October 1, 2015

8.15 am. Emails opened, answers posted, and submissions collated, filed, and foldered. 8.50 am. Off to School to pick up my laptop on the way to my first tour of duty at the Old College studios. Can there be a more wonderful walk to work than this?:

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10.15 am. Hot chocolate in hand, courtesy of the Cabin, I mounted the stone stairs to the West Classroom. When light enters, I’m filled with expectation:

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10.30 am. Off we go, and the first, third year painting tutorial of the morning. The students dribble in, coughing like TB patients. ‘Freshers’ flu’ has struck again. This illness is in danger of becoming institutionalised. Some principles and observations:

  • We can be burdened by our failures and underachievement in the past. This heavy rucksack needs to be dropped at the foot of the mountain before we make our next ascent.
  • Natural talent is not fixed. You can enter art school with great ability and it atrophy for want of exercise. Alternatively, you can enter art school with a modicum of ability and it grow significantly with exercise.

1.00 pm. Back to the School and to a working lunch before Professor David Ferry, the External Examiner for Fine Art, arrived at 1.30 pm. He was impressed by the quality of the show overall. The students have been allocated to one of three groups. The first group saw him this afternoon, and he interviewed each member individually thereafter. Periodically, I looked in on those waiting for and returning from their vivas. ‘Stop fussing!, John.’ 2.00 pm. A third year fine art tutorial with a ‘go-between’ (being a student who works across two mediums):

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I want to get rid of one cabinet immediately, and both eventually. What do I do with all the files of slide transparencies? Today, the Internet is my image bank and computers, my filing cabinets. I rarely open the draws of their analogue predecessors any longer. Mid afternoon, I had the opportunity to prepare a wall for my first ever white board (non-interactive) to be installed. Now, I’ll be a proper teacher. More de-paperisation followed.

7.30 pm. Having shipped out an economic and portable range of sound equipment to the School, I set up in the Project Room to fulfil ‘Live Art: Dialogues3: “Strictly No Admittance”‘. The modulation, looping, and recording processes were facilitated by Apple Logic X, controlled by an Apogee GiO Floorboard:

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9.00 pm. Job done! I’ll need to write up a description of the projects aims and outcomes, as well as process the recording before it can be released publicly.

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