Saltram House Meeting 16th Jan

Within this meeting we discussed both group projects, City Council House and Saltram House, it was form here the groups became clear for these current Cura projects. We decided that due to the exhibition being held over the summer, it would be best for the people who were staying in Plymouth to be the curatorial team as there would be a possible need for invigilators for this (this was agreed with the rest of the group). At this stage the group members are:

Helanie Moore,
Williams Danby,
Ellena Simpson,
Tess yates,
Reiss Portman,
and myself (Jem Williams)

Within the discussion on what we would liek to create/exhibit Helanie has mentioned ideas about how it would be ideal for us to use sound within the work in an attempt to document visitors experience. After further elaborating Reiss contributed how we could involve the recordings of the natural elements found in Saltrams grounds. Allowing the visitors experience to be adapted and helping to emphasise some of the sounds that can often be overlooked. It was from this discussion we were able to mention Bryony Gillard’s exhibition In the boom of the tingling strings, to which Bryony had used sound board within a performance to adapt and chance sounds. We at this point were discussing making free-standings screens for the space with a possibility of including text pinned onto these, this would allow the large footfall of Saltram to interact with the piece in a participatory way.

Saltram Meeting 27th Feb

Anthony Cockell (Gardener of Saltram House) and Rebbeca Wickes from the National Trust came to Studio 11 to discuss our ideas fro the project within the Orangery and to see our development from the first visit. Within the meeting we discussed that our earliest instal date would be the 23rd June and the de-install would have to be at the latest 7th August. With regards to the official opening we could do this between the 23rd of June and the 27th July. With this in mind we would take further research to ensure that the opening evening didn’t fall on the same night as any other events by arts institutions within Plymouth.

We then moved onto the content within the gallery, I had mentioned that I had spoken to Janine at an event and she said she would be happy to do a speech performance and be involved in the project this way, and juts to keep her updated on what is required of her. With regards to Sound once explaining to Rebecca our plans, she had mentioned how her husband works for Deep Blue Sound and how he could possibly get students from the college involved with the project if we were able to send a detailed proposal (there was also a possibility of using their equipment at this stage).

When thinking of other objects within the space we had planned to create a participatory social hub, Rebecca has mentioned how they may be some furniture within the Chapel at Saltram that we may use, we had also discussed how we could look on Gumtree, Freecycle of visit Little Camden Market if needed. In terms of the use of Sound board Reiss and I were given one form a previous project at Tamar View, however we are contemplating making our own to make a consistency within the exhibition.

Rebecca also mentioned how we would be able to access their Saltram archives and we would also be able to fill in the forms for being National Trust Volunteers, allowing us to claim expenses and use a parking permits to save costs.

 

Saltram Meeting 8th May

After the curatorial team met Anthony again we had discussed some points that Anthony said he would look into these are the following:

1. Find out head count limit for private view.

2. Measure your wire covering.3. Parking permits.

4. Enquire about the possibility of funding for private view drinks.5. Lastly, you may need to look for floor plan.

In reply to these Anthony sent us this email:

If you are able to hold out, I can provide you with exact dates by next Sunday. I have to double check with the events manager that the dates I give you do not clash with any other planned events in the calendar.

As for the interior dimensions, when facing the Orangery:

 

It’s width is –      24 metres

It’s depth is –     6 metres

It’s height is –    5 metres

 

I’ll be in touch again soon,

take care,

Anthony

 

 

DBS Meeting 8th May

On the 8th of May we met with Olly Wickes from DBS so dicuss the projects explaining to him our concept and ideas for the exhibition at this initial stage Olly seemed very enthusiastic about the project. We discussed equiptment and how this could be rented from DBS as part of the collaboration whilst students worked with us in collaboration on the sound pieces. We came away form this meeting feeling very pleased with the projects development. After the meeting we emailed Olly to find out if he had got any further with sourcing a quote for the equiptment hire, as we were very aware the college had no funding and we would have to fund this money ourselves. Also we were interested to see if any students had expressed an interest in the project ad when we could meet them to begin the sound recording.

In reply we received this message:

I met with the interested parties yesterday to discuss this. Many of the students are approaching the end of their course so are unable to commit, however I have got a couple of people who are very keen to at least take the lead on the recording and composition of the audio. Our Live sound students will then plan to install a distributed sound system in the Orangery for the duration of the exhibition. At the moment we have still not worked out a definite quote, but I will get this to you in the next few days.

I think we should arrange for a meeting at Saltram to do the recording in the next couple of weeks. I’ll arrange with them to book out some equipment and we can rendezvous there, have a chat about the sort of things you want recording and get stuck in!

At the moment Thursday 29th looks good, so let me know if that suits you all and I will confirm with the students our end.

All the best,

Olly

DBS Equipment & Budget

Shortly after on the 19th May we received and email from Olly about the pricing of hiring the equipment:

Hi,

Hope plans your end are progressing well. I’ve had a chat with my boss about this. The hire of equipment for the install over a 6 week period will cost £500 + VAT. Additionally, if you require a small system for speeches, we can supply something separate with a lectern microphone for use at the launch event only.  The cost of this and an operator for the evening would be £135.00, bringing the total cost to £635.00 + VAT.

Let me know if that meets your budget.

All the best,

Olly.

After receiving the email, the curatorial team met to discuss how we could get around this money, we discussed using our own sound system and after speaking to Neil the possibility of hiring equipment form the College. Will started to look into MP3 players, in case we needed to use our own equipment, for about £25 we could get six units. However these were limited to 1GB capacity and we were unsure how big the file sizes for the sounds would end up being. Helanie also visited the ERC about hiring speakers, at first they said no, but after some convincing they said we would be able to hire them however it would only be till the 20th of June due to booking for the summer show. Edith said she would also visit them to confirm this, if this is the case and no further movement could be made with DBS we could possible move exhibition dates to fit with this. We decided to sit down and write Olly and email back about this being an issue with our budget (or lack of). We explained to him how we would ask the college about other options and get back to him shortly, we also ensured that if this was the case would he still be happy to go along with the collaboration. Olly replied with:

Hi,

Yes certainly. I’ll arrange with the students interested in helping with the audio composition to meet you at Saltram so that you can make a start on the recordings as soon as possible. Was the date I mentioned previously any good for you? (29th May)

I appreciate that the equipment cost may seem a little high, this is really due to the hire being for such a long period of time. There is an element of risk with it being there and largely unattended, for so long, so there will have to be a hire fee attached though we may be able to negotiate this price if there is an opportunity for us to gain some promotion from being involved? What level of press coverage do you intend to have for the event? Could our logo be printed on any promotional material used for the installation?

Have a think and let me know. We are keen to be involved so hopefully we can work something out.

All the best

After receiving this email we had another curatorial meeting with Edith involved to discuss how we could work this, Edith advised that we could allow the second years an opportunity to invigilate as a form of security, this would benefit the project and also be a good opportunity for the students to add to their professional artist CV. Both the curatorial team and Edith sent olly the following emails.Hi Olly,

Can you specify what material you use so that we can see whether we have similar options within the college. As Ellena indicates this figure is indeed out of our budget. Maybe something can be done through crowd sourcing, kickstarter etc and will discuss this option with the students this coming Thursday afternoon.

Best wishes and thanks for your help in realising this project,

Edith

Hi Olly,

DBS will be included in all promotional material produced for the exhibition along the side the possibility of future collaborations for between PCA and DBS. We will promote the show via the main college site, leaflets and amongst the art community in plymouth. Saltram will also provide promotion to their usual cliental and the herald etc.

We are also trying to get a team together to invigilate the show which would mean security for the equipment, if this accepted by the trust.

Bearing all this in mind and under the condition we can have invigilator at the site, could you please provide a new quote.

The other alternative is that we can hire Rokit RP5 speakers from the college for free.

Best,

All

We were pleased to receive the following email from Olly explaining how if we could insure the equipment we would be able to hire the equipment for free as part of the collaboration and due to the marketing of DBS being included.

Hi,

We are happy to hire you the equipment free of charge providing you can show us proof of insurance for the gear over the duration of the exhibition. The equipment has a total value of £3500.00.
We are very keen to build on this collaboration in the future so hopefully this is a better offer to you! I have liaised with the students who will be helping to record and compose the music. Can we meet at Saltram next Thursday (29th May)?
If this is good for you, I’ll confirm with the students our end and book out the recording equipment to get started on that bit!

FYI, the speakers we wcan supply are EV S40’s. They can be mounted on to microphone stands, which may be the best option of you wish to then cover them with fabric or suchlike. I can bring one along next week so you can have a better look at them if you like?

Any questions, please give me a call.

All the best

After receiving this email we then spoke to Edith about insurance and she explained how she would speak with the college about funding this insurance as a move to future collaborations with DBS and Plymouth College of Art. Thankfully the college agreed and we were able to inform Olly that the insurance would be covered by the college however we would need a full list of equipment that will be used asap for insurance cover, we are still awaiting this list.

DBS Meeting 29th May

Tess, Will and Ellena went to meet Olly and DBS student Sam Ware (unfortunately other students were unable to commit due to timing within the year), all recordings have now been produced. Sam will be researching into appropriate classical songs, these are possibly going to relate to the era of the building. He was also research into Boroque. Sam will be mixing these next week and is very keen for us to join him in the studio for this process.

 

 

Saltram Meeting 4th Feb

After a small amount of discussion we had decided that we would like to continue with the idea of a sound piece within the space of Saltram’s Orangery. With this in mind we also at this point are thinking of having a speech performance for the opening event. Helanie, Reiss I discussed how we would contact Janine Rook (who we had previously met on a performance workshop) as she would be perfect for this role. The group agreed this may be a nice thing to do for the opening due to Janine’s mediative voice.

After this meeting Helanie and Will took some sound equipment down to Saltram to experiment with some sound to then review these back to the group to ensure the effect is what we are aiming for.