still

January 31st, 2012

For two years Jem Finer left a camera in a tree, a passive observer, recording all that passed before its lens. Distilled from the 18,000 photographs captured, Still lies somewhere between a film and a photograph – a still image in a state of constant flux. We see the same view through the seasons, through rain and shine, day and night. What seems static is actually an endless series of transitions both subtle and dramatic.

Still is not a film in any conventional sense. Neither its duration nor structure are fixed; it has not been edited into a final form, burned onto a DVD or left to play in a loop. No two viewings of the work are ever the same, as Still, composed in real time by a generative sequencing system, is continually finding new and different paths through the days, weeks and months.

Watch a trailer here :

STILL (low res excerpts) from Jem Finer on Vimeo.

Still was commissioned by Stour Valley Arts

ear to pipe

April 4th, 2009

ear-to-pipe

Listening through the structure.

birds, rain and a plane

May 3rd, 2008

raincover_1.jpg

steel drum

May 2nd, 2008

raincover_2.jpg

In the rain, drips collect on the lip of the horn and the leaves above, falling onto the steel cover and adding a metallic percussive accompaniment to the sounds rising from below, from inside the hole.

april

April 7th, 2008

snow_4.jpg

january

January 23rd, 2008

misty_2.jpg

repaired

October 15th, 2007

mistand-deer.jpg

There is music playing again. The prognosis below was wrong. The problem lay in the drip pipes which had become totally clogged with clay and chalk particles. A bit of first aid has got water dripping again and it’s now a question of discovering how to filter out the sediment and whether the new holes in the pipes are big enough to pass them through whole . . . or whether they’ll clog up themselves. For now though all is well.

before you visit . . .

August 1st, 2007

reverse-view.jpg

. . . . please be aware that there is a slight blockage in the plumbing system. Due to a build up of clay and earth in the pipe between the pond and the hole, this is causing a loss in water pressure which in turn means that water is not getting into the drip pipes. This results in a loss in drips and therefore volume and density of notes. i.e. the music is very quiet and sparse.

While waiting to implement a permanent fix for this, one solution for an intrepid visitor can be found in the post, b.y.o.b. below.

5.53 am

May 11th, 2007

deer_1.jpg

b.y.o.b.

May 3rd, 2007

byob.jpg

In times of drought – or plumbing problems – it is still possible to hear music, you just have to bring your own water.

If you look carefully through the slits in the cover in some places you can see a wire mesh. Below the mesh are trays of gravel that break up the flow and cause drips to form in an unpredictable manner.

If you sprinkle water from a bottle onto these areas you’ll hear an initial flurry of sound followed by a period of more measured and melodic music.