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During our weekly forums, the Visual Liaison team and I spent time communicating with our contacts at Peckham Levels. This included drafting emails and working on a spreadsheet shared between both parties with important information for the exhibition. These sessions were also used to exchange with the other teams -- notably relaying what the venue told us to everyone else.

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This field trip allowed me to practice recording a space for a day: choosing a spot and paying attention to what I see, hear, smell, and feel. I found an isolated grassy area and drew my friend, before exchanging sketches as a class. I was inspired by some of my classmates' drawings of passerby's, which I used as my subject for the second drawing session.

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Georges Perec: An Attempt at Exhausting a Place

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Georges Perec: An Attempt at Exhausting a Place

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Our required reading for this Unit, this text was a highly detailed description of every event as seen from the same café over the course of three days. It's not entertaining to read, and it's not supposed to be, because its goal is to record truly everything which happens -- from the movement of the birds to the amount of people in the buses which cross the street -- in order to highlight what we usually don't deem as "notable." This is a good exercise for a writer or artist, which can help one understand a place on a deeper level, but reading about it doesn't necessarily offer the same benefit. In the end, it pushed me to take note of things which may not seem exciting at first glance.

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As a part of the Visual Liaison team, one of our first tasks was to reach out to a representative of the venue and organize a visit to establish a relationship, ask any questions, and assess the space. We also brought along members from the Curation and Logistics teams to aid us in the latter part.

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We were advised to not give the selection of our site too much thought, or to go in knowing exactly what it was we wanted to make -- but rather to let the place inform our work. So, I chose Hampstead Heath, as I already regularly find myself walking there to read, draw, or swim.

Note: After the first group tutorial, my peers agreed I might have an easier time choosing what it is I want to make by narrowing in on my site. I feel like the ponds would be the logical next step for me (but which one?)

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In terms of thinking about how my work would be displayed, I knew I would want to sell my prints, and I didn't initially realize I could also have one attached to the wall next to the other works. The first spot I was assigned was a very narrow area, where only my piece fit, and I realized it made it easily missable. So, I talked with Curation to find room for it next to others, which was much better.

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Overall, the event was successful. I sold all of my swan etchings in the store, as well as other prints from previous projects -- this was the first time I'd ever considered selling any of my work, I didn't think people would want it! The spread-out nature of the venue and the fact that we were open for a five hour long period made it hard to gauge how many people truly came and how engaged they were. My display was small and maybe easy to miss, but that was in line with my intention to have viewers focus, and spend a quiet and contemplative moment with me, counting the birds.

Finally, as part of my role as visual liaison, I spoke to representatives from Peckham Levels whenever we needed something, such as access to the light switches, or a printer (this was because my label hadn't been printed, but I was able to figure it out).

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At this stage, the instructions were to visit our site of choice and generate written, audio, or visual recordings. I produced these sketches, trying not to have too much of a plan in mind or a theme. I only really used benches as my guide marks for where I installed myself and consequently what I drew. I used pencils, markers, and pen.

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I gathered some of the different thoughts and potential directions floating in my mind on paper. I've wanted to take advantage of the etching workshop during my time here, and have had the idea of using negative space to delineate the subject. I'm also intrigued by swimming and diver imagery, and have a vision of a romanticized natural landscape combining photography and painting on fabric. The last two ideas especially don't seem particularly tied to the Heath.

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I visited an exhibit at the Design Museum which I hoped would teach me some of the history behind and make a deeper dive (pun not intended) into the visual language of swimming. The gallery was split into three parts: lido, pool, and ocean. In the lido section, they even mentioned the ponds at Hampstead Heath and their long-held popularity. It was complete with archival footage and artifacts such as 100 year old swimsuits.

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Unfinished drawing based on the Mixed Bathing Ponds, in which I explored using negative space to delineate the subject (in this case the bathers). I started by drawing everything out in pencil, and then creating two values in the water through horizontal lines.

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More drawings using the same technique, with swans as subject on the upper panel, and lily pads in the bottom. I am very pleased with the former, and will use it as the model for my etching.

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I singled out my swan drawing as the strongest of the three and carried out my etching. I carved it onto a plate I had prepared a few weeks ago, dipped it in acid, and rubbed ink into it before running it through the printing press on paper. I chose to draw the land corner in the lower right normally (instead of through stripes), per the advice of my peers. There were quite a few scratches on my plate before I began, which I wish I had known would translate onto the final etching. Overall, I think my original drawing was cleaner, but this was a great way to get to know this process, and I was able to have multiples of my work.

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On the first day of this unit, we were assigned two random recording methods, and given a few minutes to find a space use them.

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Early on in my research, I found a website dedicated to Hampstead Heath history, containing pretty much everything I would want to know about this space's history. I learned that the Heath has existed from as early as 986, and that in the 1860s, there were efforts to develop over it, as well as battles to turn it into more of a manicured park, versus the heathland we know today. Though the Hampstead Heath Act of 1871, passed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, ensured its preservation, there have still been renewed waves of risk over the last century, leading to the creation of the Heath and Hampstead Society action group in 1978. As for the ponds, most of them appeared in 1962 by digging and using clay to hold water, and they used to be a lot more swamp-like.

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I familiarized myself with the many artists who have had the Heath as their muse, such as John Constable, who lived there from 1819 to his death, in 1837. The painting above appears to be some bathers in the rather wild looking ponds of this time.

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When I think of etching, the first examples that come to mind are Rembrandt's self-portraits using soft-ground etching. I am most curious about the limits the medium imposes: limiting you to black and white, and only allowing for fine lines, can create more interesting results. How does one create an entire value scale using only lines (and what if I limit myself even further to solely horizontal lines)?

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During the Ethics and Impact workshop we talked about positionality, which means the unique position each person holds in relation to the world around them. To help understand this, we looked at a few examples of works, including the first fifteen minutes of the movie 'Cow' by Andrea Arnold, which follows one cow on a relatively industrial farm in Kent over the course of a year. The director wanted to depict the life of the cow from its point of view, and not let any of her judgement infiltrate the film, which I kept in mind during the viewing. When discussing with the class, some people were scandalized at the farmers' practices, such as separating the calf from its mother after birth, but others pointed out that maybe this was only shocking to us because we weren't familiar with farming, and that perhaps a farmer would simply see this as part of the job. Someone else remarked that the extreme closeups were clearly provoking, and that anything filmed in that manner would achieve the same effect. But I found this to be a good example of how everyone's place in life gives them a different perspective on how they both interpret and create things.

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In terms of my piece, I can consider my positionality of a human who is representing animals (without their will). Hampstead Heath is known for its wilderness, especially because it's located in London, but it was still planned and created by humans; we chose the piece of land and the name, and decided nature would be allowed to thrive here. We let swans and ducks exist here -- but only where we let them. And if the Heath weren't as popular and loved as it is, it's likely we wouldn't put so much effort into its conservation and protection. Its function is to entertain and divert humans. By transmitting the joy I felt from simply observing birds, I'm also in a way transmitting the notion that they are merely there for our enjoyment.

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My most direct inspiration was probably the etchings of Frank Weston Benson, who was an American Impressionist, known for his plein-air paintings. He was also an avid birdwatcher. Etching is too process-heavy to really practice outdoors, so what becomes interesting is how one's memory (or impression) of an event dictates the work.