Project Space

Today I went to college a bit late, and when I got there I found out there was some project going on in the Co2 Space (the room we have available for organising stuff in out course). And even though I am not really a big fan of doing collaborative things I thought it might be good to try out anywhay.
Once I got there there I was handed a piece of paper and a pen with the question to either get someone to draw a chair while I was holding the paper or draw a chair myself when someone else was holding the pen (the actual assignment is still unclear to me but I don't think it really mattered). It was actually supposed to be done by the first person I would meet outside of the college, but since I already wasn't really into the assignment I figgured I could cheat a little (I do not like to walk up to strange people and ask them something I wouldn't be liked to ask myself).
After everyone did this all the drawings where put up in the project space and we where to make a statement. About why our drawing was a piece of art. When we did this the final question was if we wanted to sign the drawing, since I didn't feel that this whole thing was an art piece or something I was proud of I just kind of doodled a fake signature and put my name under it (only my first name that is).
After all that we discussed a bit more about the whole thing and what the project was ment to be about (it was organised by the theory students after an assignment they got about the Art School project done in the 1960/70's where people where loked in a room for 8 hours a day with a bunch of matterials and some basic rules like not talking to eachother). After we finished we split up for a while and came back to have another crit with all the 2nd year's including some who hadn't been participating in the project. I felt that the crit was a bit to much about the drawings like they where some piece of art or not instead of talking more about what the project was about/ment to be doing with the people who participated.
I have to say that participating in this project didn't at all made me more interested in work like this, I think it did more of the opposite and make me not want to participate in other projects like this.

On the brighter side, when I got to my studio today I noticed that someone had made a little addition to my collage. I have to say that I really like it espessially since I didn't think the collage was done yet, so whoever did it (I have my suspicions) thank you very much!

800 Miles in 18 hours

Ok so it could have been more, or it could have been less. Basically I just drove from Edinburgh to Oxford and back with a friend from my course. He bought a screen printing table and needed someone to help pick it up. Since I love roadtrips (something that can't really be done back home in the Netherlands) I was all over him offering my help. Another reason for me to go with him was the fact that I know some people with classic cars in Oxford and it would be a good think to stop by and have a little chat with them and take some more pictures.
Our original idea was to just drive over there and see where we would spend the night, but after the way there went pretty quick (something that had nothing to do with picking up the van at the rental agency where the new girl locked every computer by failing to use the correct password too many times) we figured we could just drive back in one go. The way back felt a bit longer than the way there but the drive was more relaxing (I like to drive at night since it is more quiet on the road and I feel that you can see other traffic better by their lights). So we got home pretty late (or should I say early) which made me spent most of this day in bed, as you should after a succeded roadtrip (let's hope I can get my rithem to work better next week).

Tutorials

Today I had my first tutorial with my new tutor for this semester Kenny Hunter. I showed him the crappy car parts I have been bying and talked about the idea of replacing the chrome handles with glass casts and make a wall piece out of this. I have been thinking of doing this for a while now and my other tutor (Andrew Sneddon), suggested that it might be a good idea to cast these parts with glass that came from the car itself (I really liked this idea and have already asked about the possibilities to do so in the glass department). However Kenny kind of told me that working the way I was at the moment might produce a kind of work that might be more interesting for a certain kind of people (classic car lovers) than actually showing what I am trying to show (I am still working on the idea of showing people the beaty of classic car's and their designs), something that worked quite well in my final undergrad project (CARisma as you can see in the video from my last post). He suggested trying to look into making complete casts of the parts themselfs and get them to be the work instead of just replacing parts of the piece and keeping it like that. (I don't think I am explaining it very well but at least I know what he meant :p ).However I don't just want to discard my glass casting idea I will certainly look into more possibilities now (and since I have obtained quite a few parts I can experiment a bit anyway).

Kenny also told me he went up into the highlands recently and saw alot of rusting cars laying about. Since that is just the thing I am looking for I will see if I can find a way to get up there for a few days or so in the near future.

I finaly feel that the year has started and can't wait to put my ideas into action.

Duster

While browsing through some of my older picture folders I rediscovered alot of pictures I made with the intent for a time lapse video of my taped car project. Since I never realy got to finish this video I thought it would be nice to give windows movie maker a quick try. The result is not the most amazing video ever made but hey it's still a nice time lapse. I might ad some music someday but I didn't want to bother with that right now.

Open doors

Today I went to see some of the open doors locations in Edinburgh (they basicly open up certain locations for the public which are normaly not accesable). Even though it was a very nice day this wasn't the highlight for me.
For me the best part was driving around Edinburgh on my bycicle and discovering classic cars, either just parked in the street or hidden away under trees at people's houses. It sort of felt like I was on an easter egg hunt.
Still it is nice to find out that there are still many classic cars around in this city, even though some of them are probably never going to see the road again.
I sometimes think how interesting it would be to map all my discoveries and make something out of it, however I think most classic car owners would probably not appreciate me giving away the locations of their precious projects. Since someone tried to steal my car I can fully understand why they would feel that way.
So instead of mapping anything I will just keep continuing my Ligthbox photowall (http://lightbox.com/wall/schoonbeek) and put my discoveries on there (and hope that I will remember where they where).

Getting to know each other

Today our first short assignment was due. This was actually more of an assignment for one of our family members then for us. We had to ask one of our relatives to explain what it is we are doing. I thought it would be a nice thing to let my grandmother write something about me but unfortunately since I only heard about this asignment earlier this week I couldn't contact her in time. Luckily my wife Manami is here with me and she wrote something for me.
After everyone put their letter up in the Co2 projectspace (this is a space in the college which we use alot for collaborative projects) I realized how much our course had grown. Our year consists of only 8 students (14 if we include the photography students), while the first years in total are 27.
I was quite happy to hear that we where only to read up one sentence we liked about the text we got, instead of critiquing all of it (the Co2 space was very crowded and it would have taken ages if we did so). It was a funny way to hear something about everyone and a good opening to start and get to know each other. I feel that contact between the first and second year will go easier from now on.

Collage

Since the year just started and I have to wait for things to start up in the workshops (there are alot of 1st year inductions going on), I decided to use some of the stuff I made last year and produce a new collage. I don't know if it is finished yet but I like the way it's turning out (I think it already looks better than what I have been doing with it last year).

Studio

So the year finaly began, and even though it is verry difficult to get used to waking up on time in the morning it feels good to do so. This week we finaly divided our studio spaces. This is something most people have been very nervous about since there is a big difference between some spaces. In the end we actually had to do a little raffle to determine who would go where (most people had the same favourite space in mind), and even though I won (I guess always losing raffles as a kid treats me well at this moment) it still feels a bit weird that it had to go this way.

After I got home today I decided to bring some of the panels I bought at some classic cars show's I've been going to to my studio. When I got to my car I found out that I have left it on parking light, not to clever on my behalf but luckily right after I texted a classmate for help someone parked close to me got into his car and I asked him for help.

So after a little extra work I got the car running again and was able to bring my stuff to the studio in time.

Well that was my exiting story for today hope you enjoyed, otherwise you can just skip the text next time and look at the pictures.

The new year

Wow, I am starting to not make update's again (sorry about that). It seems so easy to just write a small update every now and then but when you have alot going on in life it gets harder and harder to do so.

Because of this I recently started a Lightbox page, this is a system where instead of typing a little story you can just take a quick picture with your phone and upload it to a website. Since I am going to base my last year in the MFA course on classic cars (and maybe mainly the one I am driving), I decided to try and keep the lightbox page about cars. The downside of the lightbox page is that it doesn't send out an automatic e-mail like this blog whenever I update it so maybe I will try and connect the page with this blog in one way or another. The link is http://lightbox.com/wall/schoonbeek if you want to take a look (you can save it in your favourites so you can remember to check every now and then). But I will give you a little preview on here aswell.

Well I just want to say that I am looking forward to start the new semester and I will try and do my best to keep everyone updated.