9.00 am. I began with research admin — arranging a studio booking at the National Screen & Sound Archive of Wales to record the Welsh and English readings of the Second Commandment for the ‘Image & Inscription’ project. I listened to Ed Pinsent‘s review of the R R B V E Ǝ T N Ƨ O A album. I take his point … In the CD blurb, I emphasise the process governing the composition of the pieces, which is what academics have to do in order to justify the practice as research. So, how does the author address, critique, and otherwise objectify the ‘passion’ and ‘humanity’, which Pinsent hears in the recording, within a scholarly context? I’m challenged by this.
10.45 am. The Special Cases Committee met to discuss the sometimes appalling struggles students face while undertaking their degree. The return of fine weather is welcome:
12.10 pm. I got back to homebase to continue where I’d left off. My spiffy new HD USB cable has arrived. Sound recording can begin in earnest tomorrow:
1.45 pm. More Postgraduate Research formation.
2.40 pm:
Going to School, A Ladybird Learning to Read Book (London: Willis & Hepworth, 1959)
An image from a more innocent age for children. Or, perhaps, an age of innocence that masked a darkness that is only now being revealed.
At the School. 3.00 pm (7.00 am Vancouver time). The first of two PhD fine art phone-tutorials (tele-tuties) for the afternoon. Writing about one’s subjective experience of one’s own subjectivity and the work that arises from it, and in a manner that’s accessible to scrutiny, is a toughy. 4.15 pm (4.15 pm Birmingham time). The second call. Maintaining a full-time teaching job and undertaking a part-time PhD Fine Art degree is a toughy too. 5.20 pm. ‘We go into school’.
6.20 pm. Practise session 1. 7.30 pm. I reversed the ‘send’ and ‘receive’ pathways between the two MacBooks in the studio. Now, the playback of the engraving sound is routed via the RME analogue/delay unit through the two handboards to the mixer and, from there, to the recording MacBook, via the new USB cable. Test. Test. Test. Adequacy has been transcended. On, then, to refining the tracking weight of the record deck’s cartridge:
9.45 pm. And, finally, as the evening closes:
