First meeting

Both Lauren and I went to meet Howie at his Studio which is also right by his house he calls ‘the drive’. The meeting was more casual than I expected. We prepared a list of questions but they simply flowed into the conversation. Howie lead most of the conversation and he tried to give us as much context as he can. My general impression is that the project is very flexible and open to our area of interests.

Having just completed a long-term project, ‘Retainers of Anarchy’, there are two main directions he could go, either to extend on his previous work or to create something new entirely. He is currently at an exploratory stage, part- finding ways to archive and create other forms of his previous work, but also part- researching and trying out different ideas and see where that leads him. He seems to be very open to our input and really appreciate that. I think this partnership will be helpful in getting a direct insight of how an artwork ‘lives on’, what the artist does after completing a significant work and also how he/she starts a new artwork, this would be a nice aspect to share in class. I could see our role in this project as either being an assistant to the creation of the work, or on the other extreme end, to potentially become collaborators that become one of the creators of the work.

Project Outline

(Note: The project outline is still subject to change, further edits may be made over time)

As far as project outline goes, I would say that we don’t have a defined structure as of yet. We talked about areas for further research but he does not have a final goal in mind just yet. I expect that we would need to take more initiative on what we are particularly interested in, and he would try cater our tasks towards it. We also learnt that Howie is expecting a second child in October so, that would perhaps be his most significant personal ‘project’ for now. This is why I could see that we would need to be more proactive in setting our own project outline.  I think it would be beneficial to set up my own deadlines and then consult him about them.

I do have my personal goals in mind and one of them is to practice archival methods. The tentative deadline I had set for myself is to learn, gather and choose a method by the end of October and then practice them throughout November. Afterwards, I can reflect on how the process worked for me. Another goal is to meet and talk to more people in the art community, in which Howie did mention that he could take us to studio visits and events. We also don’t have a set schedule to being on-site as the tasks can be done remotely. Our current communication structure is through email and for sometimes through text, he is open to us texting him for questions at any point in time. Feedback and check-ins are currently on-the-go although I think I will suggest at least a weekly check-in.

Escalator Edits/Parallax Visual Experiences

Currently, I am helping him with some video editing by cutting and compiling some tracking shots. I am given some movie clips and a document of timestamps where he would like the cuts. The video clips would then serve as material for a potential project, which doesn’t have a clear form yet either. He explained that part of the inspiration was from taking videos on the long escalators when he was in Hong Kong. From my cognitive systems major, I also learnt about visual cognition and perception, so this task could relate on perception through the engagement with parallax visual experiences.  Apart from video editing, I will also be researching into 3D scanning and parallax visual culture. I think it will be fun, drawing in my experiences and knowledge and cognitive systems into art practice, and I am always looking for ways to integrate the two together.