mill24 - eighth post - review

I still have to upload my hourly audio recordings from Mill24 - which I now know I can change a proper audio format once I've saved them in QuickTime. There seems to be no recording for 16:00 on Saturday, so it may have been deleted, mislaid, or never recorded, although I'm sure I remember recording something. Posting the audio will probably be the last action in my coverage of the event, although I may obviously do other things with the recordings at a later date. Update 1 June: I also intend to produce finished versions of the visual poems sketched during the event. These may be posted before the audio - I'll see what happens.

This, however is probably the posting that most people will be interested in, reviews of those bits of the event that I managed to catch during my stay at the Mill. I'll take them as they appeared in the list of artists on the back of the map in the image below, and in the accompanying programme booklet, with the exception that I'll deal with activities on the second floor at the end. This is not a chronological sequence. You can click on the image to see it at a readable size.

04. Matthew de Kersaint Giraudeau / Venue 19:00 - 20:00 Sat

This was a lecture on The Sadness of Mark Speight, the late presenter of Smart, using 'shallow internet research, personal anecdote and poor quality visual aids'. I'm still not entirely sure if I liked the lecture. Of course it was in large part about the digressions which addressed the nature of memory and perception, and the effect of formative experience on personality as much as the advertised ideas of reality and representation, and 'the absurd nature of celebrity'.

While I did enjoy the lecture as it happened it was all a little inconsequential. But that said Matt was a confident and engaging performer, and his material was well ordered. I would like to see future work from him.

I had started invigilating when this performance happened, and spent an hour watching this space and the gallery next door. It was during this period of waiting that I started to keep the notebook seen in the previous post.

11. Jerome Cooper / Gallery 12:00 - 14:00 Sat

Jerome Cooper's installation was the first piece of work I saw at Mill24 and was a great introduction. It consisted of bursts of electronic noise coinciding with lights flashing in an array of desk lamps arranged within a square in the centre of the space.

Although the idea was simple it was very compelling. I found the effect of it quite calming, although I could imagine it being fairly disturbing, depending on your mood and the conditions you viewed it in. Unlike the other installations I saw in the space later on this did not appear to be interactive. This is in no way a criticism, I enjoyed spending time with this piece.

12. Helen Collett 13. Lois Macdonald / Gallery 07:00 - 08:00 Sun

A performance on Sunday morning from the curators. I only saw a couple of fragments of this. Coordinated, echoed, ritual movements back and forth, sewing a piece of fabric. If I hadn't been busy watching the door - although busy isn't strictly accurate - I would have liked to view the whole performance.

16. Matt Jackson / Gallery 15:00 - 20:00 Sat

This was a piece called Spirus, 'a large projection of a sound emitting double helix'. The programme says there were four rotating controllers, although I remember five. Each of those controllers varied aspects of the projection, like shape, colour, speed etc. also having an effect on the sound.

It was extremely compelling to play with, and since the controls were not labelled your first interactions were always experiments. Unusually for many of the installations I've seen in which sound and visuals are related, both were satisfying, although I did prefer the sound.

17. Jamie Thomas / Gallery 21:00 - 02:00 Sat

I visited this installation a couple of times, and although it was interesting to interact with it seemed a little limited. An image was projected from a camera facing the audience. You saw your own image with four coloured cubes within the frame. These cubes responded to your movements in their position, and made noises.

I suspect that some of the problem for was that I didn't spend enough time with the installation, and that I find something vaguely disappointing about a lot of interactive sound generation systems and computerised instruments.

18. Marielle Hehir 19. Hannah Mosley / Common Room 12:00 - 12:00

24 Hour Growing Pains was a painting created across the twenty-four hours on a wall of the common room, with documentation of a previous work projected onto it. The space was quite relaxed, and you could often see several people sitting around watching the piece emerge. I wasn't wholly convinced by the work produced to be honest, but it was interesting to see it develop as a durational piece.

20. LuckyPDF / 5th Floor 12:00 - 12:00

LuckyPDF provided a twenty-four hour tv channel viewable on a number of screens around the building. They featured interviews, footage of the previous Mill24 event, and a variety of pre-recorded documentary features. Inevitably some of the material was rubbish, but some of it was interesting. I especially enjoyed some of the more digressive live interviews.

27. Action Cover Party / 5th Floor 20:00 - 23:00 Sat

This series of recreations of historic live art performances, particularly from the 1960's and '70's, originated in Tenerife in 2009. I saw only a handful of the actions, but they were interesting to see. It's tricky - being usually well-known these performances could be seen as mere recreation. But at the same time, given their historic status, the unfamiliarity of the performances being carried out now, by other people than those associated with the work, had a transformative effect. For instance, Gilbert and George's Singing Sculpture was recreated by Helen Collett and Lois Macdonald. On the other hand I'd always regarded Steve Reich's Pendulum Music as more of a reproducible process than a specific single event.

28. Rob Bellman / Various Spaces 12:00 - 12:00

I'm not absolutely certain that I did see Rob Bellamn perform, but lack of contradictory evidence leads me to believe that at the same time as the Action Cover Party was happening Rob was carrying out a performance in a neighbouring part of the fifth floor.

Whoever it was dressed in a black robe, with a large, curved and pointed black mask and pushed a coffee cart slowly in circles. It was fascinating and hypnotic to watch, but not wholly sombre or precious. For instance threads from the robe kept catching on the floor, the mask periodically caught on bits hanging down from the ceiling, and there was something at least slightly absurd about the whole drama.

09. Sam Gieben 29. Robbie Porter / 5th Floor 12:00 - 12:00

Again honesty compels me to confess that what I think these artists may be responsible for could be entirely unconnected to them. In this case the card Drawing Den a space just about large enough for one person to sit inside with a pen hanging from the ceiling. I'm not quite sure why I didn't go inside myself, although it seemed to be occupied many of the times I checked. In one instance with someone having a sleep. I thought it was a charming idea.

30. Rebecca Manley 31. Anna Beam / 5th Floor 00:00 - 12:00 Sun

I only saw this work in progress and not complete. However, given my interest in card construction I could hardly be expected not to like it. The two artists were using larger and heavier pieces of card than I have so far, and were also using more complex shapes with triangular faces - and a giant letter A, hung upside down. I believe that later on the work was coloured, although at this stage it was still white. If anyone knows of any images of the work I'd be happy to post a link. In fact the same goes for any of the work I've covered here, or the work that I haven't mentioned.

And so finally to my friends on the second floor, where I spent most of the time when I wasn't sitting on the door, or making my two brief trips home. Since I've linked to some of the work already, and since I've written about them previously and will again in future, I'll try not to go on too long about any of them.

22. Graham Dunning / Studios 204 and 206 Second Floor 12:00 - 12:00

Graham documented his reactions to the event on a blog here. Beginning with a cleared and empty space he slowly accumulated sounds and objects, culminating in a really fascinating performance at 11:30 on Sunday morning, using much of the material he had gathered. I believe documentation of the performance itself will be posted at some point.

23. Louise Woodcock / Studios 204 and 206 Second Floor 12:00 - 12:00

Louise's intention was to crochet herself into a biomorphic form. I genuinely thought that it was doable, and that she might even find she would complete long before the time was finished. I was wrong, she effectively had a tutu by the end of the twenty-four hours. However, without the pressure of time she can can now allow the form to develop as it will - this is a project that is far from complete, and I'm sure I'll write about in future.

24. Gary Fisher / Studios 204 and 206 Second Floor 12:00 - 12:00

Although I didn't directly borrow from him, my own documentation of the event is eerily similar to what Gary planned and did. He explored the Mill and recorded one track every hour, which he posted, along with a relevant photo on his blog here. He reduced the period of his investigations to 12 hours, which is still an impressive feat.

25. Debbie Elvis / Studios 204 and 206 Second Floor 12:00 - 12:00

Debbie's ideas seemed to evolve through the event. Initially she intended to make a series of pinhole photographs, and may still have done so. However, quite early on she changed to creating some site-specific interventions around the Mill. One of which was to fill one of the toilet rooms with a large number of balloons, which remained in place for a long time.

26. Jennifer McDonald / Studios 204 and 206 Second Floor 12:00 - 12:00

As with so many other people Jen's plans changed. Her original idea was to start with no ideas and see what the combined effects of activities in the Mill, and eventually sleep deprivation would have on her work. She then decided to use heavy-duty balloons and plaster to create as many 'eggs' as possible for future use in her work. When her air-pump broke down she thought she might have to change plans again, but was eventually able to carry on. The resulting eggs were really rather beautiful, and even the 'failed' or broken eggs have a satisfying aesthetic integrity to them.

No number. Helen Shanahan / Studios 204 and 206 Second Floor 12:00 - 12:00

Like myself Helen was not a participant, although she does have studio space. Like me she was inspired by the event to make her own contribution. I'm don't want to give away too much information without her permission but the works, like much of my favourite art, are small. They touch on the theme of abandonment, though not exclusively, and are an extension of her work with small wax figures. If you were at the Mill during the event or since, and have been observant you may know what I mean. Otherwise keep looking.

And that's it, other than the audio. For me and many others the event was a chance to look at the effect of being in a concentrated air of creativity. I suspect that the ideas arising from it, and the learning that people underwent as a result of their participation, may yield some fascinating work a little down the line. I hope you had a good bank holiday weekend, I know I did.