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.