 2007

Making Preparations

Installing the 50m cable


With intentions of being as natural and 'as you find me' about my studio space, there has been a bit of a re-shuffle in preparation for visitors. Clearing room, whitewashing walls, installing good lights, getting hidden work up on the wall, organising more efficient storage solutions, all actions to aid clearer communication during the project. Trying to understand an alternative perspective of the space which wasn't about being the maker/worker.

Another, crucial component for the project to happen is securing a stable, strong internet connection which can support the Adobe Breeze application. This one job has branched into a sequence of steps, each one a little daunting for me, a technical novice who's impatient to crack on. Here's a run through of what's happened to achieve this mighty goal:

1.) Confirm need and suitability for broadband connection with owner of studio, who I rent from. Decide on a wireless connection to suit all internet users in the building.
2.) Order broadband package and wait for installation date.
3.) Installation date arrives, test connection in studio, situated three floors below where router is sited.
4.) Wireless configuration headaches with my Mac ibook, what's a WEP code? Where do you find it? Is it lost forever? Shall we start again? We do, I generate my own, and its written down safe.
5.) Get connection in studio, first opportunity to observe very shaky, slow and at times faltering connection. Web pages load and freeze, I start to worry a little that three floors between ports may be a bit ambitious.
6.) Get researching back at home about signal strength trouble shooting, learn about 'range extenders', a device to boost wireless signals, purchase a mac compatable divice and plug in.
7.) Signal strength is up to 90% from 40%, an improvement but encountering same slow, inconsistent connection on my computer back in the studio.
8.) Deciphering root cause of problem must be my computer, I'm off to the genius bar at the Apple Store. A kind and clued up Apple man reminds me of my elderly Operating System and wireless adapter I'm attempting to use to 'talk' to the server. My internet browser Safari is way out of date and can't be upgraded on my current OS. Relief at understanding problem but worry about what is implied for next step.
9.) Two solutions, one, to install a wired connection via a cable to the computer from the router. The most stable of all ways to secure an internet connection. Or, upgrade/replace my computer. I opt for installing the cable.
10.) Problem, three floors between router and computer site in studio. A long cable will be required and acess through building negotiated.
11.) Get the okay from owner to use cable, decide most direct(!) route will be from back of the building, up the wall, over the roof (which is flat) and down the front side and into the studio three floors below. Estimate 40m.
12.)Source cables, select a 50m RJ45 Cat5e UTP cable, known as an ethernet cable. I'm learning....RJ45 is the code for the type of connectors on cable ends, Cat5e means its an enhanced 5 band cable suitable for internet connection, UTP means its suitable for exterior use. Nearly there now.
13.) Find a man that can, cable gets up and over the building, all secure. I get to see the view from the top, neaten up the cable path, marvellous autumn evening, feel better.
13.) Connection better, but still something not quite right, more troubleshooting.....
14.) Thinking of plans b, c, d....etc Can make video recordings of space and post to blog, Youtube, Facebook....for later access by participants.

View from the roof

Saturday 27 October 2007

What's a Virtual Residency?


In collaboration with Waddesdon Secondary School textile/digital artist Clare McEwan will be leading a variety of workshops, talks and tutorials with four of Buckinghamshire Schools; Waddesdon, The Grange, Chalfonts and Winslow. This project is supported by Arts Council Creative Partnerships in Slough. It will consist of real and virtual communication via webcam from Clare's Kent studio and include a series of school visits over the course of the term.

All webcasts will be produced with Adobe Breeze software. This allows us to record each meeting and access content at a later stage as a resource and documentation of the project. The Adobe Breeze application provides safe and private communication with only invited users to participate.

Friday 26 October 2007

How to start? Clare's notes

A question or a 'how to solution? I think I've been asking the 'how to start' question for some time now. The answers will have to come gradually when I am able to piece together all the unexpected components and add ons of this project. The first, how to make an introduction and set the scene...and before I could start I paused, where to do this and for whom?

Where? Virtual residency blog and Virtual residency web album

Still investigating all the 'whos' this project can reach.

It begins with lots of casual, curious conversations about the nature of an artist's space. By convention, the space an artist inhabits publicly, tends to be owned/managed by others, and is a temporary platform in which the artist can exhibit, talk, demonstrate or teach. As open and generous as an artist can be in communicating within this space, is there still a sense of mystery that lingers? Maybe its better to switch the ambiguous word mystery, for distance. There can be a distance between the artist, the work and those trying to 'get the picture'. The quality of time to formulate ideas and produce artwork is a challenge to doccument, package and deliver effectively towards a receptive audience.

My own work is developed gradually, the end point/resolution showing itself very slowly, dependent on a series of processes gone before such as photography, printmaking, stitch, construction, painting and drawing. All these elements pull together to create a large scale textile hanging. This development occurs over a period of months, deliberating in the studio, trying things, making wrong turns and occasionally stumbling on a sense of 'rightness' about the project which springs it forward. It is a large undertaking to meet an artist and their completed work. The audience has been removed from a large chunk of creating time and content. As a result, information on technique and subject matter is weakened. It is these two elements I will be seeking to illuminate over the course of the project. To bring others closer with that unique deliberating period. A period which occurs in the artist own space. Already, the notion of an artist's space must surpass the studio walls and is dependent on a shaky, less concrete quality, one of time.

I was fortunate enough to experiment with an unusual work space when accepted for the Art Council South East Setting Up Scheme Award in 2005. For 18 months I established my studio in the art department at Waddesdon Secondary School. Marking out independent territory in a public terrain; the classroom. Merging these boundaries would be frequent, ever changing and require an openness and trust from both sides. This model was of great mutual benefit for host and artist and went a long way to manage the issue of audience and artist space. The audience in this example being staff and students, impacting the group and the individual.

It was while at Waddesdon School, that the question of sustaining this quality of relationship between host and artist was discussed. I was able to visit and work with a variety of partner schools during my time at Waddesdon in the form of day visits. The new challenge is to be able to offer an equal level of engagement simultaneously with all four schools, sustained over a whole term. An engagement to stimulate my own practice as well as collaborate with student's work would be ideal. A sustainable model would have to maintain the same openenss and trust described for the Waddesdon studio.

Digiatally equipped and technically confident, Head of Art, Mr Berrett led Waddesdon School's proposal of a virtual artist residency. Scheduled times to fit both school and artist have been arranged. Communication will be via webcam from my new independent studio space, (now in Kent) back into the classrooms I had visited in the past (Buckinghamshire). The geographical distance highlights the ubiquitous benefit of the internet connection.

This is a trial residency style being undertaken with great enthusiasm by all schools. We will test a variety of exercises during the scheduled meetings via webcam, linking students work practices with my own to suit both parties. The Adobe Breeze software allows discussion, sharing of files, and live video streaming with audio, all of which can be recorded as future resources. Already there are clear benefits to the virtual collaboration and I am sure new examples will show themselves as the project develops.

Here lies the intention and background for the project. I am looking forward to the collaborative opportunity. If my private studio is to go public, it seems right that the work takes on a more public dimension, group efforts, interchangeable work, feedback and a general loosening of ownership in response to this trialling.