my work - Flag 05

Flag 05 - the places where he lived

my work - Flag 04

Flag 04 - face in the dirt

This project will have 65 flags, I will share each on my blog and it will be no easy feat.

They be shown as flags only maybe only as photos, or in situ or maybe they will burn. All I know is I I need to make this work, I am note sure where it will lead or become.

I am trusting that it will head in it's own direction and the making will be my focus.

my work - Flag 03

Flag 03 - the magic of paradise

artist to watch - Nicholas Hedges

on the vast interweb yesterday I discovered Nicholas Hedges who is currently artist in residence in Newscastle, Australia. I was moved by his work, and his articulation of time, discovery and his art and in writing on his many blogs. In my current personal work I am referring to memories and family and the below jumped out, 'the past too is like this. It appears fixed in its final shape by history, but when we observe at length we begin to see things differently.... the shape not unlike the present constantly chnages it shapes around us; because the pas was once present' Nicholas Hedges.

here are the links to his websites and blogs:
the lockup residency
personal blog
mine the mountain

my work - Flag 02

I promise to reveal more as I feel I want or able to, in the meantime - FLAG 02.

my work - Flag 01

On the topic of my current personal work, I have lots to tell but I want the work to say it more.

The first of a particular number, FLAG 01

'authentic' the word and all it's baggage

adj.

1. Conforming to fact and therefore worthy of trust, reliance, or belief: an authentic account by an eyewitness.
2. Having a claimed and verifiable origin or authorship; not counterfeit or copied: an authentic medieval sword.
3. Law. Executed with due process: an authentic deed.
4. Music.
   1. Of, relating to, or being a medieval mode having a range from its final tone to the octave above it.
   2. Of, relating to, or being a cadence with the dominant chord immediately preceding the tonic chord.
5. Obsolete. Authoritative.

[Middle English autentik, from Old French autentique, from Late Latin authenticus, from Greek authentikos, from authentēs, author.]

authentically au·then'ti·cal·ly adv.

SYNONYMS authentic, bona fide, genuine, real, true, undoubted, unquestionable. These adjectives mean not counterfeit or copied: an authentic painting by Corot; a bona fide transfer of property; genuine crabmeat; a real diamond; true courage; undoubted evidence; an unquestionable antique.
ANTONYM counterfeit

acknowledgement to http://www.answers.com/topic/authentic

part of me has a sense right now that this word is now in the category of overuse. The perplexing thing is I don't even have a word before that I have felt this way about. In recent weeks I have been super busy and engrossed, in love and enthralled with my life of making. It is perplexing that something about the word authentic and authenticity has been really bothering me.

I have been thinking about writing a post about a moment that could be described a breakthrough, where my art becomes more authentic but quite frankly that word now holds a lot of baggage for me. Right now that words rings alert for a tosser. So you can see it is bringing up a lot of feelings.

I was even thinking of avoiding this blog altogether and never posting again, maybe it is all a giant waste of time.

Never the less I am here, I am in a new place my personal project and art has become incredible personal and once again I feel reinvigorated and like I moving towards goodness. At previous moments like this I may have described this as being more authentic but these descriptions have caused a reaction. Which I find interesting in itself as I remember many many years ago reading the seminal Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance and all the talk of authenticity was inspiring and revolutionary, and I guess the word and all it holds for me has now moved somewhere else.

Discovering sound, RjDj is brilliant

I was very lucky to be introduced to RjDj an amazing app by a great person I worked with until a couple of months ago. I really couldn't enjoy or experience it as I didn't own an iPhone. Since being the proud owner of an iPhone I have been more focused on all the visual discoveries but now into the world of sound I dive.

As with most of my personal research I started out this sound adventure with the tube - the experience in 35mins on the way to work this morning was so fabulous it has reignited my energy and creativity. As I posted yesterday I am feeling really tired and flat and this has given me a great boost. So exciting to think of all the things I could explore with sound on the London underground. I am very unsophisticated in my use but it has opened up a whole new world of sound and listening.

Go RjDj so awesome and so much fun and creating in ordinary moments - highly recommended. If you have an iPhone have some fun @ rjdj.me

I am so tired

I am so tired, tired of working tired of thinking and right now tired of life. I have lost my fight and I am feeling very very lost.

I was looking at my photos and spotted an image of a moment in time when I decided I have to change, I took photos to remind me of making the decision to get out from beneath the committment that was suffocating me. I have done that but I feel even more lost, I thought this would bring some relief. Which perpetuates me feeling more lost. Which leads to more tiredness, so that is where I am.

the halftone tube experiment

Trying a direction with my photos on the tube, my snapshots have been edited into a cinema shape and style and now I am playing with halftone. Right now the halftone images are more appealing to me, I have tried to put them into a sequence I don't think it works, see link below.

Not sure if I should take these ideas and experiments any further.

Tube View from Amanda Carmichael on Vimeo.

hand drawn map association

I am loving and inspired by the Hand Drawn Map Association ! It is all about collaboration, contribution and hand made, add that with my love of maps and this equals website lust.

The interweb has so many jewels.

x

trained - my first animation

This little project has been a long time in the making. I don't even think my little project shows the hours and hours of work, but it is has been finished and I am putting it out and into the world.

Trained is my first attempt at animation, the idea grew from the sketches I had been making when commuting on the tube. Made in AfterEffects I spent many hours trying to work the whole thing out and making a mess of things. I have learnt many lessons some that seem small but give you hours of headaches - like how important it is that sketches/drawings are all done with exactly the same pen.

My obsession beyond reason with the tube continues even as a struggle to understand anything about why and what I am doing.

I just love making.

Trained from Amanda Carmichael on Vimeo.

more tube o'clock

More images collected for my personal project, using a very cheap pinhole application on the iphone. The application lets you take double exposures, I am loving the ghostly images and not spending a fortune on film to get the same outcome.

a mythical creature - a happy commuter

I continue to work on my personal art project, my interest/obsession with the London tube and those people who use it. On Tuesday at lunch time I took a twenty minute walk and captured people moving through the station on my iPhone. The purpose was to gather more research material, my personal objective was to bring some creativity into my day. I have shared two of my fav pictures above.

At this point in time the output for this project is a concertina book with images abstracted from my source material. Currently my source materials is from my tube sketchbook developed last year, my photos and the drawings I do while on the tube. I started doing the drawings when I was doing a 3hr daily commute in 2009, I continue to do the drawing today although much more rarely as I don't have a big commute and I am usually riding my bicycle.

There are thousands of ideas about how I want to continue to develop this work. Right now I am just taking baby steps.

I have a big question which is sideways and linked to my topic. Is there a person who exists that is in fact 'a happy commuter'?

online flipbook

A great fun discovery, create an online flipbook! Check out the website and application created by Benneton Play labs. FLIPBOOK Easy and fun to use, a gallery that makes you smile.

the discovery of the masstransiscope

Part of playing and researching my personal project has become about fragments of images or sights I see on the underground. Sketches, photos, prints, images that capture fragments or sideways glances(research album on flickr) . This has lead to current experimentation work I am doing into a concertina book, which this very lunchtime jumped in my brain to a flip book, this lead to internet research that lead me to the wonderful discovery of the the masstransiscope, the creation by Brand in 1980 on the subway in New York. It is all feeling weirdly full circle.

Thanks to the masstransiscope blog - 'Bill Brand’s Masstransiscope was installed in the abandoned Myrtle Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, New York in September 1980. It has been seen by millions of commuters for over twenty-five years. The 228 hand-painted panels are viewed through a series of vertical slits set into a specially constructed housing. The piece works on the principle of the Zoetrope, a 19th century optical toy.'



Not sure what I am going to do with this yet, not sure where to go. But very excited and I know somewhere it will have an impact.

goodbye Summer

Well I think it was the last adventure in the sunshine for this year. I have enjoyed such a lovely weekend in Sand Banks just near Bournemouth and I feel in love with England all over again. The weekend was full of sunshine, walking, fresh air, laughter, sleep, blackberries, food and wine. It was like a goodbye summer party and where the weather joined in. I went a little mad with the iphone taking photos and the feel like they captured the moments.

The rest of my Goodbye Summer album on flickr

when I grow up

I always joke about what I want to be when I grow up and then I found someone who supports people to discover just that. Michelle Ward looks like she does a cracking job, her site looks fantastic and it looks like she has a lot to offer. Very inspiring!

making my way back

I am making my way back from the black and blue. Home in London town I am starting to feel the sense of normality, though often rather strangely everything still feels new. Yet in the past weeks when I visited my original home town everything felt new there too. Like I am a traveller or tourist in my own life.

The familiar is the ongoing urge and fascination about the tube. This week when on the tube again after months of riding a bicycle, my new possesion iphone has had a serious workout.

month voided

For me September has been in another universe, it is been a time of great loss. Expected but still a shock. So I rushed back to Australia to be part of a leaving of the earthly part of this planet. Something fundamental in me has changed and I am navigating the way back to my life, I feel raw, vulnerable, impatient and disjointed from life.

I will officially return to life on October 1st, September 2010 is voided.