September 23, 2014

8.30 am. I responded to emails related to the current research grant application and continued to fill the gaps (which are disappearing alarmingly quickly) in my teaching timetable. At the School of Art, I began to ready my office for business and in order to conduct the first MA tutorial of the week:

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The current MA Fine Art show is looking ‘smart’, as they say in South Wales. The Opening is at 7.30 pm on Friday. This last year’s contingent will be succeeded by up to 22 new MA Fine Art and MA Art History students:

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A hastily re-arranged meeting gave me a little breathing space after 11.00 pm to finalise my weekly schedule and push-on with some of its particulars. Thereafter, I made a dash to the main campus and a one-to-one tutorial on E-learning submission, with the head of the project no less. And, to follow, I enjoyed an informal, lunchtime discussion with an intending PhD applicant. When one is an interdisciplinarian, deciding which creative arts department might provide the most appropriate base for your development is not straightforward.

An early afternoon meeting with our institute’s Director of Research about so many plans afoot related to art and sound. A door is opening. It will not always be open. We must now push hard. I returned home, mid afternoon, as the rain began to thicken:

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I completed adjustments to handouts for tomorrow’s postgraduate induction, battled with the automated student-attendance record to no avail, and communicated the results of this afternoon’s meeting to interested parties. The lure of my studio has to be resisted this week. Having obtained a Moog voltage control device, I’m keen to integrate it with the other Moog filters. (A weekend treat, perhaps.) I also need to lay down a raw guitar solo for my fellow colleague in sound to ‘mash’ mercilessly with his own barrage of ‘beep’, ‘bong’, ‘squish’, ‘boop’, ‘ping’, and ‘rrrrrr’ making effectors.

6.15 pm. Practise session 1. My inquiry to a passionate acoustic engineer/developer about the purchase of highly-sensitive contact microphones:

I’m looking for microphones that could be attached either to paper or beneath a very thin drawing board, in order to pick up the sound of drawing or writing. Also, I’d be interested in a microphone that could be integrated with, or attached to, a drawing or writing implement. Can you advise? 

In the evening session, I finalised the curriculum for the Art/Sound module, allocated dates to classes, and began to set-up its Blackboard presence.

9.40 pm. Practise session 2. ‘The night watch’:

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I reviewed the final draft of the ‘essay’ submission component for the Art/Sound. On this module, I’m ripping up the rule book. The format of the submission will be entirely new, and make demands upon students that they’ve never before experienced.

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