Frank Rafter's Blog: Distractions on the path to school

One of the advantages in getting an earlier train is that there is no fierce rush and consequently more time to observe. this caught my eye as I was walking:

I'm really not having much fun with the whole video animation process at present - need to learn more.

This is the next day and as you can see not a lot has happened with the business of uploading videos. I have managed to get my animations on to Skydrive and they aer playing but Paul Gardiner has told me anyone wanting to look at the stuff would need a password, so I think I will bite the bullet and start bringing my laptop in to school. It would certainly make things a lot easier when making a presentation to my tutors.

regarding the comment above about the video, I didn't realise that this actually runs on the log, so I'm not quite as digitally dense as I thought I was!

This is a two-day post but as I am working away I will continue and when I get home I will add a number of pictures to show where I am now. With regard to that I am going to post the statement I have made out for my tutors explaining my present position. :

To Sense My Space

Where am I now? October 15

The main thrust of my research and practice at present is into the concept of edge.

This is an idea which is open to interpretation in many different direction, but for now I am concentrating on a tight personal and concrete view, derived from an initial rather more monumental perception.

There are two distinct strands to my thinking and to my work

The first comes from an interest in the work of land artists such as the Boyle Family, Richard Long and to a lesser extent Andy Goldsworthy, and has taken the form of a plaster cast of part of my garden. This cast is here at present. I do not intend to pursue this for the moment because, in truth, the cast was not quite as inspiring as I had hoped but there are possibilities.

The other presently much more interesting project is based on a series of photographs taken at various locations, but sprouting from Limerick Junction, a site which I believe has a great deal more potential for development.

These images are views of familiar objects seen from an unfamiliar perspective, and for now I would prefer not to name them, as I feel that would reduce them once more to the banal.

The pictures may be used in various ways, but each can stand alone. At this time I have made a short animation feature, based on the work on Len Lye.

One of his 1930s pieces – ‘A Colour Box’ – was little short of revolutionary for its time and for the use for which it was commissioned – an ad for the Royal Mail parcel post.

This animation is a new departure for me, but I have found it fascinating and would like to pursue it perhaps even working with pictures of the cast.

Frank Rafter

Home again and on checking my email found this post from Carmel - thank you very much for that, Carmel.